Help! My Luggage Got Lost - What Do I Wear??

My latest post is up over at Goodwill and it's all about what to do when your luggage goes missing!  I picked up a few things (under $20 total) to work out a week's worth of outfits to wear while you wait for your suitcases to return.  Head on over HERE to GW for the full post!

Also, this piece is getting some love tomorrow.  It's sparkly...

It's blue...

 It's connected at the shoulders!!  This two-piecer is technically a one-piecer because it's all attached.

See how this becomes über chic tomorrow.  For realz.

Copycat: Michael Kors Lace Dress

I was first turned onto this gorgeous Michael Kors dress when I saw Kerry Washington wearing it on Scandal last season. It was a piece that I always kept in the back of my mind and when I scored the perfect white dress, my remake was on!! (For those Scandal fans, you can head over here to HelloGiggles to read the post with the full TV tie in!)

Here is the actual Michael Kors' dress...

The key to this piece is the structure – a good white shift dress base will do the trick! My copycat piece is from Dorothy Perkins and it had virtually the same structure as the Michael Kors piece above. I had been keeping my eyes peeled for the right white dress for a while - it was always on my "thrift list" when I was scouring the racks.

Here’s a rundown of the supplies you’ll need:

1. Black lace trim (This is something that you can get from your local fabric store. I went with the widest trim I could find to mimic the thickness on the original piece., but if you can't find a thick trim, you can always stitch two smaller pieces together.)

2. Sewing machine/needle & thread/safety pins – any tool that will affix the lace to the dress.

3. White dress (the Dorothy Perkins one I used is on major sale now!)

The first step is to attach your lace to the center of the dress. I pinned the lace in place all the way around the torso of the dress.

Depending on which method you choose, either safety pin the lace in place (this is great if you don't want to fully commit to the lace around the center of your dress), hand sew the lace down, or use a sewing machine to stitch the lace in place. I used my sewing machine and chose a zig zag stitch to allow for a bit of stretch, since the dress was made of a ribbed waffle material.

That's it! Two easy steps and the copycat look is complete!

It's a chic party dress or something that could work layered with a blazer or jacket to give it a more profesh look.

We could be fierce twinsies, amirite??

Guns blazing in my new, Michael Kors lookalike piece...

...just cause I beat spending $500 for this look by a landslide! Happy girl :)

Outfit Remake: Velvet Babydoll Dress

Happy January 6th, friends!! I took a little new year road trip break last week and headed to a place that I had never been to - the Grand Canyon!  It was magical!  I'm back in action now, woo (!!), and this one was brought on the road with me.  It also happens to be one of my favorite photo sequences.

I saw this velvet babydoll dress in a pile of goodies and got it solely because of the rad lace collar and the pearly buttons.

It was hard to tell in my hands that it was tiny, but once I put it on and tried to get it over my chestal area...we were having some issues.  No amount of sucking in was gonna get this bad boy on.

The more I tried to get it on, the worse it was trying to take it off.

I had some serious work on my hands!!

I wanted to maintain the parts of the piece that I loved the most, so in figuring out how this would work on me, I decided to cut the piece in two.  A top portion (that isn't getting used this go) and the bottom portion which is going to become my new skirt.

I used a rotary cutter to trim the piece in half...

...but left a bit of velvet at the top of the skirt part.  There were two ties attached to the seam of the velvet portion, so I left this area intact.  I was going to take off all the velvet and add accents at the pockets, but I liked that the velvet was going to look like a belt or sash.  I didn't need to add a button or zipper because the skirt fit over my head and the sashes cinched the waist, however adding either one of these would work well.

I stitched down a new seam at the waist...

...and had a skirt ready for the first stop on my road trip to the GC!!

I paired my skirt with a white Ralph Lauren button-down that I've had for years, a pair of tights, and my most comfortable leopard flats (they were super easy to pack too!)

I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel (got a STEAL using the Hotel Tonight app - $40 for the night...) and loved that all of their elevators had quotes from songs with "elevator" in the lyrics.  I tried my best peace sign/sunglasses on at 9am look to shoot this one.

It was the perfect thing to wear - the weather was just cool enough to make the tights and long sleeves comfortable without needing a jacket!

I think my sunglasses stayed on the whole time.  That's what happens when you mix gambling (I met a rad group from TX and one of their names was actually Bradley Cooper - he also wore mismatched shoes on purpose, so there you go), people smoking inside, and lack of sleep for me :)

I must say, this Vegas trip was super tame - I made a sequined dress last time for the wedding of one of my BFFs at Madame Tussaud's and will have to bring the sequins back for my next LV trip!

Viva Las Vegas!!