Dress Of The Day with Angela

  Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. I was looking around for a piece of ribbon to make into a tab to fasten a button. Then my eye fell on this hair elastic.  You see these all the time. Supermarkets sell them in sets of a dozen or more. People drop them in the dirt.  If you drop your own, retrieve it with a hand in a plastic or washable or disposable glove and a plastic or washable or disposable bag and later in a basin or toilet (washroom to Americans) wash your hands and the bag and the elastic. Elastic and Ribbon Storage When the elastic is clean and dry you can store it with your re-used, washed and dried glass jar from jams and chutneys or pickles. I store  small pieces of ribbon and elastic which looked too small to be of use. Are they too short to tie into a bow? They may be but just right for rolling up, braiding or sewing at both ends to make a catcher for a button. Elastic is wonderful because it will stretch over any size of button. You could sew it acr...

  Dress of the day 200. Photo by Trevor Sharot.  You can brighten up an old outfit with a new collar. It makes me feel good. I have a new look. I feel it is a way to create variety for the family. Something new for them to see every day. I have made a collar or cape from a child's skirt previously. On one occasion I had to cut a slit to make the collar lay flat. I left the elastic waistband intact. I slit the cape so it would go over my shoulders and allow me to move my arms comfortably. This garment had another design. Matching tights were attached. Clearly I had to remove the tights completely, or slit them to make  hole for my head to get through. I cut cautiously. I try to cut as little as possible. You can always cut more. As the saying goes, measure twice, cut once.  I think, save cutting and save sewing. I cut the slit down one side of the leg seams, only to about a third of the way along. This left me with two hanging tubes of matching material. I tied them t...

  Ear-ring clips  Most of the ear-rings you buy on-line and elsewhere have tiny clips.  Two styles are sold. One sort has hinges. Another type has a screw. I have tried buying the clips alone from: 1 Craft shops and  2 Online jewellery making suppliers and  3 A jewellery sales and repair shop on the St Ann's mall opposite the railway and bus stations in Harrow. The jewellery shop is upstairs on the first floor. (Americans would say second floor. The British have ground floor so the first floor is the upper level). As a result, when I have time to spare and I am in a shop or department store, or second hand shop, I often look at the ear-rings. If a pair of ear-rings is cheap and has a large ear-ring clip, I buy them. Even if I don't like the style. The latest, fourth idea is magnetic ear-rings. How do they work? Just two round magnets. One goes behind the ear lobe, the other in front. Amazingly the magnet works through your ear lobe. You can stick a button, or an...