Craft Projects for the New Year

Today I thought I'd share some of the craft projects that are inspiring me to make things in the next few months. I'm hoping to work on some stash-busting, going along with the decluttering resolution. Last year I at least made some progress with the stash-organizing...now to keep using what I've stockpiled!

I definitely want to make some progress with my stash of vintage patterns (mostly acquired via Ebay a couple of years ago). Working through a few of these would help with my fabric stash and my sewing skills...

Source: My Vintage Crafts

Also on my list are some lace-covered skirts and dresses. I have literally a dresser drawer full of lace and lacy pieces...thrifted curtains and tablecloths, bits of lace trim, etc. I've made one lace-covered skirt, but have materials for more!

Source: etsy.com via Elly on Pinterest

Source: outsapop.com via Elly on Pinterest

I'm also hoping to do some home-decor projects. Don't you love this paper-backed shelf?

Source: flickr.com via Elly on Pinterest

I've been wanting to re-cover some of the accent pillows on my couch and armchairs. I love the idea of using bold floral fabric like this:

Source: downandoutchic.blogspot.com via Elly on Pinterest

I also need to find some new crocheting projects to help me work through my giant yarn stash (mostly via Freecycle). I'd made a few holiday presents - an afghan for a friend and some baby hats for my boyfriend's young cousins - and am now just about done with a giant furry cowl scarf, looking for new patterns.

Maybe some of these Tea Cup Bunnies?

Source: littlegreen.typepad.com via Elly on Pinterest

Or a pullover?

Source: lionbrand.com via Elly on Pinterest

Anyone have any exciting crafting/DIY projects you're looking forward to tackling this year?

FBFF: Feeling Inspired

This week and last week, we're celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Fashion Beauty Friend Friday (Congratulations, Katy Rose!) As part of this, we're looking at the first set of FBFF questions, about what inspires us.

1. Which celebrity (celebrities) do you look to for fashion inspiration?
I don't really follow celebrities for fashion inspiration. There are celebrities whose views on fashion I find inspiring (like Sarah Jessica Parker, who basically wears what she finds wonderful/beautiful all the time), but I don't generally follow what celebrities wear or their general style. I'm more inspired by vintage movie stars like Audry Hepburn...and that perhaps less for their individual style, and more about the style of the era they come from.


Source

Say what you like about this dress on Sarah Jessica, it's definitely a bold and personal statement!

2. When it comes to your own personal style, what inspires you?
I have to say that these days my primary source of style inspiration is other fashion bloggers! Before I got into the fashion/style blogging world, I mostly viewed fashion/style as something that required buying the "trendy new items" that magazines demanded you wear. As I wasn't doing that, my personal style primarily was influenced by what I found comfortable. Fashion/style bloggers showed me that style can be the art of combining the clothing I already own, finding amazing pieces at thrift stores, incorporating vintage clothes with their own history, and creating a look that works for me, personally. Enjoying trends, perhaps, but fitting them into a real person's life. Treating clothing as fun, self-expression, a joyful statement. Seeing clothing as something to make or alter to suit my own taste and interests, to fit to my own body (as it is, not an idealized version). Engaging thoughtfully and playfully with clothing. Wearing a world's worth of clothing in hundreds of different, individual ways.

Occasionally I still look to fashion magazines for some inspiration, even more rarely to the runways. I'll also sometimes get an idea from people I see on the street or riding on subway. But my primary source of inspiration from other people is definitely style bloggers!


Image from Dear Golden Vintage

Besides that, textures and patterns and beautiful fabrics inspire me to wear them (or at least have them in my closet). I love lace and velvet and silk and beading and ruffles and clothing with elegant lines. I really like unique patterns. In general, clothing that is aesthetically and tactilely pleasing to me is a huge inspiration.

For some more things that are currently inspiring me, check out my Fashion Inspiration board on Pinterest

3. How do you hope to inspire your readers?
I hope I can give my readers some examples of wearing what I love and having fun with personal style even in an environment that doesn't require attention to style. I would like to inspire my readers to be creative with thrifting and refashioning clothing, and realize that refashioning doesn't have to require a lot of sewing skill. I also hope to get people thinking about some topics or points about style in ways they might not have otherwise.

4. Outside the realm of fashion who/what inspires you?
Goodness, a lot of things. As a performing artist, I am often quite inspired by dance and theater and music. A powerful performance is incredibly inspiring to me, as are the people who create them (the Punchdrunk theater company, Pina Bausch, Bill T. Jones, many others...). The other people at my lab are also doing amazing, fascinating, creative things and inspire me every day!


Pina Bausch's "Nelken." Source

The members of the Feminist Fashion Bloggers inspire me that fashion can be thoughtful and empowering. Bloggers who deal with positive body image like Sal have been huge influences on me. (okay, these are kind of fashion-related, but I felt they fit better in the general inspiration category...)

5. Which songs inspire you?
I've been on a big Imogen Heap kick for quite a while now. Also always love the orchestral works of Karl Jenkins (especially "Passacaglia"). The soundtrack to the film Once. Lots of musical theater stuff. I've got some fairly eclectic taste in music...

Hope everyone's having a good Friday evening and some nice plans for the weekend! I'm mostly going to be relaxing and continuing to get things in order from my crazy last month or so. Then I have the first rehearsal Sunday for a piece that I'm choreographing and hope to have performed in just two weeks. That's going to be a bit of an intense rehearsal period, I suspect...choreographic mind, don't fail me now!

Inspiration from Super Kawaii Mama: Imagine a New Wardrobe

A couple of weeks ago I'd come across this post on Super Kawaii Mama and was inspired to join in! The basic idea is that you select four images representing your dreamscape, then create an outfit inspired by those images, using only items you already own.

As a performance artist/designer, I tend to keep "image banking" folders on my computer full of inspirational images I've come across (though often these images are tragically source-less! Someone needs to develop an image saving program that makes it really easy to capture source information as well. Or please tell me about one, if it exists already...I've had no luck searching for such a thing.)

In any case: I started with these images:








Some of the things that I really loved about these images and wanted to try translating into clothing were the color palette (especially the deep red and yellow/orange on top of black backgrounds), flowing/draping/fluid materials, a sense of play (the umbrellas), gold lace-like metal, and dangling rich-colored items (like the lanterns).

And this is what I came up with, and wore to work over a week ago on the last day before I left on my crazy opera adventure (more on that later...)

I'd say this was definitely successful as a wardrobe reworking...it's an outfit I would not have come up with on my own, but that came together from the colors and textures I was trying to find. (I only own one really yellow item of clothing, it seems, and it's this shirt. Who knew?) The necklace and earrings took care of the gold chain and dangling orange orbs, I wore the black skirt and tank for the mostly-black base, then layered the closest colors I had over that.


Yellow shirt: Forever 21, thrifted. Red wrap shirt: thrifted. Black skirt: thrifted. Black tank: Ann Taylor, thrifted. Sandals: Miz Mooz, thrifted. Necklace: handmade from vintage/upcycled parts and a vintage brooch. Earrings: handmade. Bag: thrifted.


Hope everyone has been having a good week! (ah, I guess the week's just starting...with rehearsals all weekend, I forgot that fact. Only a few days to go until the show!)