When it comes to accessories, few things are as gratifying to wear as a well-made pair of gloves. There’s just so much detail and construction that goes into making them, y’know? Fingers are always the first to go numb and the last to heat up when the temperatures plummet, and that can be a real nuisance when the majority of your time is spent doing things that require high levels of dexterity. There are many wardrobe pieces that one can skimp on and still find perfectly suitable knock-offs. A good pair of leather gloves is not one of these.
Back in November of 2004, I bought a pair of buttery Italian kid leather gloves with the softest cashmere lining out of some catalogue that I no longer even remember the name of. I was still in California at the time, so there was no real justification for spending that much on accessories other than because I’d always wanted a pair. Seven years of heavy use later, I still consider them one of the best investments I’ve ever made in cold-weather wear. They’re quite beat-up now, but age has only made them softer and more comfortable. Unfortunately, they are also a bit on the baggy-and-wrinkly side, so don’t necessarily look as nice on dress-up nights as they used to.
I found the above pair of cashmere-lined lambskin gloves this afternoon while out shopping with a friend and snapped them up in an instant. No brand tag, or I’d share. Am loving the little Victorian-esque details and the feel of smooth, new leather. They are also a little longer than my other pair, so there will be nice wrist coverage. I have no doubt that they will also be with me 7 years from now. Now, if only I could find a pair in something other than black.
It’s been a while since my last crafting update and I’ve made a handful of things since then. Been mostly concentrating on knitting since I started last spring, trying to pick projects each time that are both functional and instructional. These are the results! Pictures link to corresponding Ravelry pages.
A classic wool pullover with just a few modifications to sleeve and hem lengths. I didn’t mean to make it in Finnish colors, but it was what I had on hand so I went with it. I <3 stripes! A garment with many firsts — my first time knitting with more than one color, first time pick up collar stitches, and first time setting in sweater sleeves. Also, this is my first sweater to actually fit the way I’d imagined it would, so I’m sort of excited about that.
One of two ribbed alpaca scarves made for the husband to add some variety to his neckwear. This one is a seeded rib that looks really nice with suits and darker coats. Tweaked to be skinnier and longer, to work better with his preferred way of wearing scarves. Making dude scarves is always something of a challenge, since it’s all about finding that fine line between restraint and style.
A grey wool ribbed short-sleeve sweater and my first project done completely in the round. This turned out a bit bulkier than I’d expected due to gauge issues with my loose knitting. Still, it’s quite wearable for layering and gave me a reason to use up some of the extra purple ribbon I had left over from the wedding reception
A simple, squishy ribbed scarf made of fluffy-soft alpaca. My first shot at ribbing, this also proved to be a very forgiving combination for missed stitches. Good thing, too, because I didn’t learn how to unravel and pick up stitches until two projects later, so had to basically start from scratch if I wanted to delete a mistake before that!
I have a lot of scarves. Even before we moved to Finland, where you actually use them for more than half the year, I had a lot of scarves. My mom was paranoid that way. Back in Cali, however, they tended to just sit in a giant pile that was occasionally rummaged through on a windy day. As we enter my second Finnish winter here, though, I decided we needed a better system for making winter accessories easily accessible. Thus, the wall o’ scarf. It’s a IKEA belt/scarf/tie hanger nailed to the wall. Right next to the coat rack and across from the drawers where we keep the gloves and hats. So you can’t put on a coat without coming face to face with the whole collection and have enough time to ponder what will go with your particular outfit before you finish getting dressed. Convenient, no? Now, if only I could find room for a bag/purse rack…
Taking a few minutes from the wedding-planning madness to say a sad farewell to my clunky burgundy Deréon frames — I was very fond of them and sad that they only lasted for two years. Two hard-wearing years, mind you, factoring in the amount of travel and the somewhat reckless manner in which my eyewear sometimes gets tossed into bags. Still, I wasn’t quite expecting them to CRACK IN HALF one morning in the middle of making breakfast. Luckily, they did not fall in the frying pan. Unluckily, it happened a few days before we left for a family trip to Bulgaria, sending me on a crazy last-minute run to the optician for some contact lenses to last me until a new pair of glasses could be made. And to make matters worse, I’d managed to crack my only other wearable pair of frames just a few weeks before. Talk about your weird luck. I’m such a pack rat that it was hard to part with these, even though there was no way to salvage them. So into the trash they go, and this blog post is mostly to soothe the ickiness I feel over having to throw them out.
So, remember ages ago when me and my two best buddies were turning out a huge pile of these wizard robes to order? We refer back to that time fondly now as “our little sweatshop that could.”
Well, let’s just say that you can’t make that many robes without having some extra fabric left over. So several years after I moved on from that venture, I still had a healthy amount of fabric in Hogwarts house colors lurking in my fabric closet. Quite a bit of it is still waiting back in California for the next time I come over to haul back more of my crap from the parents’ house. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the last couple of times I cut something out from fabric, I immediately turned to the wizard robe leavings.
I haven’t done a lot of sewing in the past couple of years, though, due to various life-changing events taking up most of my time. Frankencloset items and t-shirt makeovers don’t really count as fully-fledged sewing projects in my head, since a good portion of the hems and seams are already done — you’re just creatively editing a garment. Sort of like a box of pre-mixed birthday cake. My hands started getting twitchy for something a bit more in-depth this past weekend, so I dug through my work-in-progresses and pulled a burgundy dress that I’d traced out back in California more than a year ago. Recreational garment making is quite soothing — something I’d forgotten after all these years of work-related sewing machine time. It was a great way to get my mind off the whirl of wedding planning concerns for a day.
Yeah, the darts are a little mismatched because I didn’t bother with any of that meticulous measuring-and-pinning stuff It’ll mostly be worn with a cardigan or shawl, so none of that will show anyway. Good to know that my zipper-setting skillz are still intact, too. The last repurposed robe fabric dress I made was this little thing:
Also used mainly for layering. The fabric is a polyester twill, so it’s best for fall and winter when its heat-trapping qualities are most appreciated. They go especially well with my collection of turtlenecks and long-sleeved tees that are too wildly patterned to be paired with anything else. That was the last of my robe fabric here in Finland, though, so there will probably be Finnish fabric shopping in my immediate future. Mmmm, fabric. A couple more layering pieces and I’ll be back in shape for that Regency ballgown I was planning to make this Christmas…
I just decided last night on what I’d be wearing for this one. It’s in the afternoon on the day before the church event, so there’s a lot more room to wiggle. My criteria were: (1) knee-length-ish, (2) more casual, (3) lace, and (4) different silhouette from other two. It actually took really long to shop, because there were so many more options for this kind of stuff. Almost every store has something, while you can eliminate a large chunk of stores when shopping for long, fancy gowns. So these are the runners up, in gallery form with links in the captions for those interested. Thanks TONS to Jam & Cim for their encouragement and hand-holding along the way
Funny side note — my dad was looking through my blog the other day and got really confused when I explained that not a single one of those pictures was actually of dresses that I bought. That wasn’t the point at all. The point was that I saw an awful. lot. of. dresses. And these just happened to be the ones that I’d like to see again, at some point in time Nothing wrong with posting eye candy. This is a fashion blog, after all.
Once the main gown was figured out, everything else got much easier. I knew what silhouettes to look for and what colors (if there wasn’t an option for aubergine, it didn’t advance beyond the first cut) to match, so it was merely a case of finding something that would work for all the girls. Even then, there weren’t very many fitting concerns, really, other than some varying bust sizes. These girls would look good in burlap sacks, truth be told. So it was a lot of fun getting to shop for them.
A Bill Levkoff number that was vetoed on account of the large bust flower detail, which would have been a bit much for those who already have enough on top.
A pretty Eden Bridals dress that was put on the back burner for fear that the bust pleating would be too full.
A Saison Blanche gown that I decided was a bit too simple, though I liked the neckline details.
A Cameron Blake number that was too spendy and also would have looked awkward on those without enough to fill out the ample cups.
And a handful more that I had pictures for but no links…
With a lot of my shopping done, I’m now getting around to deleting bookmarks for stuff that didn’t make the cut for one reason or another. They’re still pretty, though, so I figured it’d be nice to put them here as a little memento of several late night hours spent dress hunting. This will be the post of eye candy from the search for the church gown. Yes, I’m making distinctions because there are several wardrobe changes involved
Actually, this was my first choice but I only found the picture originally on TheKnot and then wasn’t able to track down any more information on where to actually purchase it. I eventually found a Chinese place that apparently makes knockoffs of it, but didn’t particularly feel like taking my chances since it wasn’t a company I’d heard of. Boo. Eh, I might get it one of these days anyway because I really do love it.
One in a similar style that I stumbled upon while looking for the previous dress. Same site.
Yeah, I have a serious thing for empire waisted gowns. This one is just adorably Regency. Same site.
While looking for gowns with a bit of historical influence, I ended up at one place that specialized in modest gowns. They actually had some really cute dresses. This one is very Regency.
Right. So I was doing a bit of reception dress shopping last week. Because it wouldn’t be my wedding without a few wardrobe changes, naturally. I found a dress, by the by. I ordered it and it should arrive next month. But that is not really the subject of this post. The subject is, rather, the pages and pages of crazy stuff that I had to flip through in order to find the pretty stuff. Like, really, you have to wonder how some of this stuff even got produced. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself…
(with additional commentary courtesy of the lovely Cimorene)
Angela: good grief how strictly ballroom is this:
cimorene: that reminds me of the prom dresses from the early 90s as well.
Angela: ooooh. no, THIS does.
cimorene: HAHAHAH
Angela: god i would love to put somebody in that as a costume though. it's so bad it's brilliant
cimorene: totally. i feel it's like what you would see in, for example, a poirot or miss marple
episode where the victim was an obvious copy of elizabeth taylor or something.
Angela: good grief. it's like they started out with a swimsuit and forgot to cut away the rest of it.
Angela: now THIS is a halloween dress
cimorene: wow, i love that halloween dress. i really love black net over nude drsses.
Angela: now here's on that says "hello, i'm a drag queen."
cimorene: ahahhahahahahha. that is really something.
Angela: "excuse me miss, there's something growing on your neck."
cimorene: hahaha, that looks like a 90s star trek costume.
Angela: just call me cruella
Angela: another entry for miss drag queen usa
Angela: OMGWTF
Angela: just for you, feathers. i'm not entirely sure if this is lingerie or a
showgirl outfit, but it's really not a dress.
Angela: you want scifi? here ya go.
cimorene: ahahhahah!
Angela: more feathers. just for you.
cimorene: are those feathered PANTS? or just... a split front or something...
Angela: i... really don't know
cimorene: i am definitely impressed.
Angela: this? takes 'something for everybody" a bit too seriously.
cimorene: ...woooow...it's like lisa frank
Angela: tinkerbell becomes a hooker!
cimorene: HAHAHAHA WHAT
Angela: aw man, i ran out of dresses
cimorene: wow, that's a surprisingly apt description
Angela: okay, that was an amusing evening
cimorene: hahaha. yyyeaaaaah.
So, as most of you probably know by now, I’m in the midst of planning for our upcoming fall wedding. I’ve been talking to people here and there, but it’s getting hard to keep track of who has seen which pictures I’ve put up over the course of all my research and shopping. So to remedy this, I’ll start putting up my design planning stuff here and the finalized event plans on our more official wedding page. This way, I can share the pretty pictures with all my friends who can’t make it out to Europe due to distance/cost/what-have-you. First up, dresses! And also, rings — our engagement ones, that is. We have those on our hands at the moment, but the dresses are still being made. Will parade around and take a couple of snapshots when it arrives, and hope my bridesmaids will do likewise
Bridesmaid dress. It will be in a slightly darker shape of purple than the burgundy pictured here.
Back of bridesmaid dresses, complete with the shoulder scarves that I used to love in high school.
Titanium engagement ring with gold inlay, product picture from the seller’s page. We each have one.
My engagement ring, in person. It’s thinner than T’s, but I have less finger to work with overall.
Full frontal of wedding gown. I might have to wear very tall shoes, even with the custom sizing.
One hour project for a weekday morning! And really, most of that work time was just devoted to ironing the thing out and measuring it. I decided I needed more skirts, so that’s what this second elephant sarong became. As simple as cutting it in half length-wise and adding elastic to the waist. Well, the bottom hemming did get a bit tricky. One half of the skirt used the natural hem, but I had to fiddle with the other half because it was cut in mid-pattern and thus the hem looked messy and incomplete. So I covered it up with a strip of simpler pattern, which gave it a more finished look and also added some weight to the bottom of the skirt. It is very light cotton so wearing it anywhere windy might be asking for trouble!
A couple years ago, I threw together a couple items in my closet to make a purple sarong minidress. It was promptly borrowed by a purple-loving friend and has since gotten misplaced somewhere during the big move. Besides being fun and colorful, it was also a very comfortable and easy-to-wear sundress. The tank top had a built-in bra and the skirt was silky soft from years of washing, so you could really just throw it on and be out the door in seconds. I finally dug up my fabric stash and was delighted to find a handful of sarongs at the bottom of the box. The first thing I set about doing was creating another mixed media dress to lounge in as these ever-lengthening summer days come upon us.
I made a few adjustments from my last dress. The skirt now sits at the natural waist, rather than the lowered empire waist of the previous version. this makes it slightly lower than mid-thigh on me and perfectly acceptable as a dress rather than a tunic. Instead of letting the skirt bunch in random gathers like the previous dress, I spaced out a series of loose inverted pleats to give the dress a more even fullness. The bow at the back is now adjustable and can be untied, unlike the decorative bow in the former version. Pardon the bunching at the back — the dress is one size larger than the form and it’s a pain to change sizes just for a quick snapshot. It fits perfectly fine on me, which is the main point
My materials, before the conversion. Now, to work on the other two sarongs…
I didn’t have a lot of time to browse for fashion-related stuff this trip, owing to our tight shooting schedule. However, I did stop by the mall next-door on my penultimate day and browsed haphazardly through several stores. Had to be careful with my purchases because I was getting close to the weight limit for my luggage. Luckily, jewelry is light and could be stuffed in my hand luggage.
Dangly robots! Chunky roses! And a charm necklace that just screams “wear me to work”! Ah, Topshop — Forever 21′s older sibling with a better PR rep, but the same instantly-gratifying-yet-ultimately-disposable standards of young fashion. Basically, the foundation of any cash-strapped stylist’s collection.
So labeled because some of our locations were much lusher in foliage than one would expect to find in the middle of a huge metropolis. Sadly, I did not get a snapshot of the fox that apparently crossed the path of one of the groups headed home after our twilight/night shoot day.
These poor guys were in murky water when we arrived, and I kept fretting about it. Somebody changed their water halfway through the day, though :-)
And from earlier, studio fish at one of our other locations.
One last garden shot.
Fruit trees, herbs, flowers, and a nice sitting area. I’d really like to landscape something like this one of these days.
More views of the lush backyard garden attached to one of the locations.
Such a calm, attention-loving sweetheart he was. Eventually, our AD had to bodily lift and remove the cat to break the hypnotic effect he had on all the people patting him.
Not exactly wildlife, but it was fluffy and cute! A giant smushy-faced silver tabby that attracted a whole gaggle of admirers.
All was well when we traipsed into the heavily wooded park at late afternoon, but notice that there are no lamps anywhere on this path…
Deeper and deeper into the park we went… Making our way back out, it seemed almost a little too _Blair Witch_.
Rushing to set up a twilight shot in the woods before it gets too dark.
B explores an overgrown park hillside at dusk.
Sprinkler and overgrown plants around a pond in the backyard of one location.
This past Friday, we shot at Fort Horsted, a renovated Napoleonic fort that now houses a business center and event space. I do love when we are allowed out on a day pass Not only did we get a cool tour of the creepy old underground tunnels and bunkers, but I finally got a chance to get out of the city for a while! Given, Kent isn’t exactly a long distance away, but it was still fun and different. Here are some pictures and video from location — not really costume-related, but still work-related in that I wouldn’t have gotten to wander around this place if we hadn’t been filming there. Getting to see stuff like this might be one of my favorite perks of working in film.
Giant howitzer sitting in front of the building. Though I did not climb up on top of the barrel, others did.
Furry little moss bumps on one of the stones. Just thought they were kinda cute :-)
The moat going around the fort, which we used as the outer ramparts of a walled prison city.
More moat. If not for the allergic-to-green-things problem, I would have happily scrambled down with the rest of the group.
Fort with entrance bridge on stilts!
Some sort of poisonous prehistoric-looking plant.
We went down into the tunnels with 2 large camping lights, some pocket flashlights and our cell phones. It was still really dark, as you can see.
Some more old buildings.
The view from the top of the hill was gorgeous.
Storage areas for various artillery-related items.
The main tunnel through from the entrance, where we shot a chase scene.
The front door. Looks modest from the outside, huh?
Hmm. I’ve decided to change the name of my film projects category from “Hollywooded” to “Last Looks”, in recognition of the fact that I am no longer confined to one city for my costuming ventures. Whee! (And no, we didn’t have that many costumes for this particular film, thankfully. It’s rare that an entire project’s worth can fit on one rail, so I had to take a picture to chronicle it.)
The comfy little studio we shot at earlier this week. The notes for this post say that I’m supposed to talk here about the fashiony-costumey stuff that I’ve been doing while out here on my latest project. However, I think that’s best saved for a big wrap-up post after this whole thing is done so I can summarize and put it in an more appealing narrative format. I’m also supposed to post pictures, but there aren’t really that many of those other than the standard boring continuity ones, which get tossed in the portfolio folder only after a project is close to finishing post production. So instead, I will post really random photos and ramble a bit.
Almost exactly a decade ago, I flew out to western Pennsylvania to spend the better part of a month working on my first full-length feature. I was, randomly enough, doing makeup at the time. That made things sort of confusing for a while, because it became my first IMDb entry and people wondered what I was up to with all the department-hopping. It was a year of firsts, really — I was just starting to find work as a crew member, had never been further than a day’s drive from my parents’ house in Orange County, and was just getting involved in my first serious (but very questionable) relationship. That project became memorable not so much for the film itself (I never even saw a finished version of it), but for what I ended up learning about myself, other people, and life in general. Amusingly enough, there was wishful speculation back then of moving far away and possible finding work doing that sort of thing in London.
Given the funny way that life spirals back around, here I am again spending the better part of a month away from home (this time, in Finland) at the beginning of the next stage of my life. Leaving behind a decade’s worth of crazy Hollywood tales to start over in another show business town and see where this road leads. In a place that once was classified as just this side of fictional. Here on another independent feature, though this time in a much more suitable department. Still annoyed with the long-distance relationship part of these trips, but greatly assuaged by the existence of Skype and knowing there’s a welcoming home and family to come back to. So many more things worked out now, and yet so many echoes of that first experience. Being able to see everything with new eyes, while still being able to work with the assuredness of experience is really trippy. I keep on having these dazed out-of-body moments, wondering what that much younger version of me would think of where I am now. How she might have imagined the destination but never the convoluted path I took.
Having somebody apologize for how London wasn’t Hollywood earlier this month was just plain hilarious and wrong, somehow. If it ever became that way, where would I escape to then?
What happens when you put the hot water dispenser in a room with no ventilation. Instant sauna!
I saw this ingenious cat washing bag on Amazon the other day and just had to share it, since I know several of you have furry friends at home as well. Really, I wonder how it took so long to come up with something like this, considering the centuries of cat washing injuries that people have sustained in the name of feline hygiene. This is a vast improvement over the make-a-towel-into-a-bag-and-toss-the-screaming-cat-in method that I’ve been resorting to as of late to get Coco’s nails clipped. She’s too slippery to stay in a burrito hold for long, you see, so the only other choice is to envelope the entire cat, then fish around with your (heavily gloved) hand inside the bag until you find the right paw and carefully pull it out through the one available opening. It’s not particularly graceful or stressless, and the howls coming from the bag probably make the neighbors think I’m boiling it alive. But it works, dammit. However, if I could get my hands on one of these puppies, life would be a breeze. Zippers for each extremity! And it’s made entirely of mesh, so you can dunk it in water and wash the cat in the bag! Brilliant!
Today, I’d like to share with you a small fantasy of mine. It involves going to Alaska and smuggling home a muskox. See how fluffy and cute they are? Aren’t their noses just adorable? Who wouldn’t love that face? Besides being cuddly and decorative, muskoxen produce a highly valuable wool fiber called qiviut. Much like the muskox it came from, qiviut is ridiculously soft, warm, and durable.
Since the Inuit collectives who farm these creatures probably would not take kindly to my trying to kidnap one of their four-legged income sources, I will probably have to settle for merely obtaining a garment made from qiviut. For the past ten years now, I’ve been trying to justify spending a few hundred dollars on a single lacy shawl or nachaq (lovely cowl-type neck accessory). Southern California weather was not kind to me in that regard. After this past frigid Finnish winter, however, I think I finally have a very good justification.
A gorgeous traditionally-patterned lace cowl made of fuzzy, happy, non-scratchy, 8-times-warmer-than-sheep, shrink-proof muskox down, hand-crafted by adorable little Inuit ladies sitting in their merry knitting circle. I must have one!
I don’t know what sort of weird personality disorder this is indicative of, but I can never seem to post pictures of recent haircuts. I’ll TAKE the pictures, sure, but then they’ll usually sit for several months before I get around to showing them, by which time my hair has grown out and looks nothing like the picture. This could somehow be related to the way I will buy clothing and not wear it until a season later to avoid being too trendy. Who knows.
Anyway, these pictures are from mid-September, when I decided to cut my hair really short and get a ton of red put in. I will probably do the bright colors again, though perhaps not this year due to long-term style considerations (for this fall. ahem.) Not so sure about the short cut, though — it’s awfully handy for cold weather because I don’t feel bad about pulling any and all hats on my head, but I do prefer something that I can tie up in fun styles over the summer. Am still considering what I will do for this spring, and am leaning towards just a slight layering trim and bangs, to make the growing-out phase more comfortable. So in about half a year, you’ll actually see the results
It’ll mostly be worn with a cardigan or shawl, so none of that will show anyway. Good to know that my zipper-setting skillz are still intact, too. The last repurposed robe fabric dress I made was this little thing:
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