The Bluestocking Pub, where we continue to read about gerbils nobly and bravely working undercover in the Fen.

[AsWithGlad]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the best (perhaps only) online women's pub. Nothing in the food or drink can harm you, everything is served by a very enthusiastic crew of gerbils, who enjoy doing this, and any curious menfolk are welcome at the Staunch Ally down the road.

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5564959-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-in-which-we-wait-excitedly-for-the-next-instalment-of-goseis-adventures

Sympathies to both of you. Pasta, having to frog the whole thing would be annoying enough even without your allergy on top.

B&B reporting for duty outside the cathedral at Live-in-it-but-don't-catch-it, as it is (sometimes) locally known.

I'm ready to set off to the West Midlands, all proud that I am featured in Gosie's adventures!

I was just thinking you've probably dodged a bullet with that one, Magpie, in fact probably more than one.

Edited for errant asterisks!

The gerbils all look very well prepared and provisioned for their expotitions.

Ooh, Yorkshire. Lovely!

So it’s really two dresses, the striped one over a plain one? Special.

I wear a lot of Gudrun Sjoden - see boot thread above - but only buy in their twice-yearly very good sales. One finished about a fortnight ago. It’s the only company I know where sale prices can increase during the life of the sale.
They have a shop in Covent Garden, but I’ve never been.

Myrtle wrote If you could afford it at full price, would you buy it? If not, it's not really a bargain. If yes, knock yourself out.

In my case it’s more, if you ever spent that much money on a dress, would you buy it?

I've been to the one in Covent Garden! They make very nice clothes, but I find the sizes quite inconsistent because everything is a "generous" cut. So, a 12 could be more like a 14 or a 16 depending on the garment. Sometimes, the 14 is a great fit, other times it's more like a 10, which I couldn't squeeze into to save my life! But, I like all the colors. And their skirts. I have a couple of tunics from there, from the sale, but had to alter them when I got home (I looked like a very old pregnant lady in them) 😆And jersey is very hard to sew and handle.

The shop, last time I was in, had a very cute shop dog, with a sign next to him in his basket that basically said "Don't touch me as I'm liable to bite your hand off" and the woman at the till (whose dog it was, I think) thought this was very funny!

I haven't been back in since! 😬

Ooh, Angle, I think I have shop-visiting envy. They don’t describe everything online as “generous,” but probably they don’t make the fit clear in the shop.

I like things with embroidery on, and was recently very much looking forward to this dress arriving. It’s embroidered all over, but with different patterns in the sections. Unfortunately, although I looked at the “fit” information before I decided on the size, and carefully ordered the appropriate one based on their size which normally fits me, it’s too small. 😢
Probably proving your point.

(£50 reduced from £135. I don’t think I had spent £50 on a dress before, except the one for DD’s wedding. I am from Yorkshire.)

That puzzled me…if I’ve got this right it’s somewhere I visited a few times when I was growing up but it wouldn’t have been called that then.

Subtitle “…because he’s dead”?

Bewry Street, as I once heard it pronounced?

edit: if it is, I’ve sung Evensong there, too 😀. Possibly twice, decades apart.

I rarely wear anything but trousers or jeans and I mainly shop at J Jill here because their style is fairly classic and suits me.

Being 4ft11, my clothes shopping mainly depends on finding stuff with sleeve & leg lengths that fit. And necklines that won’t leave my norks hanging out 🙄.

I found a denim & patchwork jacket in Desigual that I absolutely loved, & took it to a tailor who removed the sleeves, shortened them at the shoulder end & put them back.

I’ve been wearing it for nearly 8 years now & it still gets admiring comments so definitely worth it, but there’s no way I’m going to do that with everything.

Bury St. Edmund's => BSE => Bovine Spongiform Encepalopathy.

I am old enough to remember driving along the A14 and seeing the sugar factory on one side of the road, but no cathedral tower visible in the middle distance on the other, because it hadn't been built yet.

I like the look of Gudrun Sjoden's stuff, but i bought a bathmat from them once. When it arrived I was deeply unimpressed by the quality (you could see the light base very clearly past the colourful pile) and returned it - and was even less impressed to discover that not only did I have to pay return postage, but that they deducted a handling fee from my refund.

It completely put me off trying their clothes. Looking at them again, they have some nice tops, but their trousers are far too short.

Glad, I love that dress! Sorry it didn't fit. Just like Edith, I would want to see the quality first, and having to pay for returns is just wrong. I understand why some retailers do it, but if I do order online, which isn't often, I only order if I can return it for free.

But, normally, once you get the sizing right, ordering should be easy. I just don't find Gudrun Sjoden's sizing consistent enough. Shame, that's a really nice dress!

That's difficult! I thought it was bad being 5' 3" - at least more retailers are doing petite sizes now, but I guess that doesn't help you much?

@FuzzyPuffling I'm loving the look of those Cinnamon Junction kantha jackets, especially this one:

https://cinnamonjunction.com/product/cream-patchwork-jacket/

Thanks for the recommendation 😀

Bore da, everyone else! It's cool and sunny. Is summer over now? Cleaning and laundry this weekend, because I'm leaving for London on Monday, and I still haven't decided if I need shorts, skirts, or trousers. I hate that I overheat so easily, unless it's 16C out. Bring on autumn (it's been very nice not being cold, but I've had enough summer now).

(Remind me of this when I'm complaining about our fourth El Niño storm in November!)

Are there any gerbils still working the bar? If so, coffee and a croissant, please. I'll be in the Quilting Nook thinking about how much to take to the City.

Sometimes but definitely not always! Vinted & charity shops can be good.

@AsWithGlad and @AngleofRepose - until recently all my clothes are Gudrun Sjorden except jeans! I found the shop when doing my usual Monmouth Street browse back in 2013 and before they did mail order. I loved it

I go to London for a weekend every January to meet with my friend and go to Saddler's Wells, which means I can hit the sale. (I don't but anything full price, it's madness)

At size 24 (XXL) it was one of the few places that made brightly coloured, patterned clothes.

The returns by post are awful so I only buy if I'm confident.

Since losing 3 1/2 stone my clothing options have increased, so I've been buying secondhand and hitting charity shops etc, which is a nice change.

Given that the average height for a woman was 5’3” in 2010 and is now 5’3.5” to 5’4”, this is shocking.

Oops, that's a typo, just noticed, because I'm 5'2" but close enough!

I still don't understand why they make the "standard size" be for the 5'9" models they use, and usually a size 8 or 10 (and even a 10 I've only seen this in the past 10 years or so)

So, you look at it online and it looks great, so you order what you think your size is, and it looks completely different on!

Pasta, I do the usual round of shops when I'm in London, as well. A few times a year. Just the ones they don't have in Cardiff or Bristol.

Well done on 3 1/2 stone! I'm really struggling at the mo with constant weight gain, and just can't figure out how to deal with it. I'm still quite "small" (a large 12 or a 14 if I want to be really comfortable) but it's not something I've ever had to deal with before. Every year, it's a bit more. I have found exercise this summer almost impossible, it's been so hot.

Maybe it's just called Being in Your Sixties...