I'm not sure this is fashion

 I'm not sure that culottes are ever considered high fashion, but there they were in denim and remarkably also in shades of brown.  I do rather like this denim outfit but my outfit is in chestnut brown corduroy and was made eight years ago for one of daughter's parties.

Unfortunately 'Millie' didn't photograph very well in this outfit but I think that you can see that the outfit is a pair of culottes with a sleevless boat neck top.  It is actually remarkably similar to the fashion magazine denim version the main difference is the 'fashion' version has sleeves.  The brown culottes I saw in the magazines didn't include tops and were only small pictures that I couldn't photo.

My culottes have large back pockets

More fashion flowers

Here are more flowers.

 

 This outfit teams a flowery skirt with a plain black top so it's not the most exciting.  The skirt was originally part of a sixties inspired shift dress which made years ago and shortened to a skirt a couple of years ago.  The black wrap top was bought in a charity shop many years ago.  It's very versatile and has been worn with many different outfits over the years

    As the flowery skirt outfit isn't very exciting, I'm showing a second outfit based around 3/4 length peg top trousers and a jacket.  It fits in this section as the trousers also have flowers on them. 

The trousers were made seven years ago from some embroidered denim material.  They have a inegrated belt front fastening which I made using a bickle from an old broken belt.  The jacket I bought a few years ago because I loved the colour.  Originally the trousers were full length and flared, but after a while I didn't really like the flares the material wasn't thick enough and they flapped around.  I put the trousers away until I decided what to do with them and so here they are reinvented as three quarter length trousers with cuffed bottoms.

 I even added button's to the cuffs as I had seen in some pictures - unfortunately only three on each side not loads.  I didn't have enough matching buttons in my stash for more than three each side.

Spring Flowers - the inspiration continues

I hope that nobody got the wrong impression about my following fashion.  I'm not a slave to it.  But I do like new things and if I can't have new then a change is as good.

This year I seem to be in luck, flowers are everywhere and I have loads of flowery things, as they are a favourite of mine.  Today's outfit features flowery maxidresses, another favourite of mine.






And here's my version, without and with a black jacket.

This almost floor length maxidress was made about five years ago.  I got the material very cheap on the internet and the pattern was free with a magazine I used to buy at the time, this version of the dress has a V-neck front and back with a zip up the back.  The ric-rac was given to me by my nan to help create the seventies look.  The black jacket was a present (also from my nan) so many years ago that I have fogotten.  I haven't worn the dress for a few years now, but in the past I have been stopped whilst in the supermarket and told how lovely it was.  I can see me wearing this a lot this spring.  With a long sleeved white top underneath and thick black tights and boots to start with, then moving to bare legs and sandals when the weather gets warmer.

Inspiration

 

I love fashion.  I always have.  Even now that I am older, I still love trying new looks and adapting existing items to create new looks.

Although spring is still a long way off, there are new looks in the shops and in the magazines.  So instead of a sewing Sunday, I got out my suitcase of clothes from the loft - the ones that I haven't been wearing for a while - and armed with a magazine for inspiration started to put together some new looks.  I spotted several lacey looks.  I had a short top that I made many years ago, but haven't worn for a while.  It's a nude pink colour rather than white but the colour is still quite prevalent. The top was open at the front as I used to wear it as an overshirt.  I sewed up the front to make a dress, and added a lot of jewellery.  The seam up the front is not as noticable when I wear it as in the picture.

As the weather is still cold I will need to wear it with tights and I'll need a long sleeved T-shirt underneath it but I love trying out new looks as the seasons change.  More new inspiration later this week.

Stash busting

I have been unable to work on the blue crochet cardi for my mum as she is staying with me at the moment.  Unfortunately the cardi won't be ready for her to take when she goes, but I do have a few weeks until Mother's Day so I will just have to post it when it is finished.

In the meantime I have been looking into my stash to find out what to tackle next.  I have lots of small amounts in lots of different colours.  But I'm not sure what to do with it.  I have seen many jumpers and cardigan's with stripes or fairisle designs but I'm really not sure. 

I have bought a couple of fashion mags recently. I do this periodically to help me update my wardrobe with new clothes and also to give me new ideas on how to combine my existing clothes.  In one of these I saw a fabulous seventies inspired crochet dress, with zig-zag stripes on the skirt section and a simple striped vest for the top section.  I am trying to work out how I can create a similar item.  Watch this space for progress or news of disaster.

New Clothes

After all the effort I have put into the parties I thought I deserved a little treat and as I'm off work this week I took a walk into town to visit the charity shops.  The thing I love most about charity shop shopping is that you never know quite what you will find.  I'm trying to smarten up my image a little for work and so I was trying to stay away from the things that I would normally go for - flowery shirts and long flowing skirts.

I found this gorgeous checked jacket, which was absolutely brand new (I removed the original shop tag myself).  I also found a rather nice pair of grey trousers and a blue pencil skirt, all of which will be great for work with some of my existing clothes.  I have a lovely black chiffon blouse that I made that will go with the blue skirt.  A very nice black, grey and mauve jacket that I bought a long time ago and a white shite that I made to go with the grey trousers and probably plain black to go with the jacket, so that the jacket really is the focus of the outfit.

I'm rather pleased with these finds, and if I get time later in the week I will go again.  I'm also planning another Sewing Sunday, if I can decide what to make.  I have some dark red jersey fabric that I love, but I can't quite decide on a pattern.  Or there's some dark 'ink' blue cord that would make a nice jacket...........

Birthday - mark 2

 For years both my children have had two birthday parties.  One for the family and one for their friends.  This year I decided that for daughter's movie night and sleepover party with the girl's I wouldn't make another big birthday cake.  Instead I made cute cupcakes - six chocolate with white icing and six white with chocolate icing and all nicely decorated.  I wanted pink sugar flower's but daughter thought that was too girly so I settled for hundred's and thousand's, silver balls, mini marshmallow's and chocolate sprinkle's.

I made pizza dough and the girl'seach made thier own pizza and chose the toppings.

Then we made popcorn ready for the movie.

This morning I made them pancakes before they all went home.

Happy Birthday

The party was yesterday.  The cake was made.  The food was prepared and the family arrived to have a wonderful birthday party for my daughter.

They must have been very hungry as there wasn't much food left over and I think that they all had a good time.  At the end of the day my feet ached from preparing the food and then making endless cups of tea for everyone.

Tomorrow 'the girl's' are coming for a movie and sleepover.  Three of daughter's friends are coming and they are going to make popcorn and watch movies and then make pizza and cupcakes for thier tea.  I'm sure they'll all have fun.

Cat in crochet

Just a quickie to show you this cat bookmark that I crocheted for my aunt as a birthday present.  It's from the city cat bookmarker pattern on ravelry.  It's a bit difficult to follow the pattern, but the end result is well worth it for any cat lover's out there.  I changed the pattern slightly to shorten the tail so that I could attach it to one of my giant paperclips.

Must dash now as it's daughter's birthday this week and I have 101 things to do and I must find time to finish the crochet cardi for my mum.  Although it's not mother's day yet, she's coming to visit next week and I would like to be able to have it wrapped up so that she can take it with her as I won't see her on the day.

Perceptions of Beauty

Last month I gave up wearing make-up to work (I usually use a little bit of mineral shadow and a levera mascara and lipsalve).  No-one said anything.  Then after the 'new' fringe, I decided to go back to my usual make-up.  Immediately several people said how nice I looked.  On discussing this with my work friends they said it was just that that's what everyone expected in a professional work environment.
We then got onto the subject of shoes.  I have been very happy wearing my flat shoes for several years (thank you Ren), but they all wear heels.  I have been persuaded to try a pair of wegde shoes - I can't possibly walk in high heels.  The first day (last Friday) I wore them with black jeggings and a little top. I fely very 'tarty', but my friend's told me how slim and elegant they made me look and how shapely my legs were!  Yeterday I wore them with brown trousers and a patterned jacket, this is a staple work outfit, and a girl who I hardly ever speak to told me how nice I looked.  Today, I wore them with a tunic top with a crochet front panel and black leggings, a lady from a completely different office, who I hardly now told m how 'cute' I looked.  Is this coincidence or it is just that convention says that women should wear shoes with heel's.  The experiment continues for the rest of this week.

Sewing Sunday

I have been promising myself a sewing Sunday for a while.  Since I started my new running training schedule I usually go for a long run on Sunday and then I don't have enough time for sewing.  I had this wonderful peice of printed chiffon in the stash inherited from my nan.  Inspired by the pattern, and some tops that I have seen in the shops, I wanted to make a simple tunic.  A complicated design would have ruined the pattern and made everything far too busy.

I used to subscribe to a magazine that gave free patterns, and I got this tunic pattern years ago.  It's very simple and I have made it at least five times now in different lengths, with different sleeves and necklines.  This time I am putting on the tie neck as shown in the picture and I'm doing a long sleeved version.  I won't put the slits up the side of the tunic.

The material was cut..

and pinned and tacked and sewing commenced.

Millie posed for a fitting

 The neck tie was finished by hand and I put elastic through the cuffs to draw them in at the wrist.  I tried putting on a proper cuff, but it looked wrong with the pattern.  

Here's me wearing the top. 

 

It need's to be properly pressed and I'm planning to wear it next week at daughter's birthday party.

Crochet away

 I have been busy working on a crochet cardigan which will be a present for my mum for mother's day.


It's quite a basic net pattern which is worked with the sleeves and yoke worked as one peice.  The sleeve seams are sewn together and the body of the cardigan is then worked in one piece.


The picture abovet shows the first sleeve section and the section round the neck being worked.  Below is the sleeve and yoke section spead out to show the shape of it.  I'm making jam this afternoon (from the fruit that I stored in the freezer as I didn't have enough time to make the jam in the summer.  So I doubt the cardi will progress much more today, but there will be pictures later in the week as I will take it to work and crochet away in my lunch time.

Tomorrow, I'm planning a sewing Sunday as I haven't had one for ages.

Bad hair day

 I have an ongoing battle with my hair and I never seem to like it.  It was cut into a short graduated bob last summer and I was growing the fringe.  Then I decided that I would grow it all and it is currently about chin length all round.  It is a horrible length, but it just about goes into a ponytail.  So for days when I am really fed up with it, I decided to crochet some hair accessories.  Here are my selection of scrunchies, a hair band and a barrette clip.

 here's a picture of me wearing the hair band and my hair twisted in the scrunchie to disguise the shortmess of the pony tail.  Then I decided that scraping my hair right back off my face was not a good look.  I have a horrid 'widow's peak' hairline that is a bit vampire scary, and so I cut a fringe....

This is me with my hair scrunched and my new fringe.  It's so much better because it no longer flaps all over my face and despite how short it looks in this picture it is still long enough at the sides and back to go into a ponytail.  At the moment I'm feeling happy with it, but I'm not sure how long that feeling will last.

Cards Galore

I have so many birthday's coming up in the next month or two that I really had to sit down and have a good card making session.  For quite a few years now I have been making all the cards that I send.  I buy the card blanks and have quite a good stash of stamps and brads.  I also like to keep cards that people have given me and my family and reuse them, along with bits of ribbon and lace from my stash to create some stunning cards.

Here are four cards for my friends, and two cards for aunts

A card for my daughter's friend

and one for my little nephew who will soon be two

and one for my own dear daughter, who is incredibly hard to find cards for as she doesn't like the 'girly' cards that are usual for her age group.

 Finally a valentine for hubby, witha red velvet heart, shiny letter's and gold heart brads.

The Weekend

This is a two in one blog.  It shows my weekend outfit and also what I have been working on this week.  Thisblue crochet shawl was adapted from a scarf pattern, and worked up very quickly as the yarn was thick and I used a 6mm crochet hook.

Underneath the shawl is a very seventies inspired top.  Look out for this fabric in future blogs, as there was quite a lot of it and the rest is earmarked to make an easter present for my mum.

I wore these tops with my 'Miss Sixty' jeans.  I got these last summer and they were a real bargain.  The have big turn-ups at the bottom, and had obviously been too long for the previous owner and had worn a bit at the bottom wher they dragged on the ground.  This was easily fixed by ironing some mending tape over the worn patch on the inside.  I turn the turn-up's up at a differnt point to the previous owner and they comletely cover the marks.

 

I hope that you enjoyed my clothes week.  I'm off to make cards this afternoon.

More on my latest projects next week.