OOTD/Review/Made by Me File: Pretty in Pink Rainbow/Roses.

Hi!  Happy Saturday night.  Yes, I know it is Valentine's Day.  I only ever celebrate it by dressing up in festive outfits.  With the boys of this family having their birthdays in February (well, March for Angus), Valentine's Day is WAY down on our "must do" list.  Mardi Gras gets way more attention than it, too. 

But I still have a big crush on the pretty pinks/reds/ivories of the day, so here are two outfits featuring those gorgeous hues.

Outfit one first, then (as promised in this post) the review of the Rainbow Knit sweater, and third, the outfit that also features a very recent made by me.

Day: Saturday, February 14, 2015.

Where:  Rex's Birthday Party!

Ease of Wear: (4.5 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) I really really love these Turner pants from J. Crew.  My husband made fun of them the first time I wore them and said no words today.  Success!  He has grown used to the pale pink elastic cuffed wonders.

The sweater was more than adequate to keep me warm, but I did make sure to layer it with this pretty tulip-printed Liberty shirt from J. Crew from a few years ago.  The Eliza coat was actually plenty cover for this morning, it is only recently that the winds have picked up and the snow has begun (it looks frightening out there, I have never seen snow blow sideways!).

Cool Factor: (3.75 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) I don't know, it is an all pink ensemble.  Granted, it is appropriate for the day, and I was at my kid's birthday party, but yeah, I don't know if I can't rate it any higher.

The heeled loafers are a fun neutral, not quite silver/not quite pewter, they helped ground the all pink ensemble.  So that helped.  Plus the coat is getting quite a bit of airtime from Boden over at their facebook page (they celebrate *other* bloggers, lol, example one, and example two). 

Anecdote of the Day:  Wheelchair bound, we weren't sure if Rex's birthday party at the laser tag place could still go on, but yep, they were all ADA compliant, so we were able to wheel him around in the actual games.  I sucked, though, because the loafers have a slippy bottom, and he DESPERATELY wanted me to push him up the steep ramp in the game.  He weighs a lot, as does the wheelchair, and I was slipping.  I don't even know where my brain was when I dressed this morning, hello!  I have actually played laser tag before and have worn tennis shoes, but not today.  He blames me for his poor ranking (8th out of 20?).  His daddy propelled him to a much better ranking (3rd of 20).  We now have the one example of Mr. Dina's white tennis shoes being the better option.  :-D

Rainbow Knit Sweater.  Size 6.  It features a curved hem, contrast hem, and very long sleeves (they are long on me, and I have really long arms).  The fit does get looser as you wear it, I changed out of the button-up upon returning home, and it has stretched out so that the back and front are a bit looser so the sweater is hanging a bit lower.  But is an all cotton knit sweater, so no surprise there.

Back View.  I don't have the usual horizontal lines at my mid-back the way I usually have on almost all of my tops.  That is a small feat, and I am thrilled at this fit.  And it is great the length of the sweater hits at my upper hip, which means I don't have to worry about it being too tight at my tush.

Close-up. I know there are no greens in the sweater, but I really like the tulip print with the stripes.  It just worked, somehow.

I wrote up a written review yesterday of the Rainbow Knit Sweater and I have more photos of the beautiful Eliza coat here.



Eliza Coat and Rainbow Knit Sweater.  Neither is close to selling out, but the Eliza coat can be worn now, whereas unless you will wear the Rainbow Knit sweater *now* and later, you can wait for a better price on that one.

Day: Thursday, February 12, 2015.

Where:  Rex's Valentine's Party at school and his birthday dinner.

Ease of Wear: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.) It is a made by me dress, Simplicity 2246, which is a Lisette pattern for shirtdresses.  I chose to make the more fitted silhouette (view a), because darn it, I can make adjustments to suit both my smaller upper body and larger lower half, so I don't have to go for the more full-skirted version.  Yes!  So on the fit side, it wears well.  I do wish I had a better time with the hem, and if it could be just an inch longer, I think I would be more comfortable with it.  My main issue with this outfit is because that night the winds came and the temps dropped to 20 F, OMG, and with the wind chill, it felt like 4 F?  I don't know, it was B-A-D.  And yeah, the Eliza, so pretty, and the rose print rayon challis, lovely, but not the right outfit for those temperatures.

Cool Factor: (4 of 5 stars--5 being the coolest.) This look had its fans.  I like it on me, but it may be too twee or feminine for some.

Anecdote of the Day:  Rex is not back at school, and won't be for a couple of weeks, but we were able to arrange for him to come that day so he could see his friends, get his cast signed, exchange Valentine's cards, etc.  I was so grateful for the school for getting the classroom set up so he didn't even have to go down the stairs (the other 2nd grade teacher is on the same level as the ramp so she gave us her classroom for an hour).  It really meant the world to him, he was in such great spirits after leaving the party.

For those of you interested, you can check out more on how I made the dress (there is a lot of information for sewers there) at the Fabric Mart blog.  This was my make for the month of February, and let's just say I was pretty excited to make a festive Valentine's look for my blog post this month. 

Hope all of you have a very happy Valentine's Day!