Tag: shopping

Wardrobe Analysis – Part Two

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Look at that! Progress is being made! No longer a mountainous heap, but nice tidy stacks, all colour-co-ordinated. At the top there you can see a Dylon colour chart. Once I’d sorted everything out according to which tops went with which colour of chinos, it was very easy to see where the gaps were. Dyeing the pale blue trousers dark grey will mean they go with almost all of my existing tops, and stand a lot more chance of actually being worn! And dyeing the beige pair dark brown means I can throw out an ancient pair of cord trousers that my sister gave to me years ago. I bought the dye this morning, along with a (hopefully nice) “Rosewood Red” packet. I’ll use that to dye my cream yoga pants (which also never get worn), and a t-shirt to go with the new brown trousers. The boxes of dye cost about £6 each, and whilst it does feel a bit weird to completely alter two pairs of brand new trousers (I usually only over-dye worn out jeans), it’ll make a huge difference to my wardrobe.

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The wardrobe, which now looks like this! Well, almost like this. I did a bit of a swap, and all of Paul’s t-shirts are all now on plastic hangers, so I could put all of my clothes on wooden ones. I think they’re much nicer and Paul doesn’t care, so that worked out nicely!

The top rail is now organised by colour. Each pair of chinos is accompanied by its matching shirts and t-shirts on those multiple-hanger-thingybobs. They keep each group together and save so much space in the wardrobe, so that’s a win-win! The bottom rail has all of my “neutral” tops – black, white and grey shirts, t-shirts and all those H&M jumpers.

On the right, the top two cubbyholes are things I don’t wear for work. T-shirts with cartoons on them, and jumpers that are comfortable rather than smart. The cubbyhole with all the extra space in it is for yoga pants and leggings. That’s a section that needs adding to, I think.

And in the bottom square, jumpers that I can wear for work, including two chunky cardigans that I was going to unravel because they didn’t go with anything. (The green one, and the pink & orange.) I’m very glad I didn’t take them apart now! That section actually needs adding to as well. The sooner I can finish knitting my yellow cardigan the better – it turns out to go with almost all of the trousers, which is quite exciting as I would never have considered yellow to be a neutral colour before! I also have a bag full of grey wool, and some lovely Rowan Colourscape that should go with several pairs of trousers as well.

Of course, this is only half of my wardrobe… the non-work section’s going to be a different challenge, I think.

Oh, and I should also mention, the thing that got me started on all of this (aside of being incapable of making a decision at seven o’clock in the morning) was reading Coletterie’s Wardrobe Architect series. It’s a little more in depth than I needed, but it’s an interesting read, and should be a real help to anybody else who’s struggling with what to wear!

Wardrobe Analysis – Part One

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This frankly ridiculous pile of STUFF is the entire contents of my wardrobe.

(Well, except for the formal dresses for choir concerts. And the costumes. And the sports kit. And the pyjamas. And the band t-shirts that are too ancient to wear but must never be thrown away. Apart from that, it’s everything.)

I’ve been struggling with insomnia again, which means that today is one of those days where I can’t be trusted with a sewing machine, and I’m too frazzled to think about my Aromatherapy homework. So, given my recent smart-versus-casual crisis, I thought I’d take the opportunity to have a really in-depth look at all of my clothes and see what’s going on.

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Armed with a pen and paper, and then with Excel, I ended up with this inventory. (No, you’re not supposed to be able to read it. Yes, I do have seven pairs of bloomers. Shush.)

Everything with a white background is an item that I’ve made myself, or that my Mum has knitted for me. Everything in grey is something that came from a high street store, before I stopped buying my clothes that way. Everything in green is something that I bought from a store, but is either organic or ethically produced. The yellow items are second-hand. It surprised me that there were so few of those, as I used to buy a lot of things from charity shops!

To be honest, the proportion of things-made versus things-bought is actually better than I expected it to be. But, you can see that there are a few key areas where I need to make some quite drastic improvements. A few years ago a number of the jumpers that my Mum had knitted for me (way back in the 1990s!) sadly reached the end of their useful life. I still needed something to wear for work, and I know I’m a slow knitter, so I bought half a dozen “emergency” cotton jumpers from H&M.

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I know I bought them long before the appalling accident at the Bangladesh factory where all of these jumpers were probably made. But seeing these labels in my wardrobe, and knowing that my money went straight into the profits of a company who value their worldwide workers so little, makes me feel more than a little bit sick.

The worst of it is, I haven’t even stopped shopping there! I don’t buy things for myself any more, but their children’s clothes are so lovely, and so affordable, and they have such pretty little things for my niece… but I’m going to have to stop that. I’m not a very militant campaigner, but I do what I can with the little money I have, and I can definitely stop doing this.

There’s no point in sending these things straight down to the nearest charity shop though, even if I do feel bad every time I look at those labels. The jumpers in question are actually some of the most-worn items in my wardrobe, and I haven’t even started knitting a plain black jumper and cardigan to replace them. So they can stay for now, as a reminder that I can, and must, do better when I buy.

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These three pieces are waiting to be finished or altered before they can go into the wardrobe. The yellow blouse needs the hem and side slits finishing, and the buttons and buttonholes. The blue dress (covered in BEES!) needs the front placket sorting out, and the buttons and buttonholes. The broderie anglais dress came out looking too much like a nightie, so that’s awaiting the fate of being chopped in half and turned into a pretty layering tunic for the summer.

I was surprised there were so few unfinished pieces, to be honest, given how easily I get distracted. The blue dress has only been waiting for its buttons since, ooh, last May, or maybe June.

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Now my next problem (aside from how I’m going to get into bed tonight, if all my clothes are on the bedroom floor!) is how on earth to decide what I should keep, what I should take to a charity shop, and what gaps I need to fill in order to have Actual Outfits rather than just All The Clothes.

I’m going to start with all of my brightly-coloured trousers, I think. I do have organic cotton long-sleeved t-shirts to go with almost all of them now, although there are a couple of pairs I’m thinking about dyeing a different colour. Pale blue? Beige? They’re going to be ruined in three seconds flat! And my cream yoga pants are virtually unworn, for the same reason, so I might as well dye those too. If I can match them up with tops I have already, so much the better!

But hopefully, by the end of this process, I’ll have a much clearer idea of what I can wear on a daily basis, without looking into my over-stuffed wardrobe, having a great big panic, and pulling on the same old jeans and t-shirt because they don’t need thinking about.

(Although, having said all of this, the temptation to follow the example of Matilda Kahl and just buy multiples of the same outfit is currently extremely tempting!)

Doing the Sums

I’ve been running Eternal Magpie and the Inexplicable Emporium as a tiny business since April this year. I’ve been very good so far, and sitting down once a month to do the sums, rather than leaving it all until I have to have one giant panic about the tax return in January. (I have yet to make a suit out of my taxes, but I’m sure the time will come!)

Sitting down to fill in my spreadsheet this afternoon, I was disappointed to discover that this is the first month that I’ve failed to break even – mainly because I haven’t made as many sales as usual, and I still have Etsy fees to pay. The numbers are small, deliberately so in these early stages, but I was still slightly confused about where all the money had gone – not just this month, but since I started.

Each time I make a little profit, I’ve been buying materials to make the next lot of Things. Except, as it turns out, I haven’t actually been using those materials. I’ve been putting them in a cupboard and “saving them for later”. Well, it looks as though “later” might be here! I can’t afford to buy anything else right now, so I’d better start using up what I’ve got.

What I’ve Got turns out to look like this:

  • A huge bag of 2″ d-rings and steel rivets, for making belts
  • Three different kinds of mordant, for natural dyeing
  • A bag of linen buttons, for natural dyeing
  • Moulds for making scented wax tarts
  • Three large wool batts for making felt
  • Three different kinds of wooden buttons, for adorning naturally-dyed accessories
  • Three different kinds of powdered natural dyestuffs
  • Eight felt hoods for making new cloche hats
  • Craft felt and beads for making brooches
  • Wool felt pieces for making hat embellishments

Of course there have been other costs too – stationery , shipping, and Etsy/PayPal fees being the greatest of them. But I do have rather a lot of materials here, just waiting to be used.

Sadly the natural dyeing went completely by the wayside this summer, as the new garden simply wasn’t in a state where I could grow any useful plants. But I do have powdered dye, and mordants, and cream cotton fabric and undyed wool, so that’s something I can make a start on while the weather’s still nice. (It’s an outdoor/garage-based activity really, as the dyes sometimes smell very bad!)

The D-rings are waiting for me to actually finish my first experimental felted belt – I wasn’t sure it would be sturdy enough to carry the weight of the rings. That’s about an hour’s work, to finish off the felting and hammer in the rivets, so I’ve got no excuse for just getting that done! In fact, I could go and do that now.

The wax tarts have been put on one side until the winter, which I think is nearly upon us, despite the fact that today is glorious! I plan to melt down the old scented candles, dilute them with a little more soy wax (our overwhelming feedback was that they were a bit strong!), and pour them into shapes that can be melted with an oil burner. I’ve also now found a supplier of ethically-produced and imported oil burners, so I can put together a gift set for anybody who doesn’t own one already.

I haven’t done a great deal of felting lately, mainly because I’ve been a bit down in the dumps about it. I made lots of felted flowers back in the summer, which were widely “ooooh”ed at on Facebook and Instagram, but I haven’t actually sold many of them, and their Etsy listings are just about to expire. I tried turning one of the larger ones into a fascinator, but I wasn’t very happy with the way it came out. I think they might need a little more work (perhaps embroidery? or beads?) before they’re right.

Same with the hats, really – I’ve just been a bit un-inspired. It’s difficult to find the motivation for making lots of new hats, when the ones I’ve made already are sitting on a shelf unsold. Of course it’s been summer, which isn’t the right time of year for selling warm wool hats! I’ve been watching a lot of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, to get me in the 1920s hat frame of mind, and now that the winter coats are starting to turn up in the shops, it’s getting easier to see what colours and styles people might want to wear this season.

Trouble is, sitting around feeling uninspired turns out to be a terrible way of generating new sales. (Surprise!!) If I’m not feeling enthusiastic about my own work, there’s no reason on earth why anybody else should be, so no wonder my sales have been low this month. But, plans are in place for making improvements, and for kicking myself up the behind. And, of course, I’ve got lots of lovely new materials, all ready and waiting for me to make lots of new things!

Onwards and upwards, as they say.

Modern technology and a call to action.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I’m still getting to grips with all my modern technology. I seem to have settled into the iPad quite easily, although it’s useless for writing a blog post – the keyboard takes up so much of the screen that I can’t see what I’m doing. Otherwise though, it’s been amazingly easy to use, and I’m losing every waking minute to adding things to Pinterest. (Follow me! It’s dangerously addictive.)

Paul’s also upgraded his phone, which means I’ve inherited his old one. I’ve spent a chunk of this afternoon switching over to the iPhone 4, which is lovely, but it looks different from my old one (thanks to a software update), which is discombobulating me more than it ought to. Anyway, while I was setting the photo above for my lock screen, I was reminded that I haven’t actually shown you my new bracelet!

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I ordered it from Honey and Ollie at the beginning of the year, and it arrived (all the way from California) on the 12th of February – much sooner than I was expecting it to travel all that way.  It arrived accompanied by a little crow holding a star (perfect!), who is now pasted into my journal.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

This is the back – and the lovely box it arrived in. The back is so pretty that sometimes I flip the bracelet over and wear this side as the front. The silk ribbon just ties around my wrist.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

Like this!

It’s a One Word bracelet (pendants also available), and this was my chosen word for the year.  I figured that putting it on my phone as well as on my wrist would give me a little kick every time I start procrastinating instead of working. Perfectionism and procrastination are my two biggest enemies (alongside getting distracted far too easily), and I have a tendency not to even start doing something unless I think I can do it right first time. This is my handy reminder to JUST DO SOMETHING, even if it’s something very small, and not very perfect.

Speaking of Not Very Perfect… today I was attempting to make a very simple cowl to go into the Etsy shop – just two rectangles sewn together. What I have actually made is a fully lined moebius strip, and I haven’t got the faintest idea how I managed it! Couldn’t have done it if I’d tried. I’ve unpicked the cowl three times, and I still can’t get it to turn right-sides-out. Definitely a sign that I wasn’t really well enough to approach the sewing machine today!

New hat, new options for a mannequin

Hand blocked wool felt baby pink cloche hat featuring a floral design with hand embroidery, felt flowers and vintage buttons

Here is today’s felt hat offering – now in the Etsy shop. I’m really pleased with how the flowers came out, although I learnt an important lesson about doing all the work in the right order. (Note to self: Yes, putting the flowers on first allowed you to check their placement. But it made for incredibly fiddly stitching of the stems!)

I had been vaguely planning to work on felt hats during my full days off work, and then do other kinds of sewing during my half days. Given how sore my fingers are from doing all of this hand sewing through machine-made felt, I think I might revise that plan. Ouch.

Excitingly, my previous hat (the bright pink one with the black guipure lace) sold out almost immediately, and was swiftly followed by an order for another one the same! So I’ve ordered some new felt hoods from Parkin Fabrics, and I’ll make a start on some more hats once they arrive. Perhaps without embroidery this time though.

Interestingly, after my earlier post contemplating the purchase of a new mannequin, I received a very helpful email from Equipashop.com, directing my attention to the existence of the lovely lady above. She’s perfect!

Okay, so she’s still out of my budget right now, but she’s much more affordable than the one I was looking at before, and she’ll be able to display hats, cowls, gloves and jackets. Brilliant! I’m now following Equipashop.com on Facebook, I’ve signed up to their mailing list, and I’ll be making a purchase as soon as funds allow. (And she’s SPARKLY. I mean really, how can I resist?)

Looking around the rest of the site (which turns out to be FULL of bargains!) I was also pleased to see that they offer a plus size mannequin, although she’s not in stock right now. Granted, at roughly a UK size 14/16 she’s at the smaller end of plus size, but that’s still several sizes bigger than most garment display options. Conveniently her measurements are almost exactly the same as mine (though she’s quite a bit taller), so she’d actually be perfect as a dressmaker’s dummy for my own sewing.

Hmmm.

Maybe it’s time to get on with having that pattern de-stash sale that I keep thinking about, to raise money for the newly instated Mannequin Fund…

Shopping Spree: Skulls, Skeins and a Spindle

Handmade polymer & gemstone earrings from Honey & Ollie

Look what arrived today – my lovely new earrings from Honey and Ollie! They arrived super quick, all the way from California. So quick that I wasn’t expecting them for about another week! As a recovering goth, I’m still irresistibly drawn to Things With Skulls, and these were so pretty that I couldn’t resist.

Handmade polymer & gemstone earrings from Honey & Ollie

The skulls and flowers are made from polymer clay, with sparkly little gemstones dangling at the top. The findings (all hand made) are copper, which complements the stones beautifully. The hooks are a really lovely shape too, and they stay in place very securely. Despite being quite big, they’re really light to wear, and I’m definitely going to be adding more Honey and Ollie pieces to my wish list.

Handspun and hand dyed yarn from The Outside, with hand carved drop spindle

This is my little haul from the Museum of English Rural Life‘s Traditional Craft Fair.

All from The Outside, on top is a hand-carved drop spindle. It’s made from yew, and it’s a bottom-whorl style. Excuse the red acrylic leader, I was so keen to try it out that I grabbed the first thing I could find! Once I’d figured out how to do a half-hitch to hold the yarn in place, I grabbed some fluff and started to spin straight away. It’s a lovely spindle, and I’m really happy to have one of my own instead of having to borrow from work. Now I can practice at home, and make as much wobbly, lumpy yarn as I like!

Handspun and hand dyed yarn from The Outside

Speaking of yarn… this is neither wobbly, nor lumpy. It’s handspun from blue faced leicester wool, and it’s lovely and soft. The vibrant colours are all from natural dyes, and this should be just enough to make a pair of rainbow-striped mittens.

The colours, from left to right, are:
1) Weld & madder
2) Weld
3) Weld & woad
4) Weld & woad dipped in madder
5) Woad & weld
6) Woad
7) Cochineal (orange oxidised to blue)

I had a lovely chat with Romilly about dyeing, including planting up a dye garden and not being afraid of mordants. There is definitely going to be some experimentation with colour and fluff in my future! For now though, I need to practice my spinning, and think about the perfect pattern for my new rainbow-coloured mittens.

Charity Shopping

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I’ve lived in Reading for twenty years, and been driven past this shop countless times. Today was the first time I remembered to make a little detour and have a look inside. I think it should probably win some kind of award for Most Bonkers Place I’ve Ever Shopped, even by charity shop standards! Every surface is simply crammed full of STUFF. I wandered up a corner to look at some glassware, and when I came to wander out again, a lady had barricaded me in with a pile of briefcases that I had to clamber over. Bonkers.

I came out with a lovely selection of mis-matched decorated shot glasses that I plan to turn into little candles. I also found a set of 6 iridescent amber glasses that I think I might keep, just because they’re so pretty.

I do love a good charity shop, and I think this has to qualify as one of the best. Whilst I don’t mind the brand-name ones that have “vintage & retro” sections, with items priced accordingly, I do love the places that are more like a jumble sale, or an explosion in a grandmother’s attic. If I’d been able to concentrate enough to really look, I’m sure I could have found even more amazing treasures in the AUTISTIC SHOP. (Plus, proceeds go directly to the Berkshire Autistic Society, who do excellent work in the area.)

Glasses

These are just a few of the treasures that I’ve picked up in local charity shops over the past few weeks. All in need of a good wash, but beautiful nonetheless!

I think what I need to look for now is a really good jumble sale. Once I’m no longer working every weekend, I know of a couple of local church halls that I can frequent. If I can convince Paul that he wants to drive me there, a trip to the monthly Sue Ryder sale at Nettlebed might be in order too. Although their donations list does say that they don’t accept odd glasses and cups… which are the things that I most want! It seems criminal to break up a lovely set that could still be used, for the sake of turning them into candles. Much nicer to pick up oddments and give them a new function, I think.

Floral fabric and vintage knickers

1980s underwear

I had intended to spend this morning sewing, but the temperature in the Shed soon put paid to that. It took an hour and a half for the little heater to force its way into double figures. Brrr! I think this is perhaps the only disadvantage of working in a Shed in the garden – it’s blooming cold when it snows!

By the time I’d spent half the morning sending work-related emails (on a day when I’m not at work, more fool me), it seemed pointless to start something when I have to go out this afternoon to catalogue some more beetles.

So, here are my latest bargains from the weekend!

The fabric is a £3.49/m cotton from Fabric Land, and it’s creased because it’s been through a 60° wash and the tumble dryer. This is a much harsher treatment than it’s ever going to receive once it’s a dress, so I can be confident that it won’t shrink or otherwise misbehave in the wash once I’ve spent ages making it. Paul mumbled something about cushions when I showed it to him. Rude.

The pattern was a bargain from my local Sue Ryder shop, in the centre of Reading, which has a large Retro and Vintage section that I love to bits. I’m not sure whether 1988 (the date of this pattern) counts as either Retro or Vintage, but it was 25 years ago… which certainly makes me feel old!

Anyway, the pattern only cost £2, and although some of it’s been cut up and sellotaped back together (argh!), the part that I really wanted is still intact. That’s the two different styles of french knickers, which I plan to make both in printed cotton and in bamboo. The pattern’s a size too small for me, but I plan to cheat it by sewing with smaller seam allowances.

I wonder whether I actually do have time to run up a quick pair now, before I go off to my beetles…?

Fuzzy Feet

Dilemma of the day:

My feet have pins and needles and a burning sensation, which makes it quite difficult to walk without a walking stick.

My hands also have pins and needles and a burning sensation, which makes it quite difficult to hold a walking stick.

Tricky business.

My list of ridiculous and frustrating symptoms is getting longer and more annoying as the months go on. I do have an appointment with my doctor next week, but I don’t honestly expect anything to come of it. (Although I’m hoping for a referral to a rheumatologist, who can at least arrange for some tests I haven’t had already.)

Hey ho.

At least it’s a bit easier to put up with having very uncomfortable feet when you get to put them inside some lovely comfortable shoes. Fairysteps Holly, in case you were wondering. I wear mine with the ribbons around the ankle rather than across the instep.

Just as well I sold my entire shoe collection in order to buy these, really. I can’t imagine I’d have been able to wear a single pair of my old shoes right now!

Continental Clothing

Please forgive me while I get a little bit over-excited for a minute.

Way back in the mists of time, I ran a t-shirt printing company. We used the best quality t-shirts we could afford to buy at the time, but I wanted more. I wanted organic cotton. Sustainable production. Ethical business practices. And all of these things were sadly rather hard to find. I did buy some organic cotton t-shirts, and some Fair Trade ones, but most of the inventory I bought all those years ago is still sitting in my Shed. The fit wasn’t right, the colours weren’t right, and they were so much more expensive than ordinary t-shirts that nobody was willing to pay for them.

Fast forward to yesterday, when I was looking again for wholesale suppliers of organic t-shirts that I could use in my dyeing experiments. Imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Continental Clothing. All of their garments are either organic, fairly traded, sustainably produced or a combination of all three. They have exemplary business practices, and even more exciting, the clothes they produce are so much more than just plain t-shirts!

I have grand plans for the racerback tunic shown above, for example, worn with a contrasting vest or t-shirt underneath. Think how pretty it would look in a patchy natural dye, with hand embroidery all around the neck and armholes…

Even better, and the thing that I’m extremely over-excited about, is the fact that they offer bespoke manufacturing! Okay, so a minimum order of 150 garments per size is out of my reach at the moment, but think of the possibilities! The tunic above would be fantastic as a dress, for example. Continental could make it for me, and I’d add the embellishments myself. It would work out significantly cheaper in the long run than me buying organic jersey at retail prices, making the clothing myself, and then embellishing it.

I’ve applied for an account with them, so I can start by buying a few sample garments for myself. I can then do lots of dye tests, and see how the different styles and fabrics fit, wash and wear. I can already imagine how several of the tops would go with many of the skirts I’ve made.

So, watch this space for hand-dyed t-shirts with added embroidery, lots of pockets and other pretty things!