too short top fix

Wow been cleaning up my blog and I have found several posts that I never published. So here we go!
I don't have a before photo but I basically had some summer tops from Ann Taylor Loft that were a bit too short for my taste. I found this lovely Venetian Lace that was long and would complement the darker color.

I attached it to the bottom of the top. I had to get creative with the side seam. I forgot what I did- it has been that long!

There is a teeny bit of an odd hang but its not too bad. Now a feel a little more comfortable wearing it.
Cheers,
Lauren

Circus tent dress

I purchased this striped fabric one day on clearance at Hancock Fabrics (RIP, miss you!) When I got home, I wondered what in the world I was thinking! It reminded me of a tent and I asked the question to my facebook friends and no one thought of a dress. I was determined to try and make it work.

I saw this Vogue pattern and thought I could make it work with the pattern. I decided the bottom panel I could use this old bellydance veil I had to compliment the colors.

Sorry I am having issues resizing this photo for some unknown reason. Blah. First I had pull off the tiny bells that were on this veil. FYI I never used this veil mostly b/c of these bells. If you actually want to dance with this veil it is too heavy. Not to mention the bells grab things on your costume. It never worked. And this veil just sat in my costume pile. Now at least it is getting some use.

I used it for the bottom and there is me cutting. So the sew is very easy. I believe I put the bottom portion of the dress on the wrong way but I just left it and kept going.

This dress is A LOT to handle. I feel like a circus tent. I mean it is a tent. The belt helps... but...

Just wow... LOL I tried my hardest.

Thinking about it, if i was on a cruise this would work. Actually, after I took these photos, we had a cat nascar incident and my precious little fur ball put her claws into the chiffon and caused a few rips. I can't fix them. I guess it was slightly serendipitous as now I need to fix it. Call it cat ESP. So stay tuned, I am going to cut it and make it into a shorter dress. Looking at it- I might work as a shorter dress. Let's see!

Cheers,
Lauren

Octopus Scout Tee

I got this on craftsy.com as a sewing kit.

I just fell for the octopus fabric. OMG look at those guys! :) Yay! It was actually on sale one day and I picked it up from my self. I could not find that fabric online. and I liked the shirt design so I went for the sewing kit.

Really it was an easy sew. Did a serge to clean the seams. Poor I was done pretty fast with this shirt. Honestly putting in the sleeves is the hardest. I wore this top on my trip to a meeting. I got in a day early and I was able to meet some friends. We went to the aquarium, which I thought was the appropriate place to wear my shirt. I got a ton of compliments on it!

Posing with our frozen bananas.

Searching on a boat, probably one of my favorites

Very happy with this shirt! Fit is perfect! And you got some action shots, rather than me posing in my living room.

Cheers,
Lauren

Mesa Dress

I recently found another sewing magazine that I began to subscribe to... Yeah I know it is like I need another hole in my head but I have found myself getting slightly bored with Threads magazine, everything seems geared towards an older audience and I find myself uninspired by a lot of their articles. Meh. Seamwork is a digital sewing magazine that comes with 2 patterns a month, which now they give you 2 pattern credits so you can decide what you actually want as a pattern-I thought this was a cool new option.

Today is my first trial with one of their patterns. It is the Mesa dress. Says it is a 1 hour sew. Truly it is really easy. 



I did the pattern with a knit I got from Craftsy  that was a kit that I decided I didn't want to make a cardigan with it- I thought this would be an awesome fabric for a dress. The answer is yes, this fabric makes an awesome dress. I sewed this dress up super fast. And dang look at that shape it gives me (a waist and you can't see my stomach). Dang. Too bad it is too cold to wear it yet.

Here it is, and yes hello goofball. I hate taking end photos!

I probably need a tan, I am pretty light. Here is your dose of cat cuteness. Someone decided to crash the picture taking event and just sit and stare. So I was telling her I got your nose. She truly did freeze.

Seriously spring needs to get here (or temps over 30 degrees) where I can start wearing this.

Cheers,
Lauren

Zslaya top with pink tigers

So remember that pattern parcel #6? So here is another pattern that I got from this pattern bundle.

 

I am now 5 out of 6! Money well spent. Next is the Zsalya pattern. It can either be a top or a dress. I chose top. I found this AWESOME pink tiger fabric from Craftsy that I just had to have. I mean the boyfriend and I are close to becoming the old cat lady and man (he LOVES cats). They are like our children. 

The fabric is from cotton and steel.OMG this is just took cute. Pink tigers.
 

I knew one night that the best pattern to sew is the Zsalya pattern. This pattern is a folkloric based top and I thought the quirkiness of the fabric would work with this pattern. So I whipped up this top. Now I will say one thing- this pattern there are 2 options to sew the top of the bodice to the lower bodice. The clean and the quick and dirty. I started first with the clean but that was so confusing. I tried. I recommend the quick and dirty. Just sew it like that. Some of the pattern was confusing to sew with the pictures in the instructions. They are also not numbered. That bothered me b/c sometimes I was not so intuitive.  Luckily I have a lot of experience.

Here is my top! I love it!!! Meow!

Not bad! And I love the end product. :) Pink tigers? I mean how can you say no? You just can't.

Cheers,
Lauren

Renefrew top

During the Black Friday Sale, I purchased several sewing kits from Craftsy. This was the Renefrew top, click here for the craftsy page.

It was such a great price and I liked the simple pattern. I selected the grey and white striped fabric.
It was an easy cut and a fast sew. I am getting very good at sewing knits and simple t-shirts that really everything just repeats itself. So I sewed up this top. It was really fast and easy.

And hey it looks like the picture from craftsy! The sleeves are long enough. It fits well, even if you see my fat! LOL

LOL some of the pics are funny I know. Didn't want to hide them. They are just TOO funny. I almost want to have a captioning contest. Cant you tell it has been awhile since I took photos (which I HATE doing).

Cheers,
Lauren

Lisse sweatshirt hoodie

Another sweatshirt try! Had more of that sweatshirt fabric. Actually,  I have a TON of it so expect more posts. Part of my winter break sewing, I tackled another project, this is from Terra's Treasures Designs. It is called the Lisse Cowl and hoodie.  I thought this pattern was different. I like different!

I chose the green fabric and tried it out. I opted for the hoodie. Now I will say that I screwed up where the holes go for the strings. So it doesn't work. I chose the long torso option but I wonder why there was not a average option. I almost would have chosen the average. There was only short and long options, which I find odd. The hoodie was a bit confusing but not bad. The cuffs have to be done in some knit and I had nothing that matched my sweatshirt material. I opted to just finish with a hem.  The overlapped front- I sewed that wrong in the first go through and I had to bust out the seam ripper.

Here is the sweatshirt in the end. It is very green. But overall I like the sweatshirt. I love this material b/c it is so warm. The fit is spot on.

Though, when I put the hood on, I sort of giggle. I feel like I look like an elf or a fairy. Nothing wrong with that but I didn't expect it. I think it is just the green color with the overall design. The hood is the icing on the cake. But in the end I will wear it b/c it is cold out, I hate winter and this will keep me warm. I do like the design, I would like to do it again.

Cheers,
Lauren

Fixing up my grandmother's robe

I have not done many refashions. I am fighting quite the battle in my sewing studio's closet and I have been focusing more on sewing that fabric lump/hump. But since it is cold out, I could really use everything and anything to stay warm. This week, I will give a bonus post and that is this robe!

This is my grandmother's robe. She recently had to move into a group home with supervised care and my family went through her house. I have gotten some fabulous things from her. Soon to be a sewing machine, yeah!! This robe is sooooo old. Very retro and vintage. I have no recollections of her wearing this robe so I am guessing that it is SOOOOOOO old.  Just wow.

It needs some help. But inside it is quilted, which means warm.

Another issue is the lace is stained. And I used all of my restoration tricks to fix and these stains never came out. Interesting. So off goes the lace!

I sewed it all back together b/c the lace was between the robe and the facing. There were some other issues I had to fix- buttons, etc.

Those got all fixed. Now I can wear the robe! It is still groovy and very flower power but I don't care. I feel as if now my grandmother is here with me even though she is thousands of miles away. And taking off the lace changes the feel of the robe.Here's the recap.

Here's to keeping it in the family!
Cheers,
Lauren

Jasper sweatshirt by Paprika patterns

It is cold. Like really cold. Wow. I need to stay warm. Part of my Christmas/birthday present was sweatshirt material. I got several colors at such a great price that I could not pass up. I have red, coral, purple and green. Thought I would change up my sweatshirts since they all tend to be grey and more grey.

I fell for the Jasper pattern a while now and have been wanting to do it. Then one day there was a pattern bundle sale and this was one of them. I grabbed the bundle and could not wait to sew it.


I did not want the dress but the sweater. I also decided to not add fake, non-purpose buttons to the sweatshirt since I just thought it would be a magnet for my long hair and the tangles would suck. I went with my red fabric first.

So the welt pockets, which I have never done before, where like woah... seriously. I was so confused by the instructions. I highly recommend going to the website to see further instruction. I would not have made it through the pockets, which were like step 1 (ok maybe 2 but early in the pattern). I could not have sewn it without those added blog spots. The hood was a bit tricky at one part. So I had a LOT of frustration while sewing this hoodie. Luckily I really like it at the end. But good riddance to you welt pockets! Good riddance!  Here is my hoodie!

The fit is great!

Really happy with the end. And this is really warm too! Something I really need for the winter. Which winter, meh, we are not friends. However, winter you let me sew more!

Cheers,
Lauren