Bytes & Bobbins

Shirt: target | Skirt: loft | belt: J. Crew outlet | Flip Flops: Switch Flops | Bag: target

Last week Meg shared her road trip outfit and discussed the merrits of skirt wearing while driving.  I have say, I’m in complete agreement.  I rarely wear pants on a road trip. I like the freedom of a skirt :) — now I’m not claiming to be mindful of proper skirt ediquette while in the car.  The privacy afforded by speeding down the interstate makes the skirt a must for every road trip, in my opinion.

Well its friday, friends…we made it.  It so happens that this is our last “casual Friday” for a while (we only have it during the summer) so I’m going out with a bang!  Eeeerrr, maybe that should be a sparkle?

I’m wearing a sweater that I “bedazzled” myself.   It was just a plain gray sweater from TJMaxx that I’d had for a few years.  I was tired of it, didn’t wear it much, so I gave it new life by painstakingly sewing little sequins all over the front.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!  I’ll be vacationing in Charleston, SC next week, but plan to pot some outfit photos and sightseeing fare, so stay tuned!!

I had a plain white tank.  It was very useful.  I wore it under sweaters, or other shirts for a layered effect.  One day I decided to wear it while I painted my nails…red.  This, as it turns out, was a mistake.  I’m known in certain circles, for my ability to stain clothes and this was no exception.  So After I got a big glob of red nail polish on this tank, I decided to try to cover it with something.

To the fabric scrap pile! <—scream this line like “to the bat cave” and you’ll instantly feel better about your propensity to save every little square of scrap fabric…at least, I did. :)

Here’s what I came up with:

Do I get bonus points for the shorts being a refashion too?  I bought those jeans at the thrift store and cut them off.

This is my outfit of the day.

Shirt- old navy, embellished by me

Pants – j crew, found NWT at the thrift store

Shoes – jcpennys

About 3 weeks ago, I was cruisin the thrift store racks and there they were. I’m speaking, of course, about the pants…the J. Crew pants.  They were new with the tags still on, the tags that still read “$80!!”  I thought I’d hit the jackpot, then I read the other tag, the tag attached by the tift store.   They were asking $30, a price I simply could not pay.  

So I waited, knowing they mark things down weekly. Two weeks later the pants were still there, and so was I.  I paid $5 and the rest is history.

So keep dreaming dear blog-fans because it could happen to you.

I made another skirt from this tutorial, which has it’s origins in this skirt tutorial.  I made a few changes.  Firstly, I dropped the width of the fabric pieces at the waist.  I did this because my fabric is a little stiff and so I didn’t want as much gathering at the top.  As I did that, I kept the width at the hem the same, so my pattern pieces had more of a triangular shape.  I dropped the pockets *sigh* only because with the other alterations i knew this skirt would be tighter through the hips and thighs and so I didn’t want to add any bulk underneath, though in retrospect I prob could have put them in if I had had some lining fabric to make them from.

Top: Trifted  |  Skirt:  I made it.  |  Shoes: Kohls

I plan to wear this sweet little skirt on my upcoming vacation to Charleston, SC.  At some point during said vacation I’ll be on a boat and I’ll be wearing this skirt.  The prospect of dressing to suit such an occasion is a exciting.  It makes me feel like Hyacinth Bucket in that episode of Keeping up Appearances that she and Richard were going “yachting.”  So funny.  Further explanation below:

I’ve recently opened a new etsy shop to sell off some of the vintage items I have accumulated and never use.

Check it out a few of the items I’ve got listed:

See what I did there? With the title?  Sometimes I’m clever…

Anyway, thought you wouldn’t know it due to the lack of posts, I have been sewing, though mostly on things for other people, not for me.  However, in that last two days I managed to start and finish a project I’ve been thinking about for a while.  Ever since I saw this post from Meg, I’ve been wanting to use this older vintage fabric to make an elastic waist skirt dress.  Don’t they look super comfy?  Well I”m here to confirm, dear blog fans, that they are, indeed, comfy.   It couldn’t hurt that I paired it with a lightweight cotton t-shirt.

I’ve had this vintage fabric in my stash for about 2 years, and I purchased this T last week, at the thrift store ($1.99) with this exact project in mind.  Here’s the before and after:

And just because she’s so cute, the dog:

As I’ve mentioned previously that I love J. Crew.  I love the casual/eclectic style they have had going on for the last 4/5 seasons, so whenever I get the catalogs, I’m more interested in looking for fashion ideas, than I am in actually buying anything.

Not long ago they had this skirt and shirt.

I love them both, but at $70 a piece, it wasn’t really and option to buy them.  Never fear!  I actually ran across a similar shirt at the thrift shop for $4 and altered it.  I had a yard of chambray hanging out in my stash and used this tutorial to whip up a little look-alike skirt. Here’s how it started and how it turned out. (My apologies for the images, my tripod broke).

Sweater – LOFT
Shirt – Old Navy
Belt – thrifted
Shorts – thrift & refashioned
Shoes – payless

Neal & I are leaving for vacation…in about 2 months, but hear me out!  We are going to Charleston, SC at the end of August.  I knew when we planed the trip that we were essentially planning to vacation in an oven.  So my thought was to invest in some strategic pieces of clothing to keep me cool on those HOT HOT HOT days.

Linen is always a safe bet for hot, sticky weather.  From what I’ve read/heard the fibers actually work to wick the moisture away from your skin, so while you’re skin may be covered, you aren’t trapping in heat and moisture.  This is starting to sound like a paper towel commercial!

I was all ready to go out and shop til I dropped…then I remembered that infernal pledge.  DRAT!  So lately, on my trips to the thrift shop I’ve been scouring the racks for anything made of 100% linen or a linen/cotton blend.  About 1.5 weeks ago, I came across a full length berry-colored linen skirt, with two deep pockets on the front (you all know how I feel about a dress and/or skirt with pockets).   It was, sadly a little tight in the waist and, obviously too long.  Typically, a perspective refashion that is too tight is sort of a lost cause.  I mean, you can take stuff in, but depending on how much fabric you have in the seam, you are limited as to how much you can let it out.  UNLESS…..said item has pleats! Yes! Win! Score!

So I just used about 10 sentences to tell you all, dear blog-fans, that I let out some pleats to create more space in my skirt waistline.  Since I had to make a new waistband anyway, I went ahead and made it wider, and of course shortened the length. Perfect southern summer apparel.

And now the reveal: