Birds of Paradise

After making a dress with a full circle skirt earlier this year, I just knew I wanted more! I ordered a few fabrics from a great etsy shop based in India (which has since closed sadly!) and finally managed to make up one of the two planned dresses. I just adore this tropical print! There are even parrots among the leaves in this print, along with some vague leopard print spots. I am super happy with how the dress came out as the fabric turned out to be quite thin and a bit delicate to work with. The dress is lined with a light beige cotton/poly blend to add some strength and opacity to the dress. I ended up using the same printed fabric to make bias binding to hem the sleeves and skirt of the dress as anything else would have been just too heavy.

These aptly tropical photos were taken on a trip to the Denver Zoo! My mom and I spent a few hours yesterday walking around, soaking up some sun, and then getting ice creams to help keep cool. I woke up knowing I wanted 50's-ish hair, but that if I left it down I would be way too hot. I searched pinterest for a solution and found this tutorial. I fixed mine a little bit differently, but it did the job of both looking vintage and keeping my hair off of my neck in the heat. I only have this one nylon scarf in my collection of many scarves, can you believe that? I need to invest in a few more colors so I can do my hair up in scarves more often! Off to etsy I go...

Dress: Made by me
Shoes: Nine West
Jewelry: Vintage
Belt: Target
Scarf: Vintage
Sunglasses: Random stall in Camden Market