Rose Shirt Rehab

I mended this last weekend, but haven't yet worked it into an outfit.
Maybe this week, maybe this combo.

[From last year. Still valid]

Or maybe for Fluevog Day (Wednesday, May 15) with The Fluevog Dress?
We shall see!

I got this from Suzanne Carillo's Etsy Shop, Vintage by Suzanne -- she posted it on Instagram or maybe her blog and I HAD to have it.
There were some fit issues.

View this post on Instagram

Flora and Fauna on my feet! More socks I didn't wear. COTD (colors of the day) Friday: FLORA AND FAUNA! #COTDstyle #cotdrewind #cotdthrowback Shirt from #vintagebysuzanne

A post shared by anne m bray (@annembray) on May 25, 2018 at 8:01pm PDT

[I had to check PayPal to find when I purchased this -- it was A YEAR AGO!]

The shirt has an unusual '90's sleeve, which you can't see at all because the print is so distracting, so I drew flats, front and back:

I could rip out the center back sleeve seam, remove a couple of pleats and make room for my shoulders. And that's what I did.

Here, everything is ripped out and ready to reconfigure. I used extra fabric from cutting off the cuffs for the patches.

I used a 1" thick piece of corrugated cardboard as my "voodoo" board.

Everything in position to sew, need to sandwich upper part of patch between the outside and inside collar stands.

Added another interior patch in the same location.

Done! Once I get my sewing machine repaired, I can add matching edge stitching at the base of the patch.

Whoa, that was a lot of detailed work!
Time to party!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking up with
Patti's Visible Monday
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness
Catherine's #ShareAllLinkup

Floral Mend

I had the notion to approach Mending Mountain with parameters.
Since May is Flower Link-up Month [see end of post], I pulled all the more-or-less floral patterned dresses out of the Dress Mend box (yes, I have them all categorized by garment):

Then did a photo shoot to determine whether any were even worth the effort.

Meh. It's uncomfortable. To Poshmark it goes.

I am obviously much happier in this number.
What you can't see is the broken zipper and the 12" gap at center back at my shoulders.
It needs major work. I'll do it, later.
[And this, my friends, is exactly the reason Mending Mountain exists].

This one has the strangest interior elastic cinching situation that took me a while to figure out.
On the fence -- it IS 100% cotton
May be good for one of Anita's Poolside Movie Nights. 

This one is really mid-calf length and too small and I hiked it up for the photo.
I have nostalgia for this, but is it worth rehabilitating?

This is a creation with issues. First of all, the neckline is too wide.
Second, too long!
Third, transparent!

Shorter definitely better.
Originally sewn for a 20's themed Movie Night from a silk sari.

Seriously. Where is my wand? Or my herd of sheep!
Just cutting a neck slit in this linen tablecloth is clearly not the answer!
Something more form-fitting would look much better.
Sometimes a rectangle is not the best solution.

No easy mends in this batch. Sigh. What am I going to do for my MeMadeMay pledge this week?

[that's my pledge]

Got florals?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking this up with
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness
Catherine's #ShareAllLinkup

April Showers Bring May Flowers, or so they say

Roses in Mar Vista on Grand View street. This home has The Best greenway rose garden.

I must make this quick [late for work, what else is new?]

Here's a new Link-up Party for May.
The theme is FLOWERS

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Linking this party to these parties:
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness
Catherine's #ShareAllLinkup

52 Pick-me-up: Pattern Max

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ CREATED/ GIFTED/  

Oh thank you IRS for causing a delayed posting for this week's challenge. I managed to schedule my favorite theme -- Pattern Maxing -- in my least favorite week -- Tax Deadline. I'm back dating this and we'll all pretend that today is Sunday. If only!

Since I'm bombarding you daily with all of the fake journaling of Enid, I'm compiling the four outfits that I wore to work last week. I was inspired to new heights of pattern mixing [or maxing, as I like to say] by the Create 28 Lovely Spring Looks Challenge, the brainchild of Whitney A La Mode and Carrie of A Lovely Little Wardrobe. [I'm trying to do the challenge with my socks, but it is getting more and more difficult. Today's prompt is "Spring Dresses". How on earth can a sock be a spring dress?]

Anyway, on the the kooky outfits:

Monday. "Pattern on Bottom"
Pattern everywhere except for my tights.

Tuesday. "Pastels"
Pattern or embellishment everywhere except the faux Keds

Wednesday. Off theme.
Pattern everywhere.
Especially liked the leopard under the striped tee.
Note Jean's neck cowl [gifted] worn as a bum cover/ hip warmer.

Thursday. "Floral"
The coworkers gave me many compliments on the recently rediscovered circle skirt.

There you have it, my week of Pattern Maxing.
Go on, give it a try! Baby steps welcome too -- try a stripe with floral.
I have a helpful pattern mixing post here.

Linking with Create 28 Lovely Spring Looks
and Share-in-Style

Was your Pattern Maxing a success? Link and tell!

52 Pick-me-up: Hibiscus

PURCHASED/ GIFTED/ 

Another flower week on 52 Pick-me-up, this time featuring the hibiscus.

I found this shirt, which you've seen before.

You could also go for a hibiscus inspired color palette...

I'll be linking up with Patti's Visible Monday later today.

Your turn:

Floral Mixing 101

LINKS/ PURCHASED/ GIFTED/

Floral mixing: easy or hard?

I had no idea that I have this many floral shirts!
Half of them I got from Larry last year...

Some people can pull it off seemingly effortlessly (Sacramento of Mis Papelicos comes to mind),
others not so much (I will refrain from pointing fingers).
Is it possible to have a method to mixing? Perhaps!

I thought to look to interior designers -- they constantly have to juggle colors, textures, and patterns. And, since the body is the home for the soul... why not decorate it with the same deliberation?

I found a nifty book on Amazon, Fabrique Technique, where Jennifer Birdsong Raffo lays out a system for mixing what she defines as the six room design characteristics: Color, Pattern shape, Pattern size, Contrast, Texture, Sheen.
I'm thinking we can leave out Pattern Shape, Texture, and Sheen and concentrate on the three others.
Oh, wait, there's the small issue of the garments -- three skirts that coordinate nicely won't do you much good!

See? Complicated!

For this post, I'm concentrating on florals, but you could use these guidelines for any sort of pattern mixing.

Step 1: Color
Choose your primary floral garment-- for Jennifer's system, it will have at least 3 colors.
Make note of the colors. Your next patterned choice should have at least two of them and your third will have a color [or more] common with the first two.
Now is the time to abandon the concept of mixing three florals if you can't get the colors to sync!

Step 2: Pattern Size
Variety in scale is easier on the eye. Ideally [for a room], you would have small, medium, large.

Step 3: Contrast
Dark, medium, light

Wow! It works!

Definitely worth a try -- If nothing else, it's a new way to mix things from your closet!
Have you shared your experiments with the 52 Pick-me-up link-up? Please do!

Meanwhile, I'm linking up with Patti's Visible Monday.

52 Pick-me-up: Floral Bouquet

LINKS/

Welcome to the forth week of 52 Pick-me-up!
This week's theme is: Floral bouquet: mix your florals with…

I had grand plans for a post all about floral mixing. Maybe on Sunday when I get home from art camp, because I'm too tired to get it together! And I didn't bring any floral garments with me [oops].
How about if I give you some photos of real flowers that I pulled from my iPhone?

I'd love to see what sort of floral combos you can orchestrate! Please share below.

Fashion Challenge: Neon Flashback

I dug a little deeper into the shopping cart of treasure and found a bunch of neon printed items from the 70s. Here is a paisley shell with an unfortunate front zipper (think I'll replace it with an exposed metal zip). I paired it with my yellow 80s bubble nylon/spandex tube dress.

nifty pockets!

Neon paisley, right on!

A loud floral Hawaiian style shirt.

I was curious to see how it went with the shift from Monday...
No doubt you'll see me in this soon!

Something about this appeals -- must be the color combo.

This fabric looks downright sedate after all those others.
The yellow, peach and orange acidly pop against the beige ground --
didn't come through in the photo.
It's a lot of yardage in a giant muumuu... I foresee another new skirt!

Today is the final day of the Fashion Challenge week.
Which look do you think I should submit to Keely for her recap?