Eleven Ways to Keep Your Legs Warm in Winter

How to Stop the Cold Air from Breezing Up Your Skirt

Let's talk about cold legs. Actually, no. If you suffer from cold legs, you don't need to know about cold legs. What you need is solutions. Let's talk about ways to keep your legs warm.

I made this dress for an inland valley region of New Zealand which can experience lows of 8°C during the day and -2°C at night. Typically we only heated a couple of rooms in the house. Wearing layers was key for comfort.

Long Hems, Warm Fabric, and Linings

This dress is made of medium denier cotton corduroy. The skirt is lined with premium cotton flannelette. The bodice is lined with smooth cotton gingham for that helpful slippery effect when pulling one garment over top of another. I added a hem extension of doubled cotton sateen, stitched to the lining, so the dress reached the top of my sheepskin slippers (Snugglefeet from Classic Sheepskins).

Wool, Multiple Pairs of Socks, and Leg Warmers

In that climate, I would wear a mid-calf length brushed knit chemise (BN design) underneath the dress, merino wool socks, and chunky knitted wool leg warmers bunched around my ankles.

When I moved two hours north to a Mediterranean seaside climate (lows of 11°C to 1°C, but typically 5° warmer than my hometown), the hem extension was excess to ankle warmth requirements, so I removed it, which also made my more active life easier.

A short, store-bought chemise is sufficient now, but I still wear merino socks, and the leg warmers if it's a very cold day.

I don't need the sheepskin slippers now (which is a relief, because the wool was wearing thin and the price had risen by NZ$100). A second pair of socks is sufficient indoors.

There are three places I typically wear this dress.

It's great on a beach excursion, for which I wear two pairs of socks inside my aerated crosstrainers, or rubber boots if I'm planning to get damp feet. The hem is weighty enough that I'm not worried about the wind blowing it up around my waist.

The same garb works for a visit to my neighbours in their unheated, uninsulated house, where I sit on the floor to play with their young children. The dress hem is full enough that it doesn't impede my movements. With my shoes off, I'm very grateful for the wool leg warmers.

The dress is a flexible style. I also wear it to meetings. It's easy to elevate it from casual to smart by changing the jacket and the footwear, and adding some pretty accessories.

Further Layering Tips

Five other ways to keep your legs warm

• wool or thick denier nylon stockings
• wool or cotton knit leggings (footless tights)
• thermal leggings (long underwear)
• wool or cotton knee-length socks
• fleece track pants

Now you know eleven ways to keep your lower limbs more comfortable in winter.

Look out for more Boutique Narelle posts detailing liberating modest fashion techniques.

Fiat lux!
Narelle

Nifty Navy Chop: Smart Fashion Tricks for Modest Women on a Budget

Dress Upcycling Technique #5

This summer I've been reminded of a key to dressing well on a small budget:

As long as fabric endures in good health, it holds possibility as wearable and a potential money saver. 

If you're interested in limiting your waste footprint and reducing your financial expenditure, take a second look at the old clothing you've been thinking is past its usefulness. Your favourites may gift you another life of wear after all.

You may have seen how I achieved that with the yellow beach skirt. For my next project, I assessed a favourite polyester rayon shirtdress that I bought new for NZ$2, fourteen years ago at a Red Cross sale.

This dress introduced me to the delights of the classic shirtdress, a style that has been reinvented decade after decade for over a century because of its flexibility, comfort, and practicality. 

What I most love about this one is the back ties allowing easy fit, and the lightweight but opaque fabric allowing cool summer modesty.

When I bought the dress, I needed an ankle length hem. Adding a coordinating strip at the base achieved this. I also needed to trust that the narrow button placket wouldn't gape, so I handstitched closed the edge of the placket from hem to crotch, and added invisible domes (snap fasteners) between the buttons at the bust.

My current need is for knee-length dresses that I can wear with trousers underneath, so I decided  it was time for the chop. It was a quick job to shorten the dress. I took time to use the discarded length to create four patch pockets, the upper two for modesty, the lower two for practical use.

Extra Style Tip

The dress designer made pearly shell buttons a feature down the front of the dress. I didn't like the contrast of white buttons on dark navy, so I turned them all upside down. The sandy brown underside of the shell has an uneven texture I really like on this dress.

In these photos, I'm wearing the dress as a costume for the Napier Art Deco Festival, celebrating the Depression-era resilience and creativity of the survivors of the 1931 Napier earthquake, who rebuilt the city into the architectural splendour it is today.

Now you know a quick trick for upcycling an old dress into a new one for very little cost.

Look out for more Boutique Narelle posts detailing liberating modest fashion techniques.

Fiat lux!
Narelle

Spit-Spot Waterproof Clothing for a Lady Cyclist

Practical Solutions for Active Women who want to be Modest and Stylish

When I moved to the city, a bicycle became my primary means of transport in all weathers.

Modesty Challenge

How to stay dry, covered, safe, and comfortable while cycling, taking into special consideration rain from above, splashing from below, and wind from any and all directions.

Functional Challenge

The bicycle that started me on my adventures was 22-year-old Plum, a step-through Town&Country mountain bike adapted for urban living. She did not have the safety features of chain guard and rear wheel cover that vintage ladies bikes are often equipped with, allowing modest ladies to cycle safely in long skirts.

I put great effort into finding a clothing or equipment adaption that would allow Plum to accomodate the long hems in my wardrobe, but I was unsuccessful. Even stovepipe jeans (worn under a tunic) were a hazard without ankle clips.

My everyday garb became knee-length dresses with ankle-hugging trousers underneath and an acceptance that, while riding, very often the dress would be rumpled up well above my knees.

That is, until I welcomed a new steed into the stable. Angel is a modern urban cruiser. She doesn't have a vintage chain guard and rear wheel cover, not even spray guards on her wheels, but the design is sufficiently protective to the rider that I can re-explore options in ladylike cycle wear.

My first experiment was with rainwear.

Action Challenge

It's raining.
I have to go out on the bike.
How can I stay dry?

Solutions

1) Parka in a Pkt by Denim & Co, a thrift-shop treasure found at SaveMart for NZ$10 -- light, portable, windproof, surprisingly waterproof.

2) BoutiqueNarelle rain skirt made from PUL waterproof fabric (sourced from a DIY nappy company). Designed to cover ankle-length skirts, its Velcro fastener tabs also make it easy to wear hitched up shorter.

The trial was conducted on a frigid wintery day (forecast high of 10°C). I wore the above waterproof layers over top of a thick knit tunic and tee shirt, fleece jacket, heavy denier stretch jeans, two pairs of socks, and leather ankle boots. When I reached my destination, I was able to shed the parka and skirt to drip at the door and take care of my errand in a dry and comfortable state.

It was a calm, almost windless day, so the skirt remained covering my knees for most of the journey. I think I flipped it back down twice.

My basket cover is made from PUL, the same fabric as the skirt. More commonly used for reusable baby nappies (diapers), I've found it keeps liquid out equally well as keeping liquid in.

I hope you've found something fabulous and inspiring here today.

Fiat lux!
Narelle

The Three Lives of the Yellow Beach Skirt: Smart Fashion Tricks for Modest Women on a Budget

Skirt Upcycling Technique #4

There is currently no fabric shop in my city, and I'm living on a very small income. This summer my need for a modest, pretty dress led me to take apart a favourite dress and remake it...for the third time.

This crinkle cotton skirt started life 11 years ago as a delicate, half-lined beach skirt with a fold-over knit waistband. When I bought it from Ezibuy for NZ$10, I separated the skirt from the band, added a full lining of gingham, then reattached the waistband.

Oh, how I loved that skirt. But soon the stretch band lost elasticity, and I lost weight, a combination prompting me to remake the skirt into a tank dress, meaning the garment would hang from my shoulders and it wouldn't matter what fluctuations were taking place at my waist. For this I used a JayJays knit camisole with a double layer at the bust and adjustable straps.

After a few seasons of happy wearing with a blouse or tee shirt over the top, the knit fabric of the camisole was beginning to disintegrate around the top edge. To extend its life, I stitched a supportive lining (visible in the above photo) along that edge using a strip of the camisole that had been cut off when attaching the camisole to the skirt.

This 2019-2020 season as we skipped Spring and jumped straight into Summer's intense heat, I realized two things. One, I wasn't wearing that dress because the worn knit camisole now felt a little icky. Two, the summer temperatures experienced here mean I need to avoid knit fabrics if I want to stay cool.

The woven fabrics of the skirt were still in excellent condition, so once again I unpicked the knit upper portions. This time I created a fitted, zipped bodice of woven fabrics (worn below with an overblouse of burnout cotton).

The yellow striped sleeveless bodice is a delicate polycotton I had in my fabric stash. I lined it with Egyptian cotton from a bed sheet given to me by a friend whose husband wears through his side of the bed linens with unfortunate rapidity. I'm sorry she has to buy new sheets so often, but I feel very blessed that I'm on the receiving end of this luxurious, quality cotton that feels silky soft and cool against the skin.

I've learned two things from the many lives of this outfit:

• Clothing made of quality, natural fibre woven fabrics is worth the effort to acquire because it lasts so well.
• As long as fabric endures in good health, it holds possibilitied as wearable and a potential money saver.

If you're interested in limiting your waste footprint and reducing your financial expenditure, take a second look at the old fabrics you've been thinking are past their usefulness. Your favourites may gift you another life of wear after all.

Napier Art Deco Festival 2020

Now you know a fabulous trick for upcycling a secondhand skirt into a new and gorgeous dress for very little cost.

Look out for more Boutique Narelle posts detailing liberating modest fashion techniques.

Fiat lux!
Narelle