More maxi in winter...

Right: Olsens Anonymous, left: Karla's Closet.

More summer dresses (especially maxi) in winter inspiration photos!
I think Karla's outfit would be easy for regular people like me to adapt: throw on black jacket and a colorful scarf on. She looks so chic!
MK on the right just looks adorable with chiffon maxi and cropped fur jacket. I don't have enough confidence to wear a fur, because I would feel like attracting too much attention, but I think I can go for chiffon maxi + short leather jacket to replace the fur..

Saturday brownies

So today, Andy and I got up late, well, late means 8:30am for us, since we are getting old, we naturally get up relatively early even on Saturday. I sewed a bit, and baked yummy brownies, and went to see Kayo. We had a great time chatting and eating her delicious hamburger together for about 5 hours! She and her husband showed me how to use photoshop. I do have a photoshop in my computer, but besides making a small animation for this blog, I haven't been able to utilize it well. They showed me how to bring up color, erase pimples, and what not. Below is the photo after photoshop. I think it looks a lot better than the original one, here.
This dress is a new addition to my shop, along with this secretary dress in orange floral. Sometimes, when I make things, I don't end up with 100% satisfying result. However, this dress, I really like it very much. It is perfect for work, yet keep you super comfortable. I made the skirt part with thick jersey fabric so it's easy to move around. I like the look of high waisted knee length skirt for work, but I always find my self keep tucking in a shirt, and it's so annoying! So I just connected the cross over shirt with high waisted skirt, and the problem is solved:)

Alexander Wang

To be honest, Alexander Wang's collection did not do anything for me before. 2010 Spring RTW was just way too sporty for me, and I could not understand why all the fashion bloggers were praising him to death. His designs seem way too simple and lack the feminine details, and also it's not like I can buy them since his dresses are like $400 a piece Well, I was proven to be wrong.. I saw these dresses today and love these! Love the simple cut, and the twisted detail in the shoulder strap. I would love to have this, but it's $435...darn it.

Rib twist dress from fowardfoward.com

I like the combination of light denim and white in this one. Perfect for working girl!

Oxford dress from forwardforward.com

Rumi from Fashion Toast has a great giveaway of Alexander Wang bag. Entry is from here, but there are already more than 1000 entries... :(

You can totally wear summer clothes in winter too!

I've been slacking off lately and taking photos of creations at home. I know there is a better lighting outside, but I just can't get myself together to do a photoshoot outside now. Too cold!

Here is a little maxi dress I made last week for the shop. I made myself one in brown (slightly different design) before, and been wearing a lot, regardless of the weather. In summer, I wear it by itself, but right now, I pair it with a chunky sweater cardigan, short jacket, neckwarmer and sometimes earmuffs. I also wear thick leggings inside when I go out.

I really should have gotten more of this fabric. For some reasons, I only got 2 meter of it:(
I love this blue color, with some kind of ethnic print all over. I got this in Nippori.
I got this faux-leather jacket before New Year. It was 50% off! But a week later, my sister got the same one in brown, for 75% off! I should have waited a week longer to buy! Oh well...

New business card design

Remember I wrote about not being able to come up with a new business card design on my own? A talented photographer & graphic designer, Samantha Nandez kindly offered to design Vivat Veritas logo and business card! I was so excited, and was more excited to see the design she came up with. I love the VV with a tiny flower, and I think it represents my brand well (feminine, and simple). I'm amazed that she can design things based on my idea, since I didn't even know what I wanted the logo and design to look like myself. I just told her, "I like purple color", "hmmm girly!" or "I love floral patterns" or something.

Check our more of her work on her flickr and facebook page! She is an amazing fashion photographer.

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Mini Sailor Collection

I just realized I made these clothes before the new year but never got around to posting it here. I got this cute sailor fabric, with helm print on ivory-ish white background in Nippori a while ago. I know it's winter now, but I wanted to forget about the cold weather and skipped Spring, and made a small collection with this summery print. It's so cold here, (well, not as cold as Philly, so I should not whine about it) and I can't wait for the warmer weather.

☆Sailor mini skirt☆
For this, I wanted to show the uniqueness of the print, so I decided to go for a simple pattern.
Pockets on the side, and the sash comes from the side as well, which can be tied both front and back. Elastic waist - I love elastic waist! So easy and comfy to put on. And again, my sister criticized my creation and said it looks like an apron. I'm slowly getting used to her insults:p

☆Sailor dress☆
I really like the two tone + cross over details, and will be making more dresses like this with different fabric combination!

Dear fellow sewers, any of you participating the Coats & Clark Pink & Red fashion contest? I'd love to enter, but I can't come up with any good combination of red and pink. Those are the colors that I tend to combine with... I'm kind of stuck and the time is running out. ;(

Some sewing & knitting tutorials to share:
* Great tutorial of crochet hat from Vallieskids. Love the bow on the side.
* Head band tutorial from UCreate. An awesome way to use left over fabrics!

Hair inspiration

I've been dying to change my hair style for a while - I'm prohibited to make bangs because my husband hates bangs, but I'm thinking maybe to highlight my hair a bit.
The inspiration comes from Natalie Off Duty, and I just think her hair looks perfect!

Photo from Natalie Off Duty

Big Buttons Dress Tutorial

I love doing custom orders. Custom orders are a lot of work, but gives me different challenges, and a chance to expand different variations and patterns of work.
I was recently asked to make a modification of this dress. Her request was to keep the big buttons, add "rolled up sleeves", and big pockets. Before I made one for her, I made one sample to make sure if the patterns work. It ended up this dress was pretty simple, and can be adjusted in different sizes very very easily.
Although I added darts for the previous dress, the dresses above a very simple, no curves, all straight line dress. I'm terrible at explaining things, but I'm gonna try... here you go!

Here is a brief how-to to make this dress.
You need measurements of your:
♥ shoulder to shoulder measurement (16" for me)
♥ from your shoulder to the top of the bust measurement (mine was 9")
♥ desired length of the dress (in this case, I made it for 34")

Material:
♥ About 1.50m of fabric
♥ covered button kit
♥ invisible zipper

Pattern:
1. Top panels
♥ Take your shoulder to shoulder measurement (mine is about 16"), and add 3" each side. So the total width of the top front panel is about 23".
♥ The length of your top front panel is the measurement of your shoulder to the top of your bust.
♥ Now your have a rectangle fabric, 23" ×9". Cut two (one for front, and one for back)
♥ Adjust the neckline, you can make it like boat neck, or round neck.

2. Skirt panels
♥ Take the length of your shoulder to shoulder measurement (16"), and multiply it by 1.5. In my case, this is 24". This becomes the width of your skirt panels, front and back.
♥ The length of your skirt panels should be (your desired length of the dress) - (length of your top panel). In this case, 34-9=25.
♥ Now you have a rectangle fabric, 24" ×25".
♥ Gather the top of this skirt panel fabric, and shorten it (gather) so it becomes your shoulder to shoulder measurement (16"). Then sew this into the top panel, leave 3" both sides for the sleeve.

3. Pockets, roll up sleeves etc.
This is your preference. Make many different variations!

4. Zipper should be added to the back middle, and I would cut the back top and skirt panels 0.5" longer so it has extra seem allowance for installing zipper.

I know this is very brief and I skipped many processes, so please feel free to ask any questions! Please link to this post if you make a dress from this tutorial;) Happy sewing♥

Monday,

Photos via Day Dream Lily via Fashionising. (I'm sorry, I can't credit the photographer because I couldn't figure out who took these. Please let me know if anyone knows so I can credit!)

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine went way too quick. I wish I got more stuff done, I have small but annoying stuff to take care of, such as filing taxes, making phone calls to banks and what not, booking plain ticket, adding miles to my millage card, making photo copies etc. I really have to put myself together to finish these this week.

Instead of working on these stuff, I ended up spending too much time on reading Keigo Higashino's books, playing with my cousin's three-year-old son at a park, drinking bloody Mary with too much solt in it, and watching "Vicky, Christina, Barcelona".

I also have about 10 clothes that I made over last two weeks, but never got around to post on blog. I will be posting more projects this week..

Etsy seller meet up: Little K'reation

Last night, Kayo from Little K'reation and I had a dinner + coffee date in Shibuya. Kayo had contacted me through etsy, and we both were surprised by many coincidences:
We live 10 minutes away,
Kayo goes to the hair salon that My cousin owns,
We both have an etsy shop,
We both have American husband... etc.

This was the first time that I met someone that I knew through the internet in person, and to be honest, I was a bit nervous before the meeting, but we hit it off so quickly!


We went to Thai restaurant for dinner - I can't believe this small Thai restaurant in the madness of Shibuya is still in business. Feels like it's been there forever -

Then we went for a hot cocoa and coffee afterward to share some tips on etsy business stuff. Check out her shop full of knit wears and unique necklaces! My favorite is her snowflake ear muffs!

Happy new year!

The year 2009 was a wonderful, yet challenging year for me. I wish the year 2010 will bring joy and happiness to everyone♡

I'm fully back and working for next upload of my shop. I got a lot of nice fabrics over the weekend, from light weight indian cotton to many florals for spring!

P.S. Thank you for those who gave me advise on SLR! I'm deciding which one I should get now... exciting!

Sale till Jan 20th!

Everything (except custom orders) on sale in my shop till Jan 20th!
15% off for new customers, and 20% off for returning customers. You will receive a refund via paypal, or with convo, I can adjust the invoice before the purchase. Check it out here♡

Also Tokyo Made Market at Mememachinegallery was extended to Jan 17th.
If you have a chance, please stop by!

I snapped these photos when I went to the gallery myself at the end of December.