Dawn Skies to Dusk

Dawn's getting later and later. Just last week the sky was light when I got up to take the dog out at just shy of 6am. I took this picture this morning as we headed out the back lanes to the old coal tip for his morning constitutional.

The mountain the sun is rising behind in this photo means that the sun doesn't properly hit my house until about 8am at the moment. It makes photographing my outfits a little difficult!

I'd had a yen to straighten my hair for a while now, just to see exactly how long it actually was without the curl. Other than highlighting just how bad my split ends actually are there doesn't appear to be that big a difference in length, either way it's nearly at my waist, the longest I've ever grown it!

I love this skirt, despite the fact it's too big for me. For some strange reason I felt like a Spanish horse rider from yesteryear in this outfit, possibly due to the combination of an embroidered skirt and a short bolero style cardi. The Nora Batty socks have made a come back (they're just so warm) and I bust out the tan version of my Hush Puppy T-Bars because T-Bars are my favourite style shoe evah. And these ones are just so comfortable!

In comparison, I took this photo when I got home at about 4pm. Totally different light! The entire family's in the photograph, they were hoping I'd give them food and kept following me around!

Dusk up the Old Tip, I love it up there when it's quiet. You can just see the moon peeking out of the cloud. Beautiful.

Skirt: La Redoute
Shirt: Miss Selfridge
Bolero: La Redoute
Sock: No idea!
Shoes: Hush Puppies via Amazon

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Project: Butterick 3134

Photo taken by the lovely Alison who kindly said that if the rest of the clothes I want photographing were the underwear I'd mentioned I was going to be sewing at some point then someone else could photograph those. Never fear, I doubt I will ever photograph myself in my unmentionables let alone post those sort of photographs on the interweb.

The skirt I'm wearing was a joint/ learning project with my Mum whipped up one Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. I haven't yet blogged about it (and probably won't now) because I'm lazy addicted to Colin and Bradley.

Please excuse the lack of shoes, I have a hard time keeping the damn things on.

The pattern is Butterick 3134, a six panelled A-Line skirt. We bought the size too small, compensated by adding half inch or thereabouts to the seam allowances, measured the pattern, re-measured me and the damn thing was still 6 inches too big once fully constructed. We ended up adding 2 extra seams down the middle panels in order to make it fit properly.

On the plus side, the groovy waistband interfacing that was all ready to go, has a fold and a sewing line already in place and is easy to iron on was fabulous, top marks for whoever came up with that one, I'll be using that again ... and again and again!

We made it out of a knit (that frayed almost instantly!), my first knit ever. It's a charcoal grey with flecks of whites, creams and hints of purples and yellows. Sounds weird I know but actually looks okay. And that, to date, is the extent of my home sewing!

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Restylin' For A New Job

Yes, I totally failed at sewing this weekend. I decided that perhaps it might be a little more prudent to make clothes requiring fit with my tutor Mother this coming weekend as she'd already said she was free and would come help me. As I have a limited stash of fabric suitable for these projects and currently no funds to buy any more, it seemed wiser to wait until I was sure I'd get something usable from the effort rather than a bunch of wadders and no more fabric. I didn't mention this before now because ... well, because I was a little ashamed at how rubbish I've been over the sewing ;)

Instead, I thought I'd tell you about my new job. Or rather the clothes I'm wearing for my new job. I started with the NHS on Monday and decided on Sunday evening that I would start as I meant to go on, i.e. I would dress and wear the make-up that I've always wanted to wear to work, regardless of what everyone else around me is wearing, from day one so everyone expected it to continue, rather than doing my usual of wearing whatever and no make-up and hoping for the best whilst being frustrated and feeling like I couldn't suddenly start dressing up because it went against the style I'd already 'declared' to everyone (and my goodness that's a rather long run on sentence, I do apologise!).

To that end I painted my nails red, pulled out the red lippy, stuck a compact in my handbag for touch ups and pulled out the heels.

You may remember my cursed Interview Outfit that got me no jobs. Having already scored the job, this is what I wore on Day One but with blue T-Bar heels and my 'natural coloured' (read: too tan for my skin colour) seamed stockings. Lipstick in place, hair down and natural, I trotted off to work and as I got out of my car in the car park I promptly ripped my stockings with my handbag. Fortunately, no one noticed a thing all day so I kept them on. I also had a 3/4 length sleeved blue cardi over the top and I have to say, partially done up it made me look like I had a waist, I was totally loving the effect!

Day Two: A grey corduroy skirt with attached plaid cotton petticoat, grey shirt and grey boots. Throw in a cream short sleeved cardi and a brown elasticated belt and I was good to go. Unfortunately, whilst I ran out the door thinking I looked okay I ultimately decided I looked like something out of the 80's and hated the skirt with the boots. Big Mistake. Ballet pumps would have worked better ... had I actually owned any. Note to self: see if eBay have any ballet pumps for sale.

Day Three: Grey high waisted trousers and a blue and white pin stripe shirt, all from La Redoute (as was Day Two). Red braces (suspenders to all you Yanks, but to us Brits that's what holds up our stockings) from eBay, blue T-Bar heels and a short sleeved blue cardi, again from eBay. This was much more me and kinda came off 70's (the trousers are quite flared and wide legged ... just in case that isn't completely obvious from the photo). I felt comfortable and relaxed, didn't care if anyone thought anything of my clothes because I was happy. Much better day than yesterday, but then I wasn't sat in a meeting with 50 people around a big table today which may have helped.

It's been hard wearing the red lippy. It's bright, it's unmissable and it gives a very definite statement about the type of woman I am/ want to be (i.e. one that cares about her appearance). I've spent a lot of years not really caring about my appearance in terms of work due to the nature of the job, the work ethic involved (not to mention the stress, the to-ing and fro-ing between offices, departments and buildings and don't even get me started on night shoots out on location in a disused railway shed) and my very strong desire to blend in.

This new style (or this attempt at a new style) is me very much not blending in and I'm still a little uncomfortable with that. I'm not sure why but I'm more uncomfortable about the lipstick than I am about the clothes (well, apart from yesterday's outfit). I don't feel comfortable reapplying in front of people and I don't feel comfortable checking in my compact after eating/ drinking but I also then spend the time worrying I've got lipstick all over my chin or half rubbed off. A big part of me wants to stop with the lipstick to make myself feel better and that could be okay. Except I like red lipstick and I think what I'm more uncomfortable about is the shade of lipstick I've been using. Ideally I'd like to use a shade like Marianne but my skin tone is completely different, my lips are a lot smaller and I don't look anything like as fresh faced half way into my day (or even half an hour into my day!) so I'm not too sure how to proceed. I'm not even sure that if I find the shade I'll still be comfortable because it's still very eye catching. The shade of red I feel more comfortable wearing is a darker berry red, but I think this is predominantly because my natural lip shade is quite dark and when the lipstick fades it's almost unnoticeable. I've been blotting the brighter shades mostly off but even then I still feel over exposed. Any advice please girlies?

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Project: 20 Min Skirt

Today I took a small break from the vintage sewing and the sheer amount of pleats necessary for Simplicity 1683 for 30 mins or so to make up a skirt based on the Twenty Minute Simple Skirt Tutorial from Kathleen at Grosgrain. It took me an extra ten minutes because it started out life as this:

This is a dress I started but decided not to finish a couple of years back when I first started sewing my own clothes solo. It's Simplicity 3739 but I quickly discovered the neckline didn't suit me and decided not to bother hemming or inserting the zip as I'd never actually wear it. However, the fabric I absolutely adored and have been wanting to refashion for aaaages.

Discovering Kathleen's quick tutorial I thought I'd give my dress to skirt thing a try. And ended up with this. Could I look more Granny?

This is more my fault than Kathleen's, I forgot that the original pattern called for an A line skirt and whereas Kathleen's tutorial shows how to create the skirt without hemming I needed to do something about the fraying edges so just turned, turned again and top stitched down. This resulted in quite an unbendy hemline which added to the problem.

I think (other than I have camera loving pets) that the elasticated waist is not a look I can pull off due to the bulk it adds to my mid section that has enough undefinition on its own without adding to it. I should probably have hemmed after sewing in the elastic to ensure I got the correct hem length (about an inch or so shorter that it actually is) and I should probably have gone for the tutorial on Ruffles and Roses instead. But hey, that's 20/20 hindsight for you!

I should apologise for the tea stain on my vest, the wolf decided to join me on the couch as I was taking a sip and there's barely enough room for us both on a normal day. And more apologies for the crazy scientist look I seem to have going on, I'm not sure where that came from but have a sneaky suspicion I look like it more often than I realise.

And now I'm off to attempt pleating. Lots and lots and lots of pleating! 

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My First Outfit Post

Wow, my first outfit post. I'm not sure this is necessarily something I'll do often, I hate how I look in photographs, particularly self-taken photos on my phone. But today I'm wearing something that feels very much my style and I wanted to show it off. Having two one hour walks a day with the wolf usually ensures I'm in jeans for the day, particularly as the giant puppy loves nothing more than jumping up at me whenever he gets really excited regardless of what's all over his paws. However, today I made an effort and this is the result:

Me and my vintage Aga (circa 1943 ... the Aga, not me). The skirt is a denim straight skirt I bought in New Zealand when I lived there 9 years ago. When I bought it it was a good size or two too big, I've put on enough weight around the middle in the intervening years that it now fits without needing a belt. I love it most because of the frayed hem and the stretch of the denim, there's no kick pleat or vent built in to this skirt ... walking can be a trial for someone used to walking quickly but the wiggle it adds to the walk is much appreciated!

My top is another item that's too big for me, I bought it on a shopping trip with my brother's girlfriend and loved the mechanic style of it and decided I didn't care that it didn't fit. It's faded in the wash as I've had it about 7 years now I think and I rarely wear it because of its size but I do still love it.

My shoes came from Peacocks, I blogged about them here, as you can see I managed to get inner soles that worked and they are now, once again, wearable - no thanks to the wolf!

Shirt: Matalans
Skirt: Portmans New Zealand
Shoes: Peacocks

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