Wednesday 22 June 2011

Thrifty Snippets ...Patchwork..Mending and Vintage Togs!


A settled sort of day.... tackling some of the mundane, but necessary jobs around the home .... the sort of thrifty little jobs that give me a feeling of satisfaction .... a job well done and all that .... bit sad I know!



I managed to fit in a bit of patchwork here and there.
I gives me a silly little thrill to think I am using all the little offcuts of fabric (for the hexagonal patchwork) that perhaps would otherwise be thrown away. And it means I have a little reminder of all the lovely fabrics I have sourced and passed on to new homes.


So today I spent a good deal of time with my trusty old friend ... and a pile of mending!



My old friend Singer is looking a bit battered but works as well as ever .... she's a treadle sewing machine.... so the old legs get a bit of a workout too.

We found these Vintage woollen trousers for Hubby P ... they needed altering slightly to fit Hubby P's ... erm.... elegant, manly.... 'well built' figure ....



They have a label inside with details of who the trousers were made for and his measurements etc .... there were uniform issue Railway I think. Such care taken over the fitting ... nowadays you are probably be given a choice of Medium, Large or XXL and have to make do with an ill fitting uniform.



The trousers had stripes down the legs so I removed those ....



You can see they are 'fishtail trousers' .... they are worn with braces and have button fly. They had lots of 'spare' fabric in the back seam to allow for the letting out/altering of the waist. So sensibly made, the tailoring detail is amazing ... something that is made to last.

Hubby P has another couple of pairs of similar trousers, he wears them all the time and says they are so warm and comfortable .... no skinny jeans for him!

I actually got around to laundering these too...



Dress shirts from Harrods.

Again amazing tailoring and wonderful cotton fabric, these are destined for the Vintage clothes rail at the Emporium. Ladies like to buy these to wear over their jeans, shirts tend to be a bit on the small side for Hubby P .... Men tended to be on the smaller side years ago.



They are such elegant, well made garments ... makes clothes nowadays look positively shabby.




And a few buttons to sew back on ... what would we do without our trusty button jar!

So there we are ... not the most exciting day but lots done, and a feeling of thrifty smugness!

Bye for now x