fashion

I embroidered my jeans jacket

Publié le 7 Décembre 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #advice, #fashion, #interpretation, #life experience, #life lesson, #romanian tradition, #tips, #tricks, #embroidery, #DIY

As you already know I like doing things with my hands. I like coloring, or I like "improving" my clothes like I did these pants.

The jacket I decided to embroider is off white, and from H&M, but from at least 2 years back. I doubt you'll still find it - when i bought it, it was sales season. I also haven't seen anything similar anymore. This jacket is pretty long, as it reaches below my butt. Its fabric also feels sturdy, and doesn't really let the wind through. I wish it had a hoodie - maybe I can MAKE one in the future? LOL.

So the jacket has 4 large pockets on the front. The 2 on the chest have a flap, while the ones on the lower part have a bit of a different shape. I thought the jacket looks too plain and that I needed to do something to cheer it up, give it a bit of a fresh air. What better way to do this if not with some embroidery? And not just any type of embroidery, but specifically Romanian.

So i searched for something in the book with Romanian embroidery I own and I also searched online. And I found the above design, completely black, originating from the Moldova area.

I can only remember finding it on a Romanian online book store, and they were showing pictures of a few pages from inside the books they had listed. And U copied the model on paper.

I had no idea to start to embroider the design. It looks easy enough, especially if only one color is used. Another problem was the fabric as it is woven, but it uses a special type of weaving that makes it hard to count the threads. And if there's one thing to know about Romanian embroidery, is that it counts the threads in order to make a pretty, even design.

I decided to put the paper on the pocket, and to proceed with sewing through the paper. I didn't want to break the paper, at first, but i really had no idea or indication anywhere, on how to do it.

As you can tell from the image above, it worked pretty well. Except for when i was done,and i had to break the paper. Can you guess what happened? The thread was loose. If you'll look carefully at the next 2 pictures, you'll see what I mean.

Since I already embroidered one pocket, I had a better idea on how to proceed with the design, on the next ones. I didn't take pictures, but I'll try my best to explain if you want to reproduce it - but please give credit to the Romanian people.

If you'll use a fabric on which counting the threads is easy, it's even better. You basically need a 20 * 20 grid, as there are 20 rows and 20 columns.

If you use 2 colors:

Start with any of the red squares, but not the middle one. You embroider 2 rows of 2 crosses, then jump to the design in the corner that would be above it, and embroider in the same direction. When done, jump to another square, then another corner, then another square, then the 3rd corner, another square, then the one in the middle, and then the last corner.

You'd have to turn the fabric almost with each jump from the corner to the square. A lot of turning would happen when working on the second color as well.

If you look closely, you'll notice 2 rectangles that intersect one another. I found it easier to work on them if I stat with the longer section, then the edge, then the shorter section, then jump to the next longer section, and so on.

the final look :)

If you use a single color:

I suppose that for when embroidering in a single color, the design would be easier, since you'd have to work on rows. I didn't want to work it all in black because I thought it would look too austere in a way.

As you can see, i managed to finish the embroidery. It was pretty easy too, once I got used to it. But of course I also cheated a little bit. With the design copied on a different paper, i poked holes with a pencil, to mark the fabric with a visual guide.

I didn't cheat perfectly, as you can probably tell. The crosses are not all the same size and are not perfectly aligned either. It took me 4 days in total to complete, with just a few hours per day. I'm pretty happy with the design, i think it's cute and cheerful, and that it looks quite authentic. I have nothing to compare it to, so i'll just stop here.

See you guys!

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Fighting Consumerism

Publié le 30 Novembre 2018 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #advice, #fashion, #life experience, #life lesson, #shopping, #tips, #recycling, #upcycling

We all know we live in a highly consumerist society, or era better said. This can easily be said about technology, clothes and even food.

Technology these days is poorly made ON PURPOSE to be replaced often. Why do you think Apple releases a new iPhone every 6 months or so? their excuse is: "we added a little fix" or "we improved this little thing," and so on.

The same can be said about clothes - at least about what we call fast fashion. Except their excuse is "that you MUST keep up with the trends." There are of course several other aspects in our lives where we're told "this season you MUST buy this or that in order to impress" and the list goes on and on.

You know what? you must not keep up with any trend! you must not impress anyone with newly bought stuff either!

You know what? I've had it! a long time ago. And as a result I did all I could to stop buying new items. At least on full price. There are only a few exceptions, because I can't find everything discounted or as second hand. I also started sharing with A coats, shoes, scarves, tshirts - mostly because that's all we can share, since A is much tinier than me.

Below are some of the stuff A gave me - i chose to show you 3 pairs of pants. One of the pairs is pink and thick sweat pants, which is one of the most recent "gifts". The oldest is the pink silk pair with an over-sized upper part, while the black pair are some ripped jeans for which i must lose some weight.

I started buying clothes only when there are sales, or from discounted boutiques - so basically the stuff other people didn't like anymore. Let me give you some examples below: 3 pairs of jeans from an discount outlet and 2 tshirts on clearance from a known store (fast fashion, which I'm not very proud of, but I figure that sometimes it's ok if there's an item that we really really like. it's more wasteful if the stuff gets destroyed, in my opinion, and a shame for the work of someone.)

And yes, 2 of those pairs of jeans are identical, because they fit me so well, and they are so comfortable. The material and the seams seem of pretty good quality as well, and the price was unbeatable - 10 lei a pair! (about 2.5 USD?) The darker large pair is also made of a good quality fabric - thick and heavy, and not stretchy at all. I thought they're designer, but i think they're fakes. Meh!

I also checked the clearance section of another fast fashion store, but the men's section. I found 2 pairs of jeans that i really like how they look and feel. See them below as well, in the 3rd picture.

I also got some clothes and footwear for free, from a "swap shop" event I found on facebook. There's a jeans jacket, 2 pairs of boots, and some tshirts. A got a few dresses as well, and a flannel shirt. I'll include a pic of a few of the items, not everything.

One of the tshirts I got had a few holes in it, that I didn't see when i chose it. I didn't think much about them, and I decided to mend them somehow.

Speaking of free stuff, remember my post about the expensive stuff I simply found? That's another way I fight consumerism. or by using facebook groups like freecycle, where people give away for free, the items they don't need or want anymore.

I mentioned earlier I mended some clothes. Luckily, these days fashion is very permissive and allows patches over patches as well as destroyed garments.

On the tshirt with little holes, I used some clear nail polish to prevent the holes from getting bigger. Then i proceeded to sew on, by hand, some small patches or (printed) ribbon. The ribbon was used as a tag on some other item A got from another outlet (i think).

Another way we saved some money and fought consumerism, was to share some of the clothes we own. The easiest is to share the jackets and the shoes, like in the picture below. But granted, we can't share all the shoes nor all the jackets.

The home clothes and socks are other items we share, just because it's more convenient this way.

I want to hear from you, how do YOU fight against consumerism, and if you have any other tips for me. :)

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Covering up is more important than ever

Publié le 22 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #health, #lifestyle, #fashion, #life experience, #tips, #advice, #life lesson, #beauty

It doesn't matter you're a woman or a man - cover up!

I'm not a Muslim and i'm not any other type of extremist religious person, so before you bash my words, please read my 2 most important reasons I urge EVERYONE regardless of gender, race, religion, and skin color, to cover up.

What are you supposed to cover up? hair and skin. Hear me out!

REASON #1 - POLLUTION!

By covering up your hair and most of your skin, you protect them from pollution. If you live in a city, you're aware of the levels of pollution on the streets. If you live out in the country side, you might want to skip to the 2nd reason ;)

Sure, not everyone is made the same, but whatever skin and hair issues you may have, they can get worse when exposed to pollution. Dust and smoke get attached to our skins and hair, especially when our faces become oily towards the end of the day, most of the skin becomes sweaty throughout the day especially in summer, and so on.

We're then getting home and we have to use various chemicals to remove all the stuff our hairs and skins collected. Sure there are many products that use natural ingredients, but let's be real - not everyone can afford those, or pays attention to buy them. Most of us need to buy really aggressive cosmetics that leave our skins and hairs really dry, and in turn we need other products to help moisturize them back.

These products are pretty bad for out skin, hair but also for the environment. Maybe by covering up, we won't need such aggressive cosmetics, nor in such a large amounts. However, this need is influenced by other personal factors that you can't ignore and that i'm not aware 100% aware of.

REASON #2 - SUN DAMAGE AND SKIN CANCER

The sun does a lot of good but a lot of bad as well. Doctors say that you should be fine as long as you wear sun screen when you go out. Truth is that CLOTHES are the best sun screen - as long as they're not transparent.

Sun screen usually needs to be reapplied, usually leaves a sticky sensation on the skin which can attracts more dust and pollution on your skin.

The sun doesn't avoid some people - just because you're a person of African descent, and your skin is as dark as coal, it doesn't mean the sun won't burn you. It also doesn't mean you won't get skin cancer - not that i wish cancer on anyone, for i don't. You could be a dermatologist and still get it.

Skin cancer can be a small dot on your skin, can look like an ingrown hair. But I'm not a doctor so you better go talk to one, or do more research on your own. As you can see from the experience of that dermatologist, cancer can appear on your scalp too, if your head is not covered.

(Picture: New England Journal of Medicine)

You thought I'm done? not yet.

REASON #2 - PART TWO: PREVENT PREMATURE AGING

If you're a woman you may want to look young for as long as possible - maybe men want this too, but i haven't seen as many as i saw women.

Sun exposure doesn't only increase the chances of getting skin cancer, but also ages. Have you seen the truck driver with half face looking like an 80 year old man and the other half looking about 60 years old? His real age was 69 at the time of having his picture taken. Read more here.

The clear message from this man's picture is that the sun ages a person and that being somehow covered prevents that.

CONCLUSION:

Cover up! Cover up if you want to increase your chances of staying cancer free for as long as possible, and for looking younger for longer, without the help of bad cosmetics or plastic surgeries.

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Online shopping haul

Publié le 27 Mai 2017 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #bag, #fashion, #haul, #playing cards, #review, #shopping, #shopping haul, #tarot, #tips, #watch, #advertising

Not long ago I promised I would show you guys the stuff I bought online, from a Chinese website called wish.com.

DISCLAIMER: this is not a sponsored post, I bought everything with my own money, and the opinions are my own!

Online shopping is good, as long as you don't buy clothes, shoes, or expensive electronics. You must pay attention to what others have to say about the seller too, to see if you can trust - but even then, you can get cheated.

This site wish is easy to use, you can sign up using your gmail account or even your facebook account. I paid with paypal, but I think credit/debit cards are also accepted.

This is what i ordered - a tote, 3 watches (!), a deck of regular playing cards, and a tarot deck. I also ordered a bra for my friend - it fits her, but i will not show the actual product, and a whetstone to sharpen knives - it never arrived :(

This is the Shadowscapes Tarot deck, translated into simplified Chinese, i believe. The English card names are at the top of the cards. There is one typing error on one of the cards "nice of cups" instead of "nine of cups, " which i find quite funny, especially since this is a good card to get in a reading. The typo is barely noticeable, so it doesn't bother me.

There are 2 extra blank cards included - I guess I can use them in case I lose one. As you can see the cards are quite long, so normal hand shuffling is a bit difficult. Maybe my palms are too short?

My other card deck is a playing one. But the images are with Vampire Knight, as you can see. Vampire Knight is a manga [Japanese comics] by Hino Matsuri. The cards are quite small compared to the tarot. Shuffling them is so easy!

I must admit, when i got them, i thought they're bigger - before opening them up. I was quite impressed that they were sealed in plastic - the tarot wasn't. Once i took them in my hand, i thought they're really cute because of how small they appeared.

I didn't use them, but I assume in dim light, it will be difficult to tell which card is which, so probably if you ever get your hands on a similar deck, play your games in stronger light.

1 year later: none works anymore :(

So these are the watches I got. Why 3? well, i have a small obsession for watches. I have 4 of them in total. One - the first I ever got, is a Michael Kors. [I can't really remember where it is] I'm not wearing it because it needs a battery and it had a small accident, and lost a decorative plate. I'm pissed about it - I still have it, but I have trouble putting it back with glue it doesn't stay.

These watches didn't arrive all at once, though the green ones have been ordered at the same time. The lighter green one was supposed to be more blueish. but the green one looks amazing! The first one to arrive was the one with a black bracelet. It is a mechanical one - the reason I got it. The other 2 cost me $1 each, and $1 shipping for each. I really liked the design, even though they require a battery.

The seller was nice enough to send them with a battery in AND with the hour set for Romania! how cool is that?

The tote is not as big as I thought it would be. I can fit a 15" laptop in it, if i put it with the narrow side in. And it doesn't go in all the way - but I rarely take my laptop with me, so that's fine. It seems well done, though the sewing could have been more straight - in places where it is noticeable.

I like that it has a small inner pocket. The front is purple, and the other side is gray, like the handles and the bottom. The handles are long enough to allow you to wear the bag on the shoulder.

SHIPPING

The mechanical watch was the first to arrive, after some 3 weeks. I thought i will never get to see my tarot deck nor my playing cards - they arrived quite late. The bag also arrived quite fast, but i forgot how fast. I also forgot how fast the other items came, but the 2 green watches arrived 1 week apart - shipped separately, though the seller was the same.

Speaking of sellers, there are many sellers on wish, just like on ebay or etsy. The prices can change from one day to the other, but they're generally low. If you know me, you'll know these items were cheap - since I hate spending money on expensive stuff.

site pictures VS real item pictures

There are slight color differences between the real life items and the image you see provided by the seller. The light green watch was the biggest offender, but since i like green, I'm not complaining. My light, though natural, wasn't the best to take pictures. The tarot deck is less intense, much more pastel. As for the mechanical watch - just like with the others, several colors were available, that's why mine is not golden.

Sadly, if you have a problem with your item, the customer support is from wish, and it is not the seller. you might also have the "luck" of talking to someone who doesn't speak English well. You have 30 days for returns or refunds. This means i lost whatever I paid for my whetstone.

This is all for now. See you again next week!

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Shopping only for fitting clothes

Publié le 12 Mai 2015 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #fashion, #life experience, #life lesson, #shoes, #shopping, #tips, #tricks

Hello everyone~~

Shopping is an activity many women simply LOVE. Everyone knows that! And it takes them a lot of time to buy a cute new outfit, or a perfect shirt, whatever other clothing item they want.

Men, however, don't spend as much time shopping for the stuff they need. Could it be that they know better what they want? Perhaps it is so, but maybe this aspect has something to do with this fact:

Men's bodies seem made in the same mold, while women have a curved body. The curves of a lady don't always fall in the same places, but this is due to their height! Women's bodies come in all shapes and sizes, or so they say. This is why women must try on all the clothes they're interested in, to make sure they fit and look nice.

To add insult to the injury, the amount of patterns, colors, and items in general, is reduced for men's clothing, so it's easier for them to choose something!

I read the stories of many women complaining about how their shopping trip was a failure:

Some of them couldn't find something they liked, others got stuff they weren't 100% happy with, and and and. I think a shopping trip should always end with 100% happiness. I'll share with you THE secret to always buy nicely fitting clothes.

So, the question is, how can women go shopping and come back home happy? There is a very simple way of knowing if a pair of pants will fit you, for instance. All you have to do is to measure yourself before leaving home, and remember to take the measuring tape with you. You would have to measure the pants you like, in the store, before going to the fitting room. However, this is a rather complicated method and you would have to remember numbers, where to measure and so on. Plus, there is an even easier method you can use:

Take your favorite pair of jeans with you when going shopping and place them against the ones in the store! As long as they seem to be the same size, you can then try them on. If you're self-conscious, shy, or if a lot of people are in the store, you'll:

save time: by not taking to the cabin pairs of pants that will never fit, by not getting into the changing room if there are no pants in your size.
save face: by not having to ask for yet a larger size, by not taking 10 pairs with you instead of 4 or 6 pairs that actually fit you
be done faster with changing clothes, and shopping
enjoy your day of shopping for pants.

One important thing you should pay attention to is the rise of the pants: low, high, or regular rise pants will definitely fit different even if the waistband is just as large. You still have to try on the pants in the store before buying them. This way you will see if you would like yourself in them or not.

This tip can be applied to pencil skirts and even bras. It is well-known that different brands will fit differently even if you select the same size. This goes well for bras and pants. I learned this tip from my stylish mother.

See you next time.

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Some Louboutin Shoes are Gorgeous

Publié le 3 Mai 2015 par Charly Cross

Catégories : #fashion, #heels, #Louboutin, #shoes

So I want to talk about the Louboutin shoes. I mean, those ARE THE shoes, but must say Alexander McQueen (rest in peace!) had his own pieces of work. The pairs of shoes you're about to see are not from a latest collection, but from one dating back at least 5 years. I saw them late at night on April 5th, 2010 in a local store. At the time I was with a friend and we almost wanted to break in and steal the fitting pair for her, lol :D

picture's not mine :(

Picture's not mine. :( Aren't they lovely?

Maybe they aren't everyone's cup of tea, .. eeeer type of heels but at least they are worth a look or two...

Alright, this pair is very similar to one we saw. That one was blue and I believe the detail in front of the leg, around the ankle was bigger. Well, it's been a very long time ago, and this post is something I wrote on a different blog. There was yet a different blog talking about these shoes, and they were saying that:

this pair is inspired by Marie Antoinette, "the flamboyant wife of the equally flamboyant Louis XVI " and "Thirty-six (36) pairs are being made in each color". I wonder how many pairs have been bought here? (they had 2 pairs in the window, both on blue). I think later on, I'll still pass by there (right around the corner) just to take a picture or two. :)

I believe the picture was from the official website.

In case you are wondering about where on Earth could you wear these, I have some ideas: the Carnival in Venice, a themed party, or a Halloween party. However these are not shoes made to be worn, but to be admired, thus their limited number.

This is it for now! See you next time~~~~

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