A new dress for me

Welp I made my first super summer-y dress today and I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the results. I don't know why, but my freehand creations are always better than the ones done entirely with a pattern. The only pattern action on this dress was in getting the armscye just right. I made this using a $1.99 pillow sham that I found at Goodwill yesterday, and I used vintage crocheted lace that I found months and months ago at my favorite antique mall. I love the look of using just the lace across the waistline. Is that called a peekaboo or something these days? I have no idea, but it's definitely nice to have a little extra skin exposed on hot days. The bodice has a faux wrap dress effect and everything is fully lined. I can't wait until my next day off so I can show you all the shorts I'm working on once I finish them!

New Summer Clothes! Ahhh!

Look at my beautiful new fabrics! LOOK AT THEM! I'm so excited to finally have a tiny bit of time to get to work on some new summer staples for my DIY wardrobe. I've been plotting much sooner than I ought to (since it's still 30 degrees here in New Hampshire) but it raises my spirits to dream about wearing these lovely fabrics once the warm weather comes. Until then, here are my plans! 

The two fabrics on the left are gonna be fun printed shorts inspired by this photo of Emma Roberts

I first saw this in Teen Vogue when I was 18 (Holy crap! Five years ago!) And I've been in love with this outfit ever since. It's got such a simple, classic, and retro vibe to it. And that twin reflex camera plus polka-dotted headband as accessories are just perfection. Love love love.

The next two fabrics are a little uncertain. I'm thinking a skirt or a dress for the chevron stripes and a fairly simple square top for the antique camera printed fabric. I've had this simplicity pattern for ages and it might get some use after all this time, but there are so many ideas in my head right now that I think it's best to start with the shorts before I go cutting up the others :)

My Pinterest boards are filled with amazing wardrobe ideas. Here's a peek at what's been inspiring me lately. My life needs overalls and rompers too, before summer comes. (P.S. none of the below images are mine. If I've used your image and you'd like me to remove it, don't hesitate to ask that I take it down or give credit where credit is due!)

All of these images were taken from my Pinterest boards. Follow me on Pinterest HERE for more of my style inspiration and to see some links to these lovely garments!

Winter

It's been far too long since I've posted anything. Life has been so hectic this winter. I've taken on more hours at work, still take classes full time, and many, many family things have happened this winter. My boyfriend's mother has been at Mass General for a month now with a rare skin reaction from a prescription, and I've had to step up and help take care of the house and his elderly grandmother, since we both live with his family right now. I've also lost a loved one only a few short weeks ago. My grandfather finally succumbed to the pancreatic cancer he had been fighting, but that's a very personal matter, which I prefer not to go into detail about. I'm just glad that I had time to say goodbye, and that I have a few mementos that once belonged to him, like his buck knife and his collection of Johnny Cash records. Death is such a sad affair, but as I get older I find that I am slowly accepting the fact that it is inevitable, and I try more to celebrate a wonderful life and remember the good things than to be sad all the time, although it's easier said than done.

Despite all of these hardships, I still try to find ways to stay bright and optimistic, mostly by distracting myself from my daily life. I've been reading like a mad-woman lately, books like A Great and Terrible Beauty, Asylum, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and now Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Books have always been, and always will be, my great escape.

I've had a birthday since my last post. I'm 23 now, but I still feel like a little kid in grown-up clothes. I wonder if that feeling ever goes away. My boyfriend took me to get a tattoo for my birthday, which I have yet to get colored in since I seldom have time to do much of anything. It's an illustration by Hilary Knight, from a 1960's version of Beauty and the Beast. It's my favorite fairy tale. I think Belle was my first nerd idol as a kid. The character of Belle is always humble, caring, and always reading something. This story resonates with me as a story that teaches you to look past the exterior of people and learn to see their inner beauty, which is part of what makes it such a wonderful story for all ages.

I've said goodbye to the blue hair in favor of a natural looking copper. Pastels are hard to maintain, especially with my schedule, so that had to go. 

When I have time to spare, I'm taking pictures and trying to be creative. The first picture of an old building in Hooksett is what inspired me to start writing the story line that I began writing in November, during National Novel Writing Month, but which I did not finish in one month because apparently I do not handle daunting deadlines all that well right now. I'd like to take a term off from school once I finish this biology class to have a little time to free my mind. The tulips are what I got for my wonderful boyfriend on our 2.5 year anniversary. It's super cheesy, I know, but little things like that mean a lot to both of us. That last picture is my favorite creation of this winter. I cross-processed a picture of a drawing I made in a vintage book of the evil eye with my own picture of Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone. I used a double exposure app on my phone to do that, and I'm surprised at all the neat things I can create with it. 

So that's been my life for the past few months. It's hectic, crazy, heartbreaking at times, but I can't let that stop me from being happy to have the life I have, because despite all of the hard parts, the good parts really are worth it at the end of the day.

A new skirt for me and projects from the past

I've made a new skirt this week that I'm quite proud of!

I didn't use a pattern for this skirt, just modeled it off one of my favorite skirts. I used linen-look fabric, put a zipper in the back, and even used interfacing in the waistband so it wouldn't look all slouchy while wearing it. This actually used to be a full length cape that I used as part of my Red Riding Hood Halloween costume in 2012. Repurposing for the win! This fabric is perfect for pleated skirts, the linen-look fabric is so wrinkle resistant and it's perfectly weighted and flowy and ugh, linen-look, I love you. I managed to make this skirt look a little fuller by adding another hidden pleat tucked behind each visible pleat. So fancy right? While I'm at it, here's a few of the skirts I've made in the past that I never showed off:

I made this yellow linen skirt last spring. I used genuine linen so it wrinkles like crazy unfortunately.

This skirt I made in the summer of 2011 when I was living in Concord and I was too poor for fancy clothes so I used up my fabric stash. This was actually a fabulous skirt for summer. It was a light fabric and so flowy! I just gathered it and made a nice wide waistband. I don't know why, but I love wide waist bands. For some silly reason, I have since gotten rid of this skirt. Ah well.

I also wanted to share my hand made vintage inspired bikini that I made at the end of last summer!

I also mostly free-handed this creation with a little pattern help for the top. I used parts of a pattern from either the book Famous Frocks or Sewing Vintage Modern (I'm way too lazy to go digging through my pattern collection right now). I just needed a little guidance for getting the cup construction right. I tore apart a regular bra to help with the construction for the top; I just pulled out the underwire and cut the cups to the right shape for the top, stitched them in between the decorative fabric and voila! Support! For the bottoms, I just traced a pair of my comfiest boyshorts onto newspaper for a pattern and went with it. This is literally the comfiest bathing suit I've ever owned. I don't feel like I'm gonna fall out the top, and the high-waisted bottoms give me such a curvy looking silhouette, which is quite a boost for my confidence in the summer. I'm so self-concious.

And just for fun, here's the final result of my pastel hair journey!

 I did one more gentle bleaching and my hair is finally light enough to call pastel. I'm in love with it, but the maintenance is unbelievable. Pastels fade so quickly. I'll have to start thinking about a summer hair color before I know it. I'd love to do a warm color for summer, but we"ll see. 

Message to any readers out there: would anyone like to see tutorials on how to make any kind of clothing this year? Leave a comment with ideas for me! Since I'm on a learning curve myself with perfecting my talents, I'd love to share any knowledge I have with my readers. I appreciate any and all input!

A Year Without Clothes Shopping

That's right. A YEAR without clothes shopping. For my new years resolution (something I usually don't bother with) I want to cure myself of mindless consumerism and fully immerse myself in the value and satisfaction of making my own clothes, instead of buying the mass produced items off the shelf of the nearest Target (as much as I love you, Target).
I can't even count the number of times I've gone into a store and said "Wow! That's super cute!" Then I look at the price tag and go "Wow! I could make that myself!" So this year, I'm putting myself to the test. I shall not buy a single article of clothing that I couldn't make myself. I'll only have a few small exceptions to my goal of not shopping, which will be items like socks, underwear, and jeans, that I simply do not know how to make. However, that doesn't mean I can't try to make them throughout the course of the year, because man would it be nice to never need to wiggle into several pairs of jeans to find the right size again..
I also want to grow as a seamstress and to save money in the process.Two yards of fabric and a zipper can result in a gorgeous $9 dress, as opposed to a $40, cheaply made (albeit super cute) dress from a chain store, that will fall apart in a few months time.
This also gives me an opportunity to use my new 99 stitch Singer Fashion Mate (the limited edition Project Runway model!) to it's full potential. It's still mind-boggling to me how many stitches this thing has, compared to my trusty two-stitch Brother machine that I was rocking for a solid 12 years.

I've got an enormous stash of patterns that need use and love. My FAVORITES are in my two vintage fashion books, with patterns inspired by the styles of Twiggy, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Janis Joplin and so on. They're so timeless and perfect. I want to create a super minimalist wardrobe of things that can be mixed and matched any which way, and things made with classic silhouettes that never go out of style.

 I've also got an amazing book called DIY Couture that shows the same patterns done a bunch of different ways, which really shows the versatility that comes with making your own clothes. SO MANY CIRCLE SKIRT VARIATIONS. It's badass.

I also inadvertently got into this mindset before I even resolved to this resolution. I made myself a pair of slipper and a new pretty Christmas dress last month because I simply didn't feel like spending money on things that I already had the supplies to make. I crocheted these adorable slippers and added a felt bottom to keep the yarn from wearing out and getting dirty and added pretty ribbon to keep them from slipping off (which they did, frequently).

 The dress was easy peasy and I didn't even need a pattern for this (babydoll dresses ftw.) I got the lace and pearl trimmed top from another dress that I had picked up at a thrift store. I cut off the sleeves of the old dress, carefully removed the zipper that went all the way up the back, and stitched it up most of the way and left room for a simple snap closure. I added a simple gathered skirt made of linen-look fabric, and voila! I love the mixture of textures and how comfy this is. Also, super low maintenance. As long as I keep it hanging, the linen-look fabric will not wrinkle ( as opposed to natural linen which wrinkles like craaazy.)

 

I've never been happier with a New Years resolution, although I also haven't mad very many because few of them are attainable or worth sticking to. But I feel like this is perfect for me, and will hopefully lead me towards a life of less shopping for needless things and more appreciation for what I have and what I can make with my own two hands.

How I dyed my hair pastel blue and messed up a lot on the way.

I dyed my hair blue yesterday! It was so ridiculously tedious though. I went from a deep red/brown to a sort of periwinkle looking color in less than 24 hours. So here's how I did it.

Step One: Lightening

I had to do two bleach sessions to get my hair light enough to dye over. For the first round I used a lightening kit from Splat. My hair was quite pink after that (thanks to the vampire red dye still in my hair) so my darling boyfriend went to Sally's to get me two packets of blue bleach, which I mixed with 20 vol. developer. I left each batch in my hair for about an  hour and conditioned inbetween, which may not have been a smart idea since conditioner creates a barrier on the hair. I think the second bleaching could have been more effective if I'd only shampooed but oh well.

I didn't take a picture of my hair after the bleach, but it was white at the roots (where my hair hadn't been touched by dye yet) and it was a very light shade of orangey-pink along the lengths. Not perfectly white like I wanted, but still light enough to dye over.

*NOTE: my hair was in extremely healthy condition before I did this. I hadn't used any harsh chemicals on it in over two months, I use sulfate free shampoos, I wash my hair only twice a week, and I'd just given it a trim. I take very good care of it which is why I decided to bleach it twice. It's not advisable to do so if your hair isn't healthy enough to take the damage.

Step Two: Dying

I decided to use Manic Panic dyes, they have a good reputation for vibrant color and they're super gentle on hair, and I definitely did not want to use anything harsh on my hair after all that bleach. I mixed some After Midnight Blue in a bowl with a lot of plain white conditioner (I used Tresemee but the brand doesn't matter). This dye is really dark in the jar, and diluting it with conditioner will give you a pastel version of whatever color you choose. I mixed in enough dye to make the mixture look darker than the results I wanted, since using too little dye would barely affect my hair. I used a brush to apply the dye, popped on a shower cap and left it in for an hour. When I rinsed it looked like this:





It came out really bright turquoise with really green undertones thanks to the funky undertones left in my hair after the bleaching. Since this is not the look I was going for, I needed a plan of attack. I went to bed to give my hair a break and started with the damage control in the morning.






Because I'm such a smart girl, I also had a bottle of Shimmer Lights shampoo on hand. Shimmer Lights is a purple shampoo that helps to get brassy tones out of hair. It has saved me through several unfortunate home lightening adventures. I dumped some Shimmer Lights and a little hint of the blue dye into a bowl to help tone down the turqoise and left it in my hair for half an hour. I specifically used the shampoo because shampoo helps to strip out Manic Panic color faster and the turquoise needed some serious lightening before moving on.

The next thing I did kind of failed. I just put more blue dye and conditioner in my hair and it came out a slightly less greenish turquoise but still not what I wanted. Then comes my best friend Vampire Red. I had a whole bottle of the amplified version of this dye left over from my previous attempt at red hair (hallelujah).Since my hair had green tones to it that I didn't want, the red tones of this dye theoretically would cancel those out. So I mixed another batch of conditioner and blue dye and added a little red until it was a nice violet color (still mostly blue). 

It looked really purple on my hair but when I rinsed it had done the trick! 

It's much darker than I wanted it to be, but since I couldn't get my hair white in one day, it'll do. Next time I bleach I shouldn't get too many funky undertones and I'll finally be able to reach my goal of ice queen blue hair. One day my hair will look as perfect as this: 

I'm no professional, but if anyone would like to ask me a question about dying hair, feel free to give it a shot :)

My life lately

After the absolute madness of fall, it almost feels nice to sink into the sleepy winter routine this year. I normally hate winter, but I'm feeling okay with it for now. It helps that I'm taking a two month break from school! Yet another perk to online college, I get to pick my vacations. I've just been soaking up the relaxation time and I've been horrendously lazy. I have gotten a few fun projects done, and I actually am quite proud of myself for having my Christmas shopping list down to a science. It's like I'm a grown up or something.
Aside from work, I've just been reading, listening to music and getting creative. I finished three or four books last month, including Matched by Ally Condie. I don't think I'd rank it among my personal favorites but the story line is definitely gripping. I was on the edge of my seat the first two books feverishly flipping pages to see what happens.
I'm also totally and completely enamored with Lorde lately. Her music is fantastic, I love how pared down it is, how she creates amazing sound with just a few instruments or just swelling vocals of herself recorded at different harmonies to create a chorus of voices. It's all I can listen to for the past two months. Bravado and Buzzcut Season are my faaavorites right now, I can't get over how much I love this girl's music. And she's only 17! That blows my mind, but I'm gonna stop fangirling now and just post some pictures, okay? Okay.

Oh, also I have had a few new fun changes this month. I finally re-entered the age of the smartphone (my old one got eyebrow raises from the bestbuy employees when I traded it in, it's that old) and I have begun the process of turning my hair bright red, but it's kinda burgundy right now and downright impossible to capture accurately in a photo. Boooo. So without further adieu, my month in pictures:

The hairrr. I used Manic Panic vampire red over medium brown hair, this is what happens in case you were wondering. Did I mention it looks stellar in the sun? It turns bright ruby red and I wish it did that always. Maybe next month.

The dress I'm working on, the top lace is refashioned from what once was a super matronly dress that I found at Salvation Army.

And here we have another handmade skirt of mine. I was feeling very inspired by the long skirts and dresses worn and designed by Ulyana Sergeenko. She is loveliness. (Note to self, gathering, not pleats next time.)

This is my gloriously witchy looking collaged journal. I love it soooo.

My two lovely vintage finds at various shops around Concord. The first is a post card from the Concord State hospital (AKA the asylum). I used to live across the street from it and I used to just stare at the empty windows with my morning coffee in hand trying to imagine life inside those walls. It's no longer in use as a hospital, most of the wings are locked off except for the main building which is offices nowadays. Also, a lovely copy of Romeo and Juliet featuring cover art from the 1960's movie!

My obligatory fall apple picking adventure.

I'm so sad that fall is almost officially gone. Only 21 days more of technical "fall" and then we are totally and undeniably in winter. At least I have an electric fireplace and by boyfriend and cat for snuggle buddies.