op shop scores and guilty buys

I can't believe it's Friday already because I have done practically no sewing this week. I have been unpicking a large, voluminous MaxMara skirt given to me from one of my husband's aunties, for refashioning into something else because it is such a lovely coated Italian cotton. Unpicking takes so long and it's tedious.....

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to travel for work to one of our regional offices and I had some time up my sleeve to op shop. I love op shops in country and rural towns - they have the best stuff that's not too picked over and they are usually really cheap! This trip didn't dissapoint, I picked up some vintage patterns for only 10c each, and the astonishing this is that I restrained myself and didn't buy the entire box there because they were mostly very large sizes that I knew I would never resize for actual use:

I love those large envelope Vogues, particularly that Bill Blass dress there in the centre which I think will make it soon on the to do list.

I also found this really cute tea towel that I'll make into a tote bag, and this huge roll of waistband petersham for the pricely sum of $1!
I also found these four lovely ties for 50c each, which if a colleague of mine doesn't want them I will make them into wrist cuffs, little pouches or even a wallet as I've seen on some of the handy tutorials over at Craftster.

And the guilty buys alluded to in the title? Well I picked up the latest Burda World of Fashion (2/2008) which at $15 is expensive, but is a total bargain given that it has about 40 or 50 patterns in it. However, it is not a bargain if I never use the patterns, and since I have about 7 magazines now and have used one pattern that equates to $105 for the one skirt I made (which I didn't even like that much)! Realising this, I have now vowed to make at least one thing from each magazine, starting with jacket 115A from the 12/2007 edition which I traced out on Wednesday night.

The second guilty buy this week was a new pair of shoes:

They are gorgeous black and white floral fabric, with a patent heel and a cute button on the strap. They were also only $40 down from $90 so total bargain! The only guilt I feel is that I recently had to give away and throw away 12 pairs of shoes because my shoe cupboard is full, see:
These don't include my joggers or boots, but my husband's shoes do take up the bottom row and and half of the second bottom row, so I think his might be shuffling off elsewhere soon.

Yes, I have a specific cupboard in to house my shoes because it keeps them all so neat, easy to see when choosing which ones to wear and it takes us much less room than having them everywhere. My husband made it for me, and it's a lot like a bookshelf but with sliding doors:

To get an idea of the size, here is me and the dog standing next to it during construction:

I've always had a problem with going overboard with things - you have seen my pattern stash after all! Nearly 600 now with the new acquisitions (and that's not counting those in Burda WoF)....

Anyway, I'm on a flexi today (that's government employee speak for having a day off using accrued extra time), so I'm getting started on that Burda jacket.

p.s Ruby Darling who commented on my post "Hey you that's my fabric", the red shoes are from Sachi but from about three years ago, and they are in fact the shoes I wore on my wedding day.