Usually, I’m a big fan of J.Crew.  Even in the face of their upscaling, and ridiculous prices to match, I’ve remained devoted to their basics, their dresses, and how they manage to do the preppy thing without being all Winthrop Rutherford III about it.

Now, being that I’m a shortie, I’m not super-inclined towards the maxi-length that seems to be cropping up everywhere for this coming summer.  I can excuse the couple of dresses that J.Crew has done in this length as they’re simple and would be decent beach cover-ups that might take you into cooler temperatures.

And this one even strikes me as something you could wear to a formal event.  Boho bride, maybe?

This, however, is just a wrinkly abomination.

Full length madras?  This would make bees go crazy.  It only makes sense if you plan on having a picnic for five in your lap.

So my friend Mike, also known as M.W., is passionate about tattoos.  And unlike myself (and probably others), his tattoos have a lot more meaning beyond, ‘It’s pretty and I like it.’  The sunken plane on his upper arm is for his grandfather, who fought in World War II.  Our Lady, on his forearm, represents his Irish Catholic culture in that she’s holding a four leaf clover. 

(Here’s Mike, checking on the burgers at a barbecue last summer.)

Now, how cool would it be to make a quilt using Our Lady fabric? This print is available at J&O Fabrics for 7.49 a yard.

Of course, the first thought I had was to applique it onto a background of flames (very tattoo-esque) but that might be kind of sacrilegious, huh?

After watching the Buena Vista Social Club for the second time the other night, I marvelled at the style of the singers and musicians, especially given how poverty-stricken Havana has been for the past sixty years.  Whether it’s the use of bright colors that all tropical nations seem to have:

Or simply a proclivity for the hats and suits our casual culture left behind:

The style of Cuba makes me want to be a bit adventurous, have fun with accessories and definitely wear some turquoise.

Seeing what a mix of fabric, metallic beads and silver looks like.  Maybe if the chain was suspended from the middle of the hexagon?  Must ponder and experiment a bit more…

This coat, with it’s wide-open collar and bright color, would be perfect for summer.

Forever 21 needs to do a knock-off of this, stat.

(Via the Sartorialist.)

It was only as an adult that I marvelled at how the Madre never gave me crap for my trucker mouth as a teenager.  When asked about this, she said that she knew to pick her battles; as long as I was bringing home good grades and not getting in trouble, why should she have a heart attack over a few salty words?

Can you tell she likes dogs?  She’s had boxers since I was fifteen and almost always has two at a time.  A couple of years ago, she and her husband adopted an abandoned pitbull who is one of the goofiest dogs I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.  These prints are available at Etsy.

The madre doesn’t really go for art, though; photos of family dominate the walls at her house.  She’s got a serious green thumb, however (something neither my sister or I have inherited.)  Bulbs are a great gift for a gardener.

And with flowers, you must have bud vases (via Fashion Binge.)  Of course, she’s hoping to move soon, buying a bigger house for the aforementioned dogs.  So planting bulbs you just have to rip out may not be the best idea.

Jewelry always works, right?

Eh, but I’m kind of broke right now (tickets for Barcelona, my first digital camera — yes, I’m that late to the digital age.) Besides which, the Madre’s always been a bit particular about her jewelry.

Sigh.  Maybe I’ll just get her a gift certificate to PetCo.

I seriously felt like the Sartorialist or Face-Hunter at this wedding.  The style was off the charts.  First of all, check out the bride.

She designed her own dress, which was then sewn by this fantastic lady who I met at the bachelorette party the weekend prior.

She works at a vintage shop where I’m sure she scored that darling brocade jacket.

I loved this dress and especially the coordination of the purse.  But when I saw her boyfriend?  I was smitten.

Fantastic tattoos.

Ladylike-looks.

Belts & dresses.

And the second dress has pockets!  She works at Anthropologie, lucky thing.  For a couple more pictures, you can check out my flickr.

I was completely and utterly uninspired by my small pile of beads today.  I decided to use the length of lace I’d taken off of a skirt months ago and make something pretty.

I’m still not certain if I’m going to put a button or bead in the center little gathering of lace.  Thoughts?

I also put together the elbow patches for my patchwork hoodie project.  However, now that I think I have a good handle on the process and have worked out the kinks with the prototype, I might just apply these to a new hoodie that’ll go in the shop.

Either way, I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought this looked cool as opposed to homeless.  I was a bit worried it might look as if I were going for hobo-chic circa the Depression but your comments made me think better.

I’ll be up to my eyeballs in wedding shenanigans tomorrow so may not be able to post.  Until then, have a great Saturday.

Because I’m slow, when I initially looked at the name of this online boutique, I thought it was pronounced ‘in-A-moor.’  Mild brain damage aside, the name is truly perfect for a shop filled with items that look like something you’d buy for your spoiled French mistress. Or yourself.

This purse makes me want to sew bows on everything.  It’s 95GBP, which is not nice when you think about the current exchange rate.

A nice reinterpretation of the fabric corsage using natural fabrics and vintage lace.

And a sweetly sexy eye mask to rival anything worn by Holly Golightly.

Paper piecing is something I’ve been interested in for some time.  It showed me that quilting was something that anyone with an eye for color and the patience to hand sew could do.  Given my short attention span and the machine sewn quilt I already have in the works, I decided against trying to do an entire quilt.  However, I saw some examples of patchwork items that made me think creatively about how to use paper piecing on a small scale.

I used fragments from all the projects I’ve been working on.  I’m going to sew some elbow patches on next.  Because elbow patches rule.

If you have an itty-bitty waist, Posh Girl Vintage has some finds for you.

And if you have a waist like mine, check out this classic Lilly Pulitzer dress.

Of course, given that these are all in the $200+ range, I might just stick with ebay.

Oh!  And the World Wildlife dress I told you about ages ago is still available.  Poor little leopard.

As someone who lives in a studio with a moderate amount of storage but not a lot of square footage, I pay attention when Dwell or Domino run articles on small spaces.  I always like to see how others have managed to maximize what they have without sacrificing aesthetics.  That’s why I was excited when I stumbled upon Apartment Therapy’s Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest.

While browsing the submissions, the thing I was continually surprised about was how much white, modern decor dominates these spaces.

As much as white lends a certain clean, spaciousness to small quarters, I can’t really get behind this type of decor.  Besides which, I’m too messy to handle the upkeep; I just know I’d dribble tea on the chairs or futons, or try to open the curtains after I’d painted my finger nails and leave marks everywhere.

This Chicago space manages to maintain a certain modern feel with the clean lines of the furniture but remain warm with the red tones of the accent wall and bright flowers.

These were perhaps my two favorite submissions.  Though I’m not crazy about the modern mosaic, I love the colors and the wall decals (a decorative touch that I’m sure is going to look very dated in a few decades.)  And I love the use of a niche as a library/dining area with the focal point being the picture of a dear pooch.

There’s even a submission from my neighborhood that probably most closely matches my own space.  You have to register to vote but even if you’re just browsing, it makes for a fascinating way to spend an hour.

Faking Good Breeding questioned the marketing genius that came up with the name for Calvin Klein’s new scent in an articulate way I could never quite manage when the ad’s first came out.  My thoughts were more along the lines of, ‘What the f*ck?!’ while she challenged Klein’s team to think of the current 18-24 generation as more than MySpace obsessed horndogs incapable of speaking in anything but text message shorthand.

The comments to her post were along the lines of asking her to give the scent a chance–that the name & marketing shouldn’t matter if it smells good.  I’m here to tell you that I have smelled CK In2U and the only thing it made me think of was detergent.  Nice, fresh detergent, but definitely more Eau de Tide than Eau de NSA Hook up From Craigslist.

This dress was listed in the tops and dresses sections of Forever 21.  I’ve worn it before with pants but decided to brave wearing it as a dress; after all, I was going to a bachelorette party.

With my favorite boots it looks a bit go-go dancer.  I promise I didn’t get on any tables at the club, though.
   

Breanne’s gift, wrapped in striped tissue paper and pretty mohair yarn.  I’ll keep what’s inside to myself since this site should stay G-rated.

It would be so easy to collect stationary.  To fill drawers with embossed and printed vellum, with stamps and stickers and slips of ribbon and yarn.  The thing is, as much as I like paper crafts, I know what I do best and what I enjoy most.  It’s far too easy to dabble in everything, and end up with supplies that sit unused.  I’d much rather support those who have true passion for it (and therefore do it better than me.)  Besides which, my space is so small, and I so dislike clutter, that it’s just better to resist the craving.

When in need of cards, my first stop is, of course, as always, Etsy.  I picked these up and plan on using one for my sister’s 28th birthday, and for a bachelorette party this weekend.

50s imagery just appeals to me.  I’m not really sure why.  After finding these cuties, I also stumbled upon these by Love Dog Card Company:

The bright colors and stylized pin-ups make me think of the Copacabana, the Rat Pack, and Miami all rolled into one.  I’m sorely tempted to get them as well, even without an event in mind.

Since the restaurant we’d chosen was jam-packed by 6:30, and the weather was preventing any pleasant meandering while waiting for a table to free up, we decided to eat at an Italian restaurant down the street.  We’d noticed the people inside eating what looked to be delicious pizza, and the smell was intoxicating.  What we didn’t expect was the decor.

Restaurants with themes are usually a little too kitschy for me, but any restaurant whose decor includes vintage dresses and feather boas dangling from all nooks and crannies is okay with me.  The concept behind Madame K.’s, located in Old Ballard, is to recreate the type of place miners or fishers might have stopped at for a drink and a girl. 

My initial thought, after I stopped marvelling at the rad vintage dresses everywhere, was to wonder if the waitresses might think the concept exploitative.  This worry was swiftly squashed by the sassy demeanor of the women hurrying back and forth.  Besides which, they clearly had their own interpretation of the vintage, pseudo-bordello wear.  Our waitress had on a black vintage slip, fishnets, bloomers, and Crocs.  Minus the Crocs, it actually was something I would wear.

The bloomers are available at Free People while there are plenty of vintage slips on ebay.  Even if just peeking from beneath a dress, a lacy slip is definitely an item I wouldn’t mind adding to my wardrobe.

(Into) the Fray sometimes doubles as a bit of a wishlist for me.  With certain items, especially those one-offs you see on Etsy, I wouldn’t dare post about it if I wasn’t certain the item was already in the mail on it’s way to me.  With other things, like Nine West shoes, I’m not usually so concerned.  So I didn’t think twice when I went to check the price on the purple flats I’d posted about a couple of days ago.  The shoes, however, were gone.

In my desperate search for purple flats, Google turned up this:

Categories include:  Purple Wedding, Purple Goth, Purple Camo and we won’t even get into Purple Oh My!  Oh, the horrors within…

That last one is purple fingerless gloves.  You know, for your purple wedding. 

And I thought I was upset before…

So this picture in Vice’s Do’s & Don’ts had me longing for a pair of slip on canvas shoes.

Obviously, there are other reasons the shoes might seem appealing (like, for instance, that she’s gorgeous) but just stay with me.  I browsed around, trying to find canvas slip-on shoes that weren’t in the 45-70 dollar range.  Oddly, I was having no luck.  Being such a common style, I knew they had to be out there somewhere for cheaper.

Then, Queen Michelle over at Kingdom of Style mentioned Revolve Clothing as a great site for jeans.  Checking out the link,  I saw they happened to be having a sale.  And what shows up on the first sale page?  Canvas slip-ons for $35 bucks.

And I got the last 7.5.  But wait.  There’s more.  This sale is pretty fantastic.

Joie tank for 68 (down from 136.)  Topless tee for 28 (down from 55.)  And Antik jeans for 83 (down from 165.)  There’s tons of stuff but keep in mind the sizes are limited.

And my boyfriend wonders how I get from one subject to another…

I think I first stumbled upon Bits & Bobbins through the vast fashion blog portal that Style Bubble has become.  I was pleased to see that it merged my two favorite subjects: fashion & craft.  If anything, it showed that these subjects didn’t have to be mutually exclusive and are in fact often one and the same.  Besides which, Tricia’s posts are often thoughtful, fun to read, and always colorful.  So it should have been no surprise when she left a thoughtful comment regarding color on my post gushing about purple.

colors certainly come in and out of favor in the trendmill, but RED, red is a classic. i’d even argue that it belongs in the cabal of classic colors, along with navy, black, tan, and white, as far as staple colors used by the fashion industry. some shade of it will always be in favor at any given time, season, or year.

besides, if you really love something, does it matter if it’s in or out? i’m of the idea that it doesn’t matter.

I am in absolute agreement regarding this comment.  Red is definitely a classic, whether it’s showing up in expected places like nails and lips, or unexpected places like jeans and tights.  If it weren’t such an attention demanding color, I’m sure it would be included with black and brown as a basic staple.

Further, I absolutely agree regarding ins and outs.  I’ve been ignoring trends that don’t suit me since I was old enough to figure out who profits most when I buy things I don’t wear.  I’ve stayed far away from skinny jeans, leggings, trapeze tops, plaid and any number of things that I’ve been told are de rigueur.  Of course, I’ve also embraced ballet flats, cropped coats, tunic length everything, and bright yellow as if there was going to be a shortage of those things tomorrow.

However, I never quite outgrew the knee-jerk reaction of disliking something the minute I see it as being ubiquitous.  When a trend is very general (like ballet flats) and can be interpreted any number of ways (like yellow), it’s easier to resist that fatigue.  After all, if I walk into a room and one girl has on a yellow tee, another is carrying a yellow bag and they both have on ballet flats in differing styles, it’s still a variation in my mind.  However, when I walk down the street and every other person is sporting the same polka dot wedges, it’s hard for me to love mine with the same passion.  Maybe it’s because humans can’t stop wanting to be as individual as possible, even when we can’t help shopping at the same international and national chains.  Maybe that’s why my interest in craft and handmade has dominated my interests in ways I would never have expected.

I acknowledge it’s a bit high school to have that reaction to trends, but their dispersal is so much faster and so much more comprehensive that I find myself fatigued more easily than ever.  It seems as if an item has barely begun to get mocked on Blue States Lose before half my neighborhood is wearing it.

Whee!!  I popped into the Red Light near my apartment (as opposed to the picked over one in the University District) and found some truly darling dresses.

I couldn’t resist trying on a day dress with an open weave collar and springy green print.  It was much too big for me–I had to pull it tight behind my waist to even see the shape.  Unfortunately, my sewing skills have yet to venture into making or altering clothes–and with such frail fabric, I’d be terrified of ruining the thing.

This dress, however, is going to be in full effect for this weekend’s wedding.  It fits perfectly, is incredibly flattering and features the kind of detail you rarely see in dresses outside of Anthropologie.  I love the placement of the zipper, the cape effect, and of course the lacy detail and beads on the bust.  I think it might have been a formal dress (for a 1960s prom?) or a bridesmaid dress because close examination of the hem shows it’s been shortened.

What’s more, this baby is perfect for the particular wedding I’m going to, an event that will definitely be more funky than formal in that the bride is a photographer and the groom a musician.  Not quite sure yet what I’m going to wear for a coat or whether to go with black or brown for shoes…

Oh, one last thing about the dress.  I’d read in various places that sizing has changed drastically over the last fifty years, the numbers decreasing as the average size of women increases (ie: vanity sizing.)

So I smiled when I noticed the size 14 tag.  Yes, a 14.  Which is pretty much twice the size of all my other clothing.  Makes me think that I might stop foaming at the mouth about the creation of the double 00 size–after all, back in the day, that might have been a size 4.