9.29.09

Cardigan: Gift
Shirt: Boutique
Pants: Target
Shoes: 9 west outlet

I'm still working on the whole fall thing... I have the essential ingredients but I'm not sure I'm putting them together very well yet! Plaid? Check. Brown pants? Check. Cardigan? Check. Moccasins? Check. Guess I'm just warming up to this fall thing, I'll try harder next time! Coincidentally, I chose to cuff these pants to ankle length the same day that E. over at Academichic cuffed her skinny jeans the same way, with the caveat that she recognized it was not the most flattering length. Those ladies spend a lot of time exploring which silhouettes and colors are the most flattering and I have found their blog to be both educational and inspirational! However, something they don't often discuss is that fashion is more than flattery- its also a personal expression. I guess that's why they call it personal style! I think that while ankle length pants may not be the most flattering option (for me, the most flattering option would be a knee-length, high-waisted, a-line skirt, not something that I can wear everyday), I think that choosing to cuff my pants just feels more ME. And, after all, isn't that what we are all trying to express when we get dressed in the morning?

It's 9:30 on Monday...

What are you doing? Hopefully a little bit of this:





I'll totally fess up to my love of Gossip Girl: The Greatest Show of our Time. How about you? Who is your favorite Gossip Boy? I think my vote goes to Chuck (with Eric a close second because he likes to keep it real)! Sigh.... dreamy...

New at Green Violet Vintage

I found TONS of fun things this week at the thrift store- I had to share with ya'll! These items are up in the store now and there are quite a few more to follow.

80s Peachy Keen Dress (L, XL, XXL)

80s Blue Bubbles Cross-Back Dress (M, L)

80s Falling Leaves Dress (M, L)

70s Disco Dancing Teal Dress (XL, XXL, Plus Size)

80s Baby Blue Blouse (M, L)

80s Red Flowers Tank Top (XS, S, M)

80s Corduroy Blazer with Elbow Patches (Men's M, L, 44 inch waist)

60s Birds of a Feather Dress (S, M, L)

Gauley River!

Sorry for the unannounced absence... I promise it was worth it! Here is where I have been (click the photos to make them bigger and better):



The Gauley River in West Virginia for 3 days of road trip, camping, and rafting fun!

9.15.09

Dress: Upcycled by me, just finished!
Shoes: Crocs
Bag: Espe

I just finished making this dress. Its upcycled from three T-shirts! It really has everything I'm looking for in a dress- sleeves, elastic waist, and its made of jersey! Perfect for everyday wear. I'm keeping this baby for myself, but I have another one up in the shop right now that's made from an awesome vintage shirt and if things go well with that one I'll be making more!

9.10.09 PM

Dress: Gap outlet
Cardigan: Gap outlet
Belt: Free
Bag: Vintage from my mom
Shoes: 9 West outlet

Sorry for the dark photo! I just HATE to use a flash!

Anyways, looking back at my outfits this week, I think I've learned a bit about waistlines. Really, I think that figuring out which waistline works for you is one of the most important parts of making sure your outfit looks flattering. You can have a lovely piece of clothing, but if it doesn't work for your body type then you will just end up looking all wrong. Trust me, I've done this to myself many times! The way I see it- there are three waistline options: empire waist, natural waist, and dropped waist/hips.

I've known for a while that the least flattering waistline for me is a dropped waist or something that sits at my hips. This is why I hate wearing pants! Unfortunately, winter is coming, so I'm going to have to figure out how to wear pants again (or find lots of really cute winter weight skirts and dresses, this is becoming a more attractive option!).

What I was wearing the other night (above) has an empire waistline. I don't think it was all bad, but it did make me realize that what I always thought was the most flattering waistline is really probably not. I think its a bit too high for me and can result in the dreaded pregnant look that so many of us experience with dresses or shirts that have empire waistlines. For example- the entire decade of the 90s, when everyone was wearing empire waistlines and spaghetti straps. Not cute (at least on me- and many others)! I ended up belting this dress and it dropped the waistline a little bit lower- but not low enough.

So that brings us to the natural waistline- my new favorite! It sits above the hips but below the empire waistline, right at your natural waist. Its so obvious and simple, but it seems to be the waistline that most people shy away from. Sure, its not flattering on everyone, but from my extensive research (reading ya'lls blogs- ha!) it seems like it looks great on most people. I'm loving this new revelation!

What have ya'll learned from your blogging your daily outfits? Is there something that you have found to be flattering that you didn't know about before? And, whats your favorite waistline? Tell me!

Smocking complete!

Ok, I just made another upcycled t-shirt dress. I'm really getting into this! I snapped a few shots- they aren't the best- but I think they will give you an idea of what it looks like. This one doesn't fit me so its going up in the shop (as soon as I get some better photos)!

9.10.09

Shirt: from high school!
Skirt: Who knows?
Cardigan: Gap outlet
Shoes: 9 West outlet
Belt: Thrifted

Today I took a cue from some other wardrobe remixers and wore a t-shirt with a skirt (thanks weddingpie!) and belted a wrap skirt ala Chelsea (one of my favorite new style bloggers!). I think it worked out pretty well, even if I was just running some errands. I have a new upcycling project planned that I hope to work on today. I'm going to work on a new style of t-shirt dress which involves smocking! yay. I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

The best thing I've ever thrifted!

I unearthed this beauty yesterday in the bins at the goodwill clearance center. Its quite the marvel of modern fashion. Its a tube top jumpsuit with a parrot pattern! Its so amazing that I had to share it with ya'll!




Fortunately for you- it doesn't fit me so its up in the shop now! And, there are plenty of other new things where that came from!

9.6.09- LAAFF!

Dress: Vintage
Shoes: 9 West
Bag: Vintage from my Mother!

On Sunday, the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival hit the streets of downtown Asheville. Words can not describe this event- so you'll have to scroll down to the photos below to see for yourself. I decided to wear this fun dress, its not appropriate for every occasion so I have to have to wear it when I get the chance! I added some comfortable shoes for walking and actually ended up switching out my purse to a larger one to carry my camera. After you see the photos- hopefully you will be glad that I did!

9.4.09

Shirt: Ross
Skirt: Etsy from Kimberly of FabFinds (before I knew what a fab blog she runs!)
Shoes: Ross
Bag: Thrifted

This skirt is one of my favs, but I have a hard time working it into my wardrobe sometimes because it is SO crazy! I normally try to pair it with something neutral but on Friday night I decided to go ALL OUT and do mustard and teal. It actually worked out much better than I thought it would. This blog has really got me thinking about my personal style- namely how I need to work on defining it. I always envy those ladies that always look just like "themselves". What I mean is, their personal style is so succinct that everything thing they wear is something that you could only imagine them wearing and almost becomes a part of their personality. They are unique, stylish, put together, and always on. I am trying to better define my personal, and while I am mostly still floundering around in a sea of boldly colored clothing that doesn't say much about me, I think that THIS outfit is getting closer to what I would like my personal style to be. I'm not sure how I will define that yet, but I'm going to keep this photo as inspiration and work on achieving a look like this much more often.

Help me out here ladies (and gentlemen?)- how do you define your personal style? Can you do it in one or two words or a phrase? Or do you feel like you are still struggling to define it, much like I am?

DI-Dye

I did a little dyeing project this week. It was really fun! I wanted to upcycle some vintage slips into colorful slip dresses. I have a few of these that I have bought from other Etsy sellers and I really love them. I know a lot of people wear them as dresses, but I also like to use them for layering under dresses to add color and prevent static cling! Dyeing synthetic fabrics is always a bit of a challenge but as long as you don't aim for an exact color, the results are always a fun result! For example, the first color I tried was blue but I ended up with a nice chartreuse. Oftentimes the stitching and embroidery also ended up a different color from the slip itself, which made for some interesting color combinations! Here is a step by step of what I did in case you want to try this out for yourself. Please note- I'm no expert! Trial and error is my modus operandi.



The raw materials were vintage slips that I thrifted (I started with a camisole in case I messed it up) and some direct dyes. Don't forget the instructions!


The next step was to boil a large pot of water with salt added. I also prepared the dye on the side in a jar- I mixed the red, blue, and yellow colors to get green and orange. For some reason I couldn't get the blue color to work very well, but the red and yellow shades came out great!


Next, I added the dye to the boiling water. This was the blue dye- which didn't work at all!


Next I added the slip to the dye mixture. I had to stir CONSTANTLY for 20 minutes as per the instructions, however I think that when dyeing synthetic fabrics like these slips the color either takes or doesn't take within the first 2-3 minutes. I tried some shades of orange and red after the blue was a total failure, which I think turned out beautifully!


About 10 minutes in, this slip had turned a lovely shade of peach. I used stainless steel accouterments and they were not affected by the dye at all. The dye mixture stayed at a simmer during the entire dyeing process.


Here are the slips hanging dry in the shower. I neglected to photograph the last few steps, but after they finished simmering to perfection I rinsed them out in cold water and then washed them all in the cold cycle in my washing machine to get out any excess dye and hung them up to dry. I love how the colors turned out! They are up for sale in the shop now, so if you want to see the finished project click here! I think I'll be making some more of these soon (if they sell) because they are so fun!

9.3.09

Cardigan: Ross
Black Shirt: Target
Skirt: Target
Leggings: ??
Shoes: THrift

I'm not really loving this outfit, but i don't know why. Maybe the proportions are off or maybe I'm just not into wearing this much black. Also, I was a little over ambitious about fall- I ended up taking off the leggings. We went out to dinner for a friends birthday to a local restaurant. A photographer was there from our local independent newspaper and took about 800 photos of us which was totally bizarre. I guess I'll have to check the paper and see if we are in it! Yesterday, I also started on a little dyeing project that I'll be blogging about later. It didn't go exactly as planned but I'm still experimenting!

Upcycled Nautical Daydream Dress

I'm soooooo excited to be offering the first dress in my line of up-cycled clothing! What is up-cycling? It's reusing vintage and salvaged materials to make something beautiful and new. It's environmentally friendly because it keeps old clothes and scrap materials out of the landfill and no new materials are produced. Yay! In fact, the only new material in this dress is the coral colored ribbon that makes up the back of the belt. Here is a step by step guide to how I made this dress:


I started with a vintage dress which was sort of so-so but had a lot of potential. I also bought some remnant lace at the local fabric store. I wanted to use salvaged materials, so I got lace that was left over. I had to hand cut it all out and pieced some of it together, it took forever but it was worth it to know that I was using material that would have otherwise been thrown away.

After that, I hemmed the skirt to a length that is a few inches above knee length and made the sleeves into cap-sleeves. I also removed the grandma like collar at the neckline. I think this made it a bit more modern and much more flattering!


I then added the lace to the sleeves and hemline of the dress. Lace makes everything more lovely!


To finish the dress off, I created a belt out of vintage buttons, lace, and a coral colored ribbon. This gives the dress more color and the lace ties everything together nicely.



Here is the finished product! It was quite a bit of work but I really like how it turned out. It's up for sale now at Green Violet Vintage. I can't wait to make more upcycled goodies- its a great way to make something old fresh and new again! Hopefully I've inspired ya'll to get creative with your clothes also. If something you own isn't working for you, make it better. Simple fixes like hemming and adding embellishments can really make your clothing stand out in the crowd!