LITTLE BLUE SWING DRESS

OUTFIT DETAILS: merricksart for golden tote swing dress || tieks, c/o || similar bag (under $30! || urban outfitters sunglasses || michael kors watch || similar necklace

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANA LAURENE

As we head into spring around here (sorry all you people who will still be dealing with snow for the next four months) dresses become my go-to.  Swing dresses are one of my favorite dress styles to wear because they're so comfortable, and can easily be dressed up or dressed down. Throw a swing dress on with wedges and a statement necklace for date night (like I did here), or dress it down with a simple pair of leopard flats. I even styled one with a high pony, sandals, and my denim jacket tied around my waist that you can see here. The options are endless, and you look put-together no matter what!

And the best part is that they're super easy to make. Find the Perfect Summer Swing Dress sewing tutorial right here!

Happy Wednesday!

DIY LEOPARD FOLD OVER CLUTCH (TUTORIAL)

An oversized fold over clutch has been on my sewing to-do list for ages. They're such gorgeous statement bags, and perfect for date night and fancier events. The problem was that I didn't have a good fabric to use. I was always on the lookout, but could never find anything that I really loved. Then last month, in a stroke of good fabric buying luck, I found myself with three fabrics that I realized would all make amazing oversized clutches. The only problem was that with three choices, I was having an impossible time deciding which one to use for the clutch! 

So I pulled out my new Sprout by HP and used their drawing program to draw out a pretty little fashion illustration. Then I used the overhead camera capability to take a photo of all three potential fabrics, and then stuck them in the illustration to see which one I liked best. It was still a tough call, but finally I decided.

Based off of my drawing, which one would you have picked?

Of course I went with Leopard. It's classic, chic, can be dressed up or down, and well, leopard is just my favorite. I whipped up the clutch and then styled it for date night with a leather jacket, white denim, and a gray sweatshirt.

hand-me-down martin + osa leather jacket (similar splurge, similar save here and here) 

similar sweatshirt

dittos jeans, c/o

lulu*s caged heels, c/o, similar here

clutch, made by me (similar here and here)

baublebar earrings, similar here

sonix iphone case

After I made the clutch, I created this simple oversized fold over clutch, and then used my Sprout by HP to create my tutorial. It's not like my regular tutorials with basic illustrations -- I used the overhead camera to take images of the fronts and backs of the fabric I used, and then added those images into my tutorial so it's easier to differentiate the pattern pieces! 

Click through to see the tutorial!

ALL ME

Over the last year or so as I've been styling outfits consistently, I occasionally put together an outfit that is just so ME. This feels like one of those outfits. Although it's not my all time favorite outfit, I just feel like the pieces are each very indicative of my style -- chambray, a fun printed skirt, tights, and booties. The only thing missing is some pattern mixing, I think...

On a totally unrelated note, I just recently heard about a website called ShopAtHome. Have you heard of it? It's one of those "cash back when you shop" sites, but my favorite thing about it is that you just sign up for a free account and then when you're shopping online, if you go to a site that ShopAtHome works with (pretty much every website you can think of), a banner pops up at the top of your page and tells you to click to activate your cash back. AND if there is a coupon available, it tells you about that too and you can activate it with one click. It's that simple. The cash back sites I've worked with in the past require you to click to the shopping site through their website, which I pretty much never remembered to do until a split second after I'd submitted my order. Too late. 

Anyway, they're not paying me to say this, I just think it's a super awesome thing, cause getting free money back when you shop is the best, right? But even better, today only Target is having a special 8% cash back online (rather than the normal 2%), and a coupon for $10 off the two Target items I'm wearing! Just click my links below for the "chambray" and "skirt" to activate the coupons (it will probably make you register before the coupons are available, but it's free and just takes a second and then you'll automatically get pop ups about cash back and coupons when you're online shopping in the future!) 

Free money, automatically done for me, and Target. Pretty much my three favorite things ever. 

________________________

chambray: target

skirt: target

tights: c/o we love colors

boots: c/o sole society

bag: c/o oasap

necklace: c/o mindy mae's market