Changing The Design of a Pair of G.S. Overalls

I am going to change the design of these G.S. overalls? 

I would like to sew some elastic ribbon into the back so they will give more shape in the waist.  I also want to make the legs more narrow. They would still have some wide in the legs, but it has to fit my height. The pants are almost full length on me, but I would like to be able to roll up the legs in the summer, so perpaps it would be fun to add a lining with a G.S. pattern to the inside of the legs. I could cut up a G.S. shopping bag and use the fabric for the lining.

For this projcet I am inspired by The Ruby Overalls from Helen’s Closet, they features an elasticated back that creates shaping at the waist, and I would love that!

More about the makeover of the overalls in next blog post!

March Shopping All In White

 

This month I have bought a little in advance, as we are not so much at home this month! I've continued to find clothes that can form the basic of my wardrobe. This month I've focused on buying clothes in white. I have also focused on the clothes being comfortably airy so that they can be worn during the summer!

I am very pleased with the purchase of the white slip dress! I can wear it under a lovely chiffon dress I bought before Christmas. It should be no secret that I'm a fan of Downton Abbey, and this month's purchase reflects that!

• Slip dress $11.61
• Dress with pockets and shirt $21.77
• White embroidery shirt $10.88
• Strawberry dress $12.00

         In total I spent $56.26

The slip dress looks lovely under the vintage G.S. dress.

Imagin a warm summer day in the garden
with a lovely hat and white sandals!

I think it's going to be one of my summer favorites!
It came with a shirt that is too big, but I will try to customize the size!

I love the romantic look!

I also got this strawberry dres!

The white shirt has a beautiful embroidery!

I have promised myself that every time I buy new clothes, I will give similar clothes to a thrift store or sell them. Below you see what I am going to get rid of this month.

Wardrobe and Hangers 2

I've been working on getting more space in my wardrobe. The photo shows my first attempt to make my clothes take up less space. In the next photo you can see how it looks after I have used the new way of folding the clothes when I hang them on the hangers. 

The shirts and cardigans take up all the space when I hang them as I used to!

After I folded the shirts and cadigans I ended up with a lot of space!
Acturly I consider to add one more drawer to the closet!

Folded cardigan

My next project is to get rid of more of my old clothes. I have sorted out what was worn or the wrong size, but there are still too much! I have decided that every time I buy a piece of G.S. clothing, I have to get rid of a piece of my old clothing. It won't be easy because I have clothes attached with memories such as the clothes was a gift or perhaps bought for a certain event. Unfortunately, it is impossible for me keep everything! 

To keep me up on letting go of some clothes, I'm going to show what I am getting rid of, when I post my G.S. purchases of the month!

In this side of the closet there is some very nice dresses I will have to let go.
The only dress I am going to keep is my wedding dress.

Wardrobe and Cloth Hangers

 

I have followed posts in the "Gudrun Love" FB group about wardrobes. It's fun to see the many ways to organcie it! Some showed a beautiful walk in closet, others showed small wardrobes where space was used to the bursting point. One of the things discussed was how the clothes were organized. 

Some had chosen to organize the clothes according to the colors, others liked that the clothes are put together in sets that are easy to put on in the morning!

One of the things I thought was interesting was the topic of cloth hangers. After all, there are many different types of clothes hangers! I realized that maybe I should check if I should replace my hangers? My hangers are quite ordinary of this type.

My closet doesn't have much room for long dresses and coats. I have many cardigans that get ugly in the shoulders due to hanging on hangers, so I did a little research to find a better way to utilize my closet.

I am not in favor of throwing away things made of plastic, as it can end up in the oceans as waste, therefore I decided not to discard my clothes hangers! Instead I investigated how I can make the best use of my type of hangers! Much to my surprise I found out that my type og hangers can actually solve my problem of getting more space for my maxi dresses! Beyond that, I also found a solution to avoid the ugly bulges that come in the shoulders of my cardigans!

If I hang my dresses like this, I save space in the closet intended for long coats and at the same time the dress does not get ugly in the shoulders from hanging on a hanger.

By folding my cardigans in this way, I avoid the ugly bulges in my shoulders and the longest of them can now hang in the closet intended for the shirt.

Even though I've just cleaned up my closet, I'm starting all over again! I will try to use my cloth hangers in the new way! 

My discoveries with patterns!

 

Before you start reading this blog post, I would like to point out that this blog is a personal diary that I share with other Gudrunisata's! I am by no means a specialist in fashion styling, I am an artist and therefore I do know something about colors, but the opinions I express are personal. When I write that a piece of clothing is not for me to keep, it does not mean that others cannot use it! I make a point of not writing that a certain piece of clothing is looking good or bad as it is relative, and depends of the eye of the beholder!

I guess that most people who start buying clothes from Gudrun Sjödén will find it difficult to figure out which patterns on the clothes feel best to wear. For example, some of my first purchases were three different polka dot tunics/dresses. I thought that dots are just dots, but when I got them home and tried them I quickly discovered that I don't like dark dots on a light background. I also discovered that I like small, close-sided dots better than larger dots and dots with great distance! Although I clearly prefer light dots on a dark background, I found that if the dots are tiny and densely sided, then it's fine that they are on a light background, this is probably because they visually tone the fabric more than they make a very clear pattern. My favorite dots are the white dots on the black background! I want to let the pink tunic go as I don't like the pattern on me!

This tunic is a keep!

This tunic is to go!

I sold this dress it is just not my kind of dress!

We are all different and you might have the opposite experience of the patterns than I have! However now I will go on with floral patterns as it is probably with floral patterns that I have made the biggest mistakes. I had fallen in love with two dresses in beautiful warm green colors, which means that the green colors go more against red than blue!

To the left a warm green to the right a cold green that I like to wear!

I should have told myself that these two dresses would be totaly wrong for me, as my hair and skin tone are cold! It was the beautiful patterns I fell in love with!
The dress with green background and a large white floral pattern is simply not very flattering on me! The color and pattern make me seem smaller and wider than I actually am!

 

I was hoping that this beautiful dress with big roses would be more flattering, but unfortunately the big white roses in the pattern work like dots with very large distance, they make me appear even smaller and more wide than I am, so I also sold this dress!

Finally, I would like to show a green dress that is a keeper for me. This is a wrap dress that I found in a thrift store. It has a nice blue-green color that looks much better for my hair color. The dress has a very nice leaf pattern in a light yellow! Patterns in this style will be on my ISO list. I have the Pegasus and Carmen dresses in blue and both have a similar pattern!

 

Pegasus dress pattern

The Carmen dress pattern

The lovely Pegasus dress was a gift from my husband, so he is also a keeper ;D

February's purchase of G.S. clothing

To day all my February's purchases have been completed and I can show you what I was able to buy spending this month's $75 budget!

I've had this shirt with the pretty leaf pattern in my closet for a while. I have mostly used it for my jeans! I thought that it would be interesting to try to pair it with different types of T-shirt, so I searched for T-shirts that could  be used for this shirt as well as  create the base of my spring wardrobe. This is also an exercise in mixing patterns and colors for me!

Photos of me wearing the T-shirts will come in another blog post!

This photo shows what I bought for my $75
The scarf was  purchase at $12.28,
  I love the colors and I'm sure I'll enjoy it during the spring!

I payied $7.23 for the T-shirt with blue and white stripes. 

This yellow T-shirt with the small print was priced at $17.23

The long-sleeved t-shirt with orange and pink stripes was priced at $19.39

I also bought the yellow striped T-shirt at $7.23. I'm going to use it for Easter!

The mocha coloured T-shirt is really nice! It's made of linen! price $4.34

The off-white T-shirt was on the top 3 of the T-shirts I wanted!
It's very useful and this is my second T-shirt in this color!
The price was $7.23

Buy Second-hand Clothes or New ?

I enjoy buying new clothes from G.S., and I would like to support G.S. continuing to sell quality clothing, but there is so much second-hand  clothing for sale, and in relation to climate change, I think we should all buy more second-hand clothes and more secondhand furniture!

Secondhand 100% silk shirt from G.S.  $8

 I'm going to wear it when my family and I go to the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen next Saturday!

I will show pictures from the theater on Sunday!

I'm also worried about plastic waste in the oceans, which also comes from synthetic clothing, which is why I've stopped buying synthetic clothing altogether.

G. S. clothes are incredibly durable, so if you buy a t-shirt it will last for many years if you wash gently and ditch the tumble dryer.

I don't quite understand the fashion industry's idea that they can use plastic waste to produce clothes. Firstly, there is a good chance that these clothes can also end up in the oceans and secondly, who wants to walk with plastic bottles pulled over their head? It makes no sense if you want sustainable clothes!

Clothes made from natural products such as wool, cotton, linen, silk and bamboo are of course expensive to buy, but they have a much better durability and are more comfortable to wear!

Well I said it and I know I am a grumpy old lady 😂🤣😂