another "oops" shirt

you should never try to sew at two o'clock in the morning. why, you ask? because you're ten times more likely to mess up big time. the other night i somehow grabbed the wrong pattern piece, and to make it even worse, i ended up sewing two backs together! i was wondering why it wasn't looking like the mock-up i made, but it didn't quite connect until it was too late. so, i decided to just hem the shirt up and call it quits. after checking it out, i realized that it wasn't that bad (it now had a cute boatneck, after all), and was actually pretty wearable. not everyone would wear a botched sewing project, but with the right attitude, you can do or wear whatever you want. i wore this outfit to work:



my co-worker said my shirt looked like a "bag". i thought that was pretty hilarious. but-- i was able to convince him that it was totally awesome.

i like the idea of being to make use of something that might not have turned out as planned. i could have easily thrown this in the garbage, but i decided to make the most of the situation and wear it with confidence.

i ended up liking the shirt so much, i wore it out dancing the next night. you can bet that no other girl was wearing anything like it.

a good use for those "old" shoeboxes

refinery29 is a web site guide to nyc's coolest shops. right now they have up a video in which designer alexander wang chats about his style and inspirations. he makes pretty cute clothes, but i can't get over the fact that he uses a chanel shoebox to prop up his window. so fabulous!



now i know what to do with all those shoeboxes collecting dust in my closet. of course, mine aren't quite as impressive as chanel.

check out the rest of alexander wang's video.

my buy-nothing month

last month, i took a look at my credit card statement and almost passed out. so, i told myself that i would make a serious effort not to buy clothes/material things for as long as i could. so far, i've gone a little over a month of buying absolutely nothing--and it feels pretty great!

however, the other day i went gift-shopping for my friends, and of course i made up for lost time by trying on tons of clothes. right now, i'm loving this printed sundress from urban outfitters:

it has a vintage-style cut, and a shorter length. it's too bad it only comes in generic sizes (xs-large) because i didn't fill out the xs in the bust area.

i figure that if i'm going to buy stuff, it might as well be diy/handmade. i like to look anyhow. browsing on etsy led me to these cute items:

i really like this dress from SideBon. it's made of all vintage materials so it's one-of-a-kind. very pretty.

the hillary dress from snoozerloser. handprinted on white cotton/linen. i love it!

these repurposed necktie chokers are a great way to jazz up those office uniforms. this one's sold out but there are other cute ones at bake sale designs.

yeah, so i've been "shopping" but have been tough enough to abstain from buying. that's pretty good for a former shopaholic. let's see how much longer i can hold out...

let me 'splain

the past two weeks have been insanely busy: 6 birthdays (including my own), my day job, looking for a new apartment/roommate. be back soon!