Rebel

pants: gap (shop), velvet blazer: anthropologie (altered), tie front blouse: jcpenney, wedges: forever young shoes, belt: Philip's

photos courtesy of molly hunter photography

One of those things that I'm always reminding myself in fashion is that there are no rules. In previous generations there seemed to be all sorts of weird rules that somebody made up -- red heads can't wear red, don't wear white after labor day, your shoes should always match your belt and purse, horizontal stripes make you look heavier, black and blue can't go together, etc. 

Well, in this generation, all the rules are being broken. Anything goes. Mothers and grandmothers might be having heart palpitations while their children walk around wearing anything they please, but that's what fashion today is all about. Breaking the rules, exploring new territory, and pushing the boundaries. 

This outfit is breaking all sorts of "rules," and I think that's why I love it so much. I've got to be a teeny tiny rebel sometimes.

Open To Interpretation

 

 black t-shirt: urban outfitters, striped t-shirt: target, cable knit scarf: hand me down (refashioned into an infinity scarf), orange cords: anthropologie, brown mary janes: target

For me, the worst part about the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the waiting game. I may be twenty four, but I'm still eight years old when it comes to Christmas. It's particularly bad when you're not spending Christmas with your parents, so your mom ships stuff directly to your house and you're forced to wrap your own gifts. Self control is not my strongest attribute, so wrapping a shoe box with a pair of new shoes for you inside is pure torture. I promise, I did not peek...but I was tempted.

Luckily, my mom helped tide me over by buying me these amazing orange cords as an early Christmas gift. She also picked them out. I'm much too chicken to buy a pair of orange pants -- but what do you know? I love them. She's pretty much the reason I have anything interesting in my closet.  You're the best, Mom.

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I'm linking up with Kayla today for Open For Interpretation.

We used this outfit as inspiration. Perfect for my orange pants' debut....but now I'm pretty sure I need some red pants.  Head on over to her blog to see her interpretation of this outfit, as well as a bunch of other bloggers outfits!

Thievery

Jeans: Abercrombie (altered to skinnies), boots: target, belt: husband's, top: old navy, cardigan: cozy, scarf: made by my mom (I think)

When I participated in Kayla's 21 Day Challenge a few months ago, I really struggled with her "Menswear" challenge. I didn't feel like any of my clothes were particularly masculine, except for maybe that old blazer that I bought a few years ago? Much too long after that challenge, I realized how dumb I had been...half of my closet is menswear.

I'm not about to wear my husband's khaki slacks or anything, but stealing his belt seemed like a great idea yesterday. Time to look a little closer in there and see what else I can swipe.

Stretchy Pants

cardigan: cozy fashion, polka dot top: old navy, blue jeggings: gap, leopard flats: plato's closet (steve madden)

A few months ago I won a giveaway from RA for a free pair of gap jeans. It took me a long time to get to the mall, since I was waiting for a trip when I could actually spend some time sifting through the jeans and trying things on, but finally the time came and I entered the dressing room with high hopes and a huge pile of pants.

As soon as I pulled these slate blue jeggings on, I knew they had to be mine. Maybe it was because I loved the gorgeous color. Or maybe it was because I liked they way they make my legs look. Or maybe because they add a little variety to the pants section of my closet. But probably it's because I can wear them on Thanksgiving day and eat my weight in turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and they just stretttttch and strettttch with every pound gained. Jeggings, welcome to my life. Let's be best friends.

Dolman Sleeve Top (Tutorial)

Over the past few months, I've seen slouchy tops popping up everywhere. Most of the tops in my closet are slim fitting, so to add a little variety to the mix I took a shot at making this blue slouchy dolman sleeved shirt.

I loved how it turned out, so I made another.

And because I like you guys so much, I made a tutorial to go along with it.

What you'll need:

• 1 1/2 yards of knit/stretchy fabric (slightly more or less depending on your size)
• thread in a coordinating color 
 

Step 1. With a measuring tape, measure the length from elbow to elbow, with the measuring tape going behind your head across your neck. Next, measure the distance around your hips and divide that number in half. Lastly, measure the length from the top of your shoulder to your waistband (wherever you want the hem of your top to hit -- I made mine a little long so it would bunch at the bottom).  Now add one inch to each of those measurements for your seam allowance. (My measurements were 34" x 18" x 29"). 

Step 2. Cut two identical rectangles using your top (34") and side (29") measurements. Then center your bottom width (18") along the hemline and cut at an angle (dotted lines) toward the top. Stop about 6-7 inches from the top to leave plenty of room for the arm holes.

Once they're cut, they should look like this:

Step 3. Now it's time to cut the neckline. Fold your fabric in half, and cut out a scoop (see photo below). I wanted a boatneck, so my cut was 4 1/2" across and  2 1/2" down. You can adjust to your liking. Just keep your seam allowance in mind -- your neckline will be roughly 1/4" bigger than what you cut.

Next, with right sides together, sew up your shoulder seams. (You can choose to do this straight across or at an angle (as shown below with a dotted line). I chose to do an angled seam only so there would be less fabric under my arms when the shirt was complete. It's up to you.) Trim the extra seam allowance fabric and zigzag the raw edge.*

* I've heard many people say they have no desire to sew because they don't have a serger, and feel like their clothes will look "homemade" without one. Yes, a serger will do wonders for your sewing and will make all your edges look professional, but I do not own a serger (and probably won't for many years), and I feel like my handmade clothes can still look professional. For all my regular seams, I do a straight stitch, trim the extra seam allowance fabric, and then zigzag the edges. The look is similar to a serger, and just as effective. Try it.

Step 4. Now it's time to tackle the neckline. This gets a little lengthy, but is pretty straight forward.  Along a folded edge, cut a rectangle that is wide enough to cover your neck hole. (Mine was roughly 11"x 4").

Line up the rectangle and the top of your shirt, and cut an identical neck hole along the folded edge, as seen below:

Now, with right sides together, pin the rectangle to your top, matching up the neck holes. Sew a straight seam (with a 1/4" s.a.)  around the entire hole:

Turn the shirt right side out and press. Then re-pin the neckline and do another 1/4" straight seam around the entire neckline to hold the lining rectangle in place. Use a slightly longer stitch for this seam, as a shorter stitch will create bunching.

Trim the extra fabric and re-press. Now your top should look like this:

Step 5. Now it's time for the side seams. (I ended up re-sewing these three or four times until they were exactly to my liking. This orange fabric is a fairly heavy knit, so it didn't hang as nicely as the blue knit I used for my original dolman shirt. Depending on your fabric, you might have to do some adjusting too. Try it on after each adjustment until you're happy with it). With right sides together, sew a straight stitch seam from the arm hole to the hemline. Or if you want it more fitted around the middle (like mine), angle your seam for the top half of your seam, then straighten out for the bottom half (as seen below).

Trim your extra seam allowance fabric and zigzag the raw edge. Turn right side out and press.

Step 6. Time for the armbands. Measure the distance around your upper arm where the armband will sit. Then decide how thick you want the armbands (mine were about 3"). Add an inch to each measurement for your seam allowance. On the fabric fold, cut two rectangles with the dimensions you just measured. Mine was 10"x4". 

With right sides together, sew a straight seam along the short side, then trim the excess fabric and zigzag the edges. Turn right side out and press. Your band should look like this: 

With right sides together, slip your armband inside of your arm hole, with all the raw edges facing out. Pin together, sew a 1/4" straight seam, trim the edges, and zigzag. (I left my arm hole slightly (about one inch) bigger than my arm band, and sewed over a few tucks while doing this seam. This creates a little volume in the sleeve. I did not do this on the blue top -- you can tell the difference in the two photos at the top of this post).

Turn your top right side out and press. It should now look like this:

Step 7. Try your top on and pin the hemline to your desired length. Hem using a slightly longer stitch than normal to avoid bunching. Press. 

Voila! Your new favorite top! 

If you have any questions regarding this tutorial, please email me. And if you make this top, email me a photo -- I'd love to see! Happy sewing!

Wild Child

[white tee: target, sequin infinity scarf: charlotte russe, jeans: abercrombie (altered to skinnies by me -- tutorial here), nude heels: kohls, nail polish: hard as nails "gray area"]

Let's first get one thing straight. My nails are not black, they are gray. Black is goth. Gray is awesome. In high school I somehow got targeted as "the wild child" by the ladies who worked at my dad's dental office, and although I have no idea what elicited this stereotype, I always thought it was pretty hilarious. Cause if you really know me, you know I follow the rules and am a pretty good kind of girl.

Well then last Christmas, my mother in law took me shopping, and as part of a special when a certain amount of money was purchased at Charlotte Russe, you got a free scarf. They asked me what color I wanted, but they were hanging about ten feet away all bunched together and it was really hard to tell what they looked like. I picked gray, they grabbed one from under the counter and threw it in the bag, and we were on our merry way. Then when we got home, my sweet mother in law pulled the scarf out of the bag and was appalled that we'd accidentally gotten a sequined tube top. After a little discussion between everyone, we decided it was definitely a scarf. Just an infinity scarf (which none of us had even heard of at that time). I guess the wild child within was just showing its ugly head again. I make no promises for New Years Eve, but to stay conservative today, I wore it as a scarf. You're welcome.

A Skinny Jean Is Born: Tutorial

A few people have asked me about my alterations from bootcut to skinny jeans. I have done this with several of my pants and love them a million billion times better post-alteration. You will too. This is not only limited to bootcut...if you have some full on 70's flares, you can also use this tutorial to save them.
Step 1: try on your pants and with a pin or a piece of fabric chalk, mark on one leg where you want to start tapering (around the knee, usually), and another mark to show how skinny you want to go at the ankle. [having a cute assistant is optional]:

Step 2: with your starting and stopping points marked, carefully (if you're using pins) remove the pants and turn the pants inside out, moving your pins to the inside. Don't worry if your markings move a centimeter or two...these are rough measurements and can be adjusted as we move on.


Step 3: Then with your pants turned inside out, sew from the knee pin to the ankle pin at a nice even angle. Start sewing just barely off of the pants and gradually angle onto the pants. This will make a nice taper with no weird tucks or gathers at the knee. [as you can see, my pants are not turned inside out here, but make sure yours are! Also, make sure you do this seam on the inside of the leg. The outside will be much more noticeable!]:

Step 4: try the pants back on with one leg "skinnied" and one leg not. If you are happy with how the skinny leg looks, move on. If not, resew your seam and then try them on again. Once you're happy with your skinny leg, cut out the extra fabric and secure your cut edge with a zigzag stitch or a serged seam.

Step 5: fold your pants in half and measure the skinny leg against the bootcut leg. Mark where you started and stopped and then do an identical seam on the other leg. Try your pants on and make sure you're happy with both sides. If you are, cut out the extra fabric on the second leg and secure the raw edge.

And Voila! Skinny Jeans!
A quick note: These jeans were a little bit long, so I considered hemming them, but then once they were done I decided I liked the bunching at the ankle. Plus, I figured I'd be cuffing them occasionally so I wanted to keep the nice professional hem at the bottom that would show when cuffed.

Any questions???

An Art Lesson

[yellow top: swapped, magenta dress: target (maternity), sandals: target, belt: cozy, watch: dkny, earrings: handmade gift from a friend]

In art color theory classes, you learn about the color wheel. How red, yellow and blue are the primary colors, and how when you pair those colors together (like red + yellow) you get the secondary colors green, purple, and orange. And then the complimentary colors are the ones across from each other on the color wheel, like orange and blue, or red and green.

And then you have my outfit: yellow and magenta. And I guess you could kind of say it works because digital media uses magenta, yellow, and cyan as their primary colors, which they call the subtractive primaries, but really who knows about that stuff? And who cares about studying all this anyway? It all gets complicated and the colors start blending together and your eyes begin to cross from staring at too many colors and....let's just pretend that yellow and magenta were meant to be together. OK?

And you thought your college major was hard.






By the way, Peanut has discovered how to use the camera remote. I have about fifty pictures pretty much identical to this one. I guess he wants to participate in the 21 day challenge too...

[jammies: target]

Pattern On Pattern

[floral shirt: from the Netherlands (gift from mom), pinstriped skirt: downeast basics outlet (altered to my size (formerly about 10 sizes too big)), sandals: target, earrings: stolen from my little sister (oops!), watch: dkny]

Let me just put it out there right now that I am NOT a fashionista. In fact, I sort of loathe that word and all that is associated with it. It sounds pretentious and kind of kitschy and reminds me of a person that wears way too many accessories and thinks it's awesome. What I should say is, I don't really know anything about fashion. Because last time I checked, mixing patterns was a no-no. Aren't there a million stories about wives telling their husbands to go and change because, "striped shirts and plaid shorts do not match!"

Then all the sudden mixing patterns was the cool thing. The runways and pinterest are suddenly exploding with pattern mixing. Seriously, fashion is so hard to figure out. Pretty soon we'll all be wearing sandals with socks and think it's the best thing ever. Whatever...I'll jump on the bandwagon.

p.s. A few of you asked about my bootcut to skinny jeans alteration...I happen to have a pair in my closet that are waiting to be altered, so I think it's time for a tutorial. Stay tuned!

Short and Sweet

As much as I love summer skirts and plan on wearing them often this summer, I think that as a mom of an extremely quick one year old, shorts will be a safer (read: more modest) option much of the time. So I'm currently on the hunt for some cute summer shorts. The challenge is finding ones that are long enough. Most that I've seen cover about three inches of skin total...

I've found several darling ones, in varying price ranges, but am still searching for that perfect pair. I think it might be time to go try some on. Any great ideas?

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