Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge - Brown

Yesterday's wardrobe challenge was brown and I decided it was time for another new frock so I made this one from fabric I bought ages ago at Opportunity for Animals - it was an epic day of op shopping, I picked up so much cheap and awesome fabric that day.

This dress is yet another pattern from Chic and Simple sewing, I think that book is basically one of the best investments I have ever made - best "on holiday" purchase ever - thanks bookstore in Singapore. Ignore all the bags of fabric in the picture - I am in serious need of more storage!

I am especially excited about this dress as someone stopped me in the street at lunch time to tell me how much they liked it. I still feel very much like a novice sewer and sometimes I worry that the things I make don't look right - so to have a comment from a complete stranger like that was pretty rad.

I haven't worn my "crocodile" shoes for a while - so I thought it was time they see the light of day. Unfortunately the weather seems to be getting cooler and cooler, pretty soon I'm sure the only footwear I'll want to wear is my boots.

I decided I needed to wear my red cardi with this outfit as there is only so much brown a girl can wear in one outfit.

OUTFIT DEETS:

Dress - Made by me - fabric op shopped and pattern from Simple and Chic sewing
Cardi - Glassons
Belt - Valley Girl
Tights - I think Glassons, but I'm not entirely sure!
Shoes - Number 1 Shoes
Necklace - Equipt
Brooch - Made by a friend

Pin-up Sunday

So today I did something totally different! Emi and I took part in an all day vintage pin-up styling and photo shoot. Here's the details from the poster - we had a lesson in vintage hair and make-up, a pin up posing lesson and we had some professional photos taken (we will get to see those on Wednesday).

 

Here's a few photos of the preparation for the photo shoot - my hair extensions are of course 100% synthetic! So not idea to put into hot rollers, so they are sticking out and looking pretty silly.

Here's my first look of the day ALMOST finished - it was kind of cold in the photography studio, so I was rocking a vintage coat (not mine) it's pretty amazing (I wish I could have taken it home!).

 

 Here's look number one all completed - complete with a butterfly hair clip!

Here's my second look with my "up" do - I think this is my favourite of the two looks - mostly due to the fact I never have my hair up as I always thought it was just too short! But I think this is pretty incredible, especially with the pretty flowers. I also had a full length shot taken with my wee digital camera of me wearing this amazing collectif dress.

Here's a couple of photo's of Emi and I looking like fancy ladies in our pretty dresses, hair and make-up. I really love the second photo - I think we look so cute.

Finally, a photo of me back at home, after I had taken out my contacts and put my glasses back on, I think I will have to try and get better with this cats eye make up so I can do it more often as I think it looks great with my retro frames.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend xoxox

Adventures of a girl from the Naki Button!

Rich made me a fancy button - because he's good at art and technological things.

He also included lots of the things I like on the badge - like skulls, Hello Kitty, lipstick, bats and daleks. If you want to put my button on your blog - that's totes cool with me.

I owe Rich a banana and chocolate chip muffins now for making me this super rad badge.

Happy Thursday folks!

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge: Long Skirts

 

So the theme of today's challenge was "long skirts" I think think seriously about wearing my only long skirt to work today, but I knew I had to make a presentation today and I wanted to feel comfortable and look professional (or at least a little professional) when I made the presentation and I just didn't feel a long floaty skirts was going to tick the right boxes - so I wore this wee number instead - but the dress is made by me so I did tick one of the boxes.

I think this dress is perhaps the second dress I ever made, but I haven't worn it for a while. It needed a very minor repair that I NEVER seemed to get around to fixing - however I fixed it up last night and it's good to wear again.

After the presentation today I feel rather sleepy - presentations and answering lots of questions always makes me sleepy! But its totally worth it - in fact I think its the best thing about my job (or maybe I just like being the centre of attention?)

 Outfit Deets:

Dress: Made by Me
Shirt: Dress worn as shirt, from a workmates wardrobe clearance
Belt & Tights: Glassons
Bracelet: Forever 21 (from KL)
Ring: Clothes swap
Necklace: Equipt
Boots: Bought in Korea

Vintage Dress Reconstruction

I don't even remember where or where I picked up this polyester number - but I do remember I bought it as I liked the pattern on the fabric even though it was about three sizes too big and it had been made in the style of a sack.

 

Last night I decided suddenly I had to "fix" this dress- I don't know what came over me really seen as it has been sitting in the "must do something with" pile for SO LONG. I used a per-existing pattern to get the basic shape of the dress, I also cut off the collar and the sleeves. It's not a massive reconstruction project - but I'm happy with it considering its my very first one.

 

Here's the leftover after I'd finished up with the reconstruction - I actually got rid of a lot of the additional fabric in the dress.

Another "So Pauve" package of awesome!

I love getting packages in the mail - that's why its so great to have a pen pal like So Pauve that sends me all kinds of exciting goodies like this cocktail hat, isn't it just perfect? I feel like such a fancy lady in it!

She also sends me pretty things with unicorns on them and of course lots of pop rocks!

I have also in the last week received an awesome package from Vany the craft ninja and Olivia at Wait Until Sunset, but I'll share those with you all in another post soon.

Fabric-a-brac - May 2012

Yesterday I headed out to Newtown to go to fabric-a-brac, which is a second hand market that we have a couple of times a year in Wellington. It's basically a market that sells all things sewing related - fabric, buttons, craft books, notions and everything in between.

It's the sort of place where someone like me could most likely spend a weeks wages if I lost control! But I was pretty "good" with my spending and did manage to pick up some lovely things.

I bought this fabric with horses on if - 3 metres for $15, which I thought was a good deal. I'm sure I'll whip this one up into a frock pretty quickly.

Next up is 3 metres of this fabric - I'm not expert on decades but it looks kind of 1970's to me. I wasn't quite sure how to describe the print as to me it doesn't really seem "tribal". When I bought it home Rich said it reminded him of the Aztecs - so I'll go with that - it's an Aztec print.

I also got a present for Rich at fabric-a-brac - some ladies were selling off a huge amount of old craft books. I actually didn't find any that interested me, but I thought Rich would like this "Prismatic Design Colouring Book".

How cool are these designs? They make me want to reach for my felt tip pens - or perhaps I could embrioder one or two of the designs?

I also got a couple of plastic display embriodery hoops - nothing too exciting, but at $1 it was hard to say no.

Finally, my favourite thing - a big old jar of vintage buttons! There was a time, not so long ago that you could pick up loads of old buttons for next to nothing at op shops, but how times have changed. It seems that before where you could buy a whole bag of buttons for a couple of dollars now you only get a couple of buttons for a couple of dollars! This jar cost me $10 but it's totally worth it!

The top of the jar even includes a pin-cushion! How much cutier can you get than that?

Finally a shot of my "button soup" - there's all kinds of buttons in the jar, its going to be a good thing to have on hand for craft projects.

Although its still officially "autumn" here, its feeling a lot like winter! It's been getting a lot colder, especially in the evenings.

So seen as today was a clear but crisp winters day, it was the perfect chance for a walk along the waterfront to take in some sunshine - before the really cold, wet weather sets in!

Wintertime holiday in the sun

So a while back, I promised I'd tell you all about my next hoilday destination and seen as I have finally finished blogging about my holiday at the start of the year I thought I'd let you all know where I'm off to next.

In less than a month, Rich and I will be getting on a plane and flying to Vanuatu!! I am really excited, firstly, because we are going to Vanuatu and also because its to celebrate our 10 year anniversay. We'll be spending a lot of our time at a place called "Hideaway Island". Which looks really beautiful.

We'll also be spending a few days in Port Vila, which will be pretty amazing too! I really can't wait to go.

I have two dresses suitable for a tropical island - I must make a few more!

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend so far xoxox

All photos in this post are from the Hideaway Island Resort website which you can view here

Wednesday Wardrobe Challenge:Plaid

So this weeks wardrobe challenge was plaid and I planned to wear this green skirt as soon as I found out what it was, I also planned to make a blue top to go with the skirt so I could also keep up my success Made by Me May.

However, this week has been so busy at work, I've worked three 10 hour days and one 9 hour day. I hope the worst of it is over now and tommorrow I can just do my normal 8 hours as I am exhausted! All this extra work meant that I didn't finish the blue top I was making to wear with this skirt - I cut it out ands began sewing it, all that is left to do is the side seams and the hem. But I just simply had not time to finish it up which really sucks as I had the best intentions to get it done and keep up my record for Made by Me May! 

 

I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself though, it's currently very busy at work and I knew it would be at this time of year - so I knew it would be a huge challenge to keep up Made by Me May for the full month when I'm only a beginner sewer really. I'm sure some people who do these kinds of challenges have made LOADS of clothes, over lengthy periods of time. I only really began making clothes in December last year.

Want to know a secret about this pink shirt? It's actually a dress! One of my friends from work gave it to me when she was having a wardrobe clear out - however she is quite petite, so on me the dress was WAY too short. I didn't know what to do with it for a long time, then it hit me I could just wear it as a shirt.

I bought this braclet when we lived in Taipei, but I hardly ever seem to wear it. The wee bunny is my favourite charm.

So my top was going to be kind of the same colour as these tights - that would have been pretty rad. I WILL finish making it this weekend - along with the craft swap packages I need to finish up. But I also think this weekend calls for lots of time chillaxing.

Deets:

Boots - Dr Martins, bought in Seoul
Tights - Glassons
Skirt - from a clothes swap party
Top - from a work mates wardrobe clear out
Bracelet - Bought at stall at subway station in Taipei
Cardy - Hell Bunny, bought online
Necklace - Meg's Ragged Edge - gift

Spell my name swap

Thanks for all your love for my new skirt on my last blog - it made me feel rather special! I'm hoping this week will be slightly less crazy for me and I don't end up wasting my Saturday afternoon snoozing.

So I thought I'd share with you all the goodies I sent and received in a recent swap - the swap theme was "Spell my name swap" and the premise was pretty simple - make your partner one item for each letter of their name.

So my for real name is actually "Teresa" not Trees (but most of my friends call me Trees or Tess in real life, so it's not just a name for the interwebs) so here's what I received.

T is for Trio of interchangeable hair bows

E is for Extra Cute "Create your own stuff" - My partner included a kids colouring book with all kinds of cute characters in that I can use as patterns for embroidery and the other guy is a "blank" doll that you can personalise.

R is for recycled yarn coaster for two - I really like the vintage look of this, I think it shall spend it life in the kitchen stopping hot things from burning the bench top!

So for the next photo I need to put "E" and "A" together - because they are made to be worn together and are simply amazing now that autumn is quickly turning into winter.

So the letter "E" is for my new "Every which way cowl" and "A" is for "All day beret" - You can't see it in these photos but the wool is actually SPARKLY! 

Finally the letter "S" for Sanrio Art - Hello Kitty and my other favourite Sanrio character "Kuromi".

So what did I make my partner you may ask? Well here it is (well most of it) my partner's name is "Andrea" so here's what I made for her -


A is for - Accessories for your hair! I actually made a third hair accessory - but I forgot to take a photo!

N is for - Necklace! I made this necklace from an old scarf and some polystyrene balls.

D is for Dollars and cents -My partner collects coins, so I sent her some coins from nz as well as other coins from my travels.

R is for Rectangular Pouch - I made my partner this rockabilly style pouch, complete with chocolate inside.

E is for elephant - my partner collects elephants, so I made her one out of felt, its all hand stitched - sorry the photo is a little rubbish.

for the final "A" I sent my partner "A whole bunch of accessories" but as they were store bought I didn't bother taking a photo.

I hope everyone had a super Monday - I'm off to do some Monday night crafting, I have more swaps to work on and more clothes to sew!