In which I support Savers (again)

To those of you who work full time, it will come as no surprise that having an office job tends to limit your output of sewing/crafting/making stuff out of crap. I’ve recently re-learnt this for myself, as after years of casual work and freelancing, I’ve started two part-time office gigs. It’s taking a while for my brain to adjust, and combined with the strenuous job of catsitting has meant I haven’t made anything for weeks. Not that I really need to make any more clothes, given that my wardrobe is already overflowing. But as you probably have guessed, I like making stuff!

Anyhow, back to that overflowing wardrobe thing… I somehow did manage to find the time to get to some opshops recently (there is ALWAYS time for that!), the result being that my wardrobe is now overflowing even more. Not exactly something to be proud of, but after watching the fashion episode of the War on Waste*, I felt like I needed to reward myself for the amount of wear I get out of my clothes (I still have things I wore in the 90s!) and for rarely buying fashion from anywhere but opshops. Oh yes, I certainly do support opshops. A lot. But why wouldn’t I, when I can find things like this quilted, gold-printed jacket?

It was only about $10 at Savers and it still had the tags on it! It’s an interesting shape……which you can see is actually fairly simple. I might try to take the pattern from this and make another jacket in a different fabric (again, not that I need another jacket…)

On the same day, I got this Shetland wool jumper with puff sleeves and embroidered cranes.

It is a bit big for me as it’s a size large, and has large rustly shoulder pads. But oriental motifs have been big lately (although I usually ignore trends, I like this one!) and it was only about $7. So add to cart I did!(By the way, I got the Lee jeans I’m wearing with it from Savers a while ago for $13. I’d been looking for very ’80s style high-waist jeans without a back yoke since seeing this post so was pretty happy to find them!)

In the more recent Savers expedition I also found this woolly cardigan coat with all kinds of crazy applique for something like $6… …and this jacket printed with faux-shibori umbrellas. Or spinning tops. Or UFOs. You decide.

It’s too big for me to wear as-is so I’ll probably treat it more like a mini-dress and style it like this, most likely with the hem let down a bit.

Earlier in the month I went to a few other opshops, with the exciting results being a navy leather handbag for $5, super soft new lambswool gloves by COS for $8 and a gold bamboo-like bangle for $2.

The navy bag perhaps doesn’t really seem very me, but my eagle eye went straight to it because it was leather in what these days is a sea of hideous vinyl. The quality made me curious so I opened the flap to see whether it had a brand label… and look what I found!

Hanae Mori maybe isn’t so well known in Australia any more but was internationally quite famous for her butterfly prints around the 1960s. The brand is still going strong in Japan although admittedly it seems to be more for senior ladies than for bright young things now. Anyway, the handbag reminded me of my time working in Tokyo and I do enjoy labels that have a bit of fashion history to them, so I added it to my bag collection.

Whew, I’ve rewarded myself quite enough for a while! Now to try to get back to my stash of barely-begun DIY projects so I have some sewing to share with you next time.

*If you haven’t seen the episode, I highly recommend it, although I’m still finding it hard to believe that it’s the norm these days for teenage girls to buy an outfit and only wear it once. Apart from the waste of money and resources, they are missing out on building their styling muscle – clothing can be worn in so many different ways with a little imagination and some good accessories!