Dress Of The Day with Angela

  Sequinned top label Top Shop. Zip-up cosmetics bag to place inside or sew or safety pin inside. Wide ribbon to create a gusset. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Upcycling Small Sequinned Tops I keep seeing lovely sequinned tops which are too small for me. I don't need a top which is too small. But I do need an evening bag. I envisage turning one of the sequinned tops into a small, smart evening bag to take on holiday.  Are Small Bags Practical? Is a small bag useful? During the day, or out in the city in the evening, I like a big bag to carry home possible purchases. However, you might want a small bag, if you are just popping down to the hotel's restaurant for a quick coffee, or cocktail, or happy hour in an all day club lounge. Straps Supplied Not only do I have the fabric for the bag, already sewn up the sides and seamed across the top. A sequinned top with spaghetti straps often already has potential cross body straps, already sewn securely on one side of the potenti...

 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 On Making Gloves Wikihow on making gloves and making mittens, tee-shirts and puppets. Wedding gloves. Warm gloves. Matching gloves.  What to do with small scraps of ...

Pyjamas with waist ribbon. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. I looked at a garment with a tie at the waist. A bow in the middle. Then I realised. I could do that with a pair of pyjamas which had overstretched elastic. Instead of needing elastic, I could make a temporary fix with a piece of ribbon.  It needed to be fixed to the garment in one place so that it didn't pull through. It also needed to be a wide flat ribbon, not a piece of string which would cut into me. I would prefer one which looked good when tied into a bow or left hanging when on a hanger or folded up. Problem solved. A short piece of elastic could be inserted in the centre back. Maybe cut from another garment. Or simply to save time of money. I could also use the original elastic for half way round, adding a decorative ribbon the front. Please share links to your favourite posts. Bookmark and follow my blog .

  I wore my Union Jack hat as a prop in my speech about the English language for a humorous speech contest at Harrovians club in London. The hat had no retaining ribbon. The hat fell off when I leaned forward and was likely to be blown off in the wind, and it was a gusty day. I needed a ribbon. I had known this for some time. I periodically thought about this when I looked at the hat, while the hat sat around unusued, waiting for an outing. But I hesitated to make a hole in the hat in case it split.  However, on a windy day, I knew I needed to secure my hat. Especially as I was walking with a walking aid, and a heavy, bulky bag, and did not have a hand free to hold my hat. The Ribbon I have lots of reels of ribbon. I would have preferred red or blue. Less likely to show dirt or get stained. but the white was to hand already cut so I took that. I chose a wider ribbon, rather than a thinner piece. I  wanted it to be comfortable. The Hole Next, the hole. What could I use to ...

I have changed the belt from a thick scarf to a thin pink ribbons. The ribbon is on a reel I bought from Daiso in Singapore. Daiso is Japanese. The syllable, the word, Dai, is the word big in Chinese-Japanese.  Angela Lansbury wearing dress of the day 577, vintage Comfy top and skirt made by converting matching trousers. Photo edited by Angela with posterize filter. This is how the painting was displayed by us in the first photo we took, with the painting sideways, which neither of us realized. Angela wearing pink Comfy top and trousers converted into a skirt. Dress 575. Photo by Trevor Sharot. The Pink Top  I have another plain top in this colour. The other top is longer which is more flattering as I am short.  However, I like the pattern on this top. I like the leaves in white. They are pretty. They distract from what would otherwise be overwhelming solid colour.  The white enables the outfit to co-ordinate with white accessories. You could wear a white belt and wh...

  Angela wearing a short yellow caftan with yellow ribbon belt. Dress 548. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Angela wearing a short yellow caftan with a slot-through belt. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Here's how it looked loose. Loose, short, yellow caftan. Dress 548. Photo by Angela Lansbury. I was ready to go out to a meeting and looked in the mirror. My short yellow caftan was a loose design. It looked sloppy, loose like I had just got out of bed in a night dress. Also flat chested. I looked shapeless. I tied a ribbon around the waist  to see the effect. It looked good.  Like a proper fitted dress. Neater. Younger. So I cut slots in the waist seams on my left and right. You fold the fabric horizontally and make a small slit near the side seam, careful not to cut the seam. You can then use the hole or small cut to inset the scissors further and cut upwards or downwards. I check the right hand side of the garment against the left side to be sure that the two slits are at the same h...

  Angela Lansbury, wearing a red loose dress, pulled in by a diy ribbon belt. Photo by Trevor Sharort. How To Make A belt All you need is a piece of ribbon in one of the colours in your dress. Alternatively, match the accessories such as the shoes and matching bag, or slip. I looked at another dress I had with a belt consisting of two halves from either side of the waist to tie at the back. The belt was made from two seamed pieces of fabric of the same material as the dress. I did not have spare fabric and did not want to cut off the hem. I looked at my rolls of red ribbon. The only piece long enough was very narrow. I presume it was the sort sold for tying parcels at Christmas. It had a gold edge.  The advantage of narrow ribbon is that you would only need half a dozen stitches to sew it on. I folded the ends back and sewed it on horizontally, pointing towards the back.  We were rushing out to lunch. I did not have time to sew on the second half. What could I do? I found...

  I was wearing a loose caftan. My Singaporean friend had said disparagingly, "Caftans are just for round the house. Nobody wears them out to the office or even for shopping. You look like you forgot to dress. They are house coats." Goodness, how things have changed in two years. Now everybody is working from home. They have their camera off because they are lolling around in shorts, pyjamas, who knows what.   I was on Zoom in a speech contest in London.  The President of my club was complimented on his smart outfit. He said, " I am dressed up because Angela told me I should dress to impress".  Yes, I had told him, "The club president should dress up to set the tone, and show he is president."  I meant wear a shirt and tie with a jacket. Not just a polo shirt with a jacket. Still, it was better than a tee-shirt. I remembered when a UK colleague who had gone to live in notoriously countrified New Zealand, returned to the dressy city centre of Singapore. On ...

  The ear-rings were created from a set of three satin circles with a ribbon attached. the colours were red, yellow and green. I now realise that you can create effective ear rings from any circle of attractive material. Attach the fabric to your existing ear rings, whether clip on or the hook style, using a narrow matching or contrasting ribbon. You could also make a look like the ones on a mask, or attach the dangling ear-rings to a mask. The DIY fabric ear-rings if not secure might drop off in the dirt if you were out in public. But when you are sitting around at home in a Zoom meeting, they can enhance your appearance when talking or in a photo. 

  Angela Lansbury in a blue outfit made from a sari. Selfie. Photo credit Angela Lansbury. Waist tied with ribbon. Dark blue chiffon sari with coloured border in red and brown. Photo credit. Angela Lansbury. The wedding day saying is something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Here is something old make into something new, and it is blue. You can borrow my idea. The top picture shows the sari top worm over a patterned caftan. This does not work well, because the roses on the green caftan show through. Since the sari has a straight or lined edge, now close to the underlying pattern, this confuses the eye and brain. A better choice would be blue, red, brown, white or black.   How long is a saree length? Wikipedia says 15 to 30 feet long. However Quora says much less, about six feet to nine. I must measure mine. I remember going into an indian dress and fabric shop in Little India in Singapore. I fancied the sari in the window. The price was outrageous!...

  Who wears the pants? Americans call them underpants. I thought these discarded men's pants (US underpants) were too good to throw away. I thought of making a cushion, a scarf, a scarf and matching cravat and cap, a headband, a dress for a doll or teddy bear. I washed them and held them against myself and considered turning them into a skirt. I have converted several pairs of trousers into skirts. I decided a cape looked best. I used pinking shears to cut up the inside seams to the crotch. I tried it on as a cape. It looked great but felt tight, constricting, across the upper arms. So I slit up the sides almost to the top, first half way, then further, finally further. It was loose around the neck. I did not want it low and revealing at the front. Low and revealing at the front would be great for evening wear in a satin slinky fabric. But this was matt and cottony with a print. I could have sewn across the two shoulders at the outside edges, leaving the centre open for the neck.. ...