LATE EVENING SUNSHINE AND SOME BONUS LEGS

It's nice when it is summer and the nights are pale and light again!
Here we are outside at 10pm.

It is also nice when it is warm and one can wear light clothing in just one layer.
Dresses. No socks, no jacket.

And it's even nicer when your dress is not a dress but has legs! Ha!

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW

Or, that were today.

Long time no smoothie! I have a bit of chaga at home of so I made an antioxidant-rich smoothie out of chilled chaga-tea, mango, some cherries and physalis.

Admiring my super huge (1,81m) Mucha-poster that I ordered from the Mucha museum. I saw the original sized theatre posters there when performing in Prague earlier this year but couldn't get it then due to luggage restrictions. I ordered it on Wednesday in the afternoon and it arrived in less than 24 hours on Thursday morning! I will glue it to a board and then hang it in our living room.

And then on with a lurex dress and out to listen to music! Went to the Russian centre of culture for a mesmerizing concert of Altai' music with Alexey Chichakov. (He is playing in Heinävesi Sat 13. and Tampere Sun 14., go listen if you have the chance!)

And oh! Next week season 2 of Vintage-Valtakunta starts. Tuesday 16th at 20, Yle 1! Finland only I'm afraid.

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BECAUSE LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR PLAIN CLOTHING

a.k.a. it was aliens!

Some time ago I made myself a UFO-sweater!

Somehow I managed to go almost 38 years without one.

I bought an appliqué (via Etsy*)  and sew it onto a sweater.

Or, first I carefully ironed it and then as it did not stick everywhere I went with plan B and sew it.

*) Always Etsy. Late at night. But small birds that have their stores on that platform have told me most of their sales do happen at night so I am not alone in this world after all!

The skirt is handmade by me late last year. Still have enough of the same fabric to make pants but those are very much still in their folded-fabric state, safely tucked away in a pile of other awesome fabrics. (Kind of like the KITTY FABRIC FROM 2011. Ta-F:ing-da! But as I remembered that it still exists it might very well be that it turns into a skirt or so this year.)

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EVERY SEASON IS JUMPSUIT SEASON

I'm continuing my -apparent- theme colours for this fall; here in a jumpsuit I sew myself in a dark, plum-brownish shade.

I've noticed that sewing is perhaps the closest to a hobby I have, as I otherwise don't really have time for one (unless buying lipsticks counts as a hobby). While I have to do a lot of sewing for work (costumes) too, sewing for my everyday-self is something of a threat as I am not able to do it whenever I'd like, and it is not something I have to do but want to.

I made this based on a thinner jumpsuit I have, bought last summer.  That one fits and hangs great but the fabric was cheap and got floppy very fast. So I decided to make a new, better quality version. As you may remember I am not used to working with patterns, but I often copy things I see. Cutting is always the hardest part, sewing is easier. I will still need to make a small lift in the waist as it gets a bit bulky there, and I want to add a couple of decorative buttons in the front - but otherwise this was a rather quick and painless project!

The difference to the original jumpsuit turned out to perhpaps be the over-all feel - while this fabric is better and sturdier, it does not drape, or rather hang, as well as I thought it would. (Making a fitted dress or a short-legged romper version out of this material might have been the optional use.)  It did turn out quite nice in any case although it is not a straight copy of the old one, but it is just as comfy! And that's the big deal here.

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PLUM, DARK BLUE, AND ALL THE COLOURS OF AUTUMN

You've seen me talk about it trough the years - my love for autumn. I do enjoy all seasons (except perhaps for spring, as spring in Finland often turns out rather not only short but non-existent; two months of disappointment. Sadly), but while I always long for a short (hah!) snowy winter and feel most alive during summer autumn still turns out to be my favourite time of year. And this year it has been magical! Like you would have wanted to walk around with your mouth open all the time and just do a constant 'Wow!'.

 

Ah, the light, and all the colours!

My colours for this autumn turns out to be plum and dark blue. And all things checked and plaid, as usual.

But the bye-bye to all of this this is around the corner; the inevitable will soon come – no more light, no more colours.

It's a good thing we have candles, fairy lights and red wine to battle the Mordor-months with! Bring it on!

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OCHRE AND WINE RED

Last spring before I went to France I quickly made this yellow ochre-coloured A-line skirt (like, the actual night before, because that is what insane people like me do in order to maintain a maximum stress level). I had had the fabric waiting in my to-do pile of fabrics for a few of years already and decided it would make a great and comfy travel skirt. With large pockets, of course.

Skirt-show-off walking, as one does.
Dark yellow is a strangely versatile colour that pairs well with many others, and I especially like it with wine red. Maximising the level of autumn-points.

Photos by my friend Asko Rantanen / Asko Jonathan Photography who takes amazingly creative pictures.

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BOW IT!

I took a pair of sleeves and made myself a bow.

Here we have a vintage blouse that I adopted when my mother wanted to get rid of it, but that I am - lets face it- most likely never going to wear:

Unless we procrastinate a bit on everything else I have on the to-do list and tweak this one a little bit.

Snip snap off with the sleeves we go!

In general (and this is a true generalisation), short sleeves work best for me. So if an item is not being worn often enough shortening its sleeves often helps for me. You have seen me turn sleeves into pockets before on a dress and immediately earn plus points (equals wear-points) but if you can't make pockets, make a bow - in this case we will pimp up this blouse to get a pussy bow by making a ribbon from the sleeves.

In order for you to tie it properly into a bow around your neck and not just a knot (which could be quite nice as well) you need the ribbon, or tie,  to be at least about 110cm. One could make the ribbons such that they are sewn to, and begin at the front sides of the shirt, in whic case they could be shorterBut I wanted mine to be sturdy and go around my neck.

Because the sleeves are not long enough by themselves to make the tie in one (or two) I put it together of four pieces, two narrower to meet under the collar in the neck, and two that widen towards the edges, to be tied into tbe bow. You can see the seams where I sew the pieces together when the ribbon is hanging like this but it won't show when it is tied into a bow.

Hem the sleeves and voila! The shirt got wear-me points again!

So I wore it right away. Here with a RubyLea-turban and an old Zara skirt from 2009 or '10 (that does not have stretch and that I really, truly do wonder how it is possible I can still button in the waist, as it seems few other items from, umm, pre 2014 or so can be fastened without a painful inhalation, and sometimes not even that helps. Sniff.).

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MY TWO-DECADE CARDIGAN

The other day I realised that the oldest piece of clothing in my wardrobe, apart from vintage, is a cardigan I bought in 1997 that I still use.  I was a bit impressed actually, as we seldom tend to think of clothing of today to last for that long. And cardigans tend to get floppy easily; this one not.  I remember the store I bought it from (which is no more), and was looking at it twice or three time before actually buying it as it was expensive at the time at 120FiM, which nowadays equals to about 20€. But back then that was a lot more. You could really get a lot for the green one hundred bill, with a stubborn Sibelius on it.

There was also this little episode when this cardigan went missing for about a year and a half or so after I moved away from home and I was certain I had not lost it anywhere. It was later found in a bag under my teenaged sister's bed, as she had borrowed it without asking and then hid the evidence. Nowadays she thoroughly denies this ever happend though. Now that I remembered this again I have to tease her a little about it.

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SUMMER VIBES FROM WHEN IT WAS (ALMOST) WARM

October! The month changes and the sun says 'K bye!' and we get Halloween-ish storms in an instant. Not that I am complaining per se; I have big shawls and red wine and berets and turbans to cover my hair with.

But here's a throwback to an planned-but-unposted  (applies to 99%of the photos on my memory card since 2016...) day and it's outfit  from summer when I wore a turban in much more sunnier weather:

This summer I have been filming a thing that, for the first time in a long time allowed me to have a purpose to wear lots of nice clothing again! Meanwhile, something very strange had happened during the past as I suddenly find a lot of garments in my closet can no longer fit. Or not comfortably at least.

But happy to notice this old Trashy Diva-gem of mine still does!

The cardigan I've customed myself with iron-on patches, the turban is from Rubylea and the sunglasses broken by now.

And you know what? It's not even that long until it's summer again!

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SUNSHINE

It's finally warm and sunny! Yesterday was the first day without socks outside!
There is hope after all!

Here I tried to swing like a happy monkey in a tree, to illustrate the fact that it's warm and and one can now go bazonkas and so on, but turns out it was harder than I thought. Plus I kind of got a little worried the branch would crack and hit me in the head and I'd basically die blogging.  But as you can't be totally fabulous or witty all the time you get my attempt here anyway.

This was also a sneaky outfit post. The top is from Freddies of Pinewood and the lurex thingies are h&m.

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LOST SPRING

Waiting for spring like -

WHERE IS IT!

Apparently spring is like a month late here or so by now they say on the news and in the papers.
Well yes, thanks, we kind of noticed. The true definition of "april weather". Sun and rain and random snow and temperatuare yo-yoing.

But the spring gear has however premiered. Even to the extent that I treated myself to a new vintage Pendleton and a pair of vintage boots, to stomp around in the mud over here in, via Etsy.
My pyjamas-like high waist wide-legged cropped pants are from Light in The Box.

(They promised -PROMISED - it'd be +20c this weekend so keeping my thumbs and hopes up for that. And if not, then - oh well, damn, it's the weather, then you still just can't do anything about it...)

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FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: 4 x BROWN

Gingerbread brown blouse that I came across for less than 5€ the other day at the Fida thrift shop.

Breakfast. Or, part of it.
Also: unintentionally inspired by my post a few days back, matching my snacks.

1970's vintage cowboy boots that I bought via Etsy some time ago. When you live in the countryside you need boots.

And then the best thing about Easter.
Mignon eggs. Full, solid nougat.

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THIS WINTER'S SKIRT

So far this year I feel I have mainly been living in a turban,  a thin knit and in this forest green knitted skirt with a strechty waist. Easy to pull up over the dance leggings and tops, to add an extra layer underneath to when it got really cold, and good as it is with just tights when it's been closer to zero - winter has been a real yoyo this year.

The top is from Lindy Bop and the skirt was a Christmas clearance piece from Lindex.

I am often asked about where to get turbans; the black soft ones I have are from Kuokkasen peruukkiliike in Helsinki, but Etsy, for example, has a lot of turbans! Apart from the constant black beret, turbans are a must-have; you simply can not have too many of them.

Also this is pretty much the only place in our house where one can take any pictures. Everything else is still full of boxes, in renovation-mode or covered in some fringly sparkly burlesque-project mess. Uh.

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WINTERIZING SUMMER STRIPES

Well, it's that time of the year again when you either have packed some of your clothes away (if you are the organised type that actually does that instead of having to lean against your closet door to close it. Not saying I'm either one  though, ehrm), or have started indulging in some hardcore layering, in my vocabulary known as winterizing.


I wear quite a lot of my dresses during the colder season as well paired with thicker tights and something underneath plus a layer or two on top. It depends a bit on the dress weather it works or not; the thinnest materials seldom look good that way, but this cotton is a bit heavier.

This is a cotton summery dress that I got from thai vintage store Sugar & Cream Vintage, that you might remember me writing about some time ago.

It's in mint condition with hidden buttons in the front and, like in the red vintage dress I have from the same store, this one also has a hidden zipper in front in able to step into instead of having to pull it over the head.  Handy!

But I just might (or: will, eventually) have to add a pair of patch pockets, which, as you know, makes everything better - I have a cotton fabric with similar soft coloured stripes, just a few more hues in the blend. It will sit pretty well there.

And no, I didn't cut my almost-there outgrown bangs back; this is a wig! I use some pieces on stage and in shoots for all those days that I did not have the time to roll my hair the evening before, but some of them can make themselves useful during the bad hairdays of everyday life as well.

For those who want to know; apart from the Sugar & Cream Vintage dress the belt vintage too, the bag from the early 00's, boots new and the wig from Annabelle's wigs.

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