Day 15: Guilty

Ok... I come clean ... I had a semi lapse of self control a couple of weeks ago and in all my talk of resourcseful weddingishness I did go and buy 1...actually 2 dresses to wear to the wedding yesterday. I was with Al and Louise a few weeks back and did the dangerous thing of trying things on... how impossible is it to discount the idea of having an item if you're stood there in something and falling in love with it!? For some reason though... I ended up... and I'm not even sure how... trying 2 dresses on at once. They're sheer and would have needed something underneath so in a rush I think I put them both on together and really liked what I'd done. The idea of a wedding in the woods just makes me want to dress as a fairy... no excuses...thats the way my mind works. So Al and Louise, not being the most disciplined of shopping companions (Al ran off to the till to get a top while we were still getting our bags together in the changing room because she'd told us not to let her -under any circumstances - buy anything), totally encouraged me to get them. I was strong and didn't... but lasted until the next available opportunity to get to the shops - consumed with the urge to get at least one of my dresses. I was going to make the other layer... but studying the pattern, teamed with the fact that they were silk meant that the cost factor was outweighed if I was to make a good enough version myself. So in the end I gave in.
I am all for recycling dresses... definitely... I feel sorry for celebs who are criticised for wearing something more than once... how depressing. I once read Cheryl Cole talking about a dress she LOVED but was photographed in so much the one day she wore it that she can never wear it again :( (well I don't feel too sorry for her actually... what a silly problem to have) but I am such a dress wearer and felt all my dresses have been worn so much recently. With my job in GoldDigger I am constantly having to wear dresses for stage wear and photos ...we don't yet have a budget for costumes so we rely on our own wardrobes so much. But clothes really are my vice. I love clothes, I love fashion, I love costume, I love fabric. If there's a cost to anything I will measure it against the price of a new top or coat... want to go out for a meal? Meal for 2...? £30 ish - the price of a new dress... or half way to a coat. But I'm not frivolous. I do impulse buy but only because I know what I like. I keep things forever and I mix and match things to wear them differently as well as cutomising and altering things with my faithful sewing machine. Because of this I am happy to see clothes as an investment.

This book is amazing... Its Vintage Darling by Christa Weil. Loving the cover I bought it a while back expecting a few handy tips on rummaging around charity shops and quirky little vintage shops that Sheffield is great for at the moment. It actually teaches you all about fabrics you should be looking for, workmanship details which make something worth the extra cost and even how fibres are made. Knowing this sort of stuff makes a huge difference to how I shop for everything now. Knowing what something is made from and how it is sewn means you can foresee how it will fall, fit when its washed, how long it will last for and I'm happy to spend more on things I can see as a good quality item. Primark is great but I know from experience now there are certain items, fabrics and designs I wouldn't buy from there. It may be a huge saving but I'd rather spend £50 on a dress I can wear forever than £8 on one I can wear once and then it will fit awkwardly because the lining is permenantley creased and no amount of ironing will sort it. It also means I can confidentaly buy certain other things from primark very confidentally as well enough made items. I haven't read it all yet but am excited to see what else I will learn from it. Interestingly I now stay clear of Zara - I've noticed the quality of their sewing to be terrible in loads of things I've got from there... knitwear has been ok but the seams on t shirts, tops and hoodies - kids and ladies are cut to skimpily meaning that in a couple of wears they just come apart in sections as well as a lot of the cotton being so thin that it gets holes in in no time :(
PS. Just to further justify my wedding spending on dresses I would like to point out that I teamed my new purchases with tatty cowboy boots from george at Asda- leather and 6 years old, (quirky weddings allow you to wear tatty cowboy boots, didn't you know?) a £1.50 primark belt, a £1.30 (70% off monsoon childrenswear) flower which I share with my daugher like all accessories! and remember I died my own hair...so not bad really.
Singing went ok... my voice wasn't great and my music stand was a sticky mess of snotty tissues and buttercup syrup which stuck all my music together but the wedding was just amazing so none of that mattered :)

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