Fashion Challenge Check-In #3

The Goal: To use 4 different fashion looks from my Pinterest Fashion Stuff, Shoes, or the accessories on my Window Shopping boards as inspiration in creating a look for me to wear in November or December
-- extended in to January and February.

The Budget: $10 (specifically for tights)

The Inspirations:
1) Dress + Shirt

2) Dress + Cardigan 1, 2, 3, 4, - DONE!

Windy days do not make for great photos - especially not when it's so cold! - but I think this isn't too bad a look - minus the wind blown parts. The cardigan seems a little longer than ideal, compared to the length of the dress, and I do think the dress is begging for a belt or other waist accent, but I think it works alright. And yes, I did actually wear this one out on the town on a date with the husband - though I really wish I'd brought a coat!  

3) Shorts + tights -- DONE! 

4) Statement shoes -- DONE!

5) Accessories/Layers/Etc.:

1) Belt and bracelet.    2) Hobbit -inspired door locket necklace    3) Fish necklace  Plus today: 4) Layers - and tights.



So - what I have left to try is the shirt + dress combination. Which has been proving challenging to accomplish with the things in my closet - and challenging to want to try in this weather. I'm going to keep trying, and keep embracing the selfie so I can show some of the better layering options I've been running -- it might just be the cold, but I think I'm getting pretty good at layering! -- but honestly, I'm about to give up on the idea of dresses for a few months. This bitter cold - and occasional knee high piles of snow - does not make me want to expose my legs any more than absolutely necessary.

Meanwhile, yesterday it was decent and I saw not only dresses, but shorts and open-toed shoes being worn around town. So, maybe I'm just a little wimpy...

Fashion Challenge Check-In #2

The Goal: To use 4 different fashion looks from my Pinterest Fashion Stuff, Shoes, or the accessories on my Window Shopping boards as inspiration in creating a look for me to wear in November, December, or January. -- And I'm adding February since I've been so slow at accomplishing this! 

The Budget: $10 (specifically for tights)

The Inspirations:

1) Dress + Shirt

2) Dress + Cardigan 1, 2, 3, 4,

3) Shorts + tights -- DONE!

4) Statement shoes 1, 2, 3, 4,
I was actually incredibly excited to try this out the day that I played in the orchestra (all black outfit). So excited that I rushed out the door without taking the time to get a photo! So, from the day of, this bad cell phone picture is all I've got:

I keep thinking I'll recreate the outfit to get a more accurate photo, but instead I've been working too many hours to think about putting on such a dressed up outfit. Also, as much as I love those shoes (and I do, despite this being the third wearing in five years), after ten hours on my feet in winter boots, I do not think I could force my feet into them!

I also had a chance to try out another, but very similar, approach.

Again, a little artistic blur on the photo. Pretty basic, new black dress (love it so much), red shoes last worn three years ago to my sister-in-law's wedding, and - nearly impossible to see - a little fish-y necklace.

Not bad for something pulled together in about three minutes after the planned outfit had a breakdown. (I must remember to buy size 'tall' tights. The consequences of forgetting are not good.)

5) Accessories/Layers/Etc. -

I've been making more progress - even wearing accessories and layers on days I don't intentionally set out to create a picture for this challenge. I guess I've got to learn to embrace the selfie!

Also, while the fish necklace isn't so comfortable to wear (boo) (nor so visible in that photo) I am loving my diy hobbit door type necklace. The 'chain' is a semi-stretchy material and much more comfortable on my skin than the metal chain but my favorite part is that the door is actually a tiny locket held closed with a magnet. It has given me something to fiddle with when I'm tired or bored, which makes it practical as well as fun. Okay, 'practical' might be a bit of a stretch - but needless to say, I'm really enjoying it and wearing it a couple times a week when possible. 

For all that #4 (statement shoes) and #5 (accessories) have been going well, I am increasingly worried that the first two challenges I set myself are going to prove impossible. I have some dresses, and I have both shirts and cardigans. But so far, they are not looking good together at all. I'm going to try a little harder over the next couple weeks, but I might have to replace those challenges with things that more reflect my closet's abilities - or try again when I have improved my closet a little!

Fashion Challenge Check-In #1

The Goal: To use 4 different fashion looks from my Pinterest Fashion Stuff, Shoes, or the accessories on my Window Shopping boards as inspiration in creating a look for me to wear in November or December.

The Budget: $10 (specifically for tights)

The Inspirations:

1) Dress + Shirt

2) Dress + Cardigan 1, 2, 3, 4,

3) Shorts + tights 1,
So... I tried this. 

1) I am not comfortable posing in front of a camera. I knew this, but wow. Awkward. 
2) Those shorts do not work. I had hoped if I went grey (instead of black like my inspiration) I could make the lighter wash and longer cut work. No. Different shorts fall outside the budget for this project. I did not wear this outfit outside the house to anywhere farther away than my back yard. Does that count as a fail? 

3) I also tried it without the belt. My pose is slightly better - but I'm not sure it helped the outfit at all... 

4) Immediately after seeing the results of this pictures I changed into something more comfortable: 

(A special thank you to my husband/photographer for this candid and completely unexpected shot.)
Not exactly part of the challenge, but...better. 
I think the look requires dark wash jeans and dark or black tights. I have black tights, but I figured they'd look really wrong against the light shorts. Maybe next year... 

4) Statement shoes 1, 2, 3, 4,

5) Accessories
On the other hand, I did try to do some more accessories and layering. 

Layers, a belt (which should really count as a layer and an accessory), and a little more bling than usual. It's a start... and although I'm giving up on the belt and shorts and tights today, I'm at least going with layers and accessories. It's a slow start - but a start. 

Fashion Challenges

The Goal: To use different fashion looks from my Pinterest Fashion Stuff, Shoes, or the accessories on my Window Shopping boards as inspiration in creating a look for me to wear in November or December.

The Budget: $10 (specifically for tights)

The Inspirations:

1) Dress + Shirt

2) Dress + Cardigan 1, 2, 3, 4,

3) Shorts + tights 1,

4) Statement shoes 1, 2, 3, 4,

5) Accessories - I'm thinking even with jeans and a tee or something. Otherwise I know I'll dress up on Saturdays, and do nothing different the other six days of the week. This way... maybe I'll try to stretch myself a little more.

Looking at everything I've chosen to try, I think the overall challenge here is to use more layers and accessories. I'm not sure I can accomplish it... but I suppose it wouldn't be a true challenge if I weren't feeling some apprehension!

Pinterest-Inspired Fashion Challenge?

1) The big winter holidays usually mean more traveling than usual, more seeing people than usual, and more doing things out of the normal for me - from attending concerts, to being in concerts, to family pictures... my usual issue of jeans and a t-shirt - even dressed up a little - doesn't always cut it.

2) Holiday concert performances require black outfits, something I no longer have. (Meanwhile, from 2000 to 2009, my not-jeans-and-a-tee wardrobe was almost exclusively black performance wear.)

3) Although I meant to get black slacks, I accidentally also picked up a black dress - which needed accessories.

4) I am not really an accessories kind of woman. Okay, I might own about 6 purses at the moment, and somewhere between 15 and 20 shoes, but other than that, I really don't know how to do accessories. I don't own any belts. One winter scarf (which I've never actually worn). Two bracelets (gifts I received this year). One necklace (worn for a wedding, never since). Um... I think that's really it. Oh, two pairs of tights - are tights accessories??

Anyway, the point is, that all of these factors together started me down an initially unintentional path toward some Pin' inspired outfits and accessories.

Even though neither fashion, nor accessories, nor taking photos of myself are areas I'm really comfortable in, I figured I'd keep the momentum going and roll the unintentional into something a bit more intentional (especially since I think I wanted to do 3 non-food related challenges from my Pinterest ideas, and my first two attempts have crashed bad - no, no sharing...).

Here are my accidents:
1) I have been crushing these outfits 1, 2, 3, 4. I accidentally bought a black dress. It's not exactly  like any of the ones I've been looking at, but I think it'll do - though it's a bit of a blank canvas kind of dress...
2) I have been hinting about picking up something like this or this  as a birthday/Christmas gift. Without realizing just how close, I bought something very similar completely on a whim.

Even though I had a packing list worked up telling me just what to take on all my trips (type A personality sometimes? I think so...), I am thinking that to kick this into an intentional challenge, I am going to pick a couple inspiration looks from my Pinterest boards and try to create a version for me - and of course, to add a little more challenge, the goal being to avoid buying something new just to make it happen. With one exception - because I already have tights on the list, I'm allowing myself no more than two pair of new tights. Everything else has to come out of the closet, out of the drawer, or be borrowed. Not even thrift shops.

Yikes. Putting that in writing it sounds harder than I thought it would be when I was just kicking the idea around the other night... but that kind of makes me want to do it even more!

Pinterest Challenge: Scarf Shirt

I can't remember a time when I've ever worn a scarf. Which is odd considering how many of them I own. Fashion scarves decorate vases, and winter scarves just languish in my closet. When I had longer, static prone hair, even touching a scarf or winter hat was a recipe for disaster. The day after my short hair cut, I spent a couple hours trying to figure out a way to wear scarves like headbands. I didn't have to deal with any static. But I didn't come out of the experimentation with anything worth trying again.

The pile of scarves kept mocking me. And I kept meaning to add them to the give-away pile. Because my home is too small to hold things I don't use.

Then I came across a pin for a Scarf Shirt tutorial. Did I have some reservations? Absolutely. I love the look of it over at Stars for Streetlights, but as a fat* woman I had some serious hesitation about wearing something like that.

I started with a low-commitment version. After picking two scarves that were close to the same size, I used small safety pins to make a mock-up top. A little adjusting of the pins to make things fit better, and all in all, I was pretty pleased.

I deconstructed the whole thing, and put it back together right sides facing in. Since my safety pins had left small holes, I was able to pin it together with straight pins without needing to remeasure where my stitching should be.

Instead of stitching just a few strategic spots quiet like the tutorial, I went with four longer lines of stitching under each arm and across the shoulders.

Kind of like this... 

I didn't stitch all the way to the outside edge on either of my four lines of stitching because I wanted to keep some of the looseness of the original - and because I knew I'd need the room around my waist/hips.

Flipped it back outside-out and tried it on. I even roped my husband in to taking a couple pictures of me.

Front

Obviously it needs some dewrinkling to get those lovely fold lines out...

Back

I actually like the brown/print 'back' better. And while it is fully reversible, the pink/boxy 'front' just doesn't work (for me) as a back. You can also see the white tank top peaking out at the bottom where I left it open to give me a bit of extra room. 

I'm debating wearing it out tonight... I'm also digging through my collection for another large square (I have a lot of rectangles). I've got a lovely teal/green/cream that I would love to turn into a shirt - but so far no luck on finding a back for it. I might just have to go thrifting soon if I don't find something in my stash - although I suppose I could make a 'scarf' out of strap fabric for the back (especially if I get smarter with the overlock machine). Hmm...

Anyway - I'm pretty thrilled with the outcome. The hardest part was trying to stitch through the silky fabrics (practically impossible to back stitch, at least on my machine), but the entire project took about 10 minutes. A second one should take even less since I should be able to mark my stitch points based off this one rather than pinning it while wearing it. 

* Getting personal here: I realize 'fat' is a word that makes some people uncomfortable, but I'm more comfortable using it to describe my body than using words like chubby, curvy, plus size, or any of the other alternatives I've heard of. Loving my body (or even appreciating it) is an ongoing process for me, as is learning what kind of outfits make me happy/comfortable. Using the right-for-me words plays a part in that process. 

Pinterest Challenge: Clutch

I've been working hard to empty my closet of things I simply don't use. Going through the clothes was fairly easy, though I could go through with a fiercer attitude and still cut a few more items. Going through purses and bags has been harder. It's hard for me to get rid of a bag - partly because it's just about impossible for me to find one I want to buy - but there's just no reason to keep things like the purse I've used once in two years of owning it.

So, I'm down six purses - and I'm still arguing with myself over whether to part with one more or not. seven purses at last count.

But getting rid of purses makes me want to buy more.

I could beg legitimate need on this one. I mean, everything I have left could be used as a suitcase by some people. That's not quite what I want to take to a wedding...

But instead of spending time searching stores for the perfect clutch or small bag, I turned to Pinterest. After following a few dud links (either leading to no information or turning out not to be what I wanted after all), I found a Perfect Tutorial. I love that this clutch is more than just a bag with a zipper on the top - it's got a little flap to cover the zipper too (and an option for a secondary closure there). I'm not a huge fan of exposed zippers, so that flap sold me.

Gray flannel I bought with the hope of turning into a couple bags. Gray with dots that I never managed to turn into a baby dress. Navy with pink doodle swirls left over from a baby skirt. And my first ever zipper. Yeah. That's not intimidating at all...

I tried to follow the directions while accomplishing what I wanted - which worked most of the time... But I probably should have just followed the directions on the first time through. The major difference was that instead of using sew in stabilizer (which I do not have), I used thin batting and did some decorative stitching on the outer layer/batting to add some stability. That made my project a bit fatter than I expected, but it wasn't impossible to handle.

The doodle stitch took about 3 minutes per line, so I went with something way faster when it came to the panel that would be seen the least (covered by the flap).

I wasn't careful enough when it came to working with the zipper. Not only did I break a needle, my seam allowance wasn't quite large enough when I put in my basting stitch - so I didn't quite have enough fabric to sew the zipper to! My fault for not following the directions closely enough. I think I fixed it, but it's not quite as pretty as I'd like at the close-end of the zipper.

The outside however is as pretty as I'd hoped. So much so that I'm debating getting another zipper and trying for a slightly larger version...

Hand stitching on the snap was not beautiful. I'm not thrilled with the outcome of the snap - the placement doesn't seem right to me and my stitching leaves a lot to be desired. If I do this again, I will probably look for another solution. Especially after stabbing my knuckle while finishing up the last stitch.

I don't have a good picture of the interior but I used the pink/navy to make three credit card size pockets and two larger pockets. I'd hoped these would hold my phone, but it doesn't quite work (the bag is too short for the phone to be vertical, and my pockets are too narrow for the phone to be horizontal). After unpicking a line of stitching, it works now. I'm still attempting to find a way to cover the batting or maybe serge the open ends though...

So, there was blood and there was a broken needle, but I will absolutely be doing this again. I will probably cut things a little larger next time - if not enlarge the whole thing slightly - and I now know I need to be way more particular about seam allowance and accuracy on this. But, my first clutch - and my first zipper - and I survived both experiences!

Now to convince myself to do the things I need to do instead of making another.

Small Success

I have finally managed to find what I was beginning to think was the holy grail of shoes:

Blowfish Iris wedge pump 

Closed toe, silver shoes, in my size (or close to).

So, I'm wearing them around the house every evening between now and the wedding weekend until wearing them feels natural and comfortable. Or at least not unnatural.

It's a small victory compared to the things yet to accomplish, but I'm going to celebrate the little things right now - or there'd be nothing to celebrate at all!


Ha! I just realized I pinned these shoes in another color several months ago. I guess that almost makes this count as a Pinterest Challenge - putting something from my 'dream closet' into my real closet? I think that's a challenge!

Pinterest Challenge: Shirt Refashion

The vast majority of my life right now is lived either in jeans and a t-shirt, or something approaching pj's. So packing for a trip is a major stress. Especially when there's a good chance that trip will involve family photos.

So, along with addressing the pile of scarves, I also got to thinking about some of the tops in my 'too small' or 'rarely wear' piles.

I am not much of a seamstress. And it is not easy to find tutorials for ways to adjust clothing that is too small. But armed with a general idea of what I wanted thanks to this amazing top found (via Pinterest) at Of Dreams and Seams and the protection that if this absolutely failed I wasn't losing anything I was using, I went to work on a too small sweater and an old men's shirt.

Although it's been washed, this poor sweater has never been worn. When it still fit me, the weather where I lived generally wasn't cold enough. Now that it is - and I'm planning a trip to colder weather - it's uncomfortably tight. (It's a size small, which leads me to believe it's from the men's department, but it's been in my drawers for at least 8 years so who knows!)

Cut a line down the middle of the sweater. Fortunately, the weave of the fabric gave me an easy line to follow.

Apply bias tape to the raw edges to contain them. I'm not certain this was the right thing to do, but I didn't know how else to contain the raw edges and I had leftover black bias tape just sitting by the machine begging to be used.

I didn't quite plan for my stitching to be so obvious on the binding, but it was a happy accident because I actually like the little bit of shine the thread gives the bias tape edges. In fact, I top stitched along the bias tape several times to get a little more shine.

At this point, I had a finished-edged cardigan. But cutting it apart made just how small it was even more evident. So on with the plan! I took a quick measurement of about how far the edges were apart, and attacked my second top. Since my measurement said I needed about 9 inches of fabric to make the cardigan a top again, I cut an 11 inch wide piece from the back of the old shirt.

A quick double turn under to give the top a finished edge that's (hopefully) unlikely to unravel, and I was ready to try the pieces on together. And for the first time I began to wish I had a dress form. Holding the 'top' in place under a cardigan that wants to shift - and trying to pin it in place without pinning myself was a bit of a trick. Not impossible though. I managed to get everything pinned where I wanted it - and the whole mess taken off again without injury to me or the top.

I had to hem the bottom of the shirt piece - which was sadly a few inches too long, which meant saying good-bye to some of the interesting button detail I'd hoped to keep, then fed the whole thing through the machine to stitch the sweater to the red top. A little more hemming on the edges of the red piece (which wound up not needing to be as large as what I'd measured) to get the raw edges hidden and I have a fairly finished top.

Gotta take pictures in the daylight next time... 

I'm a little sad to have lost most of the button details on the red part - out of 6 in the original cut of fabric, I was only able to keep 1. I'm debating removing the lost buttons from the scraps of shirt and hand sewing them down the length of the center stripe (under the button that made it). I'm also toying with adding a button to the top/neck edge of each side of the cardigan. That would dress it up just a little more while the hand stitching would reinforce the machine stitches there. I think it's fine without, but the fabric got a little bulky where I had to sew over the collar of the sweater and I might feel a little more secure with a bit more stitching there.

At the moment, it feels a little more school teacher ish than I'd hoped. I don't know if buttons would change that, or if it's just my inexperience with cardigans or layering.

Unlike my incredibly supportive husband, I'm not quite certain I'm happy with this one. I guess I'll wear it a couple times before I judge completely. That said, it's a huge improvement over a sweater I've never worn and a piece of fabric I didn't know what else to do with (the front of the shirt will likely become a quilt type project some day).

This feels like the moment to set it aside and think before I act. I've got a lot of matching red buttons I could add if that's really what it needs, and a little jar of odd buttons, but maybe it's fine and I just need to come at it with fresher eyes.