by thedemuremuse on September 19, 2011
I had no idea it was going to be so cold in Seattle when I moved here!! The forecast for the weekend I arrived said temperatures of 80+ and just overnight it got suuuuuper cold. :(
Since I had my priorities straight while shopping for furniture and picked up a pair of knitting needles before a kitchen table, I spent a couple hours a night working on a knitted cowl for the chilly days ahead. It’s been such a long time since I last knitted and since I have yet to get cable installed, this was a nice way to unwind at the end of the day.
outfit details: cowl – self made | top – c/o Karen Kane | jeans – Gap
moccasins – Walmart | glasses – Derek Cardigan (model 7005)
by thedemuremuse on August 23, 2011
This summer’s been quite the productive one in terms of closet cleaning! Since the end of May, I’ve donated close to 4 garbage bags full of clothes that no longer fit/pieces that I no longer wear. I kept a couple or t-shirts and pants with interesting prints of textures for future reconstruction projects. The sad thing is, every time I clean my closet, I
always put aside pieces I plan on reworking and it just never happens! The clothes either end up sitting in my room for over a year and I lose interest in revisiting them so they get donated or I end up passing the pieces along to roommates because handing them off takes less time than having to plan reconstructions.
The shirt in this reconstruction was only ever worn twice: in the winter 30 for 30 remix and when I tried it on in the change room of the store. UGH! I hate whenever I buy a piece of clothing with the intention of incorporating it into my “regulars” and it ends up getting lost in the rest of my wardrobe. Here it is in all of its box-fitting, v-neck glory:
I followed the sweetheart yoke tutorial over at Syl & Sam’s blog (the sweet ladies of Lipgloss & Black!) and made a few minor changes. Instead of using a see-through mesh for the yoke I used cream-coloured jersey knit. I also added a banded trim for the armholes instead of a coverstitch hem.
This was the first time I ever attempted a sweetheart yoke and I think it turned out pretty cute! The only thing I regret is making this shirt a bit too short. The bottom band sits right above my hips and looks a little strange when it’s not tucked into a highwaisted skirt/shorts. :(
p.s. I was too excited to post about this reconstruction that I forgot to iron the shirt before taking photos of it. oopsies! *fingers crossed* this shirt gets worn more often than the original v-neck!
by thedemuremuse on April 1, 2011
It’s been a whirlwind of craziness over the last couple of weeks. Between all the meetings, late night coding parties, and having to prepare what feels like a million and one presentations to demo a project a partner and I have been working on for the last 8 months, I’ve been trying to find time to play with my pliers. Lately, I’ve been really drawn to florals of all sorts– must be the fact that I’m so sick of seeing snow on the ground and desperately want spring weather NOWNOWNOW!
Here’s the latest set of designs I’ve come up with. I call them Sweet Nothings because of the little touch of girliness and old-school charm they bring to any outfit. I can’t help but be in love with the hand carved flowers (one of my best finds this winter!).
Aside from the necklace making, I’ve been experimenting with cream eyeliners. Thanks to all of your suggestions in one of my earlier posts about daily makeup routines, I decided to try out the cream eyeliners from e.l.f. I was actually recommended to try MAC’s fluidline, but I ended up going with e.l.f. instead since I wasn’t sure if I wanted to invest $16 on a single pot of eyeliner. For $3 a pop with e.l.f., I couldn’t say no. I ended up buying a few colors (black, gunmetal, ivory, and purple) to test it out.
It’s official: I’ve been converted from a liquid eyeliner to a cream liner! I’ve definitely cut down my prep time from 10 minutes to 2. I can’t tell you how much I love the cream liners and the fact that they don’t take (what seems like) forever to dry after application! Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU for your recommendations!!
by thedemuremuse on December 6, 2010
One of my roommates always comments on the fact that my everyday go-to earrings are boring. I’ll admit that I am a minimalist (hah, couldn’t you tell from my monochromatic wardrobe?) and tend to be drawn to dainty studs over dangly earrings. I had a bit of time this morning to put together a mini craft project so I treated myself to a pair of earrings that are outside of my usual comfort zone.
I used a cluster of asymmetrically lengthed chains for this piece. I guess it’s hard to see in the photos, but there’s a mixture of gold and silver. As much as I enjoyed the feelings of girliness that these earrings gave me, I think I still prefer studs. I can’t imagine how impractical these earrings would be if I wore my hair down. I can just picture a huge tangled mess. No thanks!
I’ve been doing a bit of self photography these days since my roommates are pretty busy. Apparently I enjoy taking photos with cars (that are not mine). lol! Actually, the truth is that I was too shy to take my tripod out to the garage. I didn’t want to risk someone pulling in and seeing me awkwardly smiling – by myself, no less – for a photo. The windows in the garage are set up in such a way that I couldn’t avoid a photo with cars. Whoops!
Outfit details: sweater – TJ Maxx | black vneck – Forever 21 | jeans – Guess | boots – Urban Planet | earrings – self made
P.S. I feel like Rudolph. My nose was all pink when I got inside from being out in the cold. I ended up chickening out and taking photos in the garage since it was hailing pellets of ice this morning. Sadly, a covered outdoor garage only prevents being attacked on by ice pellets and isn’t much warmer than being outside.
by thedemuremuse on December 1, 2010
I know, it’s Wednesday and this post is supposed to be wordless but I couldn’t help myself! I wanted to share with you the secret project that I mentioned earlier in November (wow, can you believe it’s already December?!) as it has already been received!
I made an eco-felt iPod case for my friend’s iPod based on this vector graphic:
It was a ton of fun cutting out felt. It’s been so long since I’ve had time to sit down and craft that I forgot what it was like to make something from scratch!
I started with free-hand cutting all of the pieces. I don’t like to trace on felt because you get pen/marker marks all over the place. It gets too messy in general so I just eyeball everything.
From here, I used my handy dandy sewing kit (complete with 12 different thread colors! haha, ok, this is my travel set) to fix the pieces to the outside of the case. I cut another rectangular piece of the same size but in white to line the case with. I picked a softer acrylic felt for the lining since the eco felt seemed a little stiff and scratchy. I definitely did not want to scratch any iPods…
After stitching the face on, I did a blanket stitch around the outer edges and the opening.
Ta-daaaaaaaaaaa! All done! : )
