Dress Me Up Like a Doll - republished!

It appears Blogger thoroughly ate my Paper Doll Project outfit post from last Wednesday, and never returned it! So here it is again, republished. Apologies if you've already read this. Now I'm glad I subscribe to my feed via email so I have copies of posts!

Today's outfit is part of the Paper Doll Project, started by Suze of Miss Vinyl Ahoy. Two bloggers are paired up, each picks an item they'd like in an outfit, and the other designs them an outfit for the day incorporating that item. I had the pleasure to be paired up with Laura from A La Mode et Plus. If you haven't seen her lovely blog yet, go over
and take a look!

For today, I wanted to see if Laura could figure out an outfit for me incorporating a pair of Chinese Laundry embroidered velvet wedges that I had seen on sale several years ago, fallen in love with, bought, and promptly never worn. Which is tragic, because they're so pretty! Look:


So Laura styled me up a fun pattern-mixing outfit for the day, incorporating my polka-dot skirt and blue belt.


Details: polka-dot skirt, thrifted and shorted by me. Blouse, thrifted. Belt, thrifted. Shoes, Chinese Laundry. Ring, gift (used to be my mother's). Watch, gift.


I like the polka dots and floral print together. Not a combination I would have tried without some prodding, but fun to wear.

You know what the trickiest part of the outfit was, though? Laura had specified that I wear a ring...which made me realize that I really don't wear rings. As in, at all. Ever. I think the last time I wore rings around regularly I was probably elementary-school-aged This one, from a box of old jewelry of my mother's that she'd given me a number of years ago, happened to match the belt...but I definitely was fiddling with it much of the day! Anyone else distracted by having things on their hands/wrists? Or is this just something I'd get used to if I wore more cocktail rings? (Which I've been tempted to do, seeing others pull off all sorts of fun accents...)


Hope everyone is having a good middle of the week! It's gray and drizzly still, here, which makes it hard for me to really focus... something about not being able to tell that time is passing during the day really throws off my sense of timing, I think.

Also, check out Laura's blog later to see how I styled her in this vest!

And now, after this blast from the past, I return you to your regular Monday.

New dress refashion

It appears Blogger ate my last Paper Doll Project post and hasn't restored it, so I will post that again in a day or so if it doesn't come back up!

This week was pretty quiet, so I had a couple of relaxing evenings at home trying to dive into my refashioning pile. One of the items that emerged was this dress/coverup/thingie:


I'd gotten three of these cheap cover-ups that had been tossed into the dollar-a-pound pile, intending to piece together the fabric into a 60's-style dress. I actually managed to get the fabric for a new dress (made from a vintage pattern) out of just one of them, so I've got two more to play with still! Any ideas on what I should do with the rest of the fabric?


This was the second dress I'd made from this particular pattern...the first was an orange dress I'd hinted at a couple of weeks ago but haven't gotten decent pictures of yet. This time I'd fixed some of the errors that I'd made in the first attempt (like putting in the zipper too low), and I think this one turned out fairly well!


Hmm, you can see my slip in this one! I do like the back of the dress, though...I'll be using this pattern again, now that I've got the details worked out.

Details: Dress, refashioned. Belt, thrifted. Leggings, H&M, thrifted. Sandals, Miz Mooz, thrifted. Pink cardigan, thrifted.


Hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far! It's fairly quiet around here, which is nice for a change. Time for some organizing and cleaning, even a bit of reading and digging back into the sewing pile...

FFB: Culture Porn's Alexa on Men and Feminism

(Today's post is a guest post from Alexa at Culture Porn. As members of the Feminist Fashion Bloggers, Alexa and I are swapping posts today, both looking at the role of men in feminism. You can find my post on Alexa's blog.)

Hello, my name is Alexa and I write a blog called Culture Porn, which can be found here.

I think it's safe to say that there is one fundamental misconception about feminism. The irritating thing is, this misconception is embedded within the name: feminism. As if the term, and everything that goes with it, can only be applied to the female gender. Now, I am of the belief that the feminist movement will always remain a movement - a group with ideas and opinions contrary to the popular grain - without a male edge. This earth has a lot of males in it, and for people to think that feminism is an exclusively female preoccupation is hindering its ideas and indeed, support.

A lot of feminists neglect the fact that males are perfectly capable of being feminists too. After all, the idea of gender equality cannot be applied to only one gender. And indeed, of the males I asked, every single one of them shunned the idea of feminism. It was only after I rephrased the question; "do you believe in gender equality?" (as opposed to "are you a feminist?") did I get a response. The power of a name eh?

So I suppose, the issue facing feminism right now is how to remove this misconception. Is it just all about a name, or are there other factors at play as to why males tend to refute the fem in feminism? I'm sure there are some men out there who actively reject gender equality due to a number of draconian concepts; a cling to tradition, dominance, social spheres, religion, cultural expectations, taboos. But i'm equally sure that they are a minority. I keep my confidence in the modern, educated male who appreciates the immense value and humanity behind gender equality, even if the name feminism is decidedly 'girly'. Although a revamp of the English dictionary would go a way in helping this, I think trust must be placed in curiosity; that the modern, educated man I previously spoke of will do his research before casting off the title of a feminist.

On a side note, I just want to say that I do not consider women who dislike men as feminists. Equality swings both ways, after all.

(If you like this, go check out Alexa's great blog full of art, feminism and fashion. And check out the other FFB posts in today's roundup!)

Bright Flowers for a Gray Day

Today's outfit is part of Everybody Everywear, a monthly event where style bloggers all take a particular clothing item or pattern and incorporate that into their outfits on the same day. May's pick was "florals," so I decided to use that as an excuse to wear this incredibly bright floral dress that hadn't made it out of my closet yet. The day's gloomy weather wasn't completely consistent with my cheery outfit, though! Hence the layering...


The dress is vintage from probably the 60's or 70's, and came via a neighbor of my mom's who was cleaning out her attic and passed on a handful of items to me. It actually has a trapeze shape that's just overwhelming on me. I found recently that belting it gives it a shape that suits my body much better.


Dress: vintage, gifted. Sweater, thrifted. Tights, LOFT. Shoes, Jeffrey Campbell via Ebay.


Look at that bright pattern! I was glad I finally had the nerve to wear this out in public. Through my last year or so really playing more with my outfits and keeping this blog, the range of clothing I'm comfortable wearing has really expanded.

Hope everyone's week has been going well! I had a busy last week and weekend, finishing up a couple of projects, making a dress for a wearable art show, and spending the weekend at a festival where one of my art installations was included. Lots of fun, now trying to figure out what my next projects look like!