Charity clothes swap and mini market!

If you fancy updating your wardrobe but can’t afford it at the moment, no problem, head over to Whitchurch Community centre on Saturday 3rd November for a charity clothes swap and mini market, full of handmade, vintage, upcycled and recycled clothes and accessories.

The event, which starts at 6.30pm and costs £3, has been organised to raise money for George Thomas Hospice Care (GTHC), a significant provider of palliative care in Cardiff. Each year, the charity needs to raise £1.2m in order to operate its core services helping local patients and their families, who are suffering with cancer and other life threatening illnesses.

The clothes swap rules

-You are allowed to bring up to three items to trade at the swap (not including jewellery, swim wear, underwear, pyjamas or basic t-shirts).

-The items must be of good quality (either vintage or a good quality brand such as M&S).

-Clothes must be in good condition (no rips or stains and must be washed and ironed).

-Drop your items at the door when you arrive and you will receive a ticket for each item you bring.

-You will then have half an hour to browse the clothes before the swap shop starts.

-When the swap shop opens you can take what you want.

Sounds great! Not only will you walk away with a new outfit but you can clear out your own wardrobe, help charity and help the environment! And, if you thought it couldn’t get any better, there will be plenty of tea and CAKE available too!

To find out more, visit the event’s Facebook page.

If you want more information on how to organise your own clothes swap, check out a post I wrote about organising one a while ago.

Strummer of Love festival

If you love festivals and you love crafting you can combine the two this summer at the Strummer of Love festival, from 17^th– 19^th August. The festival, which will take place in Somerset, boasts a fantastic line-up including the Pogues and KT Tunstall.

When you’re not dancing away you can relax in the ‘Handmade Hangout’, where numerous free craft classes will be held, giving you the opportunity to make some fab festival gear including flower garlands and dream catcher jewellery. You can also attend discussions and classes on craft and activism and join the Shoreditch Sisters WI in their quilt project.

However, there is a more serious reason for the festival; it will be commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of Clash front man, Joe Strummer. His daughter, Jazz Domino Holly, author of Queen of Crafts:The Modern Girls’ Guide to Knitting, Sewing, Quilting, Baking, Preserving and Kitchen Gardening, will be hosting the Hangout.

Other attractions at the festival include ‘The Blackdown Hills Elderflower Kitchen’, a pop-up cafe which aims to source ingredients from within ten miles of the festival. Traditional English tea will be served daily in the kitchen, which will be situated in an Indian tent with hay bale seating.

To find out more visit the festival’s website or Jazz’s blog.

£1 jumble sale!

Last Sunday, I went along to the monthly £1 jumble sale held in the warehouse behind Milgi, on City Road. The sale started at 6pm but I’d been told to get there early as it gets really busy – there are so many great bargains to snap up!

I am about to go to Hong Kong for a couple of weeks so I picked up some nice summery dresses as it can get ridiculously hot out there. I originally picked up the orange and pink version of this dress and then I saw the blue one and, at £1 each, I decided to get them both!

I also found this shirt which can be used as a shirt dress with a tan belt or a night shirt and this handmade bag which will be great for the beach.

As well as a huge selection of second hand clothes an impressive array of handmade jewellery, bags and other accessories were also on sale.

All the clothes were second hand or handmade so you can shop with a clear conscience especially as everything is only £1!

For more information visit Milgi’s website.

Bespoke collar workshop

If you’re interested in customising and making your own clothes, Zolibeau, a local sustainable fashion brand, are holding a collar making session in their studio at the Women’s Workshop, Cardiff Bay.

The workshop, which will be held over two sessions on Thursday 17th and Thursday 31st May from 5.30-7.30pm, will give participants the chance to create a unique collar by layering together Swiss vintage lace and fabric off cuts from their latest collection ‘Full of lovely treasure’.

An example of a collar you could make. Image:Zolibeau

The sessions cost £35 (the collar would normally cost £45). If you’re interested you can book here.

The high street goes green

Do you want to dress sustainably but don’t have the patience to rummage through charity shops or the time to make your own clothes? The high street could have the answer. You may have already heard, a number of popular chains have recently introduced ethical clothing ranges and sustainable fashion initiatives.

High street hit, H&M have been championing environmentally friendly and ethical issues for quite some time; publishing a Conscious Actions Sustainability Report every year for the past 10 years, training more than 442,000 workers in Bangladesh on their rights since 2008, using recycled materials in their plastic bags and saving 300 million litres of water in their denim production.

Therefore, it is no surprise they have recently released a sustainable clothing range named the  ‘Conscious Collection’ featuring an assortment of dresses, blouses, skirts and shorts made from environmentally friendly fabrics, including organic cotton and recycled polyester made from PET plastic bottles.

The celebs are already donning this beautiful new range on the red carpet with Amanda Seyfried (of Mean Girls and Mama Mia fame) sporting the collection’s blue tuxedo shorts and blazer and Michelle Williams wearing a custom made Conscious Collection gown to the BAFTAs.

Marks and Spencer are also doing their bit for sustainable fashion. Their ‘Shwopping’ campaign, fronted by the lovely Joanna Lumley and in partnership with Oxfam, encourages customers to donate unwanted items of clothing when they purchase new garments at M&S stores. The donated clothes will then be recycled or resold by Oxfam, helping to reduce the amount of clothes sent to landfill, which is approximately 1 billion items each year!

A vintage bonanza this weekend!

For anyone who loves a vintage bargain, you’re in for a real treat this weekend!

Saturday 18^th January

Blind Lemon Vintage Fair, 10am-4pm, Cardiff Masonic Hall

This fair, which comes to Cardiff twice a year, will be held in a new venue and aims to focus on quality rather than quantity. You can visit their website to find out more information.

Here is a video of one of Blind Lemon’s previous fairs in Cardiff:

Video credit: bionicwaldorf

Sunday 19^th January

Jacobs Market Vintage Fair, 10.30am-5pm, West Canal Wharf

Jacobs Antique Market will be hosting their monthly vintage, retro and craft fair. The event promises a good range of vintage and handmade clothes as well as live music, stand up comedy, a vintage tea party and taster classes. Visit the Facebook page to find out more. You can also read my review of the last fair here.

Sewing Birds were at the last fair

£1 Jumble Sale at Milgi, 6pm-8pm, City Road

Milgi will be hosting their famous monthly £1 jumble sale. On their website Milgi claim, “You can find absolute gems at this market… If you love to shop but just don’t have the budget then this is the market for you!” Visit their website to find out more.

Stitch and Bitch at Oxfam Boutique

This week I attended a Stitch and Bitch session at Oxfam Boutique on St Mary’s Street. This get together, which takes place every Thursday evening from 6-8pm, and is open to any-one, offers a great opportunity to socialise and use donated textiles and fabrics to make new items which can be sold in the shop or used to decorate it.

This week we made Valentine’s Day bunting, to be displayed in the shop window, by cutting up old fabrics into heart shapes and sewing them together on string. Future projects include making fascinators out of donated combs and knitting.

For those who haven’t yet been, Oxfam Boutique is very different to many other charity shops as it is  selective in what it sells, offering and displaying high quality clothes in an attractive boutique style in their up-market premises.  It also has an impressive vintage section and a great variety of jewellery as well as being tastefully decorated, with all the clothes displayed in colour co-ordinated sections.

The Boutique has joined up with design students at local college Coleg Morgannwg who are up-cycling old clothes, originally unsuitable for sale in the shop, to create new garments. These up-styled clothes will be unveiled at a fashion show in the shop on Friday 9^th March from 7pm and will then be available to purchase.

The fashion show will be part of a wider event, hosted by the shop, celebrating International Women’s Day and there will be other entertainment as well as a raffle and food.

So, if you are interested in attending a lovely evening and helping charity, come to Bitch and Stitch next Thursday where we will be making more bunting; this time as decoration for the fashion show, which also promises to be a fun-filled interesting event!

Review: Jacobs Market vintage fair

As mentioned in my previous post, Jacobs Antique Market held a vintage fair last Sunday (15^th January). I really wanted to attend but had an exam the next day so was unable to go. However, my Mum went along and managed to take some photos and write a short review:  

“After paying my £1 admission fee, I ascended the stairs to the third floor of the Jacobs Market building on West Canal Wharf to explore the delights of their second vintage fair which returns every third Sunday of the month.

Although the permanent stalls are still accessible on the preceding floors, some of the stall holders, such as Eagle Eye Vintage and Jake and Jase with their retro album stall, had migrated to the third floor to join in the atmosphere.

Jake and Jase

There was an interesting assortment of visiting stalls, including Sewing Birds, a haberdashery shop based in Penarth who also provide an alteration service if your favourite “get-up” doesn’t fit or if you want to remodel its appearance, and an array of other stalls selling a wide range of clothes and accessories, such as vintage hats and exotic hair clips.

Sewing Birds

Anne's Attic

Visitors to the fair also included a couple of 1940s re-enactors, striking an eye-catching pose in their retro costumes.

The Happy Cupcake Kitchen stall provided the refreshments and the musical entertainment was delivered by the youthful ukulele band Ukulele Nights and up-and-coming band Jam with RoBina, which made the event an upbeat family occasion.”

Stalls are available to rent and the fair returns on Sunday, 18^th February.

Vintage fair at Jacobs Antique Market this Sunday!

Buying vintage clothes is a great way of supporting sustainable fashion as you are re-using and recycling previously owned items. However, more than that, vintage clothes often have more character and personality than high street clothes and are usually of better quality too! So, investing in some vintage pieces is a win-win situation.

Jacobs Antique Market

Lovers of vintage fashion may be interested to discover that Jacobs Antique Market on West Canal Wharf Street (next to Cardiff Central Station) is hosting a vintage fair this Sunday (15^th January) from 10.30 until 5.00. It sounds like it will be an exciting event with vintage and craft stalls, live music, cupcake demos, a vintage tea party, burlesque taster classes and tarot readings. The market’s usual antique and vintage stalls covering the first three stories of the building will also be open.

Eagle Eye Vintage stall at Jacobs Market

So, why not pop along, check out the vintage clothes on offer, make some cupcakes and even try out a bit of burlesque while you’re there?

Review: A Vintage Affair

This week, I visited A Vintage Affair in Morgan Arcade. I could have spent hours browsing around this quirky shop which spans two floors and is jam-packed with beautiful vintage dresses, jewellery, bags and accessories. The shop also sells a wide selection of vintage crockery, books, ornaments, pictures and trinkets all displayed in imaginative and interesting ways on old white washed dressers or in picnic baskets and old fashioned suitcases.

Everywhere you turn, there is something eye-catching and interesting, beautifully displayed without being cluttered or overwhelming. A Vintage Affair stocks a whole range of clothes throughout the eras from 1950’s prom dresses and coats to 1960’s suits and even Edwardian wedding dresses. They also stock a decent range of men’s clothes on the first floor. The clothes are of genuinely good quality and are not of that garish un-wearable kind you sometimes find in vintage shops.

If you’re the kind of person who loves vintage clothing, trinkets and pearls, tea parties and lace and avidly watches period dramas and the likes of Mad Men, you will definitely love this shop. Even if it’s just something different, unique and quirky you’re after, A Vintage Affair is absolutely worth a visit.

   I completely fell in love with this two-piece suit: