remaking the ’80s

self-made sweatshirt and denim skirt, Forever 21 robot earrings, cross earring special bonus from a Japanese magazine (forgot the name), keyring special bonus from Cikibawawaw book worn as necklace, Miffy watch.

if i told you it was unintentional, would you believe me?

once upon a time i sewed this top/tunic. and once upon another time, i sewed this sweatshirt. while the top was wearable, i must admit that the imperfect zig zag stitch bothered me so that i only wore it twice (considering i made it in 2009, that’s a real record!). also, since i made it sleeveless on one side, i couldn’t really wear it at work (no non-sleeves allowed) without covering the asymmetric-ness under a cardigan. the sweatshirt, however, met a more tragic end. it shrank in the tumble dryer. i kid you not.

luckily though, it was just the bodice part that shrank. apparently, working in textile business for 7 years does not guarantee that i would know anything and everything about fabrics. though i must say that in this case, the fabric had no label, so of course it was hard to guess what the real material is. i thought it was completely polyester, and it turned out to be polyamide. polyamide fabrics are not supposed to be dried with heat (= no tumble dryer). take it from me, it bloody SHRINKS. i guess the problem wouldn’t have appeared if i had done a wash & dry testing first with a small scrap of the fabric, but what can i say… i’m lazy. :p

anyway, when there’s a problem (or two), i need to improvise. so this ’80s-looking sweatshirt was my improvisation!

i just didn’t want to give up the Alice in Wonderland fabric, and neither did i want to give up the Nanso fabric. the only problem (again) was that the Nanso fabric was so small that i did not have enough to make a proper neckline and hem. i didn’t even bother changing the cuffs (so basically this sweatshirt now has 3 different fabrics!). the pattern was the same as used for the original stripey Alice in Wonderland sweatshirt, pattern no. 127 from BurdaStyle mag, the 08/2013 issue.

i’m not sure i’m satisfied enough with the neckline… but as long as i wear my hair down, i guess it’s quite okay. and what did i say? i’m just too lazy to correct it again.

i just want to wear this sweatshirt already and spread the ’80s fashion bug!

just for fun, i’m adding this picture of myself from about 11 years ago, preparing to go to an ’80s-themed event.

as you can see, many years later (2009) i even remade the denim skirt i wore that night. anyway, i went to that event with my friend, V, and ended up getting interviewed by a group of high schoolers who then took a picture of us and posted it on their wall magazine. the said wall magazine was entered in a competition, and made it as one of the finalists (i forgot if they won in the end or not). later, V and i saw these wall magazine finalists by chance, and found our picture there. 🙂

well, hello! that’s us!

it was kind of nice, when i think of it.

so whether it was in the real ’80s, in 2000s or in 2015, i think it’s safe to say that ’80s style rocks. it will always be close to my heart, no matter what.

reading the tarot reader

after all these years, i do still read my tarot cards. and after all these years, my Fantastical tarot cards still haven’t failed me. (to read about my background in this whole tarot thing, click here.)

i still love seeing tarot card decks whenever i see them on display.

last time i went to Stockholm, i went to my fave clothing store, & Other Stories, with a mission. they were having summer sale at the time, and days before we left for our holiday i already noted down the things i wanted to get. it was for my own birthday present, you see. so while we were waiting to check-in to our hotel room there, my husband said we should just go to that store, “to get it over and done with” (= his exact words. men and shopping really don’t go hand-in-hand, do they?). but whatever. i wouldn’t want that to get me down, because i had actually been waiting for these items to go to the sale rack for exactly half a year.

the bag is always colour-coordinated with the items inside ❤

they asked if i wanted them to be wrapped in silk paper. yes, please!

and luck was on my side, because they actually still had these things i wanted to get.

the first one is a blouse… with tarot card print! can you imagine this tarot reader’s excitement when she first saw it online? it was quite expensive for my taste in its original price, so i decided to forget it. but i guess it was meant to be that they finally marked this down and there was still my size left in the store (there were only 2 pieces left, one was 3 sizes too big for me, and the other was just my size). it’s made of viscose crepe, very comfortable to be worn even in the summer. 45€ was the original price, and i got it for 22.50€.

the second item i got was from the same collection.

it’s a 100% silk scarf, with the size of approximately 80 x 80 cm. this was also on sale from 35€ to 17.50€ (i just checked, now it’s even cheaper at 11€). you probably know me well enough to know why i wanted to get this scarf, but i’m still going to spell it out.

because i wanted to turn it into this.

self-made shirt, Benetton shorts, MercuryDuo bag, leftover from silk scarf worn as headband.

i combined it with another fabric for the whole back side, neckline, & hem, and voila! i got another piece of clothing with tarot card print. 🙂

a close-up of the lovely print

there was even a small piece left unused, so i use it as a hairband. i didn’t use any pattern for this. since i love, love, LOVE the print, i didn’t want to add too much detail to the front side of this shirt. but for the back side, i decided to add a bit of a twist.

yep, i painstakingly did braids on the back side’s upper part. first i cut the part that i wanted to have braids in vertical fringe (like when you make fringe for a Native American costume), and only cut the bottom part of that area without cutting the left most and right most of the fringe (because they’re for the sleeves). and then i made braids for every 3 strands, and sew the braid ends onto the bottom part of that area. it was tiring, but i kind of like the hippie-feel of the outcome. my husband summed this shirt best: the front side is a Gypsy, and the back side is a hippie. 😀

 

the fabric i used for the back side is cotton jersey. i found it on the sale box of a fabric store, full of dirt and discolour here and there… it was only for 2.60€ for a big piece of it! after washing it in hot temperature, the dirt and discolour disappeared. 🙂

the bag that i used for the photo shoot was a free gift from a Japanese magazine called Cutie. it was another find from our last trip to Stockholm, when we were walking aimlessly in the Old Town and stumbled upon a bookstore called Science Fiction Book Shop. it has manga, novels, anime dvds & blu-rays, kits & models, and to my pleasure, a section of Japanese fashion magazines.

so you see? my cards never fail me. ❤