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mod, sewing

Awful t-shirt => Less awful t-shirt

christinahopgood
So here we have a blog post! Imagine that!
Here’s my old lame 3/4 length black t-shirt. Boring!

Here’s what I did! I unpicked the sleeves! And then I got some similar black stretch fabric and made some short puffed sleeves! And then I sewed the old sleeves back to the bottom of the puffs! Observe!

I guess you could call it a leg of lamb sleeve? This is me in a mirror turned slightly to the right!

Me turned slightly to the left! Anyhow turns out everyone has these kind of tops now. Fashion? So I can wear it! Yay!

See? Puffed. Lame photo quality, but it’s usually dark when I want to take photos, and also… I’m kind of embarrassed asking my parents to take photos of me in stuff I make. So self-portraits all the way! Parents don’t understand blogging.
Cats and kittens! I am totally into Dinosaur Comics right now! I feel like they explain the finer points of my existence in comic form! COMICS ABOUT TALKING DINOSAURS!
dear celine, dress, gothic and lolita, victorian maiden

Predictability lol

christinahopgood

So about 5 weeks ago I ordered a dress from Dear Celine – a black/grey classical high-waisted affair. It’s been 5 weeks, so stuff is bound to happen in that time. I look at dresses online every day.

I’ve also been obsessing over a particular Victorian Maiden dress – which happens to be on sale right now. I keep telling myself that the reason I love it is because of the print – flamingoes! I just love flamingoes. And pelicans. But they don’t have a pelican print.
Tonight I was just thinking about stuff I like. I thought about these two dresses, amongst others. I looked at the pictures. Then I thought… wait a second. Flip the Dear Celine dress. Enhance… Enhance.


SAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAMESAME

Does anyone else agree with me that these are pretty much the same?

I can be so predictable.
I’ll be receiving the Dear Celine dress in the mail probably this week, so I’m going to write up a review. I’m quite excited.
(I still want the Victorian Maiden dress, too.)
Uncategorized

Excuses.

christinahopgood

Dear Internet,

I haven’t posted in a while. You’ll have to excuse me. I have been down in the dumps.
I think that this is mainly because of this course I’m doing at uni. I have a couple of assignments I have to do for it. I hate the course, and it’s really hard. So even though I’m on holidays, I’m still down about it.
I haven’t really been doing any projects of interest. I always think “I don’t have time to make a ___, I have to do my assignments!” and then I sit and read articles or do something vaguely related to my research, in a really unproductive way. But at least I’m doing it? Right? It’s really on my mind a lot. I’ve committed to being in two concerts soon, and I feel like I can’t take any time off these assignments to do the rehearsals. Which is stupid because the assignments aren’t even getting anywhere. I haven’t even studies for my other courses.
Charles and I are going to the coast tomorrow, which I’m excited about, but of course I’m going to have to bring my lappy and work. And then my holidays are over and the assignments are due. So I am down in the dumps and haven’t done anything fun these holidays. I just want this course to be over.
I’ve been taking photes of some of my outfits that I was proud of, but some of the photos are on film (!) and some are on Charles’ camera, and my camera sucks. So no photos for you, Internet.
Should I delete my blog? Do I just need to sneeze? Time will tell.
Love,
Chrissy.
sewing, skirt

Paper Bag Skirt! Instructions!

christinahopgood

This has to be the easiest skirt I’ve ever made! I copied this skirt from ModCloth.com.
Here are my instructions for making your own paper bag skirt. It’s yet another rectangle skirt.
Measure around your hips. Add 4cm for seam allowance and ease (or however much you need). This is your fabric width.
Measure from 5cm above your natural waist to your knees. This is your fabric length.
Cut out your rectangle, and hem the top. Insert a zipper into the back and sew up the back. You should have a tube.
Here’s the “tricky” bit. Measure your waist. Work out the difference between the hip measurement and the waist measurement. Mine was an easy 28cm. Divide by 4. This is how much fabric each pleat should take up. So, each of my pleats took up 7cm.
Make 4 inverted box pleats around the top of the skirt. I made mine about 10cm from the centre front and back of the skirt. First mark the centre point of each pleat with chalk, then measure the 7cm (or whatever) around that. So for me, it was 3.5cm on either side of the middle chalk mark.
Make your pleats, and make sure you pin them about 5cm from the top of the skirt. Try it on at this point and adjust pleats as necessary. Baste.
Take a 2.5cm wide ribbon of your choice and pin it over the pleats, making sure it’s straight all the way. Sew it down.
Hem the bottom of the skirt to where you like it. Yay you’re done! Easy peasy!