On a Sewing Kick...

Lately, I've had some fun sewing super simple, but super cute pieces for my summer wardrobe. It all started when one of my friends at church asked me to help her make a maxi-skirt. I immediately agreed, but then thought, "Well, I've never made one, so maybe I should do a dry-run first..." Here is the result:

Excuse the fuzzy photo- the lighting was terrible. 

I had originally hoped to have the stripes at a bit more of an angle, but I didn't have enough fabric to make it work. However, I think I prefer the end result even better. I've worn it to work and got lots of compliments on it. I posted a picture on Facebook which resulted in some chatting back and forth with other crafty friends. After all the chatting, I felt inspired, so I raided my fabric stash and found some white eyelet that I'd purchased at Mood so long ago I'm embarrassed to admit how long it's been sitting around. 

After about 45 minutes at the sewing machine, I had this little gem: 

My favorite detail is in the back, though: 

How fun is that pink zipper? 

I wore it to work with my polka-dot chambray shirt and some pink ballet flats. I'm pretty sure I looked adorable: 

I should have taken a better picture. Sorry. 

Finally, after feeling so productive and creative, I decided to attempt a maxi-dress. I purchased a black and white printed jersey at Joann Fabric and I'm pretty thrilled with the result: 

Again, forgive the fuzzy photo. 

I tried it on afterwards with a mint skinny belt and it was adorable. I'll try to remember to snap a photo when I wear it to work tomorrow! 

It's funny how being creative actually breeds more creativity. And talking to other creative people helps inspire. It's a good reminder to me that I need to not only think about doing these kinds of projects, but I need to talk about them and then actually do them. 

Anyone else out there feeling creative lately? Leave a comment and tell me all about it! 

Rate My Look: Original Skirt Creation

Months ago, I was in Joann Fabrics and I saw this awesome orange print. It just so happened to be in the home decor section, specifically the fabrics made for outdoor furniture upholstery. But I loved it so much, I decided I didn't care what the fabric was intended for and I decided to buy a yard of it to make myself a fabulous skirt. I also bought a zipper and I went home and whipped it up. I paired it with a fabulous chiffon top that I already had and voila! Instant fabulous outfit!

I think I'll be careful not to wear this skirt to any backyard get-togethers. I'd hate to match someone's patio furniture. 

I love the exposed zipper detail and I lucked out that the top is the same shade of grey as the zipper. It' a perfect outfit for work- cool and fun, but still professional-looking. 

I think I'll shop the outdoor upholstery fabric section more often... 

I'm sill alive...

It's been a while since I wrote a post, but you should know that I've been very busy doing lots of fun things and that's why I haven't been blogging all that much. When I decided to get back into blogging, I also decided that I wouldn't put the same pressure on myself to post as frequently as I used to. If the inspiration and time are both there, then there will be lots of posts. If not, no sweat. But feel free to leave a comment telling me you miss me if and when you do.

Anyway, since my last post, I haven't had very many great outfits to photograph. It's not that I haven't looked good, it's that I was wearing a lot of old favorites, pieces you've seen before, without any major twists to them. I've done a bit of shopping recently and found that I'm a little bit between sizes right now. I don't want to err on the larger size because I hope to keep shedding inches and it will just mean alterations in the very near future on brand new clothes. Not the worst thing in the world, but still a hassle. And as for the smaller sizes, they're zipping up, but not exactly comfortably. I know myself and if something makes me feel like a sausage, I won't wear it. So, when it comes to shopping, I've been sticking to accessories. More on that soon.

As for the other things keeping me busy, I've been doing quite a bit of sewing. My boyfriend's daughter has a birthday coming up and I thought it would be fun to make her a bunch of cute, girlie outfits. Turns out, sewing kids clothes is a heck of a lot easier (and FASTER!) than sewing for adults. I got all of this done in one afternoon:

Yup. Two dresses, two skirts, two tops (one is reversible!) and two pairs of capri pants- all in one day! I  also managed to buy a few accessories and basic pieces to finish off the outfits. White leggings and simple t-shirts to go with the skirts were easy enough to find at a couple of kids clothing stores. I also snagged a few headbands and I plan to get a couple of pairs of cute summer shoes to finish out the new wardrobe. I spent about $60 at the fabric store, so I think I got quite the bang for my buck. (Especially since I have enough fabric to make a few more pieces!) Having seen the clothes in stores like The Children's Place and Carter's while picking out the leggings, I saw that these kind of outfits would retail for easily about $125 (for all of them). My favorite is the striped dress- you can't see them that easily, but the pink spots are little boats and the stripes are actually waves. So cute!

In addition to sewing lots of cute clothes, I've also spent time with friends over the last few weeks. I visited a good friend up in northern New Hampshire where we visited the world's longest candy counter:

Don't believe me that it's the world's longest? It's documented:

I also had some silly times with friends out to lots of fun dinners. The most notable is perhaps this recent trip to Margaritas where the waiter gave us fake mustaches to play with: 

We are so hot. 

I also made my very first attempt at baking the tricky French Macaron cookie. They were chocolate flavored with a salted caramel buttercream filling. They may not have looked perfect, but they tasted oh-so-delicious! 

My advice to anyone considering trying to bake these cookies is this: GO FOR IT! If they don't come out perfect, they'll probably still be delicious. A macaron with a cracked shell versus a macaron with a perfect smooth shell tastes exactly the same! Bottom line: don't be intimidated- just try them! You can't tell from this next photo whether it was perfect or not, but you can probably tell that it was delicious! 

I know that by now you're thinking, "I'm happy for you that you've been so busy eating sweets, having dinner with friends and galavanting around New England, but could you please get to the fashion?" Okay, okay, I'm getting there. The most recent outfit photo that I took wasn't of that great an outfit. It was me in my red pants and my glitter heel boots and it was not a dynamite outfit. I loved it from the knees down, so that's what you get to see: 

Finally, the last excuse I have for not blogging more regularly is this: (Enjoy!)

So that's what I've been up to. What about you? 

More Bow Tie Bonanza

As you know, in the last month or so I've made quite a few bow ties, mostly using random fabric I had lying around from previous sewing projects. Brance was the recipient of quite a few of them and I'm happy to report that he was pretty darn excited about the new collections. He even bothered to name them and snap some photos for me.

The first he dubbed "Rhapsody in Blue Tissue," the title inspired simply by my packaging:

I was most excited about the two on the left that are made in contrasting fabrics. You will recall from my previous post when I made these ties that I was a dismal failure at tying them. Fortunately, Brance is an expert when it comes to tying a bow tie and he made sure to send me a photo of one of the two-tone ties in all its glory: 

Isn't it so cool? I love how it adds that fun little contrast of color to the tie! I had a gut feeling that two-sided look would be a winner, so I'm very happy that I made a bunch like that! 

The second set was made in response to Jen and Brance's texts requesting I make a "dark plum purple" bow tie for the wedding. Since I had no swatch to go by, and only about 48 hours notice, I made a range: 

Brance aptly dubbed this set the "Purple People Eater Collection." Clever, right? For the record, the bright geometric design on the far right was never intended for the wedding, but it was a fun fabric that I thought Brance would enjoy, so I threw it in with the rest just for fun. The floral print (second from the right) is the one he ended up wearing for the wedding and I think it was a great choice. 

Maybe I'll spend some more time digging through old fabrics- this bow tie spree I'm on seems to be working. In fact, I'm thinking of hosting a bow tie contest either here or through Facebook, so leave a comment if you think you'd be interested in some kind of contest. I'll be looking forward to your responses! Enjoy the rest of your day!

Weekend Re-Cap: Wedding Related Shenanigans

I flew out of Boston on Friday morning for Jen and Bryan's wedding. My plan was definitely hinging on everything being on time and running smoothly. A delayed flight, a long line at the car rental counter, or a bunch of traffic could each derail my schedule. And if I got hit with all three of those delays, I would have had to attend the wedding in my travel clothes. I didn't have a lot of wiggle room since I needed to first stop at the venue before heading to my own hotel to meet the Professor and get ready.

When I landed, the bride texted me and said, "T Boo! Total last minute but do you have time to pick me up a little hair diddy? Something to match my dress? I wasn't going to wear one but it might be nice? Just thought I'd see. No worries if you're swamped!!!!!!"

Here's the thing: I love a challenge. Remember the fruitcake? And back in my costuming days, when a director made a last-minute change that effected wardrobe, it was always my mission to make the change immediately and in time for the very next costume run-through (even if that run through was going to start in an hour). I'm a planner and I tend to get things done ahead of time. So for people who know me well, that means if you need something done at the last minute, I'm probably the best person to call. I asked at the car rental gate if there was a mall nearby and fortunately for me there was a huge one just two miles down the road. I blitzed the entire building as if it was Thursday of tech week. Twenty minutes and about $40 later, I had five different "hair diddy" options for Jen. I was back on the road and still on schedule!

Did I mention that in addition to the "hair diddies," I also had her bridal veil in my suitcase as well as a half dozen bow tie options for Brance who was in the bridal party as a "Bridesman?" I shouldn't have been all that surprised about the "hair diddy" request, since Jen and Brance had texted me on Wednesday asking me to make him a bow tie for the wedding in "deep plum purple." No preference as to it being a solid or a print. I zipped on over to Joann Fabrics and soon I had several options:

My time frame was going to be fairly tight even without the addition of shopping for a "hair diddy," but through some miracle (or the powerful engine in my rental), I made it to the venue with enough time to drop everything off, help pick out a "hair diddy," give Brance his bow tie options, get back to my own hotel (20 minutes away) and complete my own beauty routine and get dressed. I even had a few minutes of downtime in which the Professor and I may or may not have done a little snuggling and smooching.

It was a little hectic, but in the end, everything worked out. I was even impressed with Brance's bow tie choice. You can barely see the fabric in the photo above. It's underneath the lightest purple print and it's a deep shade of plum with a subtle floral print. And here he is rocking it:

I didn't get a good photo of Jen in her veil and "hair diddy" but I promise you she looked stunning. Her dress is of course from Madeleine's Daughter. She lives in NYC and drove up for an appointment with me where I helped her find this stunning dress by Alvina Valenta. I can't believe it was back in August that we picked it out. At the time, it felt like her wedding was so far away! 

Is she gorgeous or what? She kept saying, "I want to be lovely. Just lovely." I think we nailed it. We added the cap sleeves afterwards, but I think they look like they were there all along. Her husband, Bryan told me no less than three times that I'd done an amazing job with the dress. And somehow, everyone at the wedding kept referring to me as "the girl who made the dress." At first, I corrected people. I said, "Oh, no. I helped pick out the dress. She came to the bridal shop where I work, but I didn't make it. I only made the veil." Towards the end of the night, I just started owning it. "Yup, that's me. I made that dress." It was easier than explaining and since she looked so great, I figured it was a good thing to Bogart. Sue me. 

Despite being so focused on making sure everything was perfect for Brance and Jen, I managed to clean myself up pretty well, too. I wore the dress I got for the Madeleine's Holiday party back in December and pretty much kept all the accessories and hairstyle the same as well. It worked, right? And if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I chose a different pair of earrings, but the hairpiece, shoes and bag were all the same.

Me with the blushing bride. 

The Professor looked pretty dapper, too: 

We're a good looking couple. 

There were quite a few well-dressed guests at this particular soiree, and I plan to share the best outfits with you in a future post. I'll also be back with photos of my outfits from the weekend (the ones that inspired the polyvore sets in these posts). Leave a comment if you like and don't forget to check back soon! There's always something stylish to look at here! 

Bouchard Originals: A Bow Tie Bonanza

A few weeks ago, my buddy Ken (from PA) posted a photo of himself on Facebook absolutely ROCKING a super cool bow tie. I guess I never realized he was into bow ties, so I immediately commented saying that. It turned into a little conversation about bow ties and I found myself offering to make some for him. You may remember the "Bow Ties by Bouche" that I made for Brance a couple of years ago. Of course, Brance will always be a source of bow tie inspiration, but it's fun to have another cool guy who is into that kind of look.

Since it's super easy and quick to make a bow tie, I decided to make a lot of them, not only for Ken and Brance, but also for the Professor. After all, the ability to rock a bow tie was one of the criteria that earned him his nickname. I dug through my stash of fabric and pulled out anything and everything that would possibly work as a bow tie:

There was a LOT to choose from, but the most exciting thing was noticing how well so many of those fabrics worked together. I started cutting and before I knew it, I had over a dozen designs worked out:

One great thing about bow ties is that they use a very small amount of fabric, so I was able to use some random scraps I had lying around to cut out the pattern pieces. You may recognize that green and white floral print from Kate's dress that I made a few years ago. If you haven't been reading my blog long enough to remember that post, then you better get yourself over to those archives and start reading. You know I have over 1,000 posts on here, right? (And I plan on bragging about that for a while, by the way.) But I digress...

You can't really tell in the first photo because the fabrics are lined up perfectly, but in the second one (with the green and white print), you can see that there's a bright purple solid fabric underneath the green. Well, that's because I had a brilliant idea to make bow ties with two different fabrics. In some cases, it was a combination of two prints, in others it was a print with a coordinating solid like this:

And in some it was a combination of a print with a contrasting solid like the green and purple pictured above. In any case, it was really fun to put the different fabric combinations together. I ended up with some more traditional bow ties that were made with just one fabric, as well as a handful of combo-bow ties. Fortunately, between Ken, Brance and the Professor, I knew all my hard work would be time well spent. (Actually, to make over a dozen bow ties only took about an hour, so even if it was a waste, it was a small waste.)

Bow Tie Bonanza!!!

The music-themed bow ties are for the Professor. Since he's an elementary school music teacher, they're appropriate. I also made him a two-sided bow tie using that graphic black and white stripe fabric and the bright gold swirly pattern. It's the colors of his alma mater, Appalachian State University. You never know when you need formal wear to match your university, right? The rest will go to Ken and Brance, and the three in the upper right corner went to someone I've never even met- my friend Tim's partner. I hope he likes them! 

Unfortunately, I have no photos yet of the bow ties as part of an outfit, or even tied into an actual bow. I tried tying one on myself just for the purpose of snapping a photo, but it ended up looking like this: 

Not my best work. I think I should leave the bow tie tying (and wearing) up to the gents.

So, if you want to see these bow ties in all their glory, keep checking back. Ken has promised to snap photos of the outfits he puts together with his ties. Brance tends to use his all the time for auditions (he's a professional actor), and sometimes sends me photos, too. The Professor might be the hardest one to capture in these bow ties, but maybe I can convince him to wear one to the wedding we're attending together next weekend. We'll see...

Rate My Look: Re-purposed Wedding Outfit

In early September, McKenzie got married and the wedding was lovely. She wore Jenny Packham and I made her veil, which immediately blew off her head the minute she stepped out to walk down the aisle. Tornado warnings caused the caterer to try and blow off dinner, but in the end, we all ate. The wedding was a blast and, despite the weather, really beautiful. The bride was stunning, of course. I hadn't been to a wedding in almost a year (remember I had three almost back-to-back last year), and I decided it would be fun to make a dress to wear. I don't have a single decent photo of myself at the wedding, but I can say that my dress was a hit.

I made it with an olive green cotton sateen and I kept it simple- a fitted bodice and pencil skirt with an asymmetrical neckline. The color was divine and that was what inspired me to make the dress. I stumbled upon the fabric and I knew it was perfect for a simple, elegant, fitted design. It only took a few hours to make on one of my days off. It got completely soaked more than once at the wedding, and after that date, I hadn't really thought twice about it.

The thing is, I knew from the minute I made it that it would be great to dress down and wear to work. Why I waited three months to bother doing that, I'll never know. Anyway, I thought about it early in the week and then found myself brainstorming a different way to style it to make it work appropriate. At the wedding, I wore it with fuchsia satin and rhinestone heels and some sparkly jewelry and a silver belt. For work, I needed it to look good with flats, but I still wanted to play with color a little bit. I decided to mix it with a sparkly silver belt (the same one I wore to the wedding), grey flats, a charcoal cardigan and bright purple tights. I'm happy to report the resulting outfit worked perfectly!

I've lost close to 15 pounds since the wedding (low carb diet), so the dress is far less fitted than I originally intended. However, for work, I think it's more appropriate somehow. Even thought it's now a little too big, it worked once I cinched the belt around my waist and added the cardigan. 

So, what do you think of this (somewhat) recent Bouchard Original? It's not my best work, but far from my worst, and I really love how versatile it is. The color and fabric will work in many different seasons. I'm looking forward to styling it differently in the future. 

On another note, this was a particularly good make-up day for me. I pretty much NEVER try to match any of my make-up to my outfit, but with this look, I thought it would be fun to do a little purple eye shadow. It's a flattering color, and I used different tones, so it didn't ACTUALLY match my tights. (That would be weird.)

I think it makes my eyes go "BAM!!!" 

So, there it is- a fun and fabulous Bouchard Original with some even more fun and fabulous make-up. It's been a while since I've sewn anything, and I hope you like it! 

Bouchard Originals Out & About

The other day both Elizabeth and Juhree showed up to work wearing scarves I had made for them. It was pretty exciting to see not one, but two different creations of mine! I love knitting and sewing, but I especially love when someone else loves something I've made! Call me a narcissist, but it feels great!

Who doesn't love an oversize cowl scarf? Am I right? Juhree's is an infinity scarf and Liz is wearing my button-cable design. It can be worn lots of ways depending on how you button it, but on this day she chose to just button it into a circle. I think they both look fabulous, but I'm admittedly biased. Feel free to leave your honest opinion (just so long as your honest opinion jives with mine). Kidding. Or am I?

Stuff I Made: Peter Pan Necklace

I found a fabulous dress at Marshalls that I plan to wear to the company holiday party next weekend. If you remember this post from a few weeks ago, you know I was looking for something sparkly and great for dancing. I was originally looking for something with black sequins, but I ended up finding an adorable dress at a bargain price that was entirely silver sequins. They aren't the super-shiny sequins, so don't stress- I won't look like a disco ball.

The dress only cost $24.99, and it fit perfectly without needing any alterations. The only drawback is that I'm not in love with the neckline. It's just nothing special, you know? It's just a simple scoop neckline, but it's really high. Not quite Amish-high, but up there. I was telling the girls at work about it and we were brainstorming different ways to accessorize the dress that sort of de-emphasize the neckline. Suddenly, it hit me! The key is not to de-emphasize the neckline, but rather to emphasize it by changing it.

I realized that the key to making this dress perfectly adorable is to add a sparkly black Peter Pan collar necklace to it. I immediately starting searching all over the internet. Despite the current popularity of this style necklace, I was not able to find something that I love. Or, if I did find it, the price was way beyond what I want to spend. No worries! It's a simple style and with my basic sewing and crafting skills, I knew I could make a perfect one at a fraction of the price.

After work, I hopped on over to the craft supply store and spent just about $20 on a piece of rich, black suede, a little over a yard of black satin ribbon, and about 400 black rhinestones in various sizes. Originally, I'd planned to make the base of the necklace with a piece of black felt, but when I saw the black suede, I just had to upgrade. I wish I'd been able to find a nice double-faced black satin ribbon, but all that was available was a single- face. It's a minor detail that I'm willing to concede for now.

Once I got home, I got right to work. I cut out the pattern shape for the collar and did a trial run using the black felt:

I cut out the felt and laid it on my neck to make sure the proportion and shape worked on my neckline. Once I knew it was going to work, I used the felt as a guide to cut out the shape on the suede: 

The suede was an excellent choice- the weight helped the collar to lie really nicely against my neckline, and the color was far richer than the felt could ever hope to be.

The next step was sewing the ribbon to the ends of the collar. This is where I discovered a happy accident. I unintentionally made the end of the collar the exact same width as the ribbon, so I was able to sew the ribbon on without having to ruche it or manipulate it in any way! Accidental genius moves like that are the BEST!

The final (and most time-consuming) stage of creating the necklace was adding all the rhinestones. I like to think of myself as a professional be-dazzler. Back in my AMT days, I could bedazzle the cr*p out of any given costume in no time flat. I made good time on this project, but I've definitely slowed down a little without consistent practice.

I used the top of a shoe box to hold the necklace and all my supplies. It worked great, particularly in terms of keeping all those tiny little stones from falling all over the place. I did most of the bedazzling while on a Skype date with the Professor. He didn't seem to mind that I was preoccupied during our date. He's a good sport.

Gluing on the large and medium sized stones was easy, but it was the little ones that made it such a pain. I used a pin and a simple method: I dipped the tip of the pin into the glue, then used the glue to pick up a tiny rhinestone. Then, I carefully placed the stone onto the collar. I held the stone with one finger while slowly pulling the pin out from under the stone. Not easy, but worth the effort. The end result is great:

Is that awesome or what? I love EVERYTHING about this necklace! I of course wore it to work the very next day because I just HAD to show off my handiwork to all my coworkers. Let's just say, the necklace was a big hit! 

I made sure to wear my hair up that day so I could be sure to feature the lovely bow in the back. Let's all just say it together: A-dor-a-ble! 

On a side note: does anyone care to notice how fabulous my make-up looks in the picture? I tried some new techniques from my lesson with Joya Beauty and I LOVE the result! 

OK, back on topic: what do you think of my home-made Peter Pan collar necklace? 

Total cost: $20.04

Total time to make: about 2.5 hours

Feel free to pin any of these photos to Pinterest- I know all you crafters out there won't be able to help yourselves!

Note: Thanks to coworker Leslie for the great photos of me in my new fabulous necklace! Check back later in the week to see my full outfit! 

Shoesday... Wednesday...

Hey all! Is it a gorgeous day out today or what? I have the day off and I have been thoroughly enjoying myself. Over the last few months, my life has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. First, in February, one of the seamstresses who works at MD fell and broke her arm. The weeks following were a scheduling nightmare as I tried to reassign all of her brides to the remaining seamstresses. I even had to call in reinforcements and ask a couple of our contracted seamstresses to start much sooner. I remember when it happened, it was stressful, but everyone kept saying, "At least it didn't happen during the peak season!" (Peak season for bridal alterations is generally defined as April through October.)

Well, just when I thought we'd recovered and were on our way to a nice, smooth, well- organized summer in the alterations department, another seamstress suffered a major health issue- she had a stroke. Unlike the broken arm incident, this was incredibly emotional for everyone at the store. A stroke is such a serious thing and all I wanted to hear from anyone was that she was going to be okay. And fortunately, that's exactly the news I got- almost immediately. Even though I know she's fast on the road to recovery, there is still a piece of me that feels sad every morning when I go in to work and see her sewing machine without her smiling face behind it.

So what does a bridal alterations manager do when it is in fact PEAK season and she tragically loses a key seamstress? Well, she hops behind the sewing machine herself, of course! And she pins the brides gowns herself at their fittings. And she does her best to keep everyone's spirits high despite the enormous influx of additional dresses to sew. It was about a month ago that the stroke happened and I'm proud to say that not only has the seamstress made great strides in her recovery, so has the alterations department. Because after all, the weddings are still going on as scheduled- whether I have a seamstress to sew the dresses or not.

It's been an emotional ride for all of us involved, and there have been some tough decisions made, but I'm happy to report that despite all the craziness, I think we're starting to get ourselves out of the weeds.

"Why haven't you replaced her?" so many brides have asked this question. Honestly? Finding a truly skilled bridal seamstress is difficult to do in the off-season. In the middle of the summer? It's impossible.

So here I am on my day off, finally starting to feel as though I can take a breath and relax and all I can think about is my outfit that I'm wearing to a friend's party this coming weekend. Who knows where the idea came from, but my friend Juhree is throwing what she calls "The Sailor's Garden Party." Where do I begin?

Why "the sailors?" you ask. Well, my boyfriend came to visit for my birthday a few months ago. We went out on the town with my very beautiful and very stylish coworkers and friends. At the end of the night, he remarked to me, "Your friends are just the prettiest bunch of sailors I've ever met!" When I looked at him quizzically, he explained, "Well, you know- with all the drinking and cursing." They embraced their new nickname with enthusiasm like I'd only seen when they're cracking open a fresh bottle of wine.

The "Garden Party" seems pretty straightforward- an outdoor affair with lawn games like croquet and badminton, right? Well, somewhere in the midst of all the planning, there came a discussion of appropriate attire for such an event. Effie Trinket served as the inspiration and guests have been encouraged to wear colorful, outlandish clothing, and to be sure to complete their outfit with a stylish hat or fascinator.

I've decided to wear a white dress that I made for myself a couple of years ago when I still lived in Pennsylvania- it's a perfect dress for an afternoon party:

Instead of the blue sash, I spent this morning creating a bright pink one with an enormous bow in the back. I also ordered a raspberry colored full-skirted petticoat from Petticoat Junction to really pump up the volume on the skirt. As for what hat to wear? Well, that's a surprise, but I'll tell you this: it's going to be a borrowed pieces that LITERALLY walked the fashion runway very recently. 

Unfortunately, even with the haute couture headpiece, it was all looking a bit too sweet- there wasn't enough of a funky edge to the outfit. Then I found these and it all came together: 

Enigma Floral Oxford Booties, DSW, $49.94

Only available online, I had to take a chance and get them. I think they are the perfect finishing touch to a zany look that I believe will be just right for this silly event. I'll be sure to take lots of photos and post them here or on facebook and twitter for you all to see. 

Have you had any fun parties to dress up for in the last few months? Leave a comment and tell me all about it! 

Some recent creations...

Over the last few weeks, I've been getting back into knitting. I did quite a bit of sewing in my free time this year, but winter is defeinitely a good time to get back into sewing. My good friend Brance just loves the stocking that I knit for him a couple of years ago. He loves it so much, he actually wanted a coordinating one to give to his girlfriend this Christmas. The only way to get a truly coordinating stocking made with the same pattern and yarn is to go right back to the source. 

You can see the original stocking I knit for Brance on this older post, and of course the coordinating one for his girlfriend here: 

I'm pretty excited about how it came out. This stocking is such a great one- it knits in just a couple of hours. the yarn is thick and chunky and the needles are size 13, so it really does go very quickly once you get started. It knits on double-pointed needles. The loop and pom-poms are my own addition to the pattern and  like how they came out! 

In addition to the stocking, I also managed to make a super snuggle-y infinity scarf for Juhree using a cream colored thick yarn. The pattern is simple- just popcorn stitch the whole way, then sew the ends together: 

So warm and cuddly! It took a little less than four skeins of yarn and about 6 hours to knit this scarf. The popcorn stitch looks great, but it uses a LOT of yarn. If you want to make one for yourself, just use size 10 1/2 needles and 4 balls of Wool-ease Thick & Quick Yarn in the color of your choice. Cast on 32 stitches and knit in popcorn stitch (K1,P1 across odd rows, P1, K1 across even rows) until the scarf measures 60 inches or so. Sew the ends together to create a loop. You'll be warm all winter in this gorgeous scarf.

Now that I'm done my projects, I really want to find a new one to work on. Rather than head to the store for more yarn, I'm going to see what left-over yarn I have kicking around and I'm going to see what I can do with what I have.

Do you knit or crochet? I'd love to see the projects you are working on! Email me or leave a comment to tell me all about it! Thanks for reading!

Speaking of weddings...

Yesterday I posted about my outfit for Beth & Micah's wedding, but today I want to share ANOTHER wedding outfit with you! Remember this dress? Well, here's a photo of Melanie at the wedding wearing it!

Is she sassy or what? I wish the photo showed the entire dress, but I will be bugging her until I get a really great photo of her in this dress! Her shoes were phenomenal as well (they were the all-black version of these, actually). I think she did a great job accessorizing the dress and I'm really thrilled with the final product. Thanks, Mel, for being a perfect Renee Terese client! You look amazing! 

Rate My Look in a Paper Bag Skirt- Hip or Ho-hum?

The paper bag waist skirt trend seems to be here to stay, or for another season or two, at least. The term comes from the way the top of the skirt looks like a paper bag that has been cinched at the top. I have never tried one on in a store, but lately the look has intrigued me. I was in a Banana Republic store not too long ago and saw a super cute one in mustard yellow. It was precious. At nearly $70, I decided it was best not to even try it on. After all, if I fell in love with it, I might somehow find a way to justify spending $70 on a trendy skirt when I know deep down what a terrible choice that would be. I found myself at the fabric store the other day and there was a fabulous bottom-weight poly twill in a bright, fun yellow and it was on sale- 40% off. So for twelve bucks instead of seventy, I now have a paper bag skirt.

The thing about this particular style is that it really shortens the torso even more than a traditional high-waist skirt. In order to look the most flattering, the paper bag skirt has to have the waistband at the natural waist and therefore the ruffled top of the "bag" is even higher than the natural waist. It really only works with a really fitted top and a short hemline. I am not entirely convinced that this is a look that will work for me, but since I'm only out $12, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. If you, however, are interested in trying your own paper bag skirt look, here are a few that I think are pretty cute: 

Frank Perry High Waisted Paper Bag Skirt, 6pm, $50.00

Shoshanna Teal Ikat Paper Bag Skirt, Bluefly, $171

Dash to Class Skirt, Modcloth, $54.99

Leifsdottir Brown Silk-Linen Paper Bag Skirt, Bluefly, $94.00

What's your take on this trend? Do you love it? Hate it? Don't understand it? Leave a comment and tell me what you think! My coworkers seemed to really like my yellow version of the trend, but what do you think?