Maxi dress, Simplicity 2692

I am attempted to sew. I am truly. For me, it helps relieve stress. I finished this garment at the beginning of May but took forever to get an end photo. This crazy psuedo animal print in multiple colors, I believe could only be justified as a maxi dress. I opted to turn it into a 1 shoulder dress using the simplicity pattern 2692.

It was an easy sew. Really. I did no pattern modifications other than not gather as much in the bust. Which lead to the zipper issue. I corrected this by adding an invisible zipper that somehow I made magic happen and it completely hides in the seam. I was so excited! Also with the middle band I had no idea if it was going to work or not. It barely worked!

My new dress, which is light and silky feeling. Perfect for summer!

messy hair!

I also was part of the Clara Dress Sew a Long. This also took up  some time. I am almost complete. Post soon to follow! I am still struggling with my blog. Please bear with me, a lot has happened in the part few days.

Cheers,
Lauren

Mom's peplum dress part 2 (refashion #41)

Part 2 of this dress is converting the top portion of the dress!

First, I took out the side zipper. Closed up the side seam. Next, I unpicked the center back with my trusty seam ripper for the new zipper to go in. Now, one of the issues I realized was there was like a big pile of fabric at the neck that stuck out. Like If I was the Hunchback of Notre Dame this would work. For me, not so much. You can see the pin marks where I needed to have a neck be placed. But I also did not want to loose the width. I could afford to look inches in the waist and busst but not as much as the neck. Essentially, I sewed a diagonal while putting in an invisible zipper.

That previous statement would almost warrant a merrit badge but I got it to work. I closed up the top binding. Done!

Neck hump gone! Close fitting top here! 

Such a versatile piece! 

Recap! This was a wonderful 2 for 1 refashion!

Cheers,
Lauren

Mom's peplum dress part 1 (refashion 40!)

Mom gave me another dress (yay for dresses!) I was a big black peplum dress she was going to wear. She actually paid a seamstress to fix an invisible zipper which was not put in right... something I could easily fix for her but I'm so far away....

I had no before pictures which I don't know what happened. So I am going to blame computer gnomes. I only had this picture. An almost semi-before. I had cut off the top from the skirt and decided to turn it into 2 pieces. It was going to take a lot of work, A LOT, to get it to be a dress. I opted to go for basic wardrobe staples. I simply cut the top from the bottom. Nothing fancy about that!

I took in the sides and added a side zipper, which with a tight skirt gave me issues beyond belief. I should have just unpicked the center of it. Lesson learned. I finished the top of the skirt with black bias tape. This gave me a wonderful finishing.

Done! Something simple to go with things. Easy option for work!

Recap! Part 1 is the skirt. Part 2 is next.... I am sure you can guess it, a peplum top!

If you can tell I'm slightly off with my blogging. Normally things are scheduled and I just sort of lost track of things. There are some things that in my personal life that I am dealing with and taking a lot of time. I hoping things calm down soon. I can tell I look exhausted in the pictures. I am very tired. I am just trying to take things as I can. This Friday will be my next refashion. Luckily I realized I am getting close to being halfway done and that did cheer me up.

Cheers,
Lauren
49 left!!!

Paisley Skirt to sundress, #39

Found this lovely orange and dark red skirt that I could not turn down. Too big of course. I thought about what I wanted to do with it and one day when I put it on it hit me... easy dress.

Similar to the red dress I just refashioned using elastic

I decided I would just add elastic to the first tier of the skirt, leave the zipper. And wear as a dress! Done. Easy refashion. Very boho sort of feel....

I did have to hem the lining some but that is about the sewing I did. I did not add the elastic to the lining, only the skirt. But the recap. A really easy refashion.

cheers,
Lauren

Bow dress refashion, #38

Another refashion for iron craft... the challenge was B. My B= bow. Let's start off with this bow dress. I thought it was darling but on, it seemed as if there were too many design ideas and none of them worked all together...

I mean but look at those stripes.... And I LOVE the bow. But I don't like straps with it and also the eyelet lace on the bottom on the dress.

Darn! That eyelet lace is SERGED on! To save myself time and frustration, I simply cut off the lace.

Next, off came the straps. Dress is instantly better. But I felt as if there needed a transition between the bodice and the skirt. I connected the straps to make like a belt. Sew down. I had just enough fabric for the straps. JUST enough. I also had to retack the bow down as removing the straps caused the bow to come somewhat loose. I then closed the holes where the straps were located. Dress is done!

Done!!! Dress is simpler and simply better. :) 

I actually wore it out recently to dinner with my hair and makeup all nicely done... and I completely did not take any photos. Grr. I got a lot of compliments on the dress.

Cheers!
Lauren

Men's striped shirt, #37

This is actually a man's shirt. Yes really. I found it in south Florida and it is totally befitting of what guys wear in south Florida. I just love that pink!

Too big....

To save some time. I only undid a portion of the armholes at each side with my seam ripper. I took it in on both sides and then took it in on the  sleeves too. Reattach the sleeves. 

Done! I have a new shirt! Perfect for spring. 

Yay. here is the recap.

Cheers,
Lauren

Maxi dress to skirt, #36

Mom found a dress for me. Thanks mom! But when I put it on. Something was off.

The top was too big and didn't hug my chest area, it constantly fell down. Then too short. Boo!

I cut the dress in half. I will convert the top to a swimsuit later. The bottom part I made a casing and added elastic. Poof now I have a maxi skirt and I will wear it.

It totally makes me want to twirl and spin in circles...

Recap! Easy refashion! 

Cheers,
Lauren

Peplum top, sew stylish pattern

Ok part of this sewing project was due to the refashion I started with the white jeans

But then things didn't look right and then I scrapped the idea. Basically I was going to add the bottom flowered part of the peplum to the white jean top but it did not work. Then I added the skirt instead.

So I decided to finish the peplum with this stretch light denim flowered material I got at a massive Hancock sale this past January. It is an easy pattern and I finished it fast. You can't tell but it does have a collar. I spent so much time making it that collar I wasn't going to change it. Here is my new top!

Fits perfectly of course! :)

Just a recap on the pattern.

And the previous sad sack jean refashion. 

Cheers to finishing another sewing project (I'm trying my hardest to keep up!!)
Lauren :)

gluten free cookie review

The best gluten free chocolate chip cookies in the world! Seriously that is what the box said. Found these at TJ Maxx.

 The funniest thing was the label on the bag inside.
Just like fine wine, these cookies must be opened and allowed for the flavor to develop for 10 minutes. So I did just that. They are small, bite size cookies.

They were actually pretty tasty. I will agree to that. I did enjoy them. They were one of the top gluten free cookies in the world. They are the crunch cookie and I prefer soft or else I'd say they might be the best cookies in the world. But I love the WOW chocolate chip cookies-b/c they are a soft cookie.

Not bad! I would recommend!

Cheers,
Lauren

Yellow H&M dress fix, #35

Found this dress that was from H&M, never worn for like next to nothing. I loved the print. I thought I could wear "as is" but when I put it on- too big. What the picture does not show you is the large armholes. But you can see that the top sheer portion of the dress comes a little low and it is too big.

I undid the bias tape on the top and armholes. I then took in the dress about an inch from the top. Serge the excess off. Then reattach the bias tape. Done!

Just a simple fix. It totally changes the dress. 

It really made the dress work and fall at the right places. 

Recap! 

Cheers,

Lauren

(and don't laugh all the photos coming up are me after taking a dance class and I was too lazy to take my hair out of braid and put on makeup-I just ran with it. )