In the Navy

It's the last day of Self-stitched September! How did the rest of you go with it? I know I didn't post about every single outfit I wore but believe me, I did wear SSS stuff every day, it wasn't too hard seeing as I fiddle with just about everything I wear - if I haven't made it from scratch then I've hemmed it, embellished it, altered it... so you can expect more of the same in the future.

This last dress is something I made about 5 years ago from the material that was left over when I made a jacket. (Do you notice a certain someone watching me?)


It was a rectangle that I basically made into a tube, gathered a little at the hem and put really strong elastic in around the top... like a really big, loose tube top with pockets.
I haven't worn it that much as it has to be pretty cold to need a dress of this weight... it came in handy when I went to Stockholm Fashion Week a few years ago (and the scenery in these pics is a bit more interesting than my recent efforts, I'm sure you'll agree...)

Sweater girl

Remember the jumper I showed you not so long ago? Well I didn't think I'd get around to doing anything to it before next winter, but it was so cold yesterday that I decided I'd be able to wear it this year after all and turned it into a dress today.

It didn't take too long, all I did was turn it inside out, pin it from sleeve cuff to waist hem on each side working up to taking about 5cm off at the armpit,
try it on a zillion times to check that it was going to look OK while as usual dodging those scratchy pins, and then sew and overlock along the pinning line.

Simple! Basically just made it a slimmer fit, and restrained myself from fiddling with the V-neck which I'm not so crazy about. But if I wear a scarf with it you can't see that anyway... I made this pink fringed one ages ago but have never worn it - I love how these contrasting colours go together though!

And don't worry, I didn't go out like this, I was sensible and put some tights on when I went out for dinner tonight - it was only 8 degrees so I would have frozen otherwise! What's happened to spring!?

New shoes! and an old dress

Is it OK to show you a dress even though I didn't wear it today? It is? Good... because the reality is that I'm sitting around in (admittedly self-stitched) trackies and a windcheater and I really don't think you want to see those. I found this dress at Savers for $7 last year at the same time as this other one, I felt like I'd struck gold discovering them both at the same time. The colours in this one reminded me of an opal, although as usual my photos don't really do the fabric justice... in fact it looks like a hideous colourful animal print in these pics....

I think it was a rather large lady's homemade effort as it had no label, and not a great deal of shaping, but that suited me fine as I wear it back-to-front (it has a sort of V-neckline and a few buttons at the back.. which is actually the front...).

I had to remove some weird flappy details that were sewn into the sleeve/body seam, and I chopped off quite a bit of the hem and made some other minor adjustments, and now it's a cute and colourful A-line tunicky thing that is perfect for when I can't be bothered sucking my stomach in all day.

And as for the footwear... I've recently "spent" the vouchers my friends gave me for my birthday, I bought these black boots with crepe wedge soles at Zomp two weeks ago.

Very handy, although I was told not to walk in petrol as it dissolves the rubber. Dammit! There goes another of my favourite pastimes.... what? Don't you go walking through puddles of petrol all the time too?

Snip snip!

I know Self-stitched September is sort of meant to be about wearing stuff you've STITCHED yourself (the title kind of gives away that part!) but do you mind if I show you something self-snipped instead?

These earrings are super simple and all you need are clip on earrings (although if the posts on pierced earrings are very long maybe this could work on them too), some leather or felt and a pair of scissors... or even a stanley knife.

You will need to cut the leather/felt into a strip about 3-4cm wide and about 12cm long, although the length is of course up to you. Fold the long rectangle in half lengthways and slash a cross into the middle of both pieces at the top, like this:

You then simply push this over the clip part of the earring so that it sits nice and firmly (don't make the cross too big or this won't work).

Push it so that it sits flat against the back of the earring... and that's it!

I found these earrings for about $1 at an op shop (I buy practically all of my earrings second hand because I can hardly ever find clip-ons new) and I got the leather from my local market - if there's a stall selling leather jackets at yours, you can probably ask the seller if they have any scraps. I got a whole lot of coloured leather* for $2 per piece... I'd estimate the amount of leather (suede, actually) used in this project cost about 20c all together!!
Not exactly my best shot but you can see what they look like when they're on at least.
*(You can see what I did with some of the other leather here.)

Going Dutch

Did you know that tulips were once so highly prized that ONE bulb was exchanged for an entire brewery? Or that tulips are not Dutch at all, but more likely to have come from Turkey?
I knew these things already as I once started reading a book about tulips simply because it was cheap at a library sale and had some pretty pictures, but unless you're REALLY interested in tulips, I wouldn't recommend it... I ended up abandoning it only a chapter or so in. A lot more on my low-brow level was the Tesselaar Tulip Festival which I went to with a friend yesterday. I had not been since I was in primary school, and really, unless you want to take masses of photos, there's probably not a lot of point going, but seeing as I did take masses of photos that makes it alright.

There wasn't much else happening at the festival except for the usual food and souvenir stalls including De Hollandse Winkel (The Dutch Shop) stall which was inexplicably staffed entirely by Asians... maybe they were going for a multicultural feel?

I know I was - half Chinese, attending a Dutch weekend at a tulip festival with a Japanese friend in Australia?! (Look at the gum trees behind the tulips here... sort of bizarre scenery!)

Even the Timboon ice cream stall got in on the act with a Spekulaas flavoured ice cream... mmm... I don't think they've ever invented a flavour just for a festival but I hope they keep making it as it was DELICIOUS (well, if you like Spekulaas, that is!).

The weather had been iffy on the way up to the festival which explains why I'm relatively rugged up (in this navy jacket I made) even though it looks so sunny, but it really fined up on the way home... of course!

In which you are sadly mistaken

The fashion industry is all about glamour, or so it would have you believe. But behind every glossy fashion spread is a harassed stylist .. and their assistant. This week I was assisting on a styling job for a department store for three days... I took this shot among all the chaos, although admittedly it was nothing compared with what I used to have to do when I worked at a fashion mag in Tokyo. You know how it takes about 5 seconds to glance at a page of 'this season's top shoes' or 'the handbags you have to have!'? Well it takes MONTHS of work to put those pages together. Sorry if you thought the life of a fashion editor was glamorous!!

In keeping with my distinctly non-fashionista budget, I'm wearing a dress I made out of a big black and paisley shawl which I bought for about $1 from a veteran style maven in Tokyo who was cleaning out her wardrobe. This shawl was full of holes as the moths had found it before I did, and the edges have lots of tears, but as it's patterned, it was easy for me to patch it up without it being too obvious (or so I like to believe. I hope people aren't pointing and sniggering about all the repair work when I walk past!).
I wore this dress to an art exhibition a while ago and some teenagers came up and asked me where I got it! Don't you love it when you can answer 'I made it myself'!?
All jewellery from op shops, and boots are from a Marc by Marc Jacobs sale for fashion industry types in Tokyo (I admit, there are SOME perks to being a harassed fashion assistant!!)

I blame it on the cupcakes

Contrary to popular belief (or maybe just wishful thinking on my part), it's not every day that I get to eat delicious cupcakes, hang out with people who actually make an effort with their appearance, and be surrounded by beautiful, covetable clothing and accessories, but this evening I had the pleasure of attending a VIP runway party at Cecylia in High Street, Armadale. Yes, runway. That means there was a fashion show. Unfortunately I had to work overtime and did not actually get there in time to see it. *Sigh*. Luckily there was still plenty to swoon over when I arrived... and that's only taking the items for sale into account. Why, oh why, did I not take zillions of pictures of the beautiful ladies and their outfits!?* I'm kicking myself (in my Salvos heels!) now, but at the time the cupcakes and conversation were too tempting and I missed my chance. Oh well, I'm sure lots of other bloggers got pics so I might add in links later. For now, here's my quick pick of highlights for those of you who are nowhere near Melbourne. I won't list the brand names, mainly because I was too lazy to write them down... sorry! I blame the cupcakes again!

Cute little caps for the racing carnival... have any of you started thinking about your outfits yet? Last year I swore I was going to make a huge effort this year, but as yet, nothing has happened.. are you surprised!?

Some hand-y hooks in between some amazing skirts...


Fabulous jewellery which even I can't work out how to DIY from papier mache or old toilet rolls or the usual crap I make my accessories from...although I suppose if I picked up enough feathers from my backyard, this one might be achievable...


*I did at least get this shot of myself and Cecylia... I'm fulfilling the Self-stitched September criteria in an outfit entirely made by me - well, not stockings or underwear... but earrings, top and skirt at least!! (The top and skirt are from my label, Fourth Daughter, and are made from vintage kimono and obi).

Cheapest dress EVER #2

Not too long ago I posted about a dress that cost me $1 and said it was my cheapest dress ever... well, I had forgotten that I'd bought this one.

It also cost only $1 at an op shop but, like the other one, needed a bit of work, which is why even though I bought it in May (from the same place as I bought this), I had not worn it until now. Sometimes it takes a while for inspiration to strike! Anyway, with spring almost here, the pressure was on to do something about it while it is still cold enough to wear something with long sleeves and in a thickish synthetic material...
I decided to jazz it up a bit with some wool that I got at the Salvos last year. I crocheted a massively long chain and then stood in front of the mirror for ages trying not to injure myself as I pinned the chain to the dress to create the optical illusion that I actually have a figure.

Several scratches and a bit of bleeding later, this is the result. I didn't plan to have to wear it with a belt but even all the miles of crochet chain were not enough to give the illusion of me having a waist so I dug out this belt, which I had also forgotten about... my ex bought it years ago at a military disposals store FOR HIMSELF (yes, the same skinny guy I mentioned here) but somehow I've ended up with it. Yay!

I'm quite happy with how this dress turned out and how well the whole thing goes with my red jacket...

I wore this to work today on a styling job and had a bit of a giggle to myself thinking how much I spent on my dress (a total of about $2??) compared with how much the very, very cheapest dress on the job was (about $70)... and don't get me started on the accessories - the most I ever usually pay is about $5 but even a basic strand of beads was $60. I couldn't believe anyone would pay that much, but then, as I shop nearly exclusively at op shops, maybe I'm just a little bit out of touch with how the average consumer thinks...

Future op-tions

Although Self-stitched September is the ideal opportunity to showcase (read: show off) stuff I've made, the combination of crappy weather, being either too busy to actually get photos of my outfits or housebound and therefore not wearing anything worth photographing has meant that my documenting lately has been less than perfect. I've decided to get ahead of myself and post about these two op-shopped items which I will do something with in the future... when I get around to it... which could be in 18 years' time...

I bought this old-lady top at Vinnies for $5 and am not really sure how I'm going to fix it up, but shawl collars are really not my thing and these sleeves do nothing for me (or anyone!) so they will definitely have to go. I just loved the colours, although this tends to be my downfall as I really have to be in the right mood to wear something that swims so much against the tide of the Black Sea (otherwise known as Melbourne).
I love the colour of this men's jumper too which I got brand new at Uniting Care for $6. I'm hoping I can take it in at the sides to turn it into a Stella McCartney-like sweater dress ...not that I can remember when she last did a sweater dress but I'm sure she had something in this shape in her collections not too long ago. Or maybe I dreamt it... meh, same diff.

The green goddess and me

You know how I said I had hot chocolate with my friend the other day...? You're probably thinking, what can get better than hot chocolate... and this one had ANISEED and CINNAMON in it, yes, sounds yuk, but was DELICIOUS... it was at San Churro if you're interested... and as if you wouldn't be... anyway where was I? Oh yes. Something better than hot chocolate. Well it turns out that my friend had spotted my blog address in a listing at the back of this lovely little book!

It was a mystery to me how it ended up there until I opened the book and noticed that Jenny Leach, the lovely lady from The Balm, had a hand in it... so a big thank you to Jenny, it's such an honour and I'm happy that all my crafty (and tight-arsed) ways have not gone unnoticed.
Speaking of crafty, thrifty ways, here's what I wore to go out for dinner tonight...

I made this green jacket ages ago and have several versions of the pattern in my wardrobe which you can see here and here. Short necklace from the Salvos and long gold chain from a flea market in Tokyo I think... probably a few dollars each. My jeans were free because when I worked in the fashion industry I scored lots of free stuff! And grey top was $9 on sale at Gap in Tokyo, which I admit is not particularly green, but no one's perfect, not even me (although I'm sure that comes as a surprise, haha).

Most of my stuff is from op shops* or I made it from scratch, so the occasional lapse is excusable, right? Even my cat Suki was second hand - she came from an animal shelter!

I know I said I'd try to do better photos than these horrible dark and uncreative ones... I promise next week I'll get on to that!

*I just added up my receipts from op shopping for the financial year just gone and they came to about $350. So although of course I must have bought things at other shops (I can only remember bathers though?), I reckon that means I spend only about $1 a day on clothing/accessories/shoes. How about you, how much do you spend each year on keeping yourself looking nice?