Is Marks & Spencer getting any better?
Marks & Spencer has delivered its first rise in clothing sales in four years after a pickup in performance at its website. Sales of clothing rose by 0.7% in the 13 weeks to 28 March compared with a 5.8% slide in the previous three months.The tentative step into positive territory comes after 16 quarters without growth. It was also achieved in the face of a tricky spring for fashion retailers, with much chillier weather than this time last year. M&S credited improvements in style and quality as well as positive press coverage, particularly of a suede skirt which has yet to arrive in stores, for the sales turnaround. But performance was largely lifted by a return to growth at M&S.com, where sales rose 13.8%, a considerable bounce from the 6% slump over Christmas. (The Guardian)
I buy a fair amount of museli, fruit and veg, bacon and the odd bottle of wine from M&S. Virtually all my knickers are M&S, but I have not bought a fashion item for a very long time. Mainly because I don’t think much of the fit, and none of the sub-brands do it for me. Once when I was buying an umbrella or some stud earings, an enterprising sales assistant asked me if I was “Per Una?“.
“No” I shreiked – not for me over-colourful, bias cut midi skirts that cling to the thigh, matched with embellished waterfall cardigans. I was appalled at his inability to even take in what I was wearing, my general appearance and demeanor. Per Una is for 40 year olds from Tranmere, with a dog and a husband called Kev.
He hesitated, then tried again: “Classic?” he ventured. “No!” I cut in. Even worse – the middle of the road outfits for dowdy 60 year olds – Susan from Haslemere who makes marmalade, organises a reading group and wears a nighty in bed. I began to despair – “I quite like Autograph” I suggested, although I don’t actually buy this range, apart from the tights.
Actually Autograph and the Limited Collection do have some reasonable outfits. The new womenwear supremo, credited with the slight turn aound in their fortunes, is Belinda Earle, from Debenhams. Let’s have a look at that suede skirt shall we?
Apparently there is a waiting list for this £200 skirt, due to be released today. If you see someone wearing one, now you where they bought it. Not from a second hand shop, trading in 70s leatherwear, but from”good old M&S”. In fact there is also a cheaper “faux” suede version available, but it’s apparently sold out. I don’t like it much – if your legs are wider than your arms this is not a length that flatters. I don’t rate the colour either, especially when paired with maroon or black. It would look a lot better with rust, mustard or khaki. These two pretty girls, with identical cheek bones, can look miles better.
The outfits below are available this spring/summer and I have picked them out as a cut above the high street norm. I am not sure I would buy or wear any of these outfit due to the colour, cut or fabric. But I like the shapes and silhouettes, and I feel that the styling is far better than we have seen before.
What do you think?
Guest post – an interview with Dr Elena Rowland
Like me, Elena (or Helena as her friends call her) is a member of the Governors’ Board at a local NHS Mental Health Trust. I am always impressed by her keen sense of style and the fact that she makes her own clothes. Here she is at a recent meeting with her home made blouse and waistcoat. She says “you should point out that I have issues with the sleeves as one is higher than the other. Chiffon is a difficult material to use – especially for a beginner”.
Last week I went to see her at home – she lives in a lovely sheltered flat in Greenwich – where she treated me to tea and apple cake.
“I am Czechoslovakia – Slovakian – from a very disadvantaged family. Not a poor family, but from a background that meant we faced discrimination first from the Nazis, and then later under the Soviet Union. I was born in 1947 after the Nazi occupation and the war had ended – one of three children. My father loved clothes – maybe more than you would expect for a man – who knows? We had a dressmaker who made clothes for my mother, my sister and me. We used to get fashion magazines and catalogues and decide what we would like to have made. I really loved the process – it was a little bit of luxury. In these graduation pictures my mother, my sister and I are all wearing tailor made clothes. My father too. You can see his suit is superior to my brothers’ which was off the peg.”
“The Slovaks had their own culture, but of course this was not acceptable to the Germans, or the Russians. So national identity was something that was suppressed. To a certain extent some dancing and singing groups were allowed – this allowed us to keep our traditions alive. Each Slovakian region has its own national dress – some are brightly coloured and some use embroidery. They only use natural fabrics and usually include hand made lace.”
“Here is a photograph of me from my First Communion. The lace that was used came from a local factory – I know it was very expensive.”
“My friend and I are wearing red velvet dresses in this photograph (below L) – the dresses were made from the same piece of cloth. It was Christmas time. And the other dress (below R) was pale blue bound with blue and white binding – these were in the 1950s. I always like the idea of made to measure – something only I could have. The lady who made our clothes – she was a seamstress on the side – her normal job was as a clerk. The fabric was usually bought from a foreign currency shop so it was special. I brought one of the dresses she made for me to the UK, but because had grown too big for it – I sold it. I remember getting about £30 for it.”
“I qualified as a doctor, then as a cardiologist. I moved to Prague where I worked with people with leukemia. It was very sad work. I worked locally for two decades but came to London in 1982. It was difficult to find work as a doctor so I retrained in Psychology. I became an expert in eating disorders, until I retired. I still love clothes. I have a sewing machine. I have been to classes to learn how to cut patterns, but I am still learning. I like making cushions and painting on silk too.”
Elena showed me a range of brightly coloured cushions and a patchwork quilt she had made for her bed – this should be on show alongside Tracy Emin’s if you ask me! The second shot shows Elena, in a skirt and top she had made from fabric that was, unbelievably, only £1 a metre from the table outside a shop in Lewisham owned by a Russian. She is sitting on a patchwork cushion she made herself from scraps of velvet and corduroy.
The Frustration of Experimentation
I’m a little bit fed up today.
My first dripping damask experiments had gone so well – it literally took me about 90 minutes from conception to satisfaction. I had the idea, I decided on a technique, I gave it a go. It worked brilliantly.
However I wanted to do the same thing again, but this time using a much thicker (dark navy) silk cloth.
The first problem was how to get the pattern onto the fabric. I messed around with trying to replicate my previous technique ie place fabric over pattern, paint the black bits with hot wax. Unfortunately the fabric was not thin enough to do this. I don’t have a light box so I tried to use some of our existing lights and sticking the cloth to the window. Even doing quite dangerous things didn’t work. So then I thought about making a stencil – actually advised by a talented 14 year old (Gracie).
Before I started cutting I wanted to make the stencil big enough so started by trying to match two stencil pictures together. But it just didn’t work – it was like an Esher drawing – I just kept going round and round. It wasn’t a true pattern, unfortunately. The only way I could make it bigger was to mirror the design. Using a craft knife and cutting against a piece of plastic I did a lot of cutting out. Completing the stencil to my satisfaction took around two and a half hours.
Then I had to think about how I was going to get the design onto the dress. (I could have printed the fabric first, but I wanted the damask to work on the dress as a whole, with the drips coming down towards the hem, rather than seams dividing the image. So I made up the dress – leaving open the CB and shoulder seams so it could be laid flattish on my table.
However by now I had a nearly finished a classy and expensive navy silk dress. I suddenly got a crisis of confidence. No way was I going to start sloshing first wax then bleach on my lovely dress. Would it work? Would I mess up? Would it look like I had had an accident with some Domestos? I felt very afraid.
So Saturday afternoon I start doing some samples. I found that paper stencils and hot wax is not a good combo – the wax just seeps underneath. A stencil would work well with a silk screen and then I could print with the discharge paste. I also tried some simpler designs thinking maybe it is the dribbles I want rather than the damask.
However whenever I pressed out the wax, and used a hot iron on the discharge paste, the effect was, well just pasty. The silk is too thick, the paste doesn’t really penetrate the fibres and it just gives a wishy-washy effect. Something like chalk stains – it just looked really rubbish.
So its back to square one for me. The upside is
- my turquoise experiment was really nice and can become a garment
- I can certainly use this technique on fine fabrics
- i know how to do the dripping damask effect on a heavy fabric, but I need a silk screen
- i have discovered the limitations of tracing, stencils and discharge paste
- I have a nice silk plain navy dress that is still available for customisation
On the downside my final SWAP piece is not going anywhere at the moment.
So I am considering what to do with the navy dress which is just too plain and deeply coloured for me. I wouldn’t buy or wear a plain navy dress. I am considering
- machine embroidery
- using my dino-lace. I only have 1m so the idea of a lace skirt will not work, and with it being navy on navy it seems a bit of a waste
- contrasting sleeves (maybe dino-lace sleeves).
Off to do some more experiments.
Sewing with a Plan 2015 0.22 – painting on silk
This week I have been experimenting with making the fabric for my silk dress. I have two ideas going on at present, and I am not sure which one I want to use for the SWAP – the light, colourful flowers versus the dark, dripping damask. I will probably make up both dresses as they appeal to different aspects of my personality – I will decide which one to include in the SWAP later this month.
I already posted my dripping damask experiments, inspired by Alexander McQueen. I would like to produce a similar effect on heavyweight navy silk (ex Nicole Farhi) that I got at Simply Fabrics. I am currently considering how to transfer the design to such a thick, dark fabric (holding it up to the window, even though we have quite a lot of sun at the moment doesn’t help Stephanie. And light boxes do not have powerful enough light, unfortunately. I am thinking stencil?).
My second experiment involves painting large flowers on white crepe silk using hot wax batik and brightly coloured silk paint. This is something I have already done a few times befroe, but usually for linings. Where you can see a greyish, slightly shiny effect this is the cooled wax. This is so that part of the pattern will remain white. The red speckles on top of the wax are caused by me daubing the paint on willy-nilly. When the wax is ironed out these little particles of paint absorb into the silk creating a nice effect.
To be honest I had meant to paint the pink flowers, add some green leaves, then paint hot wax over them to protect them, then imerse the fabric in a vat of dark grey dye. This would help bring the design into the SWAP, which has bright and deep shades in it. But I got a bit carried away and painted the background with a turquoise-blue background instead. Again you can see how the green paint sits on the surface. I made one fairly large piece that I could use as a skirt section if I decided to go with this colourway and effect. I liked the way the blue and pink complemented each other, with the touches of green and yellow. I really like this colour combination. The variations in the colour of the red/pink for example is created simply by dilution of the one shade of red. The green is mixed from blue and yellow. It is a very simple, very satisfying process. I like painting but I don’t like getting things exact, and I am just too messy and expressive to plan out where the flowers are going, or their size or relation to each other. I could certainly get a better, more balanced arrangement if I planned a bit more, but if I planned it and it went wrong I would be disappointed. So I like this loose style approach, somewhat instinctive where the finished fabric (and garment) is full of happy accidents.
Once the silk paint dries (very quickly) it is just a matter of applying a hot iron on top of newspaper or any slightly absorbent paper. You need to put lots of newspaper underneath too, to protect your ironing board.
After pressing the fabric I put it in the washing machine to remove the remaining wax staining. I don’t have enough for a dress here, so if I go with this for the SWAP I need to make a second piece. That is slightly challenging as it is hard to keep the colour ways similar, which Is why I try to use them straight out of the jar rather than mixing custom colours each time. Also I adore bright floral patterns – as you can see I was wearing my 2015 SWAP skirt, with last year’s SWAP floral cardigan. When you have a consistent cool-bright palette everything goes with everything (not sure about the slippers though).
Have you ever done batik? I just love the warmth, smell and feel of the hot wax. It is such simple but effective technology. It’s a little bit unstructured, in a good way, but you can get very precise results with it if you really want to.
Men’s style – Patrick Grant
When I went to see Women, Fashion, Power, I was a little surprised to see Mr Patrick Grant giving an interview at the end on the history of women’s fashion. Like me you may have known this guy from the Great British Sewing Bee. He is not an academic; he is not a journalist; he is not a tailor; but now he has become a foremost style expert for both men and women. He bought a defunct tailors’ and became its style advisor. Recently he produced a range for Debenhams, badged as quintessential British style. Good luck to him – I hope he is successful.
Patrick was born in Scotland and trained as an engineer, but has always (rarely for a man it seems) been most interested in style and looking right, even as a school boy (knee high socks up, but turned down). He is tall, with wide shoulders and a fairly slim but not effete body shape with smart facial hair. He is selling his own style, claiming he would not produce anything he would not wear himself. I follow Paddy on Twitter and he is a good guy – but as he sets himself up as an expert on style I hope he doesn’t mind me giving my opinion on his outfits.
Let’s have a look, at his look.
Here he is (1) in a double-breasted coat over a nice grey checked suit with decent brown shoes. The coat is a bit naval, but the wide collar is flattering on hin and he looks smart. I don’t think the suit cuff should be revealed, or has he pushed up the coat sleeves deliberately? Is it a new look?
I like (2) , his diffusion range for high street store Debenham’s. Patrick again develops the fisherman look with a heavy polo necked jumper, a coat with the collar artfully turned up, plain grey trousers, and a pair of light tan shoes. He is tall enough for the contrasting shoes, and in fact the outfit would be a little dreary with black shoes. Patrick has his horizontal lines in just the right places. His cuffs are just long enough, the trousers are the right length and the knee-length coat is a good on him, balancing out his wide shoulders. Personally I find the collar of his jumper a little bit too wide, but it this is just a matter of opinion.
The messy linen double-breasted jacket and rolled up trousers (3) is a bit off. Here the horizontals make him look fairly short and a little bit fat. Although he has a tan I think the blue is bit bright – muted colours are more flattering for him, with some deepness – and this emphasises the width of the tummy area, making him look a bit like he is pregnant. The tatty turquoise shopper undermines the natty pocket handkerchief. And does the outfit need a tie too? The rolled up trousers could look OK as he has long slim legs, but I would have matched them with a nice round neck cashmere jumper, or a loose jacket.
Patrick says
“Some people have the ability to carry clothes, and whatever clothes they happen to wear they look right in. Other people, sadly, could be dressed by the greatest stylists in the world and still look slightly uncomfortable. I think the point is that you have to wear the clothes that you feel yourself in. Then, even if you’re scruffy, you can be incredibly stylish. Style is about individuality and continuity, and fashion is about uniformity and constant churn — but you can buy into fashion and retain a sense of personal style. Although I do think there’s too much fashion in the world.”
Let’s have a look at another outfit. Patrick likes to wear a double breasted suit. He is tall and broad chested enough to wear a DB jacket but to me the proportions are wrong. The trousers, shoes and tie are way too skinny for such a full jacket. It makes him look a portly and the length resembles a dress. And although you can wear them undone, this just looks a mess to me. The colour of this suit and shirt (muted blues) work well.
We have the same issue with the two double breasted jackets below. The single breasted grey suit (no 2) is far more flattering than no 4 and no 5. The two button tweed looks really nice and neat (although I think the trousers may be a little tight in the crotch). The mid grey suit and soft blue shirt work well with the dark tie and shoes. On the other hand the double breasted suits are not so good. He has had them fitted into the waist when I believe the jacket would look much more pleasing if it were tapered to the hip, giving a stronger V shape, rather than a slight hour glass. Patrick has slim hips but is a bit thick in the waist and the flare on the jacket just emphasises it. I like the evening suit, matched with a midnight blue coat, but possibly the tied belt was a mistake. But the worst outfit here is the loud check coat and hat. Although the hat is good style for his angular features with the coat it just looks too much like a fashion victim to me – and the trousers are bagging around the ankles.
Let’s have some pictures of where Patrick nails it. In all these views he has chosen a more muted colour scheme; I especially like the shades of green which complement his eyes and hair. The mixed textures – linen, tweed and gingham – mean that there is a low contrast to the look – very harmonious and and elegant. The two more traditional, but not over formal suits, show the classic English Savile Row fit – not too slim cut, but well fitting nevertheless. The trousers are slightly fuller and balance his tapered body shape perfectly. The two button jacket looks great without cutting him off at the top of the legs. I really much prefer this style of jacket to the double breasted ones above.
What do you think – especially about the double breasted jacket and coats?
The general election – women leaders get noticed
The long general election campaign grinds on in the UK. It is not much fun and not very interesting. Until the women burst forth. All our big parties, like most of our big companies, are run by men. But some of the smaller ones have taken a risk and employed women to lead. Leaders of small parties may feel less contrained and able to speak more freely and naturally – what a relief. How are they doing in the style stakes?
Nicola Sturgeon
Although I oppose Scottish independence I thought Nicola Sturgeon was by far the strongest speaker last week. She also looked pretty good. We know that Nicola is really a natural brunette rather than a redhead. Nevertheless the strident orange jacket made her stand out in the group. She is looking quite stylish these days with a much better hair colour and cut, a slim and toned figure, very high heels and bright business suits. In the light blue she looks washed out, thin lipped and her hair colour is awful. In the second picture her hair is darker and she looks pretty sassy.
Leanne Wood
Leanne is the leader of Plaid Cymru. She was less impressive than Nicola, but she is spirited and lively. I liked her red dress and it certainly gave her profile on the night. She is an attractive candidate but the black bolero was down market and the sort of thing women wear at weddings to keep the chill off and hide their upper arms. I have no idea what her natural colouring is as she has worn her hair blonde, brown and red in recent years. But I think she looks strong and radiant in bright colours – implying her own colouring is bright. These jackets and the neat hairstyle give her more authority and gravitas than when she wears her hair down, with a cardi.
Natalie Bennett
Natalie is the leader of the Green Party and until recently was famous for performing very poorly in a radio interview about housing (how I longed to help her out!). She was much better in the leaders’ debate. However Natalie has great difficulty in deciding what to wear. I think her wardrobe personality is “natural” in that she doesn’t like dressing up or being too formal. She has light colouring, possibly also muted but I think she needs to wear a structured and slightly deeper coloured jacket to give her authority. The picture on the right – with groomed eyebrows, and a bit of make up is far more impressive than the first picture. But she could do with a better hair style – this one looks uneven (I think she is naturally blonde but bleaches it brassy as well), lank and actually makes her face look a bit square. During the Leaders’ Debate she chose a white blouse and grey jacket – which I felt was too “safe” for a radical leader. This colour scheme is one frequently chosen by men (second only to navy and white) so I feel she would have stood out more had she worn a coloured jacket instead. Blonde women with light colouring might consider a white or cream jacket for impact, or a good shade of pink. But of course green is the best colour if you lead the green party – it’s about finding the right shade of green.
A few days later we had a Scottish Leaders’ debate. Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, also proved women can lead. She was powerful too.
Ruth Davidson
Ruth is a relatively young (36), gay and feisty. She has a shaped figure, and great legs. She usually wears a well-fitted, structured jacket which flatters her figure and gives her an air of competence and control. At the leaders’ debate she wore a bright orange jacket, a slim skirt and high heels – looking more like a leader. The grey jacket below does nothing for her – she has bright blue eyes and dark brown hair, so she can get away with stronger colours and more contrast – as with the navy and red combination.
Making aprons for all ages
I am not proud of the aprons I ran up last weekend.
The patterns were drafted with just a few guessed measurements. The idea was just to produce a surface on which I could help Ted to print his own apron. I drew out a man’s, woman’s and kid’s apron shape on pattern paper, (one for Daddy, Mummy and Baby Bear) and used the one pattern to cut just two aprons – the man’s and a child’s. The issue with apron design is that the neck hole needs to be big enough to get over the head, but if it is too big the bib of the apron droops.
I used the same old Ikea linen curtain that I got at the Oxfam shop that I have used for toiles before. I cut out a pocket, and used the decorative edge of the curtain for a border. This one is for Ted. I did a similar one for Nick. Then we got out all my lino prints and some letters and other oddments and Ted decorated his apron using first red ink and then dark green.
Ted put a crab, some seaweed, three knives, several small moustaches, a red dog and a yellow dog, a range of graphics and a finger print.
I printed Nick’s apron using the crabs and seaweed that Nick’s daughter Charlotte made for him, and my knives. I also printed the apron with his name. I divided the pocket into three sections for Nick as he wanted specific pocket slots for his scissors – which he is forever losing.
Once the printing was complete I hemmed all the edges and sewed on waist and neck ties. Then the cook and his young assistant made a danish twist and a small apple pie. And jolly delicious they were too.
Dripping Damask experiment
Yesterday I explained that I would like to replicate an effect from an Alexander McQueen dress. This features a traditional positive-negative damask design which then drips down the dress as it disintegrates.
Lyn suggested using a batik effect, and this is what I did – to an extent.
I photocopied a damask design in black and white. I laid some thin silk over the photocopy, and where it was black I painted over it with hot wax. I removed the silk from the paper and taped the fabric to the wall. The next step was to paint over the cooled wax with discharge paste and wait for it to drip down.
The paste ran down the fabric in an artful way, which was then dried off with a hair dryer.
Once fully dry I ironed the fabric on the back side which both melted the wax and activated the dischrage paste.
The effect was very good (considering I had no idea if the paste would work with wax as a resist.
Once washed the discharged area was almost white and I plan to make a little top from this piece of turquoise, stretch silk – which I previously used to make a Burda blouse for the SWAP. However this was only an experiment. I want to make the McQueen silk dress in navy blue, with the discharge paste causing the fabric to turn lighter blue – perhaps unevenly so.
However there is a big problem. The turquoise silk was light weight and thin enough for me to see the damask design underneath, allowing me to simply paint the hot wax over the black parts. With my thick navy silk I don’t know how to get the wax resist to provide the damask design. I could perhaps cut the paper to make a stencil and paint over it with wax (or maybe just the discharge paste); or maybe another method may work. What if I paint the design in wax onto some silk organza and then press it onto the navy. After letting it dry it should resist the discharge paste. I may have to experiment with both these ideas before deciding on which way forward.
In the meantime I wanted to say Happy Easter to everyone. We had a lovely Sunday brunch with Eggs Benedict on homemade muffins, pain au raisin, and hot cross buns. All of it home made by Nick.
Alexander McQueen fabrics at Savage Beauty
I have already written a review of the Alexander McQueen exhibition.
It’s stunning. As ever, when you see a body of work, however it is displayed and arranged, you cannot help but be in awe of the productivity of an artist like Lee. Every season he brought brand new ideas out of the hat. Scottish oppression, Nigerian voodoo, Japan v America chess game, Birds of Prey, American football, Chinese embroidery, Jack the Ripper. You can see some stunning clothes here – works of art made from leather, hessian, appliquéd silk, horsehair, feathers, microscope slides, razor clam shells.
There is atmosphere – a Cabinet of Curiosities allows you to sit for a while and watch the catwalk shows, see a selection of accessories close up and take in some of the garments, neatly displayed in cabinets. Here is the dress that was painted live, as the finale to the SS 1999 show, by robots more familiar in car assembly plants.
This post focuses specifically at use of individually printed fabrics used by McQueen in the very early days.
While his later work is stunning I must admit I was especially interested in the very innovative approach adopted by Lee in the early days. He was living in a Council flat in Tooting after he qualified at Central St Martins and had virtually no income. He put the S/S 1996 – The Hunger – collection together for just £600. Many people describe how they were drawn to work for him – initially for virtually nothing but the gift of clothes – including a publicist, a runway show stylist – Katy English, and a textile designer – Simon Ungless.
His poverty also drove him to use all sorts of materials for his first proper collection – Taxi Driver – flameproof curtain linings, bird feathers from plucked pheasants, and various items from builders merchants such as latex. Unfortunately there are no items preserved from this collection. Stuffing the clothes into black bin bags he and Simon went for a celebratory drink, leaving the bags outside a Soho pub. When they came out the bags had gone.
The S/S 1995 Birds show included a number of outfits – one or two on show at the exhibition – made in white cotton over which an inked car tyre was used to print it with Indian ink.
I was also fascinated with another dress in the exhibition. It is calf length, made from slightly shiny black silk. On the front, applied after the dress has been stitched together is what looks like a damask design screen printed or painted on to it, which has then been hung up so that the ink dripped towards the hem. It may have been done digitally, but I have held this dress in my mind since I first saw it and wondered if I might make a version of it.
Here is a close up. As an idea I find it fascinating – the gold ink looks molten, almost like sealing wax. The very regular damask design – a lovely classic pattern that works so well in strongly contrasting colours – then degrades as it trickles down the models’ thighs. I am wondering how to capture this design – I like damask very much – as a screen, block or batik print.
Here is modern RTW item from the company, using the same idea but in a mass-produced way. 
Of course later on Lee could use the most sumptuous cloth and custom printed fabrics of the most exquisite quality. But for me the early experiments and innovative approaches, using cheap everyday materials, are the most interesting. The London exhibition, currently on at the V&A, has the prologue that has been added to the pre-existing New York collection. Katy English contacted lots of the people who were there at the start and asked to borrow back items and garments Lee had given away. The tailored jackets on show were collected from his older friends, and some of the rougher elements (made by McQueen at home on his sewing machine, with unfinished seams from cheap fabrics) tell us more of the story than the highly stylised pieces from the days when he was at Givenchy.
Issues with my blog – Sorry!
Just a little post today to say that my blogging life has been rather stressful. Firstly, last week, my trusty old Apple Mac blew up. I didn’t use any backup and although my dear son George has tried to retrieve what he can, much has been lost.
I rely on this computer to upload photos I have taken with my iPhone, via the charger, via Dropbox, that I then upload again on to my blog. So for the time being the only way I can upload new pictures is to send them to my husband, open his email, save the picture to his computer, then upload it to the blog. Time consuming and irritatating. So for a few days I will not be able to use new photographs (except the one of Kit, below).
I have ordered a new Mac which will arrive in a few days. In the meantime I am trying to blog via my dear husband’s computer, but it is not the same.
Then, supported by my wonderful step-son Ben, I have been trying to change the name of my blog and put the logo up there. This has gone quite well but there are inevitably teething problems (I am with you there Kit!)
I have “cached” the old Fit and Flare which means it is no longer available. We are now on Fabrickated.com full time. There are still a few things Ben and I need to do, so if things go a bit squiffy, that is the reason.
One thing that has happened is that a few drafts have been published without me meaning to publish them. This is annoying and I have now trashed them. But I will be bringing them back when they are finished, one day at a time.
The other annoying thing that happened, now fixed, thank God, was that the world was seeing my new look website and I couldn’t access it myself. Except on my phone. But not on the phone in my house, due to server/router problems. So I had to go out to use it. Worked fine on the bus, and on the stairs outside Esme’s flat. But not the most condusive places to write blogs. I find it impossible to write or edit on a small phone. So I was out of control for around 48 hours, which nearly drove me insane.
Finally, today, Saturday, the router is sorted. I still don’t have my own computer, but I will have next week. I apologise for the inturpution of service, especially to Elena who has been on and off the blog twice now, and I have still to edit her guest blog and get it signed off. Thank you for your patience. The regular daily blogs will be resumed shortly.
Thank you Ben. Thank you Nick. Thank you George. Thank you everyone who reads this blog, and I really appreciate your comments and feedback.
Love Kate. Fabrickated.
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