This post reminded me that I've been meaning to make a category that exists to serve my clothing/shopping/thrifting/redesigning devotion. So, now it is there, to the right in the margins...entitled "Fashiony Things". But back to the title of this post.
This outfit is composed entirely of re-designed, dyed, sewed, restructured, and embellished clothing. Well, not my little victorian-schoolgirl boots or socks, but the rest of it.
I am a girl who not only goes thrifting and sees potential in the cheapy and potentially cute $4 sweater, I see that same potential when shopping for brand new things as well. Take this outfit...
The cardigan began its life as a pure, bright white cardigan, which was promptly dyed a tea-stain color, taken in, and had the sweet red/mustard polka "collar" stitched on. The green dress beneath it began life as basic a polyester party dress, which got some charm from a bath in the tea-stain, some snipping, and the addition of patch pockets.
I am picky & persnickety, and I alter a good percentage of everything I buy, new or thrifted. Painting brass candlesticks, taking in frumpy sweaters, adding cute buttons to a blah top, it's one my favorite activities. I mentioned watching Carnivale again recently, and I think that is why I'm having to restrain myself from throwing everything made of natural fibers into the tea-colored pot of dye bubbling on the stove. The dyes cries out: "But everything in your wardrobe could look as if you just emerged, adorable of course, from a dust storm during the depression. Doesn't that sound perfect?"
The reason I end up buying mostly new clothes and altering them to appear more vintage and storybook is because, let's be honest, the revelation that is super-soft jersey and comfy knits in general cannot be ignored. It is a dream of mine to one day, maybe soon, do a line of limited edition (maybe 5-of-a-kind pieces, unless, say, Anthropologie wants to invest in and carry my collection) quirky, vintage-inspired, feminine clothing and handbags. Picking from my favorite decades, and my romantic notions of said decades but with the added advantage of comfort and wearability. The rub here is that I am not at all a proficient garment-from-the-ground-up sewer. I am, however, a pretty great alter-er and embellish-er, so we'll see what I can come up with. When I start designing clothing to sell (rather than just populating my wardrobe) I will name the line "Persnickety", because (besides being a wonderful word) it sums up the way I feel when I cannot find what I am looking for at any clothing store, website or boutique.
But enough about my imagined business, before I go I'd like to mention my actual shop, which I am planning on updating with new dolls, paintings, and drawings on Tuesday. I'm going to try doing actual updates when I can and posts lots of new things at once, rather than letting them trickle in. I don't know...it just seems more exciting. And official. So we'll try it for a while, and see how that works. I'll certainly be back before then, but I've got a mental checklist of all that I want to get done this weekend. Including locking myself in the studio. Also including Children of Men aka Time with Clive.
xoxo
PS: For those just as eager for Pan's Labyrinth to come to their city, I checked on the official website and there is a helpful list of what week it is scheduled to arrive in the various cities. I wondered how that cutie Janelle knew when it would be rolling into Philly...
