Shoes or spinning? Please help me decide!

You may remember, I have taken the Wardrobe Refashion pledge. It expires at the end of October. I am allowed one get out of jail free card in case, ooh I don’t know, I get distracted while mooching along and somehow end up in TK Maxx just keeping a weather eye on things and some Carvela stilettos fall into my basket and my credit card falls into the credit card reader and my hand slips and punches in my number by pure coincidence.

Shoes! So I must invoke the Get Out Of Jail Free Card:

But. But. Must I, though? Because: I get my shoes home, I get them out, I try them on, I look very cool. I congratulate myself on how immensely practical these shoes will be, given that a/ I can actually walk in them (honestly), and b/ they will do for winter as well as will go with tights. And then doubts begin to creep in.

Readers: the shoes were not absolutely ruinously expensive. They were £50. (I hope you are admiring my honesty. I hope you aren’t thinking, £50 on shoes, £12.50 on cheese, a fool and her money, hmm). I have things I can sell on ebay to recoup the cost. I have not bought shoes for many, many months. But, as I stood looking at the shoes which I can assure you made my ankles look very slender, I did begin to think: that is £50 I could spend on something else. I could spend it on other shoes, for example these green ones:

Or – I could spend it on a beginner spinning kit. Or on a patchwork-cutting-out kit. Or on both, if I don’t do anything bourgeois like take postage into account. I never thought I would see the day when I would prefer a spinning kit over very stylish stilettos, but, possibly that day is here. Am I now middle aged? Is this the beginning of the end? Is it all downhill from here and will I spend my days from now on nodding in agreement to Woman’s Hour while adjusting my Slanket and wondering when the man next door is going to trim his side of the hedge? What should I do? Should I take the shoes back and buy the spinning kit, or should I keep the shoes, because they are lovely? (Please don’t say, take the shoes back and don’t spend the money on anything because you have got to have a new bathroom. I have mentally moved that money into my spent compartment, although if you have read Bleak House you will know that that kind of thinking only leads to misery and quite often death).

So here is my question: shoes or spinning? Which road do I take? I think I’ve reached a critical life point. Please let me know what you think!

Stuff. Stuff I've been doing. Stuff like that.

I wanted to show you what I've been doing. Oh, it's been a hive of activity chez useless beauty recently. I've got a couple of craft shows in the autumn and I want to up my stock levels, so I've been working on designs, and I've also been making some things for me. I'm still on a recycled fabric kick so these are all repurposed from other things. Well, mainly they're repurposed from mum's old tshirts. Oh, the number of times I've laughed at the number of tshirts she buys, I'm laughing on the other side of my face now. Hur hur hur (tortured other-side-of-face-laugh). First:

This is made from one of my dad's old shirts. You can see it looks a bit crumpled and that's because I've been wearing it. I'm a bit divided with this one: on the one hand I don't think it looks terribly attractive, on the other I somehow really like it. Also it's really comfy. I shall share with you what I learned. You can see I used part of the armholes to make pockets. Because I am dim, I didn't actually cut the pocket lining any bigger than the pocket itself (I know!) so they are false pockets. If you ever decide to make a similar skirt, take it from me, it would be greatly improved by having real pockets. Also, make sure you gather the pockets when you add the waistband (have the back of the pocket at the side seam, the rest towards the front) – on my first try I left the pockets ungathered and pleated the rest of the skirt and this was a Bad Idea. I'm not particularly wide-hipped, but it had a similar effect to someone following you about with a spotlight focused on your rear shouting 'Look at the size of this woman's hips! God! They're enormous!'

This was an experiment, but I like it. My first try was so unspeakable I actually felt depressed when I'd sewn it. I wish I'd taken a photograph. I can't explain how awful it was: I was trying to incorporate a kind of slightly longer godet for a bit of flair, and I ended up with a tight lycra mini skirt with a long stripey tail. Like a raccoon off for a night out dancing round its handbag and drinking Bacardi Breezers. I'm going to stay away from godets until I haven't got PMT any more. I honestly don't think my brain is working this week.

This is a wrap skirt I made as a prototype (from old tshirts) – I'm going to make lots to take to the craft fair. The photos aren't great, but it actually looks really good on, I'm pleased with this one. You can see I haven't trimmed it. I just hate trimming. I will do it at some point!

And these are a (very rough prototype of a) pair of knickers (on our ironing board, sorry). I'm going to size the pattern up and down and see if I can track down some stretch elastic or codge up some other kind of attractive trimming for the waist and legs. I'm thinking saturated colours with a contrast elastic. Turquoise and lime? If it works I'll be making some of these for me as well as some to sell, because I've just realised sitting here that I've had the knickers I'm wearing for 12 years. 12 years! Isn't that shameful? That's where long term relationships get you. Fur coat no knickers springs to mind. I have got a fur coat as well, actually, made from the pelt of the finest Acrylics, natch.

Hope everyone else is feeling reasonably productive (although really it's too hot to do anything except eat Magnums and complain.)

*** Edited to add, I've been googling stretch lace and I can't find where to buy it. Does anyone know?

4 months of thrilling austerity and creativity

I have taken the pledge. Not the no alcohol one (can you still do this?) although I might was well do, because these days half a glass of shandy and I’m anybody’s at all. I have no tolerance. No, I have taken the Wardrobe Refashion pledge for 4 months.


The Pledge

I, Susie, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed, Susie.

(You see how I personalised it? I put my name in!)

I’ve tried to do this before (I’ve not tried to do it officially through Wardrobe Refashion, but I’ve tried not to buy new clothes for a set amount of time), but I’ve always failed. I remembered this and thought, God that doesn’t bode well, but on considering further I think this was because when I was in my job and working long hours, I didn’t have a lot of time or energy for creative pursuits: buying clothes and putting looks together was pretty much all I could manage. So, although not buying clothes doesn’t sound like a big thing, in reality it cut me off from the only creative act I was up to at that point. Since my job went to hell in a handcart in an impressively dramatic fashion, however, I’ve had lots of time to be as creative as I’ve wanted to be, and I haven’t felt the urge to buy clothes as much: in fact, I haven’t felt the urge to buy clothes at all. That’s because capitalism sells us back our own repressed creative urges so we can be kept in a state of wanting something undefined. Not to be political. Anyway, I have lots of ideas for upcycling things, we’ll see how many I’m able to get off my bum and do!