Summer Dress

Well, I'm finally ready to share the dress that I made while my mom was here last weekend. I really love the fabric. It has lots of summery colors.

The dress has shoulder pleats, and darts! I really learned a lot from making it. Of course my mom walked me through the whole thing. I was hoping to make it through without having her do any actual sewing on it, but that didn't happen. I had some trouble with attaching the skirt to the top, so she had to help a little with that. But really, I did most everything, and I'm pretty proud.

I'm no model, but I thought I should share a picture or two of me actually wearing it.What do you think? Not too bad for my first dress?

Now that my mom is gone, she wants me to try it again...by myself. I honestly don't know if I can do it. But I won't know until I try. I'll at least get the pieces cut out tomorrow.

Skirt Reconstruction

One of my besties, Carissa, who blogs at Kali Crafts, and I have started The Great Sewing Challenge. Although she's been sewing a few more months than me, we're both beginners. But we've both been wanting to make skirts. So, we've challenged each other to sew our first skirts, and have them posted on our respective blog by Sunday evening. I really felt like I needed to practice first so...

I bought this cutie little dress for $5 at Goodwill the other day. It actually looked pretty cute on, but the elastic around the top and waist felt uncomfortably tight. Not only that, but I just don't pull off strapless all that well. So I decided to use it for practice.
First I cut off the top. Originally I thought, "Ah, my work is finished." But then the top was all frayed and worn at the waist from getting cut. Then when worn at the waist, it was a funny length on me. I'm pretty short, so certain lengths don't look good.After cutting more material off the top, I followed this tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff (one of my new favorite sites), to gather the top and add the elastic. I think it turned out well enough for my first clothing reconstruction. The gathers aren't perfect, but I'll wear it. It came together with minimal frustration, so I'm looking forward to experimenting with more skirts!

Bed Pillow Saga

So, I made these pillows to go on our bed. Only, I made them in TN...where I was far away from my bed...where I forgot that we took our heavy bedspread off the bed for the summer, and now have a dark blue blanket showing. So they don't really match much, except with our large decorative pillows.

So I made this dark blue pillow...which is really cute, and matches the blanket really well...but the pillows not so much. I didn't realize that the white would clash so badly.

Not wanting to waste or ruin that pillow, I made an envelope case for it out of this material...I'm not sure what it is (if someone wants to tell me, that would be great). I was really proud of myself for getting the dimensions just right for the pillow I'd already made. The only hiccup was that I mean for the small flap to overlap on top...oh well.

I got this material as a remnant that was on a smokin' sale at JoAnn's (for less than $2). I had plenty leftover to make second pillow, and still have some left.

I really love how they turned out. But here's the thing...
they actually go with the green pillows pretty well.

So...I decided to not care that the green pillows don't match the blue blanket, and put all the pillows on the bed. This wasn't an easy decision...my mom raised me to make things match!But I made all these pillows...and I love them...and I want to see them...even if everything won't really match until fall when we put the bedspread back on. Also, I just want to be done with making pillows for a little while.

Another Bracelet

I made another yo-yo bracelet!
It's hard to stop.
They're fun and and easy to make,
and if I'm not careful I might have one to go with every outfit.

The button came from my grandma's vintage button stash.Close-up of the adorable fabric.
Just a small part of a fat quarter.
Also, I used a 3in. circle.

Same loop closure as the other one I made.Fun, right? Goes great with my favorite red shirt.

Practice

Okay, so I've been practicing sewing,
and following tutorials and such.
Nothing complicated.
I started out with this lined drawstring bag. The instructions confused me a little so I did the hem wrong,
but it's still cute...

And it opens and closes...isn't that really what matters with a drawstring bag?

I also made this envelope-back pillow.
It's made from fabric that my grandma gave me from her stash.
I really like the way it turned out,
but it doesn't really go anywhere in our house.
Oh well, it was for practice.

The overlap/envelope part was pretty easy.

The fabric peeking through is another pillow...
but it's special, so it's going to get its own post.

And the simplest thing I made...a headband out of eyelet lace.
I bought the lace for another project,
but it didn't work out for that...
mainly because I didn't realize how short a half-yard is,
and then I was too embarrassed to ask the lady to cut more.
(Please disregard the fact that it doesn't match my shirt,
I just put the headband on for the pic.)

I just added a little elastic at the bottom.

Again, I know it's simple, but sometimes that's the best.
I'm having a lot of fun with sewing.