For a long time I’ve loved cardigans. They’re great to wear because of their ease of getting on and off. I’m sure there’s other reasons I love cardigans but I can’t think of any right now.

I used to be known as Jen Cardigan ……. because that was all I wore. This name even got lengthened to Jen Off The Shoulder Cardigan …… (the dots are my last name).

I bought this cardigan because who couldn’t resist this type of detail? I used to have a similar cardigan but it wore out and had to be thrown out. I spent more on this cardigan than I spend on most of my clothes because I’d received a couple of vouchers for a second-hand clothing shop and bought some great stuff there, including this.

In fact, one day, I thought I’d go to this shop to use my voucher but spent at least one hour looking for it and still couldn’t find it. I rang the shop and as they don’t keep records of these things they couldn’t replace it but suggested I look in my handbag. I’d already looked in all my handbags to no avail, but I had another look - a proper one this time - and it turned up.

When I used to knit more prolifically than I do now I knitted some cardigans.

I bought this mohair wool when in Melbourne in around 1986 from a little shop in the city somewhere. I originally started knitting a jumper but realised that I wouldn’t have enough wool so unpicked what I’d done and found a cardigan pattern and this was the result. This was the cardigan responsible for the Off The Shoulder name mentioned above.

I wear it a lot in winter and JJ was born in winter so I wore it a lot for the first few months of his life. He was one of those babies who threw up a lot after feeds and despite wearing towels over my shoulders, his vomit invariably ended up on my clothes. I distinctly remember handwashing all my winter woolies that year.

This is acrylic I bought when still going out with my ex-boyfriend about ten years ago. It took nearly that long to make but I eventually finished it a few years ago. It is really warm. I wore it the other night and had no need to put a coat over the top to keep me warm because this was warm enough.

Now I feel like getting out the knitting needles and knitting another cardigan. Perhaps I will!

I love buying stuff from op shops, or thrift shops. Out of the clothes I’m wearing today only my underwear and my jeans were bought brand new. Everything else is from the op shop and the shirt was given to me but that was from an op shop too.

I had a good haul a few days ago. I bought a pair of Doc Marten shoes. They’re hardly worn so I don’t mind wearing someone else’s shoes.

I also bought a pair of work pants. The shoes were $20 and the pants $6. Bargain.

I’m kind of at the stage where I don’t buy a lot brand new and I certainly don’t spend a lot of money on new clothes. Even JJ’s clothes I get as many second hand as I can, especially as he grows a couple of inches every couple of months it seems.

If I keep this up I’ll have enough money to spend on the food that JJ keeps eating more and more of.

I’ve been a bit slack with putting up my latest op shop purchases for viewing. I had a good haul a few weeks ago. I took the photos outside and hung everything on a lovingly decorated coat hangar a friend gave me as part of a birthday present a few years ago. Of course, it came from an op shop. The prices are rough because I threw out the tags.

Goodwill - Hindley Street, Adelaide

Price $6.50 (It’s a Country Road top)

Price $4.00

Price $7.50

Price $5.00
The best one - a woollen dress that is very flattering on and fits really well as if it were made for me. The photo does not do it justice but the pattern is a silvery/sparkly colour.

Did my almost weekly jaunt to my local Goodwill and browsed through the tops and found this excellent black pure will jumper by Veronica Maine - a label I wouldn’t pay full price for. I wouldn’t pay full price for any ‘label’ gear as I just can’t afford it. This is in really good nick and it was well within my price range. For pure wool it’s also lovely and soft and I won’t have to wear anything underneath to stop scratchiness.

Excuse the crappy photo. My digital camera is not good at taking close ups and getting details of stuff, especially black stuff so I had to use the night setting.

Goodwill - Hindley Street, Adelaide

Price $4.50

For my op-shop purchases I can see a theme emerging - sparkly clothes. Whenever I look at clothes, second-hand or new, I gravitate towards the sparkly ones. My whole wardrobe does not consist solely of sparkles but I could put a few sparkly outfits together no problem.

This latest purchase follows the sparkly theme.

Goodwill - Hindley Street, Adelaide

Price $5.00

It’s a good friend’s 40th this weekend and on the invite she’s got ‘Fabulous and Funky 40th’. This friend always makes an effort to be fabulous and funky when she goes out to a do so I couldn’t wear just anything. The beautiful purple sparkly number I bought last year that I’ve worn three times just wouldn’t cut it this time so off to the op shop I went yesterday and found this, which had just come in that day.

Goodwill - Hindley Street, Adelaide

Price $5.00

Unfortunately two buttons on this dress were broken so I commented on this when I took the dress to the counter and the woman behind the counter got out two big boxes of buttons that I rummaged through and found some more. It made my collection of buttons at home look quite paltry.

These are the old buttons. The picture isn’t very good as I’ve realised that my Kodak 7330 digital camera is pretty crap at taking quality pictures but two of the buttons are missing the green pearl bit.

To replace them I bought the boat buttons. They probably aren’t what I would have chosen but they are a bit different and there were six of them. And as it turned out they came with the dress so I didn’t even have to pay extra for them.

The dress also has pockets on either side, that are inside the dress. I’m sure there’s a proper dressmaking term for these type of pockets which I can’t think of, but the pockets are going. Pockets like these on an a-line type skirt just don’t sit very well and there’s enough room on the original seam to sew it up as if the pockets did not exist and simply cut the pockets off. I’ve already replaced the buttons and shall drag out the sewing machine tonight and get rid of the pockets.

Then I shall be ready to be fabulous and funky on Saturday night.

Any self respecting safari suit wearer will know that a powder blue safari suit is a must have. Imagine my glee when I walked into Goodwill then a couple of days ago and found a powder blue safari jacket with dark blue trim. Unfortunately there were no pants to go with it. It’s a size 12 boys jacket so it’s a little bit big for Jaycee Junior but hopefully he won’t be too embarrassed to wear it when the time comes.

Goodwill - Hindley Street, Adelaide

Price - $2.00