Of jewelry and a garish display

My blindingly yellow DIY jewelry display, as told here, and the sad state of my jewelry collection.

Accessorizing is not one of my strength... I wear the same things over, and over, and over again.  (Same goes with clothes, actually.)  To add to that, my taste in clothes and accessories lean toward the "plain" side, as you can see above.  Okay, I don't call it "plain" as much as understated, clean, simple, classic.

The pearl necklace (and studs, not shown) I wore daily back in '05-'07, during my "prim, proper, and preppy" stage.  With pumps and twinsets and scarves and all.  So pretentious.  The whole thing aged me 10 years, so I stopped doing that after my work office moved to the suburbs (people don't dress up much there).  The good thing though, climbing the corporate ladder was so easy, probably because people took me seriously.  Well, not anymore, of course, since I stopped wearing pearls.  I need to go back doing that.

Watches I wear everyday, alternating depending on my my mood and outfit of the day.  Hoops (the medium size, top row) I wear almost everyday now, if I'm not wearing a necklace. Necklaces that I wear most often nowadays are the long gold-tone chain (far left), and the beaded coral multi-strand (top middle).  I don't wear bracelets much, although I don't mind cuffs or chains or links (no bangles, they're noisy and generally too loose on my wrist).  I also have accepted my warm skin tone and wear gold-tone jewelries without feeling outdated.

So, as a reward to myself for finishing this jewelry display project, I'm going to shop for some new cheapo jewelry.  Perhaps something geometric, with clean lines and enough presence to make a visual impact.  Any suggestions? 

Batik skirt and scarf.

About 2 weeks ago, I subconsciously started a stash-busting mission.

I've accumulated a substantial amount of fabric over the past few months years and haven't done much about it.  Mainly because of lack of inspiration and general laziness. But no more!  I'm getting a little tired of the unorganized state of my little sewing studio, so those fabrics need to be used or go!

So.  The first fabric I tackled on is a a soft batik (the label says "batik halus", which literally translates to soft batik, so that's how I know) that my mom bought for me in Indonesia almost 2.5 years ago. It's definitely not silk.  It could be polyester or rayon or some other static-magnet type of fabrics.  I've got static electricity shocks every time I touched it.  In retrospect I shouldn't have rubbed my shoes on the wool carpet at the same time.

Cool print, no?  Dizzyingly groovy!  If you stare at it for 5 minutes, you will see a space ship!*

It took me all 2.5 years since I've had this fabric to decide what to make with it, because of the border print and the limited quantity (2-yards at 40+inches wide).  Whatever it is, it has to show off the border print, as it's the most interesting thing about the fabric.  The fabric is rather difficult to sew, because it's so drapey and slippery.  A more complicated design would just add unnecessary frustration that would lead to my abandoning the project. Finally, I settled on a simple a-line skirt, inspired by Tasia's skirt, using Kathleen's 20-minute skirt instruction. 

New technique learned is inserting an elastic for the waistband.  Basic, I know... having never done it previously, I consider it a "new" technique.

The result:

Hm.  It looks like culottes on the second picture.  I guess it would have been a more interesting piece as culottes.  Unless culottes are lame.  (Are they?)

I had a strip of leftover fabric that I made into a long scarf:

Not a bad way to start off the mission... the temporary great feeling of accomplishment, slightly lighter stash, more clothes!

* Just kidding, you will not see a space ship.  You might get dizzy and throw up, though.

Knit I don't: The circle scarf

Remember this knitting attempt?

Yeah... that's about as much as it's going to be. Knitting requires supreme ability to sit still, which I lack. I managed to knit and purl my way out of about 20 inches, and now it's been collecting dust on my nightstand for the last two months.

So I made this instead:

It's a circle scarf, the idea of which was inspired by Karin (also see mywakingmemories' tutorial and styling suggestions). It can be worn as a double scarf as shown above, or a bolero:

Or a halter:

Or draped unceremoniously as a shawl:

The fabric made the project, in this case. It's the softest rayon jersey that was definitely a splurge. Not so proud of the construction; the flat fell seam is most pathetic looking and I wasn't even drunk at the time!

Oh well... what do you do when life gives you lemon? You give out the lemon as a gift!

Ha ha... just kidding, oh gift recipient. Or, am I?

Actually I did intend to give out the circle scarves as gifts, before realizing that sewing knit fabric is a bitch and the resulting solitary seam looks like it was sewn by my dog, who is practically blind in one eye.

Practice makes perfect, I guess.