The Pineneedle Collective

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

DIY Floral Two-Piece, Buggies & Takayasu's

First up I'm going to provide an explanation for my somewhat sporadic blogging lately! I don't want anyone thinking that maybe I'm becoming disinterested in this blog, because I definitely am not. Lately I've just been really knocked about by my autoimmune illness (which is called Takayasu's Arteritis if you're curious, ~because I know you are~).

If you don't know what it means to have an autoimmune illness, this cartoon below is basically the best way of explaining what that is (and can double-up as my science segment for today's post, hooray!):

Beatrice the Bioloist

The above picture represents some over-zealous white blood cells. While in healthy people white blood cells act to find and destroy unwelcome intruders (like cold viruses), in people with autoimmune disorders the white blood cells decide, for whatever reason, that the cells of the body are also unwelcome intruders, and destroy them as well.

To quiet down those over-excited cells, many people with autoimmune disorders have to take medications that suppress their immune systems. An unfortunate side effect of these is getting seriously knocked-out by little things like colds and infections, like the one I have had for the past entire month.

I've been pretty private about my illness for the past three years on my blog, as I have never wanted for it to be a defining feature of my life - and I'm still not going to talk about it much because that's not what this blog is about - but it is a big part of my life. Lately, a fellow tak-haver has lately begun trying to raise awareness of our illness and I want to do whatever I can to support that pursuit! Because it's a rare illness most doctors have never encountered it, making diagnosis very difficult, and it also means that there is basically zero research money for it. So if you would like to "Like" the awareness page, or even just tell someone that you learnt about a new disease today, that would mean the world to me. We even have a hashtag, #TAK ~what what, getting on that social media bandwagon!~

Now back to my outfit.

I wanted to take some proper, non-iPhone pictures in front of this cute car that parked itself near my house, but as soon as I tried it began to storm quite heavily. *Thanks, universe.* So you're all stuck with the quick-and-dodgy iPhone version of this outfit instead.

I made this two-piece set yesterday out of a thrifted vintage quilt cover. As soon as I saw the quilt cover I knew that it had to be converted into something that I could wear on my body. The print is one of the coolest I've ever encountered - not only are the colours gorgeous, when you look up close you notice that it's jungle-themed, and all these snakes, birds, gazelles and elephants jump out at you.

Floral set is DIY | necklace c/o Now Or Never Jewelry | shoes are Rubi (old)

Not wanting to waste fabric, I even lined the top using the quilt's lining! This is definitely one of my favourite things that I've ever made.

Hopefully everything will become a little bit less stressful for me soon, and I'll be back to a more regular blogging schedule. Thanks again for sticking around, reading what I have to say, leaving such wonderful comments and supporting what I do - it's been invaluable to me when I've been at my lowest points these past couple of months.

Much love, and I wish you all a healthy, happy week!

Thursday, 30 October 2014

DIY Eyeball Shirt | Make, Thrift, Buy Episode #6

Image credit - Elodie Antoine

For episode number #6, I attempt to recreate this wonderfully weird shirt by artist Elodie Antoine. I don't think that this shirt was ever available to buy, which kind of makes me sad. It's far too wonderful of a concept! See how I went in recreating it:

I hope that you've all been having a great day, and please keep those suggestions coming for weird (but cool) clothes that you've seen on the internet!

Saturday, 25 October 2014

Make Thrift Buy Episode 5: Melting Tights

Hello! I've been desperate to try out this particular DIY ever since it was suggested to me about a month ago - Melting Tights! I thought that they would be too easy to make - but of course, things did not exactly go to plan. This video would have been up sooner, but the half-finished tights just spent three-fricken-weeks sitting there and TAUNTING ME. I'm not going to give away any more than that, you'll have to watch what happened for yourselves! *and I apologise in advance for my stuffy cold-voice*

Links to three-dimensional fabric paint: 1 | 2 | 3

I hope that you're all having a beautiful week so far,

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Fighting Evil By Moonlight & Organic Molecules in Space

Annika - shirt is thrifted, skirt c/o Faith & Lola, shoes c/o Chicwish (old), tights from Japan, earrings are handmade.

Katie - dress is thrifted, shoes are mine (thrifted), socks from Clear It and brooch is vintage.

I'm glad I'm friends with someone who also gets the urge to go out on a freezing night, dressed up like a nightmarish barbie doll and take photos next to dumpsters. These photos were taken way-back-when in June, but I thought they would be a good set to pull out of the vault just in time for Halloween (I tell myself every year that I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon, but it inevitably happens).

Anyway, these shots did end up being fairly appropriate for a Halloween-themed shoot - mainly because of these shots I got of Katie looking throughly possessed (which I turned into an even creepier gif):

What... even. The funny thing is that we weren't even attempting any kind of demon-possession shots; Katie just happened to be jumping around, trying to stay warm, while I was trying to focus my camera on her. So we were SUPER freaked when we were later reviewing the photos and these shots popped up, because we couldn't even remember taking them!

I also want to bring attention to how cool this vintage (and Sailor Moon-esque) brooch of Katie's is:

You may also notice that I have a brand new blog banner! It's by the incredible Em Somerville whose art I have loved FOREVER. I'm so beyond pleased with it. While I loved my old header, this one is a much more accurate representation of what this blog is about - vintage-inspired fashion with a side of sewing and science. If you haven't checked out Em Somerville's artwork before, this is her website, and she also posts some pretty fantastic stuff on her instagram account.

Today I will leave you all with an awesome bit of science: A complex carbon-based molecule was found floating around in space, 27,000 light years away from Earth. I'm so blown away by the fact that astronomers are able to detect such a tiny thing (a molecule! You can't even see those with a light-microscope, let alone the naked eye) from such a long distance. But the researchers are pretty confident that it's out there. Furthermore, it's an organic molecule - which lends support to the theory that life-forming molecules may come from outer-space rather than being created on planets. Read more here, it's amazing.

I hope that you're all having a lovely day,

Monday, 13 October 2014

Triple Pineapple

Shirt is thrifted | earrings c/o I Love Crafty | pinafore c/o Sheinside (old) | shoes from Naot | brooch is handmade

I have named this post triple pineapple because I am wearing:

Pineapples on my ears
Pineapples all over my shirt
Pineapple-printed underwear. Okay, so you can't see these (I didn't feel comfortable flashing the entire internet), but they totally make a difference & contribute to the pineapple-y-ness of the outfit! Does anyone else ever go out wearing cute undies, knowing that no one is going to see them but feeling like they've helped contribute to your outfit regardless, just because you know they are there?

I wanted to give off some tropical, summery vibes with this outfit, so I added an ice-cream brooch, pastel lipstick and this pinafore. The pinafore has for some reason always reminded me of the uniform of somebody who sells ice cream. Is anyone else getting that vibe, or is it just me?

I also need to give a shout out to I Love Crafty, who is the creator of these incredible pineapple earrings! I've been waiting literally all winter for the weather to warm up so that I could wear them. They're got the perfect amount of cute & novelty in my opinion - and I'm pretty sure they're going to be on high rotation on my earlobes this summer.

That's all from me today, I hope you're having a good one,

Saturday, 11 October 2014

Brighton Beach | Why is your brain inside your head?

Here's some photos from the vault! These shots were taken back when I visited Melbourne in July, while me & my mum were being touristy-tourists at the Brighton Beach bathing boxes.

It was a typically-overcast, freezing Melbourne winters day, and I think that the amount of clashing patterns that I ended up wearing was more out of necessity (I didn't bring enough un-patterned clothes with me), than me making a fashion statement! Regardless of this, I'm always going to love wearing a ridiculous amount of clashing-patterns, so I didn't mind this forced fashion statement at all.

My mum decided that she wanted to get in on taking outfit photos too, so I present to you all: my mum's very first outfit post!

Can you see where I get my love of pattern-mixing from??

My mum would definitely have to be one of the biggest style influences in my life. She's never been afraid to rock up to work or any event wearing cute mary-janes, a gorgeous thrifted dress and the craziest/coolest patterned tights she can find! (p.s. you should all leave some super nice comments about how stylin' my mum is; she is my blog's number one fan and you will make her day, I guarantee you!)

So: embedded below is my favourite science video of the week!

Some things are just so ingrained that you don't even think about questioning them. Have you ever thought about why your brain is inside your head before?

No? Me either.

But the more you do think about it, the stranger it seems. Why isn't your brain tucked away inside your torso with your other vital organs like your stomach, heart and liver? What's it doing all the way up there, wobbling around on your neck, so far away from all the organs it has to communicate with?

Let this video blow your brain!

I hope that you've all had a great week,