Cheap sew and sew

I mentioned recently that I found an Aquascutum skirt in a charity shop, it was minus the label, but I saw the hanging loops which had the branding on.

I nearly fell over in the shop, but hid my excitement and paid the £1.95 and ran out

Anyway, excitement turned to dismay when I found the moth holes, the hem was riddled. There were also several stains in the fabric too.

 I contemplated taking the skirt back as really it should have been ragged.  However, I realised I only wanted a short skirt, so deconstructed the bottom half, and removed a good 4 inches off the length, before sewing back up, and hemming by hand.  

Here is the finished article, all hand washed in Stergene (despite the dry clean only label, it is wool and silk, which can be washed, the only dodgy part was the lining but I crossed my fingers and that came through!)

  

This is before it was pressed, it looks a lot better now

A few weeks ago I also bought this blanket wrap, it was on a pound rail and something I wanted to try wearing but wasn't sure about. These things are so far out of my comfort zone it's untrue.  I loved the colours so bought it anyway.

My mannequin is set up at my height and you can see from this that the blanket wrap is way too big.  I tried it on but it just drowned me. Also, it was way too fussy for me, I don't like having to think about what I am wearing once it's on.

So, much searching on the internet and I decided to change the blanket wrap into a poncho with fixed sides and a slash neck

It is about 15 inches shorter than it was, plus the sides are partially sewn, so it just pulls on like a poncho.

Slash neck detail

Sleeve seam detail.  Not brilliant sewing but the light is bad in the cottage and I don't have a craft light at present.  There is a seam down the front, but it is offset to one side in the fold at the shoulder, so hidden from view.

I've had a few nice bargain buys lately as well. The first one is a bit of a surprise as it is the most I've ever spent on a jumper, £30.

Bit of a back story to this: In May last year I was involved in a car accident.  I was hit whilst in a traffic jam, and the person who hit me turned out to be a learner on his own in the car.  My car was written off but only because the repairs were deemed to be more than 60% of the cars value.  I arranged for my car to be repaired and had to pay for it to be fixed (I didn't go through my insurance, I went through a claim company, which was probably a bad idea), I had to borrow the money.  It has taken 8 months to sort out, and was on the point of going to court, but I finally got a settlement cheque the other day, and decided to treat myself.  

We visited a Fat Face outlet shop at the Valley shopping village near Evesham.  I saw this jumper and fell in love.

 Source

It was reduced from £52 and I have since found out that it is out of stock virtually everywhere. I also ended up buying a size 8 as the style is rather oversized, and a 12 would've looked ridiculous on me.

It is an incredibly warm jumper, I've worn it once and it really kept the Arctic wind out.

Next, and back to those lovely cheap chazza purchases, I found this snow white Lands End fleece for £1

These Olsen jeans, also a pound, they really stank as I found out while rummaging in the charity shop holding on to them tightly, no, the local smelly person wasn't following me, it was the stinky jeans I was hugging!

They need to be shortened by about an inch, so I'll get that sorted soon.

Vintage band t shirt for 50p, just because I need some more t shirts!

Odd spray body oil for 50p, it was sealed, and a scarf clip for the pressie drawer for 10p.

Lastly, a very recent ebay purchase, this gorgeous nightie was £2.50 with free postage. It is brand new with tags (this is the ebay photo)

We've had snow on Saturday in Worcestershire, this morning I was met with this view from the lounge, the buzzard was having a good look in through the window as I had the light on

More tales form last Summer coming soon!