dotty, stripes, and belts

i haven't done a how-to post in awhile and i've been feeling a little crafty lately. anyway, i saw this stripey belt at j.crew a few months back, and thought "hey, i could make that!" and then kayley did, so i figured it was time to give it a whirl.



first off, gather your supplies:

• embroidery thread
• scissors
• a belt (mine is a cheapy from forever21)
• and some sort of glue (not pictured)

(the back)



(the front)



(making a mess and watching a whole lot of arrested development)









(pair with bright pants)

dash of tape

since last year i went extra unsaturated for my christmas wrapping, this year i went crazy overboard with my gift tableau.  i'm talking wrapping paper pattern mixing, dumping out my whole collection of grosgrain ribbon, gift tags made from giant helvetica initials, and (best of all) making bows out of a W magazine editorial about tilda swinton.  yes, you heard right, tilda.



pink for christmas.  it's the next big thing.  



black and white and red all over.  not unlike a newspaper.



kinda minimalist, but only so that tilda stands out.  get instructions on how to make bows from magazines over here at how about orange.



christmas strawberries.  



a helvetica d.  such a good letter.  



i tried to make an "L" out of ribbon, but it came out more disease-awareness than cursive letter.  oh, and a chanel ad bow.  

dotty wears boots

it's boots season y'all!
and as a boot enthusiast i thought i'd share some of my favorite ways to wear them:



with punchy tights.
all my boots are neutral colors, so they mingle well with bright tights.  and if you're feeling sheepish about sporting smurf legs, covering up a good percentage with tall boots and a longer dress tones down the saturation.  bonus points for neon tights.  



with a dress.
before the snow starts falling, this a great option to show off your knee caps.  bonus points for added knee socks.



with skinnies.
tighter pants work better for this.  bonus points for finding a motorcycle to pose in front of.  



with neutral tights.
if you match them to the boots they can make your legs look longer.  bonus points for textures and patterns.  

dash of hexnuts

i've been totes into the necklaces at totokaelo lately, so i picked up some hexnuts from the hardware aisle, to make my own version.

[materials]

jump ring (from a crafty store)

chain (from a crafty store)

hexnuts (from the hardware store)

snippy pliers

bendy pliers

1. measure length of chain.  (i used 28", but it could be shorter or longer)

2. string on hexnuts.  (i used five, but there were eight in the package)

3. attach jump ring to close the chain. 

[wearing]
cardigan: forever21 (similar)
white tee: boy's
jeans: h&m
oxfords: forever21 (similar)

dash of a white flower

dash of a light fixture

materials:

a paper lantern (mine is an 18" "regolit" shade and "hemma" cord set from ikea)

a whole lot of coffee filters (mine ended up needing around 700)

hot glue

steps:

1. inflate paper lantern

2. separate coffee filters individually

3. smush coffee filters

4. glue them one by one onto the lantern in rows.

progress photos (left is the first row and right is after 400 filters)

and up in my living room.

the best part of this is that i was working on it over break and kept having to come up with a name for it.  my niece first asked what it was, the room went quiet, and then i said it was a lampshade.  she accepted this and started petting it.  (it has since been called "the poof" and "an art object" as well.)

dash of bubbles

all it takes is a long skirt, a needle, and some thread.for this little bubble. 


skirt criteria:

• long enough to be halved in length
• an elastic waistband to sew into
• a light fabric that will work well doubled in thickness (the one i used was totally see-through un-bubbled)

basically, i just sewed the bottom hem of the skirt into the inside of the elastic waistband.  i pinned it first to make sure it was even and left some slack in the thread to make sure the stitching would not pull out when the elastic stretched. 

dash of shorts

yeah, pantsless in the cold.  last winter this kinda became one of my things.  one of my good friends makes fun of me for "forgetting to put on pants again" whenever i do this. 

dash of saturation

dash of bright tights

i may or may not have an overflowing box of tights, but it's totally reasonable since i currently live in a cold climate where most of the year is tights season.  anyway, i'm a big fan of welovecolors and american apparel for tights.  my ones from target seem to get snagged on things really easily. 

a tights rainbow (left to right): 

winter 2010 in welovecolors maroon

winter 2009 in vegas (must have been the one cold day of the year because i appear to be all wintered out) in american apparel mustard

winter 2010 in welovecolors mint green

fall 2009 in target turquoise

smurfing it up in winter 2009 in vegas in welovecolors medium blue