Food Comas & Leather Elbows

sweater {Old Navy} - leather elbow patches {DIY} - jeans {Flying Monkey via Century 21}

I hope you all had a great Christmas! I was spoiled this year by having FOUR different dinners in a row. I started out with roast beef, then moved on to spiced beef, followed by turkey and finishing with a grand finale of my Nana's homemade perogies, arguably my favorite dinner of the holidays. Needless to say, I probably don't have to eat for at least two weeks.

This is the leather elbow patch sweater that I DIY'd before Christmas. I really love it. I have already worn it twice, once with jeans, like above, and I even dressed it up and paired it with a red and black plaid skirt for one of my holiday dinners. Who knew leather elbow patches were so versatile. 

I don't want to hurt your feelings now, but as of tomorrow I will be in Hawaii for a couple weeks. I'll try and keep the posting of palm trees and crashing waves to a minimum. However, I will be on Instagram and since photos of palm trees on Instagram are probably almost as frequent as photos of your latest meal and best duck face, I am making no firm promises. If you wanna torture yourself, follow along (@jlovesstyle)!

j.

Leather Elbow Patch DIY

I'm baaaack! And I come bearing a little how-to on leather elbow patches. I had been wanting a sweater with leather elbows for a long time but never did find the perfect one so I decided that I could make one. All you need are the items above. I've given you a step-by-step guide below, it was really quite simple. I'll also share a few tips that I learned along the way.

Yep! It's really that easy. I did encounter a few difficulties so here are a few tips so you can avoid them!

-Since it's the sleeve and you only want to stitch through one layer of the sweater, getting to the inside was a bit tricky at first. I found it much easier to get at it through the neck hole instead of the arm hole, if that makes sense.

-I was pleased to discover that the leather did not shift that much during the sewing process but I pinned it at the top, just in case.

-Grow an extra layer of skin on your fingertips or consider wearing band-aids. My fingers are still sore from that darn needle!

-And the most important tip...line up the second patch with the first one BEFORE you sew the entire thing on and discover that it is a good three inches higher than the first one.

I LOVE how it turned out, stay tuned to see the whole sweater in all it's leather elbow patch glory!

j.

Leather & Knee Highs

black sweater {Old Navy} - brown leather skirt {thrifted via Beacon's Closet} - knee-high socks {Joe Fresh} - 

black booties {Topshop} - black leather tote {Banana Republic} - elephant necklace {Flea Market}

Leather and knee-highs is a pretty big departure from my usual day to day wear. I really loved wearing this outfit though. I felt a little edgier, walked a little taller and maybe even pushed people out of my way. I'm kidding...about the pushing people part, but in this outfit I felt like I could've. And that has to count for something, right?

I thought of this outfit this morning as I channeled my inner badass to write a strongly worded email to the owner of the building I live in. We have had so many issues since moving in and now we have no gas, which means no stove or oven. Maybe living in a very old, five story walk-up with exposed brick wall is not all it's cracked up to be. 

I still love the exposed brick wall though. It did nothing wrong.

j.

J. Loves {Her} Style: Bag Envy

Meet Amy. She's from China. And I love her style. Read on to find out why!

Amy and I have a few classes together each week. And every week I drool over her handbag. I mean seriously drool. Serious bag envy. Then yesterday I find out it's Celine. Come on, Amy! As if my green-eyed monster wasn't rearing his ugly head enough already.

 

It was ridiculously warm in NYC yesterday. Like, 20 degrees celsius warm. Sorry American friends, no idea what that means for you... A little sidebar to let you all know how thankful I am that the rest of the world also measures temperature like us Canucks. Really, these faren..what? loving people need to get with the program! Anyways, Amy and I had back-to-back classes so we stopped for a moment in Union Square to enjoy the beauty that is Spring trying really hard to happen. Oh yeah...I also made her pose for me.

 

As if bag envy wasn't enough, Amy has to go and wear a leather sleeved, knee-length blazer. Her arms felt like butter, people! It's so chic, so "on trend". Then, when I think the green-eyed monster has done his worst, she mentions, "oh! This old thing? I got it on sale at Zara for $30". ROOOOOOAAAARRRRRR! So instead of letting my angry little monster gobble her up right there in the square, I snapped a few pics and told her I loved her style!

I suppose the ridiculously on sale leather-sleeved jacket balances out the insanely beautiful, insanely expensive, definitely out-of-my-price-range purse. I will have to settle for drooling a little bit whenever I see Amy carrying it. Sigh...

Once I got beyond the purse and jacket, which was hard. Really, really hard. I loved the deep orange dress she was rocking. And yes, those are leopard print sleeves you see peeking out. They took the form of a cardigan. So much awesomness in this outfit, it was almost too much to bear.

Amy, do the rest of us a favor, will you? Stop looking so damn good and being too darn cute all the time. K, thanks.

j.

Holiday Leather

This is the very first appearance, or debut if you will, of my thrifted leather skirt. I didn't think I was going to be able to wear this treasure until NYC. But we had a "pretend" Christmas dinner with some family last night, and who doesn't bust out their leather skirt for family functions?

Are you dying to know where I am in these photos? Check out the set-up below. Just a little sneaky photo magic from my soon-to-be-sister-in-law. And some seriously calculated cropping.

fuschia top and rock ring {Urban Outfitters} - leather skirt {Victoria vintage fair} - black boots {Payless}

I was feeling a touch hardcore in the leather skirt and pointy boots. Not that there's anything wrong with that. There's a time and a place for hardcore. Maybe just not at your Aunt's house. So, to balance out the badass in me, I paired the skirt with this overly feminine, delicate and, most importantly, loose top. I completed the look by creating soft waves in my hair. I hope I achieved the perfect balance of hard and soft.

j.