Magikquilterdesigns

This is the first week I have been conscious of the scent of Frangipani in our street…the first time since Black Saturday last year and ironically the week I sold an item of clothing to someone from Kinglake in Victoria. This week finds my blog back at WordPress.com and my blog name changed to Magikquilterdesigns. My domain name will also be Magikquilterdesigns once I have arranged the purchase of the domain.

The name change makes sense as I am sewing quilts less due to my arthritis and nerve damage and getting back into my first love more…fashion and design and with that all the fun of thrift shopping and keeping up with retail prices and design trends. I am shopping less at Vinnies now and more on Ebay…although this past week found me at Vinnies Randwick as there was a half price sale on Valentines Day. The prices which have been ludicrously high have begun to come down as well which means I am happy to pop in there semi regularly again…also the chap who gave me such a hard time recently does not appear to be there and there has been a change in management and a general movement of the workers to different shifts so it more appealing to me now.

I am having such fun on ebay and am almost through my own clothing now…like most women I have clothes in various sizes bought over the years so I have been plowing my way through them. I have also bought some new gear for myself with the proceeds which is really something …Laura Ashley Woman which is the plus sized range in the US has some amazing gear. My friend/sister at heart has several formal events which I was able to help outfit her for after my new purchases arrived.  I am planning on having clothing parties where I will outfit women of varying sizes and I hope to theme these …corporate, casual, special event etc….the host will receive a designer outfit of their choice to the equivalent value of amount of guests. My friend has already got dibs on a couple of outfits!

A little more about Laura Ashley Woman…in 1999 Laura Ashley US was bought out by a company..consortium who decided to close all stores and direct the vision more towards an American ideal. This means that the clothing is larger than the UK version and also more to my taste as it is geared towards travel and a lot of it is also is more I don’t know how to describe it. It is more like Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein in style…very streamlined but mostly in beautiful fabrics….silk and linen and wool. I adore the silk jackets and have bought several in my size and smaller sizes for my friends. I am naming each jacket after film stars of yore..it seems to fit somehow…here we have Rita

and Ava.

I also have Audrey and Ester[Williams] and many many more! I highly recommend these jackets for all ages but especially for the over 50 woman…they are so elegant and reasonable in comparison to Australian designers. I fell in love with a Maggie T Chinese silk jacket some years ago but decided I could not justify the three hundred dollar price tag as I was dieting at the time. These jackets are around one fifty new and I can get them  to my customers for around seventy five dollars Australian..usually. They could search for these themselves but they would have to pay the shipping fee which can be off putting to some people.

I am gradually gathering together multiples of clothing so that I can offer full outfits…as a stylist I enjoy that so much and there seems to be a need for it in remote areas of Australia. And Russia….my Rinaldi outfit went to the Russian federation… I know….seventy dollars shipping !!! I will be back soon with stories of the people I have met on ebay..like the daughter of the lady who died happy…yes…her mother died …after she tripped and fell down some stairs….but she was surrounded by bags of absolutely glorious clothing [some of which I bought] in one of UK’s premier shopping centres!