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!

What do I want?

Well frankly I want a lot of things, many of which I cannot have or aren't in my near future, but what I want out of this new adventure is to do something for myself. It would be nice to work at something that  can make enough money to support my family, of course as small businesses go that can be rather unlikely. I'll keep trying though. It is hard in some ways because I know I do a good job, and friends/family tell me how beautiful my stuff is, but I need others out there to see what I can do and want to buy it. I just can't charge my friends what I would charge someone else, I would love to just be able to give people the beautiful things I make, but then I would be losing a lot of money! hahaha Alas, I have been making some money, so hopefully those that have come to me for business will return or send others my way. We can only hope.

I leave you today with a picture of my newest design, not quite finished yet, here is a teaser:

HALLOWEEN....

So it may seem far off but its time to start thinking about costumes. Halloween has in the past been my busiest sewing time, unfortunately I don't have a ton of pictures of past costumes unfortunately. I'm bummed because I've made some really fun ones. Here are the ones that I do have first are three costumes, a sort of old west corset and skirt combo, a gypsy getup and a funky punk vampire.

These two costumes are a hooded sweatshirt Dragon costume and an infants Knight costume:

Lastly a simple yet fun royal purple cape:

I can do pretty much any costume you are thinking of. If you are interested in custom costume design and creation please contact me. 

Lace Front Tank top Refashion -- Tutorial

Well its a two post kinda day...

I got this tank at a garage sale for .25 so I decided it would be a good place to start with some tutorials:

First either measure the neck line, all around, or do it the cheater way like me and just take your lace and wrap it around the neck to see how much you need

Pin the lace around the neck line and stitch, I chose to stitch around both the top and the bottom of the lace, this really depends on what kind you are using and its up to you.

Take more lace and cut gradually decreasing strips for the front, lay they out so you can get a general idea of what it will look like.

I cut my ends at an angle, this again is something thats up to you, and depends on what type of lace you are using

Pin the first strip and sew each strip

Here is the finished product...I added a lace bow at the top and also took more lace and sewed it along the bottom.

I hope this is helpful in some way, its not my absolute favorite shirt, but it turned out pretty good. Please leave comments of anything I could change or what you like about it. 

Sewing Corner

I am very excited about my new sewing corner, my awesome friend came over and helped me re-arrange some things so that I can sew and keep a good eye on my kids at the same time. I have views of almost the entire house from my area. So here are a few pictures...

I also made this cute toddler girls dress...I need to get a model for it but here it is on the hanger