Nov 3, 2010 | DIY, Fashion
Hand-shredded T-shirt: Urban Revisions Etsy store. Angels Secret Embrace Push-Up bra: Victoria’s Secret. Roxy Gray Jeans: Thrifted. Fleece Cuffs: DIY. Heeled Combat Boots: Forever 21.
Day 1 in my personal
30 Days of Outfits Challenge! So psyched! (Though I may lose momentum later…I hope this “getting dressed nicely for today” thing will not end up becoming a chore.;-p
So Day 1 was technically yesterday: November 1.
And this is what I wore.
I’m in love with everything in Urban Revisions’ Etsy shop, and have had the designer on my radar for awhile. If there’s one DIY technique I suck at, it’s shredding cotton! My DIY shredded t-shirts are just NOT lovely. I can’t seem to truly get the hang of it and am not able to create shreds where the vertical threads are still intact. Well, I can, but it takes me 12+ hours for even a small amount of shredding. Which is obviously not the way to go about it.
So anyway, I’ve been spying on Urban Revisions for awhile, hoping some pieces would go on sale. And then I spotted with lovely hand-dyed peachy pink piece – and knew I had to have it!
Though technically it’s a sleeveless piece, the shredding has widened the collar and so now it sits on my upper arms. It’s so sexy and edgy – normally I don’t walk around with my bra showing, but this just begs for it! (My bra is the lovely Victoria Secret Angels Secret Embrace Bra in black. I love that it has these subtle scalloped edges – so feminine and pretty!) The top is super-long so it can be worn as a dress, beach cover-up, etc. I chose to tuck it in just to change the shape around. I’m so in love with peachy pink right now!
The gray cuffs you see above I made from the sleeves that I cut off the shirt when I made my Embellished V-Neck Sweater (tutorial here). Last winter my mother-in-law gave me a pair of knit cuffs that were apparently all the rage in Japan – you can wear them peeking out from your coat, on top of a sweater, or over your shoes to add texture, color, and warmth. Mine were black and I wore them practically every day until they pilled apart. (I get exceptionally cold wrists and ankles during the winter.)
I loved them, so I made another pair out of this beautiful gray fleece, which just consisted of folding the sleeve pieces under and sewing some elastic hidden in the fold.
Then they stay secure on my wrists or ankles. I put these on with my coat – they’re nice and warm, and act as my final bit of outerwear before going outside into the chilly Oregon weather. Though as anklets I guess they might look better with skinny jeans, LOL!
Gold Eiffel Tower necklace, Oxidized Hematite Crystal 2-Finger ring, Wrapped Feather Ring: Forever21. Rock Candy Rose Quartz Ring: my own design, available here. Gold Hinged Bracelets: bought in Japan. Gold Watch: Vintage.
This outfit called for mostly gold jewelry, I felt. My Forever 21 Eiffel Tower Necklace is my own little homage to my trip to France.;-)
Day 1…Done!
xoxox
Carly
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Nov 2, 2010 | Fashion, Life
Yes, this is my closet. I store vests and cardis over dresses and blouses, and necklaces over that. Basically 3 things to a hanger. It’s scary.
Like many people, I have a whole lotta clothing in my closet I rarely wear. Day after day (since my routine is pretty much the same), I usually default to tried-and-true clothing combinations and outfits. As a result, when I look into my closet I see so many pieces I haven’t worn for awhile. One month stretches into two, then more…and I realize I haven’t worn stuff for 6 months to a year or more, simply because I’ve gotten into a fashion rut.
Well, you know what I need to break me out of it?? A CHALLENGE!
For 30 days for the month of November, I’m challenging myself to wear a completely-different, heretofore forgotten outfit each day, never wearing the same thing twice. (How will this help? you may ask. Well, it will remind me how much I love certain pieces that I’ve forgotten about. And stimulate my creativity. And help me clean out and purge that ol’ closet of mine. And help me be a better style blogger, since I post outfits only once in a blue moon.)
From now until November 30, I’ll be challenging myself to put together a unique outfit each day – and wear it all darn day, even if I’m just sitting on the living room couch, blogging and watching Law & Order: SVU reruns. And each of my outfits will contain something I’ve made or DIY’ed! This is a perfect chance for me to share with all of you some tutorials and ideas I haven’t gotten around to yet.
So, would anybody like to attempt the challenge with me? Do it until the end of November, wait until December, only do a week, whatever! Let me know in the comments and I’ll link to your blog! It’s just a bit of fun and some motivation to truly express your style.:-)
xoxox
Carly
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Oct 31, 2010 | DIY, Life
I noticed on Outsapop this short n sweet little video on how to create a bag from any scarf.
But the art of using a scarf as a bag is not a new one…in fact, the furoshiki (basically a large scarf) has been used since the early 1600’s in Japan as a carryall/gift wrap/bag/multifunctional accessory. From the Ministry of the Government of Japan, here is Minister Koike’s illustrated guide to using a furoshiki (with the recommendation that the Japanese people should start using them more, as they are eco-friendly, re-usable, and reduce plastic bag waste). Here are14 different ways to tie it:
(Click to enlarge)
What do you think? Do you have any beautiful scarves that might be repurposed into a casual bag or wrap?
xoxox
Carly
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Oct 30, 2010 | DIY, Life
Still stuck for something to wear – TOMORROW NIGHT??! (*gulp*) Here are a couple ideas that you could make from items that are perhaps already in your closet…or that are available at many stores for cheap:
From What I Wore, Jessica put together a list of her costume ideas from years past:
From Quickandsimple.com, here are some DIY Kid’s Costumes…that could be easily adapted to an Adult version:
On Instructables.com there’s a million iterations of Lady Gaga costumes (including many fabulous by user Carleyy – maybe it’s just the name that’s making me partial??;-))
Red Lace Costume by user scoochmaroo
And my own 2cents:
DIY Style Blogger
Go as your favorite Style Blogger! So many people have such signature looks. A couple photos to get you inspired:
Though you’ll have to wait until Halloween to see what I ended up as;-)
Happy Halloween!
xoxox
Carly
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Oct 29, 2010 | From You
I know it’s been a couple days since my last post – which is highly unusual for me – basically I’ve been out for the count, what with jetlag and this evil head cold ganging up on me.
But I’m back! (pretty much.) I’ve been a bad, bad blogger for the last couple months and haven’t been able to answer my Formspring.me questions as regularly as I would have liked recently. So I thought, why not do one long post with all the answers in them, sort of like a Final Jeopardy format? Ready….and….GO!
HOW DO I MAKE…?
Hi I loooove the double fringed necklace but where can I find a double chain necklace like the one you used? Do you have any already made for purchase?
Hi there! I actually made the chain necklace, just with two pieces of chain, some jumprings, and a clasp. You can very easily make your own – but if you want me to make one for you, let me know at admin at carlyjcais dot com!
Carly- I’m am loving all the fur accents for fall, especially the beautiful faux fur neck scarves that are everywhere. Think you could come up with a diy? I would love to but my sewing machine is broken and there’s no cash for a new one. Thanks in adv
See here for my fabric scarf DIY and …love, Maegan has a faux fur neckwarmer DIY that might be right up your alley! However, both require sewing (though Maegan’s uses hand-sewing). You could also just glue a piece of faux fur together after folding it over on itself – fabric glue should do the trick.:-)
Hi carly, I love your blog. And i have a dying question. I can’t find this anywhere on the net so i’m gonna ask you. Is it possible to make a high waist shorts into a mid-waist shorts? Like can you sew/do anything around the crotch area? 😀 Thank you! 🙂
No, I’m sorry – not by altering the crotch area. I assume you mean by sewing the legs together higher so that the crotch area is correspondingly higher? Pants/shorts are not cut with enough fabric to extend the crotch upwards – you’ll find you can’t just tack them together at a point higher up and closer to the waistband. The only thing you could possibly do is remove the waistband from your high-waist shorts and re-attach it lower – though you will have to adjust the fly zipper and your pockets may get covered up by doing this. Good luck!
RANDOM
Have you heard of the controversy behind the MAC Rodarte Collection? If so, what do you think about it?
Yes – but as someone who is quite an outsider to the controversy, I’m not sure there’s anything I can add that’s of worth. From what I gather the sisters Mulleavy were struck by the visual beauty of the city of Juarez and from an outsider’s point of view decided (rather naively) to create a makeup collection inspired by that. They either failed to research or simply ignore the border town’s history of rape, murder, and serial killings, and general violence towards women. MAC eventually backpedaled, apologized, and made a $100,000 donation to a charity that works to better the lives of the women in Juarez, and announced they would donate all proceeds of the collection to the charity as well. My thought is simply inadequate research and general naivete definitely allowed this collection to happen in the first place.
I loved seeing all of your pics of your trip to Japan. What are some different things for sale or customs or ways of life that are different than the US?
My haul from the 100-yen shop last year: 1.) 3 dual-direction zippers; 2.) Paint for ceramics; 3.)Super-long-handled sporks and heart-shaped mini foil cups; 4.) Pack of 3 Jewel-print plastic file sleeves; 5.)Eyelash extensions; 6.)2 double-layered snap-lid boxes and a heart-shaped mirror; 7.) Clear fake nails with rhinestone and glitter art; 8.)Mini-notebook and regular notebook; 9.)Highlighters that draw over an already-highlighted area; 10.) Cute little rhinestone rings on a necklace; 11.)Mini sauce squeezy bottles; 12.) White opaque gluesticks; 13.) Puffy black 3D heart stick-ons, rhinestone variety pack, and 3 packs of mini fake food for all my decorating
needs; 14.) 3 erasers: curry-scented, yakisoba [Japanese chow mein]-scented, and beer-scented.
Gee – don’t get me started! Different things for sale: lots more “cute” things, with a lot of attention given to detail and appealing packaging, delicious sweets and snacks, tons of nail goods, keychains, stuffed animals, “character goods,” a huge range of beauty products (many designed to give Japanese girls a more “Western” or “foreign” look), bento boxes and goods, tons of intricate crafting supplies…I could go on and on. If you’re interested in more shopping stuff, check out the Tokyo Shopping and Tokyo Style links in my left sidebar. Different customs….everything! Well, I exaggerate. Japanese people in general are very respectful towards elderly people, very observing of manners, and try to maintain the harmony of the group and smooth social relations, so many customs derive from that.
Name one Amazing thing about you that most people “don’t” know!
I was in Utada Hikaru’s music video “First Love,” (1998) in the background. You have to pause it to see me, but I’m there.
(Ignore the obnoxious gamer promo at the beginning…) So that’s the video – if you spot me, I’m the girl with the longish red hair, parted in center, wearing grey skater jeans [that I actually sold about 6 months ago on Ebay, LOL!] with a reflective stripe down each leg and a silver velvet wrap top, dancing in the crowd.
(I’m at the beginning, in the far right of the frame when Utada is sitting and singing – you can see a dark shadow with a white stripe down the legs…and again at the chorus where she sings “Anata dake no basho…” I’m right behind her – and again, to the far right of the frame at about 2:46 just before she sings “I thought I had a place in your heart too” – it’s super-quick!) Like a “Where’s Waldo?” except this is “Where’s Carly?” ;-P
Really!
Hope that answers many of your burning questions!
xoxox
Carly
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