Last month I watched the HBO documentary “Very Ralph.” If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It was so nostalgic for me. I also want to recommend for your sewing library Ralph Lauren: Revised and expanded Anniversary Edition. I got mine from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0847861112/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_i_6W3-DbHQQ9NY6 

In the 1980’s I was in high school and loved fashion. I love learning the history of fashion designers and loved to try to recreate the looks of these iconic people. Back then, I always had a part-time job, with the sole purpose of going to our local “Piece Goods” store to buy fabric. Watching this documentary, I was reminded of all the times I would be inspired by a Ralph Lauren ad in a magazine. This is where my pattern hacking skills began. Today I seldom sew a pattern in it’s original suggested view. For these looks, I was a pattern tester for the @PatternScout “Byrdie Button Up blouse #byrdiebuttonup. I decided to make both views so two blouses. View A I hacked the look slightly by adding a double ruffle down each side of the placket.

View B, with it’s tuxedo looking pin tucks, I added a one inch ruffle to the top the the Nehru collar.

I made a tiered midi length velvet skirt out of vintage velvet I got at an estate sale I went to 3 weeks ago.

 

Everything else I’m wearing in each look is thrifted with one exception, My large leather concho belt. I purchased it over 12 years ago in a Ralph Lauren store in Las Vegas.

My secret weapon with my creating and blogging is in photographing each look. My husband David, my #instahusband is often my photographer but the another added bonus is he is a maker himself an avid wood worker of @prowellbuilt. David built my back drop from reclaimed wood he found for free advertised on “Let go” (literally left in a random alley here in the valley.) Yes thrift Gods! Yes! We believe!!