Change of plans...

So it's looking like I'm not doing that contest at BurdaStyle after all. My main reasoning being this-- I was strongly suspecting that I didn't have much wiggle room when it came to the fabric for the vest I'd envisioned. I cut out the pieces for the pattern I wanted to base it off of and laid it out on the dress yesterday, and I was right-- there's no room for alteration to the original design. Or the lining, for that matter, which is a pretty crucial design element since you can see it. (My idea was to use the shiny underside of the same fabric, since this ended up being a hard-to-match brown.) Also, I have a gift for my cousin's fiancee's bridal shower that I need to cut out and sew by next Saturday (an apron, so it shouldn't take long, but still) and my own dress/jewelry for the same wedding to make asap. And I have that Burda jacket that I've been meaning to make for 2 years that I'd like to get done while I can still wear 3/4 sleeves. So I've decided that, given how quickly my weeks keep filling up, I'd be better off not putting that additional pressure of another sewing deadline on myself.

So yesterday, I started the dress instead. My plan is to cut out and sew the apron, or at least as much of it as I can, tomorrow after church. I lost last night and this morning to dogsitting, this afternoon to baking with my mom and sis-in-law (apple pies! Yum!) and will be losing tonight to social time, but at least when I was dogsitting I was able to get some jewelry-making done. I don't think the dress will take long to make, especially since it's a knit and so I can sew the seams and finish the edges simultaneously. But I do have to make some changes to the original design, so I'm figuring those out.

This vest will get made, though. I like the idea for the pattern variation too much to not give it a shot, and the dress is already in pieces. I just need to go to Joann's and see if they have some more of that fabric so I have enough to, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, make it work.

Thrift store scores

....mostly, anyway. I do have one purchased piece at the end that I need some styling help with, so stay tuned!

Other than sewing, the main way that I've gotten clothes into my wardrobe ever since I was a teenager has been thrift shopping. I got away from that a bit after I stopped doing the Wardrobe Refashion pledges (mainly because I desperately needed pants for work, and that's the one thing I've never had much luck with buying used--or new, for that matter--stupid pants. One of these days I will conquer fitting you!) But I've been getting back into it lately, mainly because I have a friend that I go with pretty much every time we hang out. I like it because you can find some really unique stuff, and it's usually a lot less expensive! So I just wanted to share some of the things I've found over the last couple of months.

These are some of my favorite finds this year. From the top: a long zipped-up vest thing (not quite long enough for even a mini-dress, but it'll be great for one of the concerts I'm going to later this summer!), a printed wrap top, an Asian print cross-over top, a striped blouse, and a mock-wrap top. Figures that most of them are crazy prints-- I just can't seem to stay away from them!

I often see fun details on them that I want to try and pull into my sewing, too. Like the pleats on the sleeve of the wrap top. Or this gathering detail on the green top--it's hard to see because of the print, but that was what drove me to buy it after I tried it on (the print was what grabbed me, of course!) The black and white pinstriped blouse is a kind of sedate print for me, but I loved the closure detail--it's a bunch of hooks and eyes rather than a button or zipper. (Which pretty much demands I wear a cami underneath in case of wardrobe malfunction, but I'll be warmer in the fall and winter that way anyway!)

Now for the styling help:

I can't really say this was an impulse buy for me-- I literally debated it for weeks, watched it go out of stock and come back in a couple of times, before finally getting the Thekkady vest from ModCloth. After going through my little style project, I decided it might be fun to try and pull vests into my wardrobe again, and this one was pretty cute. The only problem is, now that I own it, I realized that I have absolutely no idea what to wear with it! I don't have a lot of solid-colored tops, and many of the ones I have are V-necks or have other detailing that would make it difficult to wear with this. Not sure what, if anything, would work with it in the way of prints or dresses, either. So in order to actually make this work in my wardrobe and justify my purchase, I need to figure out what to wear with it (or what to sew to wear with it)! So any suggestions are welcome!

And with that, I'll now return you to your regularly scheduled crafty-related posts...after I write another one, of course!