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?

Tangerine

Hello all! So, I went to see Two Door Cinema Club last night with a couple of friends. It was really really good (every song they played was amazing) and I'd say it was probably my favourite concert out of the 3 I've been to recently! It was at Alexandra Palace - a very inconvenient place to get to, but a very nice venue overall (we even managed to get fairly close to the front). The support acts were Everything Everything and Chvrches  - I'd recommend both.

The first thing I thought when I put on this outfit was that I wish I had a pair of neon heels. I had to manage without and I instead opted for this belt to add a bit of colour to the outfit. I bought the shirt the other day from a charity shop for £2.99 and added on a top button myself. I've always wanted a plain white shirt but have never gone as far as to actually buy one. I can already tell it's going to be super handy to mix and match with and perfect for summer (if summer decides to eventually arrive). The grey blazer was just a cheap purchase from Primark. It's a great thing to throw on in these confusing temperatures we have at the moment but it doesn't quite compare to other ones you can get such as in Zara and Topshop. I'm thinking of modifying it in some way but I'm not sure how yet (maybe dyeing it or something like that) - any ideas? I've already shown this skirt a couple of times before (here and here) but it was a really good purchase (it pretty much goes with anything).

What do you think of my outfit? Have you been doing anything exciting recently?

shirt - charity shop

belt - piece of fabric

skirt - Primark

blazer - Primark

shoes - present

My Favourite Things - Part 2

Here is the continuation of my favourite things (you can see part 1 here). It's quite nice to write posts that aren't directly fashion related every now and again, so I hope you enjoy reading this.

6. My sewing machine

I've had this ...well actually I can't remember how long... but it's quite a long time. It's extremely useful and I honestly don't know what I'd do without it! As you can see from the numerous scratches and marks, it's been well used and I'm genuinely really pleased with how well it performs (the machines at school are awful so this one is perfect in comparison!). If you're thinking about buying a machine for yourself, I'd definitely recommend this brand.

 7. My magazines

I have a collection of magazines in my bedroom which I refuse to throw away (with the hope that they might one day come in handy - which they actually do!). At the moment I've got a subscription to Vogue so I'm always checking the post to see whether this month's edition has arrived. I really enjoy reading the articles (...ok fine... looking at the pictures!) in fashion magazines and it just gives me a lot of inspiration for clothes, styles and ideas of what to make. There's nothing better than rewarding yourself after a heavy revision session with 150 pages of designer shoes and couture dresses!

 8. My pin cushions

 Yes, this does seem like quite a random thing to put in my favourites list, but being interested in sewing has led to me receiving quite a few pincushions over the years! In case you can't tell, my assortment here includes a tomato, a bobbin, a mini hat (how cool is that!?) and a button jar/pin cushion lid. Although I have 4 of these wonderful pin cushions, I find that I never seem to actually keep all of my pins in them. It's not unusual  to step on a few pins while walking around my room with bare feet.

9. 10 My bag

This is not any old bag. I got this bag as a free gift from the first ever proper/non-public fashion show I went to. Back in 2010, I went to see the Romina Karamanea (not Georgia Hardinge as it says on the bag.. I guess it was because they were both part of the Vauxhall fashion scout) catwalk show at fashion week. It was incredible (especially since I was only 14) and we sat front row and everything! So it's become a sort of memento of the day and is also incredibly useful!

10. My CDs

 I don't actually own many CDs in real life form. These 3, however, are an exception. Foster the People, Two Door Cinema Club (so excited to see them tomorrow!) and Imagine Dragons are my favourites and I could listen to them non-stop every day. 

How has your week been?