Bless My Little Cotton Tops

As part of my summer clearout (which is still a work in progress), my wardrobe also came under review.  I prefer wearing natural fibres as much as I can which means lots of cotton, particularly in summer. 

I realised that some items weren't being worn, even though I loved the fabrics (I just love colour and patterns) so it was a case of wear it or donate it to the charity shop or, in a few cases, alterations were required to make all the difference.

A favourite is this orange and reds Indian paisley top with ruched detail and metallic "coins".  I realised I wasn't wearing it because it was too long and it made me feel too short (I am short, but it made me feel even shorter!).  So I trimmed a band off the bottom and recycled the cut off piece to make a matching hairband.  Now it feels much more "me" and I'm wearing it again!

The paisley top was too long but the green and blue strappy top was too "full" due to an extra layer underneath which made me feel too wide. So an adjustment here meant reducing the underneath layer to make it more floaty and also fixing the straps which annoyingly kept falling off my shoulders.  

Then there was my lucky charity shop find which didn't require any alterations - a Fat Face top found whilst on our camping trip in Cornwall - I came back with a nice, useful souvenir and the British Heart Foundation made some money out of my purchase - a win-win for both parties.

I currently have a work in progress that is a recycling of some fabric off-cuts from my scraps box - a blue and white montage of spots and stripes (you'll have to use your imagination a little here).

I really do get plenty of wear out of these little tops because they're very useful for layering up over t-shirts and under cardigans, once the weather starts to get a bit cooler.

I suppose the moral of the story here is, if there's something that's not being used, ask yourself why?  If something can be fixed, adapted or converted into something else which would make it useful, then do it.  But if not, then is it merely just taking up valuable space and would it probably be time to donate it to a new owner who would be able to appreciate it more?