broken records

found this post in my 'drafts' section from quite a while ago. hmmm.

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just discovered this scottish band - i love the sound!

the drama of guitar, drums, keyboard, violin, cello....and an accordion?

not to mention that the lead singer somehow reminds me of a male version of florence welch of florence + the machine.  if that's possible.

and another sketchbook page

i'm back! (sort of)

These past few weekends I've been sewing and sewing and sewing...and finding new ways to make summer dresses without zippers or complicated stuff, preferably in under two hours.

Inspired by this dress-with-a-belt-never-mind-cinching-it-exactly-where-the-bodice-meets-the-gathered-skirt look by frida gustavsson (stockholm street style) -

Ok, so the dress I made looks nothing like this.  But take my word, I got some sort of an inspiration from frida's dress :P

I altered one of the McCalls knits-only patterns that doesn't actually need to be sewed up in a knit material (M6347) by basically just chopping the pattern in half...at the waist.  The top I kept the same; the skirt section I added 3 more inches to the fold, so that I could gather it and attach to the bodice.

With a belt, voila!  (not finished yet....just a general idea).

Super comfy, super soft, and just my kind of summer dress :)

all-ink sketchbook

new challenge.  i figured, if you're going to fail, you may as well fail with flair.  and ink, for me, is much more interesting in sketchbooks.

so far -

 doodle based off of greta garbo by cecil beaton

and a charles james gown, deconstructed. or whatever you call this.

photographer crush of the month

Charles James gowns by Cecil Beaton, Vogue June 1948

I checked out the book - Beaton in Vogue (Josephine Ross) - from the library, and am having quite a good time reading it :)

It almost makes up for my frustration that the library's copy of Strapless is currently lost.

my favorite fashion mag + period drama that i never watch

The two British period dramas that I wish I had time to watch - Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey.  I've seen two episodes of each, and am completely hooked.  (Well, not hooked enough to go out and buy the complete seasons on DVD, but pretty fascinated all the same...)

I heard about the ladies of Downton in the latest issue of Vogue UK from enchanted serenity blog - and don't they look lovely!

my favorite portraitist, and my favorite scandalous lady...?

Well, you know how obsessed I am with you-know-which-painting (i.e., here and here).

This morning I spent a blissful hour reading Strapless, by Deborah Davis - it's a story behind John Singer Sargent and Madame X, Virginie Amelie Gatreau.  It's not like this, exactly, has never been written about before (I remember flipping through a Sargent book at my old art studio in middle school, wondering who this scandalous Madame X was), but this story provided a great overview of Paris itself, and the environment that surrounded the artist and the it-girl.

I haven't finished reading the book, but I certainly plan on doing so...

Speaking of Sargent, another book on my to-read list - Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting, by Erica E Hirshler.  About the daughters of Edward Darley Boit...