China sends a size too small top - what can you do?

I was sent a pretty lace bolero in red lace from China. It cost me only £2.70. But was at least two sizes too small. Could not go over other clothes. Would not look neat on arms, and too tight across the back. In danger of splitting it.

What to do? Unpick the seams. Which seams?

Turn it inside out to expose and check the seams. Not enough to let out more than a fraction. But no choice. Lay it down against a garment which I know fits ok.

Now what? Insert a ribbon. How to get one to match? Take the bolero into a big store such as John Lewis. Last time I looked, ribbon which was wide, sold on a roll, cost about £5, as much as the garment.

Could I wear the bolero split, as if it's meant to be like that? Maybe.

Or with slashed arms, like slashed jeans? No, because the lace might fray.

What a pity they can't send me a piece of matching ribbon. Wait a minute - the item only cost £2.50. It's cheaper to buy a second garment and cut strips out of it to make matching ribbon. I could make a contrast with black lace. But I'll want to keep that, and not use it to  expand the red one.

Some people order two sizes and send one back. (If the seller accepts returns.) Not worth the trouble. One size fits all. Or fits nobody. I realised this would be a problem before I bought it. But now I plan to buy another - quickly - before they change styles, go out of business, change the fabric.

Angela Lansbury, author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In.

Xmas cards: how to recycle them into mini cards and gift tags

For years I have cut Xmas cards into two, saving the picture from the front in my box of all occasions cards. I have kept the other half of the cards in the address book to check the spelling of names, and the spouses and children and parents - and to remind me who must receive cards from me.

This week I was delighted to receive a hand written note from somebody who sent me a to they had sold me on eBay. The tiny card had such a pretty picture, colourful and curly, with little gold stars, that I kept it on the kitchen table which doubles as my desk. The tiny card did not take up much room and it brightened my day.

It was not until I placed it on a coloured surface that I noticed the edge on one side was white and slightly frayed, showing that it had been torn from a larger picture. I was even more delighted and intrigued by this discovery, and the possibilities it suggested.

Step One: Card one
A Christmas card, Jewish New Year card, seasonal card, birthday card, anniversary or wedding card can be cut twice. Make sure your message goes over only one side of the inside.

Step Two: Card two
The first time you cut, you can cut it in half, or even cut it into strips. Then fold it to make a mini-card for messages with gifts or, as in the one I received, with items sold to customers, wishing them well, hoping they enjoy using or wearing the item they have bought, and asking for positive feedback.

Step Three: Gift tag
If you are careful to write on only one side, and only one half, you can re-use your mini card yet again by cutting it in half.

Why go to all this work, if you are working or on holiday and have the cash to splash? I have tried to buy a card and matching envelope and gift tags on holiday or working in Singapore. I'd have suddenly run out of gift cards.

You are invited to a wedding. You brought the present back in your home country but did not wrap it because security will ask you to unwrap it. At the last minute you are going to the party, taking a bottle, but the maid or caterer at the door will take the bottle and your host will never know you bothered to bring a gift, let alone a nice one, with a goodwill message, so you need a gift tag.

Punching Holes
It's easy to make neat holes by saving tags which already have holes.

What if you need to make a hole. Punching a hole with a hole puncher, and making a gift tag. If you are in an office you will have a hole punch. If you are in a hotel, go to reception or the office and ask to borrow one. Or ask if they will punch a hole for you.

Hole punchers can be bought cheaply on line or from cheap shops. Failing all else, make a hole with a needle or nail scissors and plait thread to attach the gift tag.

Neat Edges
Scissors make a neater edge than tearing. A larger pair is more likely to make a straight line. Buy the largest scissors you can find. Wallpaper scissors have long blades.
Better still, invest in a guillotine. I would not buy the ones with a blade which drops. Too dangerous for my liking. I like the sliding sort. Look for them reduced at sale time. No idea what you want for Xmas? Craft items or a sliding paper cutter 'guillotine'.

Recycling Ribbons
Do you need a piece of fancy ribbon for a gift tag? Save from other gifts and keep in a re-used jam jar labelled ribbons.

Buy a roll of cheap ribbon in the post-Xmas sale. Buy knitting wool cheaply from a charity shop.

Menu ribbons and tassels

Save fancy gold ribbons with tassels from special occasion menus. You will see lots of leftovers at weddings and other special events.

I always ask in hotel whether they will be re-using the ribbons or throwing them away. I would not take supplies which the hotel intends to re-use. But if the items are being thrown away, and you reveal that you are keen to keep ribbons, often the staff will obliging search out more of the same, or similar ones in other colours, so you off with not just one but two or more.

Cut old table cloths or clothes into strips of ribbon. Save the plaited handles of carrier bags. I've seen broken bags discarded in waste bins bins and retrieved lovely ribbons from the handles.


Wrapping Paper
Wrapping paper which would otherwise be thrown in a bin can be recycled. Cut into neat oblongs. Fold around the large rolls of wrapping paper, and secure small pieces with a rubber band - or ribbon!

You can fold paper to make matching or colourful envelopes for small or large cards.

A coloured envelope can be cut to make gift tags.

Wishing you a creative and happy holiday and wonderful weekends and enjoyable evenings and delightful days.

Agnela Lansbury
Author of How To Get Out of The Mess You're In.

Traffic light colours for timing speeches

Have you ever arrived at a Toastmasters speakers meeting and found the lights were missing and didn't work? Or have you arrived early and wanted to rehearse your speech? Here's a solution.Make your own traffic lights. Keep them in your 'emergency box' which you take to every meeting - even if you leave it in the boot of your car permanently and never bring it out except at the contest at the new venue, when you must start on time but the Sergeant at Arms is stuck in traffic.

To make traffic lights for timing speeches, use coloured pieces of paper or cardboard. For example: from the inside of Cafepod boxes. You could even use red yellow and green peppers or tomatoes at home in  your kitchen with a friend to hold them up as signals.

Coloured card or paper saved from envelopes and junk mail.


The green felt back of a table mat.

Here's the green felt back of a table mat.

A yellow table napkin.

A Caffepod box.

The espresso Cafepod coffee boxes come in a range of colours. You can even use three sections with the readymade folds to make a standing triangle on a table.

See my other posts on travel.

(Pictures to be added later. I have loaded them up to my computer but it takes a while for the blog and the pictures to be able to connect.)
Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG

Recycling old jumpers

I saw a great video (which popped up as an ad on my Facebook page), about cutting up an old sweater to make a beanie hat.

Recycle your old, unworn too big, too small, sweater(s) or skirt(s) or dress(es). A beanie hat and matching leg warmers from a sweater. The trick is the triple dome. Sew it up or stick with fabric glue.

I would add the leftover bits to make a patchwork long scarf from large squares or oblongs. How about drawing around old gloves or mittens to make over gloves. Waste not, want not. For people with more time than money. Creatives.

See my other posts on travel.

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker

Emergency Speech Cards, Scissors, Thread, printing, titles

I can tell you how to make an emergency set of speech cards because I had to do it myself. I set off to a hotel as trailing partner hoping I would be asked to speak but was told only members of the company would be on the list. However, one day later, after my family had told the organisers about me, they decided it would be appropriate to give me a chance to say a few words.

Unfortunately at this point I had not brought with me any of my speech materials. I needed a few card index cards to research my speech. You would think it would be easy to find such a thing in a grand conference and spa and golf location. But no. The shops had swimsuits and postcards and jewellery. The business centre had fax machines and computer terminals but no stationery. I had to improvise.

I raided the drawers of the hotel bedroom. I had a couple of envelopes, a postcard, a sheet of flimsy writing paper, a pen. No card index cards and no scissors.

At that time I was mentally tied to the idea that I needed seven cards, either card index size or smaller, each listing the headline of quotation for the speech. Holes punched in the top left hand corner. Linked with treasure tags.

I had to improvise. For my draft speech I needed to use big pieces of card, 3 inches by 5 inches.

Scissors
Without scissors the only thing I could do was tear the paper. I planned to neaten the edges by looking for a pair of scissors of guillotine later.

If you order breakfast in your bedroom, you will probably receive cutlery including a knife. The knife cut be used to tear a straight line in paper, especially newspaper.

Plastic cutlery
If you drive to business or holiday venue and stop on the motorway for fast food, look for the free knives and spoons. (If you stop to buy a £1 sandwich in Boots you'll see free spoons. If you buy fruit in Marks and Spencer you'll also see free cutlery - if you can't see it, ask.)

Save any free spoons you are given in your packaging, or in the lid of ice cream at a theatre or on an airline. If your used plastic cutlery has food on it, wash it. Curved or square large and small spoons can be used for drawing semi-circles on the corners of pages or posters as decoration, and to make neat circles around to page numbers in the top left corner of your memory cards.

I improvised a ruler with the edge of a book or the edge of the magazine left in the room. I tore the paper neatly by folding it one way, then reversing the paper and creasing it the other way to weaken the folded part. I tore it by holding the part I wanted, weighted and protected on the edge of the desk by a thick magazine. I folded down the unwanted part of the paper and tore it off.

Making Holes
If you travel with a large suitcase you can travel with a hole punch. I didn't on a quick conference weekend. The hotel sewing kit provided a needle to make a hole in the corner of the paper. I enlarged the hole with the points of a pencil and a pen. I made several pieces of paper the size of a gift card envelope, and folded the free envelope in half and tore it neatly to make the heavier back and front covers to my stack of cards.

You can also use the tip of a small pair of scissors, or nail scissors, or a toothpick to enlarge.
Draw the hole in the right place. If you have two or more cards to link, make sure the holes are in the same place on each card.

Later, you can use a hole punch. When using a hole punch on a small card, you may need to practise getting the edge of the card far enough in to make holes in the right place.

If the holes don't match, you can either cut one of the cards. Or decide if you want the top card to overlap at the top. Or use a felt tip to colour the peeping edge of the last card so you can instantly identify which card has your punchline.

Elastic Band Linkage
If you don't have cotton thread, you can use an elastic band as an emergency link.

A 'rubber' band also acts as an emergency eraser for pencil marks.
You can use the same system to make an emergency luggage tag for your conference bag so your doesn't get left behind. Turn your own business card into a luggage tag by punching a hole and using a rubber band.

 I looked for a paper tote bag with a string handle to make a treasure tag. None in my suitcase. None in the hotel cupboard. If I had been near a shop I could have bought a pair of shoe laces. Instead I looped a piece of cotton several times and rolled three strands, then made a braid.

I now had my cards to practise my speech.

Later in the day I explored the hotel and took the name card of the local taxi company hoping to go to the shops. No time. Too far. I looked at the business card. The back was blank. I could use that as a small speech reminder.


In my pocket I had one of my own business cards which had the wrong outdated details. I could sacrifice that. I now had two cards.

The hotel reception desk had another business card for the hotel. I could use that. Three cards.

Re-using Unused Business Cards
I feel it is unsporting to take business cards from a rack and use them, even in an emergency. However, I do have lots of business cards which are out of date from trips I made years ago.

But my own out of date business cards (and those from deceased relatives) are of no use so why waste the backs. Sometimes I cross through the front of the card in pencil so I don't waste time re-reading the fronts of out of date business cards. I feel very virtuous recycling cards instead of throwing them away.

If you feel that the reverse of the card with printing on it is a distraction, or untidy, you can stick two old cards together with the outdated information in the middle of the sandwich.

That can be bulky if you need several cards. It works best if you need only one card with five bullet points on it to keep your speech on track.

At lunch time I told another hotel guest about my speech. I gave them my business card and they gave me theirs. I could use the back of that.  Four cards.

I now already had a system for making holes and linking cards. Second time around it was much quicker to make the holes. Hey presto, speech cards.

I now make sure I travel with spare address cards. Even your own out of date address cards take up little space and weight in your pocket and are handy for writing a new speech.

Better still, always have your own speech outline on cards from home in your pocket or airline carry-on bag pocket. Sitting waiting at an airport or railway station, or waiting for somebody you are meeting, you can rehearse a public speech, or a one to one business presentation, or sales pitch for new business.

If you need to pack card index cards, the cheapest place to buy them is in Pound shop. Keep a set of half a dozen cards in every suitcase pocket.

Storing Speech Cards
A previous mayor of Harrow, who often gives three speeches a day to local schools, temples and residential homes for the seniors and activity and leisure centres, told me he kept his three speeches for the day in the top pocket of his shirt or jacket. The speeches are in order. The first meeting of the day, first speech is on top. After he has given the speech, it is moved to the back. And so on.

Before leaving for the day, he checks his pocket to see if he has speeches suitable for every audience, whether he has been asked to give a speech or not. Because he will often be asked and expected to give a speech to fill in time or because the organiser suddenly realises the VIP visitor should be given a chance to speak.

Poundland.co.uk has 500 shops. Post offices also stock cards. So do stationery stores.

Emergency Paper, Cards and Scissors
Guests at conferences often have lined A4 pads and are willing to tear off a sheet for you. The lined paper can be folded. Often hotel reception can locate a pair of scissors. If they can't let you take them back to your room, at least you can cut the cards to size at reception. A sharp knife from the dinner restaurant or cafe could also serve the purpose.

Small Scissors for travellers
A small sewing kit from a branch of Tesco or similar supermarket might contain scissors. You might also find a small pair of nail scissors in a cheap manicure set in a corner shop or pharmacy. Some fellow travellers may have a Swiss army knife with a tiny pair of scissors.

Large stationery stores and bookshops such as W H Smith have sets of postcard size cards for student revision notes. The cards are often in thick booklets but you can tear off the cards, or break a set into two.

Smaller sets come with holes punched and a circular metal quick release clasp linking them.  You could improvise something similar using a key ring.

A spare treasury tag in your pocket is handy when travelling to link cards.

On another occasion I re-used the large white card from a new shirt. A large tote bag discarded in a hotel waste bin can be retrieved when you decide you can use the back of the bag. Even if the outside of a white tote bag is glossy, you might find you can only write on it using a felt tip pen. But the inside is usually matt so you can write on it with a regular pen.

You can make yourself a place tag, or make a card to reserve your seat in the front row, or a no smoking sign for an outdoor table, or a sign saying Committee to put on a table or to fix to a door, or a company name card for the door of your bedroom suite or meeting room. Cut out a large oblong of white or pale card.

Use your company business card or stationery for a logo at the top. Cut letters from the day's newspaper headlines to get large printed letters.

If you have to write by hand, draw faint pencil lines for the base and top of the letters. Count the number of letters you need and make evenly spaced dots to make sure you have enough room for the whole word. If the oblong is too wide or short, turn it the other way.

Write the letters in faint pencil. Make parallel lines using a ruler, pencil or envelope or book as a guide for the upright and horizontals so they look neat. Outline the letters leaving the middle blank. If you need letters to be bold seen from a distance, fill in the middle. If you like, decorate with stars or circles or glitter or stick on decorations (good for last night parties, fancy dress dinners and celebrations).  

Carry tubes from discarded cardboard
Keep signs for your next event. For an emergency carry tube for certificates, use the discarded tubes from toilet rolls, or kitchen paper. The tubes can be used inside a rolled up certificate. Just roll the poster thinner until it fits.  Alternatively, use your cardboard tube on the outside.

Covering tubes
If the brown paper roll looks amateur or untidy, you can cover it with wrapping paper or paper torn or cut from a bag saved from your shopping. If you don't have a bag but are in a hotel, ask the shop owners if they have a spare bag. They may be glad to give you one of their bags. Or they may have old bags in a waste bin.

Angela Lansbury, speaker and author.

Recycling clothes which are too small or torn

I bought a skirt from a charity shop because I fell in love with the colour. It was a wrap skirt and usually they fit any size. A bit tight on the waist but it's easy enough to move a button.

My first move at home was to move the button on the waist. However, when I first wore it I immediately discovered that it no longer overlapped by gapped, showing my slip. It gapped right the way up to the waist, and was too tight at the waist.

I looked in my box of buttons. You can remove buttons from garments you throw away, or remove spare buttons from clothes. I used to do that every time. Now I leave the buttons attached in case one needs replacing when I'm on holiday or out travelling.

If you were to remove all buttons from every garment of every member of your family, you would soon have a box of buttons and if you co-ordinate them by colour it's easy to retrieve the one which originally came from a garment. If you lose a garment or it is stolen, you still have the buttons.

Large craft stores often have bags of buttons. If you wear the same combinations of colours frequently, you might instead of buying a cup of coffee, spend half an hour in the craft and sewing section of a store such as Spotlight in Australia and Singapore, or John Lewis in central London and Watford, England. I bought a box of red buttons because my favourite colour is red.

My 'new' skirt had a tiny hole in it from where the material was thin and had torn. It was too late to return it to the shop, and I liked the skirt. The olsution was to sew up the hole to prevent it getting larger, or catching on anything which would make it worse. I could have put a support fabric behind, but I planned to simple cover the hole.

I went back to my god of bits and pieces. I had patches and material from shortened skirts or clothes. Belts which had fallen of garments which had disappeared - one just matched, but I was afraid that if I cut it up I would then find the garment it matched. Cushions cut into squares and strips after a torn or stained part had been discarded provided fabric which was too heavy.

I considered sewing on a patch or flower, but at knew level that might look odd. (I did once sew a black and gold watch patch on a hole on a long black skirt. Lots of women thought it was amusing and part of the skirt. A few short-sighted men thought I had dropped my watch. I ended up getting into lots of conversations.

Back to my skirt. I bought the red buttons from John Lewis. A set of mixed buttons, no more than two alike. Never mind, I needed only one. I could add odd buttons in more than one place and it would look like a scatter design.

It would look neat if I added buttons all the way down the gap. I had lots of buttons. Then I realised that a button covering a hole needs no button hold. But a button acting as fastening needs a fastener. This requires either a machine which makes button hole. Alternatively, you can make buttonholes by hand as my grandmother did decades ago.

If you haven't made buttonholes before, or not recently, you need the courage to cut your fabric. Then to prevent tearing or fraying, the time the spend doing miniature close together blanket stitch around the two long edges, and large stitches to hold the ends of the slit, hoping it will look neat.

My next thought was loops to secure the buttons, rather like those down the fronts of Chinese jackets and the necks of cheongsams. Could I make a similar design using the strings cut off paper carrier bags?

If you ever need to cut up a Chinese jacket, or see one that's tiny or stained or torn very cheap, John Lewis were charging a minimum of Five pounds for a set of three or a large single Chinese style braid fastener with the figure of eight braid on one side and the knot on a matching figure of eight to go through.

I looked at the possibility of cutting the fastener off an old jacket, or making one. I then invested in a packet of three. In practice I hate these fastening. If they are too loose they pull apart. Mostly they are too tight and it's a real struggle to do them up and you fear breaking a nail or tearing the threads when you try to pull the knot out.

In a hurry to go out, I sewed on two ribbons to tie half way down the gap. If you don't tie tight enough, your bow pulls apart the first time you climb steps or sit down. You risk catching your ribbon on anything projecting.

Later I returned to the problem. You can put a series of ribbons down the side of the skirt. I bought a roll of ribbon which co-ordinated in John Lewis. Wide ribbon is more expensive than narrow ribbons. Pricey for one garment - unless you have bought a bargain or just love the agreement which matched another to make a suit. However, You need only two small strips to sew either side of your gap.

In the end I had three different coloured ribbons. I researched not he internet about kick-pleats and gaps and read that you should wear a plain black of matching slip underneath, not one with lace. I know that film stars like to show underwear and look suggestive, but this is not necessarily the look I or you want on a working day in a busy place without the bodyguards who accompany film stars.

In my box I found a set of hooks and eyes. I sewed one of these between the ribbons. If the skirt is held together by the tiny hooks and eyes, the ribbons are less likely to pull apart.

I shall be packing a section of the hooks and eyes set in my travel bag. When I am stuck for hours on a station, by a delayed train, train strike, or long wait between trains, I shall have my sewing to copy my time happily.

(Photos will be added later.)
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.
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