mardi 30 octobre 2012

Halloween!

We had a Halloween party at work yesterday and we were all supposed to dress in orange and black or green and black so I made this:


OMG I NEVER wear this colour and I know why, it's so flashy my camera didn''t work and all the pics were blurred -which was very fitted since it made me look like a ghost! Even though I don't like the colour I must say that the design is pretty cool, it's a shortened version of the T dress from the first Stylish Dress Book but with the Y neckline and yes, this all makes sense^^. I also lengthened the upper bodice, mixed sizes 9 and 11 and added side ties for a nicer fit. I also made a bracelet for the occasion using a felt sticker and a plastic loop cabochon:


The party was great, we ate pumpkin cakes, donuts, pies etc and drank excellent Halloween punch but we also worked since all the students had to pick a short scary story in English and say it to the others. Here's the scariest story according to everyone's vote, I found it in the third volume of Alvin Schwartz's tales and adapted it to make it easier for my French students (the words in bold were given in French on a side vocabulary sheet):

"A little girl was coming home at night and she was late so she took a shortcut through the cemetery. She felt very nervous and when she saw another little girl walking through the graves she felt better and ran to her. She told the girl: “Can I walk with you? Walking through the cemetery at night scares me.” “Of course”, the other girl replied, “I used to be scared too when I was alive.”

Happy Halloween!

mercredi 17 octobre 2012

Jewellery time

I noticed that I'm rarely wearing jewellery on the outfit pictures on this blog which is strange since I always have at least a ring or a bracelet, I guess I must be so concentrated on the whole self portrait thing without a tripod and with an unpredictable camera timer that I forget about the rest!
So today I'll tell you about some of my favourite sparklers:




They all come from South Africa and they're quite old, I bought them as a little girl when I went there in 1989. I remember this trip being both wonderful and terrible because on the one hand it was an incredibly beautiful country but on the other hand apartheid was still going on so it was shocking to see the "Whites only" signs almost eveywhere and the sad conditions in which many people were forced to live.
This country made such a deep impression on me that I have tried to keep all the things that I bought there among which these pieces that are silver or gold pleated and semi precious stones. They haven't tarnished or broken at all even though I've worn them at least once a week for more than 20 years! I'm MAD that I managed to lose an amethyst bracelet -same design as the onyx one above- though.
As for the rings, I made them using amethyst, onyx and tiger's eye that I selected in the + 1 kilo of rough stones that we brought back. I simply glued them to adjustable rings. I've recently come across some turquoises and malachites from this trip and I'd love to make something out of them :)

samedi 13 octobre 2012

Tiny jackets

Whenever I find a design that works for me I make several versions of it so today I'm going to tell you about the many Burda easy sewing jackets I've been obsessed with lately.
I needed a simple, short, cardigan-like piece that would look good over my loose tops and even my retro style dresses but since I also wanted some definition to look slimmer I couldn't just opt for a cropped knit cardigan and needed something with denser fabrics and seams to give me structure.
I altered the original pattern so that the hem would hit my waist and the shoulders would be narrower and I shortened the sleeves to 3/4 length because the weather's always hot where I live and I find this length more stylish anyway :) Oh and I kept the officer collar even though I'm planning on making my next one without a collar at all to give it a slight Chanel flavour.


First I used some stretch navy cotton:

 

Then I made one out of this excellent wax fabric:



I have another sober one out of grey denim:


And finally I'm making one with this incredible Bollywood fabric:


Have a nice weekend everyone, see you!

mercredi 10 octobre 2012

Bags galore

 Hey there! I wanted to share with you some pics of the bags that I created for friends and clients, they're all made with cotton and twill fabrics meaning they're fully washable, they seem to be pretty solid -two are a year old- and dare I say that they look sort of cute^^?





Last weekend I made one for me and of course my impeccable sense of style drew me towards some extremely discreet and age-appropriate fabric soberly called "Jungle friends":



Lol I LOVE my silly bag even though it doesn't have any monkeys on it -what sort of jungle is that?!

jeudi 4 octobre 2012

Another ugly duckling

My latest dress was made using my basic bodice pattern and some excellent paisley fabric stolen from my mama's stash. I'm normally allergic to this print -go figure- but I fell in love with this one and since it will probably be the only paisley thing I'll ever own it fits quite well in the "ugly duckling" category :)
The design is super classic with a sleeveless, very fitted bodice and a gathered skirt but I added a few details such as a velvet mock tab on the front with tiny pearl buttons and a slit at the back that closes with a pearl button too.




I've noticed it's the second Thursday I've been able to post about a new dress, how cool would it be if I could make a new one every week?! Sigh, one can dream^^

lundi 1 octobre 2012

Today's top...

... is a tee length version of The Favourite One made with black striped cotton, it also has slightly shorter sleeves because with summer coming back the less fabric the better! I don't know why after finishing it I got totally obsessed with making an origami brooch to wear with it, so I settled for a basic paper hen design and it's mock origami of course -I'm lazy like that^^- I simply topstitched the fabric where the pleats should be to give it a little relief. The fabric is Japanese tiny flowers on a red background -bought in 2008, stash busting's not dead- that was fused with heavy interfacing and I finished the back with fusable green felt before attaching the brooch.