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!

New photo borders!

Sorry for the lack of inspired post lately. I promise to put on something cute and photograph it tomorrow! But for now, I wanted to show ya'll the new border I made for my photos. Everyone else seems to have such cute and fun borders on their photos, I wanted to try to make one for myself. I'm not sold on this one, though it does match my banner and I guess I kind of like it. I really don't know what I'm doing, so if anyone has any suggestions I'm wide open to them!


P.S. This is a cardigan that's up in the shop right now! Green Violet Vintage is getting geared up for fall!