What to Pack for Europe

This spring break, I will be going to going on a school trip to Europe for 10 days. We are going to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. Our trip includes bus tours, walking tours, and sightseeing and hopefully many other adventures. I'm super excited yet I don't know what to pack. After some searching on Pinterest and a little bit of weather watching, I finally decided what to bring. Packing for 10 days is really hard while trying to save space for souvenirs. After much thought, I dwindled my packing list down by combining basic clothing items with many outfits.

These are the basic things that I packed for the trip to match several outifts. 

These include: 

Dark skinny jeans

Black skinny jeans

Black cardigan

Black leggings

White tank top

White knit beanie

Tan knit beanie

Belt

2 infinity scarves

Although we are going to be doing a lot of watching, I did not bring tennis shoes. I brought black lace up boots, tall brown boots, and white Converse.

Day One: This is my travel outift for the airplane.
Dark blue sweater, light grey joggers, scarf, and white Converse.

Day Two: This is the extra outfit that I packed in my carry-on and changed into it at the airport after my long day of travel.
Dark skinny jeans, white and grey striped sweater, black lace up boots.

Day Three: This day includes a lot of sightseeing and walking around as well as traveling on a bus. Dark skinny jeans, bejeweled grey sweater, black lace up boots, infinity scarf, belt.

Day Four: This day included long bus rides across the Ireland countryside with getting off with for stops and sightseeing.
Grey and white striped sweater dress, black leggings, tall brown boots, black cardigan.

 

Day Five: This day we are taking a walking tour around Dublin so I decided to wear a comfortable outfit.
Denim button down, black skinny jeans, black lace up boots, belt, infinity scarf.

Day Six: On this day, we begin by taking a ferry ride across the Irish Sea. Once we make it to port, we will tour a Welsh castle and take a bus tour through Snowdonia National Park to Northern Wales.

Navy dress, white tank top, black leggings, tall brown boots, infinity scarf.

Day Seven: Day seven included lots of bus travel through the Lake District on to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dark skinny jeans, cream sweater, infinity scarf, belt, lace up boots.

Day Eight: This is my cute outfit for our first day in London. It is small and will fit perfectly in my backpack for our travel on the night train.
White and blue dress, black cardigan, black leggings, infinity scarf, tall brown boots.

Day Nine: I decided to wear another dress for our train ride and tour around Oxford.

Tribal print dress, black cardigan, black leggings, tall brown boots.

Day Ten: This is my outift to travel back home in; comfy and perfect for the long plane ride back home.
Sweatpants, grey knit sweater, white tank top.

DIY Tulle Skirt Tutorial

                              

                                      

As my friend and I were wondering though the mall, we came across the store Windsor. In the display window outside the store, the mannequins were wearing the cutest tulle skirts with crop tops and sweaters. Going into the store, my friend and I were super excited to find a multitude of colors. I really wanted a tulle skirt but I was confused as to where I would wear such a dramatic piece. My friend on the other hand, had been wanting one every since she saw The Carrie Diaries. After a debate, I decided that I could try and recreate one of these tulle skirts for her.

Carrie Diaries Inspiration:

Windsor Tulle Skirt



I looked up many tutorials on how to make tulle skirts and some used the circle skirt method while others just worked with gathers. I have had experience with gathering tulle from making tutus and knew it was a pain and a lot of tulle. On the other hand, I didn't know if a circle skirt would create the shape I wanted. In the end, I decided to combine both methods to create less hassle for myself with the tulle and still get the correct shape.


Supplies:
5-8 yards of tulle depending on how big you want your skirt to be (I used white shiny tulle to give the skirt a little pizazz)
1.5 yards of a fabric to go underneath, usually the same color as the tulle
Zipper
Sewing pins
Sewing machine
Cutting board or flat surface to cut on
2 poster board papers


1. Create a pattern for your circle skirt because you cannot draw very effectively on the tulle. Depending on how big your poster board is (I just bought some from Kmart) you may want to use one or two. I taped two together to make a big enough paper for the pattern of the skirt. Check out my tutorial here on how to make a circle skirt. When I was making the pattern, I first made a pattern piece that would fit my waist for the fabric underneath. When making a pattern for the tulle pieces, I made the waist bigger so I would have to gather it to fit my friend's waist.

2. Cut one piece of the fabric that is going to be underneath everything and 3-4 pieces of tulle.

3. Gather each piece of tulle individual to add more volume to your shirt.

4. Once all the tulle is gathered, stay-stitch all the fabric together so it's easier to manage.

5. Cut a rectangle of fabric to use as a band along the top. Double the width because it will be folded over. Iron the rectangle in half and iron down 1/2 inch seams down the edges. (I forgot to take a picture of this step so I borrowed a picture from my circle skirt tutorial).

6. Fold the rectangle over the top of the skirt and sew it together. 

7. Cut a slit in the fabric along the back and put the zipper in.

8. Hem the underneath fabric.

All done! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

                                    

Pictures taken by Caity Martin at the Nelson-Atkins Museum. 

    

Peplum Shirt from Big T-Shirt Tutorial

                             

This has been one of my favorite DIYs so far. When I first came to my high school, I didn't have any spirit wear so I went to the spirit shop and found shirts on sale for $5. The shirts wear all size large and extra-large though, but I bought hem anyway. For the past four years of my time in high school, the shirts have been crumpled on the floor of my closet until I finally found something to do with them. I saw a tutorial for a peplum shirt from a large plaid shirt and decided to copy it for a large t-shirt.

Supplies:

Large t-shirt

Scissors

Measuring tape

Cutting board or flat surface to cut on

Sewing machine

Sewing pins

This is the shirt I started with: 

1. The first thing I did was put the shirt on and measure from the neckline to where I want the peplum to be.

Then place the shirt down and mark a line where you are going to cu the shirt for the peplum.

2. Cut off the sleeves and at the line for the peplum.

3. Take the bottom part and stitch it with a long stitch so you can gather it. 

4. Pin the gathered part to the top of the shirt right sides together.

5. Now the shirt is together but cutting the sleeves off may have left you with these awkward bulges. To fix this I simply put a small dart in at the bulge.

Dart:

6. Lastly, I cut a lower neckline. This is totally a personal choice because the peplum shirt could be left with the normal t-shirt neckline.

Hope you enjoyed this DIY as much as I did. It's a simple and stylish way to spice up old t-shirts and find a way to re-wear them.

Thrift Store Refashion: Skater Skirt

                                         

My friend and I were thrift shopping when we found this really fun printed skirt. Unfortunately, it was really long and old fashioned. My friend loved the fabric so much that I told her to get it and I could make it into a cute short skirt. It's the perfect skirt for springtime, if only the weathermen would quit predicting snow.

The original skirt: 

I laid the skirt out and noticed that it wasn't a straight skirt. The easiest way to make this into a short skirt would be to just cut the skirt at the length I wanted and re-hem it, but I wanted the skirt to flare more so I decided to cut from the bottom.

Taking a yard stick, I measured up 20 inches from the hem (I added a couple inches to the length I wanted to leave room for the elastic). I took my yard stick along the bottom hem as I was cutting to cut straight with the curve of the skirt.

This is what I will make the skirt out of.

Lastly, I pinned and sewed a slit for the elastic then fed the elastic through.

Enjoy!

Thrift Store Refashion: Bustier Top

                             

You may remember this top from the top of the dress I thrifted and turned into a skirt. My friend was looking through my blog and saw the original dress and asked if I still had the top to the dress. She said she really liked it and gave my the idea to turn it into a bustier type top. So after a little creativity and brainstorming, I ended with this wonderful summer top.

This is the original top of the dress:

                     

The first thing I did was take off the frills. I thought that they were childish and distracting on the top.

                                

Next, since I took the midsection for my skirt, the top was left a little short. I went to the fabric store and found this beautiful cotton print with pink figures in it. The fabric was in the quilting section so I bought a fat quarter.

I measured along the bottom of the top to get the length of my fabric. I made if about 6 inches wide because I am going to fold it in half. I cut 2 rectangles.

I pinned and sewed one side of the rectangles together. The other side was left open for the zipper.

I ironed the strip of fabric in half.

Then I pinned the fabric to the bottom of the top and sewed.

Lastly, I put in a zipper. I choose a hot pink zipper to match the pink figures in the print.

Hope you enjoyed this thrift store refashion and happy DIYing!

DIY Bow Earwarmer

                 

                 

                  

Well its just snowed here in Missouri over this wonderful President's Day weekend, and I thought why not do another warm DIY. I remembered that I had seen these knitted bow ear warmers at a craft fair in the fall but I have no idea how to knit so I decided to try it with a sweater. This was the thrift store sweater I had left over from my boot cuffs DIY.

Supplies:

Sweater or warm/stretchy fabric

Sewing Pins

Cutting board or hard surface to cut on

Scissors

Measuring Tape

Sewing Machine

1. The first thing you are going to want to do is to measure around your head. My head was 22 inches. Lay out the fabric or sweater you will be using.

2.  Next, you are going to cut out a rectangle. I made the length of my rectangle 20 inches because the fabric of the sweater was really stretchy. The width is up to you. I made mine about 4 inches wide to cover my ears plus a little more. Note: I cut on the fold of the sweater so I divided my length in half.

Here's what the rectangle looked like unfolded:

3. Pin the right sides together and sew leaving the ends open.

4. Now time for the bow. I cut a two smaller rectangles out of the sweater, both about 4x7. I also cut a strip of fabric that is going to be the middle of the bow. Hemming the strip is optional, it is totally up to you and what kind of fabric you are using. I didn't hem the strip because I didn't want the bulkiness but I did apply Fray Check along the edges to prevent it from fraying.

5. Take the two rectangles and pin them together, leaving an opening in the middle top. Sew. Note: The opening is at the middle top so that we can flip the bow right sides out and then cover the opening with the strip that goes in the middle of the bow.

6. Take the ear warmer and stuff one open end into the other about 1/2 inch. Pin and sew.

Here are the ear warmer and bow ready to be connected:

7. Place the bow on top of the ear warmer, covering the seam. slightly scrunch them together with your fingers. Take the strip of fabric and wrap it around the bow and ear warmer once. Pin in the back and sew, then cut the extra length of the strip.

Hope everyone enjoyed this DIY and are having a wonderful winter. Stay warm!