trial & error

So I finally got around to going to Goodwill and Hobby Lobby (craft store) yesterday in an effort to get my heart sweater project started. After rummaging through racks for almost 3 hours, I finally found a grey henley sweater that I thought could possibly work and came home to wash it. I spent the next few hours sewing on a few hundred sequins and a bead outline by hand and these are the conclusions I've reached so far:

Problem #1) Henley style sweaters just won't do, especially whilst sewing by hand. It's not impossible, but it's really hard to work with because sometimes it will catch weird, resulting in little snags (see the detail picture below) and 3 broken needles.



^ Shirt from hell! ^

Solution) I'm going to be ordering one of these plain terry pullovers from Forever21. I can't decide if I should stick with the heather grey - same as the Topshop sweater - or get the purple (purple would require getting different colored beads/sequins since that's what I have now)...



Problem #2) My hands kind of hurt.

Solution) given I'll be using an easier fabric next time and doing WAY less sequins per heart, I think it would still be stupid to do it by hand (and as you can see, my sewing by hand is shoddy at best) so I'll definitely be using my cousin's sewing machine.



Problem #3) Heart stencil, sequin shape/size, beads

Solution) I made the executive decision to use a different heart shape than what Topshop used because I just generally like a rounder shaped heart, rather than elongated. Well, that really doesn't seem to be best for this project... price of being power hungry!!! BLAST! But that's an easy fix. I also need to get different sequins &/or beads, less 3D sequins and shorter beads- although I do love the beads, I'll probably get little dot ones and use them interchangeably.





So, yeah! That's where I'm at one that project as of now! I'm surprisingly not deflated by the failed first attempt, perhaps even more excited for the new/finished project, because I think the changes will work out swimmingly! I also haven't really lost anything because I can use these materials for other things and I've only spent $12 so far!


Let me know if you have any suggestions for my next try that I haven't thought of yet. :)

Challenge- Days 4 thru 7

Day 4- A shirt that you haven't worn yet.

Just a mustard colored blouse from Macy's. Not quite sure why I even own this, I probably thought at the time that it was a more breathable fabric than it actually is- feels pretty stuffy once you have it on. Maybe it will get used for a job interview or something of that sort.


Day 5- Your favorite pair of jeans.
Black super skinny jeans from Pacsun. I used to work there so I just wore some variation of these everyday. These ones are also slightly destroyed/frayed, including the knees which have gotten a bit *too* destroyed :-/


Day 6- A pair of pants that aren't jeans.
These also haven't been worn yet. They're white with pinstripes by Ralph Lauren. I think we got them for around $50 whereas they were originally $179- can't pass up a bargain!


Day 7- A cute outfit of yours.
Half sleeve knit lightweight sweater from Ann Taylor Loft in either light blue or light pink, front pleat soft grey/ivory pattern skirt from Forever 21, short wedge open toe shoes by Calvin Klein.

C&A challenge days 2 and 3

Day 2: Your favorite shirt.





I know this one's pretty boring looking, it's much cooler in person. It's a thin, grey with pinkish-corally stripes hi-lo top from forever21, but the cool part is that the whole back of the shirt has these seashell looking buttons down the length of it. yeah... still not that cool, but HEY- you can't help who you love.

Day 3: A piece of clothing or jewelry that was a gift.



these are both gifts from my dad from some little jewelry place in/near blackpool, england. (a necklace and silver bracelet with squares of the same seashell looking stuff as the buttons on the shirt.

Clothes & Accessories 30 Day Challenge!

Hi-llo! So I've decided to begin the challenge by the name posted above! I've been thinking about doing it for a while but my closet was always looking pretty scarce and messy and just, not good! However, with my cleaning (which has started to go in reverse unfortunately) I decided it'd be best to do it now. As far as I know this challenge was created by the Tumblr user "Dirtylittlestylewhoree", at least that's where I found out about it! I'll post the layout of the challenge, as well as the pictures for the first day below!

Xx



Day 1- Post a picture (or a few, in my case) of your closet!