The 30-minute, no pattern, easy upcycle dress

Today, I whipped up a cute dress in less than a half an hour, without a pattern! I have become slightly enamored of the idea of upcycling clothing, taking something you might now use and making another thing about of it you will use. Lilblueboo, on Etsy, is one dress maker I follow. Her dresses are cute and popular and she also sells patterns so you can make them on their own. Well, no offense to Ashley but I figured I could try to make on myself, without a pattern. So, here is what I did today!

First, I found a cute top at a consignment store. Lilblueboo does some very cute screen prints, including a crown. I lucked out and found this Carter's top with a crown design in raised metallic sequins.

Then, I let my two year old help me pick from my stash of Chez Ami knits. She chose this cotton lycra striped in pink and red to be the skirt.

Here are my tools for this

adventure.

I have been playing with my new Janome Serger for several days and have figured out the correct settings for serging the edge of this fabric with four threads and then making a rolled hem with three threads.

I serged the side seams with a regular 4-thread edge.

For the skirt, I used the pattern for the dress I made last week, Ottobre Spring 2007, #11. It is twice the width of the dress. I figured this would be a good first trial skirt size.

Time to size up the top! Where to put the waist of the dress? How about right above the toddler belly button!

Cutting off the bottom. I will save this piece of pink for a future project, perhaps a tiered skirt!

Time to pin the right sides together so I can baste them on the sewing machine.

After basting the skirt to the top, I unpinned it and serged the inside with a four-thread edge. I then took out the left thread and changed settings to a rolled hem for the bottom of the dress.

Voila! Cute and simple and best of, my daughter says it is very comfy and she wants to wear it. All in all, this dress took 30 minutes to make and I figure it cost me $7 or less in materials. A perfect play dress for spring!

Next up: I plan to work on the waistline for the next dress and this one is a bit bunchy and not as full as I had hoped. I would also like to taper the sides of a top and make a drop-waist dress with a ruffled skirt. I think that would be darling.

More spring ottobre!

I finished round two of my versions of Spring 2007 Ottobre pattern #s 11 and 17. Here they are in Chez Ami fabric. I think they turned out very cute! The second time around, I made far fewer mistakes. I expect my next go round to be even easier. This is such a cute pattern and my youngest is at the second-to-the last size, that I want to make more and more of them. Such a cute and comfy dress for spring.

Next up, a ruffly skirt and ruffly pants!

Stunning fabric!

I am deeply involved in birthday parties and Easter but am still trying to find time to sew. It is impossibly hard to do when there is so much gorgeous fabric out there. You just want to buy it all and have piles of unsewn fabric, waiting for you, calling to you.

I have to thank sewretrochic for turning me on to this lovely new collection, Glam Garden, by Josephine Kimberling. I am drooling excessively because these are the perfect colors and designs for my taste. They are just stunning. So, while I sew and party away, please enjoy a look at these lovely fabrics.

Bedroom redo, part I

I decided a few months ago that I needed to decorate my master bedroom, being as we have lived in the house for almost four years now. I really do like the LLBean quilt on my bed and it seemed silly to not utilized it further, so I set about trying to think of a low cost way to add some modernity and color to my room. I fell in love with Amy Butler's Nigella Collection, from Imagine Fabrics, and decided to order four different prints and incorporate them into the room in different ways.

First of all, I wanted to add some color above the bed but I am afraid of heavy things falling on my head during an earthquake. My father is a geologist and I grew up in Panama and Southern California, so I have experienced many earthquakes. I realized that I could do something with fabric that would be colorful and lightweight and fell upon this idea, above, to use quilt hoops as wall decor. These are from Michael's Craft Stores and they were only between $1.50 and $4.00 each. They are not perfect to me, but they will do. I don't like the large hoop's wooden closure but I am trying not to focus on it as all larger hoops have them.

So, as you can see above, I utilized three of the four Nigella prints in this project and I love it! I think it adds a fun and colorful element to the room.

My next project is to take the fourth Nigella print, Passion Vine Lime, and make a valence for my window. That should be done soon!

Project Sewing Area Cleanup

So, my sewing area is really my dining room. Why, you ask? Because we don't really use the dining room and there is no room anywhere else. I actually do have a sewing table but there is not really a great place for it so it is currently in the garage. The dining room gets so little use for dining that I took it over. But, my goodness, does it get full of clutter. It seems like the large table is just the perfect spot to dump things. You have to walk past it to get into the kitchen, so everyone dumps their clutter there. On top of that, I have a hard time keeping my sewing paraphenalia organized.

Today, I decided to do something about this mess. I am going to organize it. No wonder I don't sew more than once a week. It is a mess!

Here is what it looked like this morning:

Did I mention the dog sleeps in here, too?

So, what to do? Well, I started with just cleaning it up and organizing. I found an expanding file for patterns. I stacked the plastic tubs and organized the fabric on the shelves. I put the serger on top of the china cabinet (why not?) and the sewing maching near the window. The rolls of Swedish Tracing paper are nicely stashed. But it is still not good enough. I need to get the rest of the fabric out of the tubs. I need more space for thread, especially since the thread holder I have now is broken. I need a multi-drawer bin for notions. So, I am off to Lowe's Hardware and Target to look for options.

Here is what it looks like so far!

Rosalind Tee, part three (it's done!)

Rosalind is done! This little tee is from Ottobre 3/2009. As you may recall from me blogging about it earlier, this was a fun tee to make. I learned a few new stitches. After an exhaustive internet search, I was able to find the cutest buttons in the world on Etsy seller Overspill. We all love these buttons! Thankfully, I have enough to make another tee or two.

So, here she is! Now, I just have to wait for the Michael Miller Big E fabric to arrive to create the matching skirt and an outfit will be ready to wear. In the meantime, my daughter is wearing this top with red polka dot Boden pedal pushers. They have a heart-shaped pocket on them, so in her mind they match the top perfectly. Who am I to argue with that logic?

Three redos and two bandaids later......

I finally got the dress and leggings done from Ottobre Spring 2007. I am so happy with them! This fabric is from Chez Ami. The leggings are from a cotton lycra and the dress is a cotton jersey. The turquoise trim is also Chez Ami and is a cotton interlock. I just love them! These are wonderfully easy fabrics to work with.

So, why three redos and two bandaids? Because the first attempt at the top of the dress turned out way too wide at the shoulders. The second attempt was too narrow at the waist. The third attempt had the sleeves not inserted correctly. During all of this stitch ripping, I managed to stab myself twice in two different fingers with my new tool, Gingher 4 inch featherweight thread snips. I love this tool for ripping seams out and cutting small thread, but dang are the ends sharp! I stabbed myself twice!

So, at any rate, here is the finished result, patterns # 11 and #17 from Spring 2007 Ottobre.

Ta da!

You might notice that the waist is not lying flat like it is in Ottobre. I decided I liked the fullness and left it that way.

She is wearing the leggings with a diaper today because we are being lazy. But she is potty learning and will be more and more in underwear. So, these will look better with less bulk underneath. They are meant to be capris length.

I really like this pattern and now that I have gotten over making so many mistakes, I am planning to use more of these pieces in other Chez Ami fabrics.

*******************************************

************************************

And since one sister cannot have all the attention to herself, here is my older daughter in a dress I made for her last summer from a McCalls pattern. It did not fit back then but she has grown into it. It has a ribbon tie in the back to help it from falling off her shoulders and also to add a pretty touch.