The Completely Crazy 2013 Clothes Challenge

trishx

I am LOVING this thread! I thought it would be guilt, guilt, guilt but you're all so lovely! :beer:

immie wrote: »

Don't feel too bad, there's always someone worse than you:p, ie, me lol I think I've spent half of my year's target already (pending delivery of some items before I declare them)

haha - and we're both aiming for £500 as well! Could be a heck of a race

miss_empty_piggy wrote: »

I am so inspired. I am rubbish at sewing but have 2 sewing machines and can do basic things like tablecloths (straight lines) . I think this has inspired me to upcycle a little more and try to make things out of what I already have got. Might make myself a denim skirt, or denim shirt or denim bag or denim patchwork quilt with my 19 pairs of jeans !!! :rotfl:

I'd definitely recommend making at least one of those pairs of jeans into a skirt. A couple of girls complimented me on my emerald skirt yesterday and the closest thing I ever got to a compliment for the jeans was "wow, they are really green!" :rotfl: They were skinny jeans so were actually a lot finer than regular denim, so my sewing machine handled it fine. Because there was quite a lot of stretch in the denim I didn't bother with extra panels or splits I just unpicked the inside seam, tucked the crotch in front and back (I don't like those folded over crotches that a lot of jeans to skirt conversions have) and sewed the front togther, the back together and hemmed it - et voilà a pencil skirt (it does take a bit of wiggling to get it on and off though)! I made an a-line skirt out of another pair of jeans by putting panels from the legs in either side. The other good thing is I can wear the skirts a little higher than I wore the jeans so although the jeans were muffin-top central the skirts are fine

hmm, I've just remembered I bought two pairs of red jeans last summer (one cherry, one watermelon) and ended up favouring the watermelon coloured pair. So perhaps the unloved red jeans are just waiting to become a red skirt..... Anyone else do that? Buy two really similar items and then end up only ever wearing one of them? I think that's got to be one of the things I stop doing this year.

So... back to my purchases:

• I removed the collar, top pockets and shortened the checked shirt so I like it a lot more now - I wore it for a bit over the weekend (admittedly to do the chores but hey).
• The barefoot running shoes fit well (not that I've actually been out running yet - I'm blaming the rain)
• The walking trousers fit too and are much nicer than I expected for the price (although I have to shorten them yet).
• I got refunded for the boots I returned (so that's deducted from my total)
• The second pair of boots has yet to arrive (and I won't add them on to my total until I've decided if I'm keeping them).
• Oh and then today I bought a wedding dress :eek: Oops! Actually it's not as bad as it sounds... although I am single! I have to go to a black tie event at the end of March and I've only got cocktail dresses so I've been looking for something full length but I hadn't seen anything that really appealed to me and since I've put on weight I wanted something a bit structured. On HUKD someone posted that there were cheap wedding dresses on TKMaxx, so I got a 100% silk Grecian style dress for £60 - so if it fits, I'll dye it. There were actually quite few which I would have liked to have tried on but I couldn't face the embarrassment of returning a stack of wedding dresses to the shop (if this one doesn't fit it will be bad enough)!
• Umm, and while on the TKMaxx site I picked up a French Connection dress for £20 too.

So until stuff arrives my running total is : £85.24 / £500

miss_empty_piggy

trishx wrote: »

so although the jeans were muffin-top central the skirts are fine [/COLOR]

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

That has made my night!

gothrockchic1

Hi everyone. I have brought some jeans as my usual ones had holes at the knees:eek:

£13.94/£300

I used a £5 New Look voucher I had

mcculloch29

Do any of you have good bras that no longer fit, but that you are reluctant to get rid of? Or perhaps some other underwear that you were given, but that you hate?

Give and Make Up will accept these for women's refuges. They also take children's clothes, make up and toiletries (hence the name).

lotti379

trishx wrote: »

I am LOVING this thread! I thought it would be guilt, guilt, guilt but you're all so lovely! :beer:

We try! :A

Seriously though, I don't think guilt is the way forward, so I try to go for sensible thinking instead!

immie

Never go to shopping centres with friends/family... I went to buy a new laptop and somehow ended up in Zara:rotfl: There was a smart dress down to £9.99 from £39.99, and a top down to £7.99
My family was all like 'buy it!', 'it's so cheap!', 'you'd regret it if you didn't get it!'. So I bought the two things but I think they're going back as I never really liked them that much, plus I don't want to blow my budget :-)

debbiedeejay

Many thanks to all for the birthday greetings Another year just slipping by..........

Anyway I unfortunately didn't receive any gift cards but my family did manage to buy me a couple of things that I am sooooo chuffed about.

First a pair of gorgeous black heel shoes by the designer Chie M&h&n&- for about 6 weeks in TK M&X I have been trying this pair on every time I visited the store since they came in but at £59.99 they were totally out of my league but a girl can dream. They even came in into the sale at £35 but could not justify it - Went in about fortnight ago and horror of horrors they had gone

Fast forward to my birthday and I couldn't believe it when I opened the present from DD2 and DD3 - they had clubbed together to buy them at £23 after DD3 said"Mum I was sick of watching you walk round the store in them every time we went in- the last time we spent nearly an hour in there and it was embarrassing!":o Best thing is have been checking the web for normal retail prices of her shoes and these were coming in at £197

I was so happy I nearly went to bed in them!

Second pressie was from DD1 - She managed to successfully bid for a midnight blue leather military/biker jacket from fleabay - have wanted one for years - and it fits like a glove and she managed to get it for £12.60 so she had enough to buy me some skinny clothes hangers for me too which was great.

But I do have a spend to declare though - I bought a brand new black shirt dress from the catalogue shop yesterday at a total cost of 99p! Admittedly I bought it on a whim as I was so cross as I had been trailing around all charity shops and the prices have gone sky high recently so I bought it as a "up yours" to the charity shops on the same street! Why do I want to part with £6.99 for a top/dress/trousers from a charity shop when I can buy next door brand new stock for 99p? Now don't get me wrong I am CS shopper through and through - always try to buy second hand first if I can but still I think they are over charging at the moment.

Anyway rant over - 99p/£100 to declare

squinky

The good news is I turned a pair of horrible cut off jeans into some cute denim turn up shorts for my holiday. The bad news is I went shopping also and got a jumper, two pairs of trousers, two pairs of earrings, two rings and a necklace, eeks! I don’t suppose I actually needed any of it although in my defence I got the rings to go with the outfit I was wearing for the wedding abroad, they should have been £4 and £8.50 but I got them for £1.50 each. I have worn the necklace lots too, that should have been £5 but was reduced to £1.50. The earrings were also reduced one pair from £5 to £1 and the other from £4 to £1.50. I took one pair of trousers back (£10) as I thought the were drawstring linen trousers but the drawstring was fake and they had an elastic waistband at the back! The others were a bargain at £4 reduced from £30 just simple black tailored cigarette pants which will be great in the spring. The jumper was new stock but had £8 off so I got that for £10 also meaning that I have spent £21 which is almost exactly what I am allowed to spend. No more shopping this month though although I think my work ballet pumps might be on their way out, grrr!

#11 £42/£250

Going4TheDream

immie wrote: »

Never go to shopping centres with friends/family... I went to buy a new laptop and somehow ended up in Zara:rotfl: There was a smart dress down to £9.99 from £39.99, and a top down to £7.99
My family was all like 'buy it!', 'it's so cheap!', 'you'd regret it if you didn't get it!'. So I bought the two things but I think they're going back as I never really liked them that much, plus I don't want to blow my budget :-)

I have to confess I actually dislike shopping for clothes!! (which is good as I have set a ZERO budget this year)

I too used to get dragged off with friends and family to 'go shopping' as though it was a 'sport'!

Endless aimless wandering around shops, looking at the same old stuff and like you ended up feeling coerced into buying things I really didn't want or need! hence ending with with a huge amount of unworn things in my wardrobe.

I am loving the fact that you say you will likely take the stuff back, it is so easy just to spend without thinking about it! I think having a budget really focuses the mind!

fedupandskint

Another spend to report but not declare. I've ordered a new winter coat in bright pink for £25 reduced from £125, it popped back in stock while browsing. I need to try it on first and if it fits and looks perfect I'll keep it and if not, its going back.

I'll declare after then - just couldn't resist for that price and I've been looking for a new coat for winter and pleased to have stuck to my maximum coat budget of £25 Let's see how I get on!