Week 4: Tie It Up Tuesday!

It's been a super busy past few days, so apologies for the lack of blog posts.  Let's see...I've been hustling and pulling all nighters getting the copyedited manuscript ready to turn in (woo for fedexing first thing tomorrow morning!), packing again for another trip to Texas tomorrow for a super fun project that will be utilizing the below set... Virtual workspace!

...and shooting a little video that someone very cool will be showing/airing in a few days.  Everything is still kinda hush, hush, so as details arise, I will share them all with you guys, my online family :)

I'm pretty much a character in The Walking Dead right now - the human with zombielike tendencies (bumping into things/bags under the eyes/on the prowl looking for sleep instead of blood) - however I carved out a two hour break this weekend to get hungry and hit up the games (I thought the movie held up well!)

To thank you for your patience, I'm giving away some spring-ish scarves to ring in the new season!!

Scarf Party!

Leave a comment below with the one thing you're most excited about for the upcoming spring/summer season and five winners will be picked randomly.  Congrats to Barb who won the copy of Mend It Better!

I'm excited for a fun site relaunch and countdown to when the book comes out.  Daily blogging will be back in effect and I couldn't be more excited!!

Week 5: Happy Hunger Games!

So, I'm a newly obsessed Hunger Games-ian.  Finished the book while delayed in the airport terminal earlier this week and now can't wait to see the big screen version.  If you had asked me a few weeks ago my thoughts on all the hoopla, I would have said no big deal.  Now you ask me that same question...I say I already bought my movie tix for this weekend. It's here!

Fabulous reader Janet submitted some ridiculously amazing Hunger Games costumes that she made to tie into a fun school fashion show with her students and I just had to share on the eve of the movie event!  I wish Janet was my teacher when I was in school!

"Your blog has been a constant inspiration and my students are about to come to school in their ensembles.

I started with my inspiration: a character name Effie Trinket, played by Elizabeth Banks.  In the futuristic society of these books, the wealthy Capitol inhabitants take fashion to the extreme and for the movie, they chose to go with exaggerated proportions in the costumes.  When it came time for me to plan my costume, I took my cue from the film... 

Effie & Katniss

...and decided to hunt for vintage 80s pieces with shoulder pads and puffy sleeves.  In my quest, I found a pink dress for a few dollars at a local Savers.  It had stripes that reminded me of the moire fabric of Effie's jacket and was a fun shade of pink.  I cut the bib down the middle and couldn't detach it without undoing the fabulously shoulder padded shoulders, so I let the halves hang until I figured out what to do with them.  I knew I wanted a V neck top, so taking a trick from your blog, I cut the top down the center, folded in the sides how I wanted and stitched it down.

Janet - Before

Next, I played with the bib remnants until I decided they'd make a fabulous oversized collar.  I just tacked them in place along one point near each shoulder as well as in the middle.  I used the fabric left over from the skirt to make the three flowers, attached them to a ribbon scrap, added some snaps and voilà - a necklace!

Janet - After

I paired the pieces with a thrift store JC Penney wool skirt, black textured tights and some high heels and to make the fascinator type head flower, I bought two artificial flowers, dis-assembled them and then hot-glued the petals onto a piece of felt to make one giant flower."

Oh and PS...this costume won Ms. Janet second place in a contest run by E! to win premiere tickets.  (You can check out all the finalists here!)  She would have gotten my vote!!

Another costumes she magnificently created...

Golden Effie!

..inspired by this...

Banksy

...and there's more!!  This one rocked too...

More Effie!

She even shared a look into her Effie Trinket dressing room!!

Where the crafty magic happens!

Not only were Janet's costumes amazing, her students did a killer job as well!  They received $20 gift certificates to Savers to put their outfits together with - love that everyone was thrifting to create their pieces!!

The winner...

The Hunger Games winner!

...the runner up...

The runner up!

It's like they both had their own personal Cinnas styling them!   There's nothing like a costume party, especially when it's at school :)

Janet, thank you SO much for sharing the creativity of you and your students.  "And may the odds be ever in your favor."

Week 5: SXSW Day III

My final SXSW ensemble came from the leftovers of this puppy... Patricia's Week 7 Dress

I turned it into this a few weeks ago...

Striped Dress - After #1

...and was now going to take these leftovers and make them into something fun!!

Leftovers

Let's do it!

Knowing that I had the skirt part leftover, from the mid thigh down, I had a few options.  Wrap skirt or some sort of top.  I decided to go top and thought something flowy and strapless would be key for the humidity and heat!  I cut the fabric in half...

Trim in two!

...and now had two swatches.  I took one half, folded the raw edges under, pinned in place...

Edge tweaks!

...and then took the other bit of fabric and began to pin it around the center of the first piece of fabric to make a separate layer.  All the open sides of both layers of fabric were pinned together (wrong sides facing out) and then stitched in place.  The top of the piece was sewed and secured and the new top was almost complete!

Sewing machine ride time!

I turned it inside out and grabbed a vintage pin to gather the extra material up top to make it secure.  Flowy top, check!!

Week 5: SXSW Day III - After

The weather was warm and amazing and I was actually loving the humid air.  I know it's weird, but I have to say that my skin works way better with the extra moisture.  With humidity brings beads of sweat but I'm totally on board if that means dewy skin without using MAC pigment to get it!

Hot Hot Heat!

Post-show, we headed to a little flea market and browsed the stands.

Flea Market Time!

I totally got stuck at this amazing vintage jewelry booth and found one thing that I was obsessed with.  I walked away and kept thinking about it (great trick to see if you really must have that item!) so I returned and scooped it up.

I feel like an honorary Thundercat!!

Post our shop stop, we headed back into town, listened to more music, ran into more musicians...

His "Little Lion Man" beard is even more amazing in person!

...got more venue wristbands...

Wrist o'bands!

...saw more amazingness...

Neon Kicks!

...and then ended the day with a big, huge meal at Trudy's!!

Mmmmm Mexican!

I mean the amount of queso that I've consumed this week cannot even be described.  (PS, I think I would turn into queso if I lived in Austin!)

Yeehaw Trudy's!

Unfortunately I had to bid adieu to Texas, but not before spending a whole lotta time at DFW.  With all the rains in Dallas I had some fun flight delays that allowed me to finish The Hunger Games in one sitting, drink some Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, and walk up and down Terminal E multiple times as a makeshift track.  My fave store in the whole airport??

Where are the cheerleaders??

A fun trip it was, but it's back to LA I go!!