Posts Tagged ‘style’

Sewing: Stripey Tee

May 2nd, 2013
6 Comments

Cleaning up my studio is slowly happening. The snails pace is certainly frustrating, but I’m trying to complete projects rather than just tidy up. I’ve made 3 shirts, 1 skirt and mended a few items thus far.

Up next: sweatpants, jeans, more shirts and a dress. I want to get all of those done before I head out to LA for more fabric shopping. AND YES! I’m going to be in LA the end of this month!! Let’s get together if you’re in the area, k?

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I scored this fabric at a swap last month, planning on sewing it into a comfy cardigan. A dolman long-sleeve top it is! It’s ironic that as soon as I finished sewing this we had several days of warm weather. Of course we did.

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We had a nice cold spell yesterday and today, so I’ve put it to good use. I drafted a pattern loosely based off a dolman-sleeved top I found at Target over Christmas break. That shirt gets worn a ton, but I did want a slightly longer hemline and a narrower neckline. Making those adjustments were pretty easy.

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I added perpendicular detailing at the collar and cuff (inspired by my new hoodie) because I wanted to. And vertical stripes are kinda hot right now. I want some striped pants like these.

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Last night I hosted a sewing night with the girls from church. We talked about sewing and I helped them make aprons. One of the girls asked if I bought my top at Nordstrom. That certainly made my night. It’s so satisfying when my handmade creations fool people into thinking they’ve been professionally made.

That certainly hasn’t always been the case.

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Outfit details:

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Lots of cuddles and tickles are in order for today.

Sewing: Military-Inspired Knit Shirt

April 25th, 2013
4 Comments

Chris is enormous. Lifting weights ferociously over the course of 4 years has a way of adding mass. Unfortunately all of his awesome thrifted tees from when we were dating don’t even come close to fitting around his massive shoulders.

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Someone is not happy about me stopping him on his way out the door to snap some pics.

 

Chris isn’t much of a clothes shopper now that he has a wife (and doesn’t have to impress girls with his expansive wardrobe). Now this means the only clothes that he tends to wear are the free teeshirts he’s collected from work and other miscellaneous sponsored events.

His favorite of those tees is a Flipboard tee I scored for him at Alt Summit. It’s a soft American Apparel long sleeve tee that he wears ALL THE TIME. The flipboard logo and grey shirt aren’t totally offending, but I wanted him to have something new with an identical fit. So I drafted him a shirt from the Flipboard tee.

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The fit turned out practically identical, but it was a bit loose to begin with. I quickly zipped around the sides to get a better fit. Admittedly, I wasn’t too nice when he commented about how tight the new fit was.

Of course if Penelope were to complain I wouldn’t have been nearly as offended. If I didn’t know better, I would assume I was pregnant. Chris lovingly deals with a lot of my emotions, he should at least get a nice tee shirt out of it.

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I used paper thin leather on the shoulders as a fun detail. I didn’t want to go to all of the work to make just a plain tee. I love what the leather patches do.

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Drafting and sewing took about 3 hours for this shirt. I’m sure another shirt would take less time. The fabric used is a waffle thermal knit in olive I scored on a fabric destash. I got about 3 yards of fabric and used about a yard and a half, so I have just enough for a few tees for the kiddos. I think Felix needs a hoodie out of this knit. It’s super soft!

I feel pretty proud of myself for making something manly for my man. I now have a pattern I can use to make more of these tees for him. Maybe a V-neck pocket tee is in his future.

Sewing: Jersey High Low Skirt

April 18th, 2013
9 Comments

I need to start sewing long-sleeve shirts and hoodies! Every time I sew something even remotely spring/summery it snows around here. Some days I feel we’ll never see spring until Mid-July. I think I wouldn’t mind this weather so much if spring didn’t come around and tease me so much.

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So I made a circle skirt. I scored this fabric at the fabric swap a few weeks ago. It’s a light-weight rayon jersey. I wasn’t too terribly excited about the pattern, but I loved the feel and stretch of the knit. But as I looked at it more, I fell in love with it. It’s got little stripes of blue, white, tan and teal that make it quite easy to style with my wardrobe.

I keep thinking, I need an awesome oxford/chambray shirt to style with this. Now I ask you, where have you found such shirts? I’m looking for something very light weight. Any good recommendations?

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I based the pattern off of Dana’s circle skirt tutorial, but I used a negative seam allowance for the circumference. Instead of doing a radius of 4.5 inches, I used 4 inches. It worked out perfectly. I also opted to cover my elastic waistband in a coordinating green jersey. I’m sure it would’ve looked fine as an exposed elastic-waisted skirt, but I like the finishing look the coordinating knit gives. With the structure and support of the elastic on the inside, it’s much better than a yoga waistband, too (which I’ve been using a lot lately).

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I drafted the pattern as a simple circle skirt, but then opted to do a high-low as I realized how much fabric was left. I sort of winged the measurements along the bottom, so I ended up cutting it twice to get the hem more even. Lesson learned for next time: don’t eyeball a hem.

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As for sewing the hem itself, I serged along the bottom with a slightly rolled serged hem. This took very little effort on my part. And considering the time saved on that hem alone – the serger just paid for itself. Let me know if you’d like more details on how to do this than offered here. I’ll be happy to put together a tutorial.

Click here for the full high-low circle skirt tutorial (and a free printable pattern).

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Outfit Details:

  • top: walmart
  • necklace: Ardor, bigcartel
  • bracelet: handmade
  • jacket: thrifted
  • skirt: handmade
  • shoes: NY fashion district

Also – this is another Utah spring outfit. I can’t decide if I should be wearing a jacket or not!

 

Wrap Bracelet “Tutorial”

April 16th, 2013
3 Comments

This is the most complicated tutorial on my blog to date. I kid, I kid. You probably already have everything on hand, it’s just a matter of repurposing. And maybe you’ve already done this before.

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Yes, make an awesome, hip, trendy, amazing wrap bracelet in a matter of seconds.
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Find the skinniest skinny belt in your closet.

Wrap it around your wrist a ton of times.

Fasten.

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Mind blown? I sure hope so. The gold belt above I scored as part of a sweater set at H&M. I made the hot pink one from leather cording and a lever-back clasp.

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I measured the leather cording to my waist and glued the leather into the end cups. Each wrap took 2 minutes to make and an hour for the glue to dry. So I can wear these as itty bitty skinny belts or multi-wrap bracelets. I like these as bracelets as they’re flexible, comfortable and don’t get in the way.

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Outfit details:

  • glasses: Coastal.com
  • scarf: thrifted
  • blazer: H&M
  • top: Forever 21
  • pants: target
  • shoes: thrifted
  • bracelets: handmade and H&M
Leather and clasps courtesy of endlessleather.com (cording here, clasp here).

 

Sewing: Gathered Tulle Skirt

April 11th, 2013
25 Comments

At my church we have two weekends a year where we listen/watch a broadcast of our general church leaders from home, and I love it. Growing up we have a tradition of crafting/making/sewing while we listen. So I made a skirt on Saturday.

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I’ve had the idea of this skirt in my head for some time. I was going to make it a gathered skirt with a jersey underneath, but Miriam convinced me that I make it out of a thinner woven material (that she then gave me). I liked her idea. Then I decided to make it with a real waistband with a zipper and everything. I’m so glad I did.

The tulle that I found (thrifted) is really soft with a very drapey hand. I’ve not found anything like this except for a floral netting I came across at Joann a while ago (they don’t have it listed online, but I’ve seen it in stores). Does anyone have a good way to describe this kind of fabric?

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The pink color is my absolute favorite. So soft and romantic.

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I used the same template as I used in my woven maxi tutorial for the underskirt. I did change the zipper to the back rather than the side. So I measured at the half-point and added a seam allowance and cut the back pieces accordingly. I then gathered about 4x my waist measurement worth of soft tulle (I think this may be classified as a lace more than a tulle?) and attached it to the bottom of the skirt. Then I attached the waistband.

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I added extra width in the waistband so I could attach a button (I’m getting much better at sewing button holes!) for the final enclosure. I didn’t have a matching invisible zipper on hand, so I used a regular one. This just so happened to match perfectly.

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I love the way this skirt flows. It’s my new favorite!

Outfit details:

Button provided by LotsOfButtons.com. Use code: BUTTONS4CHARITY for 10% off your purchase.

 

 

 

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