#fashionsalvage

Charity shopped jacket // clothes-swapped vintage dress

There's no doubt that I love a good bit of vintage, but what about when you find something you love but you can't quite make it work? I used to be terrible for buying anything in the charity shop and then realising the amount of work I'd have to do to make it wearable was insurmountable, and so it would fester in my wardrobe and not get the wear it deserved!

I'm much better at knowing the sort of projects that I can tackle now, and as such I have left things in the chazza if I think the work needed to get it up together is beyond my skill remit. I am forever pinning away on my Pinterest with a heavy bent on DIY's and things I'd like to try, but often these don't translate very successfully!

I was recently invited to an event in Bristol called the Fashion Salvage, which is jointly run by Bristol Textile Recyclers and a useful website called Love Your Clothes, which provides great information on how to repair or upcycle clothing you already own, as part of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan.. So much of what we buy ends up in landfill, and it's interesting to see how you can make the best of the clothes that you have even if you think they might be beyond repair or not fit you properly. Bristol has been named European Green Capital City 2015, so there's really no excuse for me to not get involved!

I have identified a couple of pieces from my existing wardrobe that could really do with an update. Firstly, this amazing vintage jacket that I bought in a Weston chazza for £1! I absolutely love the cut of this, and navy is one of my favourite colours. It is quite lightweight, too, so perfect for summertime. However, it does have some cracking shoulderpads, as well as rather raggedy hems which could do with a tidy up. I think to update it I could remove the shoulderpads, and maybe hem the cuffs on my sewing machine. Another great tip for anything with buttons is to replace the buttons for a new look-imagine how nice this navy jacket would be with oversized gold ones?

The second piece is a dress I got at a clothing swap event (I blogged it here.) This belonged to my friend Sophie, who's style I adore anyway, and she picked this up in an Australian 'op-shop' so it is certainly one of a kind! I love the print and the style, though it is, unfortunately, too big around the waist. I could easily cinch it in with a belt, it even has belt loops, but there tends to be too much fabric bunching out the sides when I do that! Perhaps I will be able to take it in on my machine, I'll have to look into it! 

Sophie has already altered the length on the dress to make it shorter, but she is taller than me and that means the dress hits right on my knee which is the most unflattering place on my leg; I have to wear a short or a midi length, I can't do knee length or maxi. So, I think I'll have to have a go at taking it up, which shouldn't be too difficult-definitely more feasible than making the waist smaller anyway, with my limited tailoring skills!

There will be more details to come on the #fashionsalvage event which takes place on 18th June, so keep an eye out for that!

XO Amie