Re-dye Refashion dress!

Alright while I was in the mood to experiment with dying fabric, my frugalness just couldn't let a dye bath go to waste. This was when I was dying my silk blouse, I wanted to dye some cotton.

Again I was using RIT dye petal pink. Which I thought would come out a light pink on white cotton. And that was what I had! Here is the dress I got from Penelope's House, a second hand store where the proceeds go to women of the Penelope House. Let me tell you they have some great finds!

I found this beautiful white left eyelet dress there one day after lunch (it is right by my work) but it had a few light brown stains on the dress. This dress needed to be dyed to cover them. After I had gotten the color I wanted with the silk shirt, I added more hot warm to the bath and added my white dress for another ~30 mins. Here is the result.

It did not need any hemming or taking in, just a new color. I wearing it with my heart pin I made (blog soon to follow). Just in time for the spring season and Easter! :) Thanks for reading! ~Lauren~

Fabric Points Tally 3/28/11

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

That is where I have left off now I have more to add!

The baby bibs garnered me an extra 14 points (7 bibs X 2 sides=14!)

Burp Cloths (7 total!)

And the sewing machine pin caddy (2)

Total now=

Here's to reaching 100!! Wahoo!

Ok now going to sleep! I am exhausted.

Lauren

Blouse Refashion

Yay!! So finally I got some time here to refashion an item! I started out with this gem I got at goodwill for $0.99.

It was a 2X!!! But I kind of liked this 100% silk material. I had a feeling this could have potential. I started out with I wanted to dye it and I used RIT petal pink powdered dye. I was really curious to what color this would turn out. OOh eager! Here I am dying in the sink of my kitchen. I again managed to not dye myself or my cats. Boyfriend wasn't home so he didn't get dyed either... It is a win-win situation!

Oooh it came out a darker pink, kind of like a coral/azalea color. Then I decided to add these light pink beads to the neckline that I had in my stash (yay for using my stash). I sewed that on pretty quickly (hey I sew bellydance costumes!) this was cake. I took in the shirt b/c even if i added elastic to the bottom, it so didn't work so here I am sewing away!

I sewed it together and cut off the sleves. I didn't sew down the sleeves b/c the silk doesn't fray. so I just smoothed it over. Here is the final product. I promise you its not lopsized. It was just the way I was standing. Plus I got some clothes on underneath.

Yay! Hope you enjoyed it! ~Lauren~

Baby Bibs and Burp Cloths

In addition to the Covered Diaper Cake I made for Randy and Lori's Baby Shower (which I missed b/c of scheduling conflicts) I also made my own baby bibs with matching burp cloths! Here is the end product, I made several themes of bibs with 3 different fabrics (all of which I had!). Nautical theme... Randy and Lori are big boat people so I started off with making some nautical bibs

how cute are these? I was so happy with the outcome. I also made another sort of nautical theme bib too (but hated working with this fabric!)

In addition I made what I called my baby boy line. So a little more cutesy and baby blue.

Now here is how I made the baby bibs (it is SOOO SIMPLE!) I got the pattern for the bibs here I printed the pattern out and I was ready to roll! First put the fabric wrong sides together, for backing I used terry cloth for good absorption. So put then wrong sides together and pin them together and cut out the bib.

Then sew it up!

I left the top part open to turn it right side out. To finish the bibs. I didn't know how to do this velcro or snaps? I talked to a few people and they said velcro was easier to get the bib on a moving child. So I went with velcro. Here is the way i got the velcro on... (its so scientific)

Bam! Done! I had so much fun with it. For the decor I used iron ons from the craft store or I made my own iron on using the fusible web (whatever that is called!) I got the anchor (and my favorite!) from a clip art and traced it. For the boat, I just free handed it!

Now I made the matching burp cloths using cloth diapers and the same material used for the bibs. This was easy too! First lay out the cloth diaper on the fabric (wrong sides together again). Pin them together.

Then cut around the fabric and we are ready to sew! Leave a spot to turn it right side out.

Done just close the edge and you are done! I was so suprised how much fun I had designing baby bibs and burp cloths. I have so many more ideas. Would love to do girl ones! :) Hope you enjoyed this! :) ~Lauren~

Covered Diaper Cake

Recently, some good friend's of ours were going to have a baby shower for the upcoming baby Beck. Being the craftster I am I decided I wanted to make something for their wedding shower. I decided to go with a diaper cake. Now I know there are a gizillion diaper cake tutorials out there but I have kind of pulled from a variety of them, AND in my tutorial I actually cover it with tissue paper (you'll see why later!).

Items Needed
1- pack of diapers (I used sized 3 and there were 96 in the package)
2- Rubber bands (both small and gigantic)
3- White tissue paper (or another color if you like!) I used about 8-10 pieces. Can't remember the number exactly. For the larger tier, I had to use about 4 to cover it all the way around.
4- Tray to set it on (I tried the pizza pan trick and it was too small, plus it curved up and I hated that!!)

First roll all your diapers. I started with the top part of the diaper and rolled down towards the bottom. Secure with the rubber band in the middle of the diaper. Do not OPEN THE DIAPER UP! Try to keep them fresh so at least they will be usable.

Roll until your heart is content (and at least the majority of the diapers are rolled!).

Start assembling bottom tier- the biggest tier of them all. I knew with 96 diapers I was only going to get away with 3 tiers. Plus 4 is really high!

I first started with using a baby bottle for my center and put a row of diapers around it. I secured it with a gigantic rubber band.

Top View...

Add another row of diapers. To make it easier on yourself I just used the rubber band and pulled it out and popped a diaper in, then rearrange to fit.

Still needed Another row of diapers but my rubber band was not big enough. I used a piece of ribbon I had laying around and tied around the last layer. Here it is!

The monkey is happy!

On to the 2nd tier!

3rd Tier!

Now I sat there and looked at my color palette. I did not like it at all. It seems like all the diapers out there now-a-days has some sort of color on it, I don't like that! It ruined my vision! So I decided to cover it. I used white, simple tissue paper but doubled up on 2 for thickness. For the largest layer I used 4 sheets, covered half with 2 and the other half with 2. Here's the first look...

I repeated for the 2nd and 3rd tier.

Ta-da! Here's the finished product!

Another view..

Monkey was happy. As you can see I finished it with the bottles I used to first initially to start the tier (I later removed them and replaced them with diapers so the cake would sit right) Also I made washcloth cupcakes and layered them on top! I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out!

Enjoy!
~Lauren~

Easiest Refashion Ever! Garment bag!

Greetings!I have now returned from an adventure in D.C. for ASBMB's Hill Day where for the day I was a Science Policy Advocate. I always have so much fun! I was fighting a horrible cold (and still am!) in the cooler DC weather and little sleep. Not to mention the "fun" I had in Atlanta's Airport!

So I started off with this hawaiian "dress" its basically a loose tank dress. There is ZERO shape to it!

Now I thought about what I wanted to do with it and then it hit me! Its Hula Season fast approaching for us performers/entertainers. Usually I just tote my hula skirt on a hanger but I don't have a garment bag for it and I have always wanted to make one just haven't been able to find pretty hawaiian fabric. So I decided to use this dress and turn it into a garmet bag for my hula skirt!

All I did was sew right across from the armholes (leaving room for hangers to come through) backstitched to ensure it wouldn't come apart I didn't need to sew the sides b/c they were already done and this dress is basically a box!

Cut off the excess material. Turn the right side out. And Ta-Da! Done! Easy peasy! 10 mins!

So here's the skirt i wear

Now here it is covered! It was the perfect width and length, I could not have asked for anything more!

Here's to a easy refashion! Ahola!

Sewing machine pin caddy

For the Iron Craft challenge #10: Fat Quarter



We were given the challenge to make some item using a Fat Quarter of fabric. A fat quarter is a little larger than a 1/4 of a yard (18X22). And I had the perfect idea since I have thinking I needed something for my sewing machine.

Here is my stray pin sewing machine caddy I made! Because I can't ever seem to have/bring my pin cushion when I am actually sewing on my machine.

Here's the "how to" for it!

First I started with my "fat quarter" of fabric (hey happy mardi gras)...

I used a cardboard box lid as my base b/c it was perfect. I cut about 1-2 inches around the base and then I hot glued it down.

Then I added 2 pieces of ribbon cut about 46 long. I wanted to make sure I could get it around my sewing machine and have room to spare to tie my knots. Hot glued on near the top and one near the bottom.

Then I got ready to make the poofy part for the actual stray pins. I folded over the fabric on the longer side and hot glued that down. I did the next longer side but left some extra room to add stuffing. Hot glue that baby down! Now glue one of the shorter sides down taking care to leave space for stuffing.

Ok we are now ready to stuff. Add your stuffing and fill up. Glue the last side down with some hot glue, you may want to just smush the sutffing around to even it out. Tada! We are ready to add it to our sewing machine! All you do is just tie it on the backside of the machine.

I had enough fabric from this project I actually made 2. So now my serger has one. No more loosing my pin cushion when I'm at the sewing machine!

From the back

Hope you enjoyed this! :) LaLaLauren

D'oh spilled seed beads!

So if you ever sewed or beads with seed beads, you know what I am talking about!

Here's what happened....

I am currently fixing a red bra I got from egypt that was supposed to be a B cup but its clearly not. And I have been collecting all the seed beads and sequin that have been falling off so I can fix it later when I am done (this will be another blog coming up soon!). But all of my beads have been going into a bowl.....


My darling cat Natasha (shown above with what they consider a bra cup in Egypt!) who is my sewing buddy has a horrible perception of her bum and how big she is... poof her butt missed the table and went onto the edge of my beads bowl. No!!!!! All the seed beads and sequins are on the carpet... I am not picking them out by hand. I tried the pantyhose on the hose of your vaccuum trick but that so didn't work. Maybe my vac isn't strong enough? who knows. But I sat there and thought about it and realized my lint roller would do the trick!

Rolled right over the spill, it picked up the beads (and some cat hair!) from the carpet. I simply brushed them off and I was able to recover most of my beads. Yay! No more digging beads out of the vaccum cleaner container!

I'm not dead...

But I have been super busy with the Mardi Gras season and then my cousin got married in Miami the past weekend! So I have barely been home! I really miss my sewing machine.....

So stay tuned within the next week to 2 weeks I shall return with some refashions, crafts, and costumes! I can't wait to get back to the creative board. Like I said I really miss my sewing machine and I'm itching to sew!


Happy Mardi Gras!!!! :)