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Gloves, Glorious Gloves. Matching to clothes, pairing, and making gloves.

 Making Gloves They look difficult. Curves, not straight lines. For an amateur sewer, a shirt dress, pencil skirt, tank top or scarf or tote bag with straight lines and seems is a first project. Curved hats, gloves, slippers, bags with clasps, anything with a lining, seems more challenging. Until you find that both Youtube and Wikihow have videos.  For gloves, basically, you draw around your own hand, or hands, if your hands are slightly different sizes or shapes. You need four pieces, for the back and front of the left and right hands. Remember to allow extra fabric for the seam. You sew all the way round for the seam to stap the fabric fraying. But when putting the two pieces together for a glove, don't sew all the way round - you need to leave the wrist open to get your hand into the glove. Useful Websites Wikihow on making gloves and making mittens, tee-shirts and puppets. Wedding gloves. Warm gloves. Matching gloves.  What to do with small scraps of fabric - make buc...

Curved Collar and Cuffs with pleats

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Close up view of the curved collar and cuffs of the Alternatives blouse from the previous post. Pleats Another feature of the Alternatives blouse, harder to copy, is the small pleats.  Pleat Names I looked up pleats. I wanted to know the names. I had heard of box pleats. And kick pleats at the back hem of skirts. I think these tiny pleats are called knife pleats. Wikihow shows how you sew various pleats. Useful Websites Wikihow on pleats

Christina Paris Blue Top and Red Hearts on an M & S bag. Dress of the Day by Angela Lansbury

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  Angela Lansbury wearing hearts. Photo by Trevor Sharot. Cropped using lassoo by Angela. The Heart Bag Www.breakthrough on the front with rows of red hearts. The back says your M&S. I was given it by a friend whose wife insisted that he declutter their garage. Red Hand Warmer Scarf with Hood I wore this in my post 720, with the ends of the scarf pinned up with safety pins to make hand warmers. I finally got around to sewing it together and removing the safety pins. Neat and snug. I made the hood first, by sewing  up the two seams of the scarf from the centre. I made the scarf by cutting the hem off an over-long dressing gown bought from Marks & Spencer. The fabric is soft and warm and does not pill. And a great colour. The deep pile hides my uneven amateur stitching.  The Black Skirt & Brooch The vintage black skirt was from Comfy clothes. I recently updated it by adding safety pin style gold colour brooch with black beads on the pocket. The Black and Blue Se...

Jump Suit From Shein. Dress of the day number 725 by Angela Lansbury.

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  What is a Jumpsuit? Originally jumpsuits were outfits worn by parachutists to jump out of planes. The one-piece garments were also called parachute suits and flight suits.  Another wartime outfit, WW2 the siren suit, was for quickly donned garments to go on top of other garments to air raid shelters. Made popular as seen in photos by Winston Churchill. These one piece outfits were loose and had large, practical pockets. Practical suits worn at work were boiler suits.  In fashion the terms used included unitards. Leotards. Body suit. I have also seen them called playsuits, onesies. Onesies were a brand name of the Gerber company. Later the term was adopted by the public, without the final s, as a generic name. Baby Versions One piece garment for babies were legless and armless and had press studs (Americans say snaps) for quickly changing the baby's nappy (Americans say diaper for nappy).  For babies, and toddlers, there are other names, such as rompers (usually wit...

Pink Primark Hooded Top 724

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  Photo by Trevor Sharot. Primark Top Size medium. Made in China. Drawstring hood. Colour changes from pink at the hood, shoulders, chest and upper sleeve, to cream at the wrists and waist. Knitted cuffs and waistband. I bought it in St Luke's in Hatch End, NW London. Their shops supporting their local hospice are in Pinner, Harrow St Anns Shopping Mall, Hatch End, Another group of hospice shops is in the Sheffield area of England, and they sell clothing and furniture. So, if you want to put together a colourful and co-ordinated outfit, find a bargain, affordable clothes, or to support charity, you have several choices. Going abroad? Primark stores are in Australia, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia. Useful Websites For Primark & St Lukes St Luke's in London https://www.stlukes-hospice.org/shops/find-your-nearest-shop/ St Luke's in Sheffield https://www.stlukeshospice.org.uk/shops/find-our-shops Primark Clothes Stores Online ...

Red dress from Primark 723

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  Photo by Angela Lansbury This striking red outfit attracted my attention from a distance. The lady wears only two colours, red and black. Red Red dress from Primark is the anchor. She says, ' I love Primark. I buy a lot from there.' Red gloves, without fingertips, from Covent Garden.  Red beret. Red hoop ear-rings. Red lipstick. I checked on line for Covent Garden - which brings up shops in Covent Garden, Covent Garden clothes, which brings up clothes shops in Covent Garden, Covent Garden label, which brings up label making companies in Covent Garden, and in Ebay Covent Garden, with clothes selected as a category. On Ebay I found a few items of coats, and tee shirts and shirts, labelled London Covent Garden, one or two described as vintage, if used accurately meaning more than twenty years old. I then tried companies house to see if the company was still in business but could only find Covent Garden London for a real estate company. Black Strong colour contrast. Black jacket...

Monsoon label white hat with faux fur pompom and pretty pearls. Outfit of the day 722 by Angela Lansbury.

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Where I buy bargains  I bought this in St Luke's charity shop which raises funds supporting hospices in London. It cost one pound from the rummage box of second hand scarves and hats and gloves.  These shops are all over north London.  Why Buy A Bargain Hat Or Scarf? I like a bargain. I like something new - new to me. If I am supporting a charity, too, that's good. I need to limit my spending on clothes. And the amount of space they take up in my home, so a small hat is good. A foldable knitted hat or woven scarf  can be squashed up beside the others. Child Size Hats I tried it on and fitted. You can imagine my eyes widening in surprise when I got home and read the label. It was for 3-6 years! It is stretchy. It could have said fits all sizes. But the label inside warns that it is unsuitable for children under the age of 3 because of small parts. Advantages Of Checking Children's Hats Now I know that I can look at children's hats and try them on to see if they fit me...