Tag: shopping

Phase Eight

Phase Eight

I wasn’t expecting to buy a new summer dress, especially not so hot on the heels of having made one! But we were walking through Debenhams and this one leapt out at me from the Phase Eight rail. It was my size, the last one left in the shop, and reduced from £85 to £19. Now that’s my kind of bargain!

It’s made from cotton lawn, and has a detachable slip/lining in the same fabric. (I don’t know why the website says viscose, it’s definitely cotton.) Raglan sleeves, slightly gathered, a bit of a ruffle, pintucks, an empire line belt, and the perfect colour. Technically I could make this dress myself, but in reality I never would. Mostly because of the pintucks. They’re so fiddly that I probably wouldn’t bother.

As I was sprinting gleefully towards the till, I discovered that one of the straps on the lining was broken. I politely mentioned this to the cashier and he gave me an extra 10% off, making it even more of a bargain! A couple of stitches later, and the dress is even better than new. I expect I’ll be wearing this one rather a lot.

Selling my Sole(s)…

The Great Spring Cleaning of 2012 has begun.

Actually, it began a few weeks ago when I wore one my my beloved pairs of Jeffery~West shoes and they gave me a blister. Again. At that point I finally had to concede that I’m not a size 40, no matter how thick my socks are, and it was time to let go. I popped all four pairs on Ebay, and with the resulting funds I treated myself to a new pair of boots. Not quite in the same sort of style… but I’ve ordered a pair of Fairysteps‘ finest Moonshine boots. Mine will be in gold (GOLD!!) with round toes and silver stars. I’m trying not to be impatient, but I can’t wait for them to arrive!

Flushed with success, I thought it was about time I cleared out all of my other shoes that I bought because they look amazing, but which turned out to be impractical or ill-fitting. There are a few pairs still on Ebay, ending this afternoon. Depending on how much money I raise from those, I plan to buy one pair of shoes to replace the lot. My criteria are:

  • Hand made, or at least made in England,
  • Actually comfortable,
  • Gorgeous,
  • Smart, and black.

Current contenders are Fairysteps Clara or Quince, Conker star sandals, Green Shoes Willow, or the slightly more heavy-duty Dr Martens for Life.

You may have noticed that I’m also selling my beloved concertina, and my Mulberry handbag. I’m on a mission to no longer keep things that I don’t use, however lovely they may be as objects in their own right. An instrument that’s never played and a handbag that’s never carried are fundamentally useless, so it seemed like their time to be re-homed with someone who’ll appreciate them.

[edit]
Apparently I’m not selling my “Mulberry” handbag – Ebay have taken down the listing because it’s been reported as a fake! I was extremely indignant at first, having bought it from what I thought was a reputable place, but a little online research tells me they’re right. How embarrassing! Because I’d never owned a Mulberry bag before, I didn’t notice the subtle differences in the details that tell you it’s not a real one. All the details which I, in the spirit of full disclosure, have just photographed and put on Ebay! A classic example of caveat emptor, I suppose. *sigh*

Still, now I can’t sell it, I feel a bit less bad about making some alterations that will allow me to actually use it. Like taking off the straps and repositioning them so that they actually fit over my shoulder, for a start. Onwards and upwards…

How many is too many?

TM Lewin Shirts

Oh dear, I might have had a little shopping accident, during which I broke my resolution to Stop Buying More Things. I went into TK Maxx to look for some foam mats for blocking my knitting, but they didn’t have them. (Curse of TK Maxx – if you leave something behind, you’ll never see it again.) What they did have was quite a large selection of TM Lewin shirts. So I bought three. (Top right, middle left, bottom centre.) They cost £12.99 each – something of a bargain compared to the RRP, which is usually around £70. I can’t afford to pay £70 for a shirt, but I can usually afford £12.99, so thank you TK Maxx.

Interestingly, although I browse the TM Lewin website quite regularly, and visit the local store whenever I pass it, I almost never see these patterned shirts. That’s the main reason I jumped on these as soon as I saw them. I often see plain or striped shirts that I leave behind because the colours don’t grab me, but I can’t resist an unusual print.

I am now renewing my No Clothes Shopping resolution (which also had a little accident in the fabric shop at the weekend, but that’s another post) by adding to it Don’t Go Into TK Maxx. If I don’t go there in the first place, I can’t see the lovely shirts and be tempted to buy them.

Perhaps my next project needs to be knitting up a few waistcoats or tank tops to go with them. No shopping required for that – I have stash yarn in a multitude of colours (okay, black and various shades of pink) that would go with most of these shirts perfectly.

Peckham Rye

Peckham Rye

I seem to be developing quite a collection of bow ties now. I’ve made a purple & green shot silk one, a skull & crossbones one, a sewing print one, and one with silver bees. I also have a readymade burgundy and black one with a matching cummerbund, that I used to wear for orchestra concerts.

I bought this glorious spotty one from Peckham Rye on Newburgh Street. It’s woven silk, hand tied, with an adjustable grosgrain band at the back so that you don’t have to untie it every time. I love the pointed ends and the hand finish – right down to the packaging, the quality’s just gorgeous.

Sadly I’ve only actually worn two of my bow ties, and both were with outfits that could be considered to be costumes. Well, and the orchestra one. I used to wear black tie to blend in with the men when I was the only female brass player.

All of my smart shirts are patterned, and as most of the ties are also patterned I don’t feel confident about wearing them together. I suppose the answer is either to buy some plain shirts, or to make some more plain silk ties…

Fairysteps Birthday Shoes

Fairysteps Queenie

Happy Birthday to me! And what a perfect chilly-but-sunny day for frolicking in the grass wearing my new shoes. Aren’t they gorgeous?

These are Queenie shoes from Fairysteps, in pink dragon leather to match my beloved handbag. I may have put them on before I got out of bed this morning, to the accompaniment of rolled eyes from my husband. I don’t know why he expected anything less, to be honest!

There’s a silly story attached to these shoes.

A few months ago Ren made a pair of Puck shoes in this leather, and I wanted them very much indeed. Sadly I couldn’t afford them at the time, and another lucky person snapped them up. Because all Fairysteps shoes are limited editions (each hide is a finite size, and not all colours can be repeated) you have to buy them when you see them, otherwise they might not reappear! So when another pair magically appeared a few weeks later, happily coinciding with some money in my PayPal account, I gleefully snaffled them straight away.

When Paul came home from work I confessed that I’d bought the shoes, and he looked at me, paused and said “Oh, um…” at which point he was forced to reveal that he’d already bought this pair, and put them aside for my birthday! I quickly sent Ren a rather embarrassed email explaining the situation and, bless her, she was happy to refund me straight away. So a huge thank you to Ren, for sorting out our silliness!

I did feel a bit silly though, and spent a good while wondering whether I could possibly justify owning two almost-identical pairs of shoes… but now I can keep saving up for a pair of Mustardseed or Moonshine boots. I know that a pair of Moonshines are in progress, but it’s probably just as well that they’re not in my size! Maybe next year…

Paul’s been threatening me for weeks that he wasn’t actually going to give me the shoes for my birthday, he was going to put them away until Christmas. I’m so pleased he wasn’t cruel enough to actually do that, because I do love my new shoes! (And my handbag… and my purse… and my choker…)

It’s so lovely to be able to wear or use a well-made item that fills you with joy!
Soppy, perhaps, but true.

Summer sandals

I might have splashed out a little bit on some new sandals for the summer. These are Think! Schlapfa Clogs, bought from Shoon. They were in the sale… and then you could buy a second pair of sale shoes for half price, so I thought I might as well have both colours! I’ve actually been looking for a plain black pair of these for several years but I’ve never managed to grab a pair in my size, and they never seem to be reduced to a price I can afford, so I’ve just kept on wearing my ancient ones and hoping they wouldn’t fall to bits.

I’ve had my old pair since at least 2004, and I’ve worn them ever such a lot. Because they have anatomically-shaped footbeds I don’t need to squash my orthotics into them, and I can wear them all day without ending up with achey feet. They’re so comfortable, and although it’ll take a while for the new ones to mould to the shape of my feet they do feel pretty good already.

Think! bring out new colours of these sandals every year, but usually they’re blues or greens or something else that doesn’t really go with my wardrobe. As it turns out almost everything I’m wearing at the moment is either grey or pink, so this sale couldn’t have been better timed! I’m not going to throw out my old pair just yet either. They’re plain pink (extremely grubby) suede, but I’ve got a bottle of shoe dye, so I’m going to attempt to dye them black and see whether I can make them last a little bit longer.

If these two new pairs last me as long as my trusty old pink ones, I won’t have to go shopping for sandals again until 2018! Please remind me of this next summer, when I tell you that I’ve got nothing to wear…

Pink Suede Brogues

Pink Suede Doc Marten Brogues

It’s been just over two years since I wrote about looking for a pair of pink suede brogues.

I’ve had these for a little while now, and suddenly realised that I’d completely forgotten to mention them. They’re Dr Martens, obviously, the 3989 shoe, in hot pink suede. This colour seems to be sold out now, but they are still available in pale pink. (There are other colours, but they only seem to come in men’s sizes.)

Thanks to the nice soft suede they’re lovely and comfortable, although I think it’s likely that I’m going to have to dye them black eventually. The seams at the back of the heels have already turned blue, where my jeans rub against them. I haven’t worn them much yet, mostly because it won’t stop raining and I don’t want to ruin the suede. I’m really pleased with them though, and I’m really looking forward to wearing them more often.

London Souvenirs

London Souvenirs

Everyone knows that yarn and fabric bought while you’re on holiday doesn’t count as stash, right…?

On the left is two balls of Schoppel Wolle’s “Flying Saucer” sock yarn. It’s dyed two strands at once, so that when you unwind it into two balls you can knit two identical socks. If you follow their pattern, it also creates a somewhat psychedelic flying saucer pattern on the legs of the socks. I probably won’t be following their pattern (because I’m awkward like that), so it’ll be interesting to see how it knits up.

The little burgundy stick is a shawl pin that exactly matches the never-ending stole that I’m currently knitting. I bought the stick and the yarn from Loop, which was just up the road from our hotel. We also had a nice little wander around the antiques shops and stalls around Camden Passage while we were waiting for Loop to open. (I’d accidentally dragged my friends there half an hour too early. Oops.)

The fabric, as you can see, is from the V&A. I was slightly disgruntled to look at the V&A online shop and discover that both of the fabrics I’ve chosen are on special offer, and therefore cheaper, but I guess the shipping would make up the difference, so never mind. The fabrics were produced to go with the 2010 exhibition Quilts 1700-2010, and are a limited edition featuring designs from prints in the V&A collection.

The top fabric is ‘Palm Tree’, and is taken from a patchwork coverlet pieced from various early 19th century printed cottons. It was possibly made in Wales, sometime around 1830-40. The bottom fabric is ‘India Flower’, taken from a patchwork coverlet composed of block-printed cottons of the 1780s and 1790s. It was made in Britain, and dated 1797.

Being tight of budget, I bought a half-metre of each print. It’s a metre and a half wide, so there should be enough to make three pairs of shoes from each design, if anybody might be interested in such a thing…? They had so many lovely prints, I wish I could have afforded to buy one of everything!

Fairysteps Elder Handbag


Photo © Fairysteps

Look what the postman very kindly delivered to me this week! It’s a lovely new handbag, courtesy of Fairysteps.

In living proof that social media can really work for small businesses, I spotted this on Ren’s Facebook page, saw that this pink “dragon” leather was limited stock, and snapped it up immediately!

It’s going to be a replacement for my big pink Mulberry bag. I bought that back in 2007 and have barely used it since because the straps are precisely the wrong length. I’ll be giving it a bit of a polish, and popping it on Ebay, where hopefully I’ll be able to get back pretty much what I paid for it. (Thankfully Mulberry bags seem to hold their value very well – limited edition colours even more so.)

This new bag’s quite a bit smaller (you can’t quite squeeze an A4 pad inside), but it fits my giant diary and my little netbook – although not both at once. The front pocket is big enough for my phone, iPod and other assorted bits and bobs, and I can’t cram in so much stuff that it makes the bag too heavy to carry. Perfect!

I absolutely adore the clever closure – there’s something very satisfying about squishing the smooth wooden bead through the little gap in the leather. The raw edges on the front flap are so soft and tactile, I can’t stop stroking them. The first time I went out with this bag, everybody wanted to touch it. And smell it. There’s something so lovely about the smell of new leather.

Now I just need to decide which to buy next.. matching shoes, or a matching purse!

Ayten Gasson & Kiss Me Deadly


Picture © Ayten Gasson

Remember the skull & rose print bra that I made last month? Well, I wore it last week. It was certainly a better fit than the first bra I made, but it still wasn’t all that comfortable.

I have a few ideas regarding underwires, and I thought it might fit better if I gave the bra a much wider band. So I did a search for “longline bra” thinking that even if all the results were frumpy and horrible, I might get some construction ideas that I could translate into pretty fabrics.

You can imagine my surprise then, when one of the first pictures that came up was the one above! Isn’t it lovely? It’s part of the Lady M range by Ayten Gasson. Ayten specialises in vintage-inspired lingerie, all of which is hand made in the UK from silk and Nottingham lace.


Image © Kiss Me Deadly

Another designer that features all manner of pretty things is Kiss Me Deadly. Vintage-inspired again, and with a gorgeous range of shapewear. Most of their items are limited edition, so if you see something you like you need to snap it up quickly!

Sadly for me the longline bra that matches this gorgeous girdle is sold out already, otherwise I’d have gone for the whole set!

Never mind making my own bras, I think I might need to go shopping…