Not embroidery per se, but in the spirit of? WIW to an art show reception last night:

• DB Sport Asian print velvet/velour mixed media top with lace bell sleeves and applique strappy satin trim at waist (thrifted about 3 years ago). [Just a note that in the pix, you can't really see that this isn't all red but partly gold and even has some turquoise in it. My phone camera is just not that great. :P]
• Ralph Lauren sheer dark metallic hoodie as underlayer (thrifted almost 10 years ago)
• Zion cropped flares with DIY let-down hems (thrifted this summer)
• Diba paisley print boots with gold flecks (about 7-8 years old, on extreme sale)

I’ve been enjoying my new YLF-era buys a lot—they have been sorely, sorely! needed—but this outfit is more in my earlier tradition of Extreme
Cheap from the depths of the closet, in which the entire thing (often even including jewelry) ran me less than $100. The total for these 4 items was *maybe* about $50. And I really enjoy pulling current trends out of ancient and thrifted items, like the sheer underlayer, velvet, bell sleeves, and maximal footwear. It was also an interesting experiment in layering sheernesses, as either set of sleeves might have been too chilly by itself.

The boot/jeans combo was a bit of a revelation for me. The boots are “tall,” not a bootie type, and this is my first time trying such an item under jeans—I've paired tall boots mainly with skirts and dresses, especially ones like these where the shaft is far too narrow to tuck anything into. These were my only jeans that could accommodate this option, but it was an interesting discovery to find that the cropped jean/higher-shaft bootie look could be done with existing taller boots. However, mine is most certainly *not* a leg-lengthening look. And that's OK.