A Week of Feeling Overwhelmed and a Wardrobe Sort Out - Part One - W/E 7th June 2025

This week began as most weeks have lately, with a shift at work on Sunday. I was due to work 11am to 3pm, but almost as soon as I got there, I was asked if I would work until closing at 6pm, which I agreed to do seeing as I was already there.  I did have to go out at my break and buy a very unappetising and a not too healthy lunch from a nearby shop, as I'd not taken anything in with me, but such is life.  

The shift itself was probably one of the most stressful I've experienced in recent months. It was Payday weekend and we were very busy with shoppers, which is good for business, but I seemed to get a lot of complicated transactions come my way and by the end of the shift I was mentally and physically drained. 

I was so happy to go home and chill, but then didn't sleep well, as I got to thinking about LB, who was facing her final Uni deadline and I knew that she would probably be pulling an allnighter, which she was, as she messaged us to that effect the following day and to tell us that everything was finished and done. I was so relieved for her.

I headed out of town to do the weekly shop as usual on Monday. It was quite an expensive shop as were were out of quite a few things and I needed to get a couple of small gifts for OH for Fathers' Day. I also dropped into the charity shop for the first time in a few weeks. I had a good look through the rails, but this time I concentrated only on items made with materials made from natural fibres i.e. cotton, linen, viscose,etc.  

I tried quite a few things on, but many of them looked awful. I did come away with 4 items of clothing though; a navy linen top for £3 (which I intend to shorten), a blue floral linen dress for £5 (which I'm going to cut down to make a skirt), a floral viscose top for £2 and a very pretty viscose dress for £5. 

It really makes looking a lot easier, when you're only looking for natural fibres, as there are so few of them to look at. Most clothing in this particular shop, as in many charity shops these days, is synthetic, so it rules out a lot of what is on the rails. I've been inspired to do this by the books I've been reading lately, as they suggest that these fabrics are more sustainable. ( although viscose and cotton not so much!) I'll post about my finds in this months clothing purchases post.

I was working again in the evening, so after getting home and unpacking the shopping, I had to get ready and head into work. A couple of new staff started work tonight and I caught my first glimpse of our new Store Manager. It was busy again tonight though and as it was my fourth consequetive shift, I felt really tired and overwhelmed. I was so glad to go home at the end of the night, knowing I had a couple of days off, before it starts all over again.

On Tuesday, I managed to get booked into my usual class at the gym. I was looking forward to it as I'd missed the previous week on account of my dentist appointment. I made myself boiled eggs for breakfast and then did some financial stuff before heading out. I'd received my tax rebate, so I redistributed it into savings accounts. I also checked my Premium bonds and was happy to have won £100, which was a major bonus. 

My gym class was okay, not as good as usual though. When I came home, I made some lunch and then got ready to go out to my sewing class. I was looking forward to going back, as I'm loving sewing at the moment and feeling very inspired by some books I've been reading lately and the camaraderie at the class. 

I enjoyed the class. I didn't do any real sewing, just prepping of my fabric pattern pieces ready to start constructing the garment. The teacher did a little teaching session on different types of zips and how to install them and also demonstrated how to change the thread on the overlocker which was useful. It feels lovely to be amongst fellow sewists, as it's often something I do alone at home.

Talking to another class member, I discovered one of the reasons why I'm probably working so many shifts this week. Eid is taking place at the weekend and many people are buying gifts for family members, which is partly why work is busy. In addition, I think that many of the staff may be taking time off to celebrate with their families, hence my getting more shifts, which is fair enough. It's just come at a difficult time for me, as I have a lot going on out of work at the moment, which makes life a bit overwhelming at times.

Anyway, I took out a few more library books after my class (which takes place in a library), as I've almost finished the previous book I borrowed and will be returning it next week. Here's a picture of the books I borrowed:

After supper, I decided that I needed to sort out my wardrobe. I've been buying quite a few items of clothing lately, and I think it partly stems from feeling like I haven't got any nice clothes to wear that fit well. To be honest, my wardrobe was so packed full, I couldn't see half of what was in there, so it was quite enlightening to go through and try everything on, remove what didn't fit well and just leave what did, so I know what I've got to choose from. It made me realise that I had more choices than I thought. 

I think I'm just feeling annoyed with myself for putting weight back on. Some of the things I used to love wearing when I lost the weight, I can no longer wear, and it is so disappointing. I'm hanging on to quite a few of them, just in case, and some other items from my wardrobe I may alter to make them more wearable, or cut them up for the fabric to make something else. Some other things I will donate. 

One positive from doing this, aside from having much more room in my wardrobe and a clearer idea of what I can wear everyday, was that I found some extra clothes to wear for work this summer that still fit (just). 

Here's a photo of how it looked when I'd finished:

Everything is now much more accessible and seasonally appropriate which should make getting dressed every day much easier. I do feel much better now it has been done and it may just curb my urge to spend money on more clothes, although I don't like to make promises I can't keep.

A Week of Just Going with my Sewing MoJo

Half term week from both college courses meant that I had a few days to myself, to do as I pleased. I haven't had much free time in the last few weeks, so it was wonderful to be able to choose what I did each day. I probably should have been doing college work, but my heart was telling me to sew, and I didn't take much persuading. I seemed to have lots of ideas of things I wanted to make, so I just decided to go with the flow.

The first project I started was a patchwork project. I wanted to make a patchwork skirt to attach to a t-shirt and make a dress. The t-shirt was a brown colour with pretty broiderie anglaise sleeves, so I picked out brown, gold and green fabrics from my stash which I thought would go with it and made a large piece of pieced together fabric to make the skirt from.

When I tried to put the two together, I decided that I didn't actually like the fit of the t-shirt on me. It looked too tight, which wasn't flattering. As a consequence, I decided to just make a skirt in a completely different style, using an old pattern that I've used numerous times before, so I proceeded to cut the pattern pieces out of the patchwork pieced fabric.

I didn't get any further with this project this week, but it doesn't actually take long to make this skirt, if I can find some spare time. I just got distracted with other things I wanted to make.

The next project I decided to start, was to make a quilted vest, using the one I'd recently bought from Primark to make a pattern. This had been something I had planned to make before I bought the vest, so I'd already put some fabric aside for it.

To begin with, I created a paper pattern by drawing around the bought vest. This was a bit tricky, but I think it turned out okay.  I then cut out the fabric pieces and also some lining pieces in a co-ordinationg plain fabric that I had in my stash.

I wasn't originally intending to use any kind of wadding, but the fabric I was using was quite flimsy unlike the denim of the original, and as I had some thin wadding, I decided to include a layer of it, so that it would give a better quilted effect. Luckily, I just had enough wadding in my stash. I then pinned and tacked the wadding and layers of fabric in place ready to iron and quilt.

Here's a picture of the pieces ready to quilt:

I am a bit nervous about quilting the pieces, as I need to keep the lines straight and even. I decided not to use the diagonal quilting on the bought vest and to instead just quilt in vertical lines 2cm apart, as I thought there might be less room for error doing it this way, or that errors might not show as much. The pattern on the fabric that I am using does have rows of polka dots on it, so I'm hoping that this might help me to keep my lines straight by following the dots as much as possible.

Once again, I didn't get any further with this project this week, but I made a start, which is something. Sometimes, that's all it takes to get your creative ideas flowing and I do like to have lots of different projects on the go, so that I don't get bored with any one of them.

The final project I started during this week, was to make a patchwork duvet cover for the spare bedroom/sewing room. It was a bit of a random idea, but I've seen some on Pinterest and it's such a great stash buster.  Besides, cotton duvet covers are very expensive these days, so why not make my own with cotton fabric I already have and don't use. I used some of the same fabrics that I'd used for the patchwork skirt, as I wanted to use them up. I stuck to greens though on this project, to go with bedding we already had (i.e. fitted sheets and pillow cases). 

I think I managed to cut enough pieces of fabric to make the duvet cover top, as can be seen from the photo (Please note that some of the colours don't show true on camera). I may still need to add the odd row or two once I start sewing them together, which is what I now need to do. Again, I didn't really get the time to do this during half term week, so this is still an ongoing project, but one that I look forward to moving forward with. I'm not sure what I'm going to use for the back of the cover yet, but I do have some vintage flat sheets, so one of those will probably do the job.

I'll keep you posted with progress on all these projects, but I'm not sure when I'll get chance to work on them again for a while.

Monthly Finances - May 2025

This month has been a much more expensive month than the previous one. The main reasons being OH's birthday falling within this month, on which I spent about £100, as he didn't really want much. I also needed to pay for more dental treatment that I had done this month. I paid £75 as a deposit for my treatment and then another £235 for the filling and clean that I actually had done.

As a consequence, it was a very expensive month. I was a little over on the food budget and also the household budget, as I bought quite a few household items this month, stocking up on washing sheets, scent booster beads, eco washing up liquid, toilet cleaner, dental products, etc.

I also bought a shredder, that broke after just a couple of minutes. I'm contemplating now buying a hand shredder, in the hope that it might work better and not break so easily, although it takes only 2 sheets of paper at a time, so will take longer to do any shredding. If I shred as I go, it might work for me.

As usual, I did spend some money on clothes for myself, namely £68, but I've gone into more detail about this in my monthly clothing purchases post.

Other things I spent money on this month included some notions for my sewing class and other projects to the tune of about £20, plus the bus fares to actually get to class. I topped up my oyster card twice this month at £10 each time.

I also put £10 into a leaving kitty at work and spent £44 on bits for the house, including a new cotton sheet and matching pillow cases and a large bath mat. They were things that we needed, so I don't regret this expenditure.

In terms of my £25 charity shop budget that I allow myself, I only spent £9.79 in charity shops this month, which was progress for me. This was spent on a few sewing bits, some packing cubes and a book.

I didn't win anything on the Premium bonds this month, but I did receive £175 in interest on a fixed rate Isa I'd set up a couple of years ago, which has now come to term and this ended up being shared between the car fund, rounding up balances in various savings accounts and also used for the purchase of more Premium Bonds.

I managed to put £200 in the car fund, £100 in the birthday fund (although £50 of this was spent on OH's birthday) and £50 in LB's overdraft fund to help her clear it when she finishes Uni next month.

Despite the expense, I feel like I've still made progress financially this month, but I'm hoping to spend a little less next month and maybe save a little more.

(OH spent about £1100 this month, on bricks and sand for the new garden patio, which is virtually complete and looks great. It was definitely £1000 well spent, as it probably cost us a lot less than paying someone else to do the work. We're both very happy with how it turned out)

Next month, I don't really have any big expenses on the horizon, save for paying off my credit cards (I use these for online purchases and some other expenses, i.e. dental bills) and getting by. It will be a month of working quite a lot and focussing on getting my college work done and my floral dress made at sewing class, so I might not have too much time to trawl the charity shops or spend money, but then being busy hasn't stopped me in the past.

I hope you've had a much less expensive month than I have.

Monthly Clothing Purchases - May 2025

This month I spent £68 on clothing which is quite a lot for me. All of the items I bought were new from high street retail stores.

The first item I bought was a gym t-shirt which cost me £8.80. I did my usual thing of slightly rolling up the sleeves and sewing them into place, as I prefer a boyfriend style of t-shirt.

I then made a visit to a large local Primark store and whilst looking around I decided to buy the following items:

The first item was this quilted denim waistcoat. I've wanted a quilted vest/waistcoat like this for a while, but not found one I liked until I saw this one. It's useful on those colder days when you need an extra layer, but not necessarily sleeves. I'm going to use it to make another one myself using a cotton print fabric, as it is a very simple construction. It cost £20, which is quite a lot for me to spend, but I like it and have worn it a couple of times already.

The second item I bought was this long tiered black cotton jersey skirt. I thought that this would be a nice item to wear over the summer months when it gets hot. It is loose and comfortable and not unflattering. I wore it to my sewing class the other week and it was very easy to wear. This cost £12. I don't actually wear this at it's full length as it is a little too long, but it's easy to roll up at the waist and wear a loose top over the waistband. I may alter the length at the waistband, if I can be bothered. I'm happy with this item, it's just what I needed for the summer months.

I then bought this pair of jogger pants in a petrol blue colour. I already had a similar pair in black which I really like, but which are elasticated at the ankles. I do prefer the elasticated ankles, so I may alter these to be the same style, as I think it will make them more flattering and easier to wear. Just a great casual pant, looking a bit creased in this picture though.

Finally, after paying for the above items, I was on my way out of the store when I saw these grey running shorts by Kappa. These are my favourite style of running shorts, so I decided to buy a pair too. I have worn them to run in and for the gym and they are comfortable with zipped pockets to keep keys in, which is good. These also cost £12.

Although I did visit a couple of charity shops during the month of May, I didn't find any clothing that I wanted to buy. I do prefer to buy second hand, and prefer to look in charity shops, but if I see something in a regular store that I like, think I will wear a lot and have been looking for, I will buy it.

These items have given me a bit more choice in my current wardrobe, so I'm quite happy with my purchases and look forward to wearing them on repeat.

An Expensive Week, But With a Few Good Surprises - W/E 31st May 2025

This week began with a couple of shifts at work on Sunday and Monday over the Bank Holiday Weekend. I was working 2pm til 6pm on Sunday and 1pm until 9pm on Monday, so work took up most of the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.  It was fairly busy at work, which meant that time passed reasonably quickly.

I did the weekly shop on Sunday morning, as I had a bit more time before work, but it was a bit of a rush - shopping, getting lunch and getting to work on time, but at least it was done. I had a dental appointment on Tuesday morning, so I couldn't do it then.

Whilst I was working over the weekend, OH was working hard on the brick patio. He's just got a little bit of finishing to do and it will be done.

It was just as well that I worked extra hours over the Bank Holiday Weekend and that I've got more hours for the next couple of weeks, as my trip to the dentist on Tuesday morning was very expensive.  When did having a filling and a clean cost £300? I was shocked. So, there may be very little money put in savings next month, as it will all be going towards paying the dental bill. I was glad to get it done though and I don't need to go back for a good while. I'm even contemplating moving to a different dental surgery, if I can find one, as it's become a lot more expensive at my current one recently.

The remainder of Tuesday, I decided to spend doing exactly as I pleased. It was half term, so there was no sewing class, but because I'd not had time to sew at all for a week, I was feeling like I wanted to do some sewing. It is my happy place afterall and I had an idea for a new project that I wanted to get started on, something I will be doing at home, not at class and that will use up more fabric from my scraps and stash. I'll create a post about it at some point.

I also wanted to finish the dungaree dress, which just needed hemming and the buttons attaching, so I did that first. I had a bit of trouble with buttons, so I'm just hoping they work out okay.

I then did some work on the new project which was fun. By the end of the day, I'd totally changed my plans about what I was going to do, but all will be revealed at some point. I've still got more work to do on it.

We got the news today that OH's brother is going to be leaving hospital in a few weeks and going back home, which was good.

On Wednesday, I had a long lie in. I think my body was still traumatized from going to the dentist. I laid in bed reading my current book, which I'm enjoying, before getting up and making a good breakfast of two soft boiled eggs, as I was planning on going to the gym.

I got some good news today, which has saved me financially heading into June. I was notified that I was due a tax rebate, so I quickly got onto the HMRC website to claim it. I probably won't receive it until next month, but it will nicely cover the cost of the dental treatment,  thankfully. I knew I was due a rebate, as I'd paid tax last year, but hadn't earned enough to merit it, it was my tax code which was incorrect for some reason. I was hoping to put the whole of the rebate into savings, but this will now sadly not be possible.  On the positive side, some of it will get saved. I guess health must come first, dental or otherwise.

I eventually got ready and headed off to the gym which was okay. I then walked into town to check the balance on my building society account, as I was due some share dividends, which hadn't actually gone in yet and I wanted to check out and use my new account card for the first time. I also picked up a few things that I needed whilst out and dropped into our local charity shop on the way home for a mooch, but I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy, which is rare for me.

After lunch, I decided to do some financial stuff, as it was almost month end. I did a bit more sewing later on and I also created a pattern for something else that I want to make, using an item I already owned as the template.

I had another lie in on Thursday. I think because I've been so busy in the last few weeks, I just needed some downtime at home, doing very little aside from sewing. My soul just needed it. I probably should have been doing some college work, but my heart just wasn't in it. I know I'm just procrastinating, but I'm enjoying the process.

I read more of my book, which is interesting. It's like a social history of work and clothing combined and I do like social history, so I find it fascinating.

After breakfast, I did some cutting out for two new projects. One using the pattern I'd made the night before, the other was cutting up fabric for another patchwork project, but not a quilt this time. I'm using lots of fabrics from my stash, which is all good. It needs using, instead of just sitting in the drawer.

I had a no makeup, t-shirt and tracksuit pants kind of day today, where I dressed down knowing that I was going to stay home and potter and not go out of the house. These are my favourite kind of days and besides, it gives my skin a rest from wearing makeup.

In the afternoon, I retired to the sewing room to do more work on one of the  new projects I'd started. I also cut out all the pattern pieces for the dress I want to make next at my sewing class. I now just need to stitch in the notches before I go back to class next week.

Later, I did some laundry and hung it out, so I'd have clothes for work over the weekend and in the evening, after supper, OH and I watched Race Across the World, which was good. OH did the last few bits he needed to do on the patio today, so now it is all finished and I'll be posting about it shortly.

Another lie in on Friday morning, reading my book, making the most of it whilst I can. I decided to go out for a run this morning, when I eventually got up and ready. I was due to work in the evening, so I didn't have a lot of time to do much today. 

After lunch, I decided to do a bit of cleaning, well, vacuuming and mopping through the house, as there was lots of sand on the floors due to the patio building in the garden. By the time I'd done that it was time to get showered and go to work. I've enjoyed having some time to myself this week, doing my own thing. Pity that it's now come to an end, as I will be working over the weekend.

On Saturday morning, I read for half an hour in bed and then got up and ready to go to the free gym session. Afterwards, I dropped into the supermarket for a few food bits and then tried the building society again.  This time my dividends had gone in, which was good news, as I'm always happy to get extra bits of income that can be put towards savings. 

When I got home, I did a bit of blogging and blog reading, then made some eggs for lunch. I was working at 5pm again, so I couldn't get settled into doing anything much. Work was okay, but I wasn't doing a job that I particularly liked, so it dragged a little and I was glad to get to the end of another working week.

It's hard to believe that another week has passed, it's gone by so quickly this week, probably because I was having so much fun sewing and planning new projects.

I hope you've enjoyed your week.

Garden Update - May 2025

This month has seen OH make really good progress with the garden renovation. At the beginning of the month the garden looked like this:

It was a bit of a building site with the bricks and sand ready waiting to be laid to form a new patio area in front of the shed. OH started out by clearing the area and then laying down a few brick patterns to help us decide how to proceed.

The first Bank Holiday weekend of the month saw OH make good progress and half the patio got laid, until he'd virtually run out of bricks. It then looked like this:

The following week, we ventured into Hertfordshire to try to find some more bricks that blended well with the first shipment. We weren't able to get a half pallet from our original supplier, so we were forced to source some that were a good match elsewhere.  We got lucky and got another shipment delivered for the approximate number we needed.

OH got straight down to laying them the next day and laid almost the full patio, minus the edging bricks which needed cutting to size.

The second Bank Holiday Weekend in May, OH cut and laid the rest of the edging bricks, laid bricks under the compost bin, created a new step where the gate used to be and then filled in between the bricks with fine sand. He used every single brick we'd bought. Only a few small broken bits didn't get used. He could never do that again.

By the time I'd finished work on Bank Holiday Monday evening, he'd almost finished the patio. It looked great. 

He just had to brush a bit more sand into the cracks and tidy up a few areas which he did through the week and it was completely finished.  Here's a picture, with table and chairs out in readiness for us to enjoy it:

We are super happy with it. It feels so good to finally have a virtually finished grown up garden. Just the job of laying the flag stones down the side return to do and a bit of planting in the borders and the garden will be completely finished and we will be able to fully enjoy it again, although we are enjoying it as it stands now and had lunch out on the patio for the first time yesterday.

What a difference a month can make.

Another Sewing Post - Making a Dungaree Dress

 In April, I purchased a lovely denim dungaree dress for £10.50 from my local charity shop. It was labelled as XL, and as there was no fitting room, I bought it and took it home, hoping that it would fit. I really liked it because it was a longer length than many dungaree dresses, which tend to be quite short and tent like.  This one was longer and a straighter fit, which I thought might be more flattering. 

However, when I got home and tried it on, it wasn't XL at all, it was more like a size 10/12. I got it on, but it was tight in all the wrong places. I was a bit disappointed, as I really liked it, so I hung onto it hoping that I might be able to fit into it better if I lost a bit of weight again and I'm still hoping that this might happen, but I'm not counting on it. Here's a picture of the original dress:

Anyway, as it was a pretty simple construction, I decided to see if I could make a larger version that fitted better. I had some black cotton fabric that was originally salvaged from the full skirt of a dress that I cut down to a shirt. There was quite a lot of it and just enough to try to make this dress.

I then proceeded to create a paper pattern from the original dungaree dress, adding an inch or three to each side of the front and back. I kind of just winged it if I'm honest. I then cut the front and back pieces and the front and back pockets out in the fabric and set them aside intending to eventually sew them together.

Whilst at my sewing class, I realised that the machines there could be used to sew a double stitch that you see on most denim items, where two rows of stitches run parallel to one another. I'd never seen the double needle that you use to do this before, but my tutor had one, so I had a play around at class and then brought my pattern pieces in and over a couple of weeks I managed to make a larger version of the dungaree dress.

There were some tricky moments, as I only just had enough fabric to make the dress and had to piece together some leftover strips of fabric to make the straps. They turned out okay in the end and once the fastenings were attached, they looked great.

The double needle had it's challenges too, as it isn't easy to sew around a corner, but I managed okay. The finish isn't perfect and there might be the odd wobbly line here and there, but as I stitched using black cotton on black fabric, the mistakes aren't so noticable and most of them are on the back, which I don't actually see whilst wearing it.

Luckily, LB had some silver coloured jean buttons that she'd bought to mend a pair of dungarees she has and she let me use a couple of them to add to my dress. They are a different colour from the remainder of the fastenings, which are blackish in colour, but I may paint them to make them blend a bit more or even just go with them as they are. This dress is really only for casual use, so I'm not bothered about the buttons being a different colour.

Anyway, here's a picture of the finished dress:

It looks a bit shapeless in the photo, but looks better on and fits me a lot better than the original with room to spare. I'm looking forward to wearing it over the summer and might even make another one in a different fabric i.e. a lightweight denim like the original dress or a camoflage/animal print denim if I can find one.

I'm very happy with it, but now need to see if it stands up to the wear and tear of actually wearing it. Wish me luck.