Floral Skirt

Anyone watch Eurovision last night? It was a pretty good show I thought (apart from a few questionable performances). 19th wasn't too bad for the UK, especially compared to last year's position. Did anyone else like Greece's Alcohol is free? and Azerbaijan's box thing they had going on?- my favourites!

Look at that, the monochrome/floral/crop top trends all in one! Sorry these aren't the best photos but my brother's annoying refusal to take them properly is the reason for this. I made the skirt on Wednesday. When I saw this fabric in the fabric shop I couldn't resist buying it - it's such a lovely print. I'm actually really pleased with this skirt as there's nothing much I can really complain about it (this almost never happens). I really like this style of skirt and its actually fairly quick to make (approx 2 1/2 hours) so I'll probably make a few more like this at some point. I bought the top with a New Look gift card I received for my birthday. I've never worn a crop top before (except when I was about 7 so that doesn't exactly count!) so I'm diving into new territory, but I like how easy it is to throw on and is perfect for the summer (if it ever decides to come!). I've paired the outfit with my New Look heels - can't really go wrong with them. 

What do you think of my outfit?

top - New Look

skirt - homemade

shoes - New Look

Perfect for summer

So I just finished my first exam during study leave - not quite sure how it went - but I've decided to reward myself the day off anyway! I hope everyone else's exams are going well as I know there's a lot of GCSE/A level/Uni exams at the moment, so good luck everyone!

One very annoying thing about having a background that isn't white is that these polyvore posts don't tend to look that great. I have considered changing my background to white (but I do like it how it is)- what do you think? Anyway, I've just selected a few items that I'd absolutely love to have in my summer wardrobe. Which ones are your favourites?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

Get Lucky

Has anyone else been obsessing over this song at the moment? I know, I know, it's not the greatest song (so repetitive) but it's really catchy! On a side note, I'm hoping to get lucky (see what I did there!?) at a car boot sale on Sunday. I'd quite like to find a few good, cheap pieces if possible. I'm feeling quite inspired by other bloggers' successful attempts at finding good bargains (Lulutrixabelle in particular) so fingers crossed for me.

If you're calculating the money I spent on this outfit, it would come to £8 (the shoes). Most of the items were passed onto me by other people who no longer wanted them. The skirt used to be a strappy dress. I wasn't a fan of the style so I simply cut off the top and I really love how it looks as a skirt. The fabric is so so lovely and aren't the colours amazing?. I've gone for a plain white shirt again today. I don't think I'll ever get tired of collars and they're so easy to wear and match with other pieces. I don't tend to wear many bracelets (even though I own a lot) but I do really like how this silver bracelet looks. 

Anyway, off to do some hardcore revision now....

What have you been doing recently? What do you think of my outfit?

 skirt - old

shirt - old

shoes - New Look

bracelet - old

Anne Sofie Madsen

I can't tell you how relieved I am that my art exams are all over. I should be back to posting more regularly now since I'm currently on study leave so don't have any lessons. I've just booked a holiday to Spain with a few friends, so I'm really excited about that at the moment (can't wait to actually see some sun!).
I am so pleased I found this designer. Her name is Anne Sofie Madsen and she's from Denmark but debuted at London Fashion Week. Her designs are right down my street - so unique and creative. Have a look and see what you think...

Spring/Summer 12

Autumn/Winter 12

 Click the link below to see more...

Spring/Summer 13

Autumn/Winter 13

 What do you think of these designs?

AS Textiles Final Exam

First of all, I'm sorry for my absence recently. The reason for my lack of blogging is my textiles and art exams that have been going on this week. I've had piles of coursework to get through and exams to prepare for. Luckily, today I finished my textiles exam (yay!) which feels like such a relief. It was an 8 hour exam (actually quite a short time when you have a whole garment to make) over 2 days. I thought I'd show you my final piece and see what you all thought. Originally, all the fabrics were seperate (so I dyed the blue fabric and layered the black pvc over the top, I then cut out all of the squares and sewed around the edges). Creating the fabric for the body of the dress probably took the longest since I had to sew around every single square and I had originally fitted my pattern pieces to a mannequin at home so it doesn't fit completely well, so I had to make a few time-costly alterations. It went fairly well (a few mistakes but I managed to sort them out) but what with me being a perfectionist, there are plenty of things I would like to improve on it. By the way, a bit of context for you, the theme of the whole project was 'Covert and Obscured' and my design is based on various observations and critical studies that I did in my sketchbook (Gareth Pugh and Fyodor Golan). Anyway, I hope you like it and wish me luck for my next two days of art exams starting tomorrow!

My favourite things - Part 3

It's been pretty hectic at the moment, what with lots of art deadlines and exams coming up (to be honest I should be working now). I haven't had much time for blogging, which is such a shame. I can't wait until my exams are over so I can properly catch up on all your lovely blogs!
This is the final post of my favourite things (part 1 here and part 2 here) and then back to fashion-y posts. Let me know what you think of these types of posts and I'd love to know if you have any other ideas.

11. My tin

Yes, this is a giant bourbon tin! My friends and family will know that my favourite biscuit has to be bourbons (they're so nice, aren't they!?), so my brother bought me this tin as a present. It's actually really handy, especially for storing my threads (they were originally in colour order, but I'm quite a messy person so they didn't stay quite like that!) and it's just a bonus that's it's in the shape of a giant bourbon! 

 12. My fashion books

The first ever fashion related book I got was probably Fashion Artist. I honestly don't think I'd be so interested in fashion, if it wasn't for this book. It was a Christmas present (about 4 years ago) and is a guide that teaches you and gives you tips on how to create fashion illustrations. Before I got this, I would draw out mini (extremely bad) sketches of clothes, but this book showed me how to make them so so so much better and develop my own kind of style. The other book is 200 projects to get you into fashion design. The clue's in the title really. It has sections/chapters all to do with the different processes of designing and creating a fashion collection. When I got this book, I had no idea how everything worked so it's really taught me a lot. 

 13. My t-shirt

Trust me to get sentimental over a t-shirt! This probably just looks like a manky old shirt to all of you, but it's not! As you can probably tell, I got it on holiday in 2005 (I was only 9). It's turned into a memento and I think there's only a couple of other things I've had as long as this. Even though I've had it so long, it still doesn't fit properly (and it now has holes in) so I always use it as a pyjama top (I haven't owned a real pair of pyjamas in years - I really hate the ones you can buy from shops). Over the past 8 years, this colour has really grown on me and the wonderful thing about the top is that I will never forget when I first got it as it's dated. 

 14. My overlocking machine

In case you don't know what this is, look at the seam on the top you're wearing right now. Do you see that stitching neatening the edges? Yep, well that's what an overlocker does. Basically it just finishes the inside of a garment to make it perfect and neat. I decided the time had come to buy an overlocker a while ago and I've never regretted the purchase since. Although, there have been many occasions where I've been found getting frustrated and shouting at it for doing the wrong thing or unthreading (god, that's the worst) or just generally breaking, it's incredibly useful. It just makes the garments seem so much more professional and well-made. It's also really handy for stopping fraying. If you're into fashion design or making clothes and you don't yet have one of these - get one, trust me it's amazing!

15. My wardrobe

What would I do without clothes? I could never survive. I refuse to throw any of my clothes away (even if I'm not going to wear them again) just in case I might need them at some point for some reason. I remember when I was younger, it was always a sad moment when I had to throw away one of my favourite tops because I'd outgrown it. Because of this refusal to throw anything away (and the fact that I buy lots from eBay for under £5), I seem to have built up a rather large collection of items (that's not my whole wardrobe in the photo by the way!). The advantages of this, however, are that you never have to wear the same thing twice and there's lots to mix and match with, so I see that as an excuse to buy more!

What have you been up to lately? What are your favourite things?