Finding my Sleeves

Well, even the sprinkling of snow forecast for the weekend has been downgraded by the BBC to a spasmodic flake or two.  So looks like there's no more snow play for me this year.

This coat comes out when it's really cold (shown here with wind-blown scarfage).  

It's my Big Coat.  So warm.

This was taken the day after the last snow fell a couple of weeks ago.  We went to see a film (movie).

It was still extremely cold.  This wasn't a good shot (again, messy scarf) but there was no chance of a second pic as The Photographer was muttering between chattering teeth "Can we PLEASE go inside and see the flippin' film!".  So we did.

Still wearing the coat as it was bloomin' cold a few days later,  I got another shot out of him during school pick-up.

This was not a good shot either (scarf overload) and again, TP was less than enthusiastic to make this a photoshoot.

At this point I gave up.

I took shots without me in it.  Is this a "hangie"?  Whatever, this seems to work.  My Reluctant Photographer Workaround!

I'm showing you the coat as an example of how to fix something when it isn't quite working for you.

(Does anyone know how to fix a photographer who isn't quite working for me?)

I liked this coat in the M&S sale, about 5 years ago.  Wool, stand-up collar.  All good stuff.

So, a really warm coat and what does M&S do?  It gives it 3/4 length sleeves.  We're talking chocolate teapot, folks.

. But I liked the colour, the cosy design ... and the heavily discounted price and thought I could grow to like the sleeves too.

I couldn't.  Those silly sleeves required me to wear a long sleeved top that matched my bottoms, otherwise it just looked, err, silly.  Or to wear elbow length gloves, which I have.  Black.  Somewhere.

After one silly wear too many, it dawned on me that perhaps this silly sleeve thing was the reason the coat was in the sale?  No one in their right minds wanted wind whistling up their armpits.

But, caveat emptor, our silly Pout had bought it and a workaround was needed.  Eureka!   I hunted down some wool (yippee, soft cashmere).  I knitted myself some deep cuffs, which can be folded back up under the coat if a 3/4 sleeve is wanted ... like I would!

I'd bought enough wool to knit a scarf and used the spare button to create a button fastening.

The scarf can be worn without the button too.

A little tie mechanism holds the scarf in place inside when not worn - remember BITD when children's gloves were sewn on to elastic and threaded through the coat sleeves?  Genius!

Another genius innovation is that I have a little loop mechanism in the cuffs so that in a flash they become mitts.  Cool, huh?

The flashy silky lining had drawn me to the coat.

So, the lesson is that if you truly like something, new or old, but it's not quite right then think about what it would take to make it "right".  Sometimes all it takes is a simple tweaking.  Why didn't the silly M&S bods work this out?

Now, random question time. 

How many times did I use "silly"  in this post? Dunno, but it's a PB.

Can you think of something in your wardrobe that could do with a bit of tweak?

Which film did I see?  Oh I know this one!  Finding Your Feet!!

Was the film good?  Yes.

Did it have lots of gorgeous house décor like in Something's Gotta Give or It's Complicated*?  No.

Did I enjoy it despite the paucity of stylish interiors?  Yes.

* Oh the times I have watched these films just to get a fix of the lovely house décor alone!!!

Is that something you do? 

And did you know that there are whole websites and forums devoted to these film sets?!

A la perchoine.