Shopping in Hoki

This making clothes fit lark requires some brain power, endless thinking and consultation of Palmer and Pletsch's Fit for Real People. Then lots of practising. I'm part way through all that and have far to go. Below is the full bust adjustment I did for the top in New Look 6735. I feel like I learnt a lot just making this adjustment, but there are still a lot of pulls in the fabric when I wear it. This time I am making the knit cardigan from the same pattern, which has a similar shape, so I thought I would try a new FBA method. Although FFRP advise that for alterations of more than 1.5 inches per side, a "Y" bust dart alteration is the best method, that seemed too hard at the time.


Now it seems I have the requisite bravery (and the knowledge that I bought the fabric and if I don't sew it up, then I have wasted quite a bit of cash on the merino). Here is the cardigan front with the "Y' bust dart alteration. I'm part way through sewing the cardigan - no try-ons or photos yet.
Today bargain shopping day. Bargain shopping days cannot be planned, they can only be fortuitous accidents. It is also true that the chance of a fortuitous accident goes up if the shopping involves the St Vincent de Paul shop in Hokitika. Below is my new tailored jacket which cost me the princely sum of $4. Casting my eye over it at home with my newly acquired fitting knowledge, I can see that the sleeves need taking up and if I can find a way of shifting the front closure (currently a button) down, I might lose the maternity silhouette (a bit anyway, a fat tummy still has to fit under there somewhere). Last time I had a great op shop jacket find, I paid the Bernina ladies to adjust the sleeves, but for goodness sake, it is four dollars of jacket! Time for me to have a go myself. I'm not sure I can do anything about the gaping at the lapel and I may yet dye it a different colour. It is very very pink and liable to look grubby within seconds of wearing it at the moment.Bargain #2: a knit dress from Postie Plus for $15. It has a soft collar and pleats on the front with buttons to hold the pleats. The colour is a bit Air New Zealand teal, but I do like the dress The lace at the bottom isn't part of the dress. The slip underneath (an older op shop find) needs shortening. Without a slip, this dress will cling to big lumps a little too much.
It does seem like I've gravitated towards some rather matronly items, by my own choice. I'm not there on analysing that, but it is true that we are talking about work clothes here and work clothes on a budget. Plus I don't want to wear a floaty tunic.

Comments

Christopher said…
Interesting. There's a guy in NYC who bought trousers at Goodwill (similar to Hospice Shops here) for $2 or so. Normally he would take them to his tailor for fixing up, but he baulked: $8 to shorten the legs. He decided to do it himself, and hasn't looked back.

See web malepatternbaldness dot com.
January 23, 2012 at 11:06 PM
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