Friday, September 21, 2012

Autumn Allure Fashion Event: Outfit the First


Rachel Heffington (also fondly known as Jeeves where Anne-girl and I are concerned) is hosting an Autumn Fashion Event over at her blog, A Butcher, A Baker, A Candlestick Maker and I thought it might be fun to join in.  I've seen lots of fashion events in the blogging world before, but never participated in one.  Most of them seem to take place over the course of a week, during which time the participants have to post pictures of their outfits every day.  And for me, that's just too much of a commitment.  So I was quite delighted to see that Rachel had set hers up so that you only had to do outfits every other day, for two weeks.  That is much more my style.  (Ha.  Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.)

Moving on.

This is what I wore on Thursday, September 20th, even though I didn't get the pictures uploaded until today.  That is the story of my life in case you're curious.  I'll just depend on you all to overlook awkward poses in the following shots, because I was trying my hardest to keep my face out of the pictures and that's not easy when you're taking self-portraits.



Pink sweater - Land's End, gift
Green striped blouse - Talbots, thrifted (for about a tenth of its original price... literally)
Pink-and-silver necklace - birthday present
Hair - grew it myself.  Neck likewise


Brown flared skirt - Coldwater Creek, gift
White ankle socks - Umm... Hanes?  I forget.  
Random hairbrush on the floor - property of my sister.  Ahem.


Pink hair-flower - gift (good grief, that seems to be the theme for this outfit)
Silver barrette - Walmart

A better shot of the outfit as a whole (without the sweater as it was getting too warm.  I did wear it for most of the day, though.)  You may observe that the hairbrush has magically jumped from one side of the room to the other.  This is because the above picture was taken in the mirror (yes, thank you Mary) and the earlier photo was one of those hold-the-camera-at-arm's-length deals.


I'm not sure if this is really supposed to be part of the fashion week... but I decided I'd share a few of my Tricks of the Trade while I'm at it.  This blouse is one of my very favorites, but it fits better in some spots than in others.  I happen to be one of those girls who is blessed with the waist of Grace Kelly and the shoulders of Tim Tebow (some slight exaggeration may apply in that statement), so blouses tend to hang limply at the bottom and pinch near the top.  This particular blouse fits pretty nicely almost everywhere, but it has an unfortunate tendency to gap along the buttons when I sit down sometimes.  Can you spot what I did to fix it?


Voila! A tiny snap!  Simple as!  It closes up the area that once gapped a bit between buttons, and it's totally invisible from the front.  Go back up and check that other picture of the blouse on me if you want.  You will not see the snap.


The trick I practiced on this skirt is a little more straightforward-- I just decided to post pictures of it in case any of you wanted to try something similar and weren't sure if it would look okay.  This skirt is one of my favorites, but it always had a tendency to slide down around my hips and I hated that.  I prefer a skirt to stay at the waist.  So I just nipped it in a little bit on either side, and since I almost never tuck my blouses in, the folds on either side are virtually unnoticeable.


That is, unless you're looking really hard and can see that I used black thread instead of brown.  Ha.


This is another garment with widely placed buttons, so I added a snap here, too.  I do hate gaps.  The bottom half of the skirt is actually sewn up along the buttons, so that there would be no danger of it ever coming un-buttoned and flapping open.  Horrors!

What did you wear yesterday?  Do you ever do sneaky snap alterations on your clothes?

9 comments:

Alexandra said...

SNAPS!!!!!

Oooh, you're brilliant, you are!!!

(That was a DW quote, BTW. So imagine it in His Voice. :-P)

Anyway, in all seriousness, that is simply brilliant and I don't know why I've never thought of snaps! I've always done the old-fashioned pin-it-with-a-safety-pin and THEN I hate it because it puckers or WORSE, you see a teeeeny speck of silver which drives my perfectionist-when-it-comes-to-hair-and-fashion INSANE.

You have saved my life and sanity. Many thanks, O Wise One. And cute outfit, BTW!!!! It's SO hard to find blouses that fit right. And I just wish I had been gifted with the waist of Grace Kelly. Snap, no pun intended. Well, maybe slightly intended. Heheee.

Kirsten Fichter said...

Ooh, I should try your snap remedy! And my sisters and I know what you mean about Grace Kelly waists and Tim Tebow shoulders.... it's a pain... oh, well....

Rachel Heffington said...

Oh woow.....a waist like Grace Kelly? You are blessed among women! Wow. Wish I had a waist like Grace Kelly. :) All that to say, thanks for joining the party and going through all the trouble of posting the pictures! <3 You're a jewel! And nice fashion tips--those are great ideas. :)

Miss Dashwood said...

Ally,
Thank you. Thank you. Though William Shakespeare was a genius and I most certainly am not, I will not argue if you choose to call me brilliant.
Ugh, I know, those puckers are the WORST. I try to avoid the teeny speck of silver by pinning the underside of the fabric (you know, if it's a double thickness) but that can be a pain in the neck. Snaps are way better.

Kiri Liz,
Oh, I hope it works for you! My mom's been doing it for years, but I don't know where she first got the idea. It's so handy though!

Rachel,
Heh, well, I exaggerated a wee bit. Hers was a couple inches smaller than mine. And Tim Tebow's shoulders are probably just a tad wider than mine. I should have stuck "metaphorically speaking" in there somewhere (which always makes me think of Night at the Museum...).
Thanks so much for hosting the event! I'm looking forward to the next few days!

Scullery Maid said...

Your outfit was so pretty!
One trick I have is for blouses that are a bit to low(or don't have enough buttons). What I do is take a pretty lace-edged hankie, and safety-pin it to the straps of my under-pinnings. I find this VERY nice in summer, when I DO NOT want a whole camisole(such things being torture in 90 degree weather).

Jujube said...

I WUVS your hair and your outfit!

Melody said...

Oh, I didn't see this post before! Nice outfit. And the actual Words part of the post made me LOL in several places. Hahahaha. Nothing new there, though...

Monica Euen said...

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Kindest Regards,
Monica

Melody said...

Aha, aHA, I was right, I was RIGHT! *jumps up and down and squeals*
Ahem. Sorry. That was sort of my reaction when I saw Something that is shown in the first picture there. Of you, I mean.
Unless you happened to have two Things that look extraordinarily alike. ;P
Okay, well I didn't REALLY jump up and down and squeal besides for in my head. I grinned and bounced a little, though.

Anyways.