Textilart, or...Sewing Elettra!

I eventually bought a mini stitcher, and fulfilled some awkward dreams of mine!

...I had this pattern very clear in my mind (note well the contradiction), and I tried it out! I learnt to use the machine on the field. I would not recommend it, anyway I'm quite happy with the result!

So, my first project was this funny regulable skirt, which has four buttons on each side to switch from a XS to a XL (and from a mini to a under-the-knee skirt). The long laces can be fasten in a quantity of manners: belt, bow, knot, and at the front, at the back...

The second project was a pair of drawstring pants: I just drew the layout I wanted on fabric (high waist), cut, and stitched the silhouettes together! ...100% free style! Maybe, if I took the time to change the thread, now I would be even more proud: white on purple is a little bit scary...

  

With the leftover and a fat quarter by finnish artist Päivi Eerola, I made the cover for a feather pillow. Then...oops....the fabric was finished! I up-cycled the zip from a old pair of pants and ...let's say, it has a weird aspect! I'm going to iron it, and see if it wants to stay put :D
I now wait for some silk fat quarters from India. I can't wait for them (...but I have to, at least two weeks!).

Of course I did (not) neglect my shop: I listed unfussy lavender bags, flower necklaces and hair pins in the textilart section.

Stay tuned!

Spring Necklace!

...Yesterday, eventually, the sun! I really hope it decides to join us today as well! 

This is a shy spring! The light comes and goes so often I think I'm suffering not for a seasonal, but for a daily disorder! I miss you, steady sun!

To appease the weather gods and goddesses, I created a bright green SPRING necklace :D
I'm not sure it can work as mystical offer, but at least it cheers me up a little!

Fashion Aphorism III. Resources for the Aesthete.

Third and last episode (yes, like in Star Wars). If you've lost my previous posts about fashion quotes, and maybe you're looking for fashion aphorisms by actual fashion designers, then go here and here. 

These ones come instead from great personalities of the Past: poets, moralists, politicians - and a king (SIC)! Some may seem out of the fashion contest, anyway are very helpful to define beauty.

Beautiful clothes are a sign of joy, Joseph Joubert.

Only great minds can afford a simple style, Stendhal.

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love, J. W. Goethe.

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things, Jean Cocteau.

Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself, Samuel Butler.

Where no one are beaux, 'tis vain to be a belle, George Lyttelton.

All changed, changed utterly: a terrible beauty is born, W. B.Yeats.

The novelties of one generation are only the resuscitated fashions of the generation before last, George Bernard Shaw.

Gold! gold! gold! gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold!, Thomas Hood.

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away, Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

The secret of fashion is to surprise and never to disappoint, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton.

The instability of our tastes is the occasion of the irregularity of our lives, Stanislaus Leszczynski.

Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear, Oscar Wilde.

Fashion Aphorism II. Resources for the Philosopher

Second Episode. The following quotes, by fashion designers as well, reveal how also some inspired cultural reflections may rest down there, at the very heart of fashion, maybe unrecognized.

Style is primarily a question of instinct, Bill Blass.

Fashion is more usually a gentle progression of revisited ideas, Bruce Oldfield.

Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles, Sonja Henie.

Fashion is one of the great living arts of civilisation, and self-decoration one of the fundamental human urges, Janey Ironside.

The essential element, which led me to fashion, is passion: almost a physical necessity of a direct relationship with the matter of my creativity, Gianfranco Ferrè.

I asked myself: why is it that only rich people can access exclusive fashion? Why can't a man or a woman off the street do so? I could change this rule. And I did it, Pierre Cardin.

About half my designs are controlled fantasy, fifteen percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs, Manolo Blahnik.

Fashion Aphorism Part I. Resources for the Fashionista

First Episode. An excerpt from a very small collection of fashion quotations I selected last year for my shop. These are mostly from Coco Chanel - how sassy was she?! - and a couple by Yves Saint Laurent and by Valentino. Other quotations will follow.

Fashion is like architecture. It is a matter of proportions, Coco Chanel.

Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury, Coco Chanel.

Fashion fades, only style remains the same, Coco Chanel.

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity, Coco Chanel.

I don't do fashion, I am fashion, Coco Chanel.

Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing?, Yves Saint Laurent.

Elegance is a balance of proportion, emotion, and surprise, Valentino.

White Pearl Bracelet Vs Italian Horn Charm Bracelet

Yesterday I listed on Etsy a simple and affordable pearl bracelet. I found of an improbabile beauty the pearls' color, which is the classic and classy peachy white, and so I tried to bring out that natural nuance just spacing them with silver rings. 

Pearl Bracelet by Elettrarossa on Etsy

Other than delightful, the pearls are also pretty huge, 8-10 mm diameter, so I refined the joints with silver ring rows: same shape, but smaller. That makes the bracelet easier to fasten, and even more fancy. To me, now it's a delicate cuff!

The Bracelet Section of my Shop on Etsy

To esagerate with details, I covered the last pearls with silver filigree caps, fixed with a drop of glue.

My Shop

Anyway, I couldn't stand this harmonious simplicity, and today I listed one of my crazy charm bracelets. Back to the only comfort zone I know: chaos!

Italian Horn Charm Bracelet by Elettrarossa on Etsy

Definitely bold, isn't it?! :D

Best Comment Ever to a Treasury on Etsy

At first I thought I had done something wrong...Then I read again, and realized: what a wonderful comment!!!

How to use Coupon Codes on Etsy.

Go to my shop and have fun!!!

The second sunday of May will be Mother's Day. Don't freak out, its a tricky celebration and it changes date from a country to another! On Etsy, we follow the US calendar, and this year Mother's Day happens to be May 13. As Italian, mother's day is quite important to me, so I issued the coupon code named MOTHERSDAY, offering a fair 15% off any purchase. But...

How does a coupon code work? 

Buy normally, for the actual prize. The item you choose appears in your cart.

On the left of the page there's the item description, on the right your balance.

On top of the balance, you can read: "apply shop coupon code".

Click that link, and a white field appears.

Write in there the coupon code name.

Click "apply".

The discount immediately appears in your balance, and that's how you're paying the % off.

Now you can continue your shopping, or proceed to check out.

Watch the Youtube How-to by Crazy for Collars

I hope this was useful! For any doubt, you may want to check this article on Etsy. 

PS. If you become addicted with coupon codes, there are dedicated websites like this or this.