“What about essentials, like underwear?” my husband asked, when I told him my plan to stop buying clothes for a year.

Good timing. The clasp on my trusty favourite nude bra broke months ago, and I haven’t been able to wear it since then.

As every woman knows, the perfect nude bra is not easy to find. Of course it needs to be functional (comfortable and supportive, and all but invisible under a t-shirt) but hopefully pretty too. So when you land the perfect one, you should probably buy two of them.

Mine has been at the back of a cupboard ever since the clasp broke. So this evening I dug out a needle and thread and got sewing. While my efforts aren’t the neatest, I figure that nobody will ever notice the stitching on the back of my bra. I’m pretty satisfied that this five minute job has revived an old faithful so I can keep wearing it: helping my pocket and the planet, the whole idea behind my #yearofnonewclothes challenge.