Pinch, punch, first of the month! It’s the first of September, which means that Self Stitched September is now underway! As I explained in this post, I wasn’t able to stick to my initial pledge of wearing solely garments that I’d made myself, so I modified my pledge to include second hand clothing. I’ve also decided to abstain from purchasing any new clothes in the month of September, just to give that bit of an extra challenge! I’d like to take this month as an opportunity to push my personal style that bit further and see what I can get away with.

And that would be why today is a bit of a print-clash! The skirt is self-stitched – I made it back when I was in Germany from the same pattern as the skirt in this post . This was kind of a dummy run – I didn’t stitch the pleats down and the waist is a little messed up, but it’s wearable! It’s one of those ‘never got around to blogging it as an individual item’ project. The top is one of those gems that you find in a charity shop once in a while; a basic black vest top that fits really well. The scarf comes from Lush – they’ve started doing a knot-wrapping service which serves as a great alternative to gift wrapping. You can read all about it here. The best bit? The scarves are recycled from plastic bottles! They have some really fun designs, so once the gift is unwrapped, you can wear it round your neck, as a headscarf… you can even tie it as a little bag! I made a little bit of an exception with the scarf because Lush’s ethics as a company are really solid, and plus, it smells great!

I managed to find an answer to my coat dilemma! My Mum had an old denim jacket that she no longer wanted, and bingo!

So today I got to go on a little road trip with my friend Sammy to get the keys for my Swansea flat! There was a fair bit of, er, interesting driving on my part…Almost as special as the photo I got Sammy to take when we got to Swansea!

We had a bit of time to kill in the afternoon so we hit the local charity shops; I forgot how many great charity shops there are in Swansea! The British Red Cross has a great little vintage section where we found possibly the most awesome jumpers known to man. We’ve dubbed Sammy’s ‘the communal jumper’ – don’t you just think that it’s just absolutely perfect for snuggling up in? It’s the kind of jumper you’d lend a friend who’s forgotten their coat. In short, it’s an amazing find! I almost can’t wait until it gets a little colder so that we can wear them!

Shopping in charity shops is a lot more fun that people would expect – and honestly, when you know it’s going towards a good cause, it makes it that much better.

I would show you proof of my Karate gear, but the Internet doesn’t need to see the sweaty mess of Len after a bit of training. What I will show you is the state of my knuckles after this week’s training :

Ah dear. Somebody needs to stop scuffing the pads so much when she hits them!

I can’t believe it’s September already! How was everyone else’s first day?