The Train To Crazy

For our final guest this week for Make This Look, Vanessa is here to show off the entire outfit she made! She made it all! So impressive!

*******

Hi! I'm Vanessa, {a sassy lady, Christian first, wife, mama to one, adopting mama, part-time fabric store employee, sewing blogger}, and I'm so glad to be here today! I'm LOVING my new hand-made outfit and I'm so excited to share it with you! I'm thankful Andrea asked me to be on her amazing blog! We are working together for She's Worth it! a campaign to stop human sex trafficking among women and young girls, and we'd love your $10 donation more than ANYTHING else! Find out more information here! It really does matter and your $10 does more than you know! The Inspiration: This fall/winter, I have been very inspired by the fur vest trend, perfect paired with leggings and a long sleeve tee. It just adds such an aspect of sass to any regular outfit! These are my pinned inspiration photos, in particular the chevron fur vest by Armani Exchange for $200!!!

Today's Guest for Make This Look is the talented, Shannon from Little Kids Grow. She was inspired by a ready made dress design and used the draping method to create her own unique look. So impressive!

Good Day "Train to Crazy" Friends!

(It's 6 o'clock in the morning as I write this post. Early. Very Early. The kids are asleep, and I'm trying desperately to squeeze my wintery comfort foods body into this cute little number. Ha! Ha! Priceless.)

So here's my little secret: Most of the clothes that I make/ design for myself have never been out of my closet. Why you ask? I do like what I make, . . . usually. 🙂 It's just that most of it is just not very practical.

The amazing Miriam from Madmim.com is here with us today to kick off the Make This Look Series! She's taken the basic idea from a fantastic shirt and made it her own. Thanks Miriam!

******

Hello Peeps (I've got birds on the mind)! I'm excited to talk about recreating looks we love, and being inspired by all the design bounty that's out there. I'm a huge sucker for making designer looks on the cheap, but it's not very often that I let myself make a straight up knock off, as I usually like to take one or maybe two style elements I love and translate them into something Mimish by playing with the design, texture, color, scale and on and on and on. But every now and then I come across something that's already pretty magical, and I want to just recreate that bad boy in all it's glory. To be totally honest, this shirt wasn't one of those times. I mean I really like it, and I think I even pinned it, but it wasn't until I saw my sister Eirene knock it off that I truly saw it's Mim-potential. So this is a knock-off of a knock-off, if you follow me. The original beauty, upon investigation, has some really lovely details that are worth talking about. First of all, we can all agree it's a great print. Also the color is pretty and the boat neck is nice. But the sleeves really steal the show for me, I love how the pleats and gathers are actually sewn into the seam, it's very cool.

My $2 version: it's not like I-can't-tell-which-is-which close, but it is pretty straight forward. I used this soft buttery orange jersey, and self-drafted this tee pattern (so happy with it!) with a round neck and a-line silhouette. I like the fit of the original (and if I were really going for an exact copy I would have used my trusty Renfrew), but truth be told I'm just a bit more comfy in an a-line silhouette, and I think it's a touch more flattering on my very happenin' hips. It seems like I just can't stay away from hand-printing these days, and I once again used my reversible stamp technique, which is really a barrel O fun. I also added a nice rounded hem because I'm into them lately–they allow for more mom-bending, which heaven knows I do a lot of.