Teeth Pulling Duds

I hope there are no squeamish readers ... So finally today was the big day - the two fractured teeth got pulled.  I was a little nervous because the last time I had teeth pulled it was all the wisdom teeth at the same time.  There were about 3 sets of hands in my mouth and they had to cut into the gums more than normal since the roots were fish-hook shaped.

Today was a little better, lots of needles but a fairly straight-forward, albeit time-consuming, jiggle-jiggle and pull.  Then they put in one post, some graft material and stitched it up.  The other implant will have to wait 4 months while my body makes some more bone to support the post.  I won't get the actual teeth until probably 6 months or so down the road. 

Needless to say, today's outfit was strictly comfort based.  Jeans and a shirt - no worries about stuff dripping onto my clothes.

Grimace - Not a Happy Camper

The shirt is a basic button up from Jacob, but I like it for the little flowers:

I keep thinking this shirt should have flower buttons and might just change them one day.

Blue, Peach and a Tapestry Bag

Today was a jeans day again since it was council meeting day.  I am liking jeans less and less since starting blogging - what looks good in the morning just does not look good in a photo - or it might be that I just haven't found the right style for my shape. Or my shape is just not the right style for jeans!

This combination of blue and peach is not a normal one for me.  Not sure if the scarf ties it all together or not.

But, today's post is really about this nice bag that I found.  Actually Big J found it - he knew I was looking for a bag like this, and brought it to my attention.

It is a big overnighter bag in a blue tapesty print.  It was only $4 in an animal hospital store.  I assume other than overhead, all the profit goes to the animals since there were about 4 or 5 people with "volunteer" name tags.

Here is a closeup of the bag:

The other thing I'm trying out is the watermark - I am always afraid of someone using my pics as an example of what not to wear!  What d'ya think?  Overkill?  Should I transparentize it a bit more? Does it get in the way?  I thought of putting it in a corner, but thought it could be cropped.

Today, I'm linking to Visible Monday, Monday Mingle and Thrifter's Anonymous

Jeans Day

It was Jeans Day today, so out came the denim.  My first thought was to wear my staple Refashioned Jean Vest which I generally haul out whenever it is Jeans Day.  Instead I wore a different vest and a long midi-skirt.  It looked like this:

The skirt is really comfortable, it has pockets, a bit of stretch and I like the dark wash.  The green sweater was originally to go with a green skirt, but I wanted to wear knee-socks instead of tights so switched the skirt out at the last minute for something longer.

The vest has a cute lining on the underside of the collar:

This look is slightly outside of my comfort zone because of all the different solid colours: dark blue, green, denim blue, the beigey scarf and brown boots. I am usually a more matchy-matchy person, but I think it looks okay.

Utilitarian

Having a big bandage round my knee today, I thought it would be best to wear jeans.  And then I got to thinking about possibly tripping and falling down again - I'm a bit of a worrywart, so I dressed in what I call "ropa de guerra" or war clothes.

So today's outfit is very utilitarian: shirt, jacket and jeans.

I should've gone for even wider leg jeans as the fabric kept catching on the bandage causing it to scrape against the wound.

I wore my Spanish shortie boots again for sure-footedness, and actually walked quite slowly today with an eye on the ground.  Of course, nothing happened.

There was a huge crowd downtown though for the 4:20 event; I saw a lot more security people standing around. You could actually see a cloud of smoke from my office building.  Our office celebrated a baby and we had ice-cream instead.  Yum.

Jean Vest Refashion

I had a denim vest which I didn't really like for some reason.  It had points in front and seemed a bit frumpy. I ended up just putting 2 strips of lace down the front.  It's a bit hard to see in the pictures, but by fluke the colours in the lace just happen to match the stitching.

It's not really trendy, modern or anything but I think it looks okay and I actually wear it in the summer when I want a bit of coverage without the weight/sleeves of a jacket.

Today was jeans day at work for the United Way.  Our campaign goes for two weeks and they have special events each day to raise awareness.  So I wore this vest with a big scarf because it was cold.

Jean Bag Refashion

My first foray into re-fashion began a long long time ago in grade 5.  I remember cutting up a perfectly good pair of Wrangler jeans to make a jean purse.  The bag's opening was too small and there was no closure at the top.  I think I used it to lug library books.

Fast forward more than several years to the digital age and while surfing the web, I came across a jean purse contest.  I wish I could post the link, but I've changed computers since then and have lost the link.  Some of the bags were so creative, it re-kindled the spark in me and I began to research the jean purse idea.  I hemmed and hawed for years scouring magazines and web sites for ideas.  I collected trims and bits of cloth while procrastinating, hesitant to begin due to a lack of sewing skills.

Finally, a favourite pair of jeans became too ripped and torn to wear.  I took the plunge, lopping off the legs and zipped the crotch area closed.  I remember reading that the bag would be better lined so I chose a sturdy black denim from some cut-offs as the liner.

I fashioned the straps by braiding the cut-off pant legs, 

but had to undo part of the lining in order to attach it without showing.

I added all the embellishments I could find, using the original bags from the jean purse project as my inspiration. Finally I added the zipper and this is the final result.

The front:

The back:

and the innards:

I've only used it maybe 3 times because it's so "crafty" looking.

Project Post-mortem

I think if I were to do this project again, I would:

• stitch down and then inside-out the straps so they don't fray so much
• maybe braid a leather lace into the strap
• use a hot pink or orange liner to make it easier to see the purse contents
• also, I would use a non-stretchy jean so it doesn't turn out so floppy

Still, for not being a sewer and having only taken a grade 8 sewing class, I think it turned out nicely.  While I don't use it as much as I'd like, it does make me feel creative and artsy.