Pink Panther?

...or should that be Pink Cougar, haha... not that I agree with that term but unfortunately I'm heading (read: hurtling at breakneck speed) into that age bracket! I haven't worn this dress for a little while as it really has to be cold for it to be comfortable but I thought it was a little while since I'd put up anything colourful so here you go, and Melbourne had its coldest night in two years a few nights ago so I suppose it's appropriate now.
I made it out of a great big fringed scarf/poncho-type thing that cost $5 at an op shop, of course I did not take any before photos because at the time that I made it (last year or so) I hadn't even considered doing a blog. So anyway I loved the colour but thought the original garment would make me look like a "woman of a certain age" (you know, the sort with "tuckshop arms") out for a night at the opera or something, so made it into this dress instead. Usually I wear it with a belt like the studded one in this post, for instance.
I cut the fringing off at each end of the scarf, folded the material and turned it into a neck warmer type thing but foolishly didn't put a zip or anything in it at the back so I have to wreck my (perfect, of course) hair every time I want to take it on or off, resulting in me never having worn it in public. I might have to rework it for it to be wearable.
The purple tights were a few dollars from an op shop (they were new! I got pink ones from the same place) and the gold and silver wedges were an amazing $3, of course also from an op shop as were the massive gold earrings which you probably can't really see but I could basically wear as earmuffs.

Tag time

So I've finally got down to the task of tagging some bloggers who have been kind enough to make the trip to Style Wilderness.

*Caz at Bird With the Golden Seed because I think she has a literary bent (see ulterior motive below)

*Imperfectly Me at Crepe Expectations because her posts make me laugh (although some posts make me wonder if she has enough time for an extra project such as this!)

*Maggie at Lifesize Paperdoll because she has the sort of positive attitude that I am seriously lacking and she takes lovely photos with her new camera

*Claire at Jemima & Geraldine because we both have a crazy obsession with op shopping

*Charlotte at Style Rail because she likes making affordable fashion look fantastic!

But I also have an ulterior motive in asking these questions, namely, I'm going to a literary speed dating session in a few weeks and I have no idea 1. what one wears to this sort of event (a dust jacket? haha) and 2. which book I should take. I'm meant to take my favourite book, but I don't really have one, so I'm thinking perhaps as a joke (suggested by my friend) I should take The Story of Miss Moppet because it totally reminds me of my own little Miss Moppet, although to my knowledge she has never even caught a mouse, let alone tied it up in a duster and played with it like a ball (in these photos she's watching a moth, because she likes to catch the bogong moths which come out after rain... she brags all night about her kill, which she generously leaves strewn about on the front porch. Such a brave hunter!)

Anyway, back to the topic, lovely ladies ... if you have the time and energy, please answer any 8 of the questions below. I answered some questions from Clare in a recent post which I've put in blue (if you want to see my incredibly insightful answers, please go back to the post) and added four of my own in pink.

1. If you had to spend 3 consecutive days on the same train, who would you want with you and why?

2. Have you ever had a sewing-related injury? Give gory details! If not, any irrational fears?

3. What wouldn't you be caught dead in?

4. What garment/accessory do you wear the most?

5. Which pattern/vintage style have you been thinking about lately?

6. What is one place you really want to visit that you haven't been to before?

7. How do you relax?

8. What is your favourite holiday?

9. What do you wear when you want to impress?

10. Who is your favourite literary character and why?

11. Which hand-made project are you most proud of (could be sewing, cooking, craft... anything you've made)

12. What was the best date you've ever been on?

Rainy day road trip

You know how Melbourne has been in a drought for, oh, 13 years or something? And how you could be like 99% sure that it would not rain whenever you planned a day full of outdoor activities? Well it seems like those days are over... I planned a day out with my friend at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Cranbourne and the McLelland Sculpture Park, but it rained ALL DAY so we had to go to the Mornington Antique Centre instead. Yes, I know, so tough. We had to look at reasonably priced, amazing retro stuff* for nearly THREE HOURS and then we had to have bacon and eggs in the cafe and then on the way home we were forced to look at multiple rainbows and go for a walk along one of the trails near the gardens and see wallabies. Yeah, thinking about it now I have no idea how we got through it. How was your weekend? I hope you didn't have to go through such torture too!

*Despite the great prices I did not buy anything .. I think it was because I was too overwhelmed. We're planning to go back .. maybe with a van and a trailer?? By the way, the reason I decided to go was that someone told me the place is closing down soon. I asked at the centre and yes, it is true, they are going to demolish the site and build a horrible supermarket there some time after September. But the good news is, they are not just closing never to be seen again, apparently they are moving somewhere close by. Do you want an insider tip though? I'd go there within the next few months - I think a lot of the stallholders will have sales and try to shift as much amazingness as possible so that they don't have to move so much stock to the new premises. But if you go, can you do me a favour and not buy this Chinese oil painting, because I am thinking I should buy it the next time I go... thanks!

Batik is back

Another quickie today - I am trying to think of some questions to tag other bloggers with as per my most recent post but my brain is on a break (it is the weekend tomorrow after all) so here's an outfit post instead...
I got this batik t-shirt for $2 at an op shop and was struggling to think of how to update it when I stumbled on the simple act of rolling up my sleeves (if only I'd do the second part of that action and actually do some work!). It has black sleeve openings on the inside so turned back over onto the shoulder they sort of look like a shoulderline decoration. Now rather than a souvenir from a 70s trip to south-east Asia it reminds me of a surf-inspired Proenza Schouler design, but that's probably just me...
Happy weekend everyone!

Questions from Clare

Clare and her cat must have thought it was time for me to stop hanging out in mini skirts in front of my shed, because they've set me this challenge... I must say it's very flattering to have people from the other side of the world wanting to know my opinion about all these things, but then I've become addicted to reading other people's blogs too so I know how much fun it is finding out about the little things in our daily lives. And Clare I will get around to doing the tagging part of this challenge... once I think of who I should ask, although there seem to be no end of lovely ladies out there who wouldn't mind doing this! Is it just me or is blogging a lot more personal and interesting than Facebook?? Personally it also seems like a more safe, supportive, female domain, one I've missed now that my work environment is no longer practically exclusively female as it was when I worked at a fashion magazine in Tokyo.

Anyway, I digress. Here are my answers to Clare's 8 questions.

1. If you had to spend 3 consecutive days on the same train, who would you want with you and why?
I hate to say it but at the moment there are very few humans who I'd want to spend that amount of time with (or who'd want to spend that amount of time with me). I'm going to take the easy way out and say my cat Suki (AKA Superchunk) because she's always happy to be with me and I'm always happy to see her, and I don't have to try too hard to make interesting conversation with her. Notice I say I'd be happy to see her. I have not been happy to hear her four times every night lately wanting to come in/go out/come in/go out/eat more/eat different food from what is still left on her plate/wanting me to stand there and pat her while she eats..... hmm, maybe a human would be easier after all... although how many humans do you know who look this cute when they're washing their butt??

2. Have you ever had a sewing-related injury? Give gory details! If not, any irrational fears?!
Constantly, because I often end up sticking pins in myself when trying stuff that I'm making on. Irrational fears - none with regards to sewing, but I am very scared of chickens. If I had a choice between having to be in a room full of huntsman spiders or a room full of chickens, I'd choose the spiders every time. Eww, chickens....

3. What wouldn't you be caught dead in? The list is long... fluorescent colours, real animal fur (although I might make an exception for second hand stuff as that would mean the animal was not killed for my benefit... questionable thought process regarding morals??), Pandora bracelets, velour tracksuits, Goth/Emo outfits, 3/4 length beige pants, stiletto heel boots that are really tight all the way up the calf... I'll stop here before I make myself sick!!

4. What garment/accessory do you wear the most? Garment - unfortunately at the moment it's jeans because my workplace is pretty casual and there's no need (or desire on my part) to dress up, but I did a post recently on a jacket I wear all the time and as you may have noticed, I wear a lot of ethnic style jewellery. Not really sure why, but proper jewellery like diamonds etc don't appeal as much. I prefer to look exotic rather than rich, maybe?

5. Which pattern/vintage style have you been thinking about lately? This relates back to my signature jacket post... it's not a vintage style, it was drafted for me by my ex, but I've been thinking about it a lot lately because I can't work out how to finish off a purple jacket that I'm making using that pattern. It's got leather fringing in the back shoulder seams and so the front is relatively plain but I want to be able to wear it closed ... but can't seem to work out what would look best. Double breasted? Single breasted? Self-covered buttons? How big? Leather covered buttons? Hook and eye combo?? Nothing seems right but stay tuned, I'm sick of my own dilly dallying so am going to make a snap decision .. maybe.

6. What is one place you really want to visit that you haven't been to before? The colours and fabrics of South America definitely have appeal for me. All that embroidery in Guatemala, for instance... I vaguely started looking into a textile tour of the region but it cost $10,000 so that did not happen. I love to go to places where the locals really wear the traditional costume, and not just for dressing up.

7. How do you relax? Relax? What's that? I suppose most people would say they'd have a drink with friends or something but as I don't drink, that doesn't apply. I do get quite antsy if I don't exercise, so I need to do a long run or a long swim every second day or so. My guilty relaxing pleasure is finishing off a sewing/craft project in front of the TV while eating ice cream or something fattening like cheese on toast, but that happens very rarely indeed.

8. What is your favourite holiday? I'd have to say so far Turkey has been my favourite holiday destination - twice. How can you go past sun, sea, shopping, historical highlights and hot air ballooning with a group of lovely friends?!

Message to Melburnians

Just a quick one today to let you know that if you live in Melbourne you can experience the unparalleled thrill of listening to me rabbit on about my creations, life, and other schtuff tomorrow night from 6:30pm at the Social Studio, 128 Smith St Collingwood. http://www.thesocialstudio.org/ (go to "talks" and scroll down to see moi doing some shameless self-promotion) When it comes to talking in public I'm not exactly overly confident so today's project will be hunting through my treasure trove for lovely things for the audience to ooh and aah over.

Bigger and brighter

The other night I was hunting around for something to wear to dinner with friends (cupboard full of stuff, something like 70 pairs of shoes, an even higher number of earrings, so no idea why I can never find anything) and decided to go for a $1 pair of ex-army pants and a $1 beige knit top with $7 brown heels and $2 bronze earrings. I was running late as usual plus my camera is crap at taking night photos, so I don't have evidence to the contrary, but I like to think I had a sort of minimalist chic look going on. Arriving at friend no. 1's apartment, though, I was told I looked like an OL (Japanese for "office lady" = a nice way to say 'boring and conservative but neat and tidy') and asked if I was going for a job interview or something (hardly likely at 6pm on a Saturday). Then later at friend no. 2's place several people told me they'd never seen me look less ethnic, which I took to mean "OH MY GOD HAS AN ALIEN SHAPESHIFTER INVADED YOUR BODY?" as I obviously did not look myself. So if I am to master this minimal look which is apparently sweeping the fashion world it looks like I still have a way to go. In the mean time, though, normal broadcasting has resumed... in keeping with my usual purchasing patterns, this skirt was second-hand (sometimes I call it 'vintage' when I want to sound posh) but in a shock departure from my habitual tight-fistedness, this cost SEVENTY DOLLARS (or thereabouts... not sure as I bought it years ago in Tokyo, and who knows what the yen-AUD rate was then). This rare burst of extravagance was brought on by the veritable riot of colour, pattern and decorative studs on what was once a long skirt - I don't really do 'long' so I cut it to make it a knee length skirt, and then because I can't leave anything alone for five minutes I had to fiddle with it some more so that I could wear it as a mini-dress. I used the cut-off part from the hem to make an insert and some straps, which, with the help of some press studs, attach to the inside of the waist band. Not the most professional of jobs and I have to be careful not to breathe in and out too much because otherwise the straps just pop off... but meh, inhaling, exhaling, I can wear other stuff to do that sort of thing.

As for the accessories, I've just realised you can't really see the jewelled cuffs that I bought for $5 each somewhere in New York to go specifically with this dress, but just imagine bronzey coloured cuffs with colourful plastic gems stuck on them and you'll get the picture (classy description, no?). The yellow necklace was a birthday present from the abovementioned incredulous friends, and the gold one is actually a big brooch that I've clipped on to a gold chain, I think each piece was a few dollars at Japanese flea markets. The earrings... can I brag a bit? They were a dollar or something at a Tokyo flea market but Anna Dello Russo has complimented them - even though I was sitting in a room surrounded by fashion editors wearing Prada, Gucci, and all that jazz. Don't you love it when that happens!?

The bag, as you can see, was made from the leftover bit of hem from the skirt, sewn on to a remnant of orange obi fabric. Then I painstakingly pinned strands of chunky wool between the layers of material so that it looks like lots of dreadlocks hanging off the bag. People either love or hate this one, I personally have a bit of a thing for dreadlocks so I love it, but most guys don't seem to get it. Kelly seems to like it, but knowing what other things she likes to sniff, that's not necessarily a good thing.

To a tea

Last Sunday I had a day off work, and we all know what happens when I have a Sunday off... although this time I kept it a bit more local and went to the Wantirna Trash and Treasure for the first time in about 10 years. It was inspired by someone else's post .. nothing like a bit of bargain hunting envy! I'm wearing my new finds here - a $3 lacy dress which I think came from someone's dress up box, or perhaps rubbish bin judging by the state of it (can you see all the rust marks and stains?), black suede ballet shoes from Country Road for $1 (didn't realise they have holes in the back until I got them home... nothing a bit of clever patching won't fix), and a gold ring for $5 which I did want to buy anyway but was sort of forced into as I couldn't get it off after trying it on... (the seller looked delighted and suggested I try on all his other rings, but I declined as despite any rumours to the contrary, I am not made of money!). I also bought a Max Mara woollen jumper for only $5 and a long-sleeve tshirt but that's just for wearing under stuff, nothing really exciting and certainly not worthy of a glamour shot in my garage. I wouldn't usually wear something like this lace dress so I'm thinking it was the challenge of the repair job ahead of me that sparked this purchase, especially as it was so expensive ($3 is a lot when you consider this was probably just going to be thrown out unless someone as foolish as myself came along). I don't think I'll be able to get the rust and other stains out, so I'm thinking I'll dye it, but of course now I can't decide on the colour... I was considering using tea bags, as the rust is sort of a tea colour anyway and it looks like an old-fashioned tea dress too, don't you think? And it would be eco-friendly because I drink a lot of tea anyway so it's not like I'd have to go and buy dye. But colourwise, I'm not sure that tea-brown is my thing, so I thought what about a dark grey or indigo or black? What do you think? Has anyone dyed with tea before? This is why any project of mine takes so long... endless decisions! And I haven't even got to thinking about whether I'll keep the buttons or swap them for something else ... or what to do with the slightly prim and proper neckline.... of course if I had made all those decisions and got myself organised this dress would have been ready to wear to yum cha this morning (which, being a tea dress and all that would have been most appropriate), but let's just say I was lucky to even make it out of pyjamas today!

Kate Bush eat your heart out!

Recently it was brought to my attention that my wardrobe is full of blue things and that I should wear more red to harness my creativity (which otherwise tends to just run amok, and creativity just running around willy nilly in your backyard is apparently the last thing anyone needs). As you will have seen in recent posts, I actually do wear a fair bit of red when it comes to accessories, and I certainly don't shy away from colour in my outfits, but I don't own much in the way of red garments. I think it's because unless it's the perfect shade, it tends to clash with my complexion, which is often also quite red... so much so that when my cousin saw pictures of my year 11 formal (which was, after all, an extremely recent event, and didn't take place nearly 20 years ago in the 90s or anything like that*), she said I shouldn't have worn so much blush. I was not wearing ANY and have never even TOUCHED the stuff ... I have at times even resorted to wearing foundation to TONE DOWN my overly zealous healthy glow. Anyway what I was getting around to saying is that for whatever reason, I don't often wear red clothes, but when I stumbled on this dress at the Salvos last year it made me smile straight away... it's colourful AND ethnic (for want of a better word) AND secondhand AND cheap ($7 I think?) so it fitted all my retail requirements. Only problem was it was very long and shapeless and the way it had been constructed presented quite a challenge (you'll just have to believe me because I don't have any "before" shots of this one). It had long baggy sleeves with embroidered cuffs which unfortunately had to be sacrificed to give it a cleaner line, the high waistline and thick embroidery made me look pregnant, and the calf-length skirt and wonky zip at the back were not exactly flattering either, so the hem got chopped, the zip got replaced, and I took it in a bit around the waist. I'm guessing that it was hand made for/by a girl of Afghani or perhaps Pakistani origin, judging by the style and the embroidery (which I think is machine-made)? My theory is that after she came to Australia she wanted to wear more local sort of stuff and threw out her old wardrobe. I got this at the same place as I bought the Indian top.
I wore this to book club last night but no one else showed up so I'm having to show it off here instead, along with earrings which are also from the Salvos and purple boots from a sample sale in Tokyo years ago!


*gahhhhH!!! how is it nearly TWO DECADES since I was at high school?! Before you know it I'm going to start doing old lady things like crochet, for goodness' sake....

Bird-brained

I'm sure you're all getting sick of photos of me swanning around in the backyard, so for a change here's a little mystery item that I dug out to photograph when I was cleaning out the garage today ... I found it at the Salvos for $1.50 but am not exactly sure what it is. It's made in Japan and consists of a saucer and a dome-shaped cover with a little hole in it, and the cover is in the shape of a bird. It must be for covering food or something, but is it for something specific or just any random leftovers? It would have to be a child's set because of the cute design, so maybe for keeping a child's meal warm or something? It looks like it could be from the 60s or around then anyway. If anyone has any ideas on the matter let me know, there's no way I'm ever having children so I just bought it because it was cute. Maybe I could use it to cover Suki's food?

Signature style

Recently I accepted a writing brief about signature pieces which made me think a little, as I didn't think that I had a signature piece, personally. But even though I may not have one particular piece I'd think of as a signature piece, I do wear these jackets ALL THE TIME, and they're all made from the one pattern (which was drafted with a lot of help from a clever ex). So far I've used it to make this green jacket with purple lining, a navy marine-inspired wool one with gold buttons, a tweedy brown vest with little frills at the shoulders, and a black wool jersey baby-doll style jacket, plus a very fitted dress from the same material which you can also see here (and which I could not be bothered squeezing into to photograph when I took these shots yesterday). I wear the green one the most, I love the colour and the tweedy green Chanel-like fabric, I designed it with the purple lining because the colour combination and the very narrow sleeves somehow reminded me of the stereotypical colours used for make-up on tomb paintings and so on in Ancient Egypt and I was trying to do an Egyptian collection... the collection did not eventuate but I still scored the jacket pattern, which I think is not too bad when I've used it this many times... and there's another one in the making which I will post about when it's done. It's purple! And it has leather fringing! And it cost about $5 all together! Now if that's not something to get excited about, I don't know what is. In fact I shouldn't have started posting about it just before I go to bed, because how on earth am I going to get to sleep now!? Anyway, what do you think your signature piece is... or your favourite sewing pattern, for that matter? What is it that makes you instantly recognisable across a crowded room - apart from your amazing beauty, that is :) ?

Felt like a change...

Woo hoo! The kimono book translation is finished! It won't be actually published for yonks of course, so here's one I prepared earlier. Well actually this is the Japanese version as the English isn't out yet for this one either (although I finished translating it in December!). It's basically a book about how to make cute felt creatures.
Of course I don't need to make any cute felt creatures because I have a real creature. A creature who loves helping with translations!

18 years in the making

Have you ever belittled yourself for procrastinating or not finishing things you started? What's the longest amount of time you've ever needed to complete a craft project? I'm thinking I could be in the running for the record, not that it's anything to brag about... I made this jacket when I was trialling a pattern for my year 12 formal (the jacket I eventually made was in horrible wine coloured satin and I embroidered a heart on the sleeve with beads.. eww .. I'm shuddering just thinking about it as it did nothing for my colouring and I would never wear my heart on my sleeve now...).
Anyway, as I never throw anything out, I kept the trial jacket which is in a fairly cheap and yukky navy cottony fabric, and recently decided to make it into an African-esque top. After taking it in a bit to get rid of the horrible 80s shape (or lack of), I unearthed some textile crayons which were even older than the jacket (I think they date back to when I was in Brownies actually) and drew random geometric patterns all over it in white, then found some white embroidery cotton which a neighbour had given me in, um, about 1985, and accentuated the seam lines and around the neck in (crappy) cross stitch. I ended up chopping bits off the hem as it was a bit too long, and I used those to cover some self-cover buttons and make button loops*.

The scarf on my head is from Laos - I hand-dyed it in real indigo! (or rather, the girl at the craft centre bound it for me to get the tie-dye pattern right and I swished it back and forth in the smelly indigo mixture for a bit).

This picture of Liya Kebede in an Yves Saint Laurent campaign from 2002 was sort of the inspiration for this top, but I'm not sure if you can see it so well... of course I have the actual photos in Vogues from that time but did I think to scan them when I found them in my stash of magazines when I was cleaning out my wardrobe? No, I did not. Are you surprised?

*And the rest is now being used as makeup remover pads. Waste not, want not. Hmm.. wonder if there's a market for makeup remover pads with pseudo-African designs?? Sounds like another business scheme I'll have to look into.