Monday's attire

Monday saw us heading back to Primark to exchange a couple of things.

For this trip I chose the following outfit:

Tommy Hilfiger 'Hudson' jeans, Asda beige shirt, Red T-Shirt, Primark Canvas Jacket, Baracuta 'Waterloo' Boots, Red socks. 

While I was there I picked up a nice French-style canvas overshirt / jacket. I had seen it in there the last time we went, but at £20, I thought it was a bit too similar to something I already had so I decided against it. Imagine my surprise this time when I saw it discounted to £3! When we paid for it, it came up at £10, so I went to look at the other couple on the sale rail and they said £10 (my one had £3 written over the price in red) Anyway, we queried it with customer services and they refunded us the £7.

So here in all its glory is my £3 overshirt!

Perfect for that poor impoverished artist look....I just need a simple collarless shirt to complete the outfit!

Socks appeal

Having been looking for some spotty socks, I picked up this funky trio in TK Maxx today:

They are by Crew Clothing and cost £7.99 for the three pairs. Result!

Primark Jacket

We took a trip to the new Primark store at the MK1 shopping park at Milton Keynes on Saturday. It's situated next to the MK Dons football stadium, which is next to the huge Asda / Walmart store, which is next to Ikea. This new development houses Primark, River Island, New Look, Outfit/BHS, Next and M&S. Parking is free, but I would advise getting there early as the queues can get quite long as there is only one way in and out and this looks to be a bit of a bottleneck. The place looks to be very popular, as the 600 spaces were soon filled and after lunch drivers were prowling the car park hunting for any elusive empty ones.

I can't really tell you much about the other stores as we only went in Primark (and the BHS cafe which doesn't serve hot childrens' meals, much to our chip-loving 2 year-old's disappointment!) The Primark store was pretty big. I don't think it is quite as big as the Oxford store, but it seemed to have more in it if that makes sense? It was much more like an upmarket store with its nice lighting and dark ceilings and walls (as opposed to the big white room full of stuff that some of their stores feel like) and basically, if you like Primark you won't be disappointed by it. Just get there early!

So what did I buy there? Well, I have been hankering after a simple utility style jacket / blazer ever since I saw a guy wearing one on a blog a few months ago. I can't seem to find it now, but if I do I will upload it!

His jacket was one worn by French railway workers and was it so effortlessly simple and plain that it inspired me to find one similar. I recently came across this really nice one by Saint James, but I as lovely as it is, I didn't really want to spend £109 on it. :( Then I saw a really nice one in Gap for £30 in the sale, but they didn't have my size (only S / M left). Then we went to Primark and I found this:

It's a toffee colour and is made of a soft canvas-like material. It's very simple with its three pockets and has a contrasting 'denim' lining on the shoulders (the rest is unlined) It's pretty much just what I wanted, and best of all it cost just £20. Just the job!

My 1952 Belt

I won this belt on ebay a little while ago. It is stamped S.E.N. 1952 / J.A. 2394 / 075 along with the government issue arrow marks and features a heavy (brass?) buckle. The weird thing about it is the fact it was 85" long which is a whopping 7'1" (for our metric friends that's 2.15m) Now I can't imagine a soldier having an 85" waist, and I don't see how it would work as a double-wrap belt because the keepers are too narrow and there are no holes for the first 'wrap'. It has been made by joining two lengths together and the join looks to be original, so I'm wondering if it was actually a strap for securing something such as a trunk? I've tried searching for information, but I've turned up a blank so far.

Anyway, I hope it doesn't turn out to be some super-rare thing, as I have converted it to a standard length belt. This involved cutting the original stitched joint, cutting the belt itself just after the keeper, and then stitching the two pieces together using the original holes in each piece. These holes didn't line up very well, but with the help of some black waxed thread, a needle, a steel thimble and some brute force, I managed to bodge stitch it....

I'm really happy with the way it looks and feels. It's like wearing my own little piece of history!

 

Bund strap

I picked up this nice little 'bund' strap for my aviator watch project on ebay. It cost me the princely sum of £6 including postage and I love how it looks on the watch. I hope it will look even better when I have aged it a little and even better still when I team it up with the aged version of the watch.

 

Aviator watch

I took a punt on a bargain basement aviator watch that I saw online from the German company Westfalia tools. I thought it would provide a cheap base for my planned WW2 style watch that I mentioned previously.

Anyway, it turned up and it's great! It feels a lot more expensive than it's £19.99 price-tag. It is a big 47mm in diameter and has a nice 'onion' crown (the winder). The hands and the numbers are lumed and glow nicely when they've been exposed to light and it has a basic Quartz movement (ie battery powered)  I know it's cheap, but this way I don't mind if I mess up my attempt to age it. Well that's not true...I like it so much, I just ordered another one in case I do just that and make a mess of it, but actually I think it's going to be a good foundation for my little project....

Grandad t-shirt

After a fruitless search for a white 'Grandad' 3-button t-shirt to wear as a base layer, I was stoked to find one in Sainsburys yesterday!

As per usual with their clothing, the quality is excellent. A nice heavyweight cotton with three dark metallic buttons and all for the paltry sum of £6....So pleased I bought two!

I can't see it on their site, but it's the same as this one, only white!

White shirt

On Saturday I went looking for a heavyweight cotton, button-down shirt in white and I was happy when I found this one in H&M:


I was even happier when I found out I needed a Medium!

Shirt can be found here

School's out....

Here is a picture of my vintage school satchel which I picked up on ebay recently. It is a lovely conker colour and has the original owner's name written inside in very faint felt-tip pen. I'm planning on making a pseudo-vintage name label for this soon (possibly a WW2 evacuation style one?) My only niggle with it is the 100cm strap, which is a little short for me to wear across the chest so I tend to keep it over one shoulder and hope it doesn't look like a handbag!

Sunday's attire

Went shopping to Oxford today and for this occasion, I chose:

Tommy Hilfiger 'Hudson' jeans, 'Breton' style long-sleeved T-shirt, Jasper Conran denim shirt, Farah CPO overshirt, Baracuta 'Waterloo' boots, Purple socks.

I know this is a very similar look to last weekend, but I wanted some trusty comrades on my first venture into 'double denim'. Thankfully they didn't disappoint!

During the shopping trip, I picked up a cream cable sweater and some skinny fit black jeans in Primark. I did try on a tweed waistcoat, but my two year old little boy gave it a firm 'no' and who am I to ignore advice like that?

Cable sweater

I tried on a blue cable sweater from Frederick Anderson - Copenhagen in TK Maxx today, but I wasn't sure about the colour. It was a mid-indigo and when I had it on, I thought I wanted something in a more neutral colour, but now I'm thinking I might go back try on the orange one. I have seen a grey one and a cream one in lambswool for only a pound more so they might need a try on too...