Get in touch

Vivat Veritas

Custom Wedding Dress & Kimono Upcycled Clothes | オーダーメイドウェディングドレス&着物ドレス

/ Archives for Chie

Chie

Beijing Trip

By

From left top: 1. Street of Beijing, 2. Hotel room, 3. Electric bicycle I saw all over the city, which goes up to 30km/hour! 4. Tricycle 5.&6. Restaurant I ate at

Quick post to show you some pictures of Beijing. Sorry I don’t have a whole lot of interesting pictures. I didn’t take my camera for fear of loosing it so I only had my iPhone. Also I was there on business so I really didn’t have much time to hang around the city.

China never ranked high on my travel dream list in the past. This is mostly because my sister did not like it there (Beijing). Hearing her talk about the city, it made me not want to go. To my surprise, I really like the city and told Andy that we have to go back there for vacation! I’m not sure what the other parts of the city are like, but at least in the central part of Beijing, it made me feel like I was in NYC. I was quite surprised. Things were cheap, and people were nice. Sadly, the only recreational activity I did during this trip was to get a massage. The massage places are open 24/7, and cost less than 10 bucks, I had a nice hour long massage:)

Me Made May ’12 Week 1

By

So for the first time, I’m participating in the Me Made May ’12 challenge! I was hesitant at first, but why not, I like to reflect upon what I’ve made in the past and take that to improve my wardrobe to be more practical. My goal is to wear something I made at least 3 days a week for the month of May. I would like to wear some of the thrifted and vintage items I’ve acquired over the years, plus, taking outfit photos more than 3 days a week is probably too much for me to pull off but I’ll give it a tr. Here you go!

Day 1 (5/1)

Knit top: made by me, Dress: second hand Abcrombie, Shoes: bought in Japan, Bag: Forley + Corrina
I made this top about a year ago using the cotton knit fabric I bought in Nippori. It was super easy to make, since the sleeves are dolman sleeves and I did not have to set in the sleeves. Literally it was  a 30 min project. It turned out the top is quite versatile too. It’s funny, I end up wearing a top like this much more often than dresses that I spend a couple of hours to make.
The dress was from some blog flea market, this girl was selling her old Abcrombie dress for $10, so I bought it. The thing I like about this dress is that it does not scream “I’m wearing Abcrombie and Fitch!”. I don’t really go to that store because I don’t feel welcomed unless I’m a Vally girl – also the strong smell of perfume when you step into the shop overwhelms me.
Anyway, I ended up wearing this outfit on a Spring rainy day to work, run errands and rest of the other stuff I do daily.
Oh, do you like my polk-a-dot nails? I love them! I did it using Sally Hanson’s polk-a-dot nail stickers.
 
Day 2 (5/2)
Dress: made by me, Cardigan: thrifted for 200 yen
It rained all day today. I needed to be comfortable. So I picked this dress I made about two years ago yet still love. Andy is not a big fan of this dress, he said the floral pattern is too much. I wore this dress a lot while I was pregnant, it is so comfortable as you can see!
 
Day 3 (5/4)
Skirt: made by me, Top: forever 21, Cardigan: H&M, Bracelets: bunch of friendship bracelets made by me, Shoes: Bought in Korea last summer, Bag: Foley + Corrina
This skirt is one of my favorite right now. It’s so trendy, and I guess I like anything that’s  trendy..I’m so vain. The top is from forever 21, which I bought on sale for $7 a while ago. I’m certainly getting my moneys worth, since this is so versatile. It’s white, it’s long, and loose. I wear this at least once a week and I’m sure you’ll see it again in upcoming MMM’12 post…

Three New Sewing Books

By

Andy’s grandmother surprised me with these three new sewing books for my birthday. She spent more money on shipping than the cost of the books themselves, sending them all the way from the U.S.  I’m so thrilled to have finally gotten these books that had been on my wish list for a while!

The Colette Sewing Handbook by Sarai Mitnick

First off, The Colette book! Who doesn’t know about this book in the home sewing world? If you don’t you have to check out the Colette blog, which is full of tutorials and inspirations. This book is full of pretty pictures and illustrations, and I think it’s great for beginners. It comes with a couple of patterns, and I’m excited to get my hands busy working on them. These patterns seem perfect for the upcoming warm seasons.

Next up is Make Your Own Dress Patterns by Adele P. Margolis. If you are interested in drafting your own patterns, this is a great reference book. Even if you are not particularly interested in pattern making, knowing about pattern drafting basics will transform your sewing experience! This is kind of like a text book for me, where I sit down with highlighter and make notes like the good old college days. I’ve read one amazon review that said “the illustration of the book is old”, but I love the retro feel of the illustrations! There are no pictures, but plenty of vintage-ish illustrations through out the book.

The last one of the 3 is Design-It-Yourself Clothes Patternmaking Simplified by Cal Patch. This is last on my reading list just because the book seems very basic and the contents might overlap with the Colette book and BurdaStyle book. The book includes a section on sewing pants, so that’s a plus!

Besides these sewing books, I recently finished the last Steig Larsson book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. I was relieved to finish it. It was long. Right now I’m reading The Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It is a rather sad book, but I’m really enjoying learning about the lives of women in Afganistan.

What are in your reading list? Any recommendation for both sewing and non-sewing books?