What We Wear Wednesday: Feels like fall

This is what I wore to attend multiple family gatherings on Easter day. Not really what I intended to wear (a lovely crisp dress was laid out, but I shall not nag about the weather), but at least I've got my hair already in a springish mood. I went to the hair dresser to add some more blonde in my hair and here's the result. I'm pretty happy with it, although I'm already contemplating about turning it MORE blonde. But for now and if I re-dye the pink tips, it is a-okay!

At this moment I'm preparing myself (both mentally as physically) to go on a holiday to the US and Canada. Especially the whole 'flying-on-my-own-for-a-gazillion-hours' scares the shit out of me. Okay, not the shit, just a tiny shitty thingie. Anyway, I won't leave anything to chance and am preparing myself by reading, thinking about packing, checking websites... And I have to say that the nervous tickles in my stomach are finally making room for some butterflies of excitement. OHMYGOD, I'm going to the US! And to top that, also Canada! I will visit my friend Mary Ann and her boyfriend in Vancouver and will travel with them to LA and Palm Springs. Afterwards, I'll go to Seattle to attend a work-related conference. I'm looking forward to everything! And I can't wait to finally share some giggles with Mary.

More on topic of this outfit post, I obviously love it, otherwise I wouldn't wear it. The end. 

PS: Because my lovely sister was joking about getting credit for taking my pictures, here you go Liefel!

Coat: my mom's - Beanie: H&M - Necklace, dress: Primark - Shoes: Sister (Hasselt)

 

What We Wear Sunday: Rock Werchter Outfit

So, as promised, here is my What We Wear Wednesday with a 'slight' delay. I guess I could come up with a bunch of excuses to justify why I haven't posted this on an actual Wednesday. But no, I will not.  I decided to show you guys what I was wearing to Rock Werchter. I wore the same outfit twice because I loved it and because I thought it was, for me although, a perfect festival outfit! 

I bought the skirt two years ago at H&M. I didn't wear it much back in the days, but nowadays I totally rediscovered it. I love love love the pastel flower pattern. And pastels weren't even a big hit two years ago. I remember seeing it hanging there and it reminded me of 'old things' and summer holidays spent at my grandmothers. Talking 'bout reminiscing, right! So I bought it. And although I don't usually wear such short skirts (big knee complex), I do think this one flatters me. It's short, but flowy, and it makes my legs look longer.

The top is a DIY project Karolien and I did a couple of weeks ago. You can read all about it HERE. It's a regular white top, made less regular by dip and dyeing it! I know, it's tucked in my skirt so it's not very visible. But you get the idea. I thought the pink went perfectly with the flowery pastel pattern of my skirt. Also, these light colors and fabrics were perfect for the blistering heat we had to hammer!

I must admit that I didnt' make the perfect choice of shoes. I just chose flats and pink and peeptoes, because I love peeptoes. But H&M ballerinas just aren't made for walking around in all day. Or at least not at a festival where you had to park your car on a 45 minute walk from the festival terrain. Yes, 45 minutes! Seemed like forever! But it did save us the parking fee you otherwise would have to pay. The result: blisters on my heels! So the second festival day I decided to wear my H&M minty sneakers, but the damage had already been done. Auwtch!

Have any of you been to Rock Werchter? What did you wear to defeat the heat? Let us know in the comment section below so we can have a nice chat and we can gasp about all the pretty things you guys were wearing.

Top, skirt, flats: H&M (dip&dye DIY) - Belt: Veritas

Twas a Dip and Dye Day

Dip and dye is hot. Whether it's your hair or your clothes, dip and dye is the way to go. Considering that we already tested and unanimously approved the dip and dye hairstyle, we thought it was time to dye some of our clothes. So, a few weeks ago on a rainy Sunday (well, we have plenty of those here) we had a jolly Dip and Dye Do It Yourself Day. Whatsyaneed for a fun day like that? Something you want to dye: a shirt, some denim shorts, a denim pants... Don't matter! Next, you also need textile paint, kitchen salt, disposable gloves, rubber bands, bleach (for decolorizing denim or other fabrics), buckets and water. We chose the colour Flamingo Pink, of course because of the ravishing name.

We started by dip and dyeing our already white shirts. Very easy: we followed the instructions on the wrapping of the textile paint and filled a bucket with warm water and added the textile paint powder. It  said on the wrapping that you should add some kitchen salt, so we neatly followed those instructions as the goody two-shoes we obviously are. Important note: your shirt has to be somewhat humid, so you can best wash it beforehand. We dipped our shirts halfway in the paint bucket and let the paint to its job.

After about ten minutes or so, we pulled to shirts out a bit to have a graded effect, going from light pink to darker. 

Afterwards, you waited for what seemed like ages, but what was in real life about 45 minutes, for the shirt to further soak in the paint. Luckily, we had some magazines and my granny to avoid getting bored out of our minds. My granny is so cool!

Le moment supreme, how did it turn out? Pretty good, if we say so ourselves!

I did something alike with my denim shorts. Only, I bleached them in advance 'till they were almost white so that the colour would pop out more. I also made some knots with rubber bands to have some cool effects. The rest is pretty much the same as explained above with the only difference that I used two colours on the shorts: blue on top and pink at the bottom. I absolutely love, love, love the result: hellooo, new festival outfit!You shall definately see me rocking these shorts on the Pukkelpop festival this summer!

Lies decided to try something a bit different on her denim pants: tie dyeing, which is also incredibly easy. No dye needed, actually all you need is in this case not love, but some bleach and rubber bands. You make knots with the rubber bands and that creates some unique patterns after you have submerged the pants in the bleach. You can see the result here and in the picture below.

Dip and dyeing or tie dyeing is really easy and really good on your budget (oh, budgets, the horror!). Why spend money on buying things you can so easily create yourself? So dive in your wardrobe and dye those discarded clothes! I'm kinda starting to feel like a dip and dye promoting commercial, but what the heck, a girl has to be overly enthusiastic from time to time, right?!

DIY: Ombre jeans with bleach

Seems like everything these days is about DIY. It's hip, it's trendy and above all: it's low budget! And since my budget is (way too) low too, I kind of dig these DIY tutorials.

So here's one of my own. No, I didn't invent it. I came across similar stuff on Pinterest, other blogs and YouTube. But instead of posting a video I found on YouTube (I'm sure you guys are smart enough to know how that thing works), I'm going to show you step by step how I did this. My jeans will not be tie dyed, I went for the ombre look.

First things first: what will you need?

• two buckets (one for the water-bleach mixture and one with plain water)
• bleach (any brand will do, I even mixed mine because one was almost empty)
• (disposable) gloves
• some old towels
• your jeans, or whatever you want to bleach (mine is an old jegging I bought at H&M)


• also, don't wear your favorite pair of jeans while doing this, because when you spill with the bleach it will be ruined
• and cover up whatever surface your bucket with bleach is standing on so you don't damage your floor or table or whatever if you spill

I filled my first bucket with four litres of water, straight from the tap. Then I added about two litres of bleach. I didn't follow the instructions on the bleach bottle or anything, I just added 'till I thought it would suffice. I just made sure I had enough fluids in my bucket so I could easily soak my jeans. I want to add that you do all this in a well-ventilated room or preferably outside.

Now put on your gloves and start soaking your jeans in the bleach. Because I want an ombre effect, I let the bottom half of my jeans soak and let the other half just hang over the edge of the bucket. (If you want to tie dye, you make knots in your jeans with rubber bands and throw the whole thing in the bucket)

 

  
I don't know 'bout you, but I'm not a very patient person. After half an hour I went to check on my jeans, but saw no difference whatsoever. From experience, I know you should wait at least an hour. I advise you to try and do something productive during that hour, because otherwise it gets pretty boring.

An hour later and you can really see the difference now! But I want the bottom parts lighter, so I put them back in the bleach. I let the middle half hang over the edge, because I was satisfied with how that turned out.

Another 45 minutes later, but it seemed that the bottom parts didn't get any lighter after all. But ah well, no biggie, it's fine like this too! I filled my other bucket with enough water so I could rinse my jeans. I let it rinse for a couple of minutes and then added a tad of washing powder.

And here's the result! I did wash my jeans in the washing machine after the whole process (otherwise it keeps smelling like bleach) and then let it dry overnight.

Have you ever tried to bleach your jeans yourself? Did it turn out the way you expected? Let us know!