Its a while now since I felt 100% - my fault as its a family failing, hoping that if you ignore something it will go away!

Well the doctors seem pleased with me, including the dietician I was forced to see as I had lost so much weight. Now I am at my optimum weight for height and have not been so slim since the 1960s or even earlier Being unwell seems to have gone to my head as I now feel I can wear clothes I had not thought I could because of my 'ample' figure.

Bring on the miniskirt! When I last wore one, tights had barely arrived in St Andrews where I studied Modern History so heaven only knows what we looked like! I remember buying tights with integral pants at Woolworths!

In those days fashion seemed to change so quickly, almost day by day, and even in the frozen north, we kept up especially by making our own clothes. 

Here are some students on the traditional 'pier walk', you can see why a warm undergraduate gown was a necessity.

I had had a good training from my mother in basic dressmaking and continued at University where my halls of residence even had a sewing machine which could be used by the residents. 

That's my residence, the red building to the right of the Old Course Clubhouse,  now converted to expensive apartments.

In the summer of 1967, the machine seemed to reside on the top floor where a number of us took advantage of it. In those days material and patterns seemed to be cheap, certainly cheaper than shop-bought clothes. Chain stores such as Primark certainly would have been popular as then there only seemed to be C&A selling bargain clothes. I remember buying fabrics in the Fairfield Drapery Stores - a really old-fashioned drapers shop. The fabric department was in a large hall at the rear of the building, lit by attic windows - just right. Today the store in Market Street, St Andrews has found a new use as the local Tourist Information Centre.

We lived near Paisley in those days, close to the Viyella mill where they sold off that fabulous material in bright plain colours, tartans and the eponymous Paisley pattern - just right for short empire line dresses for the dour Scottish winters. The mills on the River Cart had been founded by James Coats as thread mills and were later taken over for other uses. I remember going there with my mother for textile bargains. 

My mother always had a large stash of material and also yarn, both of which I have inherited and some of that material must date back to her 'Paisley days' which is close to 50 years ago - shows how it doesn't date and how well it can last.

So I am now in the process of finding my old paper patterns to use up some of that stash - so here comes more mini dresses and perhaps a couple of 1970s long pinafore dresses, complete with frills as the bottom.