FLORAL GINGHAM AND JASMINES

Greetings from the archipelago!
Here I am sitting under the jasmines wearing Vivien of Holloway.

And mathcing my nails with my dress.
The very essentials of life.

This is the Kitty Day Dress.  You know I have a soft spot for shirtwaist dresses and, especially if the have some of that pocket magic. This came with a matching scarf as well. I have shortened the dress a bit; the original hemline was longer.

BABY BLUE AND VERY RED

The combination of soft blue combined with different shades of red has always been one of my favorites. Or mint green and turquoise with red as well!

I have been walking in my Hasbeens that I got last winter; not many chances to do so before summer season. Hasbeens clogs are comfy once you get part the rather painful part of walking then in, for me at least. I am between sizes and have the smaller size in both my Hasbeens so for anyone wondering:; size down.

I am dreaming of a pair of red sandal clogs but wouldn't want to spend so much as on yet another pair of Hasbeens. There are many other quality brands -I have a pair of black Moheda's and they are very comfy - but sadly they all are a teeny bit less pretty than the Hasbeens. DAMN.
Well this summer has not been much of sandal weather anyways so...

But red. I am often drawn to red stuff. But then wear them seldom because they tend to feel too red. It's different with shoes (and evening wear), they can be super red no problem.
I haven't worn this dress in ages because it somehow also feels so very red when on. Which is silly I guess, because it's a very good day dress in a very nice colour.

And you can see what it also has that give it instant bonus points...
The dress is the Runaround Sue from Vivien of Holloway.

The cardigan is the Hellbunny Paloma. I have a problem with all cardigans getting a bit noppy after a while so I tried to be extra careful with this, storing it well and washing it by hand. But it is still getting a bit floppy-and noppyish. Perhaps it is because cardis are often taken along as a just-in-case, stored in or hanging on the handbag and that's what wears them out...

THE POCKETED DRESS

(*if to pocket was a verb, that is. In my world there surely would be use for such a verb, as I am all about pocketing.)

This dress did indeed get so much better for me by revamping the sleeves into pockets!
It will be worn a lot this summer.

DRESS-FIX: FROM SLEEVES TO POCKETS

One of my favourite clothing revamps is to turn sleeves into pockets!

If there's a piece of clothing in your closet that you for one reason or another have not worn in some time there comes a moment when you need to take it out and decide if you should do something about it or pass it on.

 I have a dress originally from Shabby Apple that I have not worn for almost three years (since Dag was a baby, oh man, how was he ever that tiny!!), although I like it.

It used to have long sleeves, but I always found that a bit hard to use, so I eventually chopped them off into short sleeves to solve the problem. I did not sew the edges of the new sleeves but folded them up and over with curtain tape for a seamless, folded finish. However, the sleeve was rather puffy and puffy sleeves make my arms look huge, so I did not end up wearing the dress any more than before anyway.

 But, as it is summer and as I have been coveting different striped shirt waist dresses here and there I decided to make this one totally wearable and awesome again! This by taking the sleeves off and turning them into pockets! This is something I have in line for a couple of other dresses too.

(If you wonder why I keep going on about pockets this and pockets that it is for practical reasons -  phone and car keys when out with a toddler and moving around in and out of the big house on the farm. Nothing beats clothing with pockets when you tend to wear mainly skirts or dresses)

 So just open up the seams and remove the sleeves.
Fix the edges around the sleeve holes.

 Cut pockets of the old sleeve.

Pin them in place - this was the hardest part here as the skirt is pleated; to get the pockets nicely over the pleats without ruining the shape of the skirt.

Sew them in place and voila! An almost new wonderful summer dress!


Wooh!

However, although I can be rather sciccors-happy my advice before revamping or cutting in any clothing you have is to think twice about it; I have sometimes made quick choices on what I wanted for the moment without thinking what was best for the garment itself, and then later regretted it. Obviously you can't always win as fashion and your own preferences change with time, but you can give everything a good though first.