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Sapphire Glass Gems for DIY Earrings or Pendants

This sapphire blue, two-stone glass jewel combination is turning out to be a customer favorite! These are sheer rhinestones (glass stones) – with no foil backs. The color is rich enough to shine even without the foil backing – as you can see here:





They are slightly different shades. Note too that the lighter sapphire octagons are handset into silver plated brass settings with closed backs – so the silver shows through and helps to actually lighten the color a bit. If we used patina brass settings, the octagons would appear to be much darker.

Really what I want to show here, is two different shapes, and how wonderfully they combine. And how much fun it is to try different prong settings! You’ll adopt the idea to your own particular style. That’s the fun of DIY jewelry!

P.S. Well, and also that you can save money when you design and make your own jewelry. Now that is *really* fun!

Upcycled Fashion

Today I wanted to talk about upcycled fashion – with the emphasis on “fashion”. Also on style, and affordability, and great, unique design.

Case in point:

Upcycled One of a Kind Sleeveless Dress from Great Fabrications SRQ on Etsy

Now this is a great dress. It’s one of a kind – you’re not going to see it on everybody else wearing stuff from the Mall. It looks really comfortable without being all fussy. It’s feminine without being, well, all fussy and cutesy. It’s washable (stop laughing; that’s major important!)

And it’s upcycled – made of fabrics and garments that were discards or rejects or out of style or who knows what – it’s a wholly new dress. And it’s got great style – with the right accessories, a woman from 20 to 50 could wear this dress. Or from 15 to 60. It looks *good* 🙂

This is just what clothing ought to be. A little bit fun and original. Washable. Affordable (try buying handmade garments for less!) Upcycled. And, it looks great.

Lisa at Great Fabrications SRF started her shop focusing on bags (they’re great) – and now is showing us garments as well. This is a trend we want to encourage 🙂

P.S. Lisa has a lovely vintage shop as well – Jay Bird’s Vintage – with some totally yummy items for your home. There’s an aqua pyrex which is totally calling my name….. it may be gone by the time you get there 🙂

Michelle Obama, Jason Wu, and Vintage Design

Of course I watched (some of) the inaugural fuss yesterday – I have issues with every politician, but I still think the Obamas are better than the alternative last November – and I am very fond of Michelle Obama.

And like a lot of women, I love to see what she chooses to wear!

It’s not (just) shallow of us to watch her wardrobe. Her style choices influence retail fashion and that means business and sales and commerce – and we need commerce! But it’s also fun to watch. I loved her Jason Wu gown:

Michelle Obama in Jason Wu dress
Michelle Obama and Date

But what I specially like is that she doesn’t always wear Designer Couture. Sometimes she wears Gap or, in this instance, Target:

Michelle Obama in dress from Target

Love it! That she’s wearing Target, I mean – I also think it’s a cool dress.

Now if we could just get her to show off / promote / wear some American vintage…. that would be beyond fabulous!