One of the absolute highlights of James and my trip to Melbourne happened on the last day, in fact it happened on the way to the airport!

We got to visit Circa Vintage!

Having met the lovely Nicole at our tea party we were super excited when she invited us to the shop on our last day in town! There was a New Zealand TV show filming in the store that day for a competition of some sort so the shop was bustling with excitement ^_^

The shop itself was full of so many beautiful things! I seriously could have spent my entire bank account with very little trouble, to be honest if we hadn’t been on the way to fly home I probably would have left with bags and bags of beautiful vintage dresses and accessories!

Nicole was lovely enough to let me try on some of the dresses and I had such a wonderful time prancing around like a princess!

The first piece I tried on was this beautiful pink number:

The fabric had the most beautiful floral designs woven into it and on the front there was a big bow!

The next piece was a purple lace dress which was much more form fitting. Here I am as the lovely Fiona helped me clip it at the back, I was too small for all of the dresses so we clipped them for the photos ^_^

Mwahaha we even convinced James to get in the spirit of things as he tried on this delicious vintage wool suit. I had to tell him like 50923842 times that a wool suit wouldn’t do well in Brisbane’s climate and he still didn’t want to part with it! How dashing does he look seriously?

This next dress was my favorite of the day and they practically had to bribe me to get out of it!

It’s a beautiful blue chiffon piece with lace details sewn around the bodice and skirt.

Being surrounded by the camera crew! I can’t wait to see how they edit the footage together!

One of the many reasons I loved this dress was the twirling action! I felt like a Disney Princess

The dressing up bug was contagious and Candice found the most lovely fitted purple dress!

Ok we took way to many pictures…. but how awesome is it?!

By this point the day went something like this with James falling asleep in the chair while I camwhored

Being clipped into the next dress by the wonderful Nicole and Fiona:

This is the only picture of both of us from the whole damn trip!

The whole atmosphere in the shop was beautiful!

PEARLS! It’s like some kind of lovely dream

Group shot of all the girls! Left to right: Nicole, Fiona, Me, Candice. They all look so pretty!

Bonus pic! James titled this photo “Parasols at Dawn” heehee!

If you want to visit Circa Vintage check the website for more details or drop into the store at: 102 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria. I can’t wait to go back when we move down!!

For even more photos go check James blog here.

So this is going to be my big Melbourne post I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about it by now! There is one more post coming up about something we did down there but it’s a surprise so I suppose you’ll all just have to deal with hearing about it for a tiny bit longer ^_^ I’ve actually got a lot of other photos from down there to be used in tutorials and the like as well…

But on to the photos!

So on the first day we mostly just rested because we had to be up at 2am that day for the flight. Sight seeing on 2 hrs sleep really isn’t very fun, so we took it easy and just had a little wander around Box Hill shopping center. That night we went out for a yummy dinner and got our first taste of Melbourne traffic, 2 1/2 hours for a 45min trip LOL apparently no one told us that there happened to be an ACDC concert on that night… oh wait that’s not true we were stuck on the flight with a crazy ACDC fan! He had been waiting in line to check in with us and struck up a conversation about how awesome ACDC were and how he was flying around the country to see every concert, we were polite and then somehow we ended up next to him on the flight as well >_< Most awkward 2 hours  of pretending to be asleep ever.

We also met SuperKawaiiMama‘s adorable children Miss 5 and Miss 2 who have more energy than anyone I’ve ever met! On the Friday we also went shopping… ok yes we did a *lot* of shopping! You’ve already seen the photos from the tea party on the Saturday so now we’re up to Sunday which was Valentines/Chinese New Year!

We went down to China Town for CNY and saw the dragon dances as well as more shopping…

James bumped into Mr Gadget outside and 5min later we bumped into Fashion Hayley! It was so strange to keep bumping into people we knew in a city we didn’t live in!

Our outfits for the day:

People kept asking for photos as well which was quite amusing. Some guy even wanted us to take photos with his kids >_< The strangest part of that day was being hit on by a skeezy old asian guy who apparently thought I was 15… Gross and all kinds of illegal!

Delicious lunch that day:

Mr SKM enjoying the delicious lunch:

Ok yes there was a lot of cam-whoring that day!

The dragon (edit apparently when there are only 2 people it’s a lion) eating up some yummy looking watermelon:

Those fire crackers were so loud!

Of course the whole time I was trying to keep up with you guys online as much as possible!

Including making fun posts like our Valentines Day Entry to the Nuffnang competition. This was taken while I was getting ready ^_^

SuperKawaiiMama’s yard also made a great backdrop for all of the photos. So pretty and green!

And we had a lot of fun being ridiculous!

James demanded I include this because he thought it was hilarious

Miss 5 decided my make up wasn’t pretty enough one day so she gave me this awesome make over! Ready for a night out yes?

One day we went wandering around the city by ourselves, it was really beautiful.

That night we were supposed to meet up with my awesome old friend Steampunkerie but I managed to twist my damn ankle on the curb in China Town so we had to cut it short and had drinks instead. I had the weirdest green tea and icecream concoction I’ve ever tasted, it was really yummy though!

That afternoon we caught the train home and were surprised at how clean, easy to use and efficient it was!

Living with another creative girl with similar interests produced a lot of late night crafting sessions

That night we made hair clippies, mine is the rosette on the left ^_^

We ate a RIDICULOUS amount of delicious food there, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten out that much in my life. It was SO good!

So much food!

We did a huge amount of shopping, I loved all of the imported Asian make up stores like The Face Shop and Missha. I’ll have some product reviews for you soon from there once I test everything out

We also visited some Op Shops and got some great bargains! The highlight of which was an old guy stopping his mobility scooter and saying “An old guy like me can say it… YOU LOOK REALLY GROUSE! Really beautiful young lady!” I have to say, I’ve been described as a lot of things but “grouse” is new on my list! For the overseas readers, grouse is really old Australian slang for awesome eg. “This beer tastes grouse mate”.

James was in his element taking photos of everything, I think he really enjoyed having so many locations to shoot at and new interesting back drops!

Here’s another one of his:

On the last day we all ruined our awesome diets with a fantastic meal of McDonalds…

There was a carousel at the airport, so awesome!

After a long awesome filled week it was time for a very sad farewell ;_; (you just need to pretend that I’m not laughing in this photo ok?)

Back to Brisbane and back to the horrible humidity On the plus side hopefully we’ll be back in Melbourne sooner than you think!

Thank you so much to all our wonderful friends who made our trip so great! Special thank you to SuperKawaiiMama, Mr SKM, Miss 5 and Miss 2 for letting us stay with you and showing us such a wonderful time! It’s awesome to know that we won’t be alone when we move down!

<3

I am still spending much too much time having fun here in Melbourne so I’m going to photo spam your a little bit. I promise there are going to be a bunch of tutorials when I get back so you’ll all just have to put up with it You guys are totally going to love the photos from the tea party too!

A while ago James and I went antiquing at the Woolloongabba Antiques Center which was a heap of fun. Basically it’s a gigantic warehouse that has a whole bunch of smaller shops inside it selling all manner of antiques and pretty things.

Here are a few photos from the day!

I spent so much time looking around at everything, I swear I could lose days in antiques stores

We found some awesome old roller skates that I really wanted to buy!

So many jewelery display cases, so little time >_<

There were so many beautiful scarves, I wanted to take them all home!

Bonus picture of the day, at the vintage hair setter

By the time you’re reading this I’ll probably be on a plane on the way home back to my own bed and back into the swing of normal blogging ^_^

I’m writing this in between frantically packing things for Melbourne so do excuse me if I seem a little rushed!

Everyone has requested photos of my latest deco projects so here they are! There are a LOT of photos because I’m really proud of this one!

I bought a new leather phone case for my iphone Ruri and it’s taken me a while to settle on a design but here it is in all it’s glory

Front:

Close up of the front:

Gigantic feature piece which was originally a brooch:

Side view:

The back side thingy:

Heehee this is my little Yorshire Terrier doggie screen cleaner:

Crown charm:

The inside!

The closure which used to be a hair clip:

On the inside is a mirror for on the go touch ups ^_^

The side and the back:

Back:

Close up of the back with a cute cupcake charm that used to be a hair clip ^_^

Heehee I love this ribbon!

I’ve got to say that I am beyond happy with how this turned out, every time I look at it I get a huge smile! Makes me love using my iphone even more!

Last view of the back:

One of the other projects I’ve done lately is my glasses! That’s right all the hours I spent in front of the screen writing tutorials means I need glasses >_<

But how damn cute did they turn out?

Lastly if you were following me on Twitter you would have heard that I lost my absolute favorite scarf ever on the weekend I keep it tied to my hand bag and it fell off somewhere in a shopping centre, I didn’t even realize until we got home

But the good part of that is that I got to go scarf shopping again

What I bought:

Cute red scarf to match my bag- $3 from Footprints Op shop

Hand Painted silk scarf  from the Salvos- $2

Yay for new things! I also got a very interesting wallet at the same shop but that’s reserved for another post ^_^ I love op shops!

Hope you enjoyed my deco spam, I promise I’ll reply to all of your lovely comments as soon as I get a second to relax and ‘ll update again once we’re in Melbourne <3

A warning that there are a lot of photos in this post so be warned If these photos just aren’t enough, I’ve uploaded a large selection of everything we took over at my Flickr account. Hey it’s not everyday that someone flies you to Singapore for free so I took a lot of photos!

So starting on Thursday night, our flight was at like 11:45pm so James’ Dad drove us to the airport and we chatted before going through security and customs and doing a little shopping. We were keeping an eye out for Erica from Girl With a Satchel who was the only other blogger coming from Brisbane. We travel in style baby!

This is a kind of silly inside joke but ever since we started going out like 2 and 1/2 years ago James has been promising to buy me a mood ring and he finally did! Hahaha guess what I’m feeling!

The food and service on the plane was lovely, we flew with Singapore Airlines. They gave us little travel packs with socks and tooth brushes, how cute! For dinner we had yummy noodles.

We arrived at the Link Hotel at around 5am and we were all so tired that we piled into bed! Erica was only a couple of rooms down the hall from us which was awesome! She was such a wonderful traveling companion, we had lots of fun together! Here is our hotel room…

To give you an idea of the size, that’s a double bed and the wall is behind the desk on the right. My little laptop Edward lived there but the internet connection was very sketchy so I couldn’t post

After a few hours napping we met up with Erica, Candice and her husband Craig for an… interesting breakfast. Erica ordered coffee with skim milk and they brought her a cup of frothed milk. I ordered tea and they brought warm milk tea like you would have with pearls in it… it was very pretty though!

After breakfast we headed out to a shopping center and shopped around, the girls were super excited that there was a Zara! We met up with Grace and Dave here and she introduced herself by sneaking up behind me, poking me in the back and whispering in my ear “GIMME ALL YOUR MONEY!!” she managed to scare the hell out of me

I bought a pair of earrings and Candice bought me a shiny pink bling ring, the shop assistants kept telling I looked like a Barbie Doll so we took a photo together

Erica was sleepy so she went back to the hotel while Candice and I got pedicures! Ah felt so good and so much nicer than the places here in Aus! Woo for deco iphones!

After that we went back to the hotel to get ready for the awards, which you saw last post so I’ll skip to the next morning which was Friday. I stayed up after the awards and got up early so I could pin curl my hair. I was going to take hot rollers but they were too heavy so I learned to pin curl instead. I was super happy with the results and they lasted all that day and night! James and I met up with Candice and Craig for breakfast at the hotel before the tour started.

Our first stop was the Mint Toy Museum… which is exactly what it implies: a museum for old toys in mint condition. Our tour guide was hilarious, this kind of sums the whole thing up:

I got to pose with a life size model my childhood hero Tintin and his dog Snowy as well as Captain Haddock so I was happy!

We were literally like kids in a toy shop amongst all of the memorabilia! Old favorites like Strawberry Shortcake brought back childhood memories and it made me sad to see the new slutty version they’re trying to pedal now.

Next we went to the Museum of Early Chinese Settlers. You should all note that I’m saving the cutest girliest photos for a special treat on Monday or Tuesday You’re going to love it!

We stopped for lunch at an insanely busy crowded pavilion. Everything was so cheap and there were so many smells in one small area!

It was so awes
ome to be with other people who understand the importance of photos

Our next stop was the Singapore Planning Museum. They had a replica of all of inner Singapore in miniature! Oh what’s that I spy down there?

ZOMG IT’S GIANT VIOLET ATTACKING THE CITY!

We stopped off for a spot of shopping but the museum of planning kept reminding me to look at the architecture There were so many pretty buildings, I wish my windows were rainbow!

The next stop was Merlion park which I was totally looking forward to!

We spent ages just being silly and taking photos, most of those will be in the post on Mon/Tues.

Lots of posing!

Our next stop was the Singapore Flier which is basically a very fancy ferris wheel.

The view from the top was great!

We were fortunate that our capsule was full of awesome people!

Group shot! James, Me, Candice, Craig, Christie with little Immy and Erica.

It was such an action packed tour that Nuffnang had planned at this point we took some time out to just chill with some cocktails at the bay. I had a mocktail version of the “Sinagpore Sling” and it was yummy!

Little Immy was so adorable she had herself a bunch of admirers when the day was done. Here she is with Martin from Nuffnang, she was eating ice cream, too cute!

James made me take this picture of him next to the bus. Low brow humor…

That night we went to a crazy shopping center called Mustafa. There is no way to describe it other than insane. So huge, sold everything from cosmetics to diamonds to cheap shoes to frozen goods to ANYTHING. It was so hard just to find the exit once we were in *_* The lights outside were beautiful though.

We had dinner at a celebrity hot spot (apparently) and out the front there was the ultimate deco project… a motorbike!

I had the most disgusting grass jelly drink for dinner. It was like frozen rice noodles in sugar water. ICK.

After a good night’s sleep we were ready for shopping again Quick breakfast and some photos.

We headed off to Orchard Rd for fancy upmarket shopping.

I bought a bunch of Japanese magazines, I was so happy! They are like 1/3rd of the price compared to Australia!

The boys played Wii Sports Resort while we all shopped.

Then it was our last shopping stop for the trip…. SIM LIM SQUARE! Everyone had been waiting so long to get here, it’s basically a whole shopping center devoted to gadgets and cameras I wanted to get a video camera (mission unsuccessful) and James wanted to look at lenses. We ended up spending 3 hours there because everyone wanted to bargain for things! Some of the guys got really good deals t
oo I had a hilarious experience with Grace as she put on her famous Singaporean accent to try and bargain on my behalf The shop keeper was a nut job and he was yelling at us not to leave! Grace’s bargaining skills were so awesome she even got $5 off a steam iron which was supposed to be set price!

While we were wandering around waiting for the boys to finish haggling Kruppy took us on his magical tour of the past and educated us on the subtitles of the landline phone

Apparently his tour made him so tired that he felt the need to try out a magic eye massaging gadget… hahaha! I sure hope he didn’t sustain any lasting damage ^_^

Oh and I couldn’t help but share the signs we could see from the hotel… Frog porridge sounds interesting! We were all daring each other to try it but there just wasn’t time!

After all that there was time for one last hurrah online and then a dash to the airport!

Erica can testify to the fact that our taxi driver was the funniest man in the universe! He was giving us the good old cab driver philosophy and saying we should work less and enjoy life before our retirements! We were convinced he should write a book.

At the airport we grabbed some dinner and did a dash to the plane (almost missed it oops!). James couldn’t believe there was a Burger King, he was so excited! In Australia Burger King is called Hungry Jacks because when it first arrived the name was already taken, so it’s a novelty.

On the plane back I managed to get some sleep, dinner was some kind of fish which was icky but smelled good.

The best part was desert which was chocolate covered icecream bites!

James really enjoyed his hahahaha!

And that was our lovely trip! Now what you really want to see… the loot
Here’s the candy!

Things that I bought:

Nuffnang Australia had these awesome shirts made up for us, I love the one I got!!

And look… FOREIGN BUENO! And yes it tasted just as good Damn Kinder, just sponsor me already

To say thank you very much to Nuffnang and all the sponsors James and I made this photo <3

I had such a wonderful time, I wish it had lasted longer but it was lovely and it all feels like a dream now

Sorry for the lack of updates guys I have been a little stressed lately and with stress I tend to get sicker and have less energy so I haven’t had as much time for blogging as I would like.

So today I thought I’d share some shopping I did recently! A few people have asked me to write my guide to shopping so this is a little bit of a preview!

A while ago we did our shop at Chermside which is a large center on the Northside and I got a few little presents

T2 is the most delightful tea shop. I could spend hours just smelling their shop. I bought the loveliest Strawberries and Cream green tea and Sleepy Good which is a tisane for relaxing that really helps me sleep at night.

My favorite purchase that day was actually a cashmere cardigan from Peter Alexander which was on sale (yay!). I am a huge advocate of creating outfits which look like a million dollars for much less but sometimes it’s nice to go for that big brand item. The girl who helped me was lovely and wrapped everything up in cute printed tissue paper.

I wish more stores would use beautiful sturdy paper bags like this! The little bow on the dog’s collar is actually a ribbon too!

And here is the cardigan! I think this is a very French co-ordinate inspired by the over romanticized version of France in my head. Ah yes of course everyone owns a poodle, has a view of the Eiffel Tower and rides a cute little bike everywhere, though I imagine that carrying a baguette all the time could get annoying

Oui oui un baguette sil vous plait! J’ai une trousse d’écolier rouge. Le singe est sur la table.

I bet there would be an awful lot less war if countries were more like the stereotypes in my mind. Also there would be less irritating people in the world asking me if I ride a Kangaroo to work.

Hey everyone! This is the second part of my Nuffnang Blog Awards competition entry. This one is all about Singapore!

So why do I deserve to go to Singapore? Well I don’t know if I deserve to go above all of the other entries as there have been some really awesome ones but I would really like to go! I’d love to actually get out of the house and meet some fellow bloggers in person for a change ^_^ The most important reason I would like to go is experiencing another culture! Singapore is completely different to Australia and I’d love to be able to meet new and interesting people.

The second part of this post is all about my perfect day in Singapore!

When you’re traveling you should always take comfortable shoes with you as you never know how much walking (or shopping!) you’re going to have to do. I find it really difficult to find comfortable shoes that are also really cute

So I made my own! I bought a cheap set of white runners from Big W for $25 and added glitter, pearls, diamantes and bows

I’m always doing photo posts on my blog so I thought I’d do something a little different this time so you can see things from the perspective of my new shoes ^_^

I like to look nice as much of the time as possible. So even when I’m flying I wear nice comfortable clothes. On my day in Singapore I’ll arrive at the airport looking cute as ever
The first thing I’ll do after I arrive is meet up with all the awesome friends I’ve made through blogging! Traveling is so much more fun with friends ^_^ That’s James on the far right in the stylish wing tips I’m totally going to buy him. Next I want to take a ride on the famous “Ducks”. They look so cute! And I’ve heard that the guides are very charismatic and informative ^_^ I’ll probably have to run to catch it because I got side tracked with all my friends!

Then it’s… SHOPPING TIME! Yaaay! Ah you all know how much I love shopping, I am a champion bargain finder! I am so looking forward to spending time on Orchard Road. Shops get ready for me!

There are many Lolita shops in Singapore too so I would love to visit one or two and pick up some new dresses or accessories! It would be lovely to actually be go into the shops and feel the fabric of the clothes I want rather than having to order online. *sigh* I’m dreaming about feeling all of that beautiful lace (other Lolitas will get this).

I want to see as much of the city as possible but I want to see the parks and other areas as well. I would try to get as diverse snap shot of Singapore as I could in 1 day! Ad with my awesome shoes I could do all the walking I wanted without feeling the horrible ouch of high heels ^_^

When I have finished my tour around the town and seen all I could see I would definitely head back to the hotel for a little “me time”. I always try to schedule a couple of hours where I can just relax on holidays otherwise I would run out of energy! My favorite is relaxing by a pool with a nice cold drink…

And to top off my fantastic day? Well I couldn’t really ask for more than that but I would love to go to the Nuffnang Awards! I would probably change my shoes at this point though!

To thank you all for reading here are some bonus shots of my shoes, I did have a bunch ready for a tutorial of how to make them but my phone reset and deleted them all
The glitter is ridiculously sparkly in person but the camera didn’t catch it well.Even the back must be cute!And nothing I own is complete without a flower!

And if you really miss the silly photos of me feel free to click over at James’ entry to the competition where you can see lots of photos of us doing what he wants in Singapore!

Thanks Nuffnang and don’t forget to Indulge in the Uniquely Singapore Experience!

If you’re interested in them, you probably know how expensive Hime Gyaru styles can be. Dresses at Jesus Diamante go on average for $700 and then there are shoes, accessories, hair pieces, make up supplies and all the rest that goes into such a detailed look. A lot of being a Princess is in the details and details can be expensive!

But I am a firm believer that people should be in control of their own budgets and if you want something bad enough you’ll make it happen. I know that it can be tempting but I am not the kind of girl who will spend her rent budget on a pretty dress! That’s why when I want something before I’ll buy it, I will toss up whether it’s worth making it. I’m not saying I don’t love brand to death but I love my $2 store as well

So the other week James and I took a trip to Lincraft, our local craft supplies/fabric store for supplies to make some new accessories. James found some 3D glasses that some kid had left behind… stylish no?

He looks like such a ladies man holding all of my craft supplies

In the same complex as Lincraft is my faaaavorite burger place “Big Chief Burgers”. Oh they are the most delicious thing you would ever wrap your mouth around.

James once told me that if he could he’d marry that burger They make a cute couple! I’d be ok with that as long as I could get free burgers!

In case you were ever wondering what Hime Gyaru’s eat, the answer is gigantic burgers which are pretty much as big as their hair… and a side of chips with secret country sauce. I bet you thought we only eat delicate cakes with tea… ok I admit it, I had a cup of tea just out of shot of this photo

And for desert? The best cheese cake in the universe: cookies and cream! Man I’m getting so hungry just thinking about this again!

So after all of that delicious food I got down to doing some crafting. I’m quite a messy crafter, this is what my table looks like…

And in case you’re interested here are some of the things that made it out of the mess of pearls:

A ring with blue paper flowers, pearls and purple beads. The flowers have little dew drops on it.

Pink paper flowers on a barrette clip thingy. Looks super cute with Kitty rolls.

I couldn’t decide whether to put this on a brooch clip or a hair clip. I think I might just make 2 and have both!

I love this little ring. Actually I just love jewelery with dangly things

Double felt hair bow with a string of pearls.

Lace and pearl felt iPhone pouch
. I wanted something cute for Ruri to sit in, the little pocket in my bag is too hard to get to.

Red felt iPhone case for Ruri. The heart on this is actually a flap to give it extra security.

Pearl bracelet with dangles!

My favorite of the things I made that day was this pearl watch I got the watch face at Lincraft ages ago so I just added the pearls and flowers I bought that day with a couple of bows and tadaa! I also made another pearl necklace that day but I was wearing it while I took these photos so I forgot about it!

Not bad for an afternoon though right?

I’m sure you’re all sick of seeing all my silly craft things by now though so I’m going to write a proper guide to Hime on a budget and leave it at that for now ^_^

Have a good afternoon!

Well even with the best laid intentions I didn’t have a particularly awesome weekend. In fact I would go so far as to say it sucked. I’m not going to get in to everything here but the one thing I will mention is my horrible hair dye mishap. I had been planning to give you all 2 hair tutorials this week but after the hair incident (which left me a strange ashy blonde with completely different coloured roots) you’ll have to wait for my hair to rest for a few days so I can dye it again hopefully back to normal.

So anyway instead of a hair tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a pretty shopping bag. I believe that as many aspects of my life as possible should be filled with beautiful things. It follows fairly easily that I don’t like plain old grey shopping bags. After reading THIS tutorial on Craftster I was inspired to make my own portable, reusable, beautiful bag ^_^ Mine is quite different than the original because I wasn’t reading the pattern as I was going so it folds differently.

Let’s get started then! Here is what you will need:
-Fabric for the bag (and lining fabric if you decide to use it, I didn’t and it’s perfectly sturdy)
-Plastic bag for pattern
-Lace, pearls or other decorations

Cut the seams off the plastic bag at the top and bottom. Unfold it so it looks like this:

You now need to use this as a pattern to cut two pieces like this out. If you are using lining cut some of that out too.

I had some spare pink lace that I decided to decorate mine with. I laid out the lace in several layers to get the effect I wanted. Then I sewed it all down.

I sewed a layer of lace flowers across the top of the lace. Now you should cut out a piece of fabric for the pocket, I decided to put a lace bow on there so I cut that out too.

Now sew the pocket onto one side!

Next it’s time to overlock all the loose seams and overlock the sides and tops of the handles together.

Now it’s time to put those origami skillz to good use! On the sides you should fold them in on themselves like the original plastic bag was. The handles should fold in on themselves too. Do it on both sides and then overlock the bottom seam. I then covered the bottom seam with lace flowers to match the top.

The few last steps are very simple. Sew the seams around the top and handles so they are neat. Then if you included the lace bow on the pocket, gather it in a piece of ribbon. Lastly I added a string of pearls which will double as a handle when it’s all folded up.

Here is an animation of how it folds up!
1. Fold the bottom underneath
2. Fold the side in
3. Fold the other side in
4. Fold the handles backwards
5. Fold it under on it’s self and push it into the pocket.
6. TADAA!

If you don’t want to put it in your purse you can carry it in with the pearls until you need to fill it with groceries etc

Time to take it for a test drive!

When you buy something then unfold it and tadaa!

Sorry that wasn’t my best tutorial, I wasn’t expecting to use these photos as a tutorial. I was very crafty on the weekend, I’ll show you what else I made next time!

<3

Ok ok ok ok ok ok so you were all waiting on the edge of your seats for this post right? I’ve received a surprising number of messages from you all desperate to know what I did… well here it is!

In my previous post I mentioned this competition at my advertising company Nuffnang (who rock). The general jist of the competition is that they sent us all a $10 Coles Myer Gift voucher and the blogger who spends it in the most creative or frugal way wins a voucher for $100.

Here is the story of what I did…

One night I was busy dreaming about how much I love clothes that make me feel like a princess. I love Hime Gyaru fashion and most of all I love Jesus Diamante clothing… but it’s notoriously expensive ;_; Dresses can cost as much as $1000 which a poor little graphic designer like me just can’t afford…

But as I awoke I came up with a brilliant idea!

So I put on my favorite outfit and headed off to the shops with James to use my $10 voucher on what I needed….

I went everywhere looking for what I wanted. I visited Kmart and Target but there was nothing in my price range *_* I consoled myself with yummy pancakes filled with caramel…
But alas I couldn’t find it… so after a long day shopping we went home for a nap. I was very disheartened but James convinced me to try again and visit Coles later that night… also we didn’t have any food in the house and needed to find something for dinner but that’s beside the point!

Lo and behold I got exactly what I needed!
I bet you’re all about to burst from holding your breath about what I bought… TAADAAA!!

2 pink flannelet pillow cases and 1 cream scarf. Wait not what you expected? Well keep reading!

And it even came to $9.98 so I have 2 more cents to spend at Coles

Now let’s get to work… I took everything up to my sewing room and unpicked all of the seams in the pillow cases. Now I have 2 large pieces of pink fabric and 1 cream scarf.

I made up a pattern and cut up the pieces. I made sure to keep all of the scraps in case I need them later.
I gathered and sewed the skirt piece onto the cream belt and pink bodice, I overlocked each seam to make it cleaner and more hard wearing.

Then I found a piece of lace and finished the bottom seams. I gathered the top of the bodice to make a sweetheart neckline.

lt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373387288188375186″ border=”0″ />Next I added some darts to the bust area to it fit nice and snugly. After that I added two small straps to hold it up. These were made from the scraps of pillow case.

I have been in love with all of the 50′s inspired boat neck dresses Jesus Diamante have been coming out with lately so I made my own interpretation with the remaining pieces of the scarf…

I used the fringe ends of the scarf and a scrap of pillow case to make a little pin as an accessory…
And TAADAA! I turned $9.98 worth of pillow cases and scarf into a dress!

I bet you all want to see what it looks like on right? It sure isn’t “One Size Fits All” anymore!

Add some beautiful accessories and you’ve got a pretty Hime style summer dress!

I wore it to James’ family lunch yesterday and it was a big hit! I got many compliments even before they all knew what it was made from ^_^

We took all the chairs and tables outside in their garden to have a delicious feast! Very French and perfect for summer.
The garden was the perfect backdrop for some photos, everything was so green!

James keeps his classic 1963 Valiant Regal car at his parent’s house because there is no room for it in our place! I’ll post some proper photos of it another day because it’s really pretty, but the star of today’s post is my dress!

Before lunch was ready James and I played around in the garden and took some photos, there were lots of gross bugs everywhere! You can’t really tell in this photo but I’m standing on a stump which is very unstable! Don’t get the dress dirty it’s so expensive I might not be about to afford to replace it!!!

I decided that this was the perfect garden party dress! I have to say I’m very happy with how it turned out

Say hello to everyone guys!
This was desert and boy was it yummy!

And so that is the story of how I turned $10 at Coles into some pillow cases and a scarf and then into a cute dress ^_^

What do you think? Pretty close but with my own spin? For the record I know that brand replica’s are illegal and morally wrong, this is merely my own spin on the fashions that inspire me!

Nuffnang! Please give me the $100 voucher and fill up the rest of my wardrobe!

Creative right?

So what do you guys think?

P.s. Anyone who wants to nominate me for the Nuffnang blogger awards is full of win and awesome and I’ll love you forever!