Halloween Costume: Chell from Portal

Last Halloween my friend and I decided to both dress up as Chell from the video game Portal together (neither of us wanted to do it alone since not a lot of people at school would've gotten it, sadly) and I decided to reuse the costume again this year. It's actually a pretty simple costume to put together, assuming you're not aiming to be super accurate and going for the jumpsuit look. I didn't actually wear the shirt tucked in and I layered the tank with a blue sports bra underneath to match the look a little better (not shown in the pictures).

Inspiration photo of Chell (here for larger image)

The pieces making up the costume: orange high-waisted pants from Papaya, boots from Cathy Jean, and a white tank from Forever 21. The tank was actually pretty hard to find since most stores either have ribbed tank tops or thin strapped camisoles--when my friend and I went shopping we unfortunately only found one, so she ended up with a ribbed tank since the one we found was my size. We used iron on decals from Joann's and found the Aperature Laboratories logo online and printed it out. For fun, we added a little Portal logo onto the back as well. I haven't washed the shirt too many times, but it seems to be lasting pretty well without cracking. We went for the iron-ons with the white backgrounds since they supposedly last longer (and are slightly more expensive).

Reference photo (found here) and final product

The finishing touch was the signature companion cube (portal guns are too expensive--and difficult to carry around). I spent the night before Halloween making two out of felt and stuffing, one for me, one to surprise my friend with. I wish I had progress shots from making it, but that was more than a year ago, so I only have the final product with me (one's sitting in my dorm, the other in my friend's dorm room hours away). It was actually sort of tough to make, sewing around all of those small shapes. Some of the pieces aren't even entirely sewn down, but you can't tell from a distance. I really like the way it came out in the end, and everyone who's recognized my costumes seems to have really appreciated it--I still remember random people stopping me in the hallways last year to compliment me on my costume, even though I had to keep explaining over and over again who I was to people who had no idea who I was. The moments when people recognize the Aperature logo and understand my costume definitely make it worth it though. Who needs sexy corn costumes anyway?

Arm Knit Fall Scarf

I made this scarf at the end of last school year, but since it was nearing summer I wasn't able to wear it too much. I saw a pin on Pinterest to this awesome arm knitting tutorial from Simply Maggie and fell in love with scarf. After watching her video tutorial a few times, the technique for it was surprisingly easy to learn and it took me just about half an hour like she said!

Close-up detail shot of the yarn from Joann's website

 I couldn't help but go off to find a very similar color of yarn at Joann's (they always have such great coupons-I never shop there without one). The color I got I believe was the Lion Brand Thick and Quick Yarn in Oatmeal which is a nice neutral color with strands of black and brown in it (it almost looks like rope from a distance as a friend once commented). The yarn is super warm and comfy to wear and I love it for cold days. I bought two skeins of yarn as suggested by the tutorial to double up on the strands and had enough yarn to make two scarves, although one I accidentally made larger than the other. 

Here's the video for the tutorial by Simply Maggie!

DIY Weaved Back Racerback from a T-Shirt

Here's a t-shirt no-sew upcycle inspired by this post from Trash to Couture on her spiderweb racerback shirt. I made it from a too large t-shirt that I had, weaving it about three times through and then cutting it into a tank. There's a helpful video also from Laura from Trash to Couture that shows how to do the weaving technique. (No before picture unfortunately, and all the pictures are low quality due to iPad 2 camera quality.)

Cut, stretched, stretched over a pillow.

I got the idea from the Trash to Couture video to stick a pillow in the shirt to hold it taut and make it easier when you're weaving. After a couple of rows though, the shirt tightens and it gets a little harder to weave over the pillow.

One row, two row, three rows

The finishing touch was to cut the back open and the sleeves off to complete the racerback look. I cut the collar of the shirt off before I started weaving it. Around this time is also when I tried the shirt on a few times to make sure things were even and the shape I wanted.

Complete (sweet tan lines, I know)

Inspiration Board

Image credits go to Forever 21, The Pineneedle Collective, and Trash to Couture

In short, this is simply a collection of images and screenshots taken from the internet (I do not claim any of them to be my own), primarily Forever 21's website and from the blogs Trash to Couture and The Pineneedle Collective, that have caught my attention and/or inspired me to sew or create something. In general it's just clothes that I like, would like to have, or would like to make.

I love interesting backs on shirts and dresses, cool cutouts, and refashioning. I've been wanting to make some kind of a pinafore or remake some overalls, but unfortunately I won't be having much time to do that for quite a while. I think for my summer as a whole though, I was actually able to put many of these ideas into action with all the sewing I did.

Grey and Purple Glitter Nails

My most recent nails that I painted yesterday. Its a pretty simple look using Sephora by OPI's Break a Leg Warmer and Tokidoki's Stellina. 

The glitter is pretty opaque even without any sort of base color, although the finish isn't as shiny as one would expect. It definitely needs a top coat to give a shiny, glittery finish.