It sounds so obvious, but properly looking after your clothes, shoes and bags is a lost art.

• Stuff your Shoes: And not just when it rains.  Placing crumpled-up newspaper inside helps them to keep their shape in between wears. And also recycles your daily London Metro.Bonus!

• Learn to iron properly:  Invest in a bottle of  Spray Starch. Clothes can often appear old and floppy looking. This little miracle in a bottle can stiffen clothes back up again in minutes so they regain their jauntiness. (The best place to buy this is definitely Ebay) Advice for ironing those silky numbers, is to iron when still slightly  damp.

• Use a clothes brush: Not only does giving your winter coat a good brush combat fluff, it also keeps the fibres perky, making it look less flat and brand new for a lot longer. (check out Ebay for a cheap clothes brush)

• Replace your Zip: Any local haberdashery will fix them for you at a very cheap price. Or better still, learn to fix them yourself. I’ll write a post on how to do this for you soon, because its honestly an invaluable skill.

• Use moth balls: Honestly, even if you don’t have any right now, those little bastards always find a way in and will deffinately destroy your entire wardrobe.

• Use a good deodorant:… no seriously…  Some of the more aggressive brands out there can literally eat away at the fabric under your armpits… sexy! The unscented deodorants are the best to use.

• Weather proof your leather and Suede: For Obvious reasons. And use specialist cleaner on these special fabrics also. You will increase the items life dramatically.

• Shave off bobbles: Cheap wool produces millions of little bobbles, so shave them off regularly.     

• LEARN TO HANDWASH: This will save the life of your garments! Because I work in the industry, I know that we stick ‘DRY CLEAN’ on the labels to pretty much cover our own backs against shrinkage and possibilty of the colours running. In actual fact, you can pretty much get away with hand washing nearly everything. So here’s the truth for you…

• Any label that says ‘DRY CLEAN’ can be hand washed.
• Any label that says ‘DRY CLEAN ONLY’ can probably be hand washed, but proceed with caution.
• Any label that says ‘DRY CLEAN ONLY’ and has the dirtiest mother of all stains ever, only then goes to the dry cleaners. Purely because seriously stain removing at home can be pretty risky for the untrained.

HOW TO HAND WASH AT HOME

To have a go at home, I highly recommend Hagerty Dry-Cleaning Kit £8.80.  It cleans up to 16 garments  – anything from a silk tie to a coat. That’s as little as 56p per garment. It basically turns your tumble dryer into a ‘virtual dry cleaners’ . BRILLIANT!

For those with a bit more guts….

• ” Get some very mild soap, dissolve in hot water, then add cold so that the water is tepid.
• Rub dirty spots and marks VERY GENTLY (with one finger, using a stroking motion). Swirl the clothes around the sink and leave them sitting there in the warm soapy water for a bit, NEVER WRING, TWIST OR SCRUB!
• Let out the soapy water and replace with clean. Swirl your clothes around until they are rinsed, changing the water as appropriate.
• Press out the water – DO NOT WRING- put the garments to dry on a piles of towels and leave until dry

Lastly, NEVER stick anything you’ve just hand washed into the tumble dryer. It will shrink to death

And there you go…. now there’s no excuses!

What’s the point in spending £3 on a dress when it’s a) going to fall apart after one wear b) going to be worn by everyone else on Saturday night and c) just doesn’t fit!

I think I’m quite lucky in that I can walk into a budget shop, (mostly a charity shop or Primark) pick up a bargainous item of clothing I like, and vision a million other possibilities for it! I’ve acquired the technical skills to alter, shorten, reinforce and if needs be, completely pull apart and start again. Hopefully over time, i will show you all you need to know to do this yourself!

I’ll be honest with you, my tips aren’t gospel. They aren’t straight from the Big Bible of Sewing! (made that up by the way), but it works for me and has made every £3 I’ve ever spent on a dress worth it!

So…. I thought I’d start with the most basic, and without a doubt, the most useful. How to hem a skirt or dress. I think with every dress I have ever brought, the moment I’ve got it home, out have come the scissors and up has come the Hemline! That or the hem just falls straight down (typically Primark), so hope this will be as useful to you as it is for me.

First things first… you need to decide how short you’d like the skirt to be. Once happy with the desired length, mark with chalk or a pin. Take the garment off and mark all the way round. pretty easy huh?
Next, using SHARP scissors, you need to CAREFULLY cut about an inch below the chalk (or pin) line. This extra inch is then folded up twice to meet your desired length. Iron the fold and pin into place!

You need a needle and thread for the next bit, so choose a thread that matches the colour of your garment.
To sew into place you can use one of two stitches…

 

Catch Stitch (above)

With this stitch you need to work left to right

• Take a small backstitch on layer 1
• Move the needle to the right and on layer 2 take another small backstitch
• Repeat!!

It’s really important that you only ever catch 1 or 2 threads on layer 2- this way it won’t show through on the right side of your garment!

Vertical Hem Stitch (above)

With this stitch you can work right to left

• The needle catches 2 threads in layer 1
• It then passes behind the folded hem and up through layer 2.
• Then bring the needle up and over to catch 2 threads in layer 1 once more
• And repeat!!