Coats are like crack for me

It’s starting to be the weather for coats around here, something I don’t mind at all because I love coats. I own three winter coats, one spring coat, one rain coat, and another coat that I cannot quite categorize. Yet I would like even more coats.

 I saw this adorable Pink Martini in store the other day. I don’t dare remember the price tag because I love that coat so much I’m scared if I do I will go back and buy it and my wardrobe disagrees.

It got a bit much when I was window shopping the other to match skirts and dresses to boots and ended up looking only at coats. I had to physically restrain myself, but I still have enough for a small coat special.

Coat Special Extravaganza

 

Pink Martini is a brand that I don’t quite follow, even though I should because I always deeply love what they do. I guess I’m taking them for granted: when the brands I usually follow fail me I can count on them to make me happy. They’re paired with Aldo’s Hafen, mostly because looking at Pink Martini makes me see stars.

That coat is really well made. I’m jealous of that patternmaker’s talent. I kind of want to pet those boots. Sometimes my matches don’t make sense other than giving me a fluffly feeling in my heart.

I love the cut and fit and color here. I would absolutely love a coat like that! It’s feminine and simple, and yet so much fun, and it deserves something whimsy and adorable with it.

I’m kind of obsessed with that kind of pocket. You can probably find something that has pockets like that in all of my projects in fashion design, so just seeing them in a picture is a treat for me. The overall design of the coat is simple marvellous. I actually contemplated getting those boots, but they remind me so much of my old pair I don’t think I will.

YSL rainboot with Alison Sheri’s funky coat is so awesome. When you have the guts to wear one of them, you shouldn’t have to tone down at all. Don’t be afraid to turn heads! I love that someone in the world decided there should be a pair of flashy welly rainboots with wedge heels.

Announcement

To the pleasure of anyone tired of reading about shoes (if you’re tired of reading about shoes, I’m kind of confused. Why are you still reading this? There are lots of shoes posts to come!), I finally found a pair of boots!

Spring’s Litrenta

If anyone’s worried it’s the end of the shoes posts, don’t worry, I have a heels special coming soon. Before that, hopefully I’ll have finished the Warbler Swag Round Up. And for anyone who’s afraid of wearing skirts in winter, I’m working on an epic tights and hoses post.

Also, my life is awesomer than yours because I got to meet Joey Richter and other members of Team Starkid. Head over to Projet Tiramisu to hear all about it!

I will sadly not be walking in these boots any time soon

My winter boots sadly deceased last year, and with the beginning of fall I have been keeping an eye out for a new pair.

Turns out that was a terrible idea, because I’m a shoe addict and now I want all of them!

However I cannot have all the shoes, due to monetary and space difficulties. To further drown myself in sadness I have decided to present them to you, with terribly adorable clothing that I wished I own. Because when you’re miserable, let’s be miserable all the way! Or something. Is there logic in there at some point?

…

Apparently not! Let’s go enjoy the eye candy shall we, at least to get away from the crazies in that paragraph.

Fall 2011 Match-up!

There’s a lot of knitted skirts this season, and it’s easy to understand why. They’re easy to make, can fit almost anyone because the fabric is elastic, and they have fun printed fabrics: Rutme’s Up in the Air skirt is a perfect example of that. But who says skirts can have all the nice things? Hunters of Scotland offer a purple rainboot so your feet can have as much fun and stay dry.

Let me start by saying that I fell in love with Chie Mihara’s collection, so you’ll see it reflected in this post. First in line is Casandra, with my favourite Mary Magdalene dress of the summer. The browns almost match perfectly, and these boots will help you keep looking elegant in colder weather.

Lucky Penny’s Argyle Boots are simply adorable, with their bright red laces against the blue suede. This detail is reflected in the Biloxi skirt from Red Dress Shoppe, with a small red suede heart against the navy blue and off white striped fabric.

Here’s another Chie Mihara: Quechu, with another knitted skirt, this time from Anthropologie. The Sashed Sweater Skirt looks warm and toasty, and your boots will pop right up paired with it.

Luxury Rebel’s Gunpowder boots give off Western vibes, and I feel you should pair them off with something unexpected. This bright blue Anna Sui dress will be dressed down for casual wear with them, and this shoes will still give out the punch that outfit deserves.

If you like a bit rough around the edge look, Steve Madden’s Torrii and the Hands in my Pocket dress from D.E.P.T. might do it for you. I’d match them with black leggings, to help bring their detailing out.

I love ankle boots, and I love circular dresses. The Sadie Ankle boots from 67 Collection might be the embodiment of the perfect representation of their kind. Anthropologie’s Rodna Halter dress is fun and classy. It’s probably better for us all that I won’t be getting my hands on them, because I just know I’d be dancing instead of walking if I’d wear that, and I’m a terrible dancer.

My favourite pair is Marietta from Fluevog, and it’s well over my price range. This shade of blue might be my favourite color this season, and I love the patterned leather with it. I matched them with a felted wool skirt from Atelier B, a brand in Montreal. Both its creators went to the same school I did, and I absolutely love their work. They came and gave a small conference in my last year, talking about being designers in Montreal, working from their apartment, and going to school. They were so inspiring! They were nice and friendly and fun, so full of passion and love for what they do. They recently expanded their operation, so check out their website and blog for more info!

Well, that’s it for today. Now, I know you’re all very sad this is the end, and maybe you’ll comfort yourself by going out and buying expensive shoes. If it makes you feel better, when I find adorable boots, I’m tempted to look at shoes from the same designer, so you can expect a similar post with heels and tears soon (so hold off on your shoes shopping trip for a while).

and from the ashes a skirt is reborn OR delicious sorbets

Wait, what’s this? What are you doing inside at your computer on this beautiful summer day? Summer days are coming to an end! You should be outside, enjoying delicious sorbet with your friends!

 Delicious blackcurrant and lemon sorbet from Havres-Aux-Glaces, in Marché Jean-Talon.

Oh, you’re wallowing on your ruined pair of jeans, your very favourite ones that you were intending to wear as you enjoyed your delicious sorbet? Well stop crying dear, and go get your sewing machine! I’ve got the solution!

But if you don’t have a sewing machine, get over yourself and get out there, sheesh.

Making a Skirt out of Jeans

Materials:

-Jeans

-Sewing Machine

-Scissors

-Seam ripper

-Thread! A bobbin close in color to your jeans’ fabric, and another as close as possible to the topstitching.

-Jeans needle, especially for the topstitching. You can use a needle for heavy fabric if you don't have jeans needle hanging around. Regular needle tend to break when sewing jeans.

A note on threads: You’ll notice your regular thread may not be as thick as the topstitching on your jeans. You can either choose to ignore this, like I did, and just use some thread you already have hanging around. If you do decide to go and buy thread, try to get specifically marked jeans thread. If they don’t have the color you need, Heavy Duty thread is an excellent alternative.

If you have a domestic machine, that thread can only go through the needle: if you put it in the bobbin you’re messing with your machine’s tension and timing, and you don’t mess with it. With an industrial machine, the bigger thread goes in the bobbin and the regular thread through the needle.

First step: Cutting!

Start by cutting your jeans a little shorter. You don’t want the full length of them encumbering your work. Unless you add fabric, you sew a vent, or your jeans were baggy to begin with, you won’t able to make a knee-length skirt. The jeans I’m using were well-fitted but never skinny, and mid-thigh is the longest possible before my legs are restricted.

Now cut along the inseam, and completely remove the seam. I guess you can take it out if you hate yourself, but it’s a lot of pain for little gain.

Second step: Ripping

Grab your seam ripper and rip through the front and back seams. I recommend stopping just shy of the fly in the front, and about an inch higher in the back.

Third step: Pinning!

Turn you jeanskirt hybrid inside out and slip it on. Using the help of a friend or your incredible flexibility, pin the flaps together, making as straight a line as possible.

Fourth step: Sewing!

Sew along that line. Try it on to check it out.

Once that’s done, use your overlock to finish neatly the seam, or your zigzag stitch, or your pinking shears. Just… do something to avoid fraying. Yes, of course you can cut away the excess now.

Get your iron, and press the seams down.

Fifth step: Topstitching!

Topstitching sucks unless you’re creepy or enjoying quilting, which is more or less the same. In the industry, they use double needles to make their life easier. Double needles are available for domestic machines too, but if you don’t have one you can suck it up and learn to sew parallel lines.

 

With your topstitching thread, you continue the topstitching on the front and back seams.

 

Sixth step: Hemming!

Skirts or pants, hemming never goes away.

 Now that a skirt has reborn out of your ruined jeans, you can either burn the remains or throw them out. I personally like to keep them in hope I’ll find a use for rectangles of denim one day. If that day comes I shall inform you.

Well, what are you waiting for? Put on your skirt and go enjoy delicious sorbet!

If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go work on a quilt while dreaming of wonderful homemade ice cream sundaes.

 More homemade than that, we grew the peanuts ourselves.

Wardrobe Dysfunction

Today I decided to ragequit pants forever.

This is actually a lie, since I made the decision May 21^st – mark it on your calendars! – to stop wearing pants. Man, I hate pants. They probably feel the same towards me, since they keep getting ripped up. So I decided I would act on it and I would boycott them.

I have now been going pantsless for two months, so it is more accurate to say that starting today I am sharing my pantslessness with the world. That sounds wrong.

But why, you ask? Why deny the wonderful industry of pants your tutelage? Why are you bothering us with this? Oh god you’re not joining a nudity camp are you? No, I’m not. And I’m doing it because of this, my friends, because of this:

 

The first is one of my pairs of jeans, since last September. To replace them, I bought the second, which quickly became my favourites. The second picture shows it's current status, since December. And the lasts were my new favourites, in April. All tragically ripped in the crotch, which is totally awkward. Sure, I could repair them, but they’ll only keep doing it (which is a totally natural part of the life cycles of pants, it’s not them, it’s me), and besides I’m way too lazy for that. Of course, if I bought better quality jeans, they’d probably last longer than a few months, but I’m cheap. And then I’d cry when I’d get home and realize they don’t fit me as well as they did when I bought them.

The plan is to wear skirts and dresses everyday. Most likely not at the same time. While obviously the primary goal is avoiding pants like the plague, there are two secondary goals. The most important, that is totally a better reason for writing this than my rage against pants, is fashion. I tend to get lazy towards my wardrobes when I wear pants, and I wish to get back into the habit of dressing fancy, so I’m putting myself on a skirt-and-dress diet. I intend to plan my outfits and talk about them here, but I will also design and sew my own, and I will obviously talk about that. The other goal is to wear my high heels more often, as I have a lot of awesome ones that I rarely wear, and since I’m limiting my clothing choices, I should open myself to more footwear options. If that make senses.

Those are some of my shoes... yeah only some.

I must admit that this decision is not only brought by my mourning of my favourite pants, but also by a convenient need to clean out my wardrobe, so you should expect for the next few weeks pictures of my wardrobe stuff, either hilariously fugly or I’d keep it but it doesn’t fit me anymore. Also, it is conveniently summer, and I decided to indulge my urge to wear skirts in the heat. I fully intend to keep wearing them as the weather gets colder, until a year has passed and I have shared my trials and tribulations with you.

Maybe more than a year.