Refashion Friday: Primark Maxi Dress to Striped Scout Tee

When you find a well-fitting, quick-to-make sewing pattern, like Grainline's Scout tee, you'd be crazy not to make another, amirite? I'm so pleased that I held back from cutting into this charity shop score maxi dress until after I had the chance to try out that pattern for myself. 

'Before' garment:

Whenever I pop into a charity shop, I check out the dress section for both larger sizes and maxi styles, as you can sometimes get a good amount of fabric for your money in those items. I was particularly elated when I found this treasure because: A) it was in one of the cheaper charity shops in Hastings so, for once, the fabric I wanted to reuse didn't cost me more than if I'd bought something similar on the roll in a fabric shop, B) it's a Primark garment, and as one of the biggest 'disposable fashion' offenders here in the UK, I take extra pleasure in giving new life to something that started its life on their racks, and C) navy and cream stripes. 

Initially, I considered leaving fairly well alone and simply hacking off the bottom. My thoughts being that it's existing shape is similar to the April Rhodes Staple dress pattern, and I have worn the living hell out of my version. But where's the fun in that?! Also, I'm not a massive dress wearer, even when I'm not breastfeeding, so I decided to go with a remake that would see LOTS of use. 

Pattern:

Having toiled and made up this pattern before, I knew which size to start with (i.e. a size smaller than my measurements would have suggested I cut), and also what issues to look out for. I found that the sleeve head/shoulder seam on my safety pin version sat a touch too far off my shoulders. But I feared that grading to a smaller size for the top part would make this top too tight across my shoulder blades to get on and off or feel comfortable. What I ended up doing was to slightly redraw the armhole shape to simply scoop away a little from the shoulder line so the sleeve heads sat where I wanted them to. That seems to have corrected the issue nicely without reducing the width across the back at all. Boom. 

The only other change I made was to create little side splits, mainly because I like the way they look, but also because I found with my safety pin version that it's a bit of a stress point with all the yanking up for 'access' that all my tops currently receive. The side splits meant that I couldn't do French seams on this version but I was happy with that as I think it made the side-seam pattern matching a bit easier.  

Thoughts:

So I'd say that I've now completely nailed the fit of this pattern on me, until I go and change size/shape, of course. If I were being the pickiest pernickerty of all time, I would, however, point out that I should have used cream bias to finish the neckline rather than making self-bias from the dress fabric. You can see a tiny bit of shadow where a navy bit of the bias can be seen through the cream bit of the neckline at the front. But I'm going to chalk that up as a lesson learnt and move the hell on.

Whilst I was figuring out how to position the Scout tee pattern pieces on this dress, I discovered some nail varnish along the hem. Perhaps the former owner was painting her toe nails on holiday before a night on the razzle. I think there's a bit of it still inside the turn up on the hem of my top! I think that's as close to going out on the razzle as this top is going to see, but you never know...

Cost: 

Pattern: $12 in PDF form (approx. £9.86)
Dress: £3.50 from Oxfam in Hastings 
Total: £8.43, as per my own rules, if I use a pattern more than once I calculate the total with the pattern's cost-per-use (in this case, by dividing it by two) rather than the original pattern price 

Charity Shop Scores: West Hampstead, Hastings, Lewes and Darlington. PLUS: A Decision

The haul I have to share with you today isn't as enormous as my last instalment of Charity Shop Scores. That's mainly because my last instalment wasn't that long ago, but also because I've been doing some thinking, which I'll get to in a minute. First...

Weird Sock-Shoes, £2.99

Dinosaur Wellies, £2 

Let's just take a closer look at these crazy sock-shoes! Call me sheltered, but I've never seen anything like them. They were brand new still in their packaging, so I could see that they were made in France but bought in Germany (the original price tag is on the back). Are they made for outside use?! I have no idea. Although they do proclaim to be machine washable, which you'd hope they would be considering they are mainly fabric. 

Jazzy Clarks trainers, £1

When shoes are barely worn and this cheap, I can't help but snaffle them up, even if I've already got a few pairs in the same size already in the bank. You never know which are going to be 'hits' and which will be 'misses', especially now Dolores is developing an opinion about what she wears, and helpfully becomes increasingly vocal about what feels comfy and what doesn't.  

Colour block cardigan, £3
Spotty bolero cardigan, £2.99

My mum is a fabulous knitter and makes Dolores wonderful, cosy cardigans. But the finer knit variety like these are often useful for layering, particularly in warmer months.


So on to my decision. It was a tough one to make, but I need to stop charity shopping. Not for ever, but for the foreseeable future. It's one of my favourite activities, but I can't escape two truths: 1) charity shopping is still a form of shopping, and 2) we've got enough stuff. What I mean by the first one is that, even though the money I'm handing over often goes to support awesome causes, it's money I need to channel elsewhere at the moment. Pat and I want to make some changes to our lives, and those changes are going to cost money, so I need to limit/stop unnecessary spending where I can.

And as for the other point, thanks to previous charity shopping successes, as well as some lovely hand-me-downs and my own sewing skillz, Dolores has enough suitably sized clothing and footwear in storage to see her through the next year or two. Plus, something I derive great pleasure from is sewing clothing for her, but there's no point in doing that with so much stuff already in our possession. I've finally figured out that I need to leave stuff in the charity shops for other people's kids, so I can make things for my daughter that will actually see a decent amount of use. And you don't even want to see how many secondhand toys are already knocking around our house.... I've actually removed about a third of her toys from sight with the intension of rotating them, but it hardly looks like anything happened and she certainly hasn't noticed.

Charity Shop Scores: Darlington, Hove, Hastings, Eastbourne and Bexhill

My goodness. Since May I have been charity shopping HARD and have accrued quite the backlog to share with you. As you can see from the title of this post, nowhere is safe from my thrifting antics. You know how this works, let's get down to business. 

Darlington:

Peppa Pig T-shirt, 95p

Geometric blouse, £1.25

Horse jersey top, 59p

Floral shorts, 75p

Darlington came up trumps with a slice of summery separates for Dolores. This haul also proves the legend that things in the North are MUCH cheaper! 

Farah shirt, £3.99

I bought this beautiful swiss dot men's shirt to send to Elisalex of By Hand London for the forthcoming Refashioners challenge. This is actually the second shirt I bought for the task, but the first one I sent went missing in the post. The turn of events worked out well because this shirt is far nicer than the first (which did eventually turn up much later). Can't wait to see what she turns it into! 

Hove: 

Padded coat, £2.99

Corduroy skirt, 99p

Denim sneakers, £1

Blue high tops, £2

I'm always hoovering up cute never-or-barely-worn children's shoes when I see them. It feels good to have a stash of nice footwear put aside for Dolores, and it takes the pressure off having to suddenly splash out £30 every few months. You rarely find children's shoes in good condition from size 8+ though, I guess because kids' feet growth slows down from then onwards and their shoes subsequently get more of a licking. Therefore, I'm enjoying being able to pick up some pairs for a song until I need to start shelling out the £30's each time. 

Anchor scarf, 99p

I stalked the Oxfam window a few days running after I spotted this. Each time I went to try and buy it, the shop was closed. Finally, I got there when it was open, but the scarf was no longer visible! Thankfully, it had been put back inside and I've been wearing this round my noggin ever since, channelling Brigitte Bardot at the playgroups! 

Hastings:

Butterfly plimsoles, £1

Wellies, £2

Spotty plimsoles, £1 

More future-footwear in a variety of sizes. 

Eastbourne:

Bear sweatshirt, £2.50

White shirt, £3

Striped shirt, £4

Pat finally got a look-in after a plaintive cry went out for more work shirts! 

Faux-Melissa pumps, £5 (thanks Mummy)

Something else for me! Not convinced on the comfort level of these, but the application of plasters may aid these in getting trotted out. Anyway, how cute?!

Bexhill:

Baby Gap sailor trousers, £2.50

Vest, 50p

I am not including any of the toys or books that I buy secondhand in these round ups. If I did, I wouldn't have time to blog about anything else! Having just sorted through all Dolores's future-clothes, I am now placing a temporary ban on myself on buying more. At this rate, she won't have any wardrobe gaps that will require me to sew her things. Have you had any good charity shop/thrift store/op-shop scores lately? 

Charity Shop Scores: Bexhill and Eastbourne

You know me, if I can't make an item of clothing (or can't be bothered to make it), then I try to get it second hand. That means I'm often found 'hunting' in charity shops with eyes a'peeled! Here's a recent haul that was acquired in two locations within a few days. This particular batch features a rare inclusion: stuff for Pat (Mr So Zo)! I often feel guilty about how little I focus on sewing or charity shopping for him these days now that we have a daughter. These two garments won't exactly redress the balance, but they have provided him with much-needed clothing for his new teacher's wardrobe. He even started a Pinterest board to work out what to wear! Can you guess which pin I added in there for a laugh whilst he wasn't looking?! 

Above:

Wool jumper, 50p

Spotty shirt, £4.45

Jojo Maman Bebe Breton top, £2.45

Fleece top, 99p

Back to my usual charity shop fodder: things for Dolores. I was chatting to the mum of a two-and-a-half-year old and she was saying how useful lots of tops can be for busy, messy little peops. I plan to make Dolores lots and lots of tops, of course, but a few nice second-hand additions may prevent me from being chained to the sewing machine following a growth spurt! Although I must admit, the challenge of having to make everything she wears does appeal to me, but would possibly break me in real life.

I particularly like these two pictured above because the breton top is excellent quality (and it's a breton top!), and the other is a sweet, cosy style that is quite different to anything I'd be likely to make myself. Also, I don't have any fleece in my stash and although I think it's a great fabric for children's wear, second hand fleece garments in charity shops (that I would buy as a source of fabric) often look a bit ropey. 

Anchor print jacket, 99p

That's a lot of anchors for less than a quid, isn't it?! This spring jacket is fleece lined and Dolores has  worn it heaps this week once the weather perked up. As a 'bonus', it instantly turns whatever else she is wearing into, what Pat and I call, a ''How old is he?' outfit'! I really don't care if people assume she's a boy upon first sight, and I imagine a lot of the assumptions come from the fact she has very little/short hair, but I find it interesting that even though her shoes or wellies, reins and bits of her pushchair are pink, it's always assumed she's a boy in this jacket.

Stripy tops, blue tracksuit & mint sweatshirt: between 50p - £1.25 each

This pile of crazy was all bought for the fabric, I promise. I don't plan to be rocking a size 22 cornflower blue tracksuit with embroidered roses any time soon. This Bexhill charity shop was having a massive sale on everything and the staff were more or less making up the prices when you brought stuff to the counter. When I found that out I got all squinty-eyed to try and block out what the actual garments on the rails looked like and rummaged through to find lovely quality fabric instead. 

Spotty vests/onesies, 99p each

Thanks to my previous subscription to Ottobre magazine, I do actually have patterns to make these things. But life is too damn short IMO, when you can swipe them from a charity shop for very little. 

How about you? Any decent charity/thrift/op-shop scores recently? Tell me tell me tell me...

Charity Shop Scores in Rayleigh and Hastings.

You can't keep a good woman down. Or away from charity shops it would seem. Or maybe that should be *this* woman... Anyways. I'd like to share with you a couple of recent hauls that I snaffled for Baby Girl (who is almost a toddler now, what?!). Everything here probably won't fit her for a long time, at least six months time I'm guessing, but it's good to have some nice bits in the 'bank'. 

Above: 

Mustard and navy striped t-shirt, £1.49

Grey hoodie, £1.49

Grey and neon trainers, £3

Pink and fawn Clarks trainers, £3

Below:

Clarks wellies, £3

I understand that buying children's' shoes second-hand would make many parent's eye twitch. Personally, if I see shoes that have no or next-to-no visible wear, particularly if they are from excellent brands, them I'm going to get them. If they are the type of shoes that has a width fitting as well a general size, I'll of course make sure it's the same as she wears and I'll get her feet measured again before putting her in them when it's time. 

Good children's shoes are crazy-expensive, and having these lined up for when her feet inevitably get to that size is a relief because I'm not sure we could afford to bust out £30+ for something that she may only wear for a month or so. Even though these wellies are half a size too big for her currently, she loves to play dress-up with them around the lounge:  

Below:

M&S coat, £2.99

Stripy wool cardigan, £1.99

These scores very nearly didn't happen at all. I saw the coat in my local Barnardo's just before closing one afternoon, and although it was well made and in excellent condition and water proof and fleece-lined, I put it back because it's sized 4-5 years. My little girl isn't even 18 months yet so I thought it might be a squirrelling/hoarding step too far to buy this coat. However, I thought about it and decided it was a bargain too good to pass up and luckily it was still there when I went back the following morning. I'm probably never going to make her a water proof coat, and if she's anything like her dad, as soon as she starts school she'll lose them at a rate of one per term! 

Whilst I was there sheltering from the rain, I found this lovely little cardigan in the boys section. Normally I overlook the knitwear in charity shops (for Dolores) because Nanna-knits are always going to be cosier and made with more love, but for this I made an exception. I love it's vibrant-but-not-too-childish colours and it feels amazingly soft with some angora content, so that got snapped up too.  

I shouldn't have worried if it was a bad choice to buy this coat or not. As soon as I got it out to show Pat she demanded to put it on to play in!

Charity Shop Scores in Darlington

A week at the end of October spent at my in-laws proved very fruitful in the thrifting department. Well, fruitful for Dolores anyhow! Want to have a look?

Spotty long sleeved T-shirt, 50p. Mustard zebra print T-shirt, 99p. 

Spotty knit dress, £1.75.

Nautical playsuit, £1.75. This has the original tags in and I'm tempted to sell it on Ebay in the Spring because it just looks so damn white. As in, won't-be-white-for-more-than-five-minutes-if-Dolores-wears-it. 

My favourite, geometric jumper, £1.

So the total sum: £5.99. All these items, aside from the jumper, are for sizes larger than she is now. She is more than fine for clothing at the moment and it's good to have some nice things 'in the bank' in preparation for the inevitable and unpredictable growth spurts! 

We're going back to Darlington at Christmas, so the town has a while to replenish it's charity shops... Have you had any awesome thrifting scores recently? 

Charity Shop Scores in Leigh-on-Sea, St Leonards and Hastings

For those who enjoy nosing at other peoples' charity shop/op shop/thrift store finds (like me), you're in for a treat! Lately I have been working HARD at scoring major bargains, let me tell you. The above booty was all found in one day whilst Dolores and I were visiting my parents in Essex.

My dad, Dolores and I hit an unsuspecting Leigh-on-Sea one Tuesday afternoon. (Witness Dad and Dolores enjoying a mid-trip coffee break and one of her new books above.) With the baby strapped on, Dad and I quickly discussed our tactics on route (avoid the Salvation Army one because the staff are pretty racist and Oxfam because it's too expensive). We came away with nine vests, two t-shirts, one gilet, five books, one pair of leather Zara shoes (50p!) and one wheelie duck. Total spent: £11.70. If I'd bought all these things for Dolores new, I probably would have spent about five times that amount. 

Closer to home, I enjoyed further success in the limited yet bountiful charity shops of St Leonards, East Sussex (pictured above). Another crop of goodies all for Dolores, this time I got three books, one soft bath towel, one plastic rake and one spade, two t-shirts, one dinosaur sweatshirt and one swimming costume. Can't remember how much I spent, my apologies, but with those books coming in at 10p each, you can bet I spent a lot less than I would have buying each item new.  

On the same day I later snared a faux fur jacket (pictured above) in a charity shop in Hastings for £25. It's in mint condition so I thought it was a fairly new item. However, after a good look I'm pretty sure it's vintage judging by the labels. I love how the grain of the fur faux runs on the bias down the sleeves. And the best thing about it? The lining has freaking eyes on it! 

Of course, it's not just the money saving that I love about charity shopping. There's the thrill of not knowing what you're going to come across, and finding out how kind the Gods of Charity Shopping are feeling on that given day. Plus I truly believe that we all need to try and consume fewer mass-produced products for the sake of slowing down global warming and the consumption natural resources. By buying things that have already been bought before and still have heaps of use left in them, I hope that it will, in some infinitesimally small way, mean that the world my daughter grows up in will be a better one than what I fear she's currently looking at inheriting. Have you had any good second hand scores lately? What is it about charity shopping/op shopping/ thrifting that you love, if in fact you do?

Charity Shop Scores in Rye

One of my absolute favourite things to do has always been to have a good old hunt through charity shops. It appeals to my hunter-gatherer instinct, my thriftiness AND my aim to live without buying new products as far as possible. Plus you can't beat the element of surprise and the unexpected. I have mentioned charity shopping and some successful hauls on this blog in the past, like the epic success I had in York and Essex around Christmas last year. But seeing as charity shopping/thrifting forms a big part of how I try to live fairly sustainably, I've decided to catalogue my successes on this blog more often, partly because I love reading about other people's thrifting scores, and partly in the hope that it'll inspire others to have a rummage in The British Heart Foundation shop rather than Primark more often! 

Yesterday my parents, Dolores and I spent the day in ancient town of Rye. It's only a small place, with just four charity shops as far as we could tell, but the Gods of Charity Shopping were smiling upon us and we cleaned up:

Leopard print leggings, £1.99

I've been wearing leggings way more often than I'd like to admit these days, but only around the house, promise! The black ones I made myself are soooooper baggy now and I was planning on making some more some day soon, particularly as I'm going to start a course of mindfulness yoga (?! I have no idea what to expect) next month. I try and make as much of my wardrobe as possible, but I don't currently have any suitable knit fabric in my stash. These bad boys look completely unworn and for a measly £2, they seemed the answer to my leggings issue. 

Black leather Dolly shoes, £5

OMG! I had some almost EXACTLY like these in the 90's which I absolutely adored. I wore them in a Riot Grrl, kinder whore, Hole/Babes in Toyland kind of way. I have no idea if I succeeded in pulling it off. Anyway, these fit me so well it's bizarre. I know lots of people get freaked out by the thought of wearing someone else's shoes, but I am not one of them. The insides haven't really taken the shape of the former owner's feet, and good clean inside and out will be good enough for me. The heel is the perfect height to make them appropriate for work when I'm teaching sewing classes and they even came with replacement heel tips for when the current ones get worn down. 

Clothes puzzle game, £1

I buy all of Dolores's toys and books in charity shops, aside from hand-me-downs and eBay when I'm looking for something specific. I'm not going to start boring you by blogging every single 'That's not my Penguin' book or plastic watering can I buy her, but for obvious reasons I thought you might like to see this one! There are not words to describe how much I love it. I'm going to take it away from her when we she gets big enough to start drawing on things with crayon, it's that good.

So, what thrifting successes have you had recently? Do tell...

Fancy-Sleeved Maternity T-shirt!

... for want of a better blog post title. After the success of my recent spotty dress to maternity T-shirt project, I felt inspired to make a variation that had something a little more fancy about it. A dash of pattern adjustment rendered the spotty version's pattern a little longer in the body and with a 'scooper' neckline. 

I then jacked the sleeve pattern and armscye shape from the below complicated jersey top pattern.   

For those who may be curious, the above pattern came from the below magazine: a copy of some sort of French Simplicity patterns magazine that I scored at a meet-up/swap a couple of years ago. I don't speak French. Finding out if the pattern pieces already included seam allowances was a challenge (figured out that they do! Who knew?!).

The fabric I used for this top is a total dream! I scored 2 metres of super-stretchy and silky-soft dark grey jersey from a charity shop in Clapham round the corner from Sew Over It for just £3! The gods of charity shopping smiled on me that day. 

I must admit that when I first tried this top on, I wasn't in love with it. The sleeves seemed a bit bizarre, although I have to say that in the flesh they look exactly like the ones on the pink top in the magazine. I think that my lack of initial acceptance might be because the sleeves are a bit of a departure from what I consider to be 'my style', but after a couple of wears this is now my favourite maternity top. It's funny how, when I first became pregnant, the thought of having to put aside my quest to find and represent my sense of style through sewing for a time really troubled me. But as the months have progressed and I've found myself making and wearing things that I wouldn't have gone for had I not been preggers, I've actually found it liberating. The fact that this is for such a finite period has allowed me the freedom to explore things like a different sleeve shape, for example. I'm not sure what effect these experiments and freedoms will have, if any, on my style and sewing in the long term but it'll be interesting to keep half an eye on that. 

New Baby: New Clothes?

It's time to address a subject that I've had seven months to develop an opinion about now. I am of course talking about baby clothes and how I plan to dress my baby. What have we got for our baby to wear when she comes out? SO MUCH: is the answer!!!

After the first scan went well, I started hitting up the charity shops and a nearly-new sale for baby grows, vests and anything else that looked in good condition. At first it was a few things here and there, then we found that the charity shop at the end of our road sells all its baby clothes for 30p a garment! Umm, I went mental in there and hoovered up all the nice things, regardless of colour (i.e. gender) which seemed to really confuse the more conservative shop assistants, particularly when I told them we already knew the sex of our baby! And then the donations started to come in. Friends and relatives with babies and toddlers started giving us bags of baby garments (and heaps of equipment and other stuff). Even an associate of my best friend's dad who I have never met kindly gave us what must be over a hundred pound's worth of stuff. 

Sorting through it all I realised we had more 0-3 months things than we would possibly ever need so I had to place an embargo on myself when near charity shops and start donating some things to a friend of mine who is also expecting but not quite as prepared as we are in terms of 'stuff'. These two drawers pictured above and below are stuffed full with all of the 0-3 months clothes we now have, except for a couple of outdoor padded suits that won't fit in here. 

So, aside from a few pairs of tiny socks (eye-wateringly cute, BTW) and the trousers I have made (blog post to follow), EVERYTHING we have acquired so far, clothes, equipment, furniture, etc, is second-hand. The reasons behind this are predominantly ethical and secondarily financial. 

Ethical

As I have talked and written about many times, I dress myself exclusively in self-made or second-hand garments, aside from bras and hosiery. I do this consciously and deliberately for a variety of reasons that I feel passionately about. My feelings about the environmental damage caused by the production and transportation of mass-produced garments, the welfare of the workers in those industries, the 'disposability' of fast-fashion and the comparative lack of satisfaction shopping awards us compared to sewing or thrifting are not going to go away because I'm about to become a mother. In fact the opposite is happening. I'm more aware than ever of the shitty state our global eco-system is in (BTW, have you watched 'The Island President' yet? Such an amazing film) and the way our capitalist financial systems prioritise profit over human life, safety and well-being, and I feel guilty and embarrassed about the world we are leaving our children. 

My daughter is not going to be in any danger from second-hand clothing that has been thoroughly laundered before she wears it. Nor from unbroken equipment or furniture that has had a good clean before she touches it. There is so much damn baby stuff already out there in existance that has barely or not even been used (so many of the garments I've bought second-hand or been given still have the original price tags on), it will not make me a bad mother for (re)using those existing resources rather than buying more brand-new mass-produced items that will be useless to us within a couple of months. 

In fact I believe the opposite. I believe I'm a better mother for trying, at least in some limited way, to put less pressure on the social and environmental fractures that unchecked consumerism is causing. I am the first to admit I live a far from 'perfect' life (if such a thing exists) in terms of my carbon foot-print etc., but I will at least be able to have something to say for myself when she inevitably asks me what me and her dad where doing to stem the damage our generation is inflicting right now.

Financial

Aside from the ethical reasoning behind buying (or receiving) second-hand things where possible for our baby, ourselves and our home, there is no denying that there are real financial benefits to be enjoyed. I've written and spoken in the past about how being self-employed since losing our jobs has had its ups and downs and how it helps to have a certain disposition to ride those waves. 

Recently Pat and I attended a four week course called Parentskool that was chock full of advice for first-time parents of 0-6 month babies. A lot of the discussions revolved around what items and types of items are good and not so good to buy for a baby, including buggies/prams, high chairs, breast milk expressing machines, clothing, cots/bedding, nappies and much more. After a couple of sessions it dawned on me that none of the other couples had any intention of buying second-hand items for their babies, aside from the items that friends and family had already given them. I guess prioritising second-hand options when sourcing things is now so ingrained in me that it occasionally surprises me when people that I can really relate to in many other ways don't feel the same about that too. Then thinking about it a bit deeper, I realised through all the discussions we'd been having that all the other couples were in a much higher income bracket than Pat and I so they didn't have that extra incentive to source the cheaper second-hand options. 

We are kind of in a funny situation in that we are classed (in the UK) as a low-income household, but not low enough to be entitled to any assistance or benefits. I have applied for and been told I'm entitled to Maternity Allowance (the self-employed person's version of a salaried employee's maternity pay) which isn't much but will help with my disappearance of income at the end of my pregnancy and first chunk of our daughter's life. Plus, when she comes along there are some benefits and assistance we will then be able to receive that are designed to help make sure she is secure and well-nourished. As I've said before, I'm not in the habit of overly planning or worrying about the future, so we'll see what happens. 

However, the upside of being self-employed and therefore more flexible is that, unlike the other Parentskool couples who all have complicated plans for their maternity and paternity leave and for what will happen when those allocations dry up, we have time on our side. All being well, touch-wood, Pat and I will be able to share childcare so one or both of us will be with her all the time. We won't need to worry about finding the cheapest nannies or nurseries to leave her with, or experience the guilt (not that anyone should necessarily feel guilty about going back to work) of leaving their baby with strangers, or wrestle with the frustrating reality that childcare costs about as much as the wages you are going back to work to earn. 

We've had a tricky spell, financially speaking, recently. And I'm sure that if we'd gone out and bought new all the things we've so far acquired second-hand, we would be in a really difficult situation right now. And there really is enough to concern ourselves with at the moment with the prospect of very shortly becoming parents.