Outfit of the Day: Last Weekend of the Summer

Happy final days of Summer Kittens

With September 22nd officially marking the start of Fall we say good bye to Summer for the rest of year. A tout à l'heure. Until we see you again Summer!

For this final weekend of summer last weekend it really went out with a bang! The sun was shining all weekend and temperatures were up! Some might say it was a little too hot on Sunday but I'll take the heat any day!

On Saturday my husband and I spend a nice day out and about. We started the day making a stop into our local vintage reproduction shop, Vintage Alley. I was really hoping they'd have some Halloween themed stuff on offer as they sometimes do around this time of year but not a Halloween item was in view. Maybe it was just a little too early. Next we went out for lunch at our local brewery, Buffalo Bills, and shared a black pumpkin beer with our lunch. After that, we stopped in at the 80's arcade, High Scores, for a bit to play some games and beat some high scores... and all this was on the same block! I love our town! After all this we went to Joann's to see what they have for offer for Halloween houseware then tried to go to a shop I know of that was selling vintage Halloween themed items last year. We must have gotten there just a little too late though because they were closed :( Looking through the window I could see all the glorious vintage Halloween things were back in stock so I will have to come back again! We ended the day with a stop at the mall.

We usually just go to the mall for a place to hang out and window shop at Hot Topic, Spencer's, and the Lego store and I usually make a stop at Forever 21 just to see what they have for accessories. But while we were at the mall this time around I noticed that with the new season, there's a new (old) style that's back, late 70's early 80's! I rubbed my hands together and looked just a little more closely at what was on offer and even picked up a super cute outfit at Forever 21 for about $35! There was also a corduroy jumper at Nordstrom that I liked but that one got left behind since it was a bit more and there are a ton of stuff currently on my online wishlist that I'd rather get instead. Maybe if it's still around later I will go back for it though.

Anyhow, on to the outfit for this Outfit of the Day! ;)



Outfit of the Day (Saturday):

For this day I picked out an oldie but goodie, my Bettie Page (now Tatyana) Cruiser dress which my husband got for me several years ago at the Bettie Page store in Las Vegas while we were there on vacation one year. I paired this with yellow peep toe flats which I got from Target also several years ago. For fun finishing touches I paired this with a straw banana purse I got from ebay earlier this summer (also worn here), a straw fruit fascinator I made last year (see the tutorial here), and a pair of blue flower earrings I got from Forever 21 several years ago. Just in case it should get cold I grabbed my Collectif Annette knitted cape which I got several years ago but it ended up staying in the car the whole time since it was such a nice warm day that day.

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Front View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Front View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Side View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Front View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Front View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Front View

Bettie Page (Tatyana) Cruiser dress- Side View

Straw banana purse- Close Up

Straw fruit fascinator and blue flower earrings- Close Up

On Sunday my friend and I went out to San Francisco to go to the Urban Air Market where some friends had a booth selling their hand crafted goods! I was so impressed by the tables my friend's sister, Alexandra Green makes! She does everything herself including the welding on her tables and chairs! Check out her absolutely gorgeous work here: Scrappy Metal Design.

Innovation and creativity must run strong in this family! I was equally impressed with the 100% natural skin care products my friend and Alexandra's sister, Adriana Green had on offer through her product line Esteli Body. I was addicted to her rose and hibiscus coconut water toner mist which had such a wonderful smell and was so refreshing on a hot day like Sunday. I left the market though with her clay and flowers face mask and rosehips adzuki and rice exfloiating grains excited to try them at home.

Two sisters, Scrappy Metal Design and Esteli Body, Urban Air Market, San Francisco (picture taken by my friend)

Outfit of the day (Sunday):

For this day's activities I decided to wear my Trashy Diva Lucy dress in red gingham. I love red gingham dresses and Trashy Diva does them so well! I got this dress earlier this summer (I had to have it after seeing the lovely Sammi from the Soubrette Brunette looking so spectacular in hers!). Because I knew there was going to be a lot walking this day I paired this dress with red Vans, a gift from my husband from earlier this year. Also, because we were going out to the city where it's usually cold, I also paired this with a red cardigan I got from Nordstrom Rack several years ago. For a finishing touch I wore this with a red strawberry purse which I got from ebay earlier this summer (another inspiration piece first seen on another lovely blogger's blog, CiCi Marie). A red gingham hair tie from Trashy Diva which I wore tied in my ponytail also helped finish off this up. To continue with the fruit theme I also wore red apple earrings which I got from Modcloth a couple years ago.

Trashy Diva Lucy dress in Red Gingham- Front View

Trashy Diva Lucy dress in Red Gingham- Front View

Trashy Diva Lucy dress in Red Gingham- Side View

Trashy Diva Lucy dress in Red Gingham- Front View

Trashy Diva Lucy dress in Red Gingham- Front View

Trashy Diva Lucy dress in Red Gingham- Side View

Strawberry purse- Close Up

Apple earrings- Close Up

Making Little Hats- Cherries Edition!

So now that I finally started working on some DIY hat projects again, I'm on a roll!

The day that I made the last fascinator (see the Carmen Miranda inspired hat here) I also made a black fascinator with cherries but didn't get around to photographing it until just now!

And so without any farther ado, here is the DIY tutorial for a cherry fascinator you can make yourself at home!

 
Making Little Hats!

1) Start with a fascinator base. I bought this straw base from ebay

 2) Add the decoration of your choice. I start with what I think will best go on the botton layer of the fascinator first... the part closest to the fascinator base.

When adding decoration which is heavy or which might not have an easy time surviving on the hat from just hot glue alone, I like to find a way to sew on the decoration. For these cherries I hot glued the stems together then sewed the stems onto the hat.

To reinforce the stitches, I then hot glued the decoration on over the stitches. 

 Here is what the back side of the fascinator looks like.

3) Next, if you are adding multiple things to your fascinator, if there are parts overlapping, those overlapping parts should go on next. If you want something overlapping the second layer, add that next, and so on.

I both sewed on and hot glued on the bow.

4) Hot glue your stitching on the underside of the hat too once all your decoration is added!





5) Next, sew on a hair clip, alligator clip, or hair comb. Be sure to pay extra attention to which way you will want the hat to be orientated on your head. If adding a hair clip (like shown) or alligator clip you will want the hair clip to be parallel to the ground when attaching the fascinator to your head. This will give the fascinator a jaunty tilt. If you are adding a hair comb you would want that to be at the front of the hat towards your face with the teeth of the comb facing towards the back of your head.

6) Last, reinforce your stitches with hot glue at the fat end of your hair clip or alligator clip. For a hair comb, you would want the hot glue to be at the long solid edge of the hair comb not touching the teeth.

      

And here you have the finished product! A new fascinator to wear out and have fun with!

Black Cherry Fascinator You Can Make At Home!

Making Little Hats! The Return of the DIY Projects!

Hello Kittens!

I hope you all had a good labor day weekend (for those of you in the states) or a good Labour Day weekend (for those of you in Canada) or maybe just a good weekend in general (for those of you elsewhere). :)

I noticed that it's been some time since I last did a DIY post so I figured it was due time for this one!

 
Making Little Hats!

 1) Start with a fascinator base. I bought this straw base from ebay

2) If the fascinator base doesn't come with one already sew on a snap clip or hair comb

 3) Once the snap clip or hair comb is sewed on hot glue it on to reinforce it.

Be sure to apply the glue only to the edge of the snap or hair comb. You will need the snap or comb to be slightly mobile to put it on your head.

 3) The last step is either the fun step or the tricky part... or maybe it's a little bit of both... adding the decoration.

For this hat I added a bunch of fake fruit to make a Carmen Miranda inspired hat! These pieces of fruit are a collection of foam fruit I bought from ebay, Joann's fabric, and the Japanese dollar store, Daiso.

I sewed all the fruit on to the fascinator base then reinforced them all with a hot glue gun. For the cherries I hot glued two piece together at the stem then sewed the stems onto the fascinator base.

And here is the little fascinator in action!

Making Little Hats AKA a DIY Tutorial on Fascinators

I am so excited about the new little hat I made over the weekend!

I've slowly been compiling quite a collection of hats, fascinators, hair flowers, and hair bows. It was within this obsessive frame of mind that I saw Trashy Diva's blog post on their new fascinator collection by Louise Green, Fascinator Frenzy. These hats and fascinators were so whimsy, cheerful, colorful and just so fun!!! I was dying to get my hands on the Louise Green Cherry Doll Hat! But then I saw the price. :( As much as I do spend my money I just couldn't take the plunge. And so I was sadly resigned to the fact that I did not and will not own the Louise Green Cherry Doll Hat. But that doesn't mean I would have to go without some whimsy, cheerful, colorful and fun little hats and fascinators of my very own. I decided to make my own. And here friends is my DIY tutorial on the new fun little hat I made over the weekend.


1) Start with a fascinator base. I bought this teardrop sinamay from seller guigkat on ebay. I have also seen similar fascinator bases on etsy.

(My trusty bff Murkurie overlooks my work.)

2) If your fascinator base doesn't already have a hair comb, alligator clip, snap clip, headband, elastic string, or neck tie (some kind of way to keep the hat on) you will have to get one of these items.

For this fascinator I decided to utilize a hair comb because the base itself is not too flexible so a snap clip probably wouldn't be too practical, I didn't know how well an alligator clip glued on to this somewhat nonporous surface of the hat would hold, and I didn't want to have the visibility of a headband, elastic string, or neck tie on this particular hat. 

3) I sewed on the hair clip to the back of the fascinator sewing around the base of the hair clip between the last two teeth on each edge of the comb. 

4) Next... things to put on the hat! For this hat, in the spirit of the Louise Green Cherry Doll Hat, I wanted to make something with fake fruit. I decided to make a grape fascinator!

5) And yet, while I was out gathering my grapes I saw this peacock feather in the same aisle. I thought, how lovely these colors go together! And you may know from my other past posts, A Good Peacock is Hard to Find, and  A Peacock for All Occasions, how much I do love peacocks!

6) I hot glued the peacock feather about halfway down the fascinator and at a jaunty little angle to give the hat some asymmetry, gluing the feather at about the eye of the feather and also at the base of the feather.

7) Then I sewed the feather on for extra reinforcement at the base of the feather.

8) Next I added the grapes. These I sewed on as well sewing around the stems of the grapes at the top middle of the bunch and also at the end of the bunch. I knew I wanted to have some of the grape leaves on with the bunch but the grape leaves that came with this bunch was super rubbery looking and not to my liking....

9) So I took a leaf off of my artificial grape vine in my house and hot glued that on to my fascinator!

10) And voila! My very own whimsy, cheerful, colorful, and fun grape fascinator!