Red Casual Top and a Positivity Blip

After cutting this top out last week I left it to simmer for a while, mainly because I wanted to add something to it but couldn't decide what.  The red is a good colour with a very faint sweatshirt distressed sort of look that it is hard to see in the images, think of the effect on denim blue but this is red?  Well maybe you get what I mean, I had seen a few t-shirts about with the little triangle detail at the neck so I decided to do that, I also used some mock piping on the sleeves  half way up for interest.

 As usual I only bought a metre so it was just £4.70, I also bought some binding but ended up making my own neck edging as I wanted it a particular way. Here it was straight off the machine, I have tried it on already and didn't feel like modelling it today it is too cold to keep getting changing and I am nesh as we say here.

The pale blue that I used is a piece from one of my husbands old shirts (they do get some use) and the mock piping on the sleeves is the same.

I like the effect of the little embossed stripe being on the diagonal, I just cut my sleeves out as two pieces, sandwiched it in and then topstitched.  I think it has added a bit of something rather than just a plain sleeve.

This is prior to ironing where it has sat on the worktable all week, it has been pressed now, Sunday is my ironing day anyway.  This used to bother me but now it is an opportunity to watch TED talks or listen to documentaries while I do it, it has given it a new meaning.

The fabric on this top is nice and soft and it just pulls on easy with quite a loose feel for me, just what I need with jeans because really these are the clothes that will get the most wear.  Now I am on the lookout for more little details  that I can add to tops to make them a bit different.  There are quite a few nice ideas fro Pinterest that I have save a lot of those involve pleating in different ways so this may be my next experiment.

It has been a funny week, and not in an amusing way.  I know we all have these weeks where it feels like buzz words and new phrases,  for things that have gone wrong pop up  I am trying to remain positive, reframe situations, see them for the passing phases that they are but sometimes I do wonder about this.  Are we just constantly making the best of things, convincing ourselves that this is just the way it is and if only we had the right 'mindset' (there's one for you) we wouldn't bother with these problems

Well I think perhaps not, if we only ever framed anything in a positive light then we would never move forward with anything, we would always have a shut up and be grateful attitude.  While I am not disputing the merits of being grateful there are times when we do feel enough is enough and at those times maybe we should be exploring something else.  I came from a family where it was very apparent you should be grateful and not rock the boat, my first job was a dreadful low paid factory where I stitched machine buffers that gave off plastic smoke, I had no mask and was often coughing.  I left after three years for a bar job that I enjoyed at the time, my parents were horrified that I had left a steady position even if I hated it and it made me feel ill.  They had always worked the same job and the thought of change or taking that chance were very alien concepts to them.  My mum is very different these days and will often say no, no I wouldn't have that do something else.  It is as if in retirement she suddenly has all the answers she never did when in the workforce herself.  I suppose everything is easier when you are looking back.

 I would like to here your thoughts on positivity, reframing  and just keeping on.  Are we just burying our heads in the sand and avoiding the necessary action needed for real change, or is it the only sane way to keep going when faced with nonsense day after day?   I would love to hear any opinions you may have and I will respond to all comments.