I’ve bagged myself a couple of beautiful old vintage costume jewellery pieces recently. The Out of the Blue Drill Hall monthly flea market is the place to forage if this is your kind of thing; every month there are some great stalls for you to pick and choose from. I wrote about the flea market in a previous post.
Anyway. I love love love this necklace. It’s an original 1940s costume piece, with the most delicate of fasteners so hope desperately my clumsy fingers don’t break the mechanism.
costume necklace, 1940s bow
I paid £8 for the necklace. Which, to be fair, doesn’t even come close to the price you’d pay for something similar in Accessorize or Marks and Spencer or whatever. I’ve had it on a lot too, so I’m very pleased I spotted it on the table amongst so many other sparkly items.
The second find is this cute little pair of 1970s costume earrings, which pay homage to 1930s art deco sunbursts. Aren’t they pretty? I know they are just cheap imitations, but as soon as I saw them I thought they were perfect for fancy dress or a night out on the tiles.
sunburst earrings
I think I paid 50p for them. I haven’t had these on yet, but am waiting for the Christmas parties to arrive so I can get them on and strut my sunbursting stuff! They would also be perfect for any Ancient Egyptian themed night… Now I just need to find the rest of my Cleopatra outfit ;)
The weather has been so unseasonably mild in Edinburgh over most of December that I wasn’t sure I would need to break out the big guns with respect to jackets. But then it happened; winter arrived along with the rain and wind and sleet. Hurrah!
The perfect excuse to wear this; a vintage rabbit fur coat that I bought in a charity shop in Inverness last year. It wasn’t the cheapest of the cheap at £50, but the quality of the fur and cut of the coat made me snap it up pronto anyway. It’s very neat – an unusual thing with fur coats as they are often quite big and heavy on (at least for my price bracket).
Some people have issues with real fur, but I have several vintage coats and have no problem with giving clothing a second chance. If I wasn’t wearing them the furs would be going to waste and neglected on a clothes rail somewhere or in the local tip. I would never buy a new coat but the old ones most certainly need love.
This is my other coat. It’s a musquash fur, again at £50 and purchased from a second-hand dealer in Callander. It’s much heavier than the rabbit but the fur is much harder wearing. And what beautiful stripes in the furs.
So what do you think of the coats? Own any furry items yourself or steer clear of them completely? :) How are you keeping winter at bay?
For those not in the know this week is Book Week Scotland, the national celebration of reading, books and writing. I’m a major bookworm myself and sometimes writer, so have embraced the week wholeheartedly. After all, it’s about books. What’s not to love?
In true bookish style, once you let me loose near a bookshop or bookshelves it’s a considerable danger on both the wallet and space situation in my house. For these exact reasons I tend to steer clear of the book sections in charity shops. But not this weekend past…
Err, only six books purchased of an afternoon. That’s not so bad, is it? The charity shop shelves were screaming out to me, and the books were on average £2 per paperback… It’s all a bit odd that I ended up with three cities for titles, but hey, that’s what the shelves were offering up…
Have you read any of the titles above? Would love to hear what you think about them if so.
So I needed to choose my book to read for Book Week Scotland. In the end I’ve opted for the two books below. Counting Sheep is half-read already and a really interesting book about how we dream and the science of sleep, so I hope to get that finished this week. Heft was lent to me by a friend and I look forward to giving it a bash too.
Are you participating in the week? Would really love to hear what you’re choosing to read if so. I love a good book recommendation, I do. Happy reading, readers!
I don’t know about you, but I figure it’s a good idea to have nipple tassled, shiny, sequinned underwear in the fancy dress cupboard. Who knows when you might be called up to a last minute Brazilian carnival?
At least, that was the thought that went through my head when I spotted this mad garment at a thrift market in Edinburgh. For the grand sum of £10 I could bling up my boobs to my heart’s content.
After a quick try on, the brassiere had to be mine. It fitted perfectly and had been hand-sewn by a very dedicated individual. The swishy tassles are so much fun!
What do you think? It’s a bit crazy, a bit bonkers, but something that I couldn’t resist. The fancy dress box is looking very healthy these days :)
So it’s been a while since my last post. September to be exact. Ooooooft that’s a long time between posts. I haven’t had much time to trawl the charity shops for bargains these last few months as work has been very busy and I’ve been spending large amounts of time on my bike (that’s another blog in itself).
However, I felt the need to get back into the swing of things with respect to bargain hunting. Now the weather’s turning the woollies are making an appearance and it’s paramount I get some warm bits and pieces on the go.
I thought I would share this outfit on the blog. Awkard selfie alert! I got the mustard jumper and striped shirt in the Shelter shop in Corstorphine. I think the combo came in at about £8 for both items. Bargain.
The jumper has been on my back a lot. It’s a short one, so works well with fun shirts and a pair of jeans. I like my shirt too; it has that little bit of oomph with the block stripes.
Of course, now it’s getting chilly I’ll need to make sure my tummy and back are sufficiently cosy, haha! :) Anyone else been perusing the rails come winter? I’m seeing a lot of cardigans, but keen to get some more interesting and unusual woollen wear…
I love getting dressed up. Fancy dress is one of my favourite things. But, I hasten to add, there’s nothing exciting for me about ordering a complete outfit off the interwebs. It’s all about finding things in the shops and second hand fairs of the world, and getting them to serve a new purpose.
So, as an example of this idea, take exhibit a. I found this pillarbox coat in Armstrongs on the Grassmarket marked to £10.
I was in Armstrongs to find a military jacket for a circus ringmaster outfit I wanted to put together. Upon discovering that a military jacket was going to be quite considerably out of my budget (and fair enough – they are genuine articles in Armstrongs!) I turned to the ladies’ rails and came across the wee red coat.
After some buttons, trim and embellishments I ended up with the below jacket and outfit. The wee red coat did me very proud! Huge thanks to Iolair Images for the photo.
So how much was my outfit and where did I get the rest of it from? Well, I think in total it cost about £22. The shorts were originally £3 trousers from Next in the charity shop. Some snips and button changes later, I ended up with my military bottoms.
The jacket went through quite a transformation, complete with the addition of tails. The shoulders are curtain tassels, the buttons were changed and the ribbon added to complete the military look. The tails were the best part, I thought, with an old piece of red felt and a red shirt from the charity shop snipped up to give them a lining.
The coat was originally a three-quarter sleeve. So with some upholstery fabric and a few more buttons, the coat sleeves reached full-length.
As for the top hat, it’s been in my possession for quite some time now and I’ve used it on other outfits, notably my steampunk effort from last year. Interestingly, I got into a chat with a chap about my hat and he mentioned that the vintage top hats are usually only tiny or large now, because all the “normal” sized ones were worn out. So I am very lucky to have such a wee head!
Everything else was already in my fancy dress box… bow tie, earrings, rings, necklace, shoes, bag etc. Sometimes it’s good to have a wardrobe bursting at the seams. Right? :)
What do you think? Good charity shop and thrifty transformation? I must say I do love my coat – I want to wear it everywhere…
I’ve been faffing about with how to best take photos of my purchases for this blog and have been getting a bit sick of the awkward selfie in the mirror. So I decided to invest £30 in a dressmaker’s model, readers.
She’s a good purchase, because I’m thinking about flogging some of my clothing I never wear any more and some of my vintage finds I don’t give enough love to via the medium of eBay or Etsy. So she gets dual use. She’s staying out of my bedroom, though. There’s something quite unsettling about having a torso in the house…
So let’s start with my least exciting of Blackpool purchases, but one I really like. This suede and satin waistcoat is a vintage effort from Marks and Spencers and cost me £2.50 in one of the many, many charity shops in Cleveleys down Blackpool way.
Staying with the theme of Marks and Spencers, this lovely shirt was a meagre £3 in Oxfam. The poor model doesn’t make it look very cool (and it needs an iron), but it’s a great fit and I’ve been wearing it with skinnies and a blazer to work.
Of course, these sensible purchases needed to be countered by some bizarre item I couldn’t leave alone once discovered. Welcome to my first Indian themed dress! I had to buy this; it was only £3 and the embellishments are worth the money alone. The dress is a little big for me, but even if I can’t wear it the fabric is worth the £3 spend alone. The diamantes are beautiful. You can’t see them glitter very much in the photos but they are lovely.
I had to have these fifties clip on candy stripe earrings when I saw them. Exchanging the grand total of £1 made me their proud new owner. I’m not sure if they’re original fifties efforts, but they are fun none the less and if nowhere else will sit happily in the fancy dress box.
The best buy of the Blackpool holiday goes to this swing dress, which I bought for a ridiculous £3. It fits me like a glove. Unfortunately, it’s missing a belt, but I’m sure I can muster up one from somewhere.
So what do you think? £12.50 well spent?
I would definitely recommend Blackpool for charity shopping. It was excellent when I was foraging; there were no people my age whatsoever. I was surrounded by older ladies and their despairing husbands as they trawled the rails. So zero competition from students, savvy vintage hunters or eagle-eyed bargain seekers. Blackpool is well worth a rake!
Oh, and what are you thinking about my dressmaker’s model? Too impersonal? Or a good way to see my charity shop finds?
Ah, Stockbridge. I love this part of the world! It is, of course, the Edinburgh charity shopper’s first port of call. Except, since charity shopping is all the rage at the moment (which is a good thing), this tiny little part of the city is absolutely rammed with bargain hunters.
I went for a wander around its many charity shops last weekend and gave up trying to take a look at the clothing in the shops – it was so busy there was barely room to move. I really dislike looking for bargains when folk are regularly rude and pushy. The yummy mummies (of which there are many) are poor with their manners sometimes :(
I did pick up a few good items, though! Giving up on the clothing rails left me looking at accessories and I found this perfectly sized over the shoulder satchel in the Barnardo’s shop for £5. I love the patterning.
This bag is the perfect size for purse, keys, phone and a great book. Ideal, seeing as I also got myself three books from the Oxfam bookshop. Less than £10 gives me my reading for the next month.
Have you read any of them? If so, let me know if you enjoyed! I’ve never posted any of my bookish finds before, but as a big reader I get a lot from the charity shops. My shelves are straining under the weight.
The Shelter shop (which was absolutely stowed with people) was quite a stressy effort, but I found this cute little cinch belt for the grand sum of £2. It’s got gold running through it and is very pretty.
Shelter also offered up this pair of spectacles that I spotted just as I was about to leave the shop. Another £2, duly purchased. They look proper giant in the photo, but in reality are only an inch or so and sit nicely as a long pendant.
I feel like I am turning into a hipster with some of my purchases (cringe) but I did love these seeing as I wear goggles every day!
I’ve been wearing my new satchel all week – love it! What do you think, folks? Got any favourites amongst my latest haul? Shame I didn’t get any clobber, but maybe that’s a good thing for my wardrobe! x
There are two things I love when it comes to clothing: hats and jackets. Cannot get enough of them. This weekend past I added another three coats to my embracing (but packed) wardrobe. Oh, and a hat.
But I must be completely honest here, readers. Only two of my four buys in this post were thrifted from a charity shop. The other two comprise the most expensive items of clothing I have ever purchased (!!!).
I went to Joey D’s on Broughton Street in Edinburgh; the shop is a staple of the city’s fashion scene. The designer, Joey D, has his threads shown all over the world and for good reason too. His stuff is crazy and wonderful!
First up, I bought this Harris tweed jacket. It has been re-fitted from two vintage men’s coats to make a ladies’ one.
The fabric is very hard-wearing as it’s Harris tweed. Despite the photo, the colour is almost blue-green (I took the images under electric light) and is a really tremendously lovely jacket. The wind doesn’t get a look in with the tweed – it’s surprisingly warm even though the fabric isn’t heavy.
For those not in the know, Harris tweed is woven exclusively in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It’s also very expensive as a fabric.
Here is an awkward selfie of me wearing the jacket. It’s a perfect spring or autumn coat; bit longer, cosy, warm, keeps the wind off…
But it was blimmin’ expensive.
Of course, once I started trying jackets on in the shop there were two I liked in particular. I couldn’t decide on which one to choose. So I thought “screw it” and bought both of them!
The second one is much shorter and neater and is a heather colour. I appreciate they both look very similar in the photos, but they are quite different in natural light. Here it is on:
I am loving these coats. I figured that for the money I will easily get a decade’s wear out of them because the tweed is so hard-wearing and the cut is quite timeless. Unless I spill paint on them or rip an arm off I think I’ll have these on my back for a good while yet. That’s my argument and I’m sticking to it…
To make up for the extreme expense of the jackets, I had a quick look in the charity shops on the way home (this logic is clearly ridiculous). Saw this hat. Immediately had to purchase. Look at those feathers!
And to really rub it in, the last shop I visited had this coat on the hanger… ANOTHER tweed jacket!
So now I have no less than three tweed jackets and one feathery hat. The thrifted items came in at £6 for the hat and £5 for the jacket. So all in all, aside from the extreme expense of the Harris tweed efforts, I think I did quite well!
What do you think? Gosh, I hope you like the first two coats :)
I think most of Scotland’s population has resigned themselves to an endless winter – much like the land of Narnia – over the past month or so. Brr indeed.
But gosh, the sun has been shining for no less than two days on the trot. The other day I even heard a bumble bee. This could be it, guys. Spring might actually be arriving.
So surely it’s time to wake the spring wardrobe from its slumber and get parading around the city (with a sensible jacket to keep the chill off). Oh joy indeed!
I might get the opportunity to wear this odd little item I bought last year at the Shelter shop in Dalry, Edinburgh. It was quite pricey at £15, but I soon discovered that it was made from silk and hand-made.
The belt was especially lovely. And I loved the colours. This little dress is just so fun.
Not sure if I can pull it off, though. I’m going to hold on to it for a while; you never know when the next 70s themed fancy dress might rear its head.
I also have this crazy dress that I bought in a vintage shop for $15 in San Francisco last year… It’s a tartan smock. Ahem.
I had to buy this; when I tried it on I ripped a seam wide open under the arm. (You know, that horrific ripping sound from somewhere you can’t determine on the dress, so you wiggle and faff about trying to get it off, and in the process rip it even more?). Oops.
It’s a 70s dress so quite delicate due to its age and the thin cotton fabric. No wonder I ripped its guts out when I was trying to get it on.
Contrary to its appearance on the hanger, not too bad on. I think I might get away with this at work or whatnot. And before you ask, no. I’m not a dinner lady…
Also, what on earth is a size 11?!
These are Marmite dresses. You’re either going to think they are utterly hideous or love them for their quirkiness and colour. They certainly have personality, right? :)
Purse Full of Pennies 