Sari into a dress

Earlier this year we popped to Kuala Lumpur, and I found a great sari shop near to the hotel - the lady running the shop was so helpful and, completely, understood me wanting a length of sari fabric to make a western-style dress. I was too dopey to take a note of the name of the shop but am sure to go back so will post an update to this post when I do.


So, for $20 (Singapore dollars) I bought a fabulous sari

I got about 6m of fabric for $20! not possible in Singapore

I had to decide how to cut it and a Sari length does have a natural break where the top separates from the sari length and I did cut it there to make the bodice for the dress.

6m of fabric meant I could create a pleated skirt and, now it's finished, it does puff out a bit and i'm pleased to have put in the work - I didn't make a pleat template but did measure each pleat (honest!) and pinned it. I sewed a basting row of stitches along the pleating. The whole pleating process took hours, over several days and, so, I don't know I would do it again.

I was attracted to this particular sari 1) because of it's turquoise colour and 2) that feather border print. So, when I cut off the bodice part of the sari, I removed that border print.

In the photo, above, you're seeing the reverse of the panel - it has a ribbon attached to it which I've left on the panel as it acts as a weight to the skirt.

I attached the feather border to the top of the skirt, as a very wide waistband

at this point I floundered as I had no bodice pattern! I've never drafted a bodice before and, looking back, I should have just tried that. However, I didn't and now know why sari's don't have sleeves, as such, on the blouses. I hacked a Tilly and The Buttons Megan dress bodice.

I don't think this is silk, but a poly-silk, but it still frays like nothing I've ever worked with. I attempted to stabilise it with interfacing

I sized it to the Megan I made before (the curtain that became the embroidered cherry tree dress) but it wouldn't fit

I unpicked it, REALLY carefully but there isn't enough fabric to re-make a bigger bodice. This pic is before I attached the bodice to the skirt - and I knew the bodice would be short (it's why I added that border to the top of the skirt) but it doesn't fit across the back and i'm really sad about it <sad face>

Upshot is, I removed the bodice and the border and I've got a floaty, pleated, vintage-esque, poly-silk skirt. 

So, it never became the dress I thought it would but I'm wearing that skirt a lot

and I need to find a use for that brown/white spot and feather border print...

sew on!

Tilly and the Buttons Megan Dress

Tilly and the Buttons Megan Dress

I’ve had the idea for this dress for a long while and started a pinterest board for it in December (2016), but definitely had the idea a long time before that.

I’d seen a lot of embroidered dresses on pinterest and had started a board for them, too, and I knew I wanted to embroider a dress but wasn’t sure of the design.

Someone had visited Tokyo and posted some pics of the cherry blossom on their facebook page (can’t even remember who it was!) and so the idea started to form.

I found the fabric in a charity shop in Chepstow, in 2015, a pair of brocade, lined, curtains that cost £7.

First, I removed the curtain tape at the top and unpicked the lining from the brocade.

I washed and ironed the brocade – there is a label that states dry clean only but this is a cotton so that must be because of the curtain tape. If someone could verify that, I’d be grateful.

So, I have a piece of fabric, and lining, that measures 176cm by 188cm. I, then, starting looking for a dress pattern that was suitable for the piece of fabric

Due to the size of the fabric, I was finding it difficult to get a pattern that would fit. Serendipity stepped in when Tilly and The Buttons e-mailed me about their Etta dress pattern and kits (I posted up a review of the Etta in May-17) and after I’d made it I was looking around her on-line shop when I remembered I had her book – I hadn’t looked in there for years, I think I made the headscarf when I first got the book but hadn’t even looked at it since.

I had a flip through and found Megan – it’s a cute little dress that would fit onto the piece of fabric, including sleeves! Yay! And I probably did a little jig of joy.

I made the dress in a weekend – it’s quick to trace and sew. The only thing about this material is the seams needed particularly careful attention.

It looked a little bit short!

But, on the whole, I was really pleased with how it turned out. I need to decide whether I make a lining, using the curtain lining.

So, the next step was the embroidery design and I am no artist! I sketched out an idea.

Here was the plan…

The left image is the back view. 

A friend of mine is a talented artist and I asked her to sketch it onto the fabric because I wasn’t convinced my skills were up to it and she drew the branches with a standard HB pencil - hmm, I've made better decisions but I washed it after doing all the branches and worked out the HB pencil marks.

I should have more confidence and attempt something like this!

The hand embroidery for the branches is a satin stitch and the blossoms are french knots, so really simple stuff.

Is it finished? Well, it’s made and wearable but I will spend a lot more time on the hand embroidery, but, given how long it will take, if I waited until then this post may never make it onto the blog!

I will definitely make another Megan - I like the style of it. Might may off refashioning curtains for a while, though!

Vegan for 7 days in a row, well almost!

After watching ‘What the health’ (a documentary I caught on Netflix), I was interested to know about getting more of my dietary protein from plant-based foods and not meat.

None of us have diabetes and the only case in my family was my maternal grandmother who got type-2 when she was in her 70s, but, the documentary made me think about the processed meats we’ve been eating – if those antibiotics are safe for animals yet not known how, or even if, they are safe for human consumption, is it a risk worth taking to eat them regularly? what classifies as regularly?

So, I reintroduced the ‘Meat Free Monday’, I’m getting rid of all the processed meats and not planning on buying anymore and I went vegetarian for a week – I tried to make my meals vegan for the 7 days but am sure 1 day I didn’t manage it - hence the '"well almost!".

Breakfasts – weren’t very different, toast with peanut butter or jam and my son sometimes had cereal and I made pancakes one day at the weekend and we had them with maple syrup.

Lunches – I eat the leftovers from the night before. As my son is off school with the holidays, his lunches consisted of pizza at a play date one day, we had a couple of hot dogs so he had those on another day, we both had a garden salad with crusty soda bread, and I made some kidney bean and cumin burgers on another and whilst the son isn’t madly keen on them he did eat it – with tomato, relish and lettuce in the burger bun who cares that it is a bean burger!, cheese quesadilla and salad is also a favourite of my son.

Snacks – freshly cooked popcorn and I make mini cheese biscuits (and now need to look out for some vegan cheese to try to make them with), little dishes of olives, cheeses and breadsticks with balsamic vinegar (my son LOVES this!), oh, and my husband and his love of ‘dirty cheese’-no words for that one and he’s too old to try and change him.

Dinners were a bit more troublesome for my husband who struggled with a couple of the meals:

Day 1 – for Meat Free Monday I made a seitan biryani, tarka dahl and some curry vegetable and tofu fritters and served them with a mint & sour cream dip (I didn’t have any yogurt). Neither my husband or my son liked the biryani (it wasn’t THAT bad!), and interestingly, my son was eating it up until my husband said he didn’t like the flavour. Husband did like the fritters though and asked me to make them the next time I make an Indian-inspired meal, so not all bad. I had made a garlic/ginger/tofu marinade for the seitan but he said it was the taste of the biryani he didn’t like as opposed to the texture. It was a very different recipe to a tried-and-test biryani I’ve made for years with mince lamb so I wonder if I should have stuck with that recipe and tried to find a way to incorporate the seitan-something to work on.

Day 2 – because they were so grumpy after yesterday, I made a meal I knew they would be happy with, Salmon in a creamy tomato sauce and sweetcorn rice. I added some prawns and they were fine about it, husband went back for seconds (and thirds, he revealed today!) . I had some of the leftover biryani and added some chilli flakes to the tarka dahl because, no matter how hard I try or how I fiddle with it I cannot get a nice, soupy, breakfast tarka dahl and that makes me more sad than you would think.

Day 3 – there was some leftover Japanese beef stew in the freezer and so I made it into a filo-pastry topped pie for the husband and our son and I had more biryani and dahl and a roti, even I was tiring of the biryani by now!

Day 4 – I know my son eats this but the husband prefers it as a side dish with a steak, well, he’d prefer to not have it at all but if he has to, then… Iranian vegetable stew and home-made soda bread and you don’t need anything else. So, the husband had it as a side dish with a pork chop that was in the freezer and wore a face like a wet weekend but said it was “ok”. It is OK! And I’ve made it a number of times – it’s warming, vegetable yumminess that soaks into lumps of bread and is lovely but, the husband hates stews and even though this isn’t a meaty oil slick with doughy dumplings bobbing about in it, that reminds him of wet afternoons growing up, the mere word stew makes him miserable.

Day 5 – I made chicken satay and seitan satay and served it with some cucumber, I made fried rice and made theirs egg fried rice. I also served a few types of Chinese dumplings. Fine. As it happens they love that egg fried rice so all is harmony in again.

Saturday – we try to get out as a family once a month and so we popped over to our local food court, had a couple of beers, my son had a run around with some friends and got to eat chips and I got a couple of pizzas from one of the food court stands – I didn’t eat the pepperoni one but got a vegetable feast. I doubt that was vegan. Here is a revelation, husband said it was better than the pepperoni one because it maintained moistness and, because it had olives on it, son ate it too. So, there is an idea…

Day 7 – OK, back to the seitan, the thing about it is you make a batch of it and it can sit in the ‘fridge for over a week and just use it whenever, it’s great but I don’t think it would be possible to feed it to the husband and the son more than once a week on a regular basis. OK, maybe the son but definitely not the husband. So, I marinated it in BBQ sauce and cooked some ribs that we had in the freezer and served it with corn on the cobs, homemade coleslaw and cornbread. Was fine.

Desserts – well, there are always ice creams in our freezer, but I made a vegan peach cobbler on the Sunday, and I made little s’mores tarts another day (not my thing, because I don’t eat chocolate) oh, and fruit, mostly watermelon. I also scored a lot, ALOT!, of mum points because I bought a box of 10 mini chocolate eclairs from a local bakery (that only cost $5) - I win! :-D

Was it a success? - yes, for me it was. OK, so I got bored of the biryani by day 3, but that’s my fault for making so much of it in the thought that the husband and son would eat it! I also reverted to a bunch of meat free recipes that I’ve cooked many times, but, I wouldn’t be able to use them every week and have to find some (a lot!) of new ones, if only to keep-up meat free Monday. Oh, and the seitan, husband says he just doesn't like it, regardless of how it is cooked. that's a real shame and i can persevere and live in hope

Will I keep it up? - we're going on a trip to Hong Kong next week and I don't know if I can keep it vegan all week, yes, I should be able to but I don't know. So, I'm aiming for a vegetarian August and keep it vegan where I can

Etta dress, by Tilly and the Buttons

This is the first Tilly and the Buttons dress pattern I've tried. 

When I saw it advertised, I immediately went "oooh!" because it has a vintage-vibe and so I bought one of the kits - I'm pleased I did that because, I'm not sure that if I saw this fabric in the shop I would have bought it! That's a shame because the sateen fabric sewed really well and I've stayed away from stretchy fabric until this. Also, that bold print, well, it looks great when made up into the dress, well, I like it.

Pattern Notes

The pattern states its intended for confident beginners - not sure what that is supposed to mean! I guess that somewhere there is a guide that says "at this level you can do this" but if that guide does exist, I don't know of it.

The pattern pieces are on that thick, cartridge paper I think its called, and it comes with an instruction booklet as opposed to a fold-out sheet - this may be normal for these types of patterns these days but, as I already said, this is my first go with one.

The sizing is different to UK 6/8/10 etc, it's in 1 to 7 - don't know why but I did compare Tilly's sizings with those listed on a Butterick top pattern and Tilly's 1 is a 6, her 2 is a 10, and it is the same there on up.

I liked that the dress is made by joining the bodice to the skirt - don't laugh! The only 2 dresses I have made were Vogue V1421 and Merchant and Mills Trapeze dress. Look them up and you'll see what I mean :-D 

Being able to join the bodice to the skirt meant I could easily choose the sizes that fit me - I am, minimum, a size smaller skirt than top that fits the bust. so, either I have to do an FBA or lots and lots of adjusting on the waist and hips, and this pattern made that a whole lot easier.

Another thing I like about it is the customising options: varying sleeve lengths, faux-pockets and whether you want a collar or not. Nice features - is that a common feature of these types of pattern?

The kit came with ample interfacing, too. Also, 2 hook and eye - why???? if you lose one, you're daft!

As for the pattern instructions, they are a great improvement on the staccato details on a tissue pattern! That said, I think the instructions for setting in sleeves could be written more clearly - going back to what I said earlier about what skills you're expected to have as a confident beginner, I guess that you'll have set-in sleeves before picking up this pattern.

One thing, though, you can tell from the pictures in the instructions booklet that the seams were finished with an overlocker. I don't have one, so I use a zig-zag stitch which just doesn't look as neat (and my Pfaff liked to have the odd nibble on the sateen fabric). Would a confident beginner own an overlocker? 

So, how did it sew?

It was great! the fabric was very nice to work with and no particular wobbly moments. I did put one of the sleeves on the wrong side but as it had only been basted, it wasn't an issue to unpick and re-do.

I also tried a couple of new things - sleeve darts, inserting a kick pleat and a v-neck back. Sleeve darts - now, there's a thing! I'm loving a sleeve dart.

Would I make it again?

Yes, definitely. I really liked working with this fabric, the instructions aren't a chore and don't make you crazy (yes, i'm referring to you Vogue V1421!), and sleeve darts! I love the vintage-esque shape it gives without needing constructed under garments to get the shape.

Thanks Tilly! nice pattern, i'm planning one with a collar, in a plain fabric, something snazzy for the office.

quick make - story starter jar

In an attempt to improve R's writing ability, I've played on his vivid imagination and love of stories and created a story starter jar:

I cut the bottom off a soft drinks bottle and wrote ideas for stories onto card that I cut into strips. The card was from a cereal box. Quick and nothing extra had to be purchased.

Some of the quotes I wrote: my best day ever, "Hurry up, or you'll miss it!", snowball fight, "I was walking toward the bus stop when...", "I looked up and...", flying an aeroplane, the mouse that could roar.

I made about 30 strips.

Caribbean Mutton Curry - one that isn't as hot as hell!

I have a chum, Michael, who runs a Caribbean-theme food stall at our local hawker market.

He makes an awesome goat curry! but - it's way, way, and I mean WAY, too chilli-hot for my husband and so our son can't eat it either. which is a shame :-(

When I talked to him about it he said that's just the way it is - his mum made it that way and you can't mess with it.

I love that his Jamaican-born mum taught him how to cook :-D especially because I get to eat goat (sometimes mutton, which is easier to find) anytime I like and it tastes just how I remember from the days I lived in SE25.

anyway, I decided to give it a go - a Jamaican curry that wasn't too hot so that the hubz could eat it.

ingredients:
500g mutton, bone-in, cut into cubes by a friendly wet-market butcher. I couldn't find goat meat on the day so went for sheep
vegetable oil - I don't cook with olive oil, I use that for dressings. I read somewhere that olive oil breaks down during the cooking process - if anyone knows more about this, please let me know!
1 onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger (yes, I use the stuff that comes in jars! fresh garlic and ginger don't keep well here but fresh would be better if you live in a different climate)
couple of sprigs of thyme - it's in plastic in the picture because I took it from the freezer and I certainly didn't use all of it, just a couple of sprigs.
3 tsp curry powder
chilli pepper, chopped (diced into large pieces)
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
200ml carton coconut cream
1 tsp allspice
salt and pepper

1. I heated a tablespoon, or so, of oil and added the curry powder and allspice to it and browned the meat. took about 10 minutes - I don't know why but cooking timings here are longer than in the UK. so, it would probably only have taken 5 mins.
2. remove the meat and place into a bowl. add the onions to the pan and cook for 5 or so minutes - until translucent but not browned.
3. add the chopped pepper to the pot. sprinkle on some salt and add the ginger and garlic. saute for a couple of minutes.
4. add the meat, and any juices, back into the pot. mix and add the the coconut cream, tomatoes and a couple of tablespoons of water. Add the thyme. bring to a simmer and then lower the heat and cook for around, at least, 2 hours..
5. When the meat is tender, add the potatoes and continue to cook for about 30 mins - until the potatoes are tender but not turned to mush!
6. I served it with rice and beans.

Couple of notes:
I didn't use a hot chilli, such as a habanero, but one of those large chilli peppers that aren't hot - I don't know the name for them so someone smarter than me may be able to help. They're probably not even a chilli, but some sort of capsicum.
It took a lot longer than 2 hours to cook the meat. After 3 hours of cooking, and adding more water so that it didn't dry out, I took it off the heat and put it in a bowl and put it in the 'fridge overnight. I continued cooking it and added the potatoes for around another hour! plus more water.
Taste it! often. I added more salt and pepper as the water had diluted the taste of the sauce.
I never added more chilli powder though, but you make it as hot as you want
That "trick" Mike told me about - adding 1 tsp allspice to 3 tsp of regular curry powder to make a Jamaican curry powder is brilliant. thanks, again, to Mike's mum!
It made enough for 3 portions for us and the hubz had seconds, which is always a good sign :-D

Fashion Revolution Week - 24th April 2017

Almost passed me by as well,

For those who don't know, it starts on the anniversary of the, awful, catastrophe of the collapse of the Rana Plaza in 2013. 1138 people were killed and injured.

http://fashionrevolution.org/ was launched and its ethos is to promote ethical fashion, without blame.

I became interested in this when a friend asked her facebook friends if any of them would join her in a year of not buying any new clothes. a whole year! I thought "yeah, I could do that!" and so a little group formed and we swap tales of not shopping. It's a great group that is about support and ideas and, definitely, not about blame.

I've never been a fan of clothes shopping and find the whole thing a chore - I buy clothes when I have to and always have to compromise. Its going to be too long or fit badly so I used to shop with the thoughts of "can I take it up?" or in? it's why I started sewing. BUT - a lot of people are buying clothes as an emotional outlet and I never knew that.

It was recommended to the group to watch the documentary "The True Cost", not a particularly 'easy watch' and I came out at the end wondering what kind of person wouldn't pay an extra 20p on the cost of a t-shirt if it meant the maker got a fair wage! https://truecostmovie.com/

I didn't see any publicity of it being Fashion Revolution Week, and no mention on any radio broadcast that I listen to - did I miss any?

I found out about it through that facebook group and, have since, read a bunch of blog posts and on-line articles. I liked this one: The Good Outfit Challenge

She was honest, although anyone that buys clothes and then writes about it for a living seems, at first glance at least, part of the problem and not the solution! There are a lot of posts 'out there...' where the writer seems to be halfheartedly interested in ethical fashion - "ooh, it's a hot topic at the moment, so I must write about it. hhhm, how to sound as if I do care???"

Then, there is this one of the Huff Post: Can a fast fashion detox change our shopping habits? but, the writer works for a clothing exchange so I already know how the article concludes before I even read it - I don't mind that, I didn't go to read it because i'd run out of Miss Marple's but the writer has a vested interest, albeit for good reasons.

I was interested in the Fashion Transparency Index: why-transparency-matters and i'm now interested in the work the organisation is doing so will follow them.

I'm going to pick-up "are leather trousers ethical" point that I made in a post in December last year - so, I was interested in ethical clothing before that FB group and I didn't realise it.

There is The Good Trade : http://www.thegoodtrade.com/fashion/ but how much is paid advertising compared to actual caring?

but, I found this, too: Katherine Hamnet - 25 years in ethical fashion

and I had forgotten her designer stuff back in the 80s! remember those WHAM! t-shirts??? she's still going strong with the ethical clothing and I wonder how many other designers are genuinely committed to the ethical fashion.

Let me know if you find any other good/useful links

In other news, I made a noodle-joy bowl for lunch:

Leftover Plums into plum-jammy-cake

So, having taken inspiration from Jack Monroe and her A to Z of leftovers blog posting (link in case you need it: https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2016/02/08/dont-throw-that-away-an-a-z-of-leftovers-tired-veg-etc-and-what-to-do-with-them/), I had half a dozen plums left over and, after a plum a day in his lunch box, my son was fed-up with them.

I made a cake! 'cos we all love cake :-)

I even made a note of the ingredients - see, i'm getting better at this lark

150g butter
150g caster sugar
drop vanilla essence
3 medium eggs
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk
plums

for icing:
icing sugar, 100g desicated cocnut and pink food colouring

1. I melted the butter in the microwave and sliced the plums
2. added the flour, sugar into a bowl ; stir-in the melted butter, eggs, milk, baking powder & vanilla and mixed to make a cake batter
3. spread 1/2 into a cake pan - I used my loaf pan
4. scatter over the sliced plums and topped with the remaining cake batter

I baked in the oven, at 180 deg C for around 30 minutes - my oven, here in Singapore, is not known for being reliable so I checked it after 20 minutes, inserted a tooth pick and it didn't come out clean so I left it for another 10 minutes and checked it again.

After it had cooled, I made some icing with a drop or so of pink food colouring, poured it over the cake and sprinkled on the coconut. The plums went all jammy:

and my son had it with cream   😃

because this is Singapore, you can get anything, pretty much, even if you have to travel to get it. So, I'm lucky to have a local supermarket that sells Waitrose products so am able to get natural food colouring and vanilla essence - most products sold here are full of preservatives and bad stuff! 

Singapore hasn't fully embraced the whole organic, natural ingredients idea in their food 

using up some leftovers - thank you Jack! (and others)

I've been trying to reduce the throw-aways from the 'fridge and turned to good 'ol internet for inspiration

OK, so, there isn't a definitive resource for "recipes for all your left overs" but I guess there will be one day

I wanted to use up some raw chicken, half a tin of pizza sauce, half a pot of sour cream, a large carrot and an orange...

I found this recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/11/mashed-potato-casserole-crispy-baked-potato-topping.html

but as it serves 10 to 15 people(!) I had to reduce the ingredients by a large amount. It's handy, though, because I also had some sad looking spring onions lurking in the 'fridge.

I adjusted the recipe by using 3 potatoes:

I didn't weigh the rest of the ingredients, just used a small bunch of spring onions and a couple of slices of bacon and used-up a small lump of cheese.
Oh, and panko breadcrumbs - this is where Jack Malone comes into this - I didn't go and buy a bag of breadcrumbs. This is on Jack's blog:https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2016/02/08/dont-throw-that-away-an-a-z-of-leftovers-tired-veg-etc-and-what-to-do-with-them/
OK, so looking back through the A to Z I can't find the bit where Jack says to not throw away the discarded toasted bread crusts your child refuses to eat but to put them in a bag and keep them in the freezer and then blitz into breadcrumbs. I did that. It's fine

I made a "pizza chicken" using this as inspiration : https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1267633/chicken-parmigiana
with as above, for the breadcrumbs and the left over pizza sauce instead of making it as described in the recipe link.

We got pudding too!:

I made some carrot and orange muffins, there are chocolate chips in them too because I had some in the cupboard.
Years ago (probably 20!) Tesco used to sell carrot and orange muffins and I loved them, then, one day, they stopped. So, I took a box of chocolate chip muffin mix and added a grated carrot and the grated rind of an orange and, yay! happy muffins. I used SR flour from the store cupboard for this batch, though, and not a box

happy cooking :-)

"those" leather trousers...

‘those’ trousers

20^th December 2016

In November Theresa May gave an “at home” interview to the Sunday Times¹. As it happens, I enjoyed reading it, but this isn’t about the interview, it’s about ‘those’ trousers.

I’m interested in why they caused so much reaction but also their heritage and, further, Mrs May’s choice to wear them – are PMs known for their clothing choices? Have we often scrutinised their choices?

The interview quotes “she loves the finer things in life, slipping into a khaki cashmere sweater, brown leather trousers and Burberry trainers for the more downtime part of our interview” 1. So, we’re told the trainers are Burberry but nothing about the sweater or trousers. According to a partner-article in The Sun², the sweater and trousers are both by designer Amanda Wakeley and the trousers, reputedly, cost £995.

So, we know the trousers are from Amanda Wakeley³, what about the cost? I found a pair for sale on the US site Lyst.com4 for $1233 US and, yep, that’s around £995. No idea about the sweater, though. The Sun posted an article that they were selling out on the Amanda Wakeley site² so someone can afford the price tag.

Why did a pair of trousers cause such reaction, though? Is it simply the cost of them? It would be a factor for her opposition – recently the PM has been saying the Conservative party wants to do more for those families that are “just about managing”. Such a family will not be purchasing £1000 pairs of trousers! Also, they’re leather and that is going to offend some faiths and those whose conscience prevents them from the wearing of clothing made from animal skin. I’m not going to go into the whole Nicky Morgan spat as I’m not interested in her handbag, regardless of its age or cost⁵. Boosh – you’ve upset a percentage of the population already and they haven’t even read a word of what you have to say. Public outrage at the use of animal fat in the recently released £5 was enough to get the Bank of England to look at changing their recipe, so public opinion can change the minds of the establishment⁶. I am interested in to know whether a pair of leather trousers is more ethical than a PVC pair so might look into that.

Not a wise choice, then, even if the interview is about you and being at home as opposed to your day job. Why, then, pick them? In several interviews (refer to see link 1 and also, going back to November 2014 when the, then RH Theresa May, was on Desert Island Discs⁷, she mentions that she has ‘a shop <she> always goes to’ where they know what she likes. Turns out, it’s an independent boutique in Henley-on-Thames⁸. If that is the case then it could explain why she has been seen in Wakeley on a fair few occasions.

Figure 1 - credit PA

Wakeley was historically known for dresses and smart suits worn by Princess Diana, i.e this bottle green 2-piece drape jacket with black velvet collar, and pencil skirt, worn by Diana in 1995. Wakeley has no formal training in tailoring or design and, yet, has a 25-year career in the industry. She is keen to emphasise that she always sewed – making extra money at her school (Cheltenham Ladies College) by making clothes for her fellow students3; I’m interested to know more about those clothes – what kind of clothing to students of an elitist boarding school want made for them? (they couldn’t have got their wealthy parents to buy clothes for them? Or, were the items a glimpse of the future Wakeley brand? Do any of them still exist?).

I’m also interested in how you rise in the fashion design industry, and stay there for 25 years, with no formal training but, again a question for a different day – is this Mrs Beckham’s inspiration?

Wakeley is a UK brand (is it? – the label received financial backing in 2012 from a, predominately, middle-eastern equity company named AGC Equity Partners, but is that unusual in this type of worldwide industry?) but, May could be seen as promoting a British designer.

Also, the brand is part of the establishment – as is Mrs May.

She has history of wearing the label, too – there was a blue and yellow coat she wore when she arrived at No.10. Wakeley, again. Although ‘borrowed’ but I couldn’t find from whom.

Figure 2 - credit PA

l Figure 3 - credit PA

PRIDE OF Britain Awards – again, in Wakeley.

Anyway, back to the trousers… Looking at an image for them, from the Wakeley website

Is that a thigh gap? Is that normal for designer trousers?

The Wakeley brand has moved into more leisure-wear since the cash injection in 2012, and in the media is lately written as ‘the Wakeley brand’ as opposed to Amanda Wakeley the designer – to me, this implies she is no longer the main designer. Perhaps you disagree. Could that have been a stipulation of the cash injection? To get actual designers to design the clothing? <- this is only a question from me, I don’t know the answer!

Choosing these trousers, and a complimentary sweater, would be a “one-stop shop” for a busy woman, who is part of the establishment, about to accept the top job in politics, who wants to be seen as promoting British design. OK, I get that point of the choice – well, the point of why she was steered toward it. That also makes me think the fact that they are leather, and any offence that may cause, would not have been one of the reasons for choice. Perhaps we’ll never seen them again.

She obviously likes clothes and has said so⁵ and throughout her political career her shoes have been, frequently, mentioned – mostly fabulous, in my opinion; except the leopard-print ones, all of them (she has at least 3 separate pairs of leopard-print shoes, that I can tell), just not my ‘thing’.

From a few internet searches I found David Cameron was having his suits made in Saville Row, at around £2000 a time – I don’t know how many, seemingly near identical, suits Mr Cameron has but is the cost so dissimilar to that of Mrs May’s outfits? Probably not – especially if she has borrowed items. I just don’t imagine a stylist trying to blag a suit on behalf of a male, UK, prime minister1 am I wrong – if you know otherwise, please get in touch as I’d love to know more.

So, it is thinly-veiled sexism aimed at May – we weren’t interested in the outfits worn by Cameron even though they cost around the same.

I found it difficult to find information on the clothes of previous Prime Ministers – there were a few snippets on Thatcher but, again, if anyone know where I can find out more please get in touch!

Links

1.       http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-interview-theresa-may-hmpg0m2lg

2.       https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2275758/theresa-may-reveals-her-soft-side-and-hubby-philips-great-eye-for-handbags-in-first-at-home-interview/

3.       https://www.amandawakeley.com/desert-leather-pant-khaki

4.       https://www.lyst.com/shop/amanda-wakeley-pants/

5.       http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-38287637

6.       http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/new-5-pound-note-animal-fat-fiver-bank-of-england-vegetarians-a7445221.html

7.       http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04pr6rz

8.       http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/theresa-may-boutique/

9.       http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-3135851/Amanda-Wakeley-shares-highs-lows-25-years-business.html

http://www.popsugar.com/fashion/British-Prime-Minister-Theresa-May-Style-41965525#photo-41965525