FASHION WITH TESSA--GUEST AUTHOR AND FASHION EXPERT DIANE VALLERE

We’re always happy to welcome back Diane Vallere to Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers. After close to two decades working for a top luxury retailer, Diane Vallere traded fashion accessories for accessories to murder. In addition to the Style & Error mysteries, she writes the LEFTY-nominated Material Witness and Mad for Mod Series. Diane launched her own detective agency at age ten and has maintained a passion for shoes, clues, and clothes ever since. Learn more about Diane and her books at her website. 

Samantha Kidd’s Fashion Personality Profile Tester

While between jobs, former fashion buyer Samantha Kidd has hung out a shingle as a stylist. In order to help her understand her client’s needs, she gives them a quiz to determine their fashion personality. Take it and see what your choices say about your style:

1.  Choose a pattern:

2.  You’re indulging in a favorite treat. You choose:

   A.  Steak, baked potato, and iceberg salad

   B.  Takeout

   C.  Cheese, grapes, bread, and bottle of wine

   D.  Sustainable Krill and Plankton compote, mangosteen mochi for dessert

3.  Your favorite style of pants are:

   A.  Hi-wasted pleated trousers like Katherine Hepburn would have worn

   B.  Jeans

   C.  Hemp drawstring waist

   D.  Whatever Nicki Minaj wore in her latest video

  

4.  You win tickets to the Academy Awards, all expenses paid, including a shopping spree for your outfit. You wear:

   A.  Something Grace Kelly might have worn

   B.  A long gown to hide your flip flops underneath

   C.  Vintage caftan, arm filled with bangle bracelets, shoulder duster earrings

   D.  A black tuxedo and a mountain of pearls

5.  Your favorite Johnny Depp:

   A.  Cry Baby: put a man in a black leather jacket and a white T-shirt and he’s good to go.

   B.  What’s Eating Gilbert Grape: Who needs all the crazy costumes?

   C.  Pirates of the Caribbean: Long hair, head wrap, and a vest. He’s like Rhoda in drag.

   D.  Edward Scissorhands: Very Jean Paul Gaultier!

Results:

Mostly A: Classic. You have classic style. Forget trying to keep up with the latest trends. You look (and feel) your best when wearing styles that transcend trends. Stock up on twinsets, pencil skirts, jeans, and trousers, and accessorize with scarves and pearls. Effortless!

Mostly B: Casual. Who has time for fashion? You want to look good and feel good. Play with proportion: oversized sweaters with leggings or sporty zip-front jackets with skirts. Add in sneakers or rubber soled shoes and a messenger bag in your signature color and you’re good to go!

Mostly C: Bohemian. You’re a free spirit and your style shows it. Go for loose tunics in colorful, abstract prints and loose weaves, and pair them with frayed hem jeans. Forget earth shoes…go barefoot! All the better to show off your paisley-painted pedicure.

Mostly D: Fashion Forward. You can list designers like others list the state capitals and wouldn’t be caught dead in last year’s trend. Check out RentTheRunway.com—it’s like Netflix for fashion—and spend your money on subscriptions to Italian Vogue. Who cares if you can read it? Fashion is the real international language.

Some Like it Haute

Fashion expert Samantha Kidd is in the hot seat. After agreeing to help her ex-boyfriend’s former girlfriend with a runway show, she’s attacked in the parking lot outside, landing in the hospital. And when a garment goes up in flames on the catwalk the day after the attack, the situation turns explosive. She recruits a smokin’ hot photographer to turn up the heat on the investigation, but even the third degree won’t expose an angry arsonist. With a crash course in sizzle, Samantha’s curiosity leads her into another inferno, and this time she either faces the fire or gets burned.

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CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--GUEST AUTHOR DIANE VALLERE

Diane Vallere writes cozy mysteries with a stylish twist. She authors the Style & Error Series, currently optioned for TV, the Mad for Mod mysteries, and the fabric shop-themed Material Witness mystery series. She launched her own detective agency at ten years old and has maintained a passion for shoes, clues, and clothes ever since. Learn more about Diane and her books at her website.

Five things to do with one yard of fabric

(and a few items you probably have lying around the house)

Fabric has always held a bit of magic to me. I used to tag along with my mom on trips to the fabric store, where I’d wander the aisles and look at bolts of cotton, silk, taffeta, and wool, and wonder how exactly it was that someone knew what to do with it. My personal favorites were the colorful cottons, lined up in small clusters of coordinating colors: white with black polka dots, black with white polka dots, white with black lines, black with white lines, white and black check, etc. I could entertain myself for hours trying to pick my favorite combinations. My love of fabric stayed with me, even when a love of sewing faded into the background. Which is why I have a stash of fabric with no particular projects I mind. Someday, I think, I’ll have the perfect project for some/all of it. But in the meantime, I still find ways to enjoy it.

Here’s how:

1. Impromptu Table Cloth for a party spread: Find a small table that’s taking up space in your attic. Add a piece of wood on top and drape fabric over it. Match the fabric to the theme of the party. Voila! Instant ambiance and more space for hors d’oeuvres.

 

2. Art: Wrap the fabric over an inexpensive wooden frame and tuck in around the frame. (You can also glue it. School glue will wash out, leaving fabric undamaged. Glue gun glue will peel off when dry, also not damaging the fabric.) Voila! A pretty wall hanging. Perhaps an inexpensive way to freshen up a guest room or a hallway?

 

3. Curtain: Drape your fabric over a dowel rod and rest the ends in existing curtain rod hooks. OR buy a set of small rings with clips attached. Iron the raw edge of the fabric to the back and attach the clips along the length of the fabric. Feed clips over curtain rod. Voila! New curtains. (Neaten up by using an iron to fold raw edges under.)

4. Apron: Cut a length of ribbon long enough to tie around your waist. Double your yard of fabric over the ribbon and tie in the back. Voila! Instant apron. Coordinate fabric to your home interior or party theme for extra fun.

 

5. Vase: Fold fabric down so it is the width of an inexpensive vase. Lay vase on fabric and gently roll until the vase is covered. Secure in back with pins or tie with pretty ribbon (or both.) Voila! Instant room accent. 

What creative ways can you think of to use a yard of fabric?

Suede to Rest

With her career as a dress designer in shreds, Polyester Monroe is looking forward to a fresh start. But as it all unfolds, the pattern to a new beginning looks a lot like murder.

When Poly Monroe was little, she loved playing in her family's textile store. But after a fatal family tragedy, Land of A Thousand Fabrics was boarded up and Poly never expected to see the inside again. Now, as inheritor of the long-shuttered shop, she's ready to restore the family business. However her two new kittens, Pins and Needles, aren't the ones causing a snag in her plans...

Not everyone wants Poly back in San Ladrón, especially a powerful local developer pressuring her to sell--and leave town fast. But even when the threats turn deadly, she's not ready to bolt. Because Poly is beginning to suspect that the murder behind the shop is tied to a mystery in her family's unsettled past that she's determined to solve...before her own life is left hanging by a thread.

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