It's cherry time!

Tuesday's outfit:

T-shirt - H&M, thrifted
Skirt - made by me from a pass-me-down dress (cut off the bodice, sew an elastic chanel, insert elastic)
Headband - made by me
Necklace - made by me (see below)
Bracelet - most probably a gift from my cousins (see below)
Belt - found at home (no one has worn it since I was born, as far as I can tell)

Ours are actually tart cherries, so they'll get even darker and I'm just posing, not picking them.
The outfit resembles more the sweet cherries we used to have when I was a child. Then the tree died. Later on, we got this tart cherry one. That one's going strong, stronger with every year. Want cherries?
(Well, sending cherries overseas would not be a good idea. Sorry.)


I used up most of my red wooden beads for the necklace. Some of them are old, some of them (the shaped ones) are bought new about a year ago. I was afraid I would not have enough of them and that it would end up with a weird length, but it turned out just about perfect. Including the number of beads (the design took some counting).

The bracelet is simply wooden beads on an elastic. I think I got it from my cousins several years ago (that's why I can't remember for sure). I've always liked it, but never knew what to wear it with - until now.

And one more time

Or, rather, three more times with the same song.





The live versions have their own charm, but my favourite's still the album version. It has harmonica.

I'll get back to "dress diaries" soon, I promise.

Telegraph Road

Some time ago, I decided to sew a "Telegraph Road" skirt. I still haven't done it, but I still want to. Now, hopefully, you know why.
Because you don't really know me if you don't know about my love for Mark Knopfler's music. One of those things I found as a teenager to keep for lifetime.

My new favourite blouse

Thrifted, of course. It cost more than I'm used to paying (I'm used to being very thrifty and buying those 10-20 CZK pieces...), but totally worth it. The material's very pleasant to wear, and even though it has long, looong sleeves, it's fine to wear in summer heats.

Funny thing is, I went to the thrift store with my sister, who wanted to buy something for herself - a blouse, skirt or trousers - and ended up buying a hoodie, and I ended up buying a blouse. That's thrifting for you.

It seems simple enough to recreate, maybe with shorter sleeves this time. The pattern seems to be very simple (raglan sleeves, the whole neckline gathered), and I think I have just the type of fabric... It has elastic in the neckline + the sleeve heads are shirred to better sit on the shoulders. And just now Gertie writes a tutorial on shirring! Do you think this type of blouse would look good in small plaid?

The thing straight ahead of me now, though, is putting an elastic into a skirt I cut out from a dress (passed down from a friend)... Long skirt time!

The Grace Kelly book

I promised to show you six months ago, so I guess it's high time I did...
I actually wanted to post it on June 1st, to give the children in you a princess for the International Children's Day. But I got distracted last week, and instead did some more prosaic things, like sewing and watching The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett. :-)


The book tells the story of Grace Kelly's life and shows her clothes, with short sidetracks to some of the designers "whom" she wore. It's not a book that traces history of clothing, rather it's a pretty "coffee table book" that gives you inspiration... and I love that. It's nice to have some simply pretty books; plus the Grace Kelly style is very classic. So I want to thank Jennie Chancey from Sense & Sensibility again, for hosting the giveaway and thus allowing me to win the book. In the meantime, I showed it to many female members of my family... because it's just too beautiful a thing to keep to myself!


When I showed the book to my mom, she liked this dress, and I thought, I must show it to her mom, my Wonderful Crafty Grandma, because she'd surely also like the dress. And I was right, she did!


My favourite page is this, though. An article that tells you what clothes to pack when you travel. Even though the clothing conventions are different today, I still think there are some helpful tips there.


This is an illustration of a McCall's pattern that one of Grace Kelly's dresses was made from - the dress she wore when she met Prince Rainier for the first time. Variant A. I like the dress a lot. The neckline is very becoming, don't you think?


And this! The neckline, namely. Much like what Atlanta did to the damaged neckline of a 50s bridal dress she sells in her Etsy shop. Which, by the way, I love, and almost would want to wear as my wedding dress one day, if it fit me. It's nice to see similar style really worn by a real woman (if a Hollywood actress) in 1950s!


Grace Kelly's cathedral wedding gown seems to be rather well known - this was her civil wedding ensemble. I like it even more than that big dress. It's so... demure.


One regal photo for good measure.


And one cute.

It's great to have sisters (when you're a girl)

Because you can swap clothes. Strangely, we did not do that much when we were younger; I wonder why.
Today, during a little impulsive wardrobe purge (I have too many T-shirts), my eldest sister gave me this skirt, because she hadn't worn it much - it did not quite fit her; while it fits me quite nicely.
It fills in a gap in my wardrobe, left behind by a faux-wrap skirt made by my mom which got torn in 2007... and I hadn't found a suitable long wrap skirt since then.
Until now.
Not very surprisingly, it's blue.


I'm wearing the flower hairpin. Now that I'm truly aware of having it, I want to make use of it!