Funky, Punky, and Plump

Last night, I actually found myself at home by myself with no previous plans. That *never* happens! Part of me was relishing being a hermit and holing myself up with a bunch of bad movies on Netflix and making something but another part of me wanted to go to a bi-weekly bar night that I've never gotten to go to with some friends because I usually have something else going on on Tuesdays. So I decided to leave the decision up to fate, in a way. I gave myself the challenge of refashioning a wearable shirt in 1 hour or less. If it turned out, I would go. If not, I'd stay home. The shirt I had in mind was partly inspired by Psycho Sue and partly by a blouse I had gotten a while back. I loves the top of it and how it fit me but the bottom of it was plain and boxy and I am not built that way. ;) So I did my favorite hack and sew to make the top of this blouse into a empire-waisted baby doll style shirt with some fabric I am in love with! It needs a little tweaking but it was good eno...

I am finding myself fascinated with bows lately. I think I blame Cute and Creepy for that ever since I got that zombie bow that I shared in my last post. hey there are worse things that I could be fascinated with, I guess. I can't think of anything off the top of my head but I know there are worse things out there! ;) I decided to try my hand at making a bow in a similar fashion as that from Cute and Creepy and I must say, I am pretty please with the result. Here is my first attempt: I work full-time in the office of a large corproation and, admittedly, push the envelope as far work-appropriateness of my attire. I feel that a funky hair bow may push things over the edge just a little so figured a bow bracelet would be kind of cool yet not at eye level for the business class. :) Plus, I am a bracelet whore so that also makes it a little more fitting. I made the bow out of a spider web bandana I got on clearance last year. I attached it to a piece of black elastic cut the size of my ...

I've been making stuff... I swear! I just need to take pictures of everything. :) This was a recent project that I happened to be wearing to work today so I was able to get some okay pics in the restroom. It was so unbelievably simple, I feel almost feel guilty. Almost. Well, almost almost. Okay, not really. The top part of the skirt is actually the leftover bottom from a black jersey skirt I cut up to make another skirt (that I still need to gets photographs of). Because I have a lot of junk in the back of my wagon, most skirts tend to be longer in the front than the back so I usually make my skirts about 3" longer in the back. I had cut that basic shape off the top of the waist band of this jersey skirt for the other project so I just flipped the bottom part upside down and turned it around so the hem would act as the waistband and the cut side would fall into the right shape. I made a small snip inside the skirt in the hem and used the existing hem as the casing tube for t...

Well, it's finally starting to get cold** here in Atlanta which means I can start rocking my skinny scarves without getting stranger-than-normal looks or a hot neck. I really only have two, though: a pink-and-black striped one and a black-and-white striped one. I am always on the scout for more but am really picky about the ones I'll get. It can't be too thick or scratchy in any way. (I have really sensitive skin which is one reason I wear a lot of jersey knits.) That's why I got really excited when I saw Missy's tutorial on Cut-Out-and-Keep for making a no-sew circle scarf out of a t-shirt . :) The only thing I did differently was keep my ends separated and used the sleeves of the shirt to make fringe. Her tutorial goes into a lot more detail but the gist of it is cutting 1" bands starting with the bottom of the shirt (after cutting off the hem), stretching the bands, looping each band around your hand a few times, then tying the bunched up loops together...

This was a really simple refashion. I love how it turned out but it's still a bit... um... happier than I am used to wearing. :) I started with 2 t-shirts: a plain black one and a pink and white striped one which was much brighter than I used to wearing so I felt very out of place wearing it. Originally, I was going to stencil a black skull on it but I decided this would be better since it'd still be too much brightness for my clothes. :) I carefully cut the sleeves off the black t-shirt at the seam and used one of them as a pattern to cut new sleeves from the pink and white shirt. I lined the hem of one of the black sleeves up with the bottom hem of the P&W shirt so I didn't have to hem the new sleeves. After sewing those on, I did a reverse applique of the pink and white striped heart with a black heart regular applique over that.

I really need to start remembering to take before pictures. So, imagine ~ if you will ~ a black t-shirt that is too tight around the hips and sleeves that are also too short. Imagine as well a red and black paid skirt with a slight A-line shape to it. That's what I started with for this: This was actually pretty easy. UPDATE: Here's an actual tutorial .... drawn in the very high tech MSPaint. :) (end UPDATE) Here's a detail of the elastic band on the sleeve: And here's a detail of the pattern of the skirt I used... complete with cat hair ! It's not perfect, of course, but I really like it! It looks a little like a mini-dress so works really well with leggings and pants that are a bit slim-fitting. :) Management would like to apologize for previous pictures that were poorly taken. They regret that the artist/blogger has not yet gotten off her lazy butt to make a dress form dummy and is still using her phone camera instead of the good digital camera.

I don't know about you, but I have to work a corporate job. They are fairly lax on the whole dress code thing , fortunately, so I am able to dress the way I want to. Our elevators have a mirror-like finish so I am able to watch people look me up and down behind me. Now, I'm not as outrageous as I could be, but a fat girl with pink and black hair, with visible tattoos and piercings, and wearing all black doesn't exactly scream "corporate." I can almost hear these observers thinking: " Does she work here? She doesn't look like she works here. Maybe she works in the art department. But that's 2 buildings over unless she's just visiting? Maybe? I wonder if her boss is okay with it. Is it up to the dress code? I wish I could be that brave. Hmm... my daughter would love her watch/bag/etc. " (*grins*) Besides just my usual clothing, I like to veer from the corporate norm with other things as well. Which brings me to this week's proje...

About 3 years ago, I was having an uber-bad day at work so decided to have a little hair therapy to lift my spirits. Plus, as you can see in this old picture, I seriously needed a new hairstyle. This was me 10 years ago :) A friend of mine recommended an awesome salon in the area so I made an appointment for after work. The stylist's name was CC and he was awesome! I sat in his chair with my mousy long hair and said "I want you to do whatever you think will look on me. I want something artsy, something fun, something funky and I don't care about length as long as it can still be grabbed at the crown." :D Without batting an eyelash, he said, "We can do that!" He ended up giving me a version of a bob but the back of my head was shaved about halfway up. My hairstyle has changed a bit since then but I still get the back of my head shaved. I *LOVE* it! After I get my hair cut, I will sit at work and just pet the back of my head. (*grin*) I can't imagine eve...

I will be honest: I am not a fan of bows. Even when I had long hair, I did not wear them and if I bought an article of clothing with a bow on it... well, I wouold find a way to remove it without destroying the outfit. But, for some strange reason, I *L*O*V*E* making these! I found the tutorial for these at Cut Out & Keep and they are are incredibly easy to make. The main difference from the tute and what I did is that these are about half the size. You may recognize this fabric from the men's polo refashion I posted in my first entry . This isn't the best fabric to use as it is really stretchy and the skulls are a bit too far apart but it was fun to play around with for my first few bows. :) This one was made using fabric from a size 2 pencil skirt I got from the thrift store for a couple of bucks a while back. :) The ribbon is from one of the many grab bags of ribbon I purchased many years ago and the stud is off of an old belt I recently picked up. I ma...