Am I the only one who looks at clothes and thinks ‘love that, but not at THAT price’?
I had one of those moments this week when I found some gorgeous stripy t-shirts with flowers embroidered on them. At first, I tried to work out how I could mark a flower on the fabric and then embroider it. Then I considered using water soluble fabric, and then I remembered iron on appliqués and bought a packet of assorted appliqué patches and some transparent thread. A couple of days later, and here we are…
One stripy butterfly top and one dark pink top with flowers on, which I've photographed because I'm so pleased with it. They’re unique, I had a lot of fun doing them and they’re an awful lot cheaper. I unashamedly enjoy upcycling, especially if I can buy my tops from a charity shop and give them a new life. I began upcycling these on Mothering Sunday, which felt right because it reminds me of my mum using the same sort of patches to cover tears and stains on my clothes because I wasn’t what you’d call a girly girl. I was more the climb every tree, jump over every puddle (well, I planned to anyway but sometimes they were wider and deeper than I thought they were and on one memorable occasion it was actually a drainage ditch) sort. My mum was an awesome dressmaker and totally realistic about her tomboy daughter and had no problem with the fact that I also loved to sew and embroider and make quilts. She brought me up to believe that I could be anything I chose to be if I was prepared to work at it, and that liberation meant me having the choice to do that and the duty to let everyone else make their choices without me claiming to know what they wanted. (As she said, half the time I didn’t know what I wanted, so how could I read someone else’s mind?)
I only hope I can do half as well with my daughter, and let my heroines do the same thing for themselves and others. So have a good day, do whatever makes you happy and try to ignore all the people who tell you what should make you happy!