Shoes, Bags and a Bit Of Dressmaking

Well I'm not really a girly girl but this post will probably make me look like one!

As most men will tell you women have a thing for handbags and I must admit I have a bit of a bag problem.  Not ordinary handbags though, I love camera bags!  I even use a non-padded Crumpler bag as my work handbag.

The problem I have with my camera bags is they are not always suited to just carrying about without advertising the fact that I have a camera with me, and in addition to that I usually end up taking another handbag with me.  That was until this morning when this came into my life:

a Jill-e for Pentax ladies camera bag.

Jill-e make bags, but like all ladies camera bags they are quite expensive and aren't widely available in the UK so when I saw this brand new on e-bay for £40 I knew I had to have it.  (It's not from the Jill-e range it's one they designed for Pentax cameras.)

It's padded and has compartments inside so I can fit my camera, lenses, flash and also my day to day stuff in there like my phone, purse etc (which I often struggle with in my other bags):

I also had another parcel to collect this morning, which totally reinforces the female stereotype; new shoes.

I stumbled across Afeitar's blog when I was looking for cupcake recipes and have been following it ever since.  As well as posting about food and baking she also blogs about the cute outfits she wears.  One of her entries was about some lovely shoes she had bought in Duo.  

When I failed to find some new shoes in town I decided to check out Duo online and I'm so glad I did because I found these in the sale:

They were reduced from £80 to £20 so I couldn't resist.

A girly post wouldn't be complete without a frock so in true Blue Peter style here's one I made earlier:

It's a dress I made (and blogged about earlier in January).  This is the final finished version with the zip in and hemmed.  It's from a Vogue pattern (ref v8470).

I wore it to a vintage dancehall event last weekend and I am pleased to report it survived the evening and remained intact.  I also used the event to practise my photography skills and I managed to get a few decent shots.  This is one of my favourites which is of the dance teachers in action:

I also have this event to blame for me going hunting a camera [hand]bag as at one point in the evening I managed to velcro my camera bag to the netting on my underskirt.  Well that's my excuse for needing a bag and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks for looking.

Ruthie x