Tag Archives: clothes

Swap and Share

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One of the things that I constantly feel is lacking in our society today is the willingness and ability to share and co-operate with people in our wider community.

Today I headed into Maleny as I had a few things to do.  Since it is a 16km round trip I try to make sure that I make the travel worthwhile.

Before I left home I gathered up what I needed.

Some eggs to swap.

003Clothes to take to the recycle boutique where thy are sold on consignment.

001Some pieces of fabric for my sister.  She is making a costume for a school event.

002First I met up with some other keen gardeners and swapped the eggs for some worm juice.

004This can be diluted 1 :10 in water and used as fertiliser on fruit and vegetables.  My seedlings will get a boost.

Next, I headed to the recycle boutique but sadly it is closed on Thursdays.  I have left the bag of clothes in the car and will take them on Saturday.  I have also made a note to remember the opening hours in future.

Finally, I met my sister and we had a leisurely lunch at the Upfront Club.

When I came home I replaced the buttons on the sleeves of the coat that my sister gave me last week.  You can see that the buttons are not identical to the ones on the front opening, however, they tone in nicely.

005Also in the spirit of sharing, we have Air BnB guests arriving on Saturday for 3 nights so I have made up the bed in the guest room and made it ready for their arrival.

Red, Recycled & Revamped

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It is definitely spring-cleaning time and it seems that many of us are taking a long, hard look at what is in the wardrobe.

i 001This is a gorgeous, lightweight trenchcoat that my sister retrieved from her wardrobe recently.  She offered it to me as she admitted that it was really a bit too big for her and she had never felt entirely comfortable with it.  The coat fits me perfectly and being the perfect shade of red made it doubly attractive.

She did point out that the buttons on one sleeve had been damaged with one completely missing and the other one broken in half.

i 002I went to Lincraft in the city today and found some buttons to replace them with.

i 003They are the same size and style as the originals but are plain red rather than a variegated red/black as the others are.  I am going to replace all 4 buttons on the sleeves and while they will be slightly different to the ones on the front opening, I don’t think that is going to matter.

I am looking forward to doing the necessary repairs so that this coat is ready to be a really useful addition to my wardrobe.

This is the sort of positive story that is happening every day when you choose to let go of things that are not quite right and languishing in the cupboard.  There is someone out there for whom it will be perfect.  They may be a family member, an op shopper or someone looking on eBay or even a Facebook Buy, Swap, Sell page.

Project 333 – New Additions

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I know that the concept of Project 333 is to ‘dress with less’ but one of the clear benefits for me has been to be able to identify gaps in my wardrobe.  It means that I can confidently and consciously purchase new items of clothing knowing that they will fit with my lifestyle and work with the existing pieces in my wardrobe.

Today a parcel arrived with 3 items of knitwear that I had ordered online.  They are all merino/cashmere blend from Woolovers online shopping.  I have not been overly confident of buying online but my sister had previously purchased from the site and had actually found a couple of the pieces were too big for her so passed them on to me.  One was a black v-neck cardigan which I found perfect so I bought an identical one in royal blue.

2015-07-30 01I am trying to incorporate more plain pieces into my collection to increase the versatility.  I bought this cardigan specifically to wear with this dress but it will also be great for wearing with collared shirts and trousers.

2015-07-30 02For years I have dreamed of having a short-sleeved black cashmere top.  I finally have one, albeit, merino/cashmere blend.

002It will be able to be worn in so many ways but I am definitely looking forward to pairing it with this skirt.

2013-02-27 01And this one.

2013-02-27 02My final purchase was this 3/4 sleeve cowl neck pullover.  I love 3/4 sleeves and am looking forward to wearing it with a selection of jeans, trousers and jackets.

003My red scarf will go well with it.

2015-03-23 02I have no affiliation with the site but if you are interested in buying from them (and have not done so before) you can use the code and instructions in this link to secure a 10% discount off your first order.

Project 333 – What Went Back

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As promised, I will share a bit more of my wardrobe clean-up.

This is an overview of the bedroom on Saturday morning before I started.

2015-05-19 01It is not looking the best as I have made it to the end of the full-time working week and now it is time to sort things out.

I mentioned in my earlier post that I removed everything from the wardrobe.  I made the bed and hung up the jackets from the end of the bed before I started so that I had a clear working space.

Although one of the basic ideas behind Project 333 is to actually remove all but 33 items of clothing from your closet I had never actually done that.  I believed that most of my clothes were worn year-round due to our relatively temperate climate.  That is still the case and I have not limited myself to a precise number but as we are approaching our coolest months of the year I removed my summer clothes.

2015-05-18 01Here is the small pile of dresses, sleeveless tops and shorts which I will not wear again until the weather is hot.  This is in addition to those items which I have specifically set aside for our trip to Singapore.

2015-05-19 03

I took the time to critically examine each garment and try on a few different combinations to discover what worked together and how I felt about it.  A few pieces have been taken by the local recycle boutique on consignment and a couple more gone to the op shop.

This is what I was left with.  I will wear these clothes for the next 3 months with 1 or 2 possible purchases.

2015-05-18 02There are 2 pairs of trousers, a pair of jeans, 2 shirts and a jacket not shown as I was wearing them/they were in the wash.  The pile of summer clothes is bagged and on the top shelf along with a couple of bags and 2 sunhats.

It is now easy for me to see what is ‘missing’ so that I can make considered choices when I go shopping.

One of the things that is obvious from my selection of clothes is that I love prints – florals, stripes, spots, checks – I have them all.  I can now see that this is what has held me back from pursuing a ‘capsule wardrobe’ as many like to describe it.  So many blogs and discussions seem to revolve around plain colours, neutrals and mix’n’match themes.  In general terms, they also lean to what I regard as ‘wishy-washy’ colours – cream, sand, khaki, pale denim which do not inspire me.  I love (and look best in) black and white as neutrals with strong, clear colour accents – red, emerald green, purple and fuschia and my clothes mostly reflect that.

I feel like my wardrobe works for me.

Savvy Spending

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Today was my day off and I had arranged to meet some friends at the coast.  We had morning tea and a long chat in a park and it was after 1pm by the time I headed off.  I had planned to use the trip and petrol consumption wisely by incorporating a visit to East Coast Fabrics.  I am regularly disappointed by the range and quality of fabrics available at Spotlight and Lincraft so when I heard advertisements for East Coast Fabrics on the radio recently, I made a mental note to check them out.

2015-02-11 01
Since I am working through my stash of existing fabrics I am loathe to buy too much so I was fairly restrained.  I bought these two pieces to make some more skirts.  The mint green piece is linen and the other is a lightweight denim.  The fabric plus a zip for each skirt cost $18.91 which I think is pretty good for two skirts.  I will be using the same pattern that I used for this skirt I made recently.

003
I am planning to take these skirts when we go to Singapore in September.  I have worked out which tops I will wear with them.  There is this one that I made a few weeks ago.

2015-01-03 01I have chosen another three tops.

2015-02-11 02
My thoughts are that all of the tops will go with the denim skirt, all except the yellow can be teamed with the green skirt and the striped skirt can be worn with either the yellow or white tops.

I plan to add 2 pairs of sandals, a pashmina, bathers, sarong, hat, fabric shoulder bag and umbrella.  A pair of pyjamas and some underwear and I will be set for pretty well anything that a week in Singapore can throw at me.

What do you think?

Project 333 – Black & White

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From time to time I set myself mini challenges to force me to push the boundaries of my streamlined wardrobe.  I decided that this week would be entirely monochromatic – a black and white theme.

The forecast for Monday was hot so I reached for this old faithful which I have owned for 4 years.  There is so much to love about it – 100% cotton with a collar and cut away armholes AND made in Australia.

Black dress with white spotsTuesday was nearly as hot so another 100% cotton dress was a good option.  This is the one I bought a month ago.

2014-10-26 01On Wednesday the temperature was more reasonable so I opted for black 3/4 pants with this blouse from the recycle boutique.  I have worn it several times since I bought it a few weeks ago.  It is destined to become a firm favourite.

2014-10-26 02Today I tried a previously untested combination.  The black 3/4 pants got another airing but this time I teamed them with a black sleeveless fitted top and this blouse worn unbuttoned over it.  The blouse is a very fine fabric and needs an appropriate coloured bra underneath it and as I only had a black bra clean I decided to be a little creative.  While the outfit looked perfectly acceptable, it just did not feel right to me.  I will keep the blouse to be worn as it was designed in future.  I also think that I prefer this particular blouse teamed with my straight black skirt rather than trousers.

BlouseTomorrow it is going to be quite warm so I plan to wear white 3/4 trousers and this shirt.

Shirt2013-02-27 03
I have plenty of other black and white options but I will save them for another time.  Here is a selection.

2013-02-27 01Dress and jacketSleeveless top2013-02-27 02

Project 333 – My Favourite

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I have a fairly streamlined collection of clothes thanks to my participation in Project 333 as well as generally narrowing down the selection of clothes that I own.  I love and wear all of my clothes but I have one stand-out favourite and this is it.

Shirt

The photograph probably does not do it justice but it is a blue and white striped collared shirt with 3/4 sleeves.  It is cotton with a touch of elastane which gives a tiny bit of stretch for wearing ease.  Even ironing this shirt makes me smile.  I just love it.  I bought it several years ago from Rivette & Blair in Melbourne and it must be popular as it is still currently listed on the website as being in stock.  Finding this store has been a godsend for me as they stock lots of the type of clothes I wear and the fit is excellent.  In fact, I have no fewer than 32 items from Rivette & Blair in my current wardrobe.  That is almost half of my total clothing items.

Do you have a favourite item of clothing?  What makes it special for you?

Note:  The opinions in this blog are entirely my own.

Project 333 – An Anniversary

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It is two years since I started my first Project 333.  You can read about it here.  After the the first couple of 3 month periods I decided to take a slightly different approach and work towards having a streamlined wardrobe which covered all seasons.

I think I have been fairly successful in that goal so perhaps it is time to try Project 333 again.

I have not actually set aside 33 items yet so I am going to keep track of what I use until I can work out my 33 items.

2 days into April and so far I have worn 1 pair of shoes, 1 shirt, 1 pair of earrings, 1 pair of trousers and 1 pair of shorts.

Shoes – pewter flats
Shirt – 3/4 sleeve blue and white stripe
Earrings – white pearl studs
Shorts – khaki
Trousers – black cropped pants

Outfit

This is what I wore to work yesterday.  Today I was at home and a friend came for lunch and I also had visitors for afternoon tea.  I teamed the same shirt and shoes with a pair of knee-length shorts.

Have you ever participated in Project 333?  Has it changed how you view your clothes?

 

Project 333 – Oops!

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I came unstuck this morning with my small wardrobe.  I am back at work today after a week off over the Christmas period, however, the dress code is casual for this week.

It is going to be hot again today so I put on my white shorts and one of my new spotted tops (the black one) and my black leather slides.  It was all looking good until I was standing on the railway platform and noticed that the top was navy, not black.  I would normally have chosen to wear my red sandals with this outfit.  I doubt that anyone will notice but it does not feel right to me.

Sleeveless top
Navy is a new addition to my wardrobe so I will need to be careful when choosing this top especially as the black and navy ones are otherwise identical.

Do you have ‘rules’ about your clothes or is it a case of ‘almost anything goes’?