Velvet Before and After

 So maybe this is my second all purple outfit this week but there are 3 really great things about it.

 Number 1: Kangaroo on mah hat.

Number 2: Unicorn on mah necklace.

Number 3: Angel baby on mah watch.

 I think I might be showing you guys my tongue a little too much on this blog. But whatevs.

I wore this skirt as a drop-waist sort of thing because it's kinda short up on my real waist. And my shirt is velvet!

This skirt is also a re-fashion from a too-short dress that I wore and photographed on this blog like 6 months ago! Check the before:

Oh man I wore the unicorn necklace last time too!

 shirt, skirt, shoes, hat, watch: thrifted

socks: walmart

necklace: forever 21

Before and After

 Here is a very frumpy me in a frumpy dress that I got at the thrift store for $1. I moved the waist up and hemmed it so it didn't have the cheesey trim.

The highlights of this dress are the pattern and the contrasting collar.

Fun stuff, right?

Lavender and DIY Collar Tutorial

 Hi guys! This post has me all excited because I'm going to share with you NOT ONLY a refashion of these shorts, but my first real DIY tutorial for this collar! That's right, the one you see right here on my neck!

 But first, check out a few more pictures of my all purple outfit. Until recently, this sweater was all the purple I owned. And now I've got these wonderful lavender high waisted shorts that I just can't get enough of. I don't care how much I look like a grape.

Here's what the shorts looked like before I hemmed them up all nice:

They had tons of mud stains on them that came right out with stain remover.

 Okay that's enough of that! On to the tutorial!

So this is a detachable collar that I made using these supplies:

You need a collared shirt, a seam ripper, a needle and thread, and some beads in your choice of colors. I used a white-cream-gold color scheme, but here're some other ideas: 

Step 1: Use the seam ripper to tear the threads that connect the collar to the rest of the shirt. You'll want to rip right below the button and along that seam.

Step 2: Sew right along the bottom of the collar you just detatched.

Step 3: Now just decorate it up! Thread one bead at a time onto your needle and sew each one onto the collar in whatever pattern you want!

And here's the final! How easy was that?

outfit details:

sweater: forever 21

shorts: Goodwill, refashioned

collar: Goodwill, diy

socks: walmart

shoes: Goodwill

Sunny

 I really loved how these pictures turned out. I feel like I need to make a commitment to stepping up my oufit photography. There's something really sweet about a frilly collar and simple colors. Not to mention I love my straw hat.

 Say hi to my fat cat, Kit! He had an ear-mite infection recently and we had to give him these drops. So he has been kindof pissed off.

 The other day my mom said to me "Yknow, Rachel, I normally really like your outfits. But when you wear your socks like that you just look like a frumpy old lady." Thanks mom. I'm going to wear them like this anyway.

Also I'd like to share the "before" of this dress with you. Frumptastic, amiright? I hemmed it and took out the shoulderpads and now I just love it!

Party

 Aw man I love this dress. And I kindof hate these shoes. They're so cute and then I put them on for 5 minutes and BAM! Blister city! I got this dress on my birthday thrifting trip and shortened it and chopped off the poofy sleeves. Sometimes I wonder if I'm buying some serious vintage items, and they I cut them up. But the point of clothes is wearing them, right? And I like to think I make things more wearable!

 This dress is like a party. And it's about a size too small, but I can get the zipper up and that makes it fair game!

 Look at how it swooshes!

 dress and shoes-thrifted

necklace-claires (like 4 years ago)

Other Accounts

 I took one look at this picture and thought "oh my gosh how cute are my pudgey little elbows?" That was probably a pretty weird thought to have.

This dress is yet another birthday gift, from my Mom this time! Everyone got me clothes because that is what I said I wanted. It's from this little shop at the mall called Fiore Boutique, and it has a weird combination of really sweet dresses and southern paraphernalia. I don't know if you non-southerners have seen this sort of thing, but we have lots of shirts with initials and palmettos and "GRITS" (girls raised in the south) embroidered on them and it's kinda weird. It makes me feel strange that I like to shop at the same places these grits people do.

 This was a pin until I chopped the pin part off and made it a necklace. Those are my teensy chest hairs, you like?

 So I was all posing for the self-timer, and I swear I felt some spidery legs crawling up my shoulder. So there were a bunch of shots of me getting a little skeeved out like this.

So I currently have both a chictopia and a lookbook account. I'm trying to choose between them! I like the layout and navigation on lookbook better, but the community on chictopia seems to be friendlier.

 dress-fiore boutique

sandals-thrifted

necklae and bow-diy

All Yellow

 So this whole outfit shoot thing was basically me figuring out how to work my new camera! My sister got me this shirt for my birthday. She picked it out and everything! I love it!

 I took all these in my backyard. There is apparantly a big old tree that just fell over back there that I just didn't know about. Looks dangerous.

 Also how about these new glasses? I think they're so cute! I've never had the kind with little plastic nose feet. What are those things called?

Nose feet pfft.

blouse-charlotte russe

jean shirt and shorts-thrifted

boots-thrifted

I know you can't see my necklace too well, but it is bona fide vintage! I got it from an ex-boyfriend's mom who owned it in the 60s. It has an "R" on it for "Ruth Ann". How nice was she to give it to me?