Knee Socks!

I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the Armani collection featured knee socks. My favorite things! Finally I can be trendy AND warm!

Sparkly Skirt Tutorial

This is a semi-tutorial on how to make this skirt. Semi because I played around with the skirt a lot while making it so I'm not sure if I can describe it well enough, but I'll try.
First you'll need to measure your waist. You should also figure out where you want the skirt to fall to on your leg and measure from your waist to that spot.
In total there are only 4 pieces to this skirt, and the front and the back are identical. Everything I describe you'll do twice, once for the front and once for the back.
Now you'll cut out the pieces for the waistband and the body of the skirt.

You should make the length of the body of the skirt the length you want the skirt to be. I'd cut it out a little bit longer originally, you can always shorten it later. The waistband can also be as wide as you'd like, play around with it a little and see what looks best on you.
Next you'll box pleat the skirt until it is the same width as the waistband.

Box pleats are simple, especially in this case because I didn't want them to be structured so there was no pressing involved. The larger the pleats are the more volume the skirt will have. You can measure the pleats to make sure they're even but if they're a little bit off you shouldn't be able to tell.
Lastly you just sew on the waistband by putting the right sides of both sections together and sewing. Do this for both the front and back. Then you'll sew one of the sides of the skirt. Put it around you to make sure it fits, and then sew in the zipper into the other side.
It ends up being very simple to make. Sorry I can't do a better job explaining. Feel free to ask me any questions.

My Super Cute Sparkly Skirt

I have been working on this skirt for so long. It was a simple design, but for some reason I just couldn't get it to look right. First the hem was messed up and it was too long. So I cut of the hem, but cut it uneven. Once I evened it out it looked better but was too short to do a blind hem so I just did a normal one. It's still a bit too short, but I can definitely wear it out at night. With tights.

I want to make a quilt

I have an extremely short attention span and am constantly looking for something new to do. Right now its quilting. I really want to make one, but a simple one, not the kind where it takes an hour to make a 4" by 4" square. So I decided I'd make Gonk Droid from lego star wars! It's already square and can easily be made out of smaller squares. Here is my first draft of the grid I'll use to make it.

I want it to be huge because what's the point of making a quilt that you can't wrap around yourself a million times. Plus, its just going to be made out of plain squares so it shouldn't take too long. I'm excited! I just have to go get the fabric and figure out what else I need...

Why London Fashion Week is Awesome

Hats. Seriously, although it's not that surprising considering that England is pretty much the only place where people actually wear hats for anything other than warmth.
Best hat ever from last fashion week, Spring 2009, from Giles:

Giles just showed for Fall 2009 and although it didn't really measure up to the Pacman hat, I think it would be impossible to even do that.

This hat is still pretty cool. Its like a fancy umbrella hat! Although I'm not sure what I like better, the hat or the crazy monster fur arm warmers.
He did seem to pay homage to his past Pac-Man themed show:

It's like a fancy version of one of the Pac-Man ghosts! I wish someone had worn that to the Oscars!!!

I am now obsessed

with making headbands. It's very satisfying to come up with an idea and be able to execute it in under an hour! They're also a great way for dealing with my most recent horrendous bang cut. Sadly I'm almost out of scrap fabric, I guess I'll just have to make a new dress so I have some more extra fabric.
Here's my latest. I'm not completely happy with how it came out, mainly because I tried to sew the strips with only one contact in so they didn't come out as straight as I would have liked. It does look super cute on though!

Why Fashion Shows During Recessions Stink

I understand that designers are trying to make more wearable clothes during the recession because people are less likely to spend lots of money on crazy clothes. Still, this doesn't have to equal sad and depressing. An example is Christopher Kane during London Fashion week.
His last show, Spring 2009:

His newest show, Fall 2009:


Michael Kors had the right idea, in my opinion, with his florescent fur coats. Wearable doesn't have to mean gray and black!