Julianne

I am incredibly fussy about florals. The last floral dress that I featured for Charity Shop Tuesday is as twee as I’ll go. I don’t like tiny ditsy floral prints, I’m only interested in big bold designs.

This dress is perfect for my tastes. Even though the flowers are pastel, and pastels alone don’t suit me, the bold dark background makes up for it. It’s also a great “day-to-night” dress. At work, I wear a collared shirt over the top, with a belt to give it some shape. Then I can take the shirt off and reveal the top of the dress with its flattering neckline.

It looks cute with round neck cardigans, and works if I have to wear tights – I usually go for black, opaque or fishnets, because bright coloured tights would detract from the pastel flowers.

This is probably one of my best charity shop finds, ever – I’ve had it several years now and every summer I wear it again and again. It’s so easy to wear, flattering, and fun.

Do you have a favourite charity shop find? Would you like to share it here on this very blog? I’m looking for guests to feature on future Charity Shop Tuesdays, so please get in touch!

I’ve had this dress for several years but have never worn it.

One day it appeared in the charity shop I used to volunteer at and I couldn’t resist it, due to one-day-I’ll-go-clubbing-a-lot-again syndrome.

I fell prey to this syndrome many times in my early twenties, when I lived at home with my parents and thought I’d move out within a couple of years. It’s why I own more party dresses than I ever wear and far more glittery makeup than I could ever use. I was thinking of a sparkly, nightclub-attending future that never came, because I started dating my partner while I lived at home and then moved straight from my parents’ house to our flat. I still get to dress up, of course, but it’s a couple of times a year rather than a couple of times a month.

Another problem is that I just don’t think this dress suits me. I was seduced by the floatiness and ignored the fact that the top part has quite a lot of beige (I’m a true winter, beige is definitely not my colour). It’s also the wrong shape for me – I look best with a defined waist – and the wrong length. I think dresses and skirts look best when they’re closer to my knees.

So, as I’ve concluded that this dress doesn’t work as-is, what are my options?

Firstly, I could donate it to another charity shop. It might find a new home. But it does have a flaw that really annoys me and would probably put off potential buyers. The lining doesn’t lie properly under the top part, it rolls so you can see it around the neckline, as shown in the photo below.

Another option is to dye it, but I can’t find a label with washing instructions, so I couldn’t be sure it would take.

The last option, and the one I’m leaning towards, is to turn it into a skirt. Here’s how it looks with the top part rolled underneath the stretchy band. This solves the shape issue and makes it more practical to wear – paired with a simple top it becomes more appropriate for everyday use.

I think this is my best option, but if you think I should try something else, let me know in the comments!

The branch of Mind that I found this dress in is usually not that good for clothes, I’ve previously found it much better for books, so I was surprised to spot this dress on the rack. But I had to try it on, as soon as I saw it, because of the dotty print. I love dots.

Amazingly, three years ago, I didn’t own any polka-dot dresses. I had one polka-dot circle skirt that used to belong to my mum, a polka-dotted make-up bag, even a pair of shoes. But no dresses.

I bought one dress with a gift voucher, and that broke the seal. Now I have eleven dresses with some variety of dotted pattern. I’m very fussy about other prints. Stripes need to be the right width. I dislike most florals and novelty prints. Anything geometric is out. But perfectly prim polkas, tiny orderly dots, big bold circles, I love them all!

Furthermore, this dress is by my favourite design duo, Emily and Fin. I must have an index of all their styles and prints in my head, because this is the second time I’ve thrifted an Emily and Fin.

I’ve already worn it to work and to the YA Book Prize event at Twitter’s London headquarters:

Do you have a favourite type of print?

I used to spend a lot of time browsing eBay, looking at what clothes fetched the highest prices, and one thing I learnt is that vintage, ‘Made in Great Britain’ Laura Ashley sells quite well. I bought a button-up maxi-dress with a fantastic print there a few years ago for about £10, and it was only so low because the hem had come undone.

So I was delighted to find this dress on a recent charity shopping spree:

I’d never seen such a purple vintage Laura Ashley dress before and this one made me feel like a princess. The back is too low to wear a bra, which is just as well as it’s quite small – I’m not sure I could fit one in the dress with me!

The only issue is that the last quarter of a metre or so of fabric is absolutely riddled with holes! God knows what’s happened to it – I suspect a drunken stiletto-heel wearer – but there is hole after hole after hole along the bottom. They’re tears, rather than moth-holes (the dress is cotton), so I’m just going to chop the damaged section off and redo the hem. I say ‘just’ but I’ve got to get my mum to help me, I’ve never done such a drastic alteration on my own.

Some consider altering vintage clothes to be a cardinal sin but as it’s already damaged I reckon I have a get-out-of-hell-free card. I’m considering doing something with the sleeves and bodice to make them look more modern, any ideas?