Vintage reconstructed... 2

Following yesterday's vintage re-constructed dress, I went on to make this mini skirt with the left over fabric. I am happy that I got to use the entire dress!
I made it very simple, no pockets, it is mini, and has elastic shirred for the waist for easy fitting.
I paired it with limited white long-t (from Kaitlyn), diy vest/gilet, vintage belt, uniqlo tights and payless booties. I wish I still had my turquoise pumps, so it would match with my belt, but unfortunately, I gave those pairs away when I moved from Philadelphia to Japan two months ago.
I sew a great post at What I Wore about how to organize tights. I used to put all tights and socks mix together in a drawer, but her way of organizing tights made much more sense. It made it so much easier for me to pick my tights in the morning by hanging on a hanger like her!

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Vintage reconstructed...

I decided to clean my closet the other day so I can determine what exactly I needed for the upcoming winter season. While I was away from home for five years, things accumulated in my closet. I found a guitar in my closet. I don't play the guitar, so someone must have put it in there while I was gone. There were couple other items that I did not remember storing there. I ended up with three big bags full of clothes that I did not wear anymore. One of them was this dress below.

If you call items from 90's "vintage", this long dress must be a vintage item.. It is from 90's and made in America. I don't remember how this ended up in my closet since I don't remember wearing it, but I sew a redeemable value in this long dress.

So I cut it short, cut a stripe of the fabric so I can hem it with folded band to make a mini dress.
I also made a big and loose "V" neck in the back and added a bow.

Voila! This is how it turned out.
I like it a lot this way since it is super comfortable with leggings.

This can be worn as a top, and in the photos below, I tucked in the dress in the pink mini skirt.

Or, I can wear it with a boyfriend blazor - which look do you like better?

Lyell fall 2009

All images are from Lyell

I love these looks from Lyell fall 2009 look book. Black and white combination, scalloped hem, small peter pan collar, dark purple and little black dress.

Olga Kurylenko

Olga Kurylenko in Vogue Italia pictures via Stylish Wanderer.

I love the last picture the best, with a black dress with a white bib and buttons!

The typhoon is gone...

I wanted to experiment with the skirt I made the other day, and wanted to come up with a way to wear it other than paring a simple white tank. I saw Glamorai pairing a skirt with a LBD to wear the dress as a top, here. The hem of the LBD is showing a bit, and it makes her outfit so chic! So I tried her trick with my zara mini dress. Unfortunately, the dress was way too short to show the hem of it under neath the skirt, but I am happy that now I figured out I can wear this dress as a top.
This sandal & tights pair reminds me of Rebecca was a recluse. I love her flickr photos. In one one her outfit photos, she wears beige summer sandals with black tights, and I thought it was a great way to wear sandals even in the fall!
My upcoming weekend is filled with:
* Meeting my frined whom I have not seen for 5 years!
* Going to buffett lunch with my little sister
* Church, on Sunday
* Going to a tea celemony with my aunt and cusin
* Making a violet jumper...coming up soon!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Floral skirt

With the same fabric as this dress, I made a skirt. I think I like the skirt better than the dress, since it is more versatile. I can think of a lot of variation with leggings, tights, slouchy tops or sweaters... I have a thing of floral fabrics. I know the fashion world this season is all about studs, 80's, Goth etc, but I love romantic floral prints.
No pattern is used. The skirt part is three rectangles, and I pleated instead of gathering the fabric, because of the thickness of the fabric. Then I added a thick waistband and an exposed zipper. I like adding waist band this fall/winter, to make it a high-waisted look. Also I added two pockets on the side! I love pockets!

Tanktop: Unknown, Skirt: Handmade by me, Tights: Unknown, Booties: Payless, Jacket: thrifted Uniqlo.

It has been raining for a week now since the typhoon was coming. Last night, I got up in the middle of the night because of the sound of rain - it was pouring. I miss the sunny weather already.

une nana cool

Aren't these underwear lovely? They almost look like bathing suit! They are from une nana cool. I have been using their underwear collections only (although, I cheated once when I found a non-wired black lace bra from H&M this summer) since I found out their shop three years ago. Half of their collection is non-wired, but has an elastic band under bust, and extremely comfortable for someone like me, who have flat chests. If you are like me, you know how uncomfortable it is to have a hard wire pressing your bone under neath your boobs... It doesn't happen with these guys, and I am so happy to have found out their store!

Vintage-inspired mini flower dress

So immediately after I came back from fabric shopping, I washed the fabric and cut the fabric to make a dress. Here is the result.

This is the same design as my Kirsten Dunst inspired dress, but for some reasons, it came out bigger than the last dress I made. I made two modifications to the dress.
1) No bow this time, because of the pattern, I thought it would be too much to add a bow..
2) Instead of gathering the skirt part, I added some pleats. Well, it did not gather, since the fabric is relatively thick. So I made a quick modification!

I belted it and threw a blazer on.
Also, I wore knee-high socks instead of tights today. I am still not sure if I like them or not, I am afraid that I kind of look like an amine character?! You know, sailor moon is always wearing knee-high socks... At least they are comfortable relatively. I detest over-the-knee boots, and so sad they are in this winter, but I am okay with knee-high socks!

It has been raining for days now, and they say typhoons are coming on Thursday. I want to see the Sun! I feel down when the weather is bad. Although, the weather here is much milder than the one in Philly, so I shouldn't complain much.

By the way, I made Thai red curry yesterday with the instant soup mix my sister got from Thailand. Since both my husband and I like spicy food, I added three extra dried hot peppers for extra spiciness. and, I must have forgotten to wash my hands and touched my eyes, my eyes burnt so badly. It was like someone sprayed pepper spray on me. I thought I would go blind. That was very scary!

This will be listed in my shop!

Fabric shopping weekend

My sister just got back from a week trip to Thailand, and got me this harem pants. These are unbelievably comfortable. It is not in the pictures, but I must wear heels when I wear these pants, otherwise I look like a peasant from a village.

Went to a fabric shopping in Nippori this Saturday. When you go to the fabric row on Saturday, it is a WAR! Especially at Tomato. People pushing each other and stepping on each other, I get so exhausted after an hour of shopping. A lot of people go there with a suit case, and it makes sense. I had two big bags of fabrics, and I might need a suit case my self for the next trip.

Here is what I got this time. I wanted to buy more, but I just could not stand waiting in the line for so long, and the crowd!

From left: Flower fabric (I've been looking for a flower print with a vintage feel!), violet cotton, black jersey (always good to have it stocked), silver-ish knit fabric, and violet wool tweed (300 yen a meter, wow! )

Beige jumper

Remember my jumper which ended up looking like a peter pan costume? I fixed it! Since it got too short after I made a scalloped hem, I cut that part all off, and added a navy blue small polka dot fabric to lengthen the jumper. Then I added matching buttons in the front.


Here is a pic of the jumper before I fixed. Doesn't this look just odd? I don't know what I was thinking.