Skulls and Roses

It seems I'm getting into a habit of planning an outfit on Sunday to wear on Monday, which is nice because it means I wear more interesting combinations from my wardrobe at least once a week (partly making up for having to now spend two days in YELLOW work uniform).

Today's outfit is based around this dress, which I got ages ago and don't wear very often. I find it hard to coordinate because of the shape - it's too narrow to wear with my usual a-line skirts, and slightly too short to feel decent on it's own. I have featured it on the blog before here, but I didn't actually dare leave the house in that outfit! I wanted to find something to do with it though because the print is so much fun.

Here's what I came up with:

 Some close-ups:

Sorry again about the lighting and the photo quality - I did try to clean the mirror but it's old and some of the silver backing has rubbed away!

What I'm wearing:

Dress: Topshop £10

Skirt: It's actually my velvet one, from Next, usually a corpgoth staple for me.
Jacket: Discount shop on my local high st plus lace added by me, featured many times before

Tights: £3 brought from Lizzie who had 2 pairs the same

Boot Covers: Present from Auntie Pam with lace added by me.
Boots: Doc Martins, with skull flock pattern, £90 in the sale
Accessories: Red bows from my Meta velvet skirt, Grey bow made my me for my enchanted outfit, flowers all H&M. The 'necklace' is a piece of lace I tied round my neck - I want to make chokers with this lace on them - so it's a 'does this itch?' test! 

I quite like it, although it's very odd to wear so much colour! I certainly look eccentric but I'm not sure it can be goth with so little black, even with skulls, bones and roses all over it... What do you guys think? 

Do you like to step out of your comfort zone with clothes sometimes?

What's In Your Suitcase? Conference Style

I recently attended a fabulous conference in Edinburgh on the subject of 'Death in Scotland; Medieval to the Modern' where I met loads of great people and learned so much.

I was travelling by train and only taking one small suitcase, to stay for a week, including 3 days of conference, one day exploring the city and 2 days fieldwork. The fieldwork clothes consisted of jeans, jumpers and thermals so I won't bore you with them, but here's what else I crammed into my case!
When I got to my hotel unpacked the case and laid each outfit out to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything.

Day 1

I spent the first day exploring Edinburgh. I visited Carlton Old Burial Ground, Greyfriars Kirkyard and the central library in Edinburgh.

Black Turtleneck: Miss Selfridge. Christmas Present from Mum
Black Waistcoat: Via a charity shop, I think it was around £3.
Red Velvet Skirt: Metamorphose Temps de Fille via egl-comm-sales. The bow is one of the detachable ones from the skirt.
I wore this with black tights, black boot covers and black DMs (good for muddy graveyards)

Day 2

The first day of the conference. I toned down a frilly lolita blouse by wearing it with a professional looking skirt. More velvet because it's was cold up there!

Black Blouse: RQ-BL from Sai Sai
Black Pinstripe Blazer: New Look
Black Velvet Skirt: Next
Also worn with black tights and black oxford shoes from Primark

Day 3
I decided that I could wear a more OTT skirt if I wore it with a simpler blouse, as long as I picked the  right one. The conference was held in the School of Divinity building, so I thought that the Churches on this one would go down well! I did get several compliments =]

(this photo refused to rotate the right way round, I have no idea why)

Black and White Stripe Blouse: Warehouse
Black Velvet Skirt with Church Embroidery: Handmade via egl-comm-sales
Jabot: From the RQ-BL blouse
Also with the same waistcoat as Day 1, more black tights and the same shoes.

Day 4
This outfit had to be both the most practical and the warmest because the conference ended with a  tour of Warrington Cemetery.

Black Peter Pan Collar Jumper: Muji, it was a present
Purple Velvet Skirt: I got this in a charity shop, several years ago in Weymouth
Purple Cardigan: H&M
Worn with 2 pairs of warm black tights, boot covers and my DMs.

I hung each outfit on one hanger (there were only 6) with another one for my petticoats and the final one for my coat etc.

(I don't know why these photos aren't rotating properly)

I needed a place to hang my hat, found a bulldog clip in my pencil case that was the perfect solution

(Argh! These pictures...)

I hope you enjoyed this look into my trip to Edinburgh! I'll post some photos of the beautiful graveyards soon.

Butterfly Tights

I've been wanted to get a pair of Grimoire's Verum butterfly tights for ages, but even if I could get my head around the ordering process I couldn't really justify spending so much on tights. I'm too clumsy; what if I laddered them on the first wear?! So instead I've been idly typing butterfly tights into ebay and etsy every couple of weeks, hoping to find an alternative. After about a year of doing this, I got a hit on Etsy for some suspiciously similar tights. The first 2 pictures were clearly of Grimoire's tights (I've since realised that the first was the stock photo from their webstore) but the 4th photo was of a different but similar design. I decided to risk it for £6.39 and free shipping.

When the tights arrived I'm happy to say they did in fact match the 4th photo. I'm actually very pleased because I would have been unhappy about wearing tights that were a successful replica (art theft and all that). The print is the same on the front and back and so doesn't match well on the sides (but for the price I won't grumble). I should have taken a picture of them out of the packet to show them better. They look darker in my pictures as I had black thermal tights underneath because of the cold weather!

I put together a quick outfit to go with them and went a bit overboard with the accessories to match the colours in the tights!

What I'm Wearing:
Jacket: Miss Selfridge
Blouse: H&M (altered by me)
Black Skirt: River Island
Cream Lace Skirt: New Look
(this outfit is actually quite similar to this one, I didn't notice until now)
Tights: Etsy
Brooches and Necklaces: Light Blue Brooch and Glass Bead Necklace from charity shops, Green Brooch, Celtic Cross Brooch and Dark Crystal Necklace were gifts
Boots: New Look
Beret: H&M

Sorry for the bad photos, these were taken in the toilets of a local department store when I was doing a quick bit of Xmas Shopping. I spent most of the day sitting in the pub (with a hot chocolate) writing for NaNoWriMo!

I've just passed the 10,500 word mark so I'm very behind at the moment! My only excuse is that the lovely boyfriend took me to a spa hotel for a few days to relax =] I'm going to try to do 2,500 words a day until I'm back on track. Good luck to anyone else doing NaNoWriMo!

Full Halloween Ensemble

Here's the rest of what I wore on All Hallow's Eve! After spending so much time on the hat, the rest was really just thrown together from clothes I normally wear, with added dramatic make-up!

What I'm wearing:
Hat: See more in this post
Dress: Titania Dress by All Saints, got it in a mega sale a few years ago, I think it was either £27 or £29. I love this dress but I don't wear it often because it's a tad unflattering in the stomach area! I think I need to get some control pants/tights. However, it has skeletal fairies on it so it had to be worn for this outfit!
Lace Dress Underneath: The Titania Dress is a little low and I wanted more lace at the bottom, I got this from a clothes swap
Crochet Skirt: From a charity shop, also seen in this post.
Lace Waistcoat: Lily J in Camden. I think it was quite expensive, maybe £20.
Shawl: The fabric I tattered to be the over-skirt on my zombie prom outfit!
Necklace: A bunch of vintage keys on a chain
Belt: Primark £3

I'm trying to look mysterious and forbidding in these photos, like I'm about to summon the powers of darkness or something. Not sure it worked, I think I just look a bit miffed! =P

Just a warning, for the rest of November I may be posting sporadically, if at all, because I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year!

Monthly Theme: Sweaters!

Or as we call them in the UK; jumpers!

I love to snuggle up in a cosy jumper at this time of year; especially at work where my office is freezing cold!

With that in mind I popped into Primark last week to get myself another jumper for work. I didn't expect to find them stocking a range of Halloween clothes! I brought these 2 jumpers, a t-shirt with bats on it and some skeleton socks =]

The bat patches are made from faux leather and the jumper is nice and warm =] My hair looks dreadful in this picture because I ran out of my good conditioner on that day and so it's acting up, I do apologise! I don't like the turtle neck with this outfit either, but I was going to a bonfire party and wanted my neck to be warm! Next time I'm going to wear it with a peter pan collar =]

What I'm wearing:
Bat Jumper: Primark £14
Black Skirts: River Island via clothes swap and New Look
Leggings: H&M £7.99

I took a worn picture of the second jumper before work one day but it was too blurry and I didn't notice until this morning, so here's a very quick snap of it on the bed!

The ghost part is very fluffy and soft! It has tiny sequins on it too, and whilst I'm not a huge fan of sparkle I think it's quite a cute touch so I'm leaving them on for now! This one was £14 too.

Of course a jumper is for life, not just for Halloween =P These will both be a part of my wardrobe all winter =]

Thanks to Sophistique Noir for such a fun monthly theme!

Gris Gris

Gris - is the word for Grey in Spanish.

Gris Gris - is the name of a voodoo talisman which brings black magic on its 'victim'. They are adaptation of an earlier African Islamic tradition of amulets to ward off evil spirits. In Haiti and some African countries such as Senegal, gris gris still refers to a good talisman.

This post contains things related to both of those definitions.

Do you remember that in this post, I mentioned I was going clubbing in Leeds? Well I didn't get to wear that outfit because it wasn't an ordinary club night at all. It was a Zombie Prom!

I didn't have much time to plan a costume at all, so I simply shredded some old lining fabric I had lying around and make an overskirt for my skeleton cameo dress. I also added a piece of it to the streamer on my top hat and made a tiny axe out of cardboard and paint.

It was such a fun night! The make-up looks very washed out with flash, but everything was darker in real life; especially the blood! I used make-up rather than face-paint (like my friends) because I'm allergic to a lot of stuff and I didn't want to risk a reaction, and made my own fake blood from flour, water and food colouring (red with a few drops of blue and black gives a good colour) so that I could have it around my mouth without worrying about ingesting it when I ate or drank. It goes delightfully scabby looking too! Be warned though it will stain your skin, so I had to wear foundation and red eyeliner underneath it. This photo sort of terrifies me because it looks like I managed to roll my eyes completely back into my head! I might have to get some white eye contacts if I dress up as a zombie again because I think it works well!

By complete coincidence I also got asked to make a prop for a play. It's for my friends production of Witches of Eastwick. I love that she needed someone to make a voodoo doll and thought of me! I thought white would show up best on stage, so he's just made from a pair of socks! I resisted the temptation to make it neat and even too as I think it looks more creepy like this.

I got sent a lovely new jumper by my mum, who wanted me to have a really cosy jumper for my cold office (isn't she the best mum in the world?).

It's so soft and snuggly! I think I'm a tiny bit in love.

What I'm wearing:
Jumper: Dorothy Perkins
Pinafore: Miss Selfridge
White Underskirt: Vintage, my friend Gabby gave it to me because she thought I'd wear it more often than her =]
Tights: Pamela Mann, her tights are so expensive that I never buy them for myself. These were a christmas present from my auntie in 2007. Which just shows that the quality is worth the price really!
Boots: New Look.

I was inspired by the colour scheme of that outfit to make this choker for my Etsy shop. When it was finished, I really wanted to keep it, but I can always make myself something similar =]

Winter Blossom Choker, available here in my Etsy shop.

I've been making a few more things and using the equipment at work to take better quality photos so expect new listings and photo updates soon!

I've also started using Tumblr at last! I've been updating it with my new posts and I'm going to start putting up some old photos too (as well as re-blogging pretty things). I'm always looking for cool new blogs to follow so please send me a links. You can find mine here.

Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!

I've been meaning to post far more regularly so this post feels very overdue! I've been promising an outfit post for ages as well, sorry folks! Also the outfit itself is very Alice in Wonderland inspired so I couldn't resist quoting the White Rabbit in the title =]

Sorry about the unglamorous location and lack of full body shot. Our room is a bit of a mess today and I was in a hurry so I took them on the landing even though it's in the middle of being redecorated (and may stay that way for a while, the plasterer never turned up to finish it off and didn't explain why!) The camera cut my head off in the picture but I was wearing a black ribbon as an Alice band with black rose clips on the side.

What I'm wearing:

Alice in Wonderland Socks: Innocent World via egl-comm-sales £10
Black Skirt: A Taobao shop (no label in it) via egl-comm-sales £15 plus ridiculous custom charge of £14!! I hate customs in the UK. Really puts me off ever buying things from outside the EU again!
Belt: Primark £3
Pocketwatch Necklace: Birthday present from Meera =]
Jabot: RQ-BL came with the blouse I got in Camden
Blouse: Forever 21 £18.95, altered by me.
Brooch: Flightless Phoenix Designs available on Etsy

I saw these socks a few weeks ago and just knew I had to get them. They looked pure white in the picture (as they do in my pictures actually...must be the flash) but they are actually an off-white/pale cream colour, so nothing I had really matched them well. I was going to tea dye a cheap white blouse to match but then I was passing through Forever 21 (I like the Costa coffee in there as a place to do uni work, it's quiet and has great views) and spotted this blouse. It's a similar shade of pale cream with grey stripes and a black insignia on the pocket so I thought it would match well. The only problem was the shape. It was so baggy!

I spent last Saturday taking off the sleeves and pocket,  adding bust darts, taking it in at the sides and then reconstructing it! I've never sewn a blouse and it's been about 8 years since I constructed anything with darts or sleeves (Oh my were my GCSEs really THAT long ago?!) so it's not perfect but I sure (re)learned a lot!

Has anyone else noticed how baggy everything is this season? I know the blouse wasn't supposed to be a larger size because of the length and fit of the sleeves but the body was like a men's small not a lady's small... I guess that's what's fashionable at the moment, but it looked very odd on me! Especially as the collar is really tiny; too tight to button up properly and be comfortable, also it sits funny because it overlaps a bit. I decided to leave the top button undone and wear the jabot instead of reconstructing that too.

I made another of the Curiouser and Curiouser brooches to go with this outfit, managed to be a bit neater with the glue this time, but still not perfect. Another thing to keep practicing! At least it doesn't show at all when worn because it's on the back =] Until I get it right I'll be selling them at a slight discount though!

Fabulous Modelling Debut!

OK, so this title is more than a little tongue-in-cheek, because although it was a shoot with a professional photographer, who is also a MUA and straightened my hair, the first time it's been pampered in like a year- when did it get long again?! Woohoo! I don't feel like a model at all, especially not a fabulous one! My lovely friend Olivia had just had her home studio finished and wanted someone to test it out with =] Check out her site here!

The original plan was to photograph one all black outfit and one all white outfit, but we couldn't be bothered with the hassle of changing the white backdrop to blue, so only the black got used.

Here is the black outfit:

Sitting on the suitcase I brought all my stuff in! Wearing the Camden blouse, with my black pinafore and petticoat (I would have liked to have a black skirt underneath too but didn't have one long enough).

Impersonating the pin-up girl photograph on the wall beside me:

We also took pictures of my new black and white skirt outfit:

The bow wouldn't stay straight for some reason.

So I took it off (next time I'll tack it down!). Also I swapped back to the top hat because the other one was a lot warmer under the stage lights! That's also the reason I'm wearing the lace tights - I think plain black might have looked better but I was already melting!

With teapot:
Olivia has the cutest teapot ever!

Close-up:

I found the whole experience to be pretty fun, strangely tiring (many failed attempts to get a picture that looked like I was flying Mary Poppins style probably didn't help there...) and more than a little embarrassing!

I think I thought that after all the work these pictures would be amazing, that I would look like a real model and feel really pretty, but instead a lot of them look a little awkward, because I'm quite a physically awkward person, the oddness of the situation doesn't help and I couldn't see myself and many of them have really goofy expressions! I hereby pass a decree that I'm never allowed to show my teeth when smiling again. It looks awful!

See?

In fact there is something I absolutely hate about every picture I've posted. Maybe practice makes perfect? Maybe I'm too self-critical at the moment? Maybe I should just stick to the day job =P Still it was an amusing evening and if Olivia needs a guinea-pig again I'll be happy to oblige!

One thing I won't be forgetting though - MAC make really good ghost pale foundation so at least my skin looks alright here!

What I brought in Camden

In my previous post I mentioned that whilst I was in London I spent an afternoon shopping in Camden. Whilst I was there mostly to hunt for vinyl to give to my dad for father's day (I scored a rare Jefferson Airplane double LP for him =]) I popped into Sai Sai. They stock a range of goth and alternative clothing, and also some lolita stuff from GLP and Red Queen's Black Label. The quality is pretty variable and often poor, but the prices are far lower than brand; comparable to bodyline but without the shipping cost to pay and the chance of actually trying things on to check they fitted.

I therefore decided that I would buy this Red Queen's Black Label blouse even though the quality wasn't fantastic because it was £32 and some of the worse offences to the senses were so easily fixed:

As you can see I've already removed the largest part of the jabot bow because it was just faintly ridiculous. It was far too easy to remove the bow (held on by 2 stitches!), tug the large part out of the central band and then stitch the bow back onto the jabot. (far more securely!)

The lace on this blouse isn't fantastic but the collar lace is small so it doesn't show too badly and most of the ruffles are made from dotted tulle instead =]. I'll probably remove the lace from the sleeves and replace that eventually, but for the moment I'll just hide them under a jacket or cardigan.

My black and white Meta skirt arrived too!

I wanted to post another picture too that included my shoes, but blogger is playing up...

Next time I post I will have some much better pictures anyway I hope! A professional photographer friend of mine just built a new home studio and wants a guinea pig, so I'm making my fabulous modelling debut (gulp). 

Red and Black week: My first Lolita

OK so it's not completely my first Lolita. There was this, when I was 17:

With my rubbish petticoat and plain H&M blouse. Such an ita!

And the old school lolita dress I brought off a friend later that year. I only have a photo of it from when I wore it as my improvised Blair Witch costume (see this post) and not in any of the proper co-ordinates I wore. Still an ita though =P

I decided then that I would not try to wear lolita until I could afford to do it properly! I'd saved up some money for my accomodation in London when I go to Highgate but then my sister-in-law offered me their sofa bed so I decided to treat myelf =]. 

Also in lolita fashion, finding things that fit me is difficult because Bodyline, the only 'brand' I could afford new seem to start at size M and many lolita brands only make one size, so even second hand it can be difficult. However I've put on some weight recently so rather than beat myself up about it I'll use it as a chance to wear pretty clothes without having to alter them. Maybe when my PhD is over I'll get healthy again and take in the waists a little!

Here are the things I'm buying from egl-comm-sales, they fit this weeks theme rather well! Please note these pictures are not mine, I'm using the photos provided by the sellers (I hope they don't mind!).

Dark Red Velvet Skirt by Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Striped Skirt by Metamorphose Temps de Fille

and this lovely Mini Tricorn hat!

I'm really excited and already I can't wait for them to arrive!

I have some blouses which will do for now, but I'm going to keep an eye out for a black peter pan collar blouse with pretty lace that is small enough in the bust for me! I hate being flat chested, but even though I weigh over a stone more than I did at 18, it's the one part of my figure which hasn't changed at all, so it seems I'm just going to have to accept it. =P If any one has a loliable blouse they'd like to sell with a max bust of around 82cm I'd be very interested!

Thanks again to Sophistique Noir for this weeks theme. I've loved reading all of the posts, I wish I'd had time to participate more but I've been busy preparing for my fieldwork at the cemetery.

A goth wearing pastels?

I mentioned in my post about style experiments that I would be customizing a pink jumper I've had languishing in a drawer for years and including it in some outfits - to see if I can get into wearing pastels! Don't worry, I don't intend to drop any of my other style influences (or my mostly monochromatic wardrobe), but Fairy Kei and even Nu-Goth have shown me that pastels can look pretty cool. Not to mention the Lady of the Manners fondness for Black and Pink!

However, can pastels work on me?

You decide:

 
Once again, ignore my lack of head - It's a very bad skin week.

What I'm wearing:
Jumper - Primark a few years ago £10
Skirts - Black Pinafore dress - Miss Selfridge, Black lace skirt - New Look
Tights - Black Flower Print - Primark, Pink - Primark kids (they are a tiny bit short in the leg but I couldn't find any adult tights in pale pink)
Brooch - Isn't it adorable? And it's vintage. I brought it from SugarPinkMoon on Etsy, a shop run by Beth Leintz of Gathering Dust.
Detachable collar - made by me because I couldn't find a nice black one. It's made from some left over black cotton fabric, with interfacing between the two layers for a bit of rigidity. Then I stitched on lace trim and the ribbon ties. The back fastens with a lobster clasp and has an extender chain to make it a bit more adjustable.

In this close -up you can see that my attempt to customize the jumper was not entirely successful.
I used more of the left over cotton I used for the collar but despite the fact I ironed all the fabric onto fusible interfacing it still frayed quite a bit, so the edges aren't very neat.

If it continues to fray i'll have to make new stars and moons (don't worry I kept my newspaper pattern pieces) from different fabric - probably use an old black t-shirt.

I think it looks like something Hermione would wear to the Library at Christmas, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? She's cool =P

What do you guys think? Pastels yay or nay?

Style experiments

Since I began this blog, the amount of time I have spent looking at pretty pictures of clothes on tumblr and reading about people's style inspirations on their blogs has increased hugely. My obsession with clothes and the size of my wardrobe have increased in direct proportion to the amount of new styles or fashion details I've fallen in love with! I've not fallen out of love with any of my old clothes, just wanted to add new things into my collection to compliment them.

I've always been inspired by Goth, especially Victorian, Romantic and trad goth styles, I also have a long-term love affair for steampunk and lolita (although I doubt I'll ever be able to buy a real lolita brand dress, even Bodyline is a bit out of my price range with the shipping costs!). Looking for more eye candy images of these styles led me to discover others which delighted me.

Fairy Kei
I'll forgive the 80's nostalia (I'm a child of the 90's =P) because I adore the big jumpers and cardigans, fluffy tutus and bloomers, the layering, the use of accessories and the innocence of Fairy Kei, and although the colours would put me completely outside of my comfort zone, I love it on other people! It makes me oddly nostalgic for the days when I pinned badges to everything, wore half my jewellery box at once, stuck stars on my face and was unafraid of wearing shorts and tiny skirts, usually with a massive hoody and converse! I'm wearing badges and occasionally over-doing the accessories again, we'll see about the leg exposure when the summer come around again =P
For those not familiar with Fair-Kei, this guide from ParfaitDoll is a great place to start.

Although the idea of wearing a full outfit of pastels still appalls me, I did remember that I own a pale pink jumper (originally brought with the intention of dyeing it, but it turns out you can't dye acrylic, oopsies) so I have plans to customise that and add it to an outfit or two. Watch this space, if you think you can withstand the horror =P

Creepy Cute
A mixture of gothy style and cute imagery, seen in lolita and various other styles. I'm not sure if it's a sub-genre or just a trend at the moment, I don't know much about it at all, other than that I think it can be really adorable! I especially love the creepy cute co-ordinates that Pastelbat wears, you can see some here, along with other styles like fairy-kei, gyaru, lolita, even pastel-goth- she has great taste in clothes!

This may be the reason for my over use of bat motifs lately, seen here and here!

Dolly Kei
Another Japanese street style I've fallen for, because of it's use of vintage, combination of fabrics, layers and whimsical vibe. This page has a great collection of dolly kei images. Another style inspiration for me is Marie Dauphine who wears a delightful dark version of this style along with gothy and lolita ensembles, usually with beautiful bone jewellery she makes; check out her tumblr here.

I really love the use of vintage dresses like Gunne Sax; I may be inspired to get this dress out again and co-ordinate it in a dolly-kei style! I also may have sort-of accidently brought this dress on Etsy yesterday =P Isn't it beautiful? It was 24 GBP including postage =S so it's a Christmas present to myself! It was from PetticoatsPlus.

Mori Kei
Another Japanese style I love, it translates as Forest Style. The 'getting back to nature' aspect of this style appeals to the hippy in me; I was raised by hippy parents and lived in Glastonbury (a wonderful Somerset town, with more crystal shops, tie-dye clothing and leylines than anything else, 9 miles from where the music festival is actually held =P) for 3 years; aged 10-13, so hippy clothing is dear to my heart. I wish I still had those purple patchwork trousers... Mori Kei is a wonderfully tattered look, with lots of layering, natural fabrics and old-world charm. This page has some great mori kei images. The colour palette of mori kei is mainly natural colours, often with lots of white and cream, once again out of my comfort zone! Then Amy of Bohemian Bloomers, wrote a post which mentioned Black Forest Mori Girl aka Dark Mori, which seemed much more me! Here's a link to her guide to the style, the original post on it by Shady Oaks and a lovely inspirational tumblr, Strega's Forest (sadly doesn't seem to be updated any more). Pretty prefect style for a goth like me whose clothes get caught on everything and torn and who often forgets to brush her hair =P

This was my outfit for meeting old school friend's at the pub last night. I'm sorry for the crap photos, the lighting was less than ideal and I still don't have decent editing software. It's my take on Black Forest Mori, limited to clothing I happen to have at Ash's at the moment! Needs more layers...

What I'm wearing
Blouse: charity shop in Derby, I keep meaning to iron and stitch the ruffles down but I think the messy look is OK for this outfit.
Dress: Superdry, from Cult, it was a present from my Mum for Christmas =] can be seen on their website here, it saw it ages ago and fell in love but couldn't afford it. My mum is wonderful!
Skirt: A crochet skirt I found in a charity shop in Moseley; It's full length but I pinned it up for this. It's so heavy that is squashed my petticoat completely and wouldn't poof up as much as I wanted but I still like it.
Tights: New Look, also from Mum =]
Necklace: the pendant was made by my friend Kelly. She has more beautiful ones in her Etsy shop here. I put it on a piece of lace that matched the dress for the evening =].
Earrings: I wish the picture was better, they are tiny black roses, I made them myself.

I also wore my doc martens and lace edged boot covers and put the bow featured in this post in my hair because I wanted a flower but couldn't find my purple one!