wednes-diy

you may have noticed these lanterns hanging in our new university village store…they were made by one of our fp girls who works for our west coast display team, and she was kind enough to write up a little tutorial for the blog!

what you need: wire framed lantern, fabric scraps, trims, needle, straight pins, and thread.

lantern: the lantern we use is custom made in india. it is a simple wire frame with a mylar cylinder in the middle for good light diffusion (these lanterns are more about style than a good light source :)). with this raw form, fabric is attached.

i suggest going to a thrift store and looking for lamp shades with a wire frame and taking off the pre-existing fabric – the lamp shades you will find in a thrift store will be a more common kind of shade but the following sewing/ fabric assembling treatment will make it look much more enchanting and wild!

fabric selection: having great fabrics is the key to a great lantern! i had a lot of amazing fabrics and trims to choose from. i choose to mix sheer, vinyl, cotton, and decorative trims. you can find these trims and fabrics from any fabric district or thrift store, but the fancier more elaborate trims we got from India.

i suggest going to a large fabric wholesaler and digging through their bins of scraps. if you happen to be in los angeles, there is only ONE place to find trims: shana-tex!!! they have sooooooo many trims stacked in high piles which you have to dig through…but so worth it because you can get huge spools of lace, sequins, and bright colored trims for pennies.

if you aren’t in los angeles, look up your neighborhood fabric wholesaler or thrift store for great rare finds. i have used thrift store table clothes, eyelet linens, etc.

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sewing/ aesthetic: i just pick out the scraps of fabric and trims that i like and begin placing them on the lantern. i prefer to start in the middle at the widest part and work out from there.

fold the fabric over a part of the wire form and do a whip stitch to hold fabric to frame and itself. from the FIRST piece of fabric, i placed another piece of trim or fabric. to keep it in place I used the straight pins and then sewed the piece of fabric. repeat this process and soon it grows into a solid lantern.

sometimes i worked in different areas of the lan-tern, but always made sure that the composition felt right and was well balanced. the look i was going for was a loose, organic assemblage of fabrics and trims….so, i just mixed sewing and tying ends in knots. the pictures tell this story. you will see sewn edges and knotted pieces. i even left holes in places to maintain the “loose” aesthetic :)

electrical hook-up: this is the easy part! i just bought a cord socket combo from home depot and threaded it through a hole (part of wire frame) and screwed in a light bulb.

so beautiful and creative!

goin’ to california

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heading out west to celebrate the birthday of my favorite person in the world! been way too long since i’ve seen the pacific ocean and palm trees… i can’t wait.

i’m going to try and visit some free people stores while i’m out there and i’ll take lots of pictures for the blog! and don’t worry there will still be posts while i’m gone :)

click on images for sources.

tunesday: kings of leon

the kings of leon released a new album last week called come around sundown.  i have to be honest, i didn’t love their last album – as someone who really appreciated their older music, i felt like they were changing their sound just to appeal to a wider audience.  i have no problem with bands changing up their sound, i’m just not a fan of the new music. that being said, there are a couple of songs on the new album that give me hope that the old kings of leon are still in there somewhere. for example, the song “mary,” which they played at bonnaroo this year, is pretty good. unfortunately the playlist function i usually use isn’t working today so here is a video of them playing the song live.

vegan pumpkin spice cupcakes

ingredients:

1/2 cup vegan butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
egg replacer for 2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk* mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree

*make vegan buttermilk by placing one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup. add enough milk (soy or replacement milk of choice) to bring the liquid up to the one-cup line and let stand for 5 minutes.

preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy (about 5 minutes.)  while that is mixing, sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, ginger, cloves and pepper in a medium sized bowl.

add “eggs” to the butter and sugar and mix thoroughly.  alternate adding the flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. mix thoroughly again. now add in the pumpkin puree and mix until smooth.

bake 23-25 minutes. let cool completely and frost with your favorite buttercream frosting! makes approximately 22 cupcakes.

YUM!

source.

too cute

earlier today i was looking for grizzly bear, who i told you about a couple of weeks ago, because i saw her sporting a little pink bow this morning and i wanted to take a picture. well look where i found her!

curled up in the lap of one of our designers while she worked :) could she be any cuter?

and look who graced us with his presence this week!

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fritz!! long time no see buddy!

behind the scenes – rumi’s shoot

our third and final october catalog model, rumi neely, was photographed by her boyfriend colin sokol at the home of our senior designer in mt. airy, philadelphia. i posted some photos of the gorgeous home the other day, and here are some photos from rumi’s day of shooting there.

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stay tuned for a video tour of the house coming soon!

fan love

a couple of our stores posted about the blog fashionlitter on their facebook pages so i checked it out- this girl definitely loves fp! and she wears it well too :) i like the way she styled our items in these pics!

wearing the front & center pullover and velvet foliage dress.

the petticoat halter dress.

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the quiet harmony dress.

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i would never think to do this, but the we the free mala strana dress looks great layered over the we the free gathered stripes top!

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the beautiful stardust dress.

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i love how the engraved knuckle ring and triple stone ring look together!

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wearing the we the free pieced cable sweatshirt and jeffrey campbell solvang clog.

she looks great!