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!~

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~

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~

Girl at the Rock Show

Hey all!
I went to a Blink 182 concert this summer with my awesome sister Caitie :D They have been one of my favourite bands for a veeeery long time so it was really awesome to finally see them live. They put on a amazing show and it only rained a teeny tiny bit :P

Here is what I wore!

Top: Handmade by me from an old pattern of my mother's. I really love this top, its sheer in the back so I feel super sexy wearing it :) and the shiny rain pattern of the fabric makes me happy.

Shorts: vintage, altered 

Shoes: My sister's :)

This be my fighting face, yah know in case I get caught up in a mosh pit somewhere :P

So all in all great night, one of my favourite summer night out outfits :D

~Be Inspired~

Envelope Clutch

I finally did it! I made the Swellymayde DIY envelope clutch that I posted about here.

I decided to line it! Let me tell you, more effort than it was worth I think, but looks nice :)

You can see both me and my dog are super photogenic at times... NAWT

Mine is made from less stiff vinyl than the inspiration but I quite like floppy the look I get from it.
Still want to add a button, I'll get right on that :P

Here's to finally getting to projects on my "future projects" list! Hip Hip..... Hoorraayyy

~Be Inspired~

Night at the Theatre

My lovely father took me and my sister to a play downtown the other day. We saw "Calender Girls" and it was really fun but I have to admit, the movie was quite a bit better. Its hard to make movies into plays, I found that so much depth is lost. There are less characters, only one setting and the lines sound so contrived because of the actors' need to project.If it had been a musical I would be singing a different tune (ha ha).

Regardless it was an enjoyable evening and my outfit was cute!

Dress: H&M (on sale! woot! Strangely tight over the bossom area) 

Jacket: I handmade it from an old pattern of my mom's

Shoes: My sister's slightly salt stained but still cute

Bag: Roots via Cost-co

Belt, bangles and necklace: vintage/old enough that I don't know where they came from

My mom and stepmom said I look like Peter Pan in this dress, which I don't get because he wears green tights. Oh well, I like it :)

~Be Inspired~

Cut Out Shirt

Hi everyone... Remember me? I used to hang out here all the time!! but lately I've been hard to find.

I went to Toronto for couple days and had my first exam earlier today so its been a little busy around here. Guess what I have for you today?! A cool DIY from LoveMeagan that I tried out.

Here is her's: 

And Here is Mine!:

It was pretty easy, and I decided not to cut out the shoulder so all around I am very happy with it.

Only one problem: The edges were left unfinished and started to pull a little even though it is jersey. So I spent some time over the weekend hand sewing a tiny little hem around all of the holes, tiny because I didn't really leave a seam allowance for it. 

I am a little disappointed in how it turned out after the alteration in the end because the geometric look of the corners is lost and the bars are too thin. Also I don't have more new pictures for you because I am having a terribly unphotogenic day, so you get another cute one from before.

If I were to do it again I would:

- Make the bars between the holes wider to allow for a hem, 

- Practice my hand stitching and use some more patience,  

- Perhaps use some fusible reinforcer.

- Figure out a way to use bias tape that might preserve the crisp edges.

~Be Inspired~

Feeling Accomplished

I am on the communications team for my local AIESEC chapter. AIESEC is awesome and if you are a university student you should definitely check it out at your school (we are in 110 countries so I'm guessing you have one), its all about leadership and global internships and travel and awesome good times.

ANYways, I Stumbled 70 GIMP Tutorials and thought I would see whether I could figure something out for our display board.

I used this one: Light Effects
and made this!:

I know its a little in your face but I am so proud of myself, the tutorial was for one letter but I went ahead and did six! and I added the stars all by myself!

Ok I'm done bragging. Time to do some homework.

~Be Inspired~

New Necklace!

I think its very pretty, and it goes with everything!
AND guess what?
I made it!

I'm sure you probably aren't that surprised, though I would like to think it doesn't scream hand made.

I was inspired by the Lanvin necklace DIY over at ...Love Meagan, but went with a darker colour scheme. also the layout of the original didn't turn out so well for mine, probably because my chain was too short.

Original Lanvin necklace in the teal

Unflattering picture of the ugly first try... I didn't have enough dangly bits it seems

So yeah it ended up looking nothing like the original idea but I am happy with the result. Maybe if I get some softer fabric I will try again with the big petals.

~Be Inspired~

ps. there is a glitch with my system that is causing a big gap up there... no idea how to fix it. Sorry!

Dress Refashion

Hi all,
There has been a bit of a  lag in posting mainly because school has gotten a little more demanding lately and I was away over the weekend.
I wanted to show you a refashion of a dress I have had for quite some time but never wore much because its a little too big for me and hangs down pretty low in the front.
I didn't plan on blogging this so the only pictures I have are from events that I wore it, I hope my friends are ok with their pictures being up here! (I did get them off facebook so its not like they are private anyways :P)

Here is the only one I have of before:

Thats me and by best friend from highschool Tzvia in Cuba. I wore the dress as a beach cover up because it was so over-sized.

You maybe be wondering why I bought it so big? I dont really know, it was on sale and I thought I could fix it at home but It never really got better.

UNTIL NOW! 

TADA! I added a pretty ruffle around the neck and wore a black slip (that appears to be fraying a lot)

I think It looks really nice, kinda reminds me of Julianne Moore on the InStlye cover

 I flatter myself ;)

Thats all folks!!

~Be Inspired~

ps. Isnt that the cutest picture of me and the boyfriend? We kinda match :D