Kicking autumn

It's the first day of autumn, and I can feel my clothing mindset changing to visions of long sleeves and cardigans in shades of plum and olive, even though it's about 30 degrees outside.

Am thinking all those colours, not unlike the top of my coffee table, should go nicely with my new Funkis clogs.

I was wearing them for the first time the other day when The Husband's business partner remarked that his mum used to be a pharmacist and would wear them to work back in the day. Not quite the look I was going for. Maybe I'll only wear them to Swedish design shops.

Truth is, though, I've also got my eye on the gold sandals. Just the thing for kicking through fallen autumn leaves.

Summer lovin'

I love the colours of my new summery scarf.

One outfit I plan on wearing it with is a white top teamed with a white linen ruffle skirt I have to stop people mistaking me for a nurse.

From Lee Mathews.

Also want this boat skirt. Unfortunately, I can't justify replacing the word 'want' with 'need' in that sentence right now.

Dress circle

The seasonal changeover continues here.

As there's not enough room in our bedroom wardrobe for all our clothes, the out-of-season stuff is kept in a wardrobe in another room. Out go the heavier things and in come the lighter dresses and skirts.

Have a lovely, sunny day.

Playing dress-ups

I went shopping yesterday. Nothing particularly unusual about that apart from the fact that I came home with:

. one coat
. one dress
. one skirt
. two tops
. one vest
. two silk slips
. one cotton slip
. one pair of leggings

and all for just over the same price I paid for one full-priced item instore at the beginning of winter.

Lee Mathews warehouse sales are the best. If you live in Sydney, put yourself on their mailing list and you'll be sent an email when they're on.

I'm off to rearrange my wardrobe. Have a lovely weekend.

Images via Lee Mathews

Japanese sack

My sack is almost finished. The only thing to do is hem it, which I haven't done as I like the length it is unhemmed so am deciding if I'll add a strip of contrasting fabric or just do the tiniest hem possible.

It was way too big at first. So I unpicked the neckline bias and shoulder seams and then cut the side seams plus quite a bit extra straight off. The pattern basically discarded by now, I also hacked into the front armholes to give a little more shape.

Not sure I'd make this dress again as, while I like a loose-cut fit I think this has so little shape that it's unflattering - on me, anyway. I think having my hands behind my back in the shot above is a bit misleading as I didn't realise doing that was pulling some of the fabric out of shot.

Bit of pondering to do, I think, before parting with $100 for two metres of Liberty print.

Though the weather is really warming up now so I'm thinking a pretty Liberty beach sack wouldn't go astray this summer.

Magic dress

While I love vintage homewares and linen, I'm not that into vintage clothing. Having said that, I have the most beautiful linen coat and several silk slips, which are some of the hardest working items in my wardrobe. But, generally, there's way too much man-made fabric going on for my liking in the vintage-clothes world.

Which brings me to this dress. Lazybones in Paddington sells a few genuine vintage bits and pieces among its own vintage-inspired new clothing and bedding ranges. I picked up this dress just to take a closer look at the construction as it has the most wonderful fishtail at the back, which is pictured. I tried it on, just to see what it looked like and found it fitted like a glove. It's such a clever design that I thought surely a seam would blow if I tried to sit down, but, no, not even the slightest groan. It moved with me like a second skin.

Now, normally, I wouldn't be adding volume with sheaths of fabric to my bottom area but this dress seems to defy the rules of physics as the tail adds interest but not bulk. I know not how it works but, for $65, it was coming home with me anyway.

Now all I need to do is wait for someone to invite me to a spring garden party so that I have somewhere to wear it.

Hacked off

I made a bold decision. I'd bought two polo/roll-neck cashmere jumpers a couple of years ago but didn't wear them as much as I would have liked. They felt luxuriously soft, fitted beautifully and I liked the colours as much as they day I bought them. Trouble was, they irritated my neck.

I realised I'd stopped wearing them completely, precisely because I couldn't pretend they were comfortable anymore. What to do? Put them in the charity bin or hack the necks off and possibly, even probably, completely ruin them. Out came the scissors.

I've now worn both these jumpers twice and, to my great surprise, the ribs haven't run at all. I've given the necklines a tentative rub to see how much they'd take before they begin to unravel. So far, nothing. Best of all, unless you knew you wouldn't think either of them had been attacked with scissors.

I'm feeling happy that my wardrobe options have suddenly expanded without spending a cent. Admittedly, the jumpers haven't been put through the wash test yet but I'm feeling confident.

NB: While I mostly love the solitude of working from home, it can, on occasion be a bit lonely. Yesterday, thanks to your lovely messages, wasn't one of those days. And Stephie, if you're reading this, a really big thank you for the Ripley imagery. Much more me than Sarah Palin. x

My precious

I don't buy clothes, apart from basics, all that often as I prefer quality over quantity, which comes at a price. If I'm going to spend proper money on something it has to pass a checklist: washable (don't mind handwashing), well made, natural fabrics, value-for-money, timeless and will work with what I already have in my wardrobe. And by timeless I don't mean timeless in an Audrey Hepburn-pearls-and-little-black-dress way but will-I-still-want-to-wear-it-in-five-years way.

Which leads me to Lee Mathews. I pop in once or twice during winter and summer and usually love most of what I see and try on. However, my budget doesn't always stretch to buying. When I visited on Friday I realised I hadn't been at all this winter, which is just as well as there was so much that I wanted to bundle up and take home (or roll around in like an over-excited bank robber in a heist movie). As everything was on sale, I did come away with a couple of things but had to leave behind something that ticked every box in the above criteria. Apart from the budgetry box, which is more of an arbitrary conscience vote (that annoyingly kicked in that day).

It was purely by accident that I went when the winter sale was on so when I got home, I checked to see if they had a mailing list so I'd know next time. Not only did they have a mailing list but they also had a relatively new website. On this website was last summer's range and all 70 per cent off (only winter was on sale in the shop and nowhere near this sort of reduction).

I had a look around and found a dress I'd tried on last summer, but couldn't afford at the time. There it was. And not at the original $345 but for $103.50. I figure if I'm patient, the dress I couldn't bring home on Friday should turn up on the website when the new season summer stuff hits the shops.

So, like Gollum, I'm waiting for precious to come within reach. And for the postman, as my Lucy dress should be arriving any day now.

Image via Lee Mathews's summer sale email