Dress Of The Day with Angela

  Party And Fancy Dress Dog Coats I saw this delightful doggy coat on a dog in a pub at a funeral tea in January 2026. The pale blue of the dog lead co-ordinates with the colour of the coat. Humorous and Friendly Outfits At first sight a cartoon character pattern on a dog coat might seem silly. Or inappropriate for an occasion such as a funeral tea. However, humour can make the onlooker smile and feel more friendly and at ease with the dog owner and dog. The dog was big and I was slightly scared, although it wagged its tail. The owner said the dog was friendly and liked people. Besides, the dog could smell the meat in the sausage rolls on the table and was hoping to get fed little treats. I was wary, because of the size of the dog and it was barring my movement out of the way, as I was sandwiched between the dog and the table of sandwiches. But the colour and jollity of the dog coat distracted me from the teeth and tongue of the dog and made me view it as a toy rather than a threat...

 Indigo Moon jacket over velvet 'dress'. Selfie photo by Angela Lansbury.    Velvet dress from a long skirt. Selfie photo by Angela Lansbury.  Unlabelled Vintage Skirt This skirt is warm in winter, with a wonderful, cheerful, colourful pattern. Colourful yet subtle. It has a velvet effect with pink, and turquoise blue, stylised leaf and flower patterns, on a black background.  No label nor washing instructions. I don't usually remove labels.  When Do I Remove Labels? Labels which are sewn only across the top can hang outside the garment, untidily.  I modify or remove labels if they are scratchy. Sharp edges to labels are caused by heat sealing labels. Then I would cut off the label edges. First I snap the corners. Still scratchy? I might have to cut along the edge. But that is untidy and frays the label. Is it easy to remove without damage?  Re-attaching labels I don't want labels scratching my neck. Maybe pin or sew the label back on at the waist...

  Indigo Moon Jacket The jacket is so long on me it is almost a short coat. I live Indigo Moon clothes.  You will find huge numbers of them online in Ebay. In the UK and USA.

Stored Ribbon Available I have a glass jar full of short pieces of ribbon. I was wondering what to do with them. I soon found a need the filled. I started organizing my wardrobe. Some people with large walk-in closets have all their skirts on one rail, by colour and length. All the blouses on another rail. That looks neat. You can have two rails, one above the other. Good use of height. Or of short cupboards.  But where can I hang complete outfits, or long dresses and nightdresses? Not in the bedroom cupboards. Shower Room Space To Hang Stored Clothes I have a hanging rail in the shower room. The shower does not work and we have not yet got around to calling a plumber. So why waste space! I need hanging space. I need to match up clothes, skirts or trousers with blouses and jackets. Why?  However, I have height in the shower room. Although the rail is short of width.  I decided to put clothes in the empty shower room. I want to save time and decision-making in the morning....

First I had no elastic. Then I started saving it from discarded clothes. You can save good stretchy elastic, partially good bit cut off, or no longer elastic pieces which have shed their stretchy bits leaving you with lacey ribbon. I have wide elastic pieces from skirt and pyjama waistbands. Thin pieces come from the edges of underwear. I started buying white and black elastic when I saw it reasonably priced.  Now I have trouble finding it when I need it. So I collected it in glass jam jars.  I have found two used for wide elastic and narrow elastic.  You may have elastic from clothing which has worn out. Saved from waistbands and knicker legs. Or you might have bought more than you need. Stored Elastic 1 Store it in a place where you can quickly find it. Either in your one sewing box. Or in a glass jam jar with a label. 2  Use wide pieces to replace worn out waistbands. Use it to expand items which are too small on the waist. Elastic Linking Ribbons To Gloves 3 Use ...

How To Find Past Posts When I started my dress blog I did not have numbers on the posts. When I reached about ten posts and a reader asked me about a red dress, I had trouble identifying the post. I did a mechanical search which showed that had several dresses which were red or partly red, plus text which mentioned a red dress or partly red outfit as an alternative to the blue dress pictured.  So I decided to number the posts. At the start that was quite easy. I headed the blog post, dress of the day one, two, and so on. Changing Titles Of Blogs & Posts However, I soon started writing about features which were not dresses. Trousers (Americans say pants). Hats. Night dresses. I tried various solutions. Dress of the Night. Outfit of the day. Hat of the day. And what about posts which were not about dress, but clothes companies, or labels, or sewing needles? I used the words post of the day. Why Add Author Names To Titles? I then added my own name. That way, if my post was photogr...

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Paperclips  I was sewing a wide neck strap onto the neck of an apron. The strap had become detached. I needed to fix it on.  I used a paperclip. The material of the apron was plastic backed. I did not want to make holes in it and risk tearing with a pin or safety pin. The paperclip worked well at first. No risk of leaving a pin on the neck of a garment.  Then the paperclip fell off.  I put it back on, the small part of the paperclip on the front. The little paperclip held onto the fabric just long enough for me to make my first stitch. What other alternatives could you use instead of pins? Glue. Staples. I shall definitely remember this paperclip trick for when I don't have a pin nearby. I shall take care to tighten the paperclip. I could also use a hairclip, or the clip fastener for plastic bags. Please share links to your favourite posts.

 I was looking at metal soap dishes and up came an oval soap dish on the Dunelm website. It was offered in a colour which they called lilypad. My first thought was that a lily could be white or pink. Then I read a review which mentioned green. So I googled lily pad. Up came a website giving a colour reference number for lily pad green. I used to think that giving fanciful names such as heather or raspberry to clothes in clothes catalogues was a piece of marketing. Now I realise it is a more accurate way of describing colours, which may look different when photographed in daylight and in artificial light giving a yellow or other tone. On a screen the brightness may also affect colour.  Lily pad came up as a muted or slate green. I used to be puzzled by magenta.  Here are mystery colours and near equivalent names. 1 Amber - yellow (sometimes orange) 2 burgundy - dark red, almost brownish  3 Heather - purple pink 4 Indigo - blue 5 Khaki - creamy tan or pale yellowy brow...

  Details of the boots and skirt are in other posts but I shall repeat the information here. Skirt Source From Peacocks in December 2025. Red sequins. Look closely and you see they are small size, in vertical strips. On a stretchy mesh base. Half lining from waist to upper thigh.  Advantages of the Garment Design The Colour Cheerful bright red colour. Makes me happy. And confident. Dressy for an evening. Brightens up burgundy clothes outfits which otherwise might look dull and depressing in dull light. The Skirt Slit For easy of movement, a slit. to look sexy you might have this at the front. The skirt is roughly the same length all around and not yet stretched out of shape and longer at the back, so I try to keep it consistently at the back to hide non matching or distracting lower leg leggings worn underneath when going outdoors to travel to a destination in cold winter evenings in London Advantages of A Half Lining The skirt lining is only half length. This must save the ma...

    Sweater embroidered with mock pearls matches my hat pinned with mock pearl brooches.  I had never worn this pale grey sweater  I thought pale grey was a boring colour and always opted for something brighter such as royal blue or bight red. However, as I re-folded warm winter tops to fit them into my crammed dresser unit shelves, this fell out. Was the universe sending me a message?  I thought, I don't remember ever wearing it.  I must wear it once. Just for a change.  Snow is falling outside in London. Now is its hour. I looked  at the decoration. Sequins! I had been searching for sequins to wear at New Year. This thick sweater would not match my red solid sequin evening skirt. However, it would match my knitted hat, which bore brooches with mock pearls. The Grey Marl Sweater M & S Collection. Size 14. a mixture of four fabrics, cotton.  As I had anticipated, the garment had pinned inside some spare sequins and pearls and rhinestones....

 

  DIY Idea - Add A Removable Pom-Pom This black hat has a removable pom pom. If you are making your own knitted hat, for yourself or to sell, you might like to add this feature. Make sure to include the removable pom pom in the description. Maybe they did not bother, or were worried that staff or customers would sneakily remove the pom pom and leave the hat to be sold without it. My daughter in law bought the hat and didn't realise the pom-pom was removable. Then her daughter, my grand-daughter, pulled on the pom-pom. It came off.  For a moment we were all aghast. The hat was spoiled, destroyed, we thought. I was about to fetch my sewing box and offer to sew the pom pom back on.  Then we saw the snap, as my American daughter-in-law would say. In the UK we call it a press stud. That saved the day. Pom pom re-attached. Removable Pompom Advantages What a clever idea. A removable pom pom. Feathery pom pom to look smart or different in the evening. Feathering pom-pom to look s...

 Update on the odd glove saga I went thought the pockets or a lot of coats and jackets. Success! I found two odd gloves. I was able to match up a pair. Sorting Gloves I was astonished at how many pairs of gloves I have. Pairs of gloves rolling around hidden under hats on the hall cupboard shelf. Stuffed inside pockets of matching jackets and coats.  I now have three bags of gloves. A  Priority Pairs Of Gloves  Pink or Red Pairs of gloves  - Waiting for a linking ribbon to be attached. Six pairs. B Non Priority Pairs of Gloves Black, blue, brown, and other pairs of gloves which are not priority. C Odd gloves.  They wait for me to find their missing partner. If none appears in the next year, I have several options. 1 Use them as hidden liners for other gloves for winter. 2 Cut off the tips of the finger, or the index finger, of the right hand gloves. for use when typing at home and wanting to keep warm. One warm hand is better than none. 3 Turn the odd gloves...

  Success Sewing Ribbons Linking A Pair Of Gloves The success of sewing a ribbon onto two gloves excited me. Double win. I would not drop or lose one when out. I could find the other one of a pair before leaving home.  Emboldened by my success at sewing a ribbon on a second pair of gloves, in pink, I went to check if I could find another pair in another colour. Pairing Matching Gloves To my astonishment I found an enormous number of gloves. at the end of half an hour trying to match up gloves, I had successfully found several pairs, in black, blue, long, short, ski gloves, and thin summer gloves, long gloves and short gloves, thin gloves and thick gloves.   Odd Gloves I used to have an odd sock problem but now I had an odd glove problem. After pairing up a few, I still had seventeen odd gloves left over. When I told my husband, he quipped, 'You don't have 17 odd gloves. You have 34. You just can't find the other 17 !' I had assumed that all the missing gloves were dr...

  I have lots of left gloves. The right gloves get lost.  I have a system for keeping the gloves together, visible, and attached to the matching coat or jacket. Sew on a long ribbon.. This was and still is done for toddlers' gloves which they often pull off, drop.in the dirt, abandon and lose. My first efforts at sewing on a ribbon looked amateur and chidlish. However. My latest project introduced a new feature. I added a piece of elastic