Marcia's NDAD Creation

Today's piece comes from my girl Marcia in Brazil!  I love her before piece because it's something that many of us can procure for nada from our dad/husband/brother/boyfriend/BFF/anyone of the male species.

Hello dear Marisa, I live in Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil and recently I left a job where I worked for six years because I could not take it anymore.  After finishing the job, I sat in front of my sewing machine for hours on end, and I never stopped. I always seek inspiration for my customizations on your blog, so I decided to shoot a before this time!  Looking for projects for my crafting, I came across a huge basket of men's shirts.

I loved the pattern...

...and the store was selling them for $2 (R$ 4,00 quatro reais, in Brazilian money), so I couldn’t resist!  

Just what will Marcia do with the shirt?

So, I bought one and transformed in a dress!

It worked, and I loved it. I even went back to the store and bought ten more shirts :) I will enjoy transforming all my out-of-style men's shirts into beautiful new dresses!!

How cute are you?  Removing the collar, stitching up the bottom of the shirt, and then cinching with a belt is just lovely!  I love the orange colors with your skin too, Marcia!  Send over images of the other shirts you remake - we'd love to see!!

Outfit Rewind

The rewind piece for today… Original post date: 4/22/12: (Click here for full project steps and original post!)

The Before Look:

The After Look:

I wore this last spring when it was much warmer (See: Starbucks iced bevvie) and popped a squat at Pottery Barn Kids while enjoying a little Star Wars coloring.  You know, like you do when you're an adult, or tween disguised as a grown lady :)

It's a little chillier this go, so I had to dress it appropriately.  Wanna see??

I took a navy striped Banana Republic cardigan and paired it on top of the short sleeved dress along with some brown floral tights and a pair of vintage boots!

Oh, and those earrings, they're totally costume.  I got them for a buck and the best part is that they're clip-ons!

The sunglasses were the final, sunny day touch.

Tights, Target // Earrings, downtown LA // Sunglasses, Urban Outfitters // Boots, Vintage // Cardigan, Banana Republic (thrifted)

It was fun pairing this dress with some darker shades, just to bring out more of the blue in the piece.  It also totally helped to downplay the boldness of the pinks, greens, and oranges, making it feel a little more subtle.  It's so much fun to re-wear and re-style!!

Happy Friday, friends!

Thursday Neck-cessory DIY: Wooden Charms

I had another fun crafting day in the books with my crafty pal, Sonya Nimri!! We got a little crazy with her Cricut machine...

There's nothing like making letters out of leather scraps!!

We chose colored bits of leather to have our initials printed out on!

I went with a shimmery brown and Sonya grabbed a yellow and cognac shade to make the initials of her boys.

We took discs of wood (that were cut from the stump of a little Christmas tree leftover from the holidays - yay repurposing!!) and put out letters on top!  (This is something that can also be done out of wooden pieces from your craft store, a circular piece of cardboard...go crazy with your imagination!)

These guys are turning into little necklace charms!!  We poked holes in the top of our wood discs, which were actually quite easy to make...

...and then glued down our initials with some tacky glue.

Jump rings was added to the holes we created in the wood and our charms were complete!!

I loved the rustic-ness of the wood mixed with the more modern-ness of the leather letters in fun fonts and shades.

I added my charm to a long-ish chain that was in my collection, and it was wear time for my new necklace!  (You can always add a leather strap or any sort of thin ribbon/string/wire for your "chain" as well too!)

I love anything monogrammed, so this new piece is going to be prominently worn on the regular!!