Sequin Applique Varsity Jacket

I love varsity jackets! I have been scouring various vintage stores and online outlets for several months for the perfect varsity jacket. One that was in my price range, (high shipping fees have put me off a number of times, obvs) one that doesn't cross the line between oversized and just plain massive (a thin line for someone below average height) and one that didn't have too much print on it to cover up. (I've seen everything from swimming pools to funeral directors advertised on the back) Not asking for much, then. While I am still on the search for THE perfect jacket, I purchased this one in the meantime:

I got this in Oxford Street's Primark a couple of months ago. It vaguely reminded me of a jacket I'd seen lusting after collections on the Saint Laurent website, which I think is what initially lured me in. I purchased it for £10 knowing they didn't stock it in my local Primark, so I at least wouldn't see anyone nearby with it. It looked kind of average which always bothered me, and I always sort of had intentions of personalising it. Little did I know that within a few weeks I'd see a rail of these jackets while I was working, and then see loads of other people wearing them. Seeing other people wearing something you have always gives you that sinking feeling, doesn't it? I thought I'd better get a move on customising it.
I did originally plan to make a classic felt varsity patch in black and white to match the stripes, but then thought about making it a little different. Sequins are obviously my go-to embellishment, and I'd been interested in trying sequin applique for a while.

INSPO: Ashish
I am a huuuuge fan of using sequins in casualwear / everyday wear and Ashish do this perfectly. FW14 features heavily sequinned sweatshirts and denim and even some varisty letters.

I started off with a template which I then transferred onto black felt. Overall I think the sequinning took me about eight hours, with fairly regular gaps to play the Kim K game, obviously. I then sewed it onto the white felt to make it stand out a bit more and applied it to the jacket. I am super happy I went with the green sequins in the end, the colour changes in the light which admittedly makes them look so cool

Materials used:

• Black felt - 30p
• White felt - 30p
• Black strung sequins - 30p per metre
• Iridescent strung sequins - 29p per metre

(Ashish FW14 images - Style.com)

July Favourites

The weather is hot and the summer holidays have officially begun. Not much has happened in July and pretty much everything I'm looking forward to is this month (i.e seeing Drowners again and Reading Festival, which means seeing Drowners again.) Here are some things I have been #digging in the thirty one days of the seventh month of 2014:

Kim Kardashian: Hollywood
I must admit I was never really bothered about Kim Kardashian or any of the other Kardashians. I, among many others, was bewildered about the world's obsession with them, and my interest in watching any of their shows has been fairly minimal. But I, among many others once more, was sucked into a virtual world at the promise of fame and fortune, albeit virtual. I am of course talking about Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, or "The Kim K Game." This free game hit the app store in early July and I have been hooked ever since. It was initially one of those games I download for a laugh, with the intention of playing it for a couple of hours, draining my battery, and consequently deleting it. But once Kim had started being so nice to me, I couldn't bring myself to delete it. I have been spending a somewhat ridiculous amount of time on photoshoots, endorsements, and running from place to place tapping everything from fire hydrants to birds to gather extra energy for more stars. My character doesn't look like me, she wears all black with an Anna Wintour haircut. Her boyfriend wears all black too, but every time they go on a date he just insults her outfit choices. Maybe it's time to ditch him for an A Lister to match her A List #1 status. Or maybe it's time for me to check into Kim K Game Rehab.

The Commonwealth Games
I'm sure anyone that knew me in 2012 will tell you I was absolutely obsessed with the Olympic and Paralympic games. At first I was dreading them thanks to all the hype surrounding them, then I had an epiphany and fell in love. (I visited the Olympic park, went to see some Paralympic rowing and ending up purchasing everything from the DVDs of the Games to Olympic mugs) I love it when sporting events are in the same time zone as me so naturally I wanted to watch as much of The Commonwealth Games as I possibly could. As someone who can barely run for a bus, I am in awe of all these amazing athletes and I love how patriotic everyone/everything is! Just look at my (not very neatly done) nails

The IT Crowd
In July, I watched The IT Crowd. A lot. I should probably go here to learn how to introduce colour into my wardrobe, what with the hot weather and all:

Alvvays
Toronto's Alvvays (pronounced Always, but I can't seem to stop saying it like Alvays) make dreamy music on par with Best Coast and Cults' debuts. Their album dropped this month, and after hearing Archie, Marry Me I had a strong feeling it would be very good. Ding ding! I was correct. Possibly one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

Yuck
Back in the days of NME TV, when I was 13, I decided I didn't like Yuck. I based this very strong opinion on hearing like, 30 seconds of Get Away. A year or so later I saw the light and looking back I was super stupid and missed out on seeing Yuck before their lineup change which SUCKS. But over the last couple of months I have become obsessed with their 2011 debut, and July was no exception. 

Denim Idols #tbh

My Jams this month:
Hebronix - Viral
Parquet Courts - Dear Ramona
Alvvays - Archie, Marry Me
Estelle - American Boy (ft. Kanye West)
Blessa - Unfurl

Sewing + Slow Club (SEW CLUB?)

Summer has officially begun, and now that Wimbledon is over I am finding myself with little to do. Haha, kidding. I just got a new sewing machine! I am notoriously fussy when it comes to sewing machines, with a preference of Janome machines and top loading bobbins. I intend to spend my whole summer sewing (besides that hour I take out to watch Four Weddings) and my goal is to love sewing by September. Maybe that's a bit ambitious. I don't think I will ever love sewing. But I'd at least like to improve my sewing.

A stream of Slow Club's eagerly anticipated third album also dropped this week. Titled "Complete Surrender" (BY THE WAY a great title I like it a lot) it was set to be a great follow up to 2011's Paradise. And it was!
A few months ago Slow Club revealed the first snippet of their new material, album opener Tears Of Joy. It's a very typical Slow Club track, with hints of both Yeah, So and Paradise woven through it. The second track released, title track Complete Surrender, is where things really got exciting. It feels like a natural progression from the bold and atmospheric sounds of Paradise, with a groovy twist. I read a review somewhere that stated it sounds like a Bond theme, and that's the perfect way to describe it. Perhaps my favourite Slow Club track alongside Beginners, Two Cousins and If We're Still Alive.
That groove is a continuous theme throughout the entire album. It all feels floaty and flamboyant, big and bold. Everything Is New sounds like a bombastic finale, but is in fact only the second track. Suffering You, Suffering Me is deceiving - it starts off with some very ballad-y vibes, but ends as a funky, upbeat track. Like, one of those songs people dance down the street to in TV adverts.
All in all, I'd say this is Slow Club's best album, and they seem to get better with each one. Complete Surrender is one of my favourite albums of 2014 so far, and already my favourite album title.
Favourites: Complete Surrender, The Pieces, Everything Is New, Not Mine To Love, Tears Of Joy, The Queen's Nose

SUMMER MEGAMIX

Making "summery" playlists when most of what you listen to could be described as "summery" is both a blessing and a curse. Sure, you have loads to choose from, but perhaps too much. I found it impossible to narrow this down to a reasonable length (I aimed for 20 tracks) so here it is as a "summer megamix." A whole 2 hours and 46 minutes of groovy summery goodness, arranged in a somewhat flowing order. 

Tracks:

1. Girls - Morning Light
2. Splashh - All I Wanna Do
3. Palma Violets - Best Of Friends
4. Cults - I Can Hardly Make You Mine
5. Coves - Wake Up
6. Arctic Monkeys - The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala
7. DIIV - Wait
8. Yuck - Middle Sea
9. Coves - Fall Out Of Love
10. SKATERS - I Wanna Dance (But I Don't Know How)
11. Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold II
12. Drowners - Long Hair
13. Dom - Bowl Cut (ft. Madeline Follin of Cults)
14. Bully - Brainfreeze
15. Bleeding Knees Club - Teenage Girls
16. FIDLAR - No Waves
17. Wavves - Nodding Off (ft. Best Coast)
18. Yuck - Holing Out
19. Splashh - Need It
20. Twin Peaks - Stand In The Sand
21. Girls - Summertime
22. Melody's Echo Chamber - I Follow You
23. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - So Good At Being In Trouble
24. Tame Impala - Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
25. JAWS - Gold
26. Slow Club - If We're Still Alive
27. FEMME - Fever Boy
28. Blood Orange - You're Not Good Enough
29. Solange - Losing You
30. Peace - Bloodshake
31. Dom - Living In America
32. Spector - Celestine
33. Girls - Hellhole Ratrace
34. Cajun Dance Party - Colourful Life
35. The Drums - Forever And Ever Amen
36. Foals - My Number
37. Metronomy - The Bay
38. Best Coast - Boyfriend
39. Sky Ferreira - Everything Is Embarrassing
40. Cults - Go Outside
41. The Horrors - Still Life
42. Temples - Colours To Life
43. Best Coast - The Only Place
44. Icona Pop - I Love It (ft. Charli XCX)
45. Ultraista - Bad Insect
46. Yuck - Shook Down

Listen on 8tracks

My first year of college is almost over! It's been a year of complaining and rushing the day before deadlines (embroidery at 1am, anyone?) but overall I can safely say I think I've overcome my somewhat irrational fear of sewing machines. Remember that episode of That's So Raven where Raven needs to return a top but rips it and has to quickly repair it and sews herself to the machine? I'm pretty sure watching that episode incessantly is what started it. I still don't really like sewing, and I probably never will. 
For my final major project I looked at contemporary architecture, in particularly skyscrapers. 30 St Mary Axe (also known as The Gherkin) in London and Germany's Westhafen Tower really caught my eye, and I created my piece based on the geometric shapes, as well as window tints and reflection. For once I'm pretty happy with how it looks!! Me being me went for a fabric that looked amazing but was impractical to say the least (You can't iron it, wash it or apply too much pressure. Oh well) and trust me if sequinned fabric didn't break the bank sequins would have been much more involved than they were:

Initial Design

Final Design

Final Garment!! (You know every project I'm like "wow I am not doing any beading again" and what do I end up doing on the next project? BEADING)

Record Store Day 2014

After havin' a blast at Record Store Day 2013, (a day that included some real nice weather and some nice finds) I was pretty eager for Record Store Day 2014. So eager that I booked the day off work 4 months in advance. I didn't even book my birthday off, to put that into perspective. ANYWAY here are some photos I took and some tales of the day:

HUGE QUEUE! Much longer than the same time last year

Bit of shoe admiration to kill some time (on a side note I'm really not a fan of the super long laces on Converse)

ROUGH TRADE IS IN SIGHT (within 20 seconds of taking this I fell over)

I KNOW WE'VE COME SO FAR BUT WE'VE GOT SO FAR TO GO*

Toy!! Soundchecking Left Myself Behind which is one of my favourites

Photobooth #banter

Compulsory Pizza Hut Meal. We were at the same table we sat at after we saw Drowners which made us a bit #EMOTIONAL

I had no idea this was on Berwick Street that's pretty cool

Despite walking around clutching Parquet Courts' Sunbathing Animal for like an hour I ended up not buying it. Instead I got a non RSD release, "Y.O.U / I Come Undone" by Violet. I'd never heard it but for £2 can you really go wrong? Reaaaally? Not really. It was quite good actually.

BRING ON RSD 2015 WOOOOOOP

*I'm sorry for the inevitable Hairspray reference. But then again, I'm not really.

Addressing the real questions, obviously. I had just caught up with two month's worth of unread magazines (disgraceful, I know) and after seeing a Vogue editorial full of sequins and in particular the Saint Laurent piece with the red sequinned lips it occurred to me that no form of embellishment interests me more than sequins.