Wednesday 11 January 2012

I don't wear short shorts :o)

We have a shop in town where you can take all your sewing jobs and a lady will sit there at her machine and mend, repair, and alter, any clothing items you take in, and she will charge a fee for this service. She always seems busy, so I suppose there must be a enough customers to keep her going.

Makes sense to me, especially if you have something which you dearly love and it requires attention. Pay a few pounds and get a bit more wear out of it.

I used to love sewing at school, it was my favourite lesson. The teacher was called Mrs Walker, a rather portly lady who was plastered with make up and stank to high heaven in perfume, she must have emptied the whole bottle over herself. She wore lots of loud colours and masses of jewellery, with hair backcombed and laquered in a style similar to Mrs Thatcher. We used to take the micky out of her something rotten. Her first name was Constance, but we mostly called her Fanny, and sometimes Connie. What a shame we didn't treat her with more respect, she taught me a lot about sewing. But that's teenagers I suppose, I was one once, ha ha.

Anyway, I digress, Fanny came to mind when I was making this alteration to a pair of pedal pushers today. I bought them a few years ago when I was earning money, and when they first came into fashion. Everyone seemed to be wearing these half mast trousers at the time. I thought they would look nice, but when I got them home I realised I would never like them, they felt uncomfortable around my knees. They remind me of those bloomers you could buy which you wore in bed, a slimming aid to sweat a few pounds off you while you slept. So, they have been in the wardrobe ever since I got them.

Good idea....cut them down to make a pair of shorts for my walking trips. Or a pair of longs, whichever way you look at it, ha ha. You know how I like them, baggy and flapping just above my knees. Here's my blue ones to compare. I can use these as a guide as to how much to cut off.

Hem the bottoms up, and make two map pockets out of the bits cut off. Perfect, just the right size.

Look at these, perfect, I'm well chuffed.

Big pockets for bits and bobs. Mayze is not interested, ha ha.


PS, do you like my new bed cover? It was free. My friend Graham had his bedroom redecorated, and he had a good sort out of all his bedding. His plan is to replace everything to match the new decor, he gave me a bag full of unwanted stuff. This one is brand new, never been used. Not sure where he got it from though, it's not really a manly design is it. It looks lovely with my pink bedroom walls :o) Toodle pip.

16 comments:

  1. Ooo, map pocket!!! You can just never get pockets big enough! Nice one!

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  2. Maybe I shouldn't broadcast this, but I had a pair of those bloomers years and years ago, they were made of some kind of plastic and you wore them in bed,they were supposed to help you lose weight. lol
    They didn't work.....
    Briony
    x

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  3. a shop in town where you can take all your sewing jobs

    What a great idea and practically unheard of now, in fact getting anything altered or repaired is pretty hard. It seems the majority of people will just throw and buy new (except you and I of course LOL).

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  4. We have one in a nearby village. There is also a shop selling curtain fabrics etc that does clothing alterations, as well as making curtains. Both are always busy but the village one works in a little workshop in a small shopping arcade above what was a privately owned little supermarket and is now a Sainsbury's.

    I am always altering things and keep things for ages with that intention. Sadly however I don't always get around to doing it.

    They look great and even better because they didn't cost you anything.

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  5. They'll do the job for your trips, for sure....nice colour too.
    Jane x

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  6. lovely shorts and bed cover. Lucky you. I also want to say a big Thank You for telling us about the smoothie. I made one. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I am hooked. I had one at breakfast one at lunch and jut had another now. oh dear.............................

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  7. Look nice and airy and a great sewing job - great for the summer - your bedspread is lovely, just like one my auntie had, old-fashioned but cheerful and so so english. I see Mazye approves, cats are so wonderful, I miss mine and am always very tempted to get another.

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  8. What a brilliant idea, good old fashioned 'make do and mend', you can't beat it!

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  9. Your talents are endless Ilona. I wish I was more confident using my machine. I can do basics, simple curtains, but couldn't do much in the way of alterations. I envy anyone who can make clothes. Sally

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  10. Your shorts look great!
    I like your new bedspread too.

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  11. Very nice. I like that you didn't even waste the cut-offs. My grandma never wasted a scrap of fabric, even small bits got made into knickers (crikey), smallest scraps got made into a rag rugs. I need to be less wasteful. Debs x

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  12. Waste not, want not! Another good day`s work Ilona. They will be perfect for your walking trips.

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  13. A brilliant job.

    We have a lady in the dry cleaners who sits at the main shop window on her sewing machine altering things for folks, I bet they charge a lot of money for it though.

    Sue xx

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  14. Excllent job, and very smart-looking shorts!
    A nice big map pocket within easy reach is a great feature! I've got a vest with a map pocket in the back...can only reach the pocket by removing the vest :(
    Bet you are looking forward to weather arm enough to give those shorts a test-drive :)

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  15. Well done, I didn't like those half-mast trousers when they came out so have never bought any. I used to do dressmaking and alterations but the alterations really got me down in the end and I stopped doing it. We had a local alterations shop but noticed, just today, that it has closed, so sad.

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  16. What a great job you did on these. Wow. I bet they are much more comfortable now!

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