Goodbye, Taiwanese puffy sleeves!

We have been fortunate enough over the past few years to go on a few overseas trips (and currently planning another trip!) We don't take for granted how lucky we are, and are so grateful for the times we've had away exploring different places with the kids. Mr. Coleman’s parents have lived in Taiwan for the past few years, and we have been able to go and stay with them twice. What a place! We love it, the amazing city of Taipei in particular. The food, the people, the shared urban spaces, the public transport, the markets, the price of things! A great place to visit, and very underrated as far as tourism goes. (I'd recommend it.)

Anyway, the one thing I did struggle with whilst being in Taiwan is the lack of second hand anything. The markets and shops were pretty amazing, but everything was so new, shiny and packaged ...I admit I succumbed a few I times and bought some plastic fantastic jewelry, but we did find the newness of everything pretty full on, as we just don't "go there" very often these days ourselves here in Australia.

Well, lucky for us, Mr. Coleman's mum is an op shopper and garage sale hopper from way back. She has worked very hard to find a few places in Taipei in where she can get her second hand fix. The Taipei American school has a yearly "fair" which feels just like a gigantic school fete. It's not a very Asian experience, in fact it was quite bizarre walking around the school, literally feeling as though we were somewhere in America, but they have a big jumble sale at the fair. There is also another second hand market which we managed to visit as well. And, believe it or not, there are about TWO Op Shops in the whole of Taipei, and we managed to stumble across one of them. Hooray!

I bought this dress at THE Op shop nearly three years ago. I loved it, and probably paid about AUS 50c for it. It was very vintage, a great fit and pretty awesome material. Check it out! I felt like a Taiwanese Airline hostess from the 80's in this. The one problem was the sleeves though. The were just way too big and puffy, and while I do admire the trendy ladies I see walking down Sydney Rd in their Op Shopped puffy sleeves, I am definitely not cool enough to pull them off.

(scary sleeves)

(awesome vinatge material)

So after three years of putting this dress on, and then taking it off again at the last minute because I just couldn't handle the sleeves, I finally cut them off and neatened it up with the sewing machine over the weekend. So easy, and it looks great, so I'm wondering why did it took me three years to do this!!!???

What crafty project have you been procrastinating over?

Mezz xooxoxxo