Outfit of the day: a speck of sunshine on the first day of fall

Last week I was sunbathing and sweating my proverbial pants of and this week autumn has set in. And you can't not notice it! Because yesterday and today were true fall days with wind, thunder, cold, rain and everthing.

So I decided to wear an outfit which would instantly give me a summery feel, although the weather looked something like this

I have worn this outfit multiple times during the summer and I always got compliments about it, because of the vibrant colours. The skirt is one of my homemade circle skirt projects. I'm currently broadening my horizon in home sewing, because I want to do more than just circle skirts. Hopefully I'm able to join a sewing course starting at the end of this month, but I'm still on the waitinglist..... :-(

Two weeks ago I bought a little purse, which goes lovely with this outfit. I saw in a thriftshop and I knew it had to be mine! And now it is ;-)

Top: C&A

Skirt: homemade

Belt, bangles and bag: thriftshop

Shoes: Schoenenreus

Hairflowers: H&M and outletstore

New in: lots of brooches

Last saturday I went for some thrift shop shopping and it turned out to be a good day for finding brooches! In fact, it was the only thing I found ;-)

In two stores I found a total of 10 brooches and one hairclip (Funny thing: one of the thriftshops is run by the local church and I ended up paying 2 euros for 8 brooches. The other shop was more commercial and I paid 5 euros for 2 brooches..... But hey, it still is cheap for these lovelies that I found!)

I think it's a shame that today the art of wearing brooches is a bit lost to people. You almost never see them being worn nowadays, while it is such a simple way to adorn your outfit.  So much for my advocate for wearing brooches ;-)

Sneak peek: starting the poodle project

As I have said before, I wanted to make a poodle skirt, a classic piece of American fifties style. First I choose a piglet pink fabric for it. But after I had made the skirt I didn't want to adorn it with an application, because I liked the skirt better without. So my poodle plans went back to the freezer for a while.

But since last week I made a flamingo skirt, I thought back of my poodle plans and I started thinking what I wanted to do with them.

So far I came up with this:

I'm planning to make the skirt from a plain baby blue cotton/polyester bland with a black waistband and some details in the same colour blue gingham fabric. Maybe even a black band at the hem to complete the waist. The poodle will be made from black and blue felt, with some white for the eyes and nose.

I'll keep you posted about the progress of this skirt! I'll promise it will be quicker this time :-)

Outfit of the day: finished flamingo's

After seeing this blog by Sew Retro Rose I got inspired. She had got these lovely flamingo's on her cardigan and I fell completely in love with them. So I took some of her inspiration and tried to recreate these flamingo applications. I searched the web for flamingo images and a came across this one.

After some modification I transformed the image to this. I liked it better for the wing to be horizontal and I wanted it to have some sort of tail feathers.

I cut out the different pieces of the drawing and copied them on the felt. First I hand sewn all the pieces of felt together and after that I placed the finished flamingo on my newly made skirt. Because although they look wonderful on the cardigan in the original idea, I liked them better on a skirt.

I choose a mint green gingham fabric that I bought recently on the Noordermarkt for only 1 euro per metre! I made a full circle skirt with it, complete with a little pocket (the first I have ever made!).

So this is a close-up of the finished result. Both flamingo's are all hand sewn to the skirt.

Now I'm just hoping that I won't stain the skirt too easily, because I don't know what the felt will do in the laundry. Luckily I already survived a meal of greasy hamburgers without messing up my skirt :-).

So today I wore an complete outfit with the flamingo skirt and asked my Mum to make some pictures of me in their backyard. Finally some change in scenery for my photos ;-)

Skirt: homemade

Top: H&M

Shoes: Schoenenreus

Hairflowers: New Yorker and H&M

Outfit of the day: a striped shirt and a straw hat

Finally another outfit of the day post! Luckily today I didn't need to wear any work related parts of my outfit and I was quick enough to take some photos before I got the urge to wear my in-house clothes (a.k.a. sweat pants ;-).

So my outfit today was a dark red long pencil skirt, which I bought at a thriftshop and I adjusted in the waist (in a not so professional way, haha) with a striped multicolour blouse and a straw hat. This hat I bought a while ago (it actually is a hat for a doll, but who cares!) also in a thriftshop. It is such a shame not more people wear hats. I really like them, but still feel a little bit self conscious about wearing them. People tend to stare and comment a lot about it. Luckily mainly positive stares and remarks! So, my call to you, wear more hats please. 

And as you can see, I'm wearing something other than flip flops!!! Jeey, my feet finally fitted into some more dressed up shoes. Although I can't wear proper heels, this is still a step forward :-)

Skirt, sunglasses, bag and hat: thriftshop

Blouse: C&A

Belt and earrings: H&M

Sandals: van Haren

Ring: Noordermarkt

For those of you who noticed, yes, that is my new lip piercing. I really like it and I even think it looks quite natural at that place. What do you think?

New in: the shoes I can't wear (...yet)

Last week I bought a new pair of shoes. Nothing new in my world, because I have over a 120 pairs of shoes (or possible more, because I stopped counting a some point ;-). But these shoes I can't wear.... luckily only yet. Why did I bought them, would you think??

Well, two weeks ago I broke my little toe due to a unfortunate encounter with the metal leg of my bed, so I have been wearing flipflops and birckenstocks ever since (on doctors orders). In the beginning my entire foot was so swollen, that I couldn't wear any other shoes. Now, that luckily isn't the case anymore, but I still can't wear anything that resembles even a heel. Really annoying for a person who considers matching shoes a must with every outfit :) (ME!)

So, when this ordeal is all over (probably another 2-3 weeks, because I didn't follow the doctors advice completely and haven't taken enough rest) I will wear my heels again! Starting with these new beauties!!

I feel that these shoes will become my go-to shoes this autumn/winter, because of the sturdy heel, comfortable sole and the t-strap.

Shoes: Van Haren €24,90

Vintage sewing: fabric frenzies

Well instead of showing one of my finished garments here, I can only post a new blog about some new fabrics I bought over the last weeks. Simple because there are no finished things to show you! Sewing and summer weather don't go together. How much I want to, I always find other, mostly outside things, to do than sewing.

But for some reason I do find the time to buy more and more new fabrics :-) So here is a selection of the things that I have bought and my plans what to make with them.

 

These are some of my new fabrics. From top to bottom: 

• a thick woven yellow and purple tartan
• a thin cotton printed fabric with blue and purple flowers
• a dark blue and coral striped cotton
• a thick cotton fabric with printed leaves in all kinds of greens, browns and yellows

And the best is, the most expensive fabric was only 3 euros per metre!!

So, what am I planning to make with these fabrics. Well for the tartan I already have a purpose:

I want to make this dress, the wintertime jumper from Gertie's new book for betting sewing. I even have a complete outfit in my head to combine with this dress. I thought of a pale yellow sweater and grey heels or a grey sweater and purple heels. Lots to combine! Pictures will follow.

For the other fabrics I don't really have a set pattern in mind but I have been searching the web and came across to many gorgeous vintage patterns, that it will be very difficult to decide. First some close ups from the other fabrics.

I'm leaning towards this apron dress for the striped fabric, maybe a shirtwaist dress for the blue fabric with the flowers  and a dirndl skirt from the fabric with the leave print (it probably is to thick for any other pattern).

Other lovely patterns I came across:

 

So, hopefully the weather will become a bit colder (can't believe I'm saying this, haha) and I can go back to my sewing!