This is my heartbreak blouse – the one that went very, very wrong. I still love it though – that’s what makes it worse.

I’d had my eye on this pattern in the book “Simple Chic” ever since I bought it. A great shell top for wearing with suits for work I thought. And what better start than to use a piece of fabric I’d been saving for best.

I picked up just over 2 metres of this thin fabric with a slight sheen from a vintage fabric fair in London at the end of last year. It cost about £15 I think - which is at the top end of my spending normally - but I really loved it. I assumed it was a thin cotton but in retrospect it must have been something far less robust.

I did not pre-wash the fabric. But it cut like a dream and was very easy to put together. Once finished, I put the top into a gentle machine wash cycle to clear all the marks etc. This is when disaster struck.

It literally fell to pieces. Every seam has just washed away in places and is frayed everywhere else. The worst affected is the neckline where it has completely come apart. It also shrank a fair bit.

It's completely unwearable – but I haven’t thrown it out just yet. I still love the fabric even after what it did to me.