Can You Pinch More Than an Inch?

I can! Special K - you have a lot to answer for - that has been ingrained in my consciousness since I don't know when.

And so I find myself liking my shirts and blouses more than I like t-shirts these days. I've only recently made this discovery but then again, it wasn't something that I was losing sleep over. I found my hand would hover over and skim past the tees hanging in my wardrobe and automatically reach for a favourite blouse or shirt.

Why? They are just more flattering on me. They are my new best friend. I like that they give you a little coverage and hide the bingo wings. I like the looseness of a woven fabric which helps skim the chubby bits whereas jersey tees like to point those bits out. And I also like that you can undo a few buttons at the neck and show a little skin. Covered up but not totally - that's what it's about. And I have a preference for blue shirts. Because they work well against my skin tone. And they feel a little less formal.

H&M shirt, Bag from Hong Kong, Topshop Koala espadrilles, MIH Tomboy jeans

A Birthday Bag Present from the Grumps

The black leather bag is about 5 years old and one I picked up from Hong Kong for a birthday present when I was last there. Not bought from a shop or anything but from one of the street stalls that was around when I used to go for an evening stroll in to the village. And just because it's a stall, doesn't make them peanuts, believe it or not. But I did like this bag - I think I visited it 4 times before I handed over the Grump's Hong Kong dollars.  The lovely thing about it, is I can wear it as a shoulder bag and it also comes with an extra strap in the same webbing detail so I can wear it across the body (last seen here). 

It was that little strip of burgundy which nabbed my heart! 

Anyway, my blue shirt is an H&M number. A little bit oversized but not so much as to overwhelm. It's a light thin cotton and came with some horrible sleeve tabs which I unpicked as I'm not fond of these. My other blue shirts include my Gap Oxford one and my Zara light denim one. Both still going strong, but very useful and getting a lot of love at the moment in the daily wear stakes.

  

Gap Oxford Shirt                                                  Zara Denim Shirt

Anyway, like I was saying, I removed the sleeve tabs on my shirt and if you're not keen on them either and you want to remove them, can I recommend you get a thread picker if you haven't already got one. This is an indispensable little tool (you can get them on Amazon) and is fab for fraying hems on denim and their intended purpose of unpicking thread. It's just that bit more precise than when you get a pair of scissors out and go a bit gung ho with them and then realise you've put a big nick in your fabric. Doh!

In this instance, I also started unpicking from the inside as you're less likely to catch the sleeve fabric. However, you will be left with something like this ....

... lots of small holes in the fabric at which point you go "nooooo - what have I done!!!" but what you do then is get an iron, dampen the area and steam and press it and it should look more like this. Which is a bit less scary.

A once through in the washing machine and the marks should practically disappear. The washing and drying action should knit the fibres back together again and then you're good to go!

See ya!

-------------------------------

Last Note :

• Be careful which fabrics you choose to undertake this task on. Silks and finer fabrics are a little less forgiving and the holes might remain.