Harmonious

I was in a meeting this morning where there were two men in striped shirts, two men in navy jumpers, and three women in various shades of turquoise and teal. The effect was wonderfully harmonious.

Shawl – Elektra
Cardigan – clothes swap
Dress – East
Shoes – Jones Bootmaker

I’d been expecting it to be a rather difficult and contentious meeting, but in fact it was pleasant and very constructive. I think I might start sending out shade cards when I organise meetings in future to see if it helps…

In other clothing news, I have bought a flowery raincoat. This one, in the brown and pink colourway shown in the main picture. I wore it for the first time today, and while I like it a lot (particularly the hood. Why don’t more showerproof coats come with hoods?) it’s the first time in nearly four years that I’ve owned a coat that isn’t purple. I’m on my second purple winter coat, I have a purple mid-length mac and a short purple showerproof jacket. I don’t quite feel like me in a non-purple coat…

Take two

My office tends to be coolish in the morning, but has recently been getting very warm in the afternoons. This means that while the kind of layering that was needed in my old office is never appropriate, it’s generally a good thing to be able to adjust my outfit to take temperature variations into account.

In the morning, I was wearing this.

Shawl – Citron
Cardigan – clothes swap
Dress – East
Tights – M&S
Boots – Gabor

By the time I got back from lunch it was much too warm for the shawl, so I was glad the outfit worked just as well without it:

Necklace – East
Vest (under dress) – M&S

The necklace is one of a couple I picked up in the sale in East last week because I felt in need of something to brighten my outfits up when it’s too warm for a shawl or scarf. It’s quite heavy, but I do like it.

Also, I seem to be wearing cardigans a lot and am wondering whether I need more. Although I suspect I almost certainly don’t.

Back to work

Much as I enjoyed my nearly two weeks of sleeping, eating and crafting, all good things must come to an end and today I was up at 6am to head back to work.

Jacket – Jigsaw
Dress – East
Top – clothes swap
Necklace – made by Helen
Boots – Gabor

I wore my new black boots, my one and only sale purchase this year; I love my Duo boots but I thought it would be nice to have black as an option too. These were half price at Jones Bootmaker and have buckles at the side to adjust the width, so they fit my larger-than-standard calves.

This outfit was vaguely French Revolutionary Chic when I planned it – something about the combination of the floaty empire-waist dress with the tailored, vaguely cavalry-looking jacket and boots suggested a more work-appropriate version of Liberty Leading the People – but sadly the polo-neck, while definitely a good idea in terms of warmth (the dress only has elbow-length sleeves) made it look a bit convent-schoolgirl instead. Ah well. Maybe when the weather gets warmer…

Festive

Today was my work Christmas lunch, so I thought I’d try to look a bit festive.

Necklace – made by Helen
Top – clothes swap
Dress – charity shop
Tights – M&S
Boots – Duo

This is the first time I’ve worn this dress, which I found in a charity shop when we were away the other weekend. I love the fabric – although the overall effect is a tawny orange it’s actually a mix of all kinds of colours, purple, teal, red, gold, and the jersey is part stocking stitch and part reverse stocking stitch so it has an interesting texture. I thought it might be a bit much for work on its own, but it was definitely perfect for the Christmas lunch (which involved not being in the office very much at all, as we had a pre-lunch briefing and talk and then after the meal, as traditional, most people went to the pub or straight home).

And now there’s only one day to go!

Skirt progress and outfit catch-up

After last night’s dressmaking class I have now sewed my skirt together – and it fits!

I’ve also pressed the seams and zigzagged all the raw edges.

I still need to do the zip, the facings and the hem, but it’s really starting to look like a skirt now! I’ve also bought the pattern for the Passport Dress and am looking for the perfect fabric for it. I’m thinking polka dots…

In less exciting but very pleasing crafty news, I had a bright idea about what to do about replacing the cord that my lovely pendant from Helen, which had finally snapped from overuse. I had some narrow leather cord but couldn’t work out how to fix it to the fastenings, and then I had the idea of buying some narrow black ribbon and sewing the fastenings to the ends.

Very straightforward, and I suspect if anything it will be more durable than the leather cord which did have to be reglued several times before finally giving up.

Because I was late back after class, I didn’t get round to posting yesterday’s outfit then, so you get two today. First, yesterday’s:

Necklace – made by Helen
Vest – Next
Dress – charity shop
Leggings – M&S
Shoes – Jones Bootmaker

And today’s:

Necklace – gift
Cardigan – charity shop
Vest – M&S
Top – East
Skirt – Boden via charity shop
Shoes – Jones Bootmaker

This skirt is really a size too small and I can’t get the zip done up all the way, but I love the colour and the swishiness too much to give it up. I was also so bored with leggings I gave in and wore sheer tights today – they weren’t too uncomfortable but inevitably the weather got warm and I ended up taking them off when I left work and stashing them in my backpack. From which, inevitably, they escaped while I was rummaging for my knitting on the bus and almost landed in the lap of the man next to me who was taking up far more than his fair share of the double seat…