Greensleeves - My Hippy-tastic Wardrobe Refashion

You've probably noticed that I've got a thing for sleeves of the bastard massive variety.

After my weekly eBay search for all things hippy and vintage with huge sleeves and coming up with dresses undeniably stunning but ludicrously expensive (£495 for a handmade cotton dress!) I thought I'd make do with what I already owned.

I bought this Indian block printed maxi dress from Moseley Vintage Fair back in 2014. Although I loved the gauzy cotton fabric it never felt quite right, the skirt was too voluminous and overly long & the shirred bodice wasn't great. As the poor thing had languished unworn in the wardrobe for almost two years it was well and truly in need of a makeover.

I chopped off the offending bodice, removed a couple of panels from the skirt to form sleeves, added a zip and some elastic to the top of the skirt, using it to form the main body of the dress, hemmed and elasticated the sleeves and sewed them to the top of the skirt. It took about an hour (but I've got to give it another going over, Stephen Squirrel's pointed out that, in my haste to get into Walsall, I've sewn one of the sleeves on backwards).

Now I can get a thermal vest on underneath and it's short enough not to trail on the floor when I wear it with my low heeled boots. It survived a brisk walk into town this morning but I did get Jon to do the washing-up after lunch, bastard massive sleeves and mundane household tasks aren't happy bedfellows. 

Linking to Patti and the gang for Visible Monday.

Wearing: Customised block print 1970s maxi (£10 from a vintage fair), 1970s lace-up suede waistcoat (Xmas present from Liz, 2013), Antique Orissan pendant (last seen HERE), Suede ankle boots (Schuh on-line sale, 2016)

We've had this weekend off! I've read two books ( The Rescue Man & Blind Faith) and Saturday's Guardian from cover to cover, seen the wonderful Bridge of Spies (again!), watched Trapped, The Voice, The Lens, a fascinating BBC 2 documentary about Rudyard Kipling's time in India and the first gripping instalment of The Night Manager (don't understand why Tom Hiddleston's a sex symbol though, he's far too posh). We've had a hilarious Saturday night out on the town with drinking, dancing and posing for random selfies with complete strangers, eaten takeaway pizza & chips and finished off all the booze in the house. We've got back to back fairs this weekend coming so it's noses firmly back to the grindstone now!

See you soon.