DIY: Tapered Cropped Striped Tee

Alright, first of all let's round up what you'll need.

What you'll need:
- T-shirt (I used an oversize one, but you can use whatever you want)
- Rit Dye (my color of choice was Green Apple)
- Scissors
- Paint Brush
- Salt
- Washer, basin, pot (whatever you want to soak it in)
- thread & sewing machine

You'll want to cover the space you are going to work on and you may want put something between the two layers of the shirt. I did both, but it's up to you how you want to setup your working environment.



I used liquid Rit dye, there was no mixing needed for me, but if you're using powder then you'll want to go ahead and mix that ahead of time in a bowl. I poured the liquid dye I used into a bowl for easy access. I grabbed a paint brush and painted stripes on in regular intervals leaving the sleeves unstriped for now. I didn't do any measuring because I wasn't interested in having things be exact. I did the front and then flipped to the back without really waiting for the front to dry. Again this was mostly because I wasn't concerned with a little smudging or exactness.



Once I finished with the front and back of the main portion of the shirt I laid out the sleeves one at a time and painted stripes on those too. I don't really know how to explain this process in words, so hopefully the above pictures will help guide you. The stripes didn't exactly match up on the sides and on the underside of the sleeves, but I just painted them a little wider in those areas to join them.



This is what it looked like when I was done striping. I had initially intended for the the stripes to be more distinct like they are on the unwashed version, but I didn't wait for it to dry so I ended up with softer stripes, which I actually like. I don't know what would happen if you let the dye dry completely before throwing it in the wash, but I imagine that the stripes would be a little darker.



So then I put the washer on hot, dumped in some salt, and threw my shirt in. Then I just sat back and let the washer do it's thing. Then I threw it in the dryer to let it set. Once dry I ironed it to ready it for sewing.



And this is how the stripes came out. Softer and lighter.



Now for the tapered crop part. I took a shirt that I like the length of and laid it out on top of the recently dyed shirt to see where to start cutting. At first I did a little mapping out of where to cut, but that didn't work out as I planned so I just took my cutter I use for quilting and cut and arch in only the top layer. This part is really just sort of a winging it step. You can cut the arch however you like. It all just depends on how short you want the front and the back and how severe you want the arch to be. I cut once tried it on and wasn't satisfied with it so I cut a bit more and evened on the arch.

Then I penned it, ironed it flat, and hemmed it with my sewing machine.

The last step for me, and you might not need to do this with yours, was to cut about two inches off each sleeve and hem those too. And presto! Done!

Daily Outfit: Inspired By

I don't know what kind of face I'm making in that first picture... I think I was biting my lip or something... weird. I LOVE this outfit. I don't really know why I never paired these two things together before. This dress, formally unblogged, is an old favorite from college, but it hasn't gotten as much wear recently because it got lost in my sea of dresses... that's the problem with having 60+ dresses.

I was surfing Atlantic-Pacific and getting ridiculously inspired by all of Bee's amazing outfits when I came across this beautiful layering of necklaces and button downs. I think having that in my mind was what finally led me to combine these two items. And the addition of the layered necklaces just completed the look. I can't wait till fall layer like crazy like Bee!







Top: Vintage, via Nostalgia
Dress (as skirt): Lilly Pulitzer
Shoes: Nine West
Necklaces: Vintage & Unknown
Watch: Vintage, Gucci, via Mom

Daily Outfit: A Pop of Color

So this is not one, but two outfits. And both this dress and skirt are unblogged until now. Whoa! Haha... this is an outfit that goes easily from day to night. I haven't worn this dress yet because I haven't really had anywhere to wear it. It's too sexy (in my opinion) for daily wear, but I haven't had any events to wear it to yet. This prompt from the 21 Day Challenge (wear a neutral base with a pop of color) screamed out for this dress, and so I did a little thinking and decided to try it under this skirt. I really like it. I actually tried something similar once with a vest as well and loved it, it made that red stripe in the middle look like a tie. So cute! But this morning I couldn't find any of my vests. So there will be a next time... because you'll love it with the vest!

But anyways, with the full skirt its appropriate for work, slip off the skirt and BAM! You've got something sassy to wear out on the town! Easy as that. And with these shoes there's not even a need to change shoes, they're tame enough for the workplace, but sassy enough for a night out.











Dress: Vintage, via Reruns
Skirt: White House | Black Market
Shoes: Gianni Bini, via Dillards
Watch: Vintage, Gucci, via mom

Daily Outfit: Wear a Skirt or Dress

I swear I changed outfits three times this morning. I had an outfit planned for this prompt for days then I put it on and realized that it wasn't going to work because the skirt needs to be taken in about two inches. I was pretty annoyed about it too. I tried it on in the store and it didn't seem that much too big then. It really just burns me up when things are "vanity sized". I mean seriously if an XS is nearly two inches too big on me there's something wrong. I don't even normally wear and XS so that's what really makes this feel ridiculous to me. There are a few brands out there that I have notice this is consistently a problem with. Funny enough J. Crew is one of them which is what I'm wearing. I had to down size to a 0P in J.Crew. That feels so insane to me.

But enough about that and more about this shirt. Today I tied it up in the back and it made this feel so summery even though it is combined with this wool skirt. And I treated the sash as a scarf. I don't know why but this felt a bit like summery flight attendant! haha.











Top & Sash/Scarf: Lilly Pulitzer
Skirt: J. Crew
Shoes: Vintage, via Etsy
Watch: Vintage, Gucci, via Mom

Daily Outfit: Closet Orphan

So I don't honestly have closet orphans. I mean there are things in my closet that I don't wear, but those are things that I'm going to get rid of in the near future. There are, however, things that don't wear very often. This is one of those such items that I wear rarely. I love short sleeved blazers a lot. I don't know if you guys know this about me, but I'm not really a fan of long sleeves and I am even less a fan of long sleeved blazers. I don't know why these blazers get so little wear because I really love them. And I just noticed that this would have been a great monotone outfit if I owned black or gray jeans... but nope all of my jeans are dark wash blue denim!









Top: Jenny's Closet
Blazer: Forever21
Jeans: Joe's Jeans
Belt: Steve Madden
Shoes: Calvin Klein
Necklace: Jewelmint*
Bag: Fossil, via Fossil Outlet (here)

*Disclosure: If you join Jewelmint via the above link and purchase something in the future I earn a credit point towards free jewelry.

Over the Weekend: A Tour of LP Field

So this weekend was my first weekend off since like June. While sleeping in and lounging around the house would have been just what the doctor ordered, I got an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. My dad got offered the opportunity to go on a private tour of LP Field (where the Tennessee Titans play) by a company that he works with. So we got up at 6am and my mom, dad, aunt, and I headed to Nashville.





We got to tour the press box and have breakfast in the press cafeteria. It was really cool to see how huge the press box actually is and of course the view of the field from there is AMAZING. And the number of members of the press that are at any given game really astounded me. I could never do press for a game because apparently the number one rule is: No Cheering. If you cheer they will eject you from the box!





Then we got to walk out the entrance to the field that the Titans walk out of from the locker room. I've never been down on the field any NFL stadium was it was really cool to be out there. They don't actually paint the end-zone with the Titans logo and all of that until the regular season starts. This has something to do with the toll the paint plays on the grass or something like that.





Clearly I was very excited. We made our way down to the 50 yard line, and when I say we I mean my mom and my aunt and I... not the whole group. haha. And we took some photo opts. This one above was me saying "yay!" but it looks more like I'm a gymnast who just stuck the landing. hehe.





We took pictures in the end-zone and then one in front of where are seats are. Yeah our season tickets are something like twelve rows up from the field right here.





And of course I took a moment to snap an outfit photo or two on the field because hey when will I ever get THAT chance again! I themed my stacked bracelets and watch for the day. Changing out my bezel for this pretty sparkly blue/diamond one and throwing on my red equality bracelet.

Jersey: Titans Pro Shop
Jeans: Joe's Jeans
Shoes: Steve Madden
Braclets & Watch: Made by me, Vintage Gucci (from mom), and HRC Store



The second half of the tour took us through a handful of private boxes for the coaches, the network media, and the scoreboard controls. It was interesting to learn about some of the behind the scenes television stuff for me because I interned in a TV studio and really loved it. I would LOVE to work in the scoreboard control room. It sounds like such a fast pasted interesting job.





The last stop was the locker room. I have to say I expected it to be bigger, but it was so amazing to see. I, of course, sought out Cortland Finnegan's locker as soon as we got in there. They haven't put up the official name plates yet since we're still in preseason and the roster hasn't been finalized, hence the blue paper name plates instead of the fancy ones that are usually there.

So anyways. It was such a priceless experience that I will definitely never forget!

Go Titans!

Daily Outfit: Get Creative

Today's challenge was to wear something creatively. I decided to wear my midi skirt as a dress. I love this skirt and it makes a great dress when belted, though it could stand to be slightly looser in the waistband which serves as the top of the dress in this case... which is funny since it's too big for my natural waist and I have to pin it when I wear it as a skirt.

And I am so excited about this watch. My mom has had this for as long as I can remember. And it appears from what I've been able to deduce from the internet, that it was sold in the 80's. My mom wore this watch (or the linked version of this watch) every single day while she was still teaching school. It has different colored bezels that you can interchange to have it match anything, which is why mom loves it so much. Since she hasn't worn this one in years she gifted it to me along with half of the bezels in her collection, since she had two of most of them. I am SO excited. It's such a beautiful watch and it has such special memories for me. You'll be seeing a lot of it.











Skirt (as dress): Thrifted, via America's Thrift Store
Belt: Thrifted, via Goodwill
Shoes: Lilly Pulitzer
Necklace: Vintage, via Eagle's Wings Antiques
Watch: Vintage, Gucci, gift from my mom

All pictures for this post were taken by my mom!

And then we had this lovely blooper for you. This would have been the best picture of all if the wind hadn't taken it upon itself to create a fictional GIANT butt for me. Yeah feast your eyes on that inflate-a-booty.

The Unblogged

As a blogger my wardrobe and shopping choices are on display to you, my lovely readers, all the time. I wear a lot of the same items over and over again because I like to remix and because I think it's important to show that you don't need new clothing all the time to be stylish. Some of the items I own, I've had since high school. So when Kara did a post about the unblogged in her closet, it made me curious to know exactly how much of my wardrobe you were actually getting to see. Earlier this week in a fit of mindless boredom I decided to take the plunge of sorting and counting. Three hours later I emerged ipad and list in hand. And I have to say... I was pretty impressed with myself.

64 Dresses - with 15 unblogged = 23%
36 Skirts - with 9 unblogged = 25%
91 Tops - with 27 unblogged = 29%
34 Sweaters/Blazers - with 14 unblogged = 41%
30 Pairs of Pants/Shorts - with 10 unblogged = 33%

255 Total Items - with 75 unblogged = 29%

So now you see why I'm impressed? you've seen 70% of my wardrobe!

I left out things like t-shirts which occasionally get worn out or show up on the blog, but are mostly for sleep shirts or house work and tank tops that I wear more often underneath other things. Those show up on the blog as tops occasionally, but not often.



This outfit contains two items that were previously unblogged! The top and the skirt. I am going to make a conscience effort to wear the unblogged items going forward and collect up those that don't fit into my wardrobe anymore. I haven't decided what to do with those yet, but if you're up for a clothing swap or want to be the recipient of pay it forward clothes shoot me and email! I might not answer right away, but I will file it away appropriately for when the time comes to purge said collected items!









Top: Banana Republic
Skirt & Belt: H&M
Shoes: White House Black Market
Ring: Jewelmint*

*Disclosure: If you join Jewelmint via the above link and purchase something in the future I earn a credit point towards free jewelry.