Bargain 60s suit

 

Well, it's been a bit longer than a year since I switched to working from home full time. Despite not going anywhere, it's been quite an experience. While we've been cut off from the good things about other people – the casual laughter, the easy venting, the fun of lunch and a chitchat, the conversations about shared passions – I've kind of enjoyed being cut off from the day-to-day expectations of other people. That's particularly applied to clothes, because often I feel the need to dial things down in order to look appropriate or at least not attract any attention. Free of other people's expectations I've been... mostly the same in many ways. But if I want to wear some gaudy psychedelic print or dress like an acid-trip Hobbit, I'm going to. 

That said, my most recent purchase is exactly what you'd expect: an amazing 1960s turquoise cutwork dress suit. I'd been reading Vix's blog and she'd mentioned updating the Kinky Melon eBay listings, so I had a look, then did a more general search for 60s stuff in fatgirl sizes and this came up. For £20. "There's got to be something wrong with it," I told myself, "But at worst I'll have some nice fabric to reuse." Amazingly, I haven't spotted anything wrong with it. It needs a press, but I couldn't see any rips in the fabric, which is what I'd anticipated. Bargain. The jacket appears to have been shortened slightly to match the dress exactly, but from what I can see it's just been turned up, so I might unpick the new hem and see if it can be taken back down or if the fabric's got faded along the fold and needs to stay as is.

Buying stuff seems to have been the most interesting thing I've done lately. Work's been full-on again – I took most of Friday off after working till 10pm Monday-Thursday; I'd put in my contracted hours and them some. I find I either comfort eat or comfort-shop, so I'm channelling the latter impulse into being really organised when it comes to birthdays. My present-buying game has grown strong on lockdown. Here's hoping work slows down by the time we're all able to get out and do stuff because I'm not going to want to be working those hours when I could be out and about. And if you do see an acid-trip Hobbit, give me a wave!