Trousers!

I was surprised that only one person commented that they’d never seen me wearing trousers before today, but then I suppose I was sitting behind a desk most of the time. I’m rather liking these, anyway.

Cardigan – February Lady
Blouse – charity shop
Trousers – Monsoon
Shoes – Jones Bootmaker

Also, I didn’t sign up for Me-Made May because I thought I probably didn’t have enough me-made work-appropriate clothes, but I’ve been playing along anyway and am quite impressed that managed ten days of wearing something I’ve made so far. Next year I think I’ll definitely do it for real!

New clothes

I’m trying not to buy too many new clothes, because I already have loads of things and I want to try to make more of my clothes going forward, but when I popped into M&S for some tights last week and saw this dress on sale for £12 I couldn’t resist it.

Shawl – Isaura
Dress – M&S
Shoes – Clarks

I also surprised myself today by buying a pair of trousers. I think the last time I bought trousers was about three years ago, and I’m mostly happy wearing skirts, but T bought me a top for my birthday that I think will look better with trousers, and it also struck me that a pair of plain trousers might be a good partner for me-made tops in pretty printed cottons which wouldn’t go with my print skirts (this is thinking ahead, and assumes that I have now worked out how to do a Full Bust Adjustment properly, of course). So I have bought a pair of navy blue cotton trousers in a pleat-fronted, tapered-leg style that a couple of years ago I’d have dismissed as unbelievably middle-aged looking, but which now look rather cute and a bit Fifties, and possibly even surprisingly trendy, and which also remind me of a pair of trousers I had in the late 90s that I remember wearing a lot and rather liking. Whether I ever actually wear them remains to be seen, of course!

A warm day in Oxford, a cold day in hell

I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve worn trousers to work since I started photographing my outfits and blogging about them. I certainly haven’t worn trousers twice in a week, or probably even in a month, for a very long time, but here I am wearing a pair for the second day running.

Necklace – shop in Burford
Jacket and top – clothes swap
Trousers – Fat Face
Shoes – Clarks

I might try to find a way of wearing a skirt again tomorrow, though.

Desperate times need purple trousers

I don’t much like wearing trousers, but given the weather forecast and the impossibility of wearing anything but fully closed shoes at the moment I decided that at least trousers would be cooler than tights, and that anyway most of my reluctance to wear them almost certainly stemmed from fears of looking too casual/short and dumpy that are actually all in my head. So I wore trousers, and managed to feel perfectly professional while not overheating.

Necklace – made by Helen
Jacket – M&S
Brooch – Accessorize
Top – clothes swap
Trousers – Boden
Boots – Clarks

Wearing the trousers

Although I almost always wear skirts for work, about twice a year I find myself thinking that I fancy wearing trousers for a change. Today was one of those days.

Necklace – made by Helen
Top – clothes swap
Trousers – Boden
Shoes – Jones Bootmaker

I bought these trousers about four years ago, when I still used to wear trousers quite a lot; I was fed up of black, grey and brown and rather liked the idea of having purple trousers, though in fact I’ve found them quite difficult to wear without feeling (a) too casual and (b) as though I should be presenting Playschool sometime in the 1970s. I think that my new(ish) shoes, which are a little smarter than most shoes I buy, do help to smarten them up, and I like the very jeans-like cut. I’m still unlikely to wear them more than once a year these days, though!

Not quite pyjamas

I very rarely wear trousers, but I wanted to wear this top (one of the ones I ordered earlier this week) and didn’t think the long, slightly A-line shape would really work with a skirt. I was also inspired by seeing a former colleague whose clothes I always admired when we worked together in the street yesterday wearing a very similar outfit, so I decided to give it a try.

Necklace – made by Helen
Top – Uniqlo
Trousers – White Stuff
Sandals – Hush Puppies

I’m always disappointed when I catch sight of myself in mirrors or see pictures of myself wearing trousers. In my head, wide-legged trousers make me look sophisticated and Katharine Hepburn-like; in reality I just look rather dumpy, and nowhere near as good as I do in skirts.

I’m also not sure this was the best outfit to choose on a day when I was feeling distinctly uninspired and wishing I could have stayed in bed; the loose top and baggy trousers did make me feel a bit as though I’d gone to work in my pyjamas!

Truly scrumptious

I was going to wear jeans today, but then I realised that it was actually quite warm and switched to linen trousers.

Shawl – Travelling Woman
Top – Monsoon
Trousers – Fat Face
Sandals – GreenShoes

I’m not entirely sure I like how I look in these trousers (or, indeed, any trousers), but they’re cool and comfortable and work well as weekend wear.

I was up and about much earlier than I normally am on a Saturday, as I was meeting G and driving over to the Fyberspates open day. As well as the opportunity to buy copies of the new Scrumptious Collection pattern book and see the sample garments there was a lot of yarn on sale: Jeni is moving to new premises and was looking to clear some old stock out.

It’s fairly well documented, I think, that where yarn is concerned I tend to think that willpower is something that happens to other people, and I’m currently in love with laceweight and building up my stash of that in the same way I was building up my stash of sock yarn a year or so ago. (Almost everything I’ve bought lately has been laceweight, often paired skeins which can become cardigans; I’ve hardly bought any sock yarn.) Unfortunately for my bank balance, there was a lot of laceweight yarn on the sale tables today, and as well as a copy of the book I came away with this little lot:

From left to right: Nef Lace in green, Scrumptious Lace in blue, Elegance Lace in burgundy, two skeins of merino/silk lace in dark gold, and two skeins of merino/tencel sock in pink, blue and lilac.

Possibly a moratorium on yarn buying until Knit Nation in July might be a good plan.

Long Good Friday

I can’t help feeling that warm sunny weather on a Bank Holiday is a harbinger of the End of All Things, but I might as well make the most of it while it lasts. The last time we had weather like this in April I seem to recall that it started raining halfway through May and carried on more or less non-stop until August.

Necklace – Accessorize
Top – clothes swap
Cropped trousers – M&S
Plimsolls – Kickers

Anyway, I’m planning a nice lazy weekend with lots of knitting and maybe even a little sewing machine experimentation (I was going to make my Clothkits skirt, but I’ve now signed up for a dressmaking course which starts in a couple of weeks and I think it would probably be sensible to leave the Clothkit until after I’ve done that – it’s one thing messing around with remnants I was given, but quite another to start hacking about something that actually cost me money when I don’t really know what I’m doing).

Hope you’re having a good weekend, whatever you’re doing!