Upcycling Ups and Downs

My mum just gave me several suits and skirts for me to upcycle - fun!

She and I are completely different shapes and heights (she is almost 5'9" with a slender build and no hips whereas I am 5'6" with a slender but curvier build) so I was stunned that all the skirts fit me perfectly! Just a little shortening required to update them and that's it! Although the shoulders on the blazers are a bit wide, one of the suits is definitely worth the effort to tailor and one of the jackets can be worn as-is, boyfriend style and belted.

I went to hem one of the skirts (red wool) only to discover that there are a bunch of random little holes all over the skirt - moths? Not salvageable one way or the other. Rats.

The suit that I'm in the middle of tailoring (sleeves are off and seams are pinned to bring in - tailoring a jacket is a huge job, btw, and not for the faint of heart) is of incredible quality. When I mentioned this to my mum, she slyly mentioned that this was, in fact, a third generation suit - it used to belong to my gran! Well, now I love it all the more. This also explains the amazing quality of the tailoring to begin with. The suit is made in England, 100% wool and a really classy light chocolate colour . They just don't make them like this anymore - at least not the suits I can afford! I can't wait to finish it! I will definitely post pictures when it's done. Here's the "during" pic.

Stay tuned...