Highway out of the comfort zone

Sometimes it’s fun to step out of your comfort zone. Speaking in front of people ranks close to having to swim with sharks for me, but for some reason if I’m teaching people how to make stuff I’m fine. Which is probably why I had such a lovely time last night – The Clothing Exchange asked me to be on a little crafting table at their exchange event at the BMW Edge.

The deal was that while people signed in and the clothes were sorted and hung on racks, I’d provide a bit of an activity, but I didn’t have a huge amount of time to work with so I decided to teach the ladies how to make yo-yos or Suffolk puffs (if I were not so lazy I would take pics showing you how to do it, but I’m sure you can find it online… or I may get motivated and put up a tutorial at some point, so stay tuned!). Here I am with my friend Victoria who is looking blurry but quite pleased with herself for having mastered the fine art of making beautiful things out of crap, or in this case scrap, as all the material we used for the activity was of course offcuts from clothes or bits of material I got at op shops.
I’m wearing a necklace I made myself (Self-stitched September criteria fulfilled!) and a dress which you can read more about here, if you are so inclined…

Here are some close ups of the necklace which is made from Suffolk puffs in scraps of kimono fabric, old beads, recycled thread (I re-use thread that I use for gathering when I’m making clothes) and the handle from a fancy paper shopping bag (ever noticed how beautiful the cord or ribbon is on some of those fancy bags? How could anyone just throw it out!?)
Speaking about straying from your comfort zone…. I’m sure you’re wondering what I scored at the swap which took place once everyone had registered and dropped off their clothes… well I have to say I sort of ended up just taking things that fitted or looked interesting. I got a blue shirt and a grey-silver party dress which is actually far too big for me in the bust department so that will get taken to the next swap probably… but I also took home this convertible dress, mainly because it looked so ridiculous on the rack.

Red. Ruched. From Victoria’s Secret. It comes with INSTRUCTIONS on how to wear it a zillion ways. I really just picked it up because I was curious. But it provided me with at least an hour of entertainment when I got home, trying out all the ways of wearing it and then taking snaps so I’d actually remember how I’d put it on when I have an occasion to wear it. I would NEVER normally consider wearing anything ruched but I’m pleasantly surprised, although you will note there are no side-on shots and I will not be wearing it to anywhere that requires eating, as it’s fairly merciless!!