Colette Violet Revisited

As excited as I was about my inaugural sewing project, I find that I rarely wear the resulting Colette Violet blouse. I think it's partly because a bright white blouse is hard to pair on its own without looking too much like a uniform, and because a pan collar can look pretty juvenile without the right styling (seriously, I have got to get away from that beret). So I decided to revive this shirt with some more sophisticated elements: my J. Crew No.2 Pencil skirt in poppy, a navy blue sweater vest (thrifted), and my trusty Paolo leather flats.

Also, if you ever find that your necklace is too short to fit around that collared shirt, simply safety pin the ends underneath the collar. Viola!

Refashioned Dress: Cotton and French Lace

I am happy to report that I successfully refashioned my salmon J. Crew dress just in time for Austin. Paired here with a mint patent leather pumps and a pair of mint and navy bauble earrings I made with wooden beads and nail polish (I'm all kinds of matchy-matchy).

The process itself was pretty simple: I just used a pair of sewing scissors to cut the floral shapes out of the lace, then hand-sewed them on to the dress using navy thread. This took about three hours total, and I used a dress form while sewing to ensure that I was honoring the fact that I am a three-dimensional human. To the left is a before view for reference...