Daily Outfit: Maid Marian

Last Friday My friend Autumn took some pictures of my completed *ahem* entry for EGL's hair accessories contest.  Since I already had her in my grasp, I asked her to take photos of my outfit from the day as well.

So happy to have finally gotten some photos of a good coord with my "woodland dirndl".  I've been wearing it all the time right now, since the weather can't seem to decide whether it's spring or winter.  It's so comfy!

This outfit on my Lookbook with outfit list

I wasn't sure what to wear on my head with this outfit, since I frustratingly seem to have misplaced my tatted rose headband.  But delightfully it turns out a scarf I inherited from my Grandma goes perfectly.

I wore the Sweet Acorn necklace and vintage button hairpins again, they are so versatile and charming!

It might be because of Martha's posts about fairytales and her matching coords on her Moss Garden blog that inspired me; but this outfit reminds me so much of Robin Hood.   With the brown braided leather belt, and wearing the green scarf on my head, it feels like I should be in Sherwood Forest.

Or it could be that I found an old copy of  "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" illustrated by Howard Pyle.

I have been working my way leisurely through the book recently, and have found it delightfully unlike most versions.

A cheerful hello to all the readers who found my nook of the "blogosphere" through Caro-chan's interview!  I want to thank her for picking me, and my brand to feature, it was a delightful experience!  

I hope you all are enjoying the blog so far, please let me know if there is something specific you'd like to see!  I have some recipes nearly ready, the Sweet Matryoshka skirts and Sweet Acorn Jewlery will be released as soon as I can put them together and take some photos, and when the entries for the EGL contest are released for voting; look for additional photos here as well!

Pssst... I've also been working on stuff for my next line, can't wait to post previews!

Edit:  I've been listening to "Sheena is a Lolita" on almost on repeat since it was posted to EGL.  Sooo cute and catchy!

Practical Ideas

About a month ago I was put into the position of having to relocate most my fabric stash to my parents house.  Even though the this was very annoying to have to do, I think I came up with an inexpensive way to store fabric so that you could find what you wanted fairly quickly and easily.

Because I had limited time and money, a lot of the options that I would have preferred (like large clear tubs) were not reasonable.

So this is my solution: bankers boxes, with clear paper protectors taped to them, and a swatch of each of the  fabrics in question showing through.  I also labeled them both on the top and side of the boxes.

For those curious I think the final total of boxes of fabric was 18!

Another moderately clever or at least surprising idea I've come up with is a solution to fitting dresses for clients who's *ahem* attributes aren't easily represented by my re-sizable dressmaker's form.    It also uses some of the many felt circles I have saved from making all the Admiral Tricorn Hats.


I layer the felt circles until the measurements matches up,  wrap it in an additional piece of felt and pin it in place.  Ta-da!

In a slightly different but vein; I went on an expedition to goodwill the other day and ended up only picking up a book.

It's a great addition to my sewing library, it covers very specific ways of dealing with out of the ordinary fabrics.  My favorite part is that a lot of it is very good illustrations rather then photographs or lengthy paragraphs.

I think it was published in the 70's, which seems to have been a good decade for sewing instruction.  I have two readers digest books published then, one on sewing, and one on needlework techniques; and  they are both wonderful.

I almost bought a dusky pink, short sleeved salwar kameez trimmed with antique gold details, but I wasn't sure I would actually have enough courage to wear it!.  I was planning on wearing it belted, with a cream turtleneck and white eyelet skirt under it, brown boots and maybe some sort of loose knit neutral vest or cardigan; for a dolly-kei type of look.  We have a large Indian population around here so if I get up the gumption I will probably be able to find something similar.

Remake: Green Corduroy Dress Complete!

Happy St. Patrick's day!  I hope you all have had a good one so far!  To my delight, I finished remaking my green corduroy dress last week, so it was available to wear today.  No pinching for me!

It took quite a while because I decided to hand sew the braid on the bodice and hem rather then using my machine, because it was so thick!

I pretty much stuck to my plan for trimming it, except I used an ecru lace trim rather then the cream knit trim.  The knit trim just ended looking way too chunky.

Heres some additional photos.  Click pictures for larger version (as usual).

I've taken to thinking of it as my woodland dirndl.

Today I'm wearing it with a cream turtleneck, ecru long chunky lace knit vest, white eyelet skirt (with the dresses skirt unbuttoned), and of course my usual brown boots.

I'll try to come up with a more interesting coordinate and take a photo soon. 

I'm working on an entry for the EGL communitie's Hair Accessories contest.  I can't post photos here yet, because I don't want to ruin the competition; but I'll let you know that it involves straw!

What green clothes are you donning this St. Patrick's day?

Tutorial: Tassel Boots

One of the several looks I fallen for recently is fringe or tassel boots.  Alot of brands have come out with them and urban outfitters has also come up with a very cute pair.

But since I didn't want to spend alot of money, especially on shoes of dubious quality and comfort (in UO case); I turned my mind to figuring out how to add to my very faithful brown boots some tassely goodness.

Flower Show Report: part the second

Well tonight was the last night for the Philadelphia Flower Show.  I hope everyone who went had a good time.  I am already excited about next year!  Blue ribbon here we come!  Hopefully

So here are our competitors from our class.

First place

Second place

Third place.  I really thought this one should have done better, it's really well done!

And here are the other two entries that didn't place

Here are my favorites from the other classes.
Purses:

Watches:

Necklaces:

Of course the "jewelry" competition is just a small small part of the Flower Show, the main attraction is the big garden exhibits.  The main one this year had a very well done suggestion of the Eiffel Tower with carousel animals made from fresh and dried flowers on frames.  There were also many other individual gardens, decorated rooms, and other large displays all around the main one.

It's amazing to look at these photos and remember that it's all took place inside in one very very large room.  

Tomorrow I'll be going in to pick up our piece.  It'll be very interesting to see all of this being taken down!

Flower Show Report: part the first

Of course I have to start this post with a photo of the completed jewelry piece!  I'm very very happy with how it came out, it's something I'd love to wear if it was an actual jewelry set!

Here is the materials card, for those interested in seeing what exactly we used to make it:

On Friday we went to the Convention Center to have our piece passed and pin it to the display board.  We had no trouble with the passing and got some very encouraging comments from a veteran of the category.  

You can be sure that on Saturday my Mom and I rushed over to the Jewelry Competition section with a very nervous excitement; to find that we had not placed but had gotten a very respectable honorable mention (the only one in our section to receive one).  

I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed, being a very competitive person, but I quickly got over it.  My Mom and I are now fired up to try again (and WIN) next year!  The theme will be Hawaii. 

As usual when I go into the city, I took my chance to dress up !   Here's Friday:

You might remember this look from the 7 item 10 outfits challenge.  I changed up some elements and to my frustration forgot to put on the brown leather belt.  It really would have tied the outfit together more!

This coord on my lookbook with outfit list.

Slightly unflattering accessory shot!  Why yes, that is acorn jewelry you spy!  Yes it did take 4 month for my findings package to finally leave that mysterious Hong Kong post office!  

That means that the Sweet Acorn jewelry line will finally be released with the Sweet Matryoshka Skirts (soon!)

That flower pin I made out of scraps and is one of my newest favorite accessory.  

The hair pins are another new item.  I was unsure how to do my hair and picked out a few of my  Grand mom's buttons from a collection of her's that I inherited and just glued them on to a flat back hair pin!  I like the subtly vintage/mori look of them!

I got this hair stick as a Christmas present from my friend Autumn and have since been wearing it nearly everyday.  It's such an easy and comfortable way to put up my hair. 

I wanted to dress up the style a bit and added a braid to one side as well as the button hair pins; while still keeping it messy for that mori look.

For Saturday I wore another slightly changed challenge look.  I wanted to wear the beret for the Paris theme, even though the Matryoshka dolls on my skirt are of course Russian!  

This coord on my lookbook with outfit list.

This is my first time wearing a beret with lolita, and I can see why they are so popular.  Cute and comfy!

You can't really see them too well in the coords photos but I added some removable "tassles" to my boots.  I've been hankering for tassle boots for a while, but I can't really justify buying a new pair just for some fiddly bits.  So out came the fake leather, glue, and thread.

I'll be posting a tutorial for them soon.

Part the second will have photos of our competitors and of the prettiness of the flower show in general!

10 item 7 outfit challange

It's been a crazy busy month, so the other day I played dress up with my dress form. What an enjoyable challange.

Items:A: Polka dot "bed sheet" Jsk
B: Sweet Matryoshka Jsk
C: Brown ruffle cardi
D: White ruffle blouse
E: Ecru "lace" cardi
F: Red Cardi (if you can see it lol)
G: Eyelit underskirt
H: Brown Boots
I: Brown Heels
J: White Sandles (need a new pair XD)

I tried to do as many diffrent styles as possible.

1. Basic Sweet: B, D, I

2. Mori Lolita: A, D, E, G, H             

3. Classic (ish): B, C, D, I

4. Hime: A, J

5. Casual Summer (country?): B, F, J

6. Casual Fall: A, C, I

7. Circus/Carnival inspired: B, D, H

I'm planning on wearing a varient of the Mori-girl outfit tomrow when we drop off our peice for the Jewelry Competition at the Philly flower show.