Ye ole fashion blog.

The Renfest is in town again, and in honor, I will share a medieval post!

A few years ago, my friend purchased a red peasant top and a blue corset from the festival. She had a friend who was a teacher that asked her to help chaperon a a highschool field trip to the festival, and she decided to dress up for the kids. She didn't have a skirt to go with her corset top, so she asked me to make her one.

We went to the store and picked out a few fabrics that matched the corset top - a dark blue, a dark red, and an off-white to resemble a petty coat. I didn't have a pattern (as usual), so I took her measurements and just started cutting away. We wanted the skirt to look as authentic as possible while staying on our zero-to-none budget.

I essentially made three skirts out of the three different colors, each one slightly different in fullness. I layered the skirts from bottom to top: white (for a petty coat), dark red, and then dark blue.

In order to create some fullness in the skirt, as well as show off all of the layers, I scrunched up the top two layers and sewed them in place. The result was some-what of a curtain effect.

I finished off the waist band with elastic, and the skirt was done! It took several yards of fabric, and just a few hours, and her outfit was complete.

I am the bracelets you sport, everything you have ever missed, and more

For my birthday this year my mom got me subscriptions to two magazines: a diy clothes magazine and a diy jewelry magazine. This bracelet was inspired by one of the articles in the jewelry magazine.

I started by sewing together a few scraps of pink and black fabric as a base.
The blue flower was taken from scraps of a dress I remodeled (see this blog post), the red flower was made from lace, the beading was taken from pre-made chain of beads, and the X is an iron-on letter.
The bracelet ties closed with soft white lace. It looks pretty awesome, but can be tricky to tie by myself.

The bracelet is really soft and super comfortable.
I feel that it is a very cindiasaurus-esque piece of jewelry.
I basically heart it a lot.

Paaartay skirt!

Made this skirt for clubbing! Partly modeled it after another skirt I own. No pattern used, just kinda put it together as I went. Material given to me by a friend. It's super comfy and nice and cool - great for dancing!

High waisted skirt.


Thick waist band and wide pleating!


First time playing with big pleating - fitted waist opens up to a loose, puffy bottom.


back view.


back pleating/zipper detail.


double layer band on bottom.


big ole bow!

so this is the new year, but i don't feel any different

A while ago when my Nana came to visit, she gave me a bunch of crazy old lady dresses that I could cut up and play around with.
While I was waiting around for the New Years Eve festivities to start, I decided to make a new outfit for the occasion.


Before!
I didn't think to take a picture of me wearing it before I started cutting it up.


After!
I combined it with a little bit of fabric Jimmie gave me for Christmas.


The Back!
The skirt was a lot wider than I am, so its bunched up in the back and it ties to close.

Winter break went by a lot quicker than I had planned and I didn't get to do as much sewing as I had hoped. But it's not over yet, so we'll see what I manage before next week.

them is dancing pants

pants!

I'm going on a cruise this week, but expect lots of updating when I get back, because I'm gonna have way too much free time over the break.

it's been such a long time, i guess i should be goin'.

I lost my camera for forever, but I finally found it on Thursday!
So this is what has become of the zebra pants. An over-sized racer-back tank top (I just love them) with an adjustable back strap thing. I forgot to take a picture of the back, but perhaps I'll get one up soon.

blue tanktop (walmart), volleyball shorts (walmart), zebra tank (handmade)
A lovely mirror shot.

I made this vest a while back. I tried to make a dress out of this fabric last summer or winter but failed horribly and so I cut the skirt up for this. It looks like an old man vest and I love it dearly, but it needs some vintage or over-sized buttons.

I have a lot of new clothes that have yet to be photographed, so expect frequent posting!

hello, kitty!

Today was the first day back to school, so I had to wake up at 7:45AM to be at school by 9:15! Bleh! But luckily, I only had one class and it was only 50 minutes long, haha, so I was done by 10:30 and ready to waste my day... erm, I mean get things done. Getting my books was easy, but don't get me started on parking permits.
Back to school outfit!


The bookstore is right next to a shoe store, and my airwalks are so broken they flap their mouth everytime I take a step, so I went in to find a new pair of sneakers.
Didn't find sneakers, but I did find these...

looove!

And of course, right next door to the shoe store was a Target, and I simply did not have a good backpack for my laptop...


I'm spendin' too much money, honey.

you can call for pizza, you can call your cat, you can even call the whitehouse, have a chat!

I was looking through old pictures on my computer and I came across these pictures of a present I made for my friend a year or two ago.
It's an over-sized pillow phone!

Complete with 9, yes only 9, buttons for long-distance dialing!
Just don't call the operator!

Detachable ear and mouth piece!
New wireless technology!
You don't even need a phone line!

Hello?
Say that again, the line's a bit fuzzy...

get the picture?

WARNING: This post hosts approximately one billion photos.

Oh no!, again?
Yes, the green striped tank is back.
I'm in love with its versatility, perhaps.
I love the shape of the collar, but it's a little tight in the bust and the fabric doesn't stretch so it does the impossible and gives me some crazy cleavage.
Sometimes when I'm going into a situation where I know I'll feel uncomfortable or shy, I'll dress crazy or tough (I try, anyway).
I knew I was going to be spending the day with someone important that I barely knew, so I did my best to hide my timidness.

green striped tank (thrifted), vest (forever 21 - believe it or not, on rare occasion I actually do shop at mainstream stores), black skinny jeans (old navy), steel toed boots (used to belong to my mom)

I freaking love these boots. It's so fun to be able to run up and kick stuff or have people stand on my feet without feeling it. Makes me feel tough, for once?


I suppose this outfit is chic without being too dressy.

sunglasses (Claire's), green striped tank (thrifted), skinny gray jeans (Sears), jacket and shoes (Marshall's)

When I bought the jacket, it had these ugly lame blue buttons on it, so I replaced them with these sweet buttons from Walmart. They give the jacket a more nautical feel.

Wearing heels makes me want to kick shit over.
Then again, so did the steel-toed boots, so maybe I just have a problem.

But aren't they beautiful?
Very vintage.


I don't know if one is allowed to mix stripes with stripes, but I've never been one for following rules...
I made this skirt from a purple and very light pink pinstripe material.
I was going for a vintage sailor girl skirt feel.
Big white buttons found in my mother's sewing kit, and white piping separates the waist and the skirt.

front/back


And in final news, my boyfriend got me a screen press for my birthday! I just need to get a screen, and then I'm on my way to making bunches of sweet sweet shirts/pillows/wall art/whateverthehellifeellike.

this one will get her out of her clothes and into the sheets

I was up by my school the other day and there is a JoAnn's that is relocating, so there was a massive sale. I figured I might be able to get some nice thread for my new serger for a little cheaper, so I went in.
And ended up buying $65 worth of sewing fabric/supplies.

But! All of it was 50-70% off, so I couldn't miss this opportunity.
Also, my family threw out my old bed (which was a full and all of the other beds in the house are queen size), so we were stuck with several sets of sheets that didn't fit any of our beds. My mom was just going to give the sheets away, so I snagged them before she had the chance.
All of my fabrics combined take up an entire 30 gal tub.
Exciting!

Keeping to my addiction to making new outfits every week, I used the flat sheet from my bed set that I had when I was about 11 (I grew out of the tulips as I got older, haha) to make a dress that was inspire by the first dress in this post by MODAna.

paired with a baseball belt stolen from my brother


The dress was supposed to have a very 70's feel to it. Floral and flowy.


I changed the style of the top part so that the sleeves would always be off-shoulder and couldn't ride up.


Double ruffle bottom!

I felt like the dress came out a little more German girl than 70's hippie, but I still like it.
I hope Dana doesn't mind me stealing some of her style! To be honest, I like her dress much better anyway.
:)

curtain call

For my birthday, my friend Christopher gave me a giant roll of this beautiful thick purple fabric. It's almost as tall as I am!
You could make curtains out of this stuff, I love it.


The first thing I made with it was a high-waisted bubble skirt.

front/back

I wore it out dancing last night with the shirt and necklace Jimmie got me.

waistband detail.

I finally got my serger yesterday (It's a Kenmore). However, we didn't bother to any nice quality thread, which is apparently required for a serger to work properly. So!, when I got home and set it all up and tested it out, it would work for about a foot of fabric and then decide that it really didn't like the cheap thread that I put in it. So I'll have to go pick up some nice thread that is designed for sergers and form a new opinion on whether I love it or not. Has anyone else ever used one?

let's celebrate me.

It's quite possible that I'm addicted to the idea of wearing a new outfit every time I go out dancing. This week I'd like to blame it on the fact that today is my birthday, so on Sunday I had my birthday dance at The Zendah Grotto. I was the center of attention, so naturally I had to create a new cute, yet still functional, look for myself.
I made this shirt-dress from the scrap of fabric leftover from the suspender skirt I made a couple of weeks ago, some stretchy white fabric from who knows what, and a button I took off of a jacket.


front / back

asymmetrical straps! yay!

button detail!

Sorry about the boob shots. The front of the shirt just doesn't look right on my dress form.

For anyone wondering, I had a lovely birthday.
I went thrifting with my boyfriend and scored a couple of really good finds. But more on that later, I'm sleepy.
Goodnight world!

her first job

So my friend from work hired me to make her a dress for her and her boyfriend's one year anniversary. She wanted a tube-top with lace and such, I think I captured what she wanted.
The top is made out of eyelet fabric and the bottom is white cotton with that stuff that they make veils out of on top (hah, anyone know what that's called?).

without the flower

with the flower

the back

Also, a couple of my friends wanted to see the dress I made for senior prom.
Haha, gotta love my date's crazy hair.





And no, Jimmie, black jewelry is not just for old ladies.