Making or buying? Buying

Hi from Dimitrova. You may be thinking: for low cost living, why not just make your own clothes? For simple things like black tights or a high necked dark t-shirt, you have a point.

However, it takes time and skill to make something like the Marzipan Closet top featured in the last entry: you may not have the skills or have the time to develop them. Given the wealth of talent out there already, it makes more sense to discover your own niche in gifts in creating and building. In the meantime: why not enjoy what there is to offer?

On this theme, though, I'm irritated by freebies which frankly are not worth the clicking. For example, a shirt that simply looked like someone had created a standard shirt and coloured it black. That isn't going to entice you to spend Lindens on that person's priced clothes.

If you're making, then one of the easiest things is to customise an existing garment with a logo. There are lots and lots of logo items out there. Some are worth collecting, and I'd say that this Princeton University women's jacket is one of them.

To be honest, the craftsmanship isn't that great, but Princeton has a certain cachet and the orange insert contrasts nicely. It's worn with $1 Linden sunglasses - available in several colours - and $1 Linden rainbow armband (from Oasis for Eriko Koba). The earrings are Miriel, as before.

Eriko Koba shop: poco Japan 89, 150, 25

Princeton University shop: Princeton South 135, 205, 27

The 2nd free outfit from Yurema Designs is another example of rather slapdash finishing, however it is certainly bold. I' m wearing the green version of the sunglasses. The fun earrings are $25 from Paula (in the same mall as Yurema), and the shoes are free Japanese Geta from D&D. I'm pictured in front of one of the distinctive buildings on the Princeton campus.

In the 3rd pic, I'm wearing the "Ugly duckling" set free from Sugarcube - available for free separately outside their store and also as part of their newbie pack. This is in another class altogether, with fine detailing and I'll be featuring some more of Sugarcube's free stuff. Geta, sunglasses, armring and earrings as before.

Paula; and Yurema Designs: Paektu 119, 139, 102

Sugarcube: Shimakitozaka 209, 191, 27

Dharmaya and Dharmaya: Japan 02 174, 157, 26