Tulle Therapy

I had been in hospital for a while when taking these photos (totally trending the hospital tag on my left wrist there), and really over wearing a shapeless white gown everyday. So, out on a day pass, I had to dress up as much as I could to make up for it, and take some photos of course. Dressing up and taking photos helped with the general boringness of being in hospital and sickness. Also, so did DIY. DIY was a great boredom-killer. Making millions of little velvet bows not only helped me to get good at sewing, but I also now have millions of little velvet bows to attach to both clothes and my hair. Win win win!

Hooray for DIY & Tulle Therapy!

Heaps chuffed about my bow and collar, which I DIY'ed up myself.

Wearing:

Tulle Dress - wholesale-dress.net
Petticoats (under dress) - wholesale-dress.net

Socks - Japan (Tutu Anna)

Perforated White Oxfords -  wholesale-dress.net

Collar - DIY'ed by me

Jumper - Vintage from Thank You Mart in Japan

Belt - Vintage (Lifeline)

Bag - wholesale-dress.net

Velvet Bow Hairpine - DIY'ed by myself

You can vote for this outfit on chictopia too if you're feeling particularly lovely!

Annika xxxx

daisies and sheers

Wearing:

Shoes from Rubi Shoes

Dress by Chicabooti

Collar is Self-Made

Tights from Wholesale Dress

Map Print Bag from Wholesale Dress

Belt from markets

Sweater from Forever 21

ps. got out of hospital yesterday :):) hooray!

Blogging to ya'll from a hospital bed

Just because I've found myself stuck in hospital this week, doesn't mean I can't get stuck into some DIY. In fact, hospital is more or less the perfect place for whiling away mindless hours hand sewing and cutting up fabric. And as I'm stuck in a ward of old, seriously old people, I'm competing with a whole lot of little old ladies to become the best sewer in this place. The DIY is ON! (I'm so lame.) I convinced my lovely mum to go and buy me a whole bunch of stuff from spotlight, winning a whole big bag of material and thread with sympathy for having to be in hospital (muh ha ha). So i figured as I can't do any outfit posts at the moment (a lookbook on how to best decorate ones shapeless white hospital gown, perhaps?), this is what I've come up with after a few days of mind-numbing boredom (keep in mind I also have a bunch of leads connected to me and an IV in my arm so my sewing skills have been somewhat compromised (so no laughing)):

- A mustard scalloped peter pan collar with embroidery details

- A plain mustard peter pan collar

- Several velvet bows in all sizes, with both bobby pins and safety pins on the back to create bows for my hair and bowties for my clothes

- The beginnings of a red velvet skirt (and there will also be some red velvet bows from the offcuts, I'm sure)

- And some more peter pan collars of all colours, sizes and shapes (did I mention I'm planning on becoming the queen of collars?)

And of course, there's some (bad quality) photos of this for your viewing pleasure if you all care to scroll down the page just a little bit.

Hopefully I'll be out and blogging again just before Christmas. Much love to you all :) xxx Annika

DIYing Peter Pan Collars

I didn't have a thing to do today (and the weather is entirely miserable) so I spent it making 3 quite nice scalloped peter pan collars using some bits of old felt that I found in a box, some random buttons and a hole punch, inspired by the fantastic Honestly WTF DIY blog. I'm a little bit proud of them because they look quite nice and didn't cost me anything to make, and I also wanted to post photos of them because I totally shook it up and changed the DIY just slightly to make a double layered peter pan collar as well. Craaazzzy! Haha... ahh I need to find other things to do in my life. Anyway... enjoy!

 With the first one I just followed the DIY on the blog, and it ended up just like they said it would. Easy enough.

 As I had nothing else to do today, and some spare felt, I made a second one and embellished it with a golden button and some black felt.

 The third one I made was completely purple, but the idea of it is so I can layer it with the other two. It's the same size as the others (because I couldn't be bothered cutting up another template), so I just kind of plonked it under the other one. Who knows if this will actually sit well once worn out. Still, it looks pretty cool!

(Above picture) Layered with the first collar.

(Below) Layered with the second collar.

So really I made FOUR collars. Well now. That's pretty nifty. All in all a productive day :)

Have a nice day all!

Annika

The perfect dress for the end of Autumn

So too bad it’s summer here. I’m autumning it up today with this gorgeous leaf patterned dress which I scored vintage some years ago, and was actually thinking about selling online, because it had never fit me – until now! So I am trying to set up an online store at the moment to recycle my wardrobe, but it’s really difficult because then I start taking pictures of the item I want to sell and decide I really like it and will keep it instead. But I REALLY need to get rid of some clothes!!! Anyway, I hope you like it :)

Wearing:

Dress - Vintage

Sheer Spotted Stockings - www.wholesale-dress.net

Red Double Buckle Heels - www.wholesale-dress.net

Pocketwatch from Markets in Sydney

Lace & Waves

Pink Lace Blouse - Forever 21

Red Pleated Skirt - Vintage from Japan

Black Boots - Vintage

Lace & Crochet socks - Tutuanna

Bowler Hat - from Markets in Osaka

Orange Satchel Bag - Wholesale Dress

Bowtie - Polka Dot Black and White Bowtie

Pocketwatch - Paddy's Markets (in Sydney)

It’s near impossible to dress well in a hot climate. These photos were taken up in very very northern Australia on the beach, and if you zoomed right in on my face I’m pretty sure you would be able to see the sheen of sweat (and these photos were taken at SUNSET). I had just bought all these amazing autumn clothes from Japan, and then found I was unable to wear most of them once in Northern Australia! The most that I could do every day was to throw on a singlet top and a long vintage skirt – very basic, but at least looking like I’d made some effort. So basically the point of this story is, if you live in a hot place and are able to still care about what you wear, then I really admire you!

Also, my obsessions at the moment? You may have noticed. Bowties and Petticoats. Awh yeeeeah.

 Love to you all :)

My feet are wearing petticoats too

1. Badge, Vintage

2. Crochet Socks, Tutuanna

3. Vintage Cat Ring, Vintage

4. Black Bow Embellished Heels, www.wholesale-dress.net/plus-size-bowknot-embellished-platform-pumps-black-g1326286.html?union=2365

5. Embroided Satchel Bag, www.wholesale-dress.net/goods.php?union=2365&id=1275481

6. Maroon Bowler Hat, Markets in Osaka

7. Lace Bustier Bodysuit, $10, Vintage

8. Vintage Hermes Belt, Vintage

9. Floral Patterned Skirt, Forever21

10. White Lace Petticoat, Vintage from Japan

 It's now the 7th un-sunny, un-summery day of summer in Sydney. I was super excited to wear all my summer clothes, but I can't even! What is going on? I got this lace bustier bodysuit yesterday from Vinnies and I reaaaaally like it, I will be wearing it much more when the weather warms the heck up!

Hope you like it too :)

DIY Cutout Dress #2

So I've been chopping up all my dresses lately, trying to turn them into something nice, and it has actually been working kind of alright! You can check out the DIY for my other cutout dress here. Basically for this triangle cutout, all you need to do is get a cheap vintage dress (one with a waistline already sewn in is best, but not necessary), turn it inside out and carefully slice out an upside down T where ever you want the triangle cutout to be, fold back the little triangle flaps that you make, and then hem around all the edges either using a sewing machine, or using small handstiches like I did here.

Here's a pretty badly drawn paint diagram if you don't get what I mean:

Finished product:

DIY Cutout Dress / Merry December!

 Inspired by A Pair and A Spare's DIY blog, I have been cutting up a whole bunch of my dresses in the last couple of days, trying to give a new life to some of my older and slightly more boring dresses. I've done two and a half so far! It's really simple and easy to do, and I didn't even know that I could sew, so really anyone can do it! And it makes your dresses pretty and new!

This is how you might want to go about slicing up your very own dresses:

(here is my very informative paint diagram)

1. Turn dress inside out. I then used a right-angle ruler because I wanted a triangle shape cutout from my dress.  If the dress already has a waistline sewn in, that's great because you can use it to go from. Put ruler against the dress with the bottom edge on top of the waistline, and the sloping edge sloping towards the middle of the dress. Draw with pencil along the longest edge of the triangle.

2. Do this on both the front and the back of the dress.

3. Cut out the front first, then the back, along the line you have just drawn in a triangle shape (do NOT try and cut the front and back together, you will end up accidently cutting through the waistline (like I did at first).)

 4. Cut down the middle of the piece that you have just cut out (down the side of the dress) just to the waistline.

5. Fold the triangle halves down into the dress, folding on the waistline. Then hem all sides. I just hemmed it by hand, it doesn't take long because it's only a very small section.

6. Do on other side of dress (unless you want it to be lopsided, which, you may!)

Hooray! You now have a cute new dress with sexy cutouts.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Hype me on lookbook if you found this useful/interesting!

Also, please don't try this first on your favourite, most expensive dress. Grab a dress with a cute print from a vintage store or op shop for cheap, or find one at the back of your wardrobe, so that you won't end up in tears/super angry at me if you stuff it up a little (mine was give to me by a friend, and she got it from KMart, but had never been worn because it was too unflattering).

Vintage Japan!

Wow. So I made the discovery while on my trip to Japan last month that their vintage stores are absolutely incredibly amazing beyond-belief. This is why:

1. Everything is an amazing quality. Japan must have some seriously trendy grannies because the quality of clothing is fantastic. You don’t have to turn the place upside down to find just 1 or 2 okay vintage pieces – basically every piece on the racks is good. The only hard part is choosing what to buy!
2. Everything is my size! No more searching through endless size 18s and 20s. Japanese people are small and so are their clothes, so everything fit me!
3. Everything is well priced. Well, half the stores were “boutique” and very expensive, but the other half were very well priced, such as the 390 yen and 780 yen stores (that’s about $5 and $9). There were also loads of sales.
4. They are open late at night, which is fantastic if like me you don’t get out of bed until way past midday.

If you are seriously into vintage, you seriously need to consider going to Japan. The best suburbs for vintage are Shimokitazawa, Harujuku and Koenji in Tokyo, and Namba in Osaka. This particular photo was taken in Fukushima in Osaka (not THAT Fukushima by the way). My suitcase literally split at the seams trying to lug all these clothes back but it was completely worth it! There will be more photos up from Japan asap! I'm so excited to post all about it!

Wearing:

Cream Polka-dot textured Cardigan

Vintage from Japan

Lace Frill Socks

Tutuanna (Tokyo)

Maroon Bowler Hat

Markets in Osaka

Vintage Bubblegum Patterned Bow Tie Dress

Vintage Shop in Osaka

Orange Satchel Bag

www.wholesale-dress.net

Black Boots

Vintage

Did you miss me?

xx Annika

Vintage tokyo

So before I left for Tokyo I had NO idea just how amazing the clothes shopping would be. It has just exceeded my expectations and beyond. These are just some terrible quality photos taken last night in the shimokitazawa district, which I felt needed to be shared because in this little town I found the most amazing, incredible well priced vintage arcades I have ever seen in my life. In just one arcade there were literally 30 different little vintage boutiques. I also bought some gorgeous skirts and shirts for 630 yen (about $7.50) each, and a ring, and took pictures of those too. (I do have much better photos of everything in Tokyo but they will have to wait. Sorry about the photos being sideways too, I can't figure out how to rotate them, haha.) Enjoy :)

Farewell! I'm off overseas for a bit!

I wish I could tell you that this is how I will be getting on the plane (when I go to Japan in just a FEW DAYS, just by the way!). Unfortunately, practicality demands that I don’t wear massive sequinned platform boots. Customs would probably have an issue with them too. *Sigh* ah well. I’m going to Japan now. See you all in a month!

H is for Happiness & Harmony (& Hercules!)

The vintage shops here in Sydney have been the absolute BEST at the moment! This amazing warm green cardi with the most gorgeous gold buttons was $3, and these boots $5. I really like this "H" vintage belt as well, just bought yesterday for $2. Unfortunately it's just starting to break, as you can see in the picture :( I shall super glue it back together very soon! Still, can't complain for $2.

Wearing:

Orange Satchel Bag

$9, wholesale-dress.net/lovely-belts-embellished-bag-orange-g1312734.html?union=2365

Bird Pendant Pocketwatch

wholesale-dress.net/fashion-design-birds-embellished-pocket-watch-g1382894.html?union=2365

Vintage Oversized Green Cardigan

$3

Vintage "H" Buckle Leather Belt

$2

Blue and Red Floral Print Dress

$25, Temt

Polka Dot Tights

wholesale-dress.net/fashion-sexy-thin-round-points-socks-black-g1282504.html?union=2365

Vintage Leather Boots

Vinnies, $5

From my backyard to London...

So, it's pretty lame really, but kind of funny, this dodgy photo I took in my backyard on a breaking tripod and self-timer is now on the header of Asos's Fashion Finder website. I guess that's kind of cool in a way.

Life inside a music box

Dress: Vintage handpainted 50s dress from Markets, $25.

Shoes: Wholesale-dress

Music Box by Regina Spektor