January Blues - Outfit Post

Given that I had a fairly lazy day on Sunday, no dancing (till the evening!), flying or fettling required, I felt a pencil skirt was in order! 

I love a good pencil skirt! Thanks to some Christmas money my pencil skirt collection has increased almost exponentially over the winter break. 

This one arrived as a £2.50 gift from my mum a few days ago in the mail and Sunday seemed to be the perfect day for its first outing! 

I've also got a bit obsessed with the Bardot tops that seem to be all over the place at the moment. I've got a lot if colourways in the sale from Matalan which has been brilliant. 

They're perfect for me as I don't feel my arms are my best feature, and the sleeves hold that area together nicely!

Outfit Details:

Bardot top: Matalan £3 (currently in their sale)

Pencil Skirt: George @ Asda £2.50 (currently in their sale) 

Boots: New Look (if you see them in the sale, let me know! I want another pair!!) 

Decided to take the photos while we were at Stow Marie's (awesome WW1 aerodrome and museum), aeroplanes providing a good backdrop for everything of course! 

I love that you can put a whole outfit together with high street bargains at the moment with a good retro feel, comfort and no fear of ripping your vintage pencil skirt! (...of course this has never happened to me...!!)

Grabbed any bargains in the sales? 

Jo :-) 

Lady in Red! - Outfit Post

Quick outfit post from the other day as I felt rather well put together for a change! This is part of my "it's old, I don't mind it getting grubby but I still want to look cute" wardrobe that I utilise for work a lot of the time! 

Beret: First Avenue Classics via a charity shop

Shrug: New Look years ago!

Necklace: gift

Dress: F+F Tesco via eBay 

Belt: Dorothy Perkins via a charity shop

Vest and Leggings: Primark

Boots: New Look

Mostly my work wardrobe just needs to be warm. Layers are such a good friend! Primark is amazing for cheap items to wear under my clothes in the winter. Ditto all the supermarket clothing lines! 

I'm sure as winter gets here I'll go back to trousers and heavy fleeces but for now I'm hanging onto my skirts for as long as possible! 

Also a selfie because my make up went beautifully that day and matched my outfit perfectly! Make up is all by Collection except my Mascara which is by Marks and Spencer's. Slowly upgrading my make up to BUAV approved cruelty free brands, but I'm not one for waste! 

Hope you're all having a lovely week! 

Jo :-) 

December Instagram Round Up

Or. An excuse for some pretty pictures! 

I normally do the top five most liked pics, but this time there's three tied at the bottom. So I'm going to do seven instead. 

Just think of it like a bonus!! 

7) 

Sewing on my wonderful Singer. She is the best. I never want to change her. 

The culottes I was sewing though. Failure. They need some work.... Or maybe a bin. Hmm. 

6) 

Draping a dress to go with some beautiful 30s deco items from my eventual mother in law. The fabric was £2.50 from a charity shop and it's just lovely. 

Can't wait to put this together. 

5) 

Making mince pies with my mum. And feeling like a child again. 

This set off a monumental amount of baking in my house when I got home. I've made mince pies, jam tarts, puff pastry for the first time, sausage rolls, pork and apple chutney pies, marmite swirls, and enough food to last months!!

4) 

My hair doing wonderful things for a change. Right before I went to bed. Ugh. 

Apparently my hair has a sense of humour. Which would explain why when I need to leave in five minutes, it decides its going to look rubbish and be completely unmanageable. 

3) 

The black satin that finally arrived for my Godmother's housecoat. It's lovely. Just need some pink fleece and we'll be in business! 

2) 

The housecoat pattern. Which has led to me lusting after one in blue and white stripes...

It's just so beautiful. I see many things being made from this pattern in the future!

1) The top liked post of December is.....:

A terrible selfie of me in a mirror! 

Really. Fitting myself for an evening dress I'm making using a top I don't wear anymore, a 25p zip from a charity shop, some fabric from India and mile upon mile of silver bias binding!! It's coming along nicely and is part of my aim for January. Can't wait to see it finished. 

Jo :-)

P.S. what were your December best bits? Instagram or otherwise!

Sentimental Skirt

I finished playing around with this skirt a couple of Sunday nights ago. Just in time to wear to jazz. 

It's been sitting around waiting for something for quite a while now, so figured it was time to do something with it! 

It's cut from the bottom of my Mum's wedding dress. My parents are divorced so she doesn't want it, and I figure that it's part of my history. 

It was very eighties to start and I fancied using the full skirt. So I cut it off! Then panicked. Then hemmed it at the waistband. Then panicked a bit more! 

Finally it's got an elastic waistband. Mostly. It's a bit bodged, but it works with a belt. 

I may take it apart again and start it over, but for the moment it's ok. 

It's a bit shorter than I'm used to, but it was really fun to dance in on Sunday. Nice and floaty and light. 

For some reason it makes me feel very 20s. God knows why. I did my hair in pin curls and a side pony. I don't like wearing my hair down to go dancing, so pin curls are a good option! 

I'm fairly pleased with the outfit in all. I like that it has some sentimentality to it and I'm glad I finally got it wearable!

Jo 

P.S. any important clothes in your wardrobe? 

P.P.S. sorry for the terrible quality phone photos!! Normal service will be resumed when the fiancé/photographer returns! 

November Instagram Round Up

Day late, my reminder didn't go off! Rubbish! :-)

Top five Instagram posts as liked by people. 

According to this month I've been busy trying to teach myself to design dresses whilst baking, selling things on eBay and starting far too much knitting!! 

First off, Cookies!!

Raspberry and white chocolate oat cookies to be precise. 

Made the day we were clearing out the garage. For sustenance! There some chocolate chip lurking at the back there too. Since then I've made these again and done chocolate chip and raisin oat cookies. Yummy. 

Lovely Laura Ashley dress that went for a bargainous  price on my eBay (joanna_esme if you're interested!) because it doesn't fit me well!

Too many knitting projects on the go. Since then I've finished the navy, started and finished a hot pink snood and started a hot pink beret. So the pile's not really gone down at all....

My wonderful dress form. She's a bit old and creaky, plus she's still without a name, but she's been amazingly useful after I got her back in November. From freecycle too! 

Last but not least, trying to teach myself to draw clothes. So that I can show people what I want to make rather than just badly describing it. It's going reasonably well so far for a beginner! I have a fancy pen now and everything!! 

That's all for now folks. 

I've got a post about a lighthouse boat in the works for Monday, there's an outfit post lurking somewhere too! The fiancé is off to work in India for a couple of weeks so after the busy weekend it should be a bit of smooth sailing! 

Jo. 

P.S. what have you been up to in November? 

Pencil Skirts and a Cape!

Two items of clothing that I love. You can't go wrong with a classic pencil skirt. They're brilliant because as a classic shape you can easily find them on the high street. M&S are great. They can be styled up or down and I find them fairly flattering! I have six now. 

Black casual. Navy casual. Khaki casual.

Black smart. Leopard print. Which I think should have its own category, but I'm putting in smart! And now bright teal smart.

The casual ones are all made of stretch fabric. They're great for biking, strolling, housework, and any day with a stiff breeze! They're also only cheap, two are from Primark, and I mean to buy a red one this winter if they still do them. The other is from Asda. They're great just to slouch around in a bit without worrying. I think the black one even has a paint stain from work!!

The leopard print is for fun from TK Maxx. I don't wear it very often, but it is awesome!

The smart black one is a poly cotton blend with a fancy lining. My godmother gave it to me. It has a lovely kick pleat and makes me feel very snazzy! 

The latest addition to my pencil skirt addiction is the bright teal woollen one. Picked up in a charity shop last week. It's by Windsmoor, made in England and is beautiful. Especially for £3.50! It's definitively vintage, although I suspect 80s rather than 50s which is the look I'm going for with it! 

I wore it for the first time last night with an unremarkable black top, my favourite nude heels, and my awesome Burberry cape! (See the last blog post!) it was a dinner for my fiancé's birthday, followed by a visit to a couple of terrible clubs in Colchester. That were half empty. Not quite the wild night I think Eric was after but still, we had fun! 

My highlight being walking out of the bathroom and bring confronted by a lovely lady who looked me up and down, and said "wow, you look so lovely!"

So thank you kind stranger! For making me want to dress up more often! 

Jo.

P.S. got a wardrobe staple? Any strangers say nice things to you recently? :-) 

A Cape for Christmas

I know. I said the C word. I've just spent an hour at a Christmas Market at the Tiptree Jam Factory with my at some point to be sister-in-law. There was Christmas music. It's got me feeling all sparkly!! 

Mulled wine, roast chestnuts, hot chocolate and mince pies. Fake snow and fancy decorations. It was a good evening, but not the best thing that happened today. 

I give you, my charity shop cape!

It's pretty awesome. Zipped openings for your arms. Cute collar. Smart navy. Good, warm winter length. 

But wait!!

What's this?!

It's only bloody reversible! Look at that face. Imagine my excitement when I discovered this Amazingness! 

Bird Jo. Apparently it looks like a wing man suit. Meh. 

See how happy I am?

There's more! Whilst ringing my mum to tell her all about the amazing cape (we all do this right?!) I looked for a label. 

The reversible bit of the coat explains why neither I or the charity shop folk could find one.  

So I fiddled about between layers.

It's only Burberry! A Burberry cape for £12.99. That's reversible. 

Yes please. Don't mind if I do! 

So sorry for the bad phone quality photos, but I'm far too excited to wait for proper ones! 

Here's a picture of me looking all excited again. Just in case you forget. 

Cheers!

Jo. 

P.S. what's your best bargain from a charity shop? This beats my previous hands down!! 

October Instagram Round Up

Top five of my most liked photos from October. 

Yes I managed to miss September completely. I will try harder. Many exciting things are occurring here at the moment but they are taking time! :-S please bear with me! 

So with no further ado:

Red hair with a cherry print bow! All dolled up for my dad's big birthday! It was a great night and we managed to get 70 candles on a cake. It was a raging inferno and the chocolate may have melted!!

 

My first attempt at inserting a sleeve, but with no pattern. My sewing skills seem ok. Pattern making skills, not so much! 

My beautiful blue lace circle skirt. I am pretty proud of this one! Two layers and the lace looks amazing. It didn't even take that long to make! 

For bored and wrote some stuff on a picture! When the finished table is back in my sticky mitts I will post another picture as this is only halfway through! Finished it's like a mirror! Seriously, you can read stuff in that surface! 

And last but not least, no make up and no filter selfie! After having had some issues with attempting to dye my hair blonde, I've gone back to fairly near my natural brunette. Which is sort of fading to a reddish colour as we go on. Darn red hair dye! Should definitely have gone blonde first. It's my plan after the red grows out now! 

That's all for now :-) catch you all again soon and thank you for reading!

Jo

P.S. what was your favourite thing last month? 

Crazy Birthday Wishlist >or< what I'd buy if I won the Lottery!

So hi guys! It's my birthday today. 23!

I don't really do birthday lists (don't even think I did them when I was little, Santa lists yes, birthday, no) but I thought it would be fun to do a crazy, extravagant, lottery win type list. Because let's be honest, I'd be happy with a slow cooker and some chocolate! :-)

It's a good excuse for a post full of pretty things!!

So, without further ado:

1) A DeHavilland Tiger Moth. Or Gipsy Moth. Sorry for the bad photo quality. Phone picture. That I zoomed in on! Seriously though. My favourite aeroplanes. So lovely!

2) A vintage Mustang. Gorgeous. Oddly my crazy Wishlist seems to be vehicular in nature! 

3) Vivien of Holloway wrap dress and a funky new blue petticoat to go under it! Given that I now sew somewhat more than I used to, the skirts are becoming more accessible to me, but the structure of tops and dresses still scares me! 

4) A stunning (and slightly too in your face!) sparkly necklace. Diamonds preferably! This one is made new on Etsy, in a deco style and is gorgeous. As is the price tag of £3300. Definitely a Lotto win bit of jewellery!

5) a personal trainer?? Who'll followed round and yell at me when I want to buy chocolate and when I watch "Come Dine With Me", get obsessed with the sponge pudding, google it and go make it in the microwave. (May have happened. My lips remain sealed and slightly sticky with golden syrup...) Who forces me to run and jump and skip and get lovely and healthy again!! Haha! 

Anyway, silliness aside! I hope anyone else who shared an August birthday with me has a great day! 

Jo :-)

P.S. What's been your favourite birthday present? I love my bike and my VoH dress and petticoat to death, and my evening dress from my Dad for my 21st! 

Shortening a Skirt

There's nothing fabulous on my sewing table at the moment. Indeed, as you're reading this I'm hopefully nipping down the A1 to get home! 

So I've just put together a quick post about shortening the length if a skirt. 

I picked up a lovely (probably 80s) olive green skirt from a charity shop in Cupar for 99p the other day. I'm getting a good 30s or 40s vibe from it if I style it right, but currently, it's just too long! 

To make life slightly more interesting, it's got false buttons up the front, a zipper and button that actually fasten the skirt at the back and a split in the middle at the back to give you that extra bit of freedom of movement. 

Here's what I plan to do. It's probably an evenings work for me with one of my sewing machines. Although the last skirt I shortened I did by hand, and it didn't take too long! 

1) decide how long you want the skirt to be. 

Mine will be 67cm from the waistband. This is the same length I use from my circle skirts (found by measuring my petticoat!) and I find it fairly flattering on me. 

2) hand sew the split at the back closed so it can't be seen from the outside. 

Because the split will end up being stupidly short if I left it, I'm going to sew it up by hand just catching a few threads from behind so it will just look like a continuation of the seam at the back of the skirt. 

3) measure the length of your skirt from the waistband and  mark using a straight edge with washable pen/pencil or tailors chalk. 

Or be lazy like me and iron a crease in as you go.....

4) add a two cm hem to this line and cut off the bottom section of skirt. 

5) fold over twice up to your drawn line, iron and pin your hem. 

I hate ironing but it makes such a huge difference in sewing! 

6) stitch all the way around your hem just less than 1cm from the edge of your skirt making sure you get the folded material behind. 

When I hand sewed a hem I used a very basic running stitch. With the machine sewing, I'll use a matching colour thread and try to match the stitch length to the rest of the seams or hems on the skirt to make it look less obviously altered. 

7) iron again (must I...?) and wear your newly shortened less frumpy feeling skirt with pride! 

Jo :-)

P.S. do you remember you can shorten things in charity shops? What was the last thing you altered? 

P.P.S. apologies for the rubbish photos. I haven't sewn it yet as I've got an eight hour drive ahead of me today! To Essex!! 

Book review: Geek Chic Crochet

Back with a crafty book review this week! 

Crochet! Since learning to knit (somewhat at least!) I've been intrigued by crochet as well. So having spotted a nice metal set if crochet hooks for a bargain price on eBay, and coming up to visit my craftily blessed Mum and Godmother, I thought I'd give it a go! 

An afternoon was duly spent with some bright pink wool to learn the basics (aided slightly by You Tube!) before opening my lovely new book! 

It's fab. It says it's drawn inspiration from the 60s and 70s with a retro vibe, but I think a lot of the things in here are so classic they'll fit in perfectly well with my mainly 50s style wardrobe! 

It's beautifully laid out and photographed throughout. The instructions in the back are simple and clear, teaching the basic stitches that you will need to complete everything in the book. 

There are so many things in this book I can't wait to make! All of the patterns are started with an easiness rating. One star, simples. Three stars, not so much! 

I've started with a lovely emerald green wool making the Turban Headband. 

I kid myself that I'll look like this when it's done, but it will be great for the airfield and cycling in the autumn! 

It's building up fairly quickly, much quicker than knitting, which is really gratifying for a complete beginner! 

I would recommend this book to anyone starting out with crochet as there are lovely patterns in there that appeal to all, but definitely with a retro vintage vibe! 

As you can see, plenty to keep you going! I think some of the things such as hats, scarves and bags would make lovely thoughtful Christmas presents too....

I'll leave you with a few of my favourite makes. Which will probably take me forever to get round to doing! Along with hours of practice at making the lace! 

Lacy Peter Pan Collar separate. 

Tank Top (there's a matching skirt too!)

Completely adorable Peter Pan Collar Cardigan

Vintage Lace Gloves

I'd better get busy!

Jo :-)

P.S. do you crochet? Want to learn? Got a favourite pattern or make?