Wardrobe Orphan 2 - Purple jacket

Wardrobe Orphan 2 - Purple jacket

This one was not quite so obvious. I did various image searches for purple jackets and wrote down a long list of things worn with the purple jackets which included:-
white, black, grey, brown/cream, stripes, animal print, pearls, mustard, jeans, black and white checks, soft green, floral, teal and grey, navy, green, floral black, lace and cognac leather.

Then something went 'ding' in my head and I remembered I had a purple animal print blouse from M&S, so I dug it out to find it went quite well with the jacket, I then recalled some 3 tone purple brogues I bought from the Clarks outlet and got those out too, and then added some taupe trousers from Debenhams and a necklace from the necklace wall.

This went together nicely as an outfit. I wore it to work, got compliements and took a photo when I got home.

(hard to believe this is the same jacket and trousers as above, the colours don't work too well on the little camera).

It definitely helps that I hang all my smart tops/blouses on hangers by colour so it is easy to find the purple blouse on the rail.

Tips for wearing wardrobe orphans - Wardrobe Orphan 1 - Purple skirt

I recently swapped out the winter and some of the summer clothes as its starting to be brighter here. I have a rail and a large zipped bag in the loft, and I keep out of season clothing up there as I didn't have a huge wardrobe space.

I used this as an opportunity to find some pieces for donation as I went through as I tried things on and relesed things which were not right for some reason. I've also bought a few things - plain smart trousers and interesting jackets, and noted down some wardrobe holes as I went.

Along the way I found a few pieces which could be considered wardrobe orphans, they fit nicely and were flattering etc but didn't immediately make an outfit. There are two approaches with these either donate them because they seem to be an orphan or work a little to assemble an outfit which uses them.

If you want to try this second option then here's what I try.

First of all I do an online image search for something roughly similar to the item I want to wear.
So in this example I have a purple jersey skirt, it fits nicely, is flattering, the shade of purple is slightly muted so its in my colour palette, it has a small amount of detailing but not too much, and it reads as a casual piece, not a work wear item.
In my online image search I bring up 'Purple Skirt Outfit' and have a look at the images

Now none of these are quite the casual vibe I wanted for my purple skirt, and then I spot this girl rocking her skirt with a denim jacket, doesn't she look fantastic!

This looks great but is still a little dressier than I wanted, but it gave me an idea, so I now change the search to 'Purple Skirt Denim Jacket Outfit' and see what else comes up. I save a few pictures and then have something like this.

I then go to my wardrobe pull out my denim jacket (which is a contemporary short fitted one similar  the lower photos), I add a white tee like the top right photo, a purple chunky necklace similar to the top right photo, and have some choice in bags/shoes etc. Now my wardrobe orphan can be worn.

Here are my pieces styled up on the dummy. There is a white tee with a scoop neck underneath  the jacket, just slightly hard to see here.

I repeat this for any of the wardrobe orphans, and if after a bit I really can't make a wearable outfit I am happy with I will donate it, but I like to try first!
I have another one of these on the go at the moment, with an aubergine suiting jacket for work, so let me know if you are interested and I'll share that one too.

Lenten Challenge - Update 6

I have finally got to 40 in all four categories!
I swapped my summer/winter clothes out from the loft, and in the process tried lots of things on. I was able to find some items to pass on which no longer work for me due to colour, fit or style; and once I actually got going it was fairly easy to do. (There are five earlier items which don't show on the table below as well).

There are quite a few more garments which need to be decided upon so I think after Easter I am going to carry on with this for another chunk of time as I am finding it really useful and I'm sure there's lots more I could release another time. However this is enough for now as I don't want to burn out.

Lenten Challenge - Update 5

My Lenten chellenge is going quite well, I am now up to 40 on my made, fixed and recycled challenges but lagging on the donated.

I guess that could be fairly simply rectified with a clothing switchover and wardrobe declutter. I have perhaps made it harder for myself by having a donate and a recycle category which are all things gone from my house after all.

Anyway if anyone has some top tips for finding things in the wardrobe to donate please give me a refresher!

I'll share the recovered chairs another day.

And even more scarves

I made two more scarves from the grey and black stripe jersey. Each came out slightly different. One seems more emphatic on the thick black stripe the other softer on the grey, perhaps the way they are styled. However I put the seam to the back on each one and this seems to shift what stripe is front and centre.

I then noticed some fabrics which are good on both sides and tear nicely. A good indicator is if the vendor snipped the selvedge and tore the fabric when you bought the fabric. So I made this into classic scarves with torn edges. (measure, snip, rip, snip, pull off and trim loose threads, style).

I got five 50cm x 150cm scarves out of this animal print. I've kept one for myself and it was great worn for work with the black trousers, ivory top and a caramel jacket. So I have 4 for the charity craft stall.

I got four 50cm x 150cm scarves out of this dark pink fabric. The edge had some writing on it so I have a narrow piece I couldn't use which could be a scrunchie. Again keeping one for myself as this muted but rich pink is in my palette.

I got five 50cm x 150cm scarves out of this warm coral pink fabric. Again keeping one for myself as this lovely soft warm pink is in my palette (and very flattering when I'm a bit tired!)

I only made two 50cm x 150cm scarves from this fabric as it is quite a unique print and although I love it, it may not have such mainstream appeal. One for me, one for the stall. I have 2m left which is put back in the cupboard to be a lining in a jacket at some point.

If I add all these scarves into the tally (but subtract the ones I think I'm keeping one of for myself....) I have still hugely upped the scarf numbers (now on 21). I may yet decide to release some of 'my' scarves onto the stall as well, but they are making me pretty happy right now.

More infinity scarves

I'm trying to make some more items for my charity craft stall on 1st May.
This weekend DBF and I made 34 jars of Chilli Chutney and I made 5 scarves. The chutney is in the spare fridge in the garage, waiting for another day when I can do the labels and dress some of the less pretty jars with fabric. I'll share those another time, in the meantime here's the scarves.
each is approx 2metres long (and half the width of the fabric) and can be worn looped 2 or 3 times round the neck.

These two scarves are from a beautiful paisley print polyester in turquoise, taupe, blue grey and black. I love the print and colours.
(I bought this fabric on Preston market with YorkshireLass and some other ladies at a sewing weekend in 2008). I still love the print but decided that the 100% polyester was not something I wanted as a top or skirt, but I may keep one of these scarves for myself.

The next two scarves are from this denim blue and turquoise print. I have no memory of buying this fabric which is a nice quality cotton but quite a narrow width. I only used 2 metres of this for the scarves and saved the other piece to make a simple summer top. The print is great for hiding the seams. I fancy keeping one of these for myself and think it could be cool with my denim jacket.

The third scarf is from some very wide jersey (170cm) in printed black and grey stripes. I've cut it across the fabric and this still made a good scarf. I wouldn't want to keep one for myself as the colours don't work at all, but may well make some more as I think it might appeal to others. The jersey is deliciously soft, but every time I drape it over myself I think, lovely soft fabric, but doesn't suit me! So I am planning on making the rest of the fabric into more scarves, I use about 75cm per scarf so can get another 2 scarves the same.

I bought these trousers in Debenhams as I needed some plain black trousers for choir. Astonishingly the fit was pretty good, they were comfortable, washable and smart. I have a lot of trouble finding RTW trousers and often have to alter them so I was over the moon and just bought them.

You can't see too well but they have front slash pockets, back welt pockets, front zip, belt loops and belt and a tiny section of comfort waist. So I've decided to spare myself the pain of sewing trousers right now and just buy some more of these. They come in grey, navy, taupe, beige and natural, so I am definitely going to buy the taupe and navy as well and have a think about the other colours (grey is instore but the taupe, beige and natural seemed to be online only at the moment, maybe they will come in store nearer to the summer).

Lenten Challenge - Update 4

I'm now working on past 20, and trying to get to 30. This seems to be working quite well for recycling, not too bad for fixing, moderate for donations and woeful for created. It is interesting how I can't keep all 4 columns going evenly at once.

I do have two scarves hemmed which need decorating and two scrunchies partly assembled, so may be able to get those 'Created' totals up a bit.

I decided not to count DBF refinishing the garden bench, since my only involvement was to find him a paintbrush, the stain and a drop cloth before I went back inside to do work stuff. Happily a couple of work deadlines have now passed so hopefully next week will be more manageable and give some time in the evening.

Off to the sewing room to finish those scrunchies.

Adding laces to boots

I had some Khahki knee high boots which were a bit tight in the leg for wearing over trousers as I had planned.

They are a good tone with my hair though so I decided they were worth keeping.

I cut up the back elastic section with scissors and applied fray check. I decided to use a length of twill tape down each side (with a twist at the bottom). I measured the length and unpinned the twill tape, then I used the stitich on my Janome which sews a little circle eyelet and spaced these every 1.5" down the tape, fray checked, and cut open with my dinky buttonhole cutter (it has a tiny circle which was perfect and a straight for normal buttonholes) then sewed the twill tape on and then laced up with some purchased boot laces.

I can now make them whatever tightness I like on the leg and easily get leggings or whatever underneath. Success.

Lenten Challenge Update 3 (half way to my goals)

Hi All, I have finally managed to get 20 items in all four columns.
This means I am half way to my challenge totals and I still have quite a few weeks to go, so lots of time to really make an impact.

I was really struggling with the last two columns, but then I had a go at sorting paperwork and generally tidying the study, which seemed to unblock the recycled column a bit.
And then tonight I managed to find a few things to add to the donation bag, I must say this part was quite hard to do, however I tried to be rational about it. So for example I had four tan coloured bags, I kept the two tone leather one and the larger structured one, but released a very small leather one (too small for my uses and scale I felt) and one which was very floppy and had a lot of zipper detail as I thought I would always choose one of the other two. I also found a paperback and some uncomfortable boots to donate. Phew! It felt like a challenge today.

Lenten Challenge Update 2

Here's my update since last time (just over a week).
I have paused on creating new things but I have fixed 4 more things, recycled 8 more things and donated 9 more things. So it is looking a bit more even.

If I can get all the columns over 20 then I'd be half way to my target, how great that would be. Obviously I have a bit of a way to go there, but definitely made progress in the recycling and donation columns in the last few days.

SWAP update (or lack thereof)

I don't seem to be doing SWAP any more. I lost some weight and its now slowed up so a lot of existing older clothes are now back wearable so I don't have the driver that I need clothes. I also have quite a heavy workload at work, had a trip, am sewing for a charity craft stall in May and am catching up on all the minor repairs and shortening curtains etc. I have put off for a while. I am still enjoying seeing what everyone else is doing but currently don't feel the urge to sew new clothes for me. I might join in with the Summer 6PAC on Stitchers Guild once I get the summer clothes down from the loft and see what I've got up there and how it pans out for work.

The main thing I've done recently wardrobe wise is buy items which help support wearing the clothes I have (if that makes any sense), so
ankle boots in various colours in the sale.
XL tights so they are comfortable to wear.
little shoe liner type socks to wear under the tights with the boots.
Belts in toning colours which hold trousers up,
also some elastic belts for a smooth finish under tops (did these myself)
new bras as the old ones were a bit stretched out.
And I'd also caught up with lots of minor repairs so favourite items are back in circulation.

So I've been making a bit more effort to wear nice outfits. I have worn suits, dresses, skirts, trousers + jackets, shirts instead of just knit tops. I've used coloured bags instead of just the black one and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself

Lenten Challenge - Update 1

Today is actually the start of Lent but I've been going on the challenge since 18th February and I'm including those things here.
Some people might see this as cheating and giving myself extra time, but my thought was if I wanted to do something good why would I wait until an artificial start time. The 40 number is a minimum starting target and I'm hoping to go way over that, but saying 40 is the target will hopefully spur me on.

As you can see as I'm making small items for the charity craft stall I have done quite well in the 'Created' column, less well on 'Fixed' and even less on 'Recycled' and 'Donated'.
However I now have the whole of Lent to work on this and really make some progress.

Lenten Challenge

I'm thinking this year of doing a challenge for myself during the period of Lent (from 1st March) inspired by this

and also the approach Alison from Acorn Cottage Artisanry has been using for a long time of
THINGS MADE     THINGS FIXED     THINGS GONE

So between 1st March and Easter I will commit to
donating 40 items (things to charity which others could use)
discarding 40 items (things to recycling which are filling my space)
fixing/finishing or repairing 40 items (some of these may be getting a professional to repair the item).
creating 40 items (for the charity craft stall or for others, not for myself).
I will also include anything I do this week to spur myself on (and not put anything off until next week).

I will share progress here on the blog.

Infinity Scarves for the Charity Craft Stall

The charity craft stall is only 11 weeks away and although I do have some inventory left from previous years I would like some new items too, especially as people do return each year and want something different.

I decided to make lots of infinity scarves using fabric I already have, in particular poly fabrics with lovely prints, which I chose because I liked them but then found I didn't want to wear garments made from the fabric. Any I really like I may keep one for myself as generally you can get two out of a piece of fabric.

Ivory georgette with a print of lavender plants.

Next up a viscose print in olive and wine. One longer, one shorter.

And a single ivory textured scarf (not enough fabric for two).

I have another 10 fabrics which look to be good candidates so this should be a productive avenue.
I also picked up a small mirror so my customers can see how the scarves look when they try them on.

I loosely based my scarves on this online video Tutorial: How to Sew an Infinity Scarf

February Fantastic Fabric

Work recently had some changes which massively increased my workload meaning lots of extra hours and quite a bit of stress.
I am ok but it's seriously impacted the sewimg.

However on my recent holiday I did manage to get a bit of time in a local fabric store which I have visited before and thought I would share my purchases. I bought remnants by the piece.

Lovely viscose Jersey in a leaf print. A dark red colour way and a sage green colour way. I love them both.

Next up a soft grey green silk and another Jersey in dark red on deep burgundy. More tops.

A remnant of what seems to be official desigual fabric, and will make a great casual tee or two.

And a bunch of invisible zips as they were 35c each, much cheaper than back in the UK. I got 5 black, 2 brown, one greyish and one burgundy. Great for side zip trousers.

I got these in the Funchal branch of Feira dos Tecidos in Madeira.