look what I made #7: apple picking dress!

I bought this fabric at JoAnn's last month intending to make it into a dress before my family's annual apple picking day. And then I completely forgot about it until literally the day before we went. So I did what any normal human being would do... I stayed up until 2am making the dress. Naturally.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, though, considering how quickly I put it together. I used a new pattern for the bodice (this one) and I love it! I've been using one where the front bodice was assembled from three separate pieces, but this one is one single piece with darts. It doesn't break up the pattern as much, so this is definitely the one I'm going to use for my galaxy-print dress, which is next on my sewing to-do-list! :D

Dress- handmade! | Sunglasses - uo | Shoes - urbanog | Cardigan - old navy

look what I (sort of) made #5: bridesmaid gown restyle

Last month I found a vintage bridesmaid gown for $25. It had a high neckline, banded sleeves and the most noisy, stiff taffeta lining I've ever seen. But it also had an embroidered bodice to die for! So I got it and hoped my sewing skills were good enough to turn it into something lovely and more casual.

Last night I put my talents to the test. I took off the collar and created a new neckline with binding tape. I took off the banding on the sleeves and shortened them to just under the scalloped crochet detail for a fluttery effect. I cut out the old taffeta lining, sewed in a new white cotton one and hemmed the sheer overlay. And by golly, it worked!

I am SO happy with how this came out!! I didn't even want to go to sleep last night because it meant having to change out of my new favorite dress into pajamas ;D

Dress - vintage (from Love Saves the Day) | Shoes - ebay | Belt - vintage

look what I made #4: unicorn dress!

dress - handmade by me! :D
belt - from another dress
collar - romwe
shoes - c/o bait

I saw this sheet on etsy last week, and I immediately thought, "I need to make this into a dress!!! Now!!" I actually sewed it up the day that the fabric arrived in the mail, I was so anxious and excited! :D I love how it came out, and I have enough material leftover to make some pillows too!

I used the New Look pattern 6020 for the bodice, and then I just gathered a bunch of fabric for the skirt. I'm still getting the hang of sizing (you wouldn't want to see how big it is without the belt, lol!) but I'm learning as I go along :)

ps. Do you spot Hubble in the photo above? Cat photobomb!

a little bird told me...

dress - c/o modcloth
dotted stockings - target
shoes - urbanog

Last week I had SO much to do my head was spinning, but I actually got (mostly) caught up and got to spend the whole weekend (mostly) goofing off. It was magnificent!

I finally had some time to do a little sewing... my mending pile was getting pretty huge! I usually have to shorten my dress straps by a couple inches (including this one... 2" came off) so they don't fall off my shoulders. I also usually hem anything longer than 36", although lately I've been testing out wearing some longer lengths. But I still think I look like I'm playing dress up with my mom's clothes if the hem is closer to my ankle than my knee ;D

ps. The bird print on this dress is beyond adorable... they look like little animated birds from a Disney animation! You can view them closer here.

DIY: cat skirt

Remember this post, in which I bemoaned the fact that even the largest vivetta cat skirt couldn't fit over my gigantic hips? Well, problem solved! I decided to fashion one of my own black skirts (about $5 on clearance at old navy last year!) into a cat skirt of my own! I can't wait to make Casey's cat clutch and wear them together!! :D

You'll need: a black skirt, black felt, two white buttons, one pink button and white embroidery thread

I'm not going to give measurements for the cat ears because they should really be unique to each girl. When I tried on the vivetta skirt (although I was unable to zipper it lol) I found that the cat ears were too high, and interfered with the girls. So for this skirt, I decided to put on the skirt and then measure from the waistband what would be a comfortable height for the ears. Mine ended up being 2" above the waist but obviously if you're blessed with a flatter chest you can make much more obvious ears ;)

1. Once you've found your measurement for the ears, cut out four identical triangles. Stitch two together, then repeat. Because they're felt, the edges won't fray but by joining two together they'll also be stiff enough to stand up on their own. 2. Attach the ears to the skirt. I sewed mine at the bottom, then added a small stitch to the tops of the ears to hold them in place. 3. Measure where you want the buttons to go, and attach them with the white embroidery thread. And that's it! =^..^=

ps. Once I finished I realized I should have done something to make the ears stand out more from the skirt. I did a little white outline in pencil (to eventually be replaced by embroidery) but I'd recommend sewing a piece of white felt onto the triangles before attaching them to the skirt :)

DIY: lonely sock holder

I don't know about you, but I seem to have a lot of single socks. Rather than have them hang out with the married ones in my sock drawer, I decided to create a little place where they can mingle until I finally find their mates.

You'll need: two pieces of fabric (size is up to you.. I think mine came out too small. You want it to be able to hold as many lonely socks as you have, and then some), ribbon or string for the draw-string and some lonely socks

1. Sketch out the shape of a sock on your fabric. Pin the two pieces together, and cut it out (allowing some extra room for the seam). 2. Hem the top of each piece, then put them together again with the good sides facing each other. Measure about 1.5" from the top of the pieces, and mark it. This is where you want to start sewing -- make sure you backstitch! 3. Sew the two pieces together.

From here on in I think it's easier if you just watch this video here on how to make drawstring bags. It's pretty much the same concept as this except mine is shaped like a sock! ;) I made this project at night & couldn't photograph as I went along... I didn't realize how hard it would be to explain it without pictures, lol :)

DIY: thread cozy

With Chloe in the house, I need to cat-proof everything. Some cats are really well-behaved (cough.. Hypatia.. cough) and never try to eat anything they're not supposed to. And then there are cats like Chloe, lol. If we track in leaves, she eats them.. bugs, dust bunnies, basically anything small enough to fit in her mouth will become food if we're not careful. So having a rack of thread with loose strings sitting right at prime feline height is a dangerous situation. Solution? A thread-cozy!

You'll need: approx. 40" x 30" fabric, stick-on velcro, sew-on velcro (optional), iron on transfer paper (optional)

I chose to do mine with plain white fabric, and then iron-on a design I drew. I uploaded the design so you can use it too! You can download it here. I needed to print it on two separate iron-on sheets to get the design big enough. And make sure you flip it backwards before printing, since iron-ons produce a mirrored image :)

1. Iron your fabric. Cut out two 16" x 14" rectangles, with about 1/4" extra for seam allowance (I think that's what it's called? Still a bit of a novice lol) You'll also need 4 pieces that are 3" x 2". 2. Next, sew the little pieces into tubes, and then flip them inside out. Then sew (or attach, if you're using the sticky velcro) tiny velcro pieces to the ends of each tube. 3. Now put your two large rectangles together with the good sides facing each other. Insert your tubes in the four corners of the rectangle. They should be pinned inside of the two fabric pieces, 1.5" from the corners, with 2" sticking into the fabric. 4. Now sew along the edges, leaving room at the bottom to flip inside out. I decided to top-stitch with pink over mine, but you could just stitch up the opening if you'd like! 5. If you're using the iron-on transfer, now is the time to do it! One tip: don't leave the iron on any longer than the 15-20 seconds recommended on the transfer instructions. I kind of burnt my transfer a bit (you can see it's discolored on the right side) I think it looks kind of cool & sepia toned, but ideally I would have preferred if it just came out perfect, lol! 6. The last step is to attach the sticky velcro to the four end pieces on your thread rack. Then go ahead and attach your thread cozy! To access your thread, it's as simple as removing the velcro tab from one corner! :)

DIY: cat clutch

Hello, Casey from Noir Girl here! I've whipped up a quick little clutch purse pattern for us to make while Kate is vacationing. Kate was my inspiration for this design. I was disappointed for her that the lovely cat skirt she found didn't work out, so I created this as a way for her to have the look in another form.

Download the pattern and instructions here: (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to see them)

PATTERN
INSTRUCTIONS

The pattern will work beautifully printed on plain computer paper, but I have found newsprint (the blank kind that is sold in art supply stores) a great pattern paper. Just cut a couple sheets down and load them in your printer before beginning.

And don't forget - when printing the pattern make sure it is NOT scaled. Page scaling: NONE. The pattern will become skewed if you forget this step. (Believe me, I speak from experience here!)

Happy sewing, friends! If you have questions about any part of the pattern, write me a comment or tweet me. I will be happy to help you!

posh frock friday

dress - handmade by me! :D

belt - forever 21

shoes - c/o blowfish

hair bow - hive & honey

This is my latest sewing project, and the first one where I altered the pattern! I used this little diagram to make the armholes smaller. Considering my skill level, I was really excited when I tried it on and it actually fit lol! :D I am *still* trying to figure out what my size is, so once again it's too big in the waist and shoulders. I'm just so nervous that if I keep going down a size, one of these times I'm going to make something that doesn't fit and I'll have wasted a bunch of fabric. I guess I really need to just buy some scrap fabric and test it until I get it right! :)

look what I made #3!

dress - handmade by me!!!

belt - forever 21

shoes - modcloth

hair bow - hive & honey

My first attempt at sewing a dress with sleeves!! :) It's not quite perfect, but I'm so happy with how it turned out! The armholes go wayyyy too low for me, if I so much as raise my arm 1/2" the whole dress comes up with it, lol! Also, I still haven't nailed the science of sizing yet so I really need the belt to cinch the waist.

Last night I decided to tackle adjusting the pattern to fit better. I'm such a novice, I really didn't think it would work at all. I'm just barely getting the hang of sewing a store-bought pattern, so adjusting one to fit me is a bit of a stretch! But I took in the waist on the pattern and brought the armhole up closer to my actual arm... then I just dove right in and sewed it. And it actually worked! The new dress I made fits (almost) like a glove... still a bit too big in the waist, but it's a step in the right direction. I'll take pictures today and probably post them for my PFF post since the dress is kinda fancy looking ;D

ps. sorry about the insane amount of light coming in from my window.. the sun was like that all day yesterday, it was crazy!! :)

posh frock friday

dress - handmade!

cardigan - forever 21

shoes - c/o blowfish

hair bow - hive & honey

belt - Dorothy Perkins

This morning has been so incredibly wonderful. We turned off the a/c and slept with the windows open for the first time all summer, and when I woke up I just felt so incredibly refreshed! My room was so cool, and surprisingly my allergies were practically non-existent. As I was slowly waking up I heard Hypatia meowing at me, and then felt her "brushing" my hair with her paw. *so cute!* Then while doing my morning blog-reading I saw THIS *squeals* which totally made my month! eep! Then I checked my email and saw that my brand new record player that was supposed to ship on September 20th is out for delivery TODAY!

I went downstairs in my brand new handmade blue dress, and saw that my dad had been grocery shopping and bought me some snapple and grapefruit juice (yay!!) AND a modcloth order that shipped LAST NIGHT was sitting on the kitchen counter!

I just love when all the little things align to make for a perfect day. It really doesn't happen to me that often so when it does I'm just floating on a cloud of rainbows and sunshine. Now I'm just listening to Goldfrapp (perfect Happy Day music) sipping tea, and feeling incredibly wonderful!

look what I made #2!

dress - handmade!!!

belt - modcloth

shoes - vintage

hair bow - hive & honey

First, sorry for the pitiful lighting again... it was super rainy yesterday, but I really couldn't wait for the sun to come out to take pictures of my new dress!! :D

I made this one using the New Look pattern#6020 but only for the bodice. I just did the skirt the same way I did the other one (just a really big rectangle with pleats) instead of following the New Look skirt pattern. The fabric is from JoAnn's (isn't it pretty?! I love grey and yellow!) and I made up the collar pattern myself! I just traced the neck & back openings and sketched out a shape for the collar I wanted. I can't believe it actually worked! :D

I liked this pattern A LOT better than the BurdaStyle one. The instructions were much more clear, and it was even easy to install a zipper! I still had trouble with the sizing and had to take it in a lot once it was assembled, but otherwise everything went smoothly. I want to keep practicing now until I really get the hang of it. I'm so excited about saving money by making my own dresses, and also I'm looking forward to trying to make my own modified versions of some dresses I've seen online that wouldn't fit me (like those xxxxxs vintage dresses on etsy lol!)

some dress details

Thanks so much for all the great feedback on my post this morning!! :D I thought I'd share some close-ups so you can see the fabric & details better. I got the fabric at JoAnn's, and the pattern I used was this one from BurdaStyle. I just downloaded it and printed the pdf at home!

Also, I have to say to anyone who left a comment saying they wished they could do this.. YOU CAN! I can't even count how many times my needles have broken, or my thread snapped in the middle of a project, or I accidentally sewed something together backwards or inside out. And 90% of the sewing patterns and instructions I've read might as well have been gibberish.. it's like a foreign language to me. Of all of the things I've ever tried to learn, this was definitely the hardest, and absolutely took the most perseverance on my part. But I am SO glad I stuck with it! I'm more proud of this simple little dress than I am of my drawings and paintings, just because it was so hard for me to figure out. So I guess my point is .. if sewing seems really difficult, just keep trying! I never in a million years thought I'd conquer my sewing machine, so if *I* can do it.. you can definitely do it! :)

look what I made!!!

dress - handmade (did she say handmade??? YES SHE DID!!)

shoes - c/o blowfish

hair bow - hive & honey

Guess who made her own dress this weekend??! AHH! That's right, the girl who one year ago could barely sew a basic pillow has now made a dress. And it actually. looks. like. a. dress. And I wore it out for a whole day, and it did not fall apart!!! Granted, I had trouble figuring out how to size it correctly so the waist is about 3 sizes too big (hence the matching sash) but otherwise I don't think I did bad for my first try!

And wait, it gets better. I made ANOTHER dress yesterday (this time, it fits) and it has a sailor collar (that I made from a pattern that I whipped up myself!) and a little matching bow. I seriously cannot wait to take pictures to show you guys, I'm just so excited!

Last year I was *this* close to selling my sewing machine because I was so sure I was incapable of sewing. And honestly, I probably would have sold it if I didn't have so much encouragement and help from Casey! She was the recipient of way too many urgent tweets about bias tape and zippers, and I'm so incredibly grateful that she patiently (and enthusiastically!) explained everything to me. She got me from ineptitude at sewing a straight line to making a dress from scratch! Thank you Casey!!!! :)

it's been fun.

dress - vintage

balloon sleeve bodysuit - boohoo

shoes - karmaloop

As much work as I put into this dress, I've come to the conclusion that I just don't like it :p It's a wee bit too short (my fault for not really measuring when I hemmed it..), the shoulders are too wide, and the torso is too long. I have to fold it over and then put the belt over the fold because my waist is too short for it! I was so proud of myself when I first altered it, but ever since then it's just been sitting in my closet collecting dust. Every time I try it on, I change my mind before I leave the house because of the odd bunching at the waist, and the fact that even the slightest wisp of wind and I'd be flashing my panties.

So this is the dress' swan song. I thought I'd do one last post with it before I put it away. I'm not going to throw it out or anything (yet) since it's my first moderately successful sewing project, but it's not going to be on my body, or this blog, again :( Poor dress.

Do you want to comment, but have no idea what to say? Trust me, I've been there! So to make things a little easier, here is a question you can answer if you can't think of anything else to say! :)

What questions would you like to answer for question of the day (this is harder than it seems and I could really use some suggestions lol!)

Sailor Collar DIY

What you need:

A pillowcase

Light interfacing

Two buttons

An old sleeveless dress

First I should point out that I am probably the worst seamstress on the planet. The only thing I can do even remotely well is hemming, and even then I'm kind of iffy. This point illustrates two things:

a) I probably have no idea what I'm talking about. However..

b) If I can do it, you probably can too ;-)

When I saw this dress I immediately fell in love with the collar. However, since I'm on a strict budget now, I really couldn't afford to buy the dress (at that price I couldn't really afford it even when I wasn't on a strict budget.. lol) so I decided to try to restyle an old dress instead!

I got this dress for like $8 at a mall store a few years ago, and I think I've worn it one or two times. I'm not fond of the tank top look on top, so this was the perfect dress to alter! Since the closest fabric store is over a half hour away (and I don't drive) I just decided to use a white pillowcase, and it worked perfectly! Here's how I did it!