Pink Pencil skirt refashion

Well, as promised yesterday, this was a super basic refashion. I picked up the skirt at a charity shop. I was attracted by the colour, I am developed a bit of a fetish for brightly coloured pencil skirts! It was also the correct size, or so I thought.. When I tried it on, not only was it (as I had realised) a grannyish midi length, it was also a little bit tight across the top, and kept sliding up and wrinkling.

When I had looked more closely at it, I realised that it had the same problem that I have with most pencil skirts, but slightly more so. As most fabrics have a little give in them, they stretch over your hips a bit, which if you like a snug fitted pencil skirt is ideal. However, if they are lined, the lining does not have this give, and the lining is also usually slightly smaller than the outer skirt. Every skirt I own with a lining now has a rip down the side of the lining. Which makes the lining useless as the non lined bit catches. therefore, as I am not one of those young ladies who is horrified/bemused at the need for slips (we did a poll at work, it was weird how many girls didn't own one, I am not sure how they manage..) I just rip out the linings and wear a slip underneath instead. Clearly a potential problem with the pink skirt was that the lining was too small, so I took it out, which was really easy as it was just stitched onto the inner flap of the waistband.

bye bye lining

I then cut off the bottom (really easy again as it is a straight skirt) and rehemmed. 

And it now fits extremely well, and I just wore a slip under it. 

SSS11 Day 8

Well now we are on the second day of my late starting challenge, and so far it's going OK. I am still wearing (some) makeup, even though I have a steaming cold, but I have not managed jewellery-but I have managed a belt! I got sick of having no belts so I ordered a few form ASOS, expect to see the others as the month progresses.

What I am wearing

Top   - Ness (Debi has got me a bit hooked! even though I am not a huge tartan person, they have some really nice separates! Plus I walk past the shop when going to and from work everyday so it is so easy just to pop in).

Belt  -  ASOS
Skirt - refashioned from a charity shop purchase. (a bit wrinkled, I should have ironed the hem again I think!)

When I put this on I remembered I hadn't blogged about the skirt (it is a pretty basic refashion). I have a before picture somewhere, but not on this computer. It was just much longer and kinda grannyish in style because of it. But it is a lovely bright pink!

Thoughts
I like this outfit a lot. I haven't worn this top much yet because it's slightly short, which makes it perfect for pencil skirts (most of my tops tend to be quite long so that they don't continually ride up round my middle, but this looks a bit odd if you want to tuck them in to something!). It is very cute though, it's a fine stretchy knit with decorative weave (I can't really describe it, like a really horizontally stretched rib that's now completely flat but still stretchy..) It's super soft, the neck has contrasting decorative lingerie elastic trim and a little ribbon bow. I like the colours together in the outfit, you can never have too much colour! I need to put some belt loops on the skirt though, luckily I have lots of the material left from the bit I chopped off!)

Self Stitched September day 7 (except it's day 1 for me!)

Well here we go. I can say that it is a bit of a culture shock to get up, consider what I am going to wear beyond it looking all right and being suitable for work, and then take a picture of it. All I really grasped when I looked in my wardrobe was that I really need to do some washing and that I have no idea how style bloggers do it!

Having said all that, the weather is being obliging, and sticking to nice sunny summery times, pity that all the summer bits are the bits that are in the washing basket! So all in all there wasn't a lot of choice this morning! But I am wearing make up, and a necklace! (I always forget to put jewellery on!)

What I wore
Top -  H&M
Cardigan  - Charity shop
Skirt  - So long sarong  - Refashioned from charity shop

Thoughts
I quite like this, I had only been wearing the skirt with darker tops in a less summery way, but this is nice. It is a pretty basic start, but it is typical of the way I tend to dress (barring my usual lack of jewellery despite having tons of the stuff!)

On a more practical note, I really have to work on my photography/posing skills, I had to sneak this picture quickly this morning as people kept walking past and I didn't want to look like an idiot. This is the best of the few I got, I was leaning against the wall, but that doesn't really come across and so makes my arms look a bit odd!

Self Stitched September - a bit late

Well, I have been busy, and I haven't done any sewing, even though I have a list as long as my arm. I am in  a complete crunch point this month as I have loads of uni assignments this week, and exams in a month for which I need to do some serious revision, as well of course as the day job. Plus, as I will be applying to teaching school this month, I have also been visiting schools and need to write a kick ass personal statement. sigh. So all in all, I have a slightly better excuse for not doing any sewing than usual, in fact, I shouldn't do any (which of course makes me want to!).

To attempt to get the blog going again, without taking time away from everything else going on, I have decided (slightly late in the day) to do something I have always meant to do, take part in a self stitched month! For anyone who doesn't know, this a month where you make a pledge to wear things you have made yourself, in an attempt to wear them more, and work out what else you need. You can do this to varying degrees, depending on how much stuff you have! You also try to take a picture of yourself wearing your outfit and post it on your blog. It's all being run by the lovely Zoe, who was one of the first blogs I found. She describes the whole concept much better than I can here. A lot of people are quite hardcore about it and don't wear non-hand made stuff, but as I have only made about two tops that isn't going to work for me! (there is a lesson already!). therefore, here is my pledge (for the rest of the month!)

'I, monkeysocks, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-Sept '11. I endeavour to wear at least one hand stitched or refashioned item each day for the duration of September 2011'. 


This is going to be interesting, as I am not really sure how much stuff I have, it may get very repetitive. Also, if the weather gets nasty that is going to be tricky as a lot of the stuff I do have is quite summery! On the plus side, it will hopefully make me put slightly more effort in, and attempt to style myself/wear makeup! (I have been getting rather sloppy of late!)


As I decided this today after I got dressed, I don't have a picture for today (and in any case my hand stitched stuff is limited to the zip I mended (badly) on my skirt, and the bag my mum made, which is cheating!). Never the less, the bag is really nice, my mum made it as part of a run of them inspired by a bag my sister had that she wore to pieces. Now everyone my mum knows has one in different colours! It is cord on the outside, cotton on the inside, with pockets, and crocheted flowers. It is a great size as it just looks like a normal handbag, but you can fit masses in, including A4 things. 

Easy skirt refashion

Well its been a while. But I have finally managed to sew something! I had picked up this shapeless but jolly patterned skirt from a charity shop. It was far too long and a bit tight around the waist.

I simply chopped off the bottom and re-hemmed it to fix the length. As it is a partial elastic waist it was easy to make larger, I sewed down across the elastic about an inch from the end on each side and then made a small hole and cut the elastic between the old end point and the new, allowing the waistband to expand.

It now fits really well and is fun and flippy!

For my next trick I am going to having some slightly more adventurous refashioning fun with this super wide skirt.

Thrifted finds

I know, being British I ought to say charity shops finds, but it just doesn't sound as good somehow..

I haven't made much of late, due to uni, but I have managed to snap up a good deal of stuff from charity shops. A lot of these came from my attempts to find a wife beater and combats for the Ripley costume, which was highly difficult. The shops were proving their traditional "the shops never have the thing you want, no matter what that is" contrariness well, usually full of shapeless 90s clothes and hideousness, the moment I wanted that they were suddenly full of cute stuff! I coped somehow though, mainly by buying lots of things!

Firstly however, several months ago I had a huge binge in some charity shops I don't normally go to a little further away from my flat. I was mainly after some glass/home wares, but a lot of other stuff sort of crept in. As it was a while ago I have forgotten some of the stuff I got, and I got a lot of shapeless cotton tops that hopefully will get refashioned one day so I will not show them here, but a few select pieces make me very happy.

This skirt should have made me very sad, as it is a size 16, and I bought it to cut it down a size or so, but when I put it on it fit perfectly- ooops! Never mind, the potential sadness of being fatter than I thought, at least in the eyes of its makers, was completely offset by the jolliness of it. Sorry about the creases - I took it out of the washing basket for the photo. I have have worn this at least once a week since I got it! It is awesome! the photo doesn't really do justice to the rich purplely blue colour. I was wearing it in when I met Debi, and that picture suggest a bit at the brightness of the colour.

At the same time I found this stripey cardigan. As you may remember I had been moaning that I didn't really own any tops that were patterned, especially knitwear, and this fits the bill all round.

I also spotted some nice bedlinen that could be made into clothes. This duvet and pillowcases is primrose yellow and pale cream and is large gingham on one side and stripey on the other! I haven't decided what to make of this yet, but it seems to be crying out for something that uses both patterns. 

I also scored a massive duvet and pillow cases in this lovely foliage/flowery pattern. The colours are a little brighter in real life. It's a bit grannyesque but in quite a fun way. I have a cute 70s dress pattern with a wide collar and short gored skirt that might look very nice in this. I have also been toying with the idea of dying it, but I haven't decided.

In my more recent Ripley splurge, I picked up this incredibly soft cotton duvet in white cotton with slightly satiny contrast stripes. Not got any immediate plans for this, and it will almost certainly get dyed as I don't really wear white - I am far to prone to spilling things on myself. 

I also got this duvet in two tones of bright pink! I do love bright colours, and I never get round to buying bright plain fabric. 

In a special lesson in really rummaging in the linen sections and not just giving everything a cursory look, I glanced at this duvet, which has little trees printed on it, and wasn't sure, but then I picked it up and looked further and realised it was a border print! This is just screaming to be a pretty full skirted dress!

I also picked up some RTW stuff that actually fits. 

This amazing pink pencil skirt, which just needs taking up a bit. 

This cute chevron A line skirt

And this fine red and cream striped vest. This goes perfectly with the chevron skirt colour wise.

Plus some yummy big pearls

One day, I will sew something.

As I have finally finished my uni work for about 5 minutes, I may eventually get round to sewing something. Or photographing stuff I have sewn, or something.

But in the meantime, this post about the bizarre world of Maidenform advertising completely cracked me up this morning, thanks to Jen for posting it on Facebook and altering me to it!