Saturday, May 29, 2010

This game will save us if we don't die young

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I really wish I could tell you that these pictures were taken this weekend. Unfortunately it has been pouring rain outside for what seems to be WEEKS and it's really starting to affect my mood. I felt so helpless and depressed yesterday, it was horrible. Rather than wearing these denim shorts in the wind and rain, I've been really into this new black maxi dress I got from ASOS. It's not as long as I had hoped but I still like it, and it feels so cool swishing between my knees... ok that sounded really shallow, but sometimes the way clothing feels can be really significant to how you feel in it! I'm sure you get what I mean...

In other news, I've set a strict date for when I want my little online shop up so keep checking back! It's coming!! I've been saying this for ages but now I'm pretty sure I've got everything ready for the shop to open, I just need to research some shipping details because I really want to try and get the best shipping rates possible for you guys. There's nothing worse then being overcharged for shipping, I'm going to try my best to package everything as compact (and therefore as cheap) as possible! To prove that I'm not just getting your hopes up once again about my shop, I'll leave you with little sneak peak: this picture of my gorgeous friend modeling one of the pieces I'm going to be selling.

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Hopefully this will stick in your mind all week, so when the shop opens you'll be ready with your piggy bank standing by... Just kidding... kind of. Buy stuff. Please.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

We’ll still have the summer after all

Like most of my DIY projects, I've got no idea how I thought of this one. A few months ago I just had the urge to make a Hawaiian print playsuit. I drew it out and actually posted the sketch on my twitter, if you remember. Drawing it out is pretty much the most planning I do when it comes to sewing; the rest is just trial and error and A LOT of improvisation. A warning to those of you with a slow internet connection: this is a very picture heavy post! I like tutorials with less text, more pictures... so here we go!
All you need for this project (besides a sewing machine, duh) is a too-big button up shirt. Best bet is to hit up the men's section at your thrift store, and try to find one that goes just past your crotch when it's on. It doesn't matter how long the sleeves are, but it's a plus if the shoulder seams fit somewhat.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic To illustrate how long yours should be...
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Flip the shirt inside out and lay it flat on the ground.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic Take some chalk or a marker and mark out where your waist is on the shirt. Then draw out a curved line on both side to show where you're going to cut and sew later. The line should start at the top, a few inches away from the shoulder seam, then follow down the waist, then curve outward to the bottom for where your hips should be. Hopefully you can see how I marked it out here with pink chalk. Pin along this line (except for the sleeves) and try on the shirt to make sure the waist and hips curve well with your body. You DON'T want it to be tight, just shaped according to your body.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic If it seems okay then sew along your pin line-- again not on the arms! Just cut along your marked out line to chop off those sleeves. You'll see from the picture below that your shirt should now have a slight hourglass shape.
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I guess I lied before when I said all you need is the shirt for this project. You also need some scrap fabric and some one inch wide elastic, enough to go around your waist. With the scrap fabric cut a looooong piece that is about 1.5 inches thick. This is going to be the casing for the waist elastic. With your shirt inside out, take the fabric strip and pin it along the sides around the waist like of the shirt, like so:
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Then sew it down on both sides of the strip.
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The next step is to sew up the bottom half of the shirt. Make sure the waist line stiches match up, then pin down the front and take out any buttons along the way. Sew one line straight down.
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Last part: the crotch! Take those sleeves you chopped off and cut one open and lay it down flat on the ground. Draw out an hourglass shape that's about 8 inches long, 4 across. I forgot to measure this piece but just use your instict: how much crotch coverage do you really need?
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To make it look more finished, I took sleeves scraps, cut them into strips, ironed them folded in like bias tape, then sewed them on the 2 edges like so:
Image and video hosting by TinyPic With your shirt flipped inside out, sew down the crotch piece in the center of the bottom of the shirt, front and back. Note that the center is NOT determined by the shirt's opening because the button holes need to overlap on top of the buttons. Use a measuring tape instead to determine the center of the front and back.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic I sewed two seams across for extra durability.
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Image and video hosting by TinyPic Laying flat, inside out, the romper should look something like this!
Image and video hosting by TinyPic Depending on where you chopped off the sleeves, you might want to roll them or you could just fold them a quarter inch and sew a seam. I wanted to roll mine up but after I cut them they seemed fine how they were.
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The very last step is to take your 1 inch wide elastic, measure it around your waist so it's snug (not tight), and cut accordingly. Then use the ol' safety pin trick to feed it through the casing and then sew down the elastic along the casing openings to keep it in place.
That's pretty much it, you're done! If the shirt you start out with is a little on the longer side, then I think it would look great with rolled bottoms. Just fold the leg holes over once or twice then use a hand-sewing needle to sew them down. My romper was short enough, otherwise I would have loved to have folded the leg openings.
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Image and video hosting by TinyPic Manditory camera loving! Enjoy your new playsuit/romper/whatever for summer. I tried to de-cutify it a little with my round framed sunglasses, sheer bike-shorts, (really, they're just black tights that I hacked off the bottom) and lace-up wedges. I know what you're thinking... you're really digging my white legs in these photos. Be jelz.
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Thursday, May 20, 2010

Deja-vu, you're my obsession

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This past Monday was half off at all the Value Village stores (thrift department store, for people who don't know) in the city. As you may have already seen, I went thift crazy with fellow Winnipeg bloggers Andrew of Pull Teeth and Raez of Cheap Thrills and had got some seeeerious shopping done!! Andrew and I hit up one store before picking up Raez from school (aww so sweet! She's only 16 if you can beleive it!) before going to another two stores. The last location was definately had the best finds, we spent about an hour and a half in there and all left with huge bags full of clothes, haha! Obviously a blogger meet-up calls for a photoshoot, and in Winnipeg this means we do it in the parking lot...
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Andrew and I hang out and go shopping all the time (a little too much maybe, I'm going broke from thrifting. Just kidding Andrew!! Let's go tomorow) but this was the first time I was meeting Raez. This girl is so effing fierce it's not even funny, and she is an amazing shopper and kept finding awesome things in the store for me to try on! The only downside of hanging with her is looking terrible in photos by comparison.
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Slowly realizing I don't know how to take photos with others WITHOUT pulling faces. Lovely.
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Andrew and I are going to start a book club, ok. Who wants to join?
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I think it's clear than none of these pictures were shot on my crumby camera. It's time to start saving my pennies for a really good camera, these shots turned out so amazing! If you're curious, here's a quick run-down of what I bought:
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At store #1 I bought this huge, fuzzy jacket (apparently I don't know what season it is right now), a slinky, semi-sheer black top, and this ostrich feather-like boa that I'm going to use for a DIY... don't know what I'm making with it but I'll figure something out.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic No clothes from store #2, just these PERFECT platforms (why yes, I did buy them because they reminded me of THOSE shoes), a bunch of CDs, and a VHS of Trainspotting... although I don't even think my VCR works....
Image and video hosting by TinyPic Store number three was the biggest hit, hands down. Found this oversized red coat (thanks Raez!), a crinoline/tutu from the kid's section, this black mini dress that flared out at the bottom, and polka-dotted crop top. As you can see, my 90's addiction is reaching an all-time high.

Monday, May 17, 2010

You get me hotter than a stick of hot glue

This post is going to be a bit of catch-up, as I explained two posts ago that I was holding back some info from you guys! Here's why: I got my hair done a week and a half ago, on May 7th, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted so I didn't want to post any pictures of my new har untill it was perfect. I scheduled another appointment for the following Thursday, May 14th, to get it fixed, so those pictures you see in the last post are from hair attempt number two. Bleaching my hair like this may seem pretty out-of-the-blue for me, but I've been mulling it over in my head for months and it just seemed like the right thing to do when nothing else exciting is going on. I'm glad you all like it, your comments are so encouraging and you're the sweetest readers any one could ever ask for, haha! I love you guyyys, I wish I could just hug you all at once, but ya know... internet...
Back to buisness! I know some of you might be still wondering about the Leslie Hall show I went to. Well, without explaining every tiny detail I'll just say that it was an amazing night and Leslie is one of the coolest, funniest, nicest girls I've ever met. My friend and I showed up to the venue waaaaaay too early so we got some quality one-on-one time with Leslie while I pretty much bought everything on her merch table. I got a shirt, a tote bag, a pen, and a headband, how's that for a devoted fan, haha! Some pics from downtown, before the show:
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My only friend who knows about this blog, Kaeleigh, working that sailor pose as well as my (non-gem) sweater. Turns out Leslie loved it even though it's not an official gem sweater. Maybe I should have worn it, haha!
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While we were waiting for the show to start, Leslie came up to us and asked if we could work at her merch table while her and her dancer got ready. How's that for random?? Obvi we said yes, and ended up selling almost everything on the table! During the show she called up three gem sweater wearers to come onstage and be back-up dancers, and obviously I went up! I didn't get my baby named, but it was so fun anyways. We talked to her more during intermission and at the end of the show too. The pictures I took aren't the greatest quality, but if you're interested you can look here, here, and here for some pictures that we took with Leslie. The last one is at the end after she took out her hair and changed out of her costume and stuff.... behind the scenes look! Haha.

Enough of that, let's see more pictures of my awesome new hair!! Only half joking...
I took these in my bathroom last week, I just really liked this outfit and I got to wear that floral sheer sleeved top from a few posts back. You can see here that not all my tips are blonde, which is why I had to go back and get my hair finished. It took so long, but so worth it! Took these with my phone by the way, so the colour is a bit wonky...
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I just love how yellow my hair looks in the picture, haha! Gaga at the Grammy's, anyone?
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This is just the outfit I wore the other day when I took pictures of my hair for the last post. The t-shirt is the same one from this post, but now I wear it inside out and backwards cos I'm not really into the design on it, but it's SO PERFECTLY worn out, stretchy, and thin that I'm not planning on giving it up any time soon. The leggings are from Babooshka Boutique which I bought aaaaages ago, but after some order mix-ups I didn't get them untill last week. They're faux leather on the bottom, and nude on top so they kind of look like knee high stockings from afar. Really digging them! The shoes are London Underground from ASOS, bought years ago but they still make me all tingly and happy inside!
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