Asymmetrical Plaid Dress Refashion

Another refashion! Wahoo. Started off with this dress. It has an elastic waist which fit. But the top portion was a bit too big. But that hem!!! Whoever thought an asymetrical side hem was a good idea?? It cuts off your visual height and makes you look shorter.

It just sort of hangs there way too big in the top.

The back is not bad- it is cute with a little peak a boo opening. But the sides are a bit big.

So the plan... even out the bottom hem. Pretty easy.

Then to fix the bodice, I sort of couldn't figure out how to fix it because the way to do this was to rip out seams, but this bodice was lined. In non-sewing terms- a lot of work and I didn't even know what to do with it so I'd be doing work on something I didn't know how to fix. So this sat and sat. Then after trying this on and looking in a mirror, I was moving my hair out of the way and said hmm what if I added like a dart?? This lead me to folding the bodice and egad! this could seriously work. So I symmetrically folded in the dress, pinned, and then sewed down the fabric. OMG Love!

Here is the dress done! Yeah!

Again not a fan of taking after photos, hey messy hair and don't care. But what an improvement to this dress! Perfect for fall!

Cheers,
Lauren

Red Syrah Maxi Skirt

Last year I bought Pattern Parcel #6, which I have used 2 of the patterns already. I probably will make all of the patterns out of this parcel, which surprises me. This was a great pattern parcel! I made the Bronte top (see here) and also the Julia cardigan (see here). So this was a good pattern set. Today I will do #3, the Syrah skirt from Baste and Gather. I know I have made maxi skirts before but I thought I would try another pattern.

So Syrah skirt it is. I used this thin, red knit. I used it to make my boyfriend a shirt (which you will see soon). It is a gorgeous color of crimson! I added 3 inches to the hem since I am tall. I opted for a simple even hem, then a simple waste band- the foldover, and a lining. It was a really easy sew even though I got a little confused with the wasteband but then it clicked. The fit is perfect. I did not hem but left it raw as my experience with this fabric it does not sew with a twin needle- yeah it is that thin. So I wanted to have it hang nicely, so we left it raw.

I love the lining with it, I thought i would not like it but turns out I did. I like having that extra layer and it isn't too tight so I like that. I paired it with a simple top I made awhile back (see here). It fits great!

The band for the waist. Fits well and no muffin top. ;)

I really hate taking after photos, seriously. But I would recommend this pattern!

Cheers,
Lauren

My Halloween Costume- Katy Perry

We decided for this Halloween we were going to go out and go to a party. I was going to wear my refashioned dress and go as Marie Antoinette. So I was good to go, and THEN>>>> yeah my boyfriend decided he wanted to the the left shark for Halloween and asked if I could go as Katy Perry. It took some convincing but I said ok. Then I looked for a costume, in the beginning/middle of October.... nothing was in stock and of course b/c I sew- I think it all looks horrible. So I then set out one weekend to put together a costume

After various google searched I found a few images of a costume I wanted to loosely base my costume on- i have seen various costume derivatives to buy that were also based on this costume too. So I was going to be all cupcakes and candy. Super girly and really exciting.

Either my options were to find a dress I could bling out or I would have to sew something. After spending a Sunday afternoon everywhere I found no starter dress. I did find a corset dress on Amazon that evening and had it shipped to home on a fast track. So I got my dress. Then I needed to find things to bling it. That required hitting the craft stores. I also searched at the stores that began to put out Christmas ornaments. If I could find sugar plums ornaments. OMG that was an exhausting weekend shopping. I don't want to go shopping anymore.

I scored big at Hancock Fabrics with buttons- cupcakes, cookies, and candy. I bought everything I could find. I then went to Joann and did the same. I also found this iron on glitter paper that I used to make glitter candy wrappers as well as circles which I would decorate as like candy/lollipops. I scored with iron patches of cupcakes which I blinged further with crystal fabric paint. I wanted to amp up this costume. At Michael's, I found felt cupcake stickers in various colors that came in a 20 pack. I bought then all. I found fun popsicle ornaments with glitter and sprinkles on it- yup bought them too!

I thought I had a good start with the amount of things to bling my dress. My biggest obstacle was that ice cream cone on the front. I had brown fabric and I cut a triangle. I did a criss-cross pattern with brown fabric paint to give it the waffle effect. It dried on a sheet a paper-which it fused to but I actually liked it b/c it reinforced it. I glued the seams together and now I need to make a scoop of ice cream.

Oh what to do... I had purple fabric to use. While staring at my table, I decided to clean some of my paper up and I crumbled it up. Before I tossed it into the trash I had a flash of brillance- LOL. I could use the crumbled paper for the ice cream scoop. I used batting to even it out and then I covered it with a piece of fabric. Hot glue and more hot glue shut. Poof! It worked. So I glued that to the dress, here is the first look on my white dress.

 I was playing around with what it would look like with some of my add-ons and I was getting a mental game plan in my head. The ice cream cone doesn't look half bad. But now it is time to add more bling! To do this and ensure that the dress doesn't shrink while glue was drying I had to wear the dress while gluing it on. I lined the bodice with towels (you can see one peaking out in this picture. And I started with some of the big things and move to smaller, making sure I space everything out. This actually went fast.

I decided the dress needed to be edged with something. But the pictures of Katy didn't show much. I had some pink ric-rak which reminded me of cake icing/frosting. I sewed that on next. Then for the skirt I ironed on the glitter paper sheets to the circle skirts. It really came along fast!! 

I then decorated the glitter pieces with my crystal fabric paint to look like candy. I had to do this in phases since the skirt folds and it would smear. Can't have that! Next, I added those felt cupcake stickers, which I hot glued on. Yeah filling up that skirt! 

But I thought I needed some more dimension and texture to the costume and a way to tie things together. So I added multi color rhinestones to the entire dress and I filled everything up. On yeah. But the one thing that just stuck out to me was the ice cream cone, I thought it was missing something. I decided I wanted to add another layer to the ice cream cone. I used pink sort of tulle, again just wadding up batting and glue, glue glue!

I then glued that on top. To put a cherry on top of the cone, I used a cat toy. Yes that red foil ball is a cat toy. But it is perfect b/c it is shiny and light. Poof we are done!!!! 

Close ups of the dress

Crazy huh?? But crazy good!! Here it is on!

This dress was so much fun to wear. I wore my pink ruffle shoes you see in the pictures here but I also wore pink knee high socks. I used candy necklaces for jewelry. 2 pink petticoats. And then a blue wig to top it off! I felt super girly and happy at the party. I even painted my nails with this sprinkle looking nailpolish.

Here's at the party. I fought the wig a lot and with my long hair it also pulled it back as well. And I was even wearing a wig cap. The blue hair is a little much LOL.

We were a hit at the party. Epic no? And how quickly I pulled this dress together was amazing as well. It is heavy. It is a corset, which helps support the weight but I couldn't eat much. And it just fit. I whipped this costume in less than a week- which was impressive. My boyfriend was impressed too. We felt like celebrities at the party- we took a lot of pictures and everyone screamed Katy and Left Shark! :)



So looking at the inspiration and what I created- I thought I did well!

I thought it was a Katy worthy dress! :) I had all intentions to sell this dress but I have some of a change of heart. We missed the costume contest but I think we would have won. The ice cream cone was not bad being attached to my dress. It was not bad at all. And it stayed on!

Told you my costume was epic!!

Cheers,
Lauren

Blue plaid sheath dress refashion

When I found this dress, really there was nothing wrong with it. The fit was really good. The only issue was really, I have enough dresses and I won't really get any use out of this dress.

I will get more use out of it, if it was something else. Like a top. So I decided to turn it into a top with a slight peplum. I started off first with removing the back seam and separating the zipper as well. I want to keep the zipper intact. Then I found where I wanted the waist to be. Since the dress lined up really well, I followed it across the dress.

I cut off some of the fabric from the bottom. So the dress is is 3 pieces. I am going to use the very bottom. The middle I won't use at all.

I gathered the top of the fabric and then attached it to the bodice. Pretty easy. I serged to clean up the threads. After trying it on I realized that the dress tapered and I had to keep some of the back open. So I cut the zipper so you could not see.

Done! I threw on a pair of shorts, it is not really season to wear a tank top but this would be great for next spring. I like how I kept it long as I want longer tops for work.

Here's the recap! Even though  the starting dress was great, I would never wear it since I mostly wear pants for work.

BTW next week will be my Halloween costume. It is pretty epic and something I threw together very quickly. I have a lot of photos so this post will take me longer to write about it. :) So next Monday! Stay tuned.

Cheers,
Lauren

DIY Halloween Bibs

So things have been busy here. At the last minute, we decided to go as a couple costume for Halloween. And I pulled things together and ran around to get this costume together. I am just catching up with cleaning up after making this costume mess. A need to take after photos, and I am just a little a behind here.

Today is just a quick post. A continuation of all my baby gifts that I have made for friends. These were some quick bibs I whipped up in time for babies born prior to Halloween. :)

All I did was create freezer paper stencils real quick. I ironed it on and simply sponge painted with black paint. Poof done! Here's to me getting caught up. EEk!

Cheers,
Lauren

Just a quick jack o' lantern.