Gold and Silver Whale hair accessory by WeeGardens – $17 (£10.50)

Love this little hair accessory. I have no idea how to put these in but I would learn. I want whales in my hair…

Aunt Nelly’s Carpet Bag by Peace Love and Polka Dots – $35 (£22)

I’m in love with this bag. It’s sturdy, grey and has a big bow. Very yummy. Click the link to see more pictures including the yummy lining.

Maxi cowl in denim blue by IShouldKoko – $80 (£50)

I wanted one of these cowl/circle scarves for ages. I am sorely tempted by this extra huge one in a pretty blue.

Black MSD Leggings by sugardollshop – $10 (£6)

I am a ball jointed doll collector. These leggings would look brilliant on Sebastien my MNF El.

Bats Hooded Long Sleeve T-Shirt, American Apparel Hoodie with Water Based Ink by Elementalshop – $18 (£11)

Bats, love the bats. Plus it’s getting to that sort of weather where a long sleeved hooded t-shirt may be more practical than a big hoodie.

“What do you mean the pig can’t have bacon?” By sleepyrobot13 $12.50 (£8)

This dude is awesome. He is learning an important lesson about cannibalism. I think he should do that in my house.

Ampersand 18×18 cushion cover by anitanirma – $28.50 (£18)

Cushion and literary obsession in one.

White Bird wall sticker by designfruit – $15 (£9)

Wall sticker and music obsession. They have other colours for those of you with white walled homes.

Here’s the wardrobe – colourful. More clothes in a drawer down to the left of these but it is a mess you don’t need to see it. There is absolutely no organisation here, it is horrible but I don’t have the space to do things how I want. I might just pull it all out one day and start over. I cleared this out not so long ago so most of the stuff I wear or at least intend to wear. Below are some of my favourite colourful / shiny pieces.

This is a brown and black sequined dress, I think it is from Next.

My Pink feather boa that Justin from the Darkness wore on stage in Paris at La Boule Noire.

Green silk dress from Next.

Thrifted pink, tartan jacket. Label reads ‘Nico Nico’ – note the badges. I am awesome.

Stitching

-On hems the more stitches per inch the better.
-Stitching should lie flat, not rucking, twisting or folding.
-Stitching should be invisible unless on garments where there is stitching for decoration (i.e. jeans.)
-There should be no loose threads and all seams should be neat.
-Designer work is often hand finished.

Seams

-There should be a generous fabric (a good amount is 3/4 inch+) allowance on all hems/seams. This means they are less likely to come undone.
-No rough edges
-Should lie flat.
-Always sewn straight and then finished to prevent unraveling.

Buttons

-Quality buttons.
-On coats, sturdy buttons that have been sewn on by hand and are backed by another, smaller button.
-Button Holes should be finished off cleanly with no threads hanging.
-Bound buttonholes or keyhole buttonholes rather than straight buttonholes.
-Sturdy materials such a metal or mother of pearl.

Linings

-The more the merrier. In trousers, linings to the knee, in skirts linings at least to the back. In coats and jackets, full linings including silky sleeve linings. Extra linings for coats and jackets to extend the season of the garment.

Cashmere

-Hold them up to the light and put your hand behind it – you shouldn’t be able to see your hand through a thick, quality cashmere.
-Stay tape should line the shoulders of a cashmere sweater (or any other stretchy fabric) this stops the garment stretching in the wrong places like the shoulders.

Fabric

-Garments with a high thread count are best, they will feel really light to touch and will move through your hands like silk.
-Patterns should match all over the garment.
-Fabric should have been cut / sewn on the grain.
-It shouldn’t look or feel cheap.
-If it is coarse in feel then it’s probably not designer.

I’m going to need some help from my thrifting team here. I have little idea about what stitches are good quality ones. More research is needed.

The only store I’m allowed to venture into is that sports store in the Mall to buy my bro a birthday present. If I do get dragged anywhere else then I am not to buy anything. The only exception to this is if the item I want to buy is under £1 because anything under £1 is a bargain not to be missed.

I’ve digressed, I want to find vintage pieces for resale, to be able to do this without filling my house with crap I intend to do a hefty amount of research. This has already started and as you can see from my last few posts . I’ll be posting more about vintage fashions from different eras including the names of designers, how to choose unmarked pieces and how much each should sell for. I’m not holding out a lot of luck with Norwich charity shops. None of them are in the most affluent of areas of the city instead they tend to be in the sort of rough areas. Although you never know I might be able to find that Chanel bracelet some skank nicked from their neighbor. Do I have a low impression of humanity, yes I do. But then you would if you walked through Anglia Square twice a day on your commute.

If there are designer, vintage, kitsch pieces out there then we will certainly find them. I’m going to quell my impatience and get on with the work that I was born to do. When it comes to shopping in Norwich on a Saturday you’ll find that you can’t walk through a shop without having your feet bashed by a person with a pram (why bring pram based children shopping?), being bumped into by some rude middle aged person or stuck behind two of the slowest old people in the world. I am bitter about this and I seriously hate shopping at the weekends, but to get done what I need to do I don’t really have much choice. Digressing again, take Primark for example I can’t shop in there despite the fact that some of the items are quite good value for money and pretty cool (walking past yesterday I saw some awesome sequined tops in there) the clothes are just chucked haphazardly around, people push into you, snatch clothes from you hands and are littered with teenage mums with prams who have decided that spending their benefits on twenty chavvy tops and some knickers is a good way to spend a Saturday. YOU ARE UNEMPLOYED DO IT ON A MONDAY!

I’m all for rummaging through piles of clothes to find that one unique gem. However, I am not for rummaging through the same sorts of clothes to find that bargainous £3 t-shirt just to walk past six other girls wearing the same on in the next few days. Primark tees tend to be quite distinctive and it is obvious that many people are wearing the same item. Don’t get me wrong I love buying cheap tanktops and quirky dresses from that store but the whole place infuriates me. I try not to shop in there at the weekends because I know I will end up punching someone.

So, I must curb that impatience, no doubt even in the charity shops I’ll find people getting in my way and stealing my bargains but it is all for the higher purpose of being a fashionista. I’m a there for a whole different reason  to those that hang around Anglia Square and if I do see someone well dressed I will tip my proverbial hat to them. I’m not going to wear a hat on Saturday, it’s just not practical for the windy weather, although I do have a very nice pink trilby that would go brilliantly with my new coat…

I always feel like people in charity shops don’t know what they are doing, they can’t tell the designer pieces from the crap. You hear stories of people picking up expensive vintage pieces for a couple of quid in charity shops. I don’t think this happens all too often and I think charity shops must have some idea of what they are selling. However, one can hope and below is a rather exciting list of the things I would love to find.

Chanel-

These pieces are marked Chanel or have the Coco Chanel logo (forwards ‘C’ crossing the backwards ‘C’)
They can be sold on for a huge price range of anything from £75-£1000.

Miriam Haskell-

These are often flowery and can be identified by ‘Miriam Haskell’ on the back. Worth up to £1000

Coro-

Marked Coro and can fetch anything up to £500. I really like these pieces, more so than the Haskell or Chanel stuff.

Bakelite -

I’ve always loved Bakelite stuff because of my 1940′s obesssion. I remember finding some at a flea market, a gorgeous bracelet for £125. I was so tempted. It is a type of plastic, often quite heavy yet unmarked. There isn’t a great deal about but there must be a shop out there that has mistaken a 1940′s Bakelite bracelet from a cheap one from H&M and thrown it in the bargain bin for £1. (One can wish…)

Stanley Hagler

Always terribly shiny. Gorgeous pieces from brooches to necklaces. Clearly marked and easy to spot, however very delicate so finding a piece in tact in a charity shop may be difficult.

Joseff of Hollywood -

Most often just marked Joseff, I’ve seen some of the early pieces sell for £600 plus. The stuff is a lot less gaudy than other vintage jewellery from the same period. I’d love to have some Joseff in my collection!

Thanks to: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1665752/vintage_costume_jewelry_collecting.html?cat=46

I received so many goodies to review and they will be coming soon but can I just say Tommyguns hair products are wonderful! I did a whole FoTD on Friday then one on Saturday so will post those as soon as I get the pics sorted on my computer. My laptop charger is broken, again, so it is back to the beast of a PC for a while and it is so much more of a pain to upload photos to it.

So over the weekend I visited my family 20 miles away in North Norfolk. I returned with:

• Three new coats – One purple one from Jupe, One faux fur one given to me by Nick and Karen and a checkered one from Next given to me by Ben’s Mum.
• One Leopard belt from Jupe
• One Ring from Jupe
• My £18 vintage dress that was delivered to my Mum’s that looks awful.

A box of Ben’s stuff that he had when he was a kid. Which contains loads of autographs of racing drivers which is pretty cool.

I’m contemplating stretching my ear up a few more sizes, I got a double flared plug off EBay that fits lovely, it would just look better if it were bigger.

There it is 8mm – my last one was 10mm.
I’m thinking of going to 14mm.

Below is a sneak peak of me having used Elemental Beauty, Korres, Tommy Guns, Lily Lolo and Purity products in my FoTD.

Objectives -

Find clothes for customisation
- I love customising clothes, Gok Wan stylee but I’ve never had clothes I’d be confident enough to attack with my sewing machine. This would be the perfect oppourtunity to get clothes I don’t care about.

Find vintage costume jewellery
- I need more jewellery, big, brash shiny things. Topshop is great for this but three items down th line and I’ve spent £50. Thrifty Jet shall find over the top shizzle that no one else wants!

Find vintage / designer pieces
- This will be the challenge, Norwich is saturated with charity shops but being a city most of the good stuff will be snapped up before I get there. Must contemplate heading to surround towns such as Dereham. Will compile a list of possible shopping avenues at a later date.

Spend no more than £15
- I’m a little bit poor at the moment so spending more than this would be out of the question. I think this will be enough to buy a few good pieces. I am a bargain hunter and I will prevail.

Naturally I will do a photographic diary of the day. It’ll probably be next Saturday, the 9th.

This Saturday I’m going to be visiting the gorgeous store that is Jupe - www.jupe.org.uk - I can safely say that I am very excited.