By: Kate Davies Designs
refashioning, sewing, wool, Wovember, , , , , ,

matchy matchy

Wool — being wonderfully warm, breathable, and flexible — really is the ultimate Winter fabric for someone who likes to be outdoors. I have worn a near-as-damn-it 100% wool outfit every day so far this WOVEMBER, and fully intend to do so for the rest of the month. I’ll say more about some of the key components of my woolly wardrobe another time, but today I wanted to show you my new wool skirt and it’s matchy matchy custom-made WOVEMBER meta-badge.

I recently scored this 100% wool skirt on ebay. It is vintage DAKS tweed – high-waisted and extremely well-made – but I ‘won’ it very cheaply. The length, though, is all wrong: I generally find mid-length skirts rather matronly and as I am quite short, they look bloody awful on me. So I spent a happy morning taking the skirt in a bit and chopping it down to a better length. There is a lot of fabric in those box-pleats, I can tell you, and when I was done I was left with a satisfyingly swingy skater-style mini-skirt, and a long length of excess tweed.

One of Felix’s many genius ideas is the meta badge – an accessory whose function is not merely decorative, but which distills the essence of an outfit by capturing it in miniature. As part of WOVEMBER, Felix is offering a bespoke meta badge service: all you have to do is send her a piece of 100% woollen fabric and, for the small sum of £2.50 ($4.00) she will turn it into the ultimate WOVEMBER accessory and post it back to you. I could think of no better use for my excess tweed!

How pleasing is that? Here is the finished bespoke badge in situ on my woolly lapel, together with a couple of other WOVEMBER badges, also made by Felix.

And here is the shortened skirt, together with the rest of my woolly outfit

. . . comprising wool pants, wool base layer, wool tights, wool skirt, wool sweater, wool jacket, wool gloves, WOVEMBER badges, and . . .

. . . wool bag. In fact, the only non 100 % wool parts of my outfit are the bag strap and my boots.

If you want to score your own WOVEMBER badge, or have a bespoke badge made out of your own fabric, then pop over to Felix’s etsy store. She’ll be re-stocking with other tweeds – including bits chopped off the bottom of my skirt – on Monday.