Cotton Shorts

After my High Waisted Denim Shorts success I decided to use some other denim I had, which was very thin cottony denim and make some more.  I used the same pair of existing shorts to copy around as they fit me, but are a bit too short. 

I like these for casual, comfy days.  I think I will take them on my holidays, they are very plain and they do, have a 'mum jeans' look about them.  They look ok with a long top but less flattering without.  But that's pretty much always true with high waisted stuff. 

Vintage Fair

Took my little self to a vintage fair (unfortunately I went on Sunday not Saturday and there are much fewer stalls and the atmosphere is lacking) and bought a pretty skirt to wear on my jollidays and a book to read. But here are some awesome things I should have bought:

 

 Boyfriend (who came with me and complained, and moaned, and rather reminded me of how annoying I was as a child when I was taken anywhere- but he is not a child, he is 31) did not care for any of them, which rather made me want to buy them just to wear when out with public with him but alas I do not earn enough for that kind of spite.  One day...

The bottom jumper btw is a cartoon of the Own and Pussycat :)

Awesome Trouser Fix

I have a lot of trouble buying trousers...well not with buying trousers but with finding ones that fit.  I have become quite an expert at buying trews that don't fit.  The issue is not with size but with shape, I have no issue with wearing a size 10 or a size 20 if that's how the shop wants to size their clothes (although some consistency through the high street would be appreciated) but you can't take a size 10 designed for a thin woman with no curves and just make it bigger and expect it to fit a fairly slim woman with some curves. 

Anyway, my issue is that to fit over my thighs and butt I have to get a size far to big for my waist, so there is always gapping around the waist, especially at the back.  I was contemplating  taking them in at the waist and thinking that removing the waist band and cutting a chunk out of it, taking in the trousers and reattching the waist band was the best way.  Which gave me a stress head and I threw them in the corner of the room and ignored them for a while. 
Enter the internet!  And I saw something on pinterest about using elastic in the back of the waistband, so that's what I tried.



I cut two small strips of elastic and sewed them (with zig zag stitch to allow for stretch) in the back of the waist band, I pulled them taut and then sewed so that they scrunched closed after sewing taking the trousers in.  It took a few attempts because zig zag sewing of taut elastic is not easy especially when you are at least partially incompetent.

On the whole I am quite pleased with the results- clearly this is a quick fix not a super perfect fix, and it would be better to find trousers to fit to begin with.  But the elastic gives the trousers a bit of stretch meaning the gap in the back is closed but the trousers will stretch open if I'm having a fat day. 

Halloween Costume Ideas

Well I don't if boyfriend and I shall be attending any Halloween soirees this season but that shan't stop me from thinking up some cool costume ideas.  Alas that an internet search of halloween costumes leads one to some unsavoury suggestions*, so here are some options I ave found that are awesome without being prostitutey.

There's wonder woman, Lego people, star trek, poison ivy, nautical, robots, Leela, Roy Lichtenstein, Daleks, 3d glasses, gun, Florence from the Magic roundabout, and Downton abbey.  I'm leaning heavily towards Wonder Woman as I already have high waisted denim shorts, but I can't think how to do the red boots on the cheap.  I thought about doing Florence last year but it became surprisingly expensive as I would have had to buy every component. I quite like the artiness of the Lichtenstein but I'm not really a make-up gal.  Watch this space...

*Incidentally if you are planning to put together an outfit that involves wearing pumps I suggest preparing yourself before typing 'pump' into your chosen internet search engine**
**If you choice is not google you are insane.

Home Made Rug

I decided to make a rug.  It's a decision that all women must make at some point in their lives and I have.
Eyeballing the space on my floor I decided to make a rug 80cm by 45cm, using scraps of fabric I already have, and to make it look like this.

I used a post on A Beautiful Mess for directions. 
To make it the correct size I need strips of fabric that are 155cm long, so the colour scheme made need to change based on what fabric I actually have. Which is this:

 I then cut the fabric into thin strips and plaited them into several long plaits.

I then glued the plaits onto a piece of weird blue fabric I had, that was nice and sturdy.  

I sewed along the edges of each plait, making sure to go through to the material underneath, then trimmed the edges to make them look intentionally uneven rather than the unintentionally uneven they were. And the finished result: