Gearing up for Christmas!

Now that Halloween is over as much as I want to rest it is time to start getting ready for Christmas! I love giving handmade gifts to people, in fact 4 years ago I had decided that I would no longer buy gifts for people at Christmas and I would only give them something that I had made. As my children get older I plan on including them in this more and more. Here are some teasers of some stuff I will be making for my loved ones this year...I've included links with the ideas that i have stolen from other people :)

Don't you just love these candles? I would like to make them in several different colors, can't wait to try them.

Chalkboard bottomed wine glasses...I think YES! so much cuter than wine charms

I really want to make some fun aprons for people...maybe even myself

and what better to go with awesomely unique aprons but equally as awesome kitchen towels

Originally these ornaments are filled with a cut up wedding invitation to give for a couples' first wedding, I would like to fill them with prayers and verses for families.

The more I see these the more I am in love with them...this isn't exactly a gift idea but I will most definitely be making one of these for myself

Also, if you are in the Portland area and need ideas on what to make or how you can have a more DIY holiday you should come to Imago Dei's DIY fair on November 19

Anyone have any awesome homemade gift ideas for this year? What are you making?

I fell off the sewing bandwagon...But Halloween came and I began again

It has been absolutely way too long since I've blogged about anything, let alone sewing. And to be honest that is because I had kind of stopped sewing for a while. It may have been the fact that I started Grad school, or I just got tired of it for a while. In the past year I have continued in my sewing, but at a much slower pace and with less frequency. I made a few bridesmaids dresses...

These were for the Canfield-Swartout wedding :) 

I also went a little crazy making dresses to wear during my vacation in Las Vegas...

I made the purple and the green dresses for my vegas trip... I made some other stuff too but apparently didn't get very good pictures of anything else ;)

Lastly...after sewing for my Vegas trip, which was the first week in October, I embarked on Halloween sewing! I made 9 full costumes and helped a couple other people put together theirs. So here they are...This is very picture heavy....but if you really want to see all the costumes I made this year now is your chance :) 

 I am so pleased with how this Juliet angel dress turned out...thank you so much to Alyssa for sending me some photos! She looks so great :)

This is the lovely Jill wearing the Buffy the Vampire Slayer costume I created, this is based off the original 1990's movie, I also made two of these for customers on Etsy. 

 Now for the costumes I made for my friends, my kids, and myself:

Miss Sarah in her Princess Peach costume that I created, with her husband Brian aka. "Mario"

I made the Pirate costume, worn by Rylie, and my Wonder Woman costume (we are here with Adele who was Adele)

My 2 year old Daughter Peyton in her Rainbow Brite Costume

My 3 year old son Kaden as He-Man

Myself and my two awesome kids....We sort of had a theme going on

This is my friend Chelsea's baby Judah...I made him a ring masters jacket (which is hard to see) and the little top hat.

 So there it is...my latest adventures in sewing...I'm making myself take a couple weeks off and then I will be starting on Christmas presents. Maybe even get some fun tutorials up. Only time will tell.

Costume Update

Well I just finished two costumes on my growing list....

A Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie) cheerleader outfit

Here is the ACTUAL costume from the movie

Here is my approximation, ignore all my messy sewing crap in the background

The dress from Romeo + Juliet that Juliet wore for the costume party (The angel dress)

Now whats left are, a Mad Men 60's style sheath dress, a pirate costume, Princess Peach (the mario brothers princess), a sailors costume (in rockabilly style, for myself), and little red riding hood and the big bad wolf (for my kids). This is a fun and busy time for me, among these I also have a few alterations coming in.

We need more tutorials for boys clothes and stuff...

I have a two year old son,  and it has become apparent to me that he gets a little jealous and sad that I don't make things for him but his baby sister gets to try things on that come from mommy's sewing machine all the time. Soooo....I'm on the idea trail for things that I can make for Kaden. I made him a cape today, which of course has been done, but I'm going to do some fun freezer paper stencils. I also have two tutorials coming up, one for a messenger bag (for boys like mine who are with mommy all the time and want to cary a purse, but hey a "satchel" is so much more acceptable right? I mean Indiana Jones carries one:)) And an easy pullover sweat shirt out of fleece, hoping to have those up in the next few days.

--Also...I've got four orders to fulfil on etsy, three halloween costumes and one of my own designs! Busy, busy, busy, but I love it, I'm actually making money doing something I love. Its a great feeling

Tutorial: T-Shirt to Girls Peasant Dress

Hello virtual (and some physical) friends! I have a tutorial for you all, I'm new to this whole thing so please let me know if there is anything I could change or improve on! I love to make new things for my daughter, and using clothes that don't fit me or that were given to me and I don't wear is a perfect place to start looking for new clothes for her. I also love the peasant top style, soooooo i decided to try and re-use and old t-shirt and re-style it into a dress for her. These are especially good for toddlers or 3-5 year olds.

Supplies:
Old T-shirt (any size really works, i used a 2T shirt to make a shirt, instead of a dress, for my 10 mo old daughter, the technique  all works the same)
Scissors
Elastic (I used 1/4 inch, but really it just depends on how big a channel you want to make at the top)
Thread and needle or sewing machine


Steps:
1. Take your t-shirt and lie it out then fold it in half matching up shoulder seams and sleeves.

2. Cut across the top of the shirt, detaching the neck and cutting into the shoulder. 

 3. If you end up with a V like I did this time (of course when I'm taking pictures!) then fold one sleeve into the other and lay as flat as possible, then cut to make it more straight (a little variation is ok, we are just going to be folding it over anyway.

 with the V

after I straightened it out

4. make your casing, fold over about a half inch of fabric towards the inside of the shirt and pin in place, this will be the casing for your elastic.

Tip: what I tend to do is pin around the inside as I make my casing, but then switch the pins to be on the outside because I find that stitching on my machine from the top creates better looking stitches. Thats why it in the first picture the pins are on the inside of the shirt and in the second they are on the outside.

5. Stitch (either by hand or with your machine) around the neckline making sure to leave room for the elastic but catching the edge of the casing.  Also, make sure to leave a space unstitched where you will insert your elastic

6. Measure out the elastic, my rule of thumb is a little less than half the circumference of the shirt to start.

 

7. Insert the elastic into the casing (I like to use a safety pin attached to the end of the elastic to help guide it, I also pin the other end of the elastic to the shirt once I have fed it into the casing all the way, this way it won't get lost in the shirt from the other end.

8. Once the elastic has been pulled through and the fabric gathered secure the end of the elastic with a pin and try the shirt on the one its intended for. This way you can see if it needs to be gathered more, when the neckline is the size that it needs to be sew the ends of the elastic together and stitch up the hole that you left in the casing. And there you go! Peasant shirt!

There you have it...I have a few I've made so far, but need to get my models to put them on for me, this picture just doesn't do it justice.

Dress of the night...

I got inspired, and then stayed up way to late finishing this dress...I think it's a great fall dress! With fun front pockets and puffy sleeves, I'm loving it. Unfortunately I don't have a model at my disposal every day, so we will all have to suffice with my dress form...

I have quite a few outfits made now...I really enjoy having a place to let out my stresses and to use my creativity.

Back to Blogging

Wow did I fall off the blogging wagon! I admit it, I’ve missed blogging, and frankly I think keeping a blog is a major way to get exposure for my work. While I have been missing off the blog front, I have been extremely busy on the sewing front. I’ve been working on several projects, and purchased an add spot on Etsy for the 25^th, so I wanted to get some good items up. I have so many sides of me its hard to narrow it down, I have my fun hippie simple side, but I also love business attire, and formal wear! What do work on!? So I’ve dabbled a little in different areas. Here is what I’ve done more recently, along with 4 other dresses that I will get pictures up of as soon as I can hook up with my favorite model again! (Thank you again Michelle for showing off my clothes for everyone)

This first dress is a re-fashion, and while it isn’t “my style” per-se I wanted to show what something can change into. Unfortunately I totally forgot to take a picture of the “before” but here is the “after”...

What I did to it: made a square neckline into a scoop, did little gathers on the straps to add some detail, made fabric flowers with faux pearl centers out of the ties that used to be on the dress, made a high slit on the side to add a little sex appeal, took the extra fabric in the back and made pleats along the deep V and added a zipper. Lots of little things to make a quite different looking dress.

The second outfit is a Tunic that I bought and loved for some reason, but it was very poor fitting and didn’t give any shape definition, so I added shirring under the bust to provide better shape. I love it best with jeans, but could be worn with leggings as a mini dress.

The third is an original, I like the fun breezy feel of the linen look material. I feel like dresses in this type of style can look good on anyone, it has a waistline similar to an empire, but without the exact same feel. Plus I love having dresses and tops that I can just pull on and don’t have a zipper or anything, I LOVE SHIRRING! The best skill I have learned by far. (well except sewing in general)

Lastly is my take on an Oregon Evening gown, I feel like this dress is straight out of Eugene. It is sexy, but has that Saturday market feel of a  print on the skirt. The fabric is high quality organza though, and so much fun. Lined with the same silky satin that makes up the bodice. I love the low back as well, and I feel like it has coverage in the right areas but also has a sexy silhouette. I love a great maxi dress.

Like I said I have four other dresses I’ve made, a fun yellow shirred waist dress, a black on black striped dress with a fun zipper, a men’s shirt to dress re-fashion and a copy of a dress my friend wanted re-made that turned out great. So check back soon!