Sweater with Lace Stripes Tutorial

Three things I love about early spring fashion - wearing a sweater without a jacket, nautical stripes and lace :)
So a little while ago I made myself a striped sweater with some lace trim I bought at the closing sale of a Fabricland by me for super cheap and an old Zara sweater.
The steps are pretty simple and all you need is a sweater, scissors, lace trim, pins, tape measure, and matching needle and tread.

I made a little slideshow of how you set it up.... that ened up a little big but its still pretty cool

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

 Step one:

Figure out the spacing with your tape measure and place pins to mark the spots, its probably a good idea to do this on both sides so that the lines are straight.

Step two:

Cut your lace trim to the right lengths, I decided to just do it on the front section because thats all I had enough lace for but all the way around or on the arms could be cute too. :)

Step three:

Hand sew on the lace making sure to keep the stiches on the outside small and hidden in the dark parts of the lace.

And enjoy!

 

~Be Inspred!~

Nails Nails Nails

Hello Everybody!

Last you heard from me I was still in Canada, preparing for finals and waiting not so patiently for Christmas break! Now, a couple months later, I am in The Netherlands doing a semester abroad and LOVING it :) Some time next week I will do my first Euro post but for now I have some back log that I've been meaning to post for a long time.

For your consideration, Nail Polish Extravaganza!!

I Love this Insta-dry stuff from Sally Hansen, it has a great brush and it takes the worst part about doing your nails (waiting for them to dry) out of the equation!

Added the silver stripes for some interest.

These are actually stickers that I got at WalMart! Not to bad :P

They didnt last very long, a week tops, but were fun while it lasted.

Purple with a gold overlay, this is actually how my nails are right now :)

Check out the crazy woven walls in my apartment and ignor my horrible cuticles

To get the thin streaky layer of gold over the purple I dabbed it on with my fingertip and smuged it off so the gold was just an overlay

I have a couple more to show you but I'll put them up another day, you know what they say about too much of a good thing :D

~Be Inspired~

Layering for Fall

This is actually an outfit from back in October (when it was warm enough not to wear stockings) that I took waaay too many photos of and  trouble deciding which ones I liked. So like a mature adult I just ignored it for a while. :D

Anyways, here is a great layering outfit that I would wear to the office or a business casual school event.

Me in my kitchen looking really grainy, not sure why

I am wearing:

Jacket Handmade by me brown with a polka dot linning and even though I made it, its too tight in the sleeves

Shirt: Handmade by me, my own pattern One of the first items I drafted myself, the back is actually really cute but you cant see it here.

Dress H&M Its really light and the back is low, great for summer

Belt and necklaces: unfortunately I cant remember :S

Shoes Aldo birthday present from my dad, one of my favourite pairs, such great colours :)

yes I am falling over, the wall is helping me though :P

My messy apartment... please look at my armpit instead

Without the Jacket, still cute!

Sorry for the photo overload!

~Be Inspired~

A Common Question

Often I have people ask me why I care about "fashion" because I in no way can afford the items I seem to covet from the runway and editorial shoots. On my last post a friend posted a comment that has inspired me to write an open letter of sorts, more of a one shot response, to all those nay-sayers:

Perhaps cars aren't your thing, but a lot of people will faun over the hottest new sports car regardless of whether they will ever be able to afford them, and no one thinks that is weird. Some of us like to imagine a world where we could wear an Elie Saab creation (and have somewhere to wear it ;P), its not so different in that respect.
For me its more than that, the runway really does inspire my clothing choices, even if I cant wear the exact outfit, I can emulate the colour or cut. A video that I've always felt speaks to how I feel, click the link bellow Meryl :D

http://movieclips.com/d8iQn-

So the gist: Its not about the individual item or what you can afford today, because everything is connected. You are part of the fashion world whether you want to be or not. All I did was choose an active role.

~Be Inspired~

Elie Saab Spring 2012 RTW

I've become such a sucker for Elie Saab's flowing creations, and his Spring Ready to Wear collection is no exception. The colour pallet was beautiful (as always), bellow are my favourites (you may notice a theme) prepare yourself for some major evening gown beauty.

Does this look familiar to anyone? I cant for the life of me figure out where I have seen it before...

All photos via of Style.com

The movement is so awesome!! Love it.

~Be Inspired~

Rope Belt 3 Ways

I have wanted to make a rope belt and necklace for some time and was more recently inspired by Love Maegan and Style Scrapbook to go ahead with the plan. When the Fabricland near my work was moving and had a huge sale on trims I finally had the resources to follow through. The best part is that this item can be worn three different ways!

Belt:

Skirt: Christian Dior, vintage. Shirt: H&M.


Necklace:

Headband!!

So I used a double figure 8 knot that I learned at summer camp years and years ago which is really great for rock climbing, but you can use any knot you find attractive... or not (ha ha) two ropes hand sewn together would look pretty cute too :D

Here is some of the inspiration I mentioned above:

Love Maegan Rope Necklace DIY

 Style Scrapbook modeling a COS necklace

If I do something like this again I think it will be closer to this one, its so cool :)



~Be Inspired~

Same Idea Three Ways

The Glamourai posted about not having enough time to think of wildly fashionable outfits for every day and how with the same general idea you can look stlyish multiple ways. Here's a peek of her three White Tops, Black Skirts post:

Get the whole post, with the rest of her great outfits and their details here: www.theglamourai.com/

Much more chic then my go to (jeans and a cute tee)

~Be Inspired~

Mint and Sprinkles Nails!

I love painting my nails, even though they are usually short and my cuticles are crappy. This trend of painting one nail sparkly really grabbed my eye a couple months ago but I didn't have the glitter power until recently.

Inspiration:

via Pinterest

both via Cupcakes and Cashmere

Both via Love Maegan

 So here you have it, from my finger tips to your eye balls....

Joe Fresh Mint, Dollarama glitter glue, Lancome topcoat.

~Be Inspired~