What I'm Wearing - Rustic Golds

- What I'm Wearing -

Yellow Pencil Skirt - Made by me

Brown Tee - J.C.Penny

Jean Jacket - J.C.Penny

Penny Loafers - Naturalizers 

Owl Earrings - Kohl's

At first I was not excited with fall weather coming. For you see, I do not like the cold weather - I would much rather be hot and sweaty then cold and freezing.  But now, I have found some new and fun outfit combinations in my closet these past few weeks for fall. And now I can't wait for cooler weather to come. But not winter, not yet.  

I'm so excited to see that many of you love Road to Avonlea! Since many of you said that there are no sites dedicated to the costumes in RTA, I have decided to try and post some costume studies on the blog. =) I don't know when I will have the first post up, as I need to take some screen caps from our DVDs.  

 ~Ashley

Road to Avonlea

A few weeks back at a book sale I found a treasure. Season three of Road to Avonlea. The only problem - it is missing the last disc. How sad. The good news. I have fallen in love the story, characters, costumes, and music! This was my first time watching this old TV show from the 90s.

 

After watching only ONE episode my sewing list grew by leaps and bounds. =) Now what will seven seasons and one reunion movie do to my sewing list?!?!  I can't wait to buy the rest of the series and movie. And of course, the soundtrack!





I want to thank my dear reader, Heather, for recommending this series to me! You have my sisters and I hooked on this wonderful TV show! =)

Do any of you know of sites with good pictures from Road to Avonlea? Or, a site that talks about the costumes?

Do any of you love Road to Avonlea? Who is your favorite character? Which character are you most like? I'm sorry to say, that I'm quite like Felicity - sometimes. I think I need to change. =)

What is your favorite costume(s)? I love Felicity's and Olivia's clothes!






~Ashley
pictures from tumblr.com & roadtoavonlea.com 

Belle’s Wardrobe Fashion Event - Day 2

Today is day two of Hannah's Belle's Wardrobe fashion event. I am so excited to join in the fun event! You see, Belle is my favorite Disney princess. Plus, the soundtrack is awesome!  Today's post will be a modern outfit that I put together inspired by Belle.

-What I'm Wearing-

Ruffle Tee - Anne Taylor

White & Blue Floral Pencil Skirt - Made by me

Black Suede Moccasins/flats(?) - Naturalizer

Butterfly Dangle Earrings - Kohl's

Blue Headband - Tulle from my sewing room.  

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Roses and this shade of blue make me thing of Belle - especially if they are together. My outfit reminds me of her blue dress with the white apron and blouse. You know, the outfit at the top of this post. =)

~Ashley

Sisters at a Masquerade!

I'm sorry this post is late. Thankfully, Amanda, has the linky open until Saturday.

Well guess what?!?! I was able to get Gabrielle, Hanne-col, and my youngest sister Abigail to join me in Amanda's Online Masquerade event! =) Now, I will warn you none of us are wearing masks. We will be "attending" the masquerade mask less. ;-)

1. Hanne-col (Jo March) 2. Abigail (She told me to write, "Costume inspired from the Captain Kidd movie.") 3. Ashley {me} (Maid Marian) 4. Gabrielle (Marianne Dashwood)

Hanne-col {Jo March}

For her costume Hanne-col borrowed everything, but the apron from me (Ashley). The apron she borrowed from Gabrielle. Doesn't she look nice in a 1860s dress? I think the era suits her very well.  

The dress was made for my 18th birthday party. My theme was not Little Woman, but come as a book character you are most like. You can see me wearing my dress here. I used an out of print simplicity pattern for the dress - don't remember pattern number right now and I can't find it online. I made two changes to the pattern. First, reduced the size of the sleeves (I didn't have enough fabric). Second, I didn't use the pattern pieces for the skirt portion. =) 

Abigail {Inspired from Captain Kidd (1945)}

As you can see, Abigail is more of a tomboy. =) Her costume was borrowed from her older brother (he is between Hanne-col and Abigail). Which I made for Vision Forum's Reformation 500 last year. Now her hat is mine and the cowgirl boots are Gabrielle's. The rest is all our brother's. This is the pattern I used for the breeches and shirt. It is really easy to use and follow. Highly recommend. 

 

Ashley {Maid Marian in the Nottingham castle [Robin Hood BBC TV Show]}

The bodice of my costume was sewn for Vision Forum's Reformation 500 event last year. While my shirt and skirt were made for their Jamestown 400 event. I'm also wearing a fashion ring, Tudor necklace, and owl earrings. 

Bodice -  McCall's 4696 view E

Shirt - Simplicity 5582 view C

Skirt - Just basic rectangles gathered into a waistband. I used 3 yards. =) 

Gabrielle {Marianne Dashwood} 

 Once again, another sister is borrowing one of my costumes. Good thing we are all close in size - but not in height. =) Gabrielle is wearing my Marianne Dashwood outfit that I made back in 2008 for a trip to Williamsburg, VA.  You can read all the details on this costume here.  She is also wearing a cameo necklace from London. =)

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Thank you, Amanda, for hosting this fun event! It was so much fun to play dress up with my sisters. =) 

~Ashley

My Anthropologie Inspired Shirt

I love the anthropologie store! The store is full of unique and wonderful clothing, shoes, accessorizes, and home decor. So it is no wonder that my latest sewing project would be inspired from two shirts I found online at their website.

                                          1. Perennial Plot Shirt          2. Providence Top

My shirt has the lace applique on the side (inspired by the Perennial Plot Shirt) and a dramatic hem line (inspired by the Providence Top).



{All About The Shirt}

Bodice of t-shirt - Draped on Lizzy my dressform.

Sleeves - Self drafted

Lace Applique - I tea dyed some leftover lace from the curtains in our house, that Gabrielle and my mom made seven, or eight years ago. Then I cut out each rose and arranged them into a oval onto my shirt. Satin stitched the whole down and then you are done. Easy as pie once you figure it out. =) You know what I discovered? I love tea dying! =) In fact, I want to find out more about natural dyes. Do any of you do dye fabrics using natural resources?

Fabric Used - Brown knit bought in LA. I still have some knit leftover and I'm thinking on making either a shirt to sell on etsy, or a flow-y cardigan for myself. Then again, I could make a shirt for Gabrielle.

Bonus to Making Your Own Skirts - You can fit the shirt to your own body shape. Your long sleeves can be long sleeves on long arms - like mine. =) If you are long-waisted, or short-waisted you can make adjustments for that. No one else will have the same shirt - as you made it yourself.

                                                     Here I am tea dying the white lace. =)
~Ashley

California Trip 2010 ❘❘ All the days in one post.

To make this go faster, I decided to just post the rest of my pictures on flickr. I have provided information about each day and links to the pictures below.  =)

Day  6 (Hollywood) - On day six we visited the Warner Brothers Studio. We took a tour of their studio - which was so much fun! I saw costumes from Casablanca and the piano that Sam plays! This was the highlight of the whole WB costume museum, that I don't remember much else of what was there. Plus, you couldn't take any pictures of the costumes. =(

After the WB tour we visited Hollywood and saw the footprints outside Grauman's Chinese Theater.

You can see pictures from day six here.

Day 7 (Shopping Day) - On day seven we first visited FIDM and saw some lovely costumes on display- including costumes from Return to Cranford and the new Alice in Wonderland movie. =) What bliss. As you can not take pictures of the costumes, you will have to look at FIDM's flickr page. =) And don't worry, they have pictures of all the costumes on display.  Alice in Wonderland pictures here. And Costumes from TV Shows here. 

After FIDM we headed over to the Fashion District to shop at Michael Levine Fabric. They had some amazing knits for only $3 yard! I only bought some brown knit, 3 yards, and now I wished I had bought more in different colors and patterns. As it is so easy to work with. =) Next time I'm in LA I will be buying tons of knit fabric. Well, maybe not tons, but you get the idea. =)

Next we headed over to The Way We Wore a vintage clothing store. This is were I bought my first vintage dress! Oh happy me.

We ended the day by walking on Rodeo Drive and window shopping at all the designer stores. =)





Day 8 (Costume College Day 1) - See this post.

Day 9 (Costume College Day 2) - Post coming up. =)

Day 10 (Costume College Day 3) - Post coming up. =)  You can see pictures from Costume College 2010 here. 

Day 11 (Highway 1 & San Francisco) - We drove up the coast on highway 1 to San Francisco. Saw the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh, while we were in San Fran, we froze as it was so cold! I felt like winter was coming! Oh my!


Pictures are here.


















Day 12 (Yosemite)  - Walked and drove all around Yosemite. Pictures here.












Day 14 (Grand Canyon) - On our way back home we stopped at the Grand Canyon again. =) This time the weather was perfect. We even got to walked down a little bit on the Bright Angel Trail. Pictures from today are here.

~Ashley