pleated tote

had to replace ye olde fall/winter purse...  :(  

good news - i made myself a NEW fall/winter purse....  

pattern from the long thread

frida fabric from alexander henry
fabric purchased from the needle shop

ruffle camisole

new ruffle camisole for me.  have grown weary of the wintry weather.  am in denial and making summery things....  

pattern from feminine wardrobe by jinko matsumoto

llama love fabric from monaluna

fabric purchased from the needle shop

built like a tank...

my sister bought a few malongs for me and for the longest time, i haven't done anything with them because a) i don't really wear them b) i really love the fabric and couldn't bear to cut it up...  

but i recently whittled down my stash again and found them and was inspired to use them, they're just too pretty to sit in a box.  i made one of them into a tiny pocket tank.  it's a very easy pattern - the instructions and diagrams are very clear.

i'm so pleased with how it turned out and how it fits.  and i actually have enough fabric left over to make a wrap skirt too!  bonus!  this tank is going to be a great layering addition.  looking forward to making more breezy tanks this summer...  maybe i should start a new challenge and make tanks on tuesdays! 

no.  that was a joke.  ;)

thanks for stopping by and visiting for a spell!

project restyle : brown vintage dress + mini

sooooooo excited about my latest creation for

:)

i'm not sure what possessed me to buy this mini skirt save for the cute pleats and the tweedy comfort fabric... i mean... look at it:



it's the same size as my smallest cutting mat! *facepalm*

since buying it at the thrift store, it's been sitting in my closet... and keeping it company was this vintage brown Hope Reed dress that i've had FOREVER - probably a find from my days managing a vintage clothing store in the early 90s...



the dress was always too big (my dress form, Gladys, is also bigger than me), but i loved the pin tuck detailing on the collar and yoke.

so... i chopped off about a foot from the bottom of the dress... added it to the mini... used my handy dandy sewing machine to add some decorative stitching.... used some leftover muslin and lace for another underskirt:



et voici!



une jupe! "modified"!

i think i was inspired by some of the imaginative outfits japanese youth cobble together in the magazine FRUiTS. i have a well loved moldy old issue. i especially enjoy when they mashup two design influences like lolita and steampunk. i'm too "old" to wear their versions, so here's mine.

i'm working on the leftovers of the dress now... will post results later. :) thanks for coming by and reading! Happy Tuesday!

project restyle:denim

as i mentioned earlier, i threw my hat into the project restyle challenge that was introduced by the bloggers at a beautiful mess:



the challenge is so appealing to me because although i buy (and LOVE) vintage or thrift store items, i also find it very difficult to restyle them - even if the fit is all kinds of wrong... i sometimes feel as if i'm defacing a piece of history... BUT. i have ended up with a lot of vintage and thrift scores that i never wear.... i'm hopeful that this challenge will encourage me to move beyond my paradigm and into some really cute outfits - while exercising my creative process! :)

my journey starts with two restyled denim skirts that i had made with two old pairs of ill fitting jeans... (see!?) i really enjoyed making the skirts but when i tried them on they looked too (for lack of a better word) matronly. i may be a mom and not quite 40, but i wouldn't call myself "may-tron-lee"...



like most sewing enthusiasts, i have a gazillion scraps and random varied gimp lying around. i bought this really cool peter max / biba / lautrec mashup inspired fabric from the needle shop a few years ago:



then, i just started to cut... and cut.... and cut... and pieced everything back together... with all the cotton lace scraps i had and a piece of that fabric scrap above...



i still had some denim left over and found this really cute house slipper pattern from craftzine. one of my other personal hurdles is NOT finishing seams... you might not think so considering the skirt above, but it's REALLY difficult for me NOT to finish a seam. i was taught to make a garment as smooth on the inside as it is on the outside... so, after making the skirt it was nice to make the house slippers with finished edges... i needed a little balance. :) the pattern still works - it just required a little rethinking of the sewing directions... the denim scraps i had are only big enough for the size S (5/6) so they're going to an old HS friend of mine who has always had teeny tiny feet. :)



as always thanks for stopping by and reading! :)

moar sewing & friday dance!

ok. i dunno what it's like at your house right now but at our house - it's absolute MADNESS....

unlike the serene & orderly appearance of this blog, my living room is resembling santa's workshop after a visit from a psycho with chain saw... there's glitter and boucle fuzz where glitter and boucle fuzz should just. not. be. O_o

i have waaaay too many projects going on at once for birthdays, donations, the holidays, new baby arrivals, etc... and the children are on crafting overdrive... they've turned it up to 11!!! :)

they're also still attending birthday parties... and i am still making birthday presents.... i SWEAR people are having WAY to much unprotected sex in the spring... jeez LOUISE!!!!

"mother's tired, she needs a rest...." :) ennyhooo.... here are my two latest creations:



the doll's dress is made from an alteration of simplicity 4786. i added the shoulder ruffle from simplicity 4268.

the girl's dress is an (neckline) alteration of simplicity 3510. i added the center front ruffles and sequin trim... just because. :)



the boy's shirt was made from butterick 3475. however, i didn't have the right size so, i had to grade up the pattern myself. it turned out well i think and apparently fits it's owner perfectly. hopefully, that will be true this summer. the fabric was actually a production sample i received from one of my former manufacturers when i worked for joe boxer. i wish i could remember the name of the fabric - we were so good as so many things at JB including naming colors and fabrics. :)

last but not remotely in the least... the porkchop celebrated his 5th birthday on tuesday. much love, hugging, gift wrap ripping, hilarity and cake ensued... HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my s'wonderfullest little man:



thanks for stopping by.... i hope you are having an AWESOME friday!!!! :)

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so little time, so many toys to sew

so, first and foremost... the reason for the quiet blog? well, we've celebrated a number of birthdays which are usually preceded and followed with LOTS of sewing... however, not only did the kids bring home bags full of goodies... my dear (suffering) husband had the misfortune of bringing home the chicken pox.

thankfully, i'd already suffered thru them as a child and the kids have already been vaccinated... he had to stay away from the public for at least a week and was too sick to really do anything except stay in bed. so, i had to double up some parenting duties... honestly, i had no idea i could be this tired. so beware the birthday parties, parents... BEWARE.... :)

ennyhoo.... back to the birthday gifts... i was really proud of these three, all made for classmates in porkchop's jr. kindergarten class:



i made another bunny from martha stewart's encyclopedia of sewing and fabric crafts. i made the tote bag by copying another one we had lying around. the fabric flower was another made with the help of the wisecraft fabric flower tutorial. inside the bag, along with the bunny, i placed a lovely book perfect for ANY young girl, "my name is not isabella". the book is beautifully illustrated, educational and empowering for girls. it also gives a short bio of "women who changed the world" which includes "Mommy". :)



so, i didn't think the boys would appreciate a bunny... i've made teddy bears from the book "toys to sew". but, i felt like i needed to make something new. a little further in the book are patterns for dinosaurs, like the apatosaurus above. and this pattern (like the herbivore dinosaur) scared me the least. the patterns for the stegosaurus and the t-rex are really amazing but frankly, nightmarish. when i have more time, i'll try them.

maybe.

i put the initals of the boys' names on each bag and filled them with items purchased from our local toy store, building blocks toys, a melissa & doug paint craft, a kumon origami book, a magic drawing slate, and a dover sticker book. what can i say? i like to spread the crafty, artsy fartsy love... :)

ok. i REALLY have to return to the saltmines now... hopefully, i'll have another post up soon... thanks for coming by and reading!

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