Light and Bright

I just spent five minutes reinforcing the stitching on this top.

I picked it up for $10 at a factory outlet yesterday. I'm going to wear it today. We're expecting another couple of days in the mid-thirties. This is one of my absolute favourite colours to wear and it's light as a feather cotton with all those pretty spangles. How could I resist? Well, perhaps the fact that I've already spent time stitching sequins back on before I've even had a chance to wear it, but it's a price I'm willing to pay for now. There's a little bag of spare sequins, so I don't have to worry too much if a few come adrift. 

Detail Delight

I don't generally enjoy shopping for clothes. But recently I've found a factory outlet where I have a fighting chance of finding some styles that both fit me and make me smile. As a bonus, it's about five minutes drive from my house. Yesterday was the footy grand final replay--convincingly won by the black and white team. As far as I'm concerned, grand final afternoon is the perfect time to go shopping. Here's my take on black and white: This sweet little cuff detail is on a pair of three-quarter pants from TS. So many aspects come together to make it a happy buy for me. Cuff details are lots of fun and don't draw attention to any of my various figure issues. I'm not very tall, though, so usually I need to shorten any full-length pants I buy. Three-quarter length avoids this chore. So I can enjoy the clever style and not have to worry about spoiling it to make the length right. I did buy another pair of full-length black pants with buttons at the cuff. I'm going to have to shorten them a little, but I think I can do that by adding a tuck above the cuff. Now my challenge is to do those few alterations in the next few days, so my new clothes can go straight into my wardrobe and bypass the pile of things to do in my sewing room.

An Apple, A Day

I've been challenging myself lately about the clothes I wear. Not the everyday, working around the house, messing with fibres and dyes clothes--I'm quite happy with old black or navy tracksuits for that. But for out and about, teaching and presenting myself to the public clothes, I'd like to take a little more care and be a little more adventurous. When I came across a pair of finely striped red on black trousers at a factory outlet recently I wasn't too sure. With the encouragement of a friend and an enthusiastic sales assistant I decided to risk it.

Reality check: the red stipe is there, but it's subtle and irregular and interesting. I like it, but I'm not about to team it with a red top. Not just yet anyway. I have no shortage of black t-shirts, though, so all I needed was a little touch of red to carry the theme through. Enter the button box. I've been picking over it lately for inspiration and adornment. I found one--just one--cute little red apple button. Not quite enough to make a statement on it's own, but with the back up of a couple of larger buttons and the addition of a funky pin, it turned into this: I wore it yesterday and was happy: new trousers, black t-shirt, little red apple pin. It was just what I needed for a day when I had to present myself in public with a bit of extra get up and go. And being a pin, I haven't commited the t-shirt to the touch of red. Yesterday, an apple, today . . . who knows? I'm not planning to head out for a while, so I'm happy in my old tracksuit. Just right for cleaning up after a crazy weekend.