This is the status quo today. button up, sweater, old jeans, no makeup and bare feet. I wore so many cute outfits this week, but today is the one day I muster up the energy to take pictures. This is as real as it gets.

• shirt: thrifted
• sweater: Shade
• jeans: Ross

I've fallen completely head-over-heels for Asos. Are you familiar with the shop? It's an online shop that has hundreds of thousands of awesome clothes. The site is gorgeously designed, too, and mostly with cool javascript queries (which Chris is always impressed by). Seriously, we spent 5 minutes looking at their site both on the desktop and on our phones just gawking at the fantastic design involved in the site. I've been pinning away at all the dresses in their shop that I'd love to find their way into my closet. (SEE HERE). My awesome teal dress I wore at Alt is from Asos. I came across this dress as I was reading Uber Chic for Cheap. I couldn't help myself, so as soon as Chris got his job, I clicked the purchase button. This dress was $25, and the other dress I bought (I'll share later) was $35. SCORE. They're both gorgeous, unique, well-made and demure. I don't want to be popping out of my clothing while chasing after the kiddos. This floral print is fantastic and perfect for both winter and spring. I'd say this was a total steal at $25. (Asos also has free shipping and returns to boot) What awesome thrifty finds have you scored lately? Do share!! Links are awesome, too. *I wish this post was sponsored by Asos, because I love them this much, but this post is all me.

I had the pleasure of working on a project for Ruche's recently published Bridal Guide. In it, I offer a free printable hand-lettered thank you postcard! I've made a few of these thank you post cards in the past (1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5), and I can't stress how handy they are to have around! If I could give any advice to a couple planning a wedding, it would be to get a load of thank you postcards. They're much less hassle and will make your thank you writing actually happen. Head over to Ruche to see their bridal guide (I'm on page 52).  I have to say, the calligraphy site is getting close! We have a few loose ends to tie up before the soft launch for beta testers! Seriously, it's so darn close. Would you like to be a beta tester? I will be choosing 2 lucky followers from my facebook page to be beta testers. Head over to the ISLY facebook page for details on how to enter! Internation entries welcome. Contest ends Thursday April, 5, 2012.

(image c/o Shop Ruche)

A few weeks ago while Penelope and I were on a mommy-daughter date, we passed a batman raincoat in the mall. Penelope became obsessed. She wouldn't stop talking about capes and bats for the entire 45 minute drive home. As soon as we got home, I made her a cape using our old worn out black bedsheets. I just looked up a few tutorials, but then ended up doing my own thing, just based on how much fabric we had left. It didn't take much to whip this thing up, and it made Penelope's day. Week, even. She wouldn't stop talking about a bat on the cape, so I ended up cutting out a little pink bat and pinning it on her cape. I'll sew it on her when Penelope settles on a logo for her cape. She didn't take it off for a few days, and any time I asked her to help get a diaper or help with anything, it was, "Penelope to the rescue!" The other day, her teacher said that she's most definitely the girliest tomboy she'd ever met. I take that as quite the compliment. Penelope is a very well-rounded little girl.  I love her spunk. Don't you love her little rainbow temporary tat? We got some really fun mail today from Tattly*.   I can't figure out why it didn't dawn on me to make her a cape sooner. It's so easy and Penelope gets so much mileage out of it! Check out these cape tutorials: Puking Pastilles • Skirt as Top • Skip to My Lou • Mom Rising  *The temporary tats were a gift from Tattly. This is not sponsored post.

Hope you all had a great weekend. We spent it outside playing and relaxing! It was fantastic. This morning we woke up to 60 mile per hour winds pushing on our windows and doors. It was quite creepy how the wind actually pushed our sliding door open! I'm over at Elizabeth Kartchner's blog, Dear Lizzie sharing an easy tutorial on how to print on leather. I made this pillow a while back and I share with you how I did it over there. This has to be one of my favorite pillows of all time. Check out the tutorial here.  I will definitely be making more of these in the near future. You'll be so surprised at how easy they are to make!

Last week I created a little St. Patrick's day recipe (and printable) and shared it on the Rhodes Rolls Blog. It's a recipe for the tastiest little corned beef slider you've ever had. It includes crunchy, roasted spinach, pretty much the only way I can get Penelope to eat her greens - hence the name Lucky Slider. I know you'll like it, even though the holiday came and went faster than the blink of an eye. Click here for the full recipe.  

I consider us pretty fortunate to have found our rental in the middle of the winter. It's a brand-new twin home that has never been lived in. How often does that happen for rentals? Our place was one of two listings that I found that didn't have taupe/tan/off-white walls. It has warm grey paint with white plain moulding, loads of south-facing windows, a large kitchen with a very open floorplan and a gigantic unfinished walk-out basement for my studio. Really, this place is just about perfect. Except for the carpet (and linoleum flooring, but that's a totally different issue). I can't stand carpet. It's nice in bedrooms, but I don't find carpet has a place in high-traffic areas. At least not cheap rental carpet that will likely go threadbare in a few short years. We're fortunate enough to have a "tiled" entryway by the front door, but there's nothing to protect the carpet from the door leading to the garage. We have two rugs on either side of the door, but the one on the inside of the door always gets crumpled up, and bunches beneath the door. As I was fixing it for the millionth time the other day, I had a little brainwave to tack down the rug with upholstery tacks. The subfloor is wood, but not gorgeous hardwood that's waiting to be revealed. It took me about two seconds to secure the rug and it looks WORLDS better. It'll also make vacuuming it a breeze. I'll let you know how it holds up. So tell me, if you could build your dream home, would it have carpet in it? Mine surely wouldn't!!

Well hello there! It's been strange not to spend much time on the blog. Things are wrapping up with the calligraphy class, so I spent some time today and yesterday refashioning a dress. I found this plain t-shirt dress at the thrift store for $2. I liked it's simple shape and the details on the sleeves. It was an XL and just a tad too short for me. Inspired by Liz's "Taking it Out" tailoring inspiration, I thought it'd be great to make a color blocked dress. Not wanting to waste the perfectly professional hem on the bottom of the dress, I decided a block at the top would be in order. I had some black floral fabric from JoAnn's clearance, that coordinated perfectly. It's a synthetic crepe fabric. It has about the same amount of sheen as the jersey, so it looks like it was meant to be there.  The original dress had a left breast pocket that I unpicked and applied over the color block. I feel like it integrates the two fabrics since it overlaps both of them. I made the block in the back lower than the block on the right. It adds a bit of asymmetry, which is a little fun. Since the blocked fabric is a woven, I wasn't sure if it would fit over my head without a zipper, but it does. Barely. The dress is loosely tailored to the body, so if I decide that I want to make it more tailored, I'll be adding an exposed zipper in the back. I have a sage vintage zipper that would match the floral print perfectly. I'm really happy with the results! Color blocking gave the hem another 5 inches, which will make this my go-to dress for chasing after the kiddos in the spring and summer. Outfit Details

• dress: thrifted & refashioned
• belt: thrifted
• shoes: thrifted BCBG

I'm so very excited what next month will bring! The calligraphy course will be launching and I'm participating in Project Run and Play! Project Run and Play is much like Project Runway, but for crafty sewing bloggers. You can sew along, too. There are great prizes for the winners. Follow my updates on the online calligraphy course and Project Run and Play over on ISLY's facebook page! There you'll get frequent sneak peeks of all the fun that goes on behind the scenes. Alternatively, you can sign up for the I Still Love Calligraphy online course newsletter here.

I can't believe it's the weekend already. Seriously this week has just flown right by. Chris and I are making serious progress on the calligraphy site (sign up for the newsletter here). I can't begin to describe to you how excited I am for this class!! I hope you are, too. Last weekend, Penelope and I went thrift shopping for the first time in a long while. We found so many awesome treasures, like the mommy/daughter clogs, I've been thinking of going again everyday this week. The thing about thrift shopping, once you find good stuff, then you want to go all the time and because everything is so cheap I either end up spending way more than I thought I would and/or come home with stuff that I don't actually need. So, I'm not purchasing a whole lot of home goods on my thrift excursions and I'm being more picky than ever. However, clothes are very easy to justify, especially for Penelope and Felix. They're both growing like weeds, so they really can't have enough. Especially Penelope, who's dresses are all more like shirts these days. I picked up this sweet little dress for Penelope (she was so excited when I showed it to her). It was $2. For serious. I love the gingham print and the peter pan collar. It's just so stinking adorable and perfect for winter with the color palette and perfect for the summer with it being sleeveless and all. Score all around.

I designed a little stamp for my friend, Juliette, for her to use on business cards and her miscellaneous sewing projects. She wanted a stamp similar to the one I made for my business cards (also seen here), so I included a little bit of hand-lettering with her basic information. I have yet to see how the stamp turned out in person, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Chris got a job last week! He'll be starting his new job in two weeks, which means we both need to hustle to get everything done on the calligraphy site (which is coming along quite nicely, thanks to him). In the mean time, I will be taking things slowly and finishing the task at hand before taking on new projects. You can expect to see a couple of posts per week, but do bare with me as I take this time to finish up the calligraphy site. In the mean time, I finally took the time to take pictures of the white jersey skirt I made for the Alt Summit white party. I used the flat gathered technique to attach the skirt to the waistband. I sewed the selvaged edges together on about a yard and a half of fabric and gathered the skirt to the waistband. This skirt is a bit see-through, but as long as I wear a long slip underneath, it's just fine. Also, while I was running around after the photos, the skirt was too long for my bare feet. I ended up rolling the skirt at the waist to shorten it a bit. This totally worked and gave the skirt a whole new look!

Click here for full outfit details for Penelope and me.

Penelope and I went to the thrift store today in the hopes of finding her a cute new dress (or two) and me a cool case for my growing calligraphy supplies. I'm still on the lookout for a cool carrying case to replace my metal lunchbox, which is just about to break; but we did find a me dress for Pen! We also found a lot of other awesome goodies including clogs for both Penelope and me! Penelope's clogs are plastic and cost $2. Mine are leather Candie's and were $4. A fantastic score if you ask me. And just to let you know… these are my eleventh pair of brown shoes. Just two more and I'll have a bakery's dozen!! What awesome things have you found lately? Do share in the comments below!

I've been meaning to post this tutorial for some time, I figure late is better than never. Nearly 3 years ago, I refashioned a muu muu into an elastic waist skirt. I liked it just fine, but I felt like it poufed out at the waist a little too much for me. I never wore it and eventually donated it to DI; from whence it came. I figure I'm not the only one who's picky about the volume in clothing around my midsection. I don't like feeling 3 times larger than I am. Do you? Since that refashion failure, I've figured out my own little method that I have yet to share with you. I used it with my 2-second ruffle skirt, my housedress refashion and the skirt I made for Alt (which I still need to share) with great success. A few people have asked what my technique is, so I'm here to share it with you. Again, I'm tooting a tutorial horn that's been tooted MANY, MANY times before in many different ways. Check out the end of the tutorial for a list of my favorites. The reason why I'm posting my own version is to share my techniques for sewing the skirt and attaching the waistband. The way I attach my skirt reduces a lot of the mid-section bulk that you get with a typical handmade gathered skirt. I do hope you enjoy. Check out the tutorial after the jump.

• Flat Gathered Skirt Tutorial •

SUPPLIES: Sewing machine, 1 1/2 yard fabric, elastic, elastic cording, thread, pins, iron I would strongly suggest getting yourself some awesome elastic. I prefer the elastic from rufflefabric.com (this is in no way sponsored, btw). It's soft, it's comfortable, comes in many colors and it looks professional. I can't recommend this enough!! This tutorial would be perfect for a drapey jersey, but nothing thicker than a cotton voile. Thin, drapey material would be best.

1. Cut out your fabric. Cut four sections to 3/4 of your waist measurement at the desired length, plus 1-3 inches. Trim in top side side to 1/2 your waist measurement. like a trapezoid. Cut 4 pocket pieces (Susan has a great pattern in her tutorial).
2. Take one pocket piece, measure about 3 inches from top and pin. Sew right sides together. Each panel will have a pocket.Turn right sides over and press.
3. Match up the pockets and panels right sides together. Sew along the straight edge on both pairs. Open up and press seams flat
4. Match up the two sides together and sew along the perimeter. This will create the space for the pockets. Turn right side out. Press. Hem skirt as desired. No need to hem if you’re doing this out of jersey.

Measure the elastic around your waist and zig-zag stitch the elastic together. When measuring around my waist with elastic, I don’t stretch the elastic. This allows for the least amount of bulk and a comfortable fit. Turn your skirt inside out and zig-zag stitch about 1/4 inch from the top, encasing  elastic cording in the stitch. This allows for a more uniform gather and for a little fudge room if you gather too much or not enough. Turn your elastic inside out. Pin the gathered inside-out skirt 1/2 inch up from the bottom of the elastic. Pin the entire skirt and stitch the skirt to the elastic using a semi-short zig-zag stitch. Turn the skirt right side out. Iron gathers into place and wear. See how little this skirt poufs out? Here are some other great gathered skirt tutorials: Mama Elastic Waist Skirt • Covered Elastic Waist Skirt • Lined Elastic Waist Skirt • Elastic Paperbag Skirt • Elastic Circle Skirt Outfit Details:

• cardigan: old boutique in college
• bracelet: handmade
• top: Ruche
• skirt: handmade
• tights: H&M
• shoes: thrifted

Click the button below to download the printable tutorial.

This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without the express consent of Melissa Esplin. I love getting shout outs from around the web, but please, link with love. Do not copy this post, publish more than 2 photos or outright steal this idea for commercial publications. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!