OOTD x3: End of Summer Skirt Outfits + DIY Paper Jewelry

Welcome to another round-up of recent summer outfits, this time with three layered skirt outfits that work well for the transition from hot summer to cooler late summer/early fall weather. And today I have DIY upcycled paper jewelry of both bracelet and pendant varieties to share. Let's get started!

My first OOTD features the chambray blazer that you may recall from this recent round-up of my neutral modern twin sets. I like the weight of this blazer for early and late summer weather in Minnesota because it's somewhere between a chambray shirt (summer) and a denim jacket (cool spring/fall). This is the first time I paired it with the slate blue skirt. I wasn't sure whether the colors would be awkward together or not...sometimes when two colors are similar but not quite similar enough, it can look a bit off, but I liked this combination! The weave of the blazer fabric has that distinctive "I'm chambray so I'm a neutral" look that makes it work with anything. It's funny, I wanted to make my blue floral scarf work for the outfit, but it wasn't cool enough that I wanted to drape it around my neck, so I rolled it up and made it into a big padded headband to wear with my hair drawn back in my typical Friday ponytail. The effect is somewhere between a headband and a hat.

OOTD 9/2/22

The neutral-ish cool blue theme continued with the blue and silver snakeskin print flats. The bluebirds on the blush blouse blended well with this range of blues. For a layered necklace, I wore a delicate silver/gold tassel necklace, a pink/violet/gold faux gemstone crystal necklace, and a DIY necklace with glass pearls in a range of pinks interspersed with white seed beads and gold spacers. I was inspired to make this necklace by the whimsical pearl necklaces that have been popular the last few years.

Today's bracelet stack is a good example of how a DIY set I made to coordinate with one garment in some of my commonly worn colors then works with other outfits. I made the pink and white tube bead and pink/blue striped bicone bead bracelets to wear with my winter/spring grey striped pullover sweater, but the pink/blue/white color scheme makes it a great choice for many summer outfits too. This is one of my earliest attempts at DIY paper beads (at the beginning of last winter), so it was fun to pull them out to wear with this outfit. I wore them with a DIY pale pink quartz bead bracelet and two silver bracelets from my two purchased bracelet sets.

My second OOTD was built around the white print knit pencil skirt (recently seen with my green-teal modern twin set here). I tried something a little bit different with the skirt this time around. I really wanted to wear my navy cardigan but not have the resulting outfit look too disjointed with the very pale skirt and dark cardigan, so I choose a medium value teal to "stairstep" between the light and dark elements of the outfit (as recommended by Imogen Lamport all over her blog, such as this post). For another dose of teal (and to add some verticality), I also added a teal scarf worn draped simply around the neck. I continued the stairstep strategy with flats in a range of blue stripes. I was happy with how this one turned out!

OOTD 9/6/22

I kept things simple for my necklace with this bulky statement piece from Jones New York (called the "chunky silver blob necklace" in my inventory spreadsheet) that reached 28 wears and $0.96 cost per wear in this outfit. 30 wears, here we come!

My daily bracelet stack is based on a trio of DIY paper bead bracelets that I made to coordinate with this outfit. Navy, teal, and white is a popular color scheme for me, so it will be a versatile set. It contains teal print tube bead, white glass bead, teal and navy colorblock bicone bead, round lapis lazuli bead, and white/navy print bicone bead bracelets (all DIY). Note that I didn't use silver or gold on these bracelets so that I could easily coordinate with either metal in outfits.

I find any color in the Blue-Green section of the color wheel to be a pretty flattering choice for me to wear around my face because it works well with my skin tone and picks up the teal colors in my olive/green/teal/dark blue eyes.

Finally, my third OOTD was an experiment in using a blouse and skirt in two different shades of pink to make a tonal inner column of color to wear under this navy floral shirt. Both of these items are variants of warm pink that I call "watermelon pink" in my wardrobe, so I thought it was worth trying them together. The blouse is rather long, especially for a voluminous skirt, so I front tucked the hem of the blouse into the skirt's waistband and let it blouson out, which made for a neat look under the shirt. Both the non-matching pinks and the front tuck on the blouse get a thumb's up from me. (But man, my necklaces look really wonky in this photo, haha! I really don't think I went down a nap before taking my photo...did I?)

OOTD 9/14/22

Here's my layered necklace after I had un-wonky-ed it a bit: large faux hematite beads and silver/gunmetal chain necklace, long silver/pink tassel necklace, and a DIY paper pendant with a rose image on a simple silver chain. And yes, I made the pendant to wear with this outfit!

What's cool is that the pendant is reversible! On the left is the beaded rose image that I cut from a stunning seed bead weaving project shown in a Fire Mountain Gems catalog. I have zero knowledge/skill of bead weaving, but I can cut out a circle from a piece of paper and glue it onto a pendant made from layers of upcycled cereal box with the best of 'em! Even though my pendant is flat and glossy, the texture of the seed beads in the image still comes through and looks great. On the right is a rose pink/sage floral print that I cut out from a clothing catalog image. I wanted to include similar colors but with a very different look for the flip side of the pendant. Again, there is some texture and dimensionality here because you can see the material's weave and the drape and subtle shadow of the hanging fabric in the image. (I do promise that a tutorial for this pendant is in the works - I have been experimenting with some variations on the basic instructions and want to include my results in the tutorial.)

Another day, another highly-coordinated DIY bracelet stack. I made this set to match a different navy-based floral print with significant amounts of varied pinks in it, but of course it works with this shirt too. We have here: navy/pink floral dress tubes, flat square lapis lazuli, silver spacers (from Amazon set), bright pink glass pearl/silver butterfly, and navy/pink trio of dresses bicone bead bracelets. And yep, for this set I went full on with silver as the metallic.

Are you starting to pull the topper layer pieces out of the closet for your outfits yet this season?

I'm all about the layering. Layering clothing, layering necklaces, layering (stacking) bracelets. I have heard of this "one and done" concept, but obviously I am of the "if one is good, three is better" mentality!

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