I dislike khaki capris, refashion #24

This is a pretty good statement about how I feel about most khaki capris. First they range in a variety of colors and some of colors just don't work for me at all. I look sickly white. Capris also come in a variety of lengths and sometimes I feel that they can hurt your visual height-meaning make you look shorter than you are actually. So I don't do a lot of capris. But I wound up with this very large pair-now what?

I undid the bottom cuff to find I could almost make myself a pair of pants but decided against it. Instead I decided to convert it to a skirt. I could use a nice khaki skirt for work. I did undo the cuffs and almost had enough fabric to make pants but it was not going to work. Skirt it is.

I undid the waistband. Then I got rid of the J shape in the front and back of the old legs. Sew straight down.

I sewed the waist band back after I took the skirt in. What happens now is it did make the pockets come closer together. I'm fine with that. Then cut and sew and the bottom hem. I got a nice pencil skirt for work. Yay!

Yes and I can pair belts with the skirt too and make it fun. 

Here is the recap. Such an improvement from those capris. Sorry Ann Taylor, but your capris were ugly!

Cheers,
Lauren

Burda class on refashioning!

Now I don't normally post, posts like this-I am usually a "look at what I made and how I may have messed it up but then tried to fix it" sort of blogger. But then I realized this might be something some of the readers may want to try this class out.

So remember Beth from Renegrade Seamstress? She hosted Refashion Runway #2, which I was one of the contestants. Also I know Beth as she is a contributor to another blog I am an editor and a contributor on Refashion Co-Op.

Um yeah got a call from Burda, I know we are all Jelly about this! They are having her host a live webinar about refashioning and drawing inspiration. How cool is that?

The seminar is TOMORROW, Monday March 31 at 11:00 am EST. Now for all you who have jobs you might have to wing this. Unfortunately I can't at mine.

For more information, about Beth and how she got the phone call from Burda click here.
To go and find out more information about the Burda seminar and sign up, click here.

Cheers,
Lauren

So another animal print nightie...

I was in the mood for some quick sewing redemption. After that indian skirt refashion to the butterick dress. The vogue button down top I am making (which is frustrating but I am almost done). I wanted some quick sewing redemption. I had in my stash I got from the lady was a small piece of snake skin thin knit, that seriously made me go- why? how? what is this doing in this batch. What in the world would I make with this? Oh the questions.

I simply sewed the sorter side together, then did the armholes. Sew the arm holes. Sew the top down. Hem the bottom. Yeah it was really fast and quick. Got some leftover cream ribbon in my stash. Weave through. Done. Ahh.

Yeah for another easy project. I mean seriously what else would I use this fabric for? Plus it is soooo thin. It will be perfect for summer.

Cheers,
Lauren

Taking the fun out of chocolate chip cookies, gf review

Ok today is just another review. Yeah haven't tried any new recipes at the moment. Need to pick out a few. So will have to settle for another review. This time cookies. Well let's just say these enjoy life chocolate chip cookies really had the fun taken out of them. They taste like fruit!!! Yes fruit!! Not really like chocolate chip cookies should taste like. Looked on the back... yeah had dates and date juice. I'm sure other date stuff too. So this just tasted like a big date cookie with some (mind you few) chocolate "chips" which were probably made of dates or something. I got really cranky can't you tell? Why? Why take the fun out of my cookies? If I wanted something healthy, I but "healthy" cookies.

Yeah small and sad. Never again.

With much sadness,
Lauren

Springy Blue Dress Refashion, #23

I'm still dreaming of spring over here. Plus I found a sweet flowered dress. Dresses are probably my favorite item to refashion. I also love wearing dresses to work b/c it is only 1 thing I have to be put on and not have to think what will go with what. Boom, dress on, ready for work!

This dress not work ready at all... It came complete with shoulder pads, bad sleeves, odd length. But what it did have in my advantage was the middle section was shirred with elastic! No waist fitting needed for this dress. Oh yeah that made me really happy. P.S.-I love this color blue.

First remove hideous shoulder pads (which are beginning to pile up over here, too bad we have no space or else I'd make a crash pit of shoulder pads, OMG that would be soo much fun!). Ok I digressed.... Now in my fingers, in the second picture, I am holding this flap I didn't noticed until I removed the sleeves. It is sort of a fold that hid the shoulder seams. Now rather fight this dress (and probably loose) trying to undo the fold and recreate shoulder seams, I decided to use the quirkiness of the dress and keep them. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow with each dress's personality, which I why I love refashioning dresses. Cut off the bottom, serge, hem. Finish the arm holes with bias tape. Man I love bias tape.

Done. Yeah I totally took a bunch of pictures with my glasses on as you can probably see. I was too lazy to put in my contacts and I only had a short time of light left... hey at least I took off my white sweater hat. ;)

Uber cute dress. Love that I didn't have to fudge with the waist!

Here's the recap. Much love now for this blue dress.

Cheers,
Lauren

Iron craft- yarn heart pom-poms

This iron craft challenge was string theory. Make something with strings. After pondering what I could do, I decided that this would be time to try out my Pom-pom makers that I got on clearance from Clover.

First time through, it was a hot mess. Second time worked out better, I watched a youtube video of how to use this thing. The key to success with this pom pom maker is NOT using the same yarn to tie across. You need a really strong thread- I used a thread that I had that was some sort of crochet thread (it is the gold thread).

Not bad after some trimming. I mad 2: a large and the small version. The small version was much more difficult to make a heart.

Let me tell you it was a win with the cat. They disappeared and all I heard was chaos. Easy cat toy. Yay

Cheers,
Lauren

Indian Skirt Refashion, Refashion #22 butterick 5599

I am so excited this dress is complete. It was a LOT of work. A LOT of work.

First I started off with this skirt. Of course it was too big but look how lovely it is.... Paisleys, ahhh. It had some issues with fraying at the bottom with the hem that someone attempted to fix but didn't work. I decided to combine it with some blue fabric and make this lovely dress from Butterick, 5599.

Little did I know how much sewing was going to be involved. There were over 20 pattern pieces. Combined with interfacing and lining. The grand total was 93, yes people 93 pieces!!!!!

Sewing this was crazy. After I joined the pieces, I ironed the seam open. Then did another seam on both sides of the joining seam. The easiest way to do this was the using my clear open toe foot. But I got my best seams with my regular foot. So you guessed it, I had to switch between my sewing feet after each part. I did learn that I would join a piece, do the other mirror side and then press, sew, sew. Repeat, repeat, repeat......

My beef with the instructions and pattern pieces with Butterick is they did NOT label some of the pieces on what side was for what. Like this side is the center back, center, side seam, etc. The pictures were not the best. So on top of all the sewing I had to pull out a lot of seams with my seam ripper. Sigh.  Then when I got the lining complete (which was a mirror image of the dress bodice) and the zipper went in I realized that there was a huge gap in the top of the dress. It was not the placement of the straps. 

The dress went into the corner while I pondered the fit issue. I realized I needed to take in the middle portion of the bodice in order to keep things covered. Ahem... I wound up taking in 2 inches in the middle of the bodice. Then repositioned the straps. OMG I was done. Hem. Complete. 

It was worth it, I mean the dress has pockets! 

Heyyyy..... the sides even match up!

And the back isn't bad either. It was a lot of work to make sure I stayed on 

Recap... I love this dress.

Now I have sworn off this pattern. It was a lot of work. I will probably never sew it again. Things were confusing. I have gotten the OMG this dress is fabulous, would you consider making me one? The answer is NO! Right now I am scarred from this pattern it would take a lot of money to sew this for you. A LOT!!!!

I am happy it is over and happy this dress is done. And I shall wear it proud!! There were totally blood, sweat, and tears shed for this dress. But it is lovely.

Cheers,
Lauren

Gluten Free: Bread crumbs and fried chicken try

I miss fried chicken. I do. Chicken nuggets too. I found this at the store by Namaste and thought I would give it a try.

I followed the instructions, used an egg and some chicken breasts I had on hand. I got sassy and decided to add italian seasoning to my second batch. Fried those puppies up. Done!

The chicken on the left is with the bread crumbs and the right is with my added italian seasoning. 

Now they looked great coming out of the frying pan and tasted good right then and there. HOWEVER ONCE THEY WERE COOLED THERE WAS A WEIRD TASTE. No joke. There was this sort of chemical taste to them and it was in both so it wasn't the seasoning. It was just the bread crumbs themselves. I couldn't place it but it was off. Even my boyfriend agreed and he actually came to the same conclusion independent of myself. Something is not right. 

I do not recommend, and will not buy again. Sorry gluten free fried chicken, that is still going to have to wait some... Sigh. Oh well, can't eat them all!

Cheers,

Lauren

Paintbrush skirt, refashion #21

I found this super cute skirt with all these fun colors for spring. Unfortunately its not spring yet here. Too long and too big in the waist.

I took a little bit off the bottom. I serged it and waited to fix the waistband before I made my final hem. I didn't want to mess with the zipper, so I unpicked the stitches at the waistband located on the opposite side. I got the waistband readjusted (sorry no pics! it took some time and I was in the zone). You can see in the bottom picture that the pin represents how much I needed to pinch off for the waist. I then sewed down, see the arrow, taking in more of the fabric on the side. This will now make the skirt a little bit less of an A. Once the waistband was fixed, I made my hem. Done! No hardware was touched in this refashion!

Tada! This skirt is so much fun!

My grey with pink toe shoes were prefect for this skirt!!

Recap! 

Cheers,
Lauren

Sleeve detox, refashion #20

ack! I really liked this top and tried to wear as is but I just hated the sleeves. I mean seriously? Who thought this would be a good idea?

But I really liked this purple color. So time for some sleeve detox. Took off the bottom fluff.... Finished the new sleeves with bias tape. Done! Easy Peasy!

They work. That is what matters.

Without all my hair in the way. I know problems of long hair people.

Not that I can wear it right now. And I just went straight to my summer/spring storage. But I will have a new shirt ready and waiting for me.

Cheers,
Lauren

GF Granola try: bakery on main

Now granola is something many of us gluten free people avoid. Mostly because oats are contaminated with gluten, not necessarily b/c they contain gluten. However, I decided to try bakery on main's granola, cranberry maple. I added it to some yogurt.

OMG Yum! Didn't react! Very tasty! Definitely love! Definitely recommend. And will purchase again. It is a bit pricey but I do come across coupons so that helps.

Cheers,
Lauren

Off-white Ruffle Skirt, Refashion 19

Found this lovely White House/Black Market skirt one day but it was just a tad too long.

But it is just too long and an odd length of me. And it isn't a petite either. Just odd to me and not so much of white house/black market's style

I cut off the top portion of the skirt. And now it is gone.... POOF! Same with the bottom ruffle which was stained (sorry lost the picture!)

I serged the top of the skirt so it won't fray. I don't have a lot of fabric to work with and I need to make a waistband without going into the next ruffle set.

Then folded it down. Sew. But of course leave a gap for elastic! Then finish the casing closed after I got the elastic to fit! Easy!

I paired it a belt, boots, and a plaid shirt and I LOVE my ruffle skirt!

Recap. Though it is a little less of White house/Black market's style. I really love this skirt now! It is so much fun!

Cheers,
Lauren