I totally did not anticipate how hectic September would be! Truthfully, I was expecting a fairly laid back month before heading back to University, but as it turns out, I’ve had an absolute tonne to do. I still have a blog award given to me by the lovely Welsh Pixie to write about, as well as some less fun, more serious things.

Due to camera issues, the documenting of outfits this week has been absolutely TERRIBLE. On the one hand, although I’ve kept to the Self-Stitchedness, I feel like such an absolute let down, but on the other, the outfits weren’t so great, so perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise?

I began the week well enough, wearing this little ensemble to move some stuff to Swansea – if you couldn’t tell from the scene change, this is in my new flat in Swansea! Forgive my tired look, I’d been up for quite some time that day and was just about ready to go sleep. I feel I was very much channeling an air hostess on this day, but Tilly referred to it as my ‘Rizzo from Grease’ outfit. You can pick which interpretation you prefer!

Days 14,15 and 16 are the ones missing due to my not having a camera for a little while, very annoying. They were mostly repeats of other outfits for work!

It occurred to me on day 17 that my phone has a very much underused camera. As you can see from the picture quality, it’s a far cry from the high quality ones I’ve been using so far! But when needs must! We celebrated my friend Manon’s 21st that day, so I whipped up a new dress for the occasion, lengthening the Port Elizabeth top to a dress. Managed to find a second hand cream vest top to go underneath in the nick of time! The cream lace was really easy to work with, except for when disaster struck in the form of an iron that was far far too hot – so hot in fact, that it melted the lace! Luckily the hole wasn’t too big, and I was able to repair it by stitching some scrap fabric behind it. Phew! Disaster averted.

The cardigan in the first picture was a find from Hellcat Vintage – go check her shops out!

I can’t believe we’re over halfway through already!

I’ve been a bad blogger these past few weeks! It’s coming up to the beginning of term, so soon I shall be back in Swansea for good (as I type this, I’m sitting in my shiny new flat in Swansea, huzzah!), so I’ve been moving things back and forth between work and other whatnot.

While Day 8 was meant to be GET STUFF SORTED DAY, it actually turned out to be more of a LEN IS GOING TO BE LAZY day. Bad Len. I wore my first Summer Essential, the capsleeved dress which is so awesomely comfortable. You may recognise the headscarf, it is the scarf portion of my bowtie from Day Four! Oh, and because a picture of the pockets was definitely required:

I aim to please!

Day Nine signalled the end to my two weeks as a Speccy Four Eyes, and I celebrated it by making the most special face ever, don’t you think? I was working this day, so wore my charity shop vest top with my black skirt, but the amazingly 80s charity shop jumper for post-work warmth.

Day 10 heralded my favourite outfit to date, where I layered my refashioned gingham shirt with my black shift dress – and I gave in and wore tights.

But the bare legs returned by Day Eleven! I’m so thankful for my pleated skirt by now, it is possibly my most useful Self-Stitched September item. I’m starting to think it should have been in my Summer Essentials list!

Day Twelve was not a very good day, so getting a picture of my outfit was furthest from my mind. I wouldn’t worry though, it consisted of jogging bottoms and a baggy t-shirt ‘donated’ (read: found their way into my cupboard) by my brother, so I wouldn’t say you were missing much.

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?