DIY Snake fingerless gloves

My brother was going to one of those role play, murder mystery game party things and his character was supposed to be Dr. S, a businessman with an unhealthy obsession with snakes... And, as my bro had nothing to wear that resembled snakes, he enlisted my help and we went out and bought a) a Nerf gun, just for funsies b) a rubber snake toy to wear around his neck and c) T shirts with which to make these:

I just traced around his hand/arm and added about a quarter of an inch or so all the way around and cut through 2 layers of T shirt. The eyes, scale things, and tongue I hand sewed on. If you need a visual:

It would have been a bit easier if I had sewed the features on then sewed the side seams, but all in all they turned out pretty cool... Considering I finished them in two hours (guys I take forever to hand sew anything)

Inspired by these from Etsy

DIY Denim Patch Vest

It's here! After struggles with technology and fabric it's finally come together. It's a really fun-- and surprisingly easy-- project that anyone with basic knowledge of sewing can do. The name of the game is random and messy looking, so it's perfect for people (like yours truly) who like to play "fake it till you make it" when they sew. 

WHAT YOU NEED

1. 2+ pairs of jeans of different washes, it looks better with more contrast (ie dark and light wash)
2. Sewing machine and needle/thread (it's faster to machine sew but you can hand sew if you have the patience) 
3. Fabric scissors-- pinking shears, or normal ones work fine
4. Dark colored thread
5. A vest or jacket (something with a fit/shape you like and that has little/no stretch like the denim you are using)
6. Lining fabric (optional)

WHAT TO DO

1. Cut along the inseam and the sides seams on both jeans so you have total of 4 separate jeans fabric pieces.

Preview: Denim Patch Vest DIY

I've been gone for ages because the end of last school year was crazy.. But hey, I've started a new project... and it's surprisingly easy!

I love vests and am really starting to love the look of mixing denims... Inspired by various projects found on Pinterest and the interwebs, I chopped up two damaged/painted on pants (with holes in rather embarrassing places) and meddled with them to fit the pattern of a vest I already had.

I still need to play with other details, so that will be a surprise for all of us

Until then, here are more looks/projects with denim:

HonestlyWTF roundup of patchwork denim

American flag, "punk rock" vest from men's jacket

This roundup of INCREDIBLE, creative projects with denim

Mr Kate has a about 5 or 6 videos on creating awesome shorts like this...

DIY jewelry

Understanding the art: Mondrian neoplacticism

I think that for people who aren't-- and maybe even for a lot of people who are-- that into art, it is hard to look at artists' work like Mondrian and be very impressed by it ".. But I could do that!"

Which is fair-- given some paint and masking tape anyone could copy his work. But that's not what's important, not the technical aspect anyways. Really, it's a fascinating body of work because of its CONCEPT.

(and here I want to note that this is based on what I have read and MY interpretation! If you had a different idea of his work I am not discounting it... that's the fun part about art, you can interpret it in any way you want)

Mondrian's work is about the ideal of beauty. For a painter planning out a painting, he/she has to consider how to break up a canvas. There are ways to do so the create asymmetry, balance, etc. to make it aesthetically pleasing. He does this through carefully calculated geometry and methodically placed lines/blocks of color.

Mondrian said that you don't NEED to have a subject like the Mona Lisa or complex ranges of colors like the impressionists to make a pleasing painting. If you break down art to its most basic components-- line and the primary colors and negative space (the areas where there isn't)-- and arrange it in one of the universally pleasing compositions you will still be able to achieve the ideal of beauty.
That idea was incredibly revolutionary!

Then consider, what would be the point of that? Well by simplifying it, by removing distractions of narrative and recognizable forms, you can try to understand purely the ideal concept of beauty. Beauty not being a thing that is just in the world, but in its purest form or as a kind of force of nature or universal truth... Plato in his theory of forms argued that these kind of universal ideas (like beauty!) is the only reality. The search for truth, a push to understand reality, drives all art


More concisely Mondrian was getting rid of distractions (back story, character, value-- who needs it?) to only try to find what beauty really is in the universe.

The pursuit of beauty? That sounds a lot like art to me

Dress inspiration, celeb style: Kimbra

She's so awesome I'd like to explode

DIY Shoe video tutorials

Taking a break from dresses, I thought it might be a good idea to follow up the last post I did on my favorite how to dress videos with a few diy shoe videos since most people prefer to wear nice clothes with some form of footwear

Best party dress how to videos

So I think it's pretty much a fact that making your dress is the cheapest thing to do-- unless you buy it from a thrift store or get it free as a gift or something which is awesome

But these are some of the videos I think are the best (and easiest for those w/out real training) on the youtubes... hopefully it will be helpful to y'all:

7iggy is a channel that has a bunch of videos, but here's a few

Threadbanger, because seriously they started all of this sweet, sweet madness

*Note: video has three parts, this is the first, but you can find them on her channel or on related videos

** giannyl has a TON of really simple tutorials (I've referenced them on previous blog posts) so check it out! I just put a few of them, but trust me the rest of her videos are worth checking out (dont forget to click read more because, surprise, there's more videos!)

50's prom!

[or insert other occasions of fun colorful formal wear]
Even though they are way out of my, and most prom goer's price range, I think they're still fun to oogle at because they're so girly and fun.. I'll probably do another post with more affordable fancy dress inspiration/possibilities.


    


Links to the dresses (if you have several hundreds of dollars to spare haha):
Pink fluffy
Layered Peach
Yellow Floral
Lavender lacy
Teal and Pink
Pink lacy
Reddish lace
Cream and Rust
Green Sparkly