Quick Cardigan Fix

I had a plain coral sort of cardigan. very Boring. Very uninteresting. Very just Blah!! I quickly decided what I wanted to do with when I got some lace on clearance. Bing idea! :) Just something simple and easy!

view with it buttoned up

view with it open. great for work!

Seriously this took me 10 mins to sew. I just pinned the lace to the cardigan. Sewed near the middle of cardigan. Then I sewed intermittantly on the edges. I tried to make sure when I sewed the thread would only be on a design of the lace.

Yay happy!

From hideous to ruffle dress!

Here is my inspiration

I saw this dress and I knew instantly what I was going to do with this dress!!

Now I know the first words you think of this dress are: SEXY, PROVOCATIVE, DIVA.
LOL well those words are the complete opposite of this dress!! This was probably from the 90s and I am sure one of my teachers wore this dress. I found this dress at goodwill and I love plaid. Always have, always will. I thought it had some potential... but...

Things wrong with dress
1- big ole armholes
2- way too long
3- uninteresting in anyway!

I started with tackling the armholes. Since I don't know much about sewing with armholes, I know they can be tricky and I do not want to mess with that. I did not have a lot of room in the chest to work with unless I wanted to put in a zipper. I did not want to go there yet! So I just simply put the dress on inside out and pinned it at the shoulders to take up the armholes. Ahhh much better (yup guess what no picture! I blame my cat Natasha)

The next thing was the length. I picked a line and cut it. wow again its looking great!

Now what I found amazing on this frock was it actually has pockets- a dress with pockets (so so dreamy!) but it also had faux pockets on the bodice! What??? Really?? I got out my seam ripper and pulled those babies off!!!

Next it was ruffle time!! I followed the lines on the plaid and made some strips with the leftover skirt fabric I had left. (Actually I made a quick belt to help cinch it in) I actually had 2 different sizes. I did a long stitch with a 0 tension on my machine to creat a ruffle but... it was not working. FAIL! The fabric is a lightweight flannel and it was gripping my thread. So off to bugging Sonja to borrow her ruffler foot :) And tada easy ruffles!

I then again pinned it to my dress on a diagonal (going to be different than last post!) And began to sew away on my machine ....

Warning: again if you have a chest (even a small chest like me!) the ruffles in the area are going to appear differently when the garment is on you! I had to pull the ruffles off and fix the outermost ruffles.

Here is the end product.... Nice huh??

I still kept the pockets so I have a dress with pockets! Always a plus!

A Close up of the ruffles. I so want my own ruffler foot, it is SO MUCH FUN!

I bet that school teacher who wore this dress in the 90s would want this dress back!

Fabric Points tally.

Here is a Tally for Fabric Points.

What is a Fabric Point you ask? Well for every project/item i sew with my Hancock Fabric Store-sized fabric stock I have I get a point. Goal would be 100 points by the end of the year!


1- lined my silver belt with white fabric
2- Teal ruffle cardigan
3- Window draft snake
4- Door draft snake
5- Window draft snake #2



Stay tuned!

Iron craft- Challenge #5 Be Mine

I am now a member of the iron craft and every week we have a new challenge. This week's challenge is Be Mine. I wanted to use up what I have at home here since I am all about destashing my stash! I thought and thought and finally I got an idea. Here's what I started with (I bought nothing!!)


I decided to make a valentine with these tiny red glass beads. Some glue on thick poster board/cardboard. All framed with my beautiful frame I got for 25 cents at Hobby Lobby (because the glass was broken, it was a bizarre periwinkle blue but I spray painted it black!)

I can't draw well so I used power point to print out several heart images from clipart. I cut a few out and tested to see which ones would work the best. Found one!



I added some glue and the beads and let it set



I framed the final product and ta-da!!!

Yay just sweet and simple. Just the way I like it! :) Yay! Til Next week Iron crafters!

Ruffle cardigan!

In 2011 I swore off traditional clothing shopping b/c i wanted to 1-get out of debt and 2-learn to sew and explore my fashion creativity. I chose a sweater because baby its cold outside!! I found a sweater I wanted to redo, from a thrift store. And wow was it a beauty. Not only was it big but it was there was a slight discoloration so its got to get covered with something.

Take a look at this cardigan... (the Before pic!)


Yeah there isn't much to say about it other than the color was really pretty! I love this teal color.
Now it is a women's size large caridgan. Again way too big. Too long in the length and too long in the sleeve length. Too big in general. Time to cut it up!

I first deicded the elastic bands around the sleeves and the waist (can you really call it a waist- no woman deserves it regardless of what size or shape you are!). Cut cut-buh bye!



Wow it already looks better!


Now i used another cheat to take in this cardigan, sorry i thought i had a picture of this but maybe my cat ate it :) I turned it inside out and used my good old sharpie to trace an outline. I left room for a seam allowance. :) Pin. And sew! I tried it on and yay it worked! LOL I still don't know why i am so excited that I can alter. Maybe its b/c I have really never altered before. And I am suprised it is working.

Moving along. I still needed the length to be taken up (but at least the elastic band is gone). Turned the cardi inside out and put it on myself. I decided where i wanted the length to be and I pinned up the hem. Warning doing the backside by yourself can be a bit of a challenge. But at least i got monkey arms on my side, nevertheless, I still got pins in my bum. :(

Sewed the hem up. Tho the part where the button and the hole meet i did not finish since I have to make sure i don't loose the hole. I will work on that later.

Now to the fun part. Here is where I get a point for using material from my stock. I had some remnants of teal fabric, wonderful polyester. But it will work perfectly for what I want to do next. Now its time to practice some ruffling! I had several sequares of this polyester. I cut 1.5 inch strips using my rotary cutter (which i love!). Then down the center of each strip I sewed down using the longest stitch of my machine on a 0 tension. Once that was done I pulled the bobbin thread and we have ruffles.

I began to pin to each ruffle to the cardigan. Then just sewed down the center to anchor it on to the sweater. I did not have anything in particular in mind I just wanted vertical ruffles. After adding a few i decided to go all the way up the sweater. WARNING NOTE: if you plan on buttoning the cardigan (rather than keeping it open) and if its a V-style cardi like mine. a straight line laying flat is a diagonal line on your body. I learned that the hard way. So I removed the suspect pieces and added it while i was wearing the cardi. Which is fun, I pinned myself so many times my poor chest!



Here is the end product!!! I love my new cardi! Its great for work! Sorry you don't get the finished shot of me 1- b/c i was having a bad hair day and 2- my boyfriend wasn't home to take a pic. maybe one day...



with a belt.. don't know if i like this belt or not!

Yay this was seriously a LOT of fun! Who would have known the frumpy cardigan could turn into something so fabulous!

My only beef was I wish I had a ruffler foot! Now I will just bug Sonja to use hers until I get my own :)

Ok stay tuned I have more refashions coming along in the pile! :)

Old men's sweater to a cute sweater dress!

I found this gem at goodwill for under $4. I had a great idea for it! Its a men's XL sweater- very long and baggy on me! Now its time to start learning some tailoring skills.... which I need to develop. Since sweater was soo large on me there was no way i could put this on and take it in easily. So many inches needed to come off this sweater!

I had a sweater dress in my closet that i used as a template. Turned the sweater inside, flattened, and laid it on the sweater and got quite a giggle. I used a sharpie to then cut out a basic design of what the sweater needs to be. I didn't use any temporary markings like a disappearing marker or chalk b/c I couldn't see it. I said to heck with it sharpie it is. its on the inside of the sweater and should I just likely mark it, it should not go thru the material. I left some room to spare when i traced b/c 1- its a stretchy sweater so i will need some room and 2- sewing allowance for them. I just eye balled it. I then pinned everything together to keep the sweater from moving when I go to the sewing machine.

I followed the line on both sides. Then I cut the excess fabric away off. Turned it right side out... Tried it on. Tada!!! Wowswers! It actually worked. It was not that hard to sew. No special adjustments were needed on the machine (standard needle, standard tension, universal sewing foot) though I did use a long stitch (the longest stitch I had on my machine) since the fabric was quite thick. I was in such shock!

Sleeves: as you can see in the first pic, the sleeves were really long. Like really long. I have very long arms. I hacked off 5 inches from the get go. Still too long!! No pics on this but I just folded the sleeves in side cut off the excess. Simply sew it down.

Here's the finished product! I love this sweater dress and it fits like a glove!

Portable Magnetic Needle Holder! Upcycled project

Upcycled Project: Project Magnetic Needle Case

I got inspired one day at hancock fabrics when I saw a case with a magnet in it that was meant for bringing your needles everywhere. I was not going to spend $10 on something I was confident i could make at home!

Items you will need:
1- small case. I used an old case that used to have eyelashes in it that I no longer used.
2- Glue: in the picture I have E6000. i wound up not using it b/c it was clogged and I was impatient. I wound up using GS Hypo cement. It is thin, quick drying, and strong.
3- Old free refridgerator magnet and a pair of scissors.

Instructions: Cut the magnet to the size of the case. Glue in! Done! 1 minute craft project


I added my needle and they stuck here is a picture of it

Look mom no hands! As a point of refernce I had a needle with a piece of thread in it ... See how it hangs :)

Wow, this is a handy case to have. I can put it in my purse and take it with me whereever I go to sew! It won't ruin my needles. They won't get lost in my purse or bag. And it is just nice to have something to organize my working needles at home period! :)

Hope you enjoy this project