Style Wednesday: Crafting a new blazer

Well you can blame my latest antics on Dani.

You remember her very tasteful post on Harris Tweed?

Well I kept thinking about the fabulous tweed blazer I had seen on The Rose web site:

 

 

I had forgotten about "tricking out" an outfit.  You see, your dear old WMM was one of the girls in the late 70s/early 80s who was wearing their dad's shirts over ripped sundresses, bedecked in Police/ The Clash/Elvis Costello/Sex Pistol pins and safety pins strategically placed all over same-said clothing.

 

We were reading Austen and Kerouac and Atwood and drinking too much and writing a lot of bad poetry, and some good, and generally having a grand time, except when we were having the most morose times ever....

 

One of my favourite items of the time, which now I will have to take pains to recreate, was a man's red corduroy smoking jacket with black satin lapels which I wore over a pale blue bonwit teller ballet-style dress.  God - I am having a serious flashback and a moment of pure joy, remembering when we were doing our own thing in thrift shops and not giving a HANG about what was or was not in style.  So even as I am writing this I am thinking: "well old girl, let's get at it again and have some fun" and I think I shall..

 

But I digress.  So I was looking at the blazer above and I was thinking of this wretched Michael Kors blazer I had in my closet that I bought two years ago and then immediately wished I hadn't.  It is not my shade of grey (no pun intended) and I was peer-pressured into buying it by the clerk and then I even tried to consign it and the funky girl at the shop didn't even want it and I was cursing myself for paying $250 for a blazer that I did not care one whit about and had worn all of 3 or 4 times.

 

But then I had a moment of inspiration:

 

GRANOLA WENDY WILL RIDE AGAIN! 

 

I decided to take inspiration from Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink and trick up my jacket.  Actually, I think I told my daughter I was going to pimp it up:

 

 

So I got out my sewing box, which is the sewing box that I purchased at the Newbury's store in Calais, Maine in 1976:

 

 

 

Even has the tag I put in inside. 

I had old notions and buttons:

 

 

 

And then I bought a few bits and bobs at the fabric store:

 

 

 

I cannibalized an old Nougat London sweater I had that didn't fit well and which was a bit stained and a few hours of jaunty sewing, accompanied by a glass of wine and good spirits, and voila:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Capricorn patch was on a camel-coloured knit hoodie that I had in grade 5 and which I was very proud of - I couldn't believe it when I found it at the bottom of my sewing kit!  It was the Age of Aquarius man!

 

 

Amazing how grand knit doilies can look when paired with silver linen buttons and new tartan ribbon..

 

 

 My little toile heart feels very Les Miserables to me...Do you see the tiny W?

 

 

The flowers stolen from the other sweater:

 

 

The varied buttons, the triangle of raspberry plaid, the ribbons and tweeds.

 

 

It was all just delightful.  And oh-so-over-top!

 

Honestly, I was in heaven while I was playing with this and when I was all done I had a blazer that I would want to wear!
 

Now I am off to chase old men's Harris tweed blazers at the sally anne and frenchy's and have a tweed version!  Could I have found my next career or ought I stick to writing????

 

Do you bedeck your clothing or are you very tasteful now?

 

In honour of remembrances and craftiness of days gone by, I thought we might end with a little Clash..

 

 

 

 

Oh God - I do love that song!!!!  Dani may be wearing her proper Siegfried homage next year in the British countryside, but I think I will pop over and see her for a day trip but I will be traipsing around the British countryside looking like this:

 

 

God I would like that coat on the right....

 

 Oh they were heady years, till everyone died...

So how about you - do you ever festoon your drab clothing?  Am I the only one who is veering into Martha-Stewart-meets-the-Clash-land????

Have an awesome Wednesday and stay safe out there!