I have this favorite tee - I bought it at Walmart, and I tailored it to fit. It fits me perfectly: not too tight, not too loose. The material wasn't the best in the world, so I decided to cut it up and use the fit to draft a pattern for myself. I haven't made a real teeshirt with inset sleeves using knit fabric before, and it's so much easier than with wovens. I'll be making a lot more knit tees from here on out.

Here you can see how it looked at the mini parties at Alt. Not too shabby for my first v-neck?

You can see that I properly mitered the inside of the v, that was the hardest part of constructing this tee. I didn't want it to pull or pucker, and honestly, I can't really remember how I set in the ribbing, I just remember going so slowly and sewing it first with a straight stitch on my sewing machine, then going through with the serger afterwards. Here's a youtube video that uses a much easier method for the v, and overlaps the neck band pieces as opposed to mitering them.

I used a very similar technique for creating the color blocked panels on the front as I used in my gold-backed wiggle skirt tutorial. It was pretty easy to do that, but thinking back, it would've been pretty cool to add the same color blocked detail to the back. I used the same fabric from my stash as in this dress refashion. It was really important to press every seam and to top stitch as much as possible. I don't have a coverlock machine, so I used double needles and wooly nylon thread for finishing the hems. This project took about an hour to complete.

I'll definitely have this in tight rotation with my other tees. I now want to make one with a slightly deeper V (how hipster am i?) and long sleeves. It was fun to brag about making both my top and skirt at Alt Summit (proud much?). Pretty sure most people were surprised when I told them my entire outfit was handmade (minus the shoes - I should work on that).

Have you noticed something new? Last week, just before I left for Alt Summit, Chris implemented my redesign. It's been about nine months in the works, percolating in my brain for at least a year. Last year I wanted to implement a new design, but I knew I'd be back to square one if I rushed the rebrand at all. And I was right. I wanted to make sure I took enough time and thought about each step thoroughly.

Hurdles of a Rebrand: The URL

I refer to my blog as I Still Love You - my place to do the things I still love even when the chaos of motherhood is in full swing (like right now - we all have the stomach flu). It would be perfect to have istillloveyou.com for that very purpose. But the insert explicative noun who own and are still trying to sell istillloveyou.com were looking for $15,000 for the domain. I gave them the middle finger. Frustrated, I decided that I needed to go another direction.

Ultimately we decided that it was more cost effective to stick with the current domain but restructure a bit. I am embracing my URL as melissaesplin.com, but "I still love you" is (and always will be) my personal motto, and a motto that I hope many of you will adopt as well. The reason why I have a blog isn't for $$$ (although being able to bring in extra income is nothing short of a blessing), but it's to share my creative process with others and to keep in tact the creative person I was before diapers and drool came to the scene.

Hurdles of a Rebrand: My Style

Trying to nail down my style was like trying to hit a moving target with a bow and arrow, having never shot a bow and arrow before. This is not a niche blog about any one theme, unless you consider that one theme the entire umbrella of creativity.

I love trends old and new, but I didn't want my blog to feel outdated the second it went live. So I opted for a plainer canvas than I've done in the past. I don't mind the orange and pink from days of yore, but it was getting old, and it was too girly. Each year we will be changing up the theme's main color for the Pantone color of the year. After I broke down the elements of my own personal style, it made a theme so much easier to work on:

• feminine, not girly
• handmade surprises
• dimension and depth
• simple, but eclectic

Features and Implementation

I wanted the site to be the kind that was welcoming to all people and easy to use. I'm hoping it comes across as such. The biggest priority we had was to find new ways to dredge up old content. I've been blogging for 5 1/2 years now, that's a lot of old content! Here are a few things that are new to the site:

1. Easily share posts to facebook and twitter on the right of the content, click the share and a drop down drawer will show up.
2. Visual links to Pinterest boards for both tutorials and printables
3. Shuffle button (in the middle of older and newer posts) to dredge up old pages of posts
4. Reply inline  to comments in the comments section
5. Sticky menu and search
6. Simplified mobile site with a swipe-to-view sidebar
7. Background parallax (currently only in Firefox and Safari)

The build was a lot of work on Chris's end. I keep saying that this design (between mine and Chris's billable rates) would have cost in the $6000 range. It was A LOT of work.

But it feels so good to have it complete. I do hope you take a look around and take advantage of the new features. Be sure to send a shout out if something doesn't look right. I really appreciate the feedback.

I'll be speaking at Alt Summit in a few days on effective DIYs and how to market with Pinterest. Jill, one of my co-panelists, is very well-versed in Pinterest and will be covering that aspect of the panel very thoroughly. I do want to mention a couple of things here, though. I'm not sure if this post is for me, for beginning Pinterest users or for my co-horts (not sure how many of my fellow blog friends actually read this) but I figure it's good to get this off my chest and get my personal feelings out there on the matter. Feel free to chime in on the conversation in the comments below. WHAT DO I PIN? There were (and still are) a lot of mixed feelings about Pinterest when some terms of service changed, begging the question: What should be pinned to Pinterest? For me personally, I keep it to original sources only. DIY blogs, food blogs and shops are pretty easy ones. I also pin from fashion and interior blogs but only when the author of the blog publishes original content. For example, I'll pin an interior that someone has styled and photographed themselves as opposed to the interior images they used for inspiration. I never pin from tumblr, google images or stock photography sites. HOW DO I PIN? This is a dumb question, I know. But some people may not necessarily think about this so I feel it's worth mentioning. I pin directly from permalinks - I click through to the single blog post or product page, then pin what it is I want. Pinning from the main page of a blog is really annoying - content always shuffles on that front page, so you'll never be able to get directly to that blog post after new content appears. If I'm re-pinning from peeps I follow, I'll quickly click through the link to make sure proper attribution has been given. If re-pinning a recipe from Pinterest, wouldn't you click through the link to make sure that the site is still working and the recipe is worth making? I treat all other pins the same way. Especially with art and design. I also pin with descriptive language. I want people to be able to find the same awesome things that I'm pinning, so I make the image searchable with key terms. I also like to write little notes to myself about what made me pin the image in the first place. I never pin full tutorial instructions in the comments. It's just plain annoying and just like stealing the content from that site or blog. HOW DO I ENCOURAGE PINNING? This is kind of a funny thing. I'm getting more into this now. Pinterest is a great way to get your content out there, but I say this with hesitation. I don't like following pinners that are self-promoting all the time, so I try not to. I've not done a great job of this recently, but I'm working on striking a good balance. After much thought I've decided that if I'm going to be pinning my own work, I should be pinning to boards marked for self-promotion. I feel like this works in my favor two ways: 1) It clearly tells my followers that this is something of mine, I'm not sneaky about promoting my work. 2) It's a great way to aggregate all of the stuff that I've done in one spot. It's easy for people to find what they're looking for and to repin as they see fit.

I've also enabled a "Pin It" hover over all of my in-line content images allowing readers to pin directly to a permalink without having to click through to a single post. Chris developed this widget for me (you can download your own ISLY Pinterest Wordpress Widget below). When you hover over any of the graphics in the main column on this blog, you'll see a pin it icon. Simply click the icon and it takes you to a Pinterest pop up where you can pin that image and the attached permalink straight to a Pinterest board. Slick, and properly attributed. If you plan on installing it on your blog, it comes stock with a Pinterest icon, but you can certainly customize it using simple code.

I don't write about this stuff very often, but I thought it was appropriate to share since Chris put in a lot of effort to make the widget for me and we are more than happy to share this with others. I'm looking forward to hearing Jill's insight and advice on Pinterest. I have a feeling that I'll be learning a lot from her and my other amazing co-panelists: Jenny, Chris and Chelsea.  

This was quite possibly the hardest make I've ever done. I completed the chiffon skirt I've had stewing in my brain for months. It has taken me so long to do it because the material intimidated me. I'd say this project took a total of 6-8 hours to complete. Most of that time was in the pattern and cutting stages. The plan was to make something that had a nice flow and drape to it for the Friday night parties at Alt Summit, but something that was comfortable and breathable for dancing and running around. I feel like this strikes both fancy and wearable arenas. I had originally thought about doing some kind of easy elastic waistband to keep the construction simple, but if I really wanted to do it right, I needed a real waistband with an invisible zipper. That also scared the bejeebers out of me as I've only put in one invisible zipper in and it was while being heavily supervised by my amazing sewing friend. I used the same chiffon fabric for the waistband, but I interfaced both sides of the waistband for structure. I'm glad I did both sides instead of just the one. Since the fabric was so cheer, I cut out two layers, unfortunately I didn't have enough for two full-length layers so the bottom layer hits just below knee length. I feel like it would've been better full-length, but it still has a nice effect. Additionally, the two layers together still aren't opaque enough to hide my underwear, so I whipped up a wiggle skirt out of nude swimsuit lining. It's just enough opacity to do the trick, but not to add any extra weight. I can see the little flaws that make it look home made, but I'm hoping that others won't when I wear it to the mini parties. I've also realized that I don't have a top that goes really well with this skirt. I need a cropped or peplum top. We'll see if I can whip one up in time for the conference. This week is crazy busy, but I have so many things I want to share with you before I go MIA for the weekend. Oh how I wish there were more hours in the day! Outfit Details:

• top: Target, refashioned
• earrings: IHAMLT
• belt: thrifted
• skirt: handmade
• shoes: thrifted

I thought I'd include some simple instructions on how I constructed it, in case you're interested in making your own. Read more for the full tutorial. Construct your pattern on paper. I used a curved ruler to make the round shape. Lay the pattern on top of your fabric and weigh it down with weights. Cut your material. If you're doing sheer material like mine, two pieces for each layer you want to include. Interface your waist fabric with fusible interfacing. Sew one side of your skirt together. I serged these two layers together. If you're using a sheer or loose weave material, you'll want to serge, zig zag or hem the two open ends seperately so your skirt won't fray. You'll also want to stay-stitch your waist (a baste stitch all the way around the waist, just shy of your seam allowance). Pin the waistband to the skirt, right sides together.   Insert your zipper below your waistband. You can follow instructions on your zipper or check out this tutorial for invisible zipper insertion. Sew the rest of the skirt, right sides together. Fold your waistband down about 1/2 inch, then fold in half to meet the original seam, making sure the raw edge of that original waist seam (and ends) will be encased. Sew the waist band down. I pinned the waistband, then sewed along the right side of the waistband so I could get a perfect top stitch. Add a clasp or button for the waistband. Hem the edge of your skirt using a baby hem and you're done!

I've been sewing like crazy these days. My goal is to have at least one handmade item on my person at Alt. Considering there will be four day looks and three evening looks, it's a heck of a lot of stuff. Fortunately, I think I may have over prepared! I think. We'll see how the next skirt turns out. I've had the below fabric in my stash for a few months, knowing exactly what I wanted to make with it. I wanted to make a high-low cape top (kinda like Penelope's). Something that flowed nicely in the back, but wasn't too muumuu-ish. I took one of my favorite shirt patterns (this is really the second time I've made a banksia top, but I wear my first one practically every other day), and altered it in the back to fit my style. I made room for the yoke and back pleat. I also had to take in the front piece a little (ditched the darts, too) to keep it looking form-flattering. You can see the back is constructed of two pieces. I sorta wish I had made the back with a more pronounced pleat, but I like it all the same. It's a pretty dramatic high-low here, but I like that I can wear it with my leggings and it'll cover my bum. Chris and Eric (brother-in-law who's living with us right now) call it the CYA shirt . . . you know, cover your ___. I'm not sure Chris is as jazzed about the style of this shirt as I am, but that's okay. I only dress to impress my girlfriends these days anyway. I like how I can pair this top with a belt or leave it loose. I'm still trying to decide how I'll style it for alt (likely there will be a sweater in the mix). Outfit Details:

• top: handmade
• belt: vintage
• pants: Target
• shoes: thrifted

Have you been sewing much lately?

This post is part of the Stretch Yourself Series hosted by Miriam of Mad Mim and Miranda of One Little Minute. You should check out their series if you haven't already. It's a very thorough series on the ins and outs of sewing with knits. Today Heather and I are sharing how to color block with knits. It's really so easy. Promise. When asked to participate in Mim and Miranda's knit series (specifically the color block part), I immediately thought of these shoes. They've been circulating the interwebs recently, and I haven't been able to get them out of my head. So I thought I would translate those shoes to a skirt. I told Chris this was my business in front, party in back skirt. We're only doing it on one side, and we're doing it with stretchy knit so it's a lot more forgiving than you might think. Here's how you can make your own: You'll need a stretchy base knit, something that has 40-60% stretch. The gold knit you'll just grab some gold lame or swim material. It's got good structure and stretch. You'll also need pencil, large paper, scissors, seam ripper, pins, ruler and a sewing machine. Make your measurements. Measure where you want your skirt to sit along your waist, measure your rise (distance between waist and hips), hips and skirt length. Draft up a quick pattern using the above measurements. This is for 1/4th of your skirt. Since you're using a stretchy material, we won't worry about seam allowance. Now we'll cut out the material. It's best to lay it out on the ground and weigh the pattern down on the fabric with bowls, cups and other weighty objects. Cut out with scissors or rotary cutter. Cut your gold piece just a little bit bigger than the bottom of your skirt. Take one skirt piece aside and lay it on the ground right side up. Lay the gold fabric right side up about 3/4 inches below the hem. Grab your ruler, lay it down and cut through both layers. Now you have your two pattern pieces cut at the exact same angle! Ready for piecing. Lay the pieces right sides together, and stitch. Iron seam flat with a cool iron. Line up front and back pieces right sides together and sew, using a 1/2 - 5/8 inch seam allowance. Finish the hems: Roll hem with a serger, cover stitch, zig zag or double-stitch your top and bottom hems. Be sure to use a stitch that allows for stretch!! Outfit details:

• top, earrings and necklace: H&M
• skirt: handmade
• shoes: c/o Blowfish

Now rock and roll!

My sister-in-law gave me this dress over the break and I just finished refashioning it. It was just a bit too short for her and she wouldn't be taking it with her to Chicago anyway. I happily obliged. The fit wasn't fantastic and the sleeves were about a mile high. BUT THE PRINT!! Oh that print. The poor fit and the puffy sleeves combined made me look like I was about to break into song, "I am 16, going on 17. . ." Yikes! I'm not particularly awesome with sleeves, but I thought I would give it a shot. The puffy sleeves provided more than enough fabric for the sleeves I reconstructed. And if I failed, I could at least finish the arm holes nicely and wear it with cardigans. And the sleeves worked! I'm so excited with how it turned out. It looks and feels so much better. Here's how I did it:

• I unpicked the armhole seams and the side seams all the way
• I laid out the arm hole flat on the ground and traced the hill shape on some swedish tracing paper
• I cut that out and pinned it to the arm hole seam and adjusted the pattern from there
• I pinned and sewed carefully

It doesn't look like much of a change, but it took forever and feels completely different! Another piece crossed off my list for my Alt Summit wardrobe. Outfit details:

• earrings: Forever 21
• dress: handmade, thrifted and refashioned
• Bracelet: c/o Apricot Lane
• tights: H&M
• shoes: H&M

This post is brought to you by Baby Lock. Baby Lock is dedicated to the love of sewing by creating a full line of sewing machines all with ease-of-use, high quality and a touch of elegance. Connect with Baby Lock on Facebook and TotallyStitchin.net.

I made a pillow today. I've had this idea rolling around in my head since I made leather bows out of this horribly tacky leather. It looked SO INCREDIBLY TACKY in store, but it was 99¢ a square foot (ridiculously cheap for leather) and I couldn't help but think something cool could come from it. Something. Then Celeste was telling me about her plans for her master bedroom ideas to incorporate purple. It's really a lovely color that gets the boot all too often for it's bad rep of being a tween girl color. It can be so much more than that. So I made her a pillow. I couldn't resist, and I think it turned out lovely. The pictures show the leather being more blue than it actually looks like. I'm hoping it'll work for her decor. I used a pre-quilted broadcloth (similar) I found in my mom's stash of sewing goodies she gave me a few years ago. It has a natural feel to it with little flecks of fibers here and there. I'm not sure what my mom had originally planned for the fabric, but it works perfectly for this purpose. I cut out the quilted broadcloth and leather, then made a straight cut around the 3/4 mark on the front piece and that's where I added the two strips. I made the gold strip smaller than the purple one to balance out the glam and natural details. I used a leather needle here, but since I was sewing the leather to fabric, I didn't use my walking foot. I just made sure to sew leather-side-down when attaching pieces together. I topstitched the fabric side of the piecing to give it a crisp look, but felt no need to do that on the leather sides. I did press the leather, which makes it look really sharp. When pressing leather, you'll want to cover with a pressing cloth (cotton sheet works fine) with the iron on med-high with low steam. This kind of project is perfect for small leather scraps. Instead of piecing, you could applique! Leather edges don't need to be finished. Have you ever pieced with leather before? Here are some great envelope pillow tutorials: Envelope Pillow • Hidden Zipper Pillow

I've been thinking about making my own leggings for some time. I just didn't want to do it with my regular sewing machine. Certainly it can be done, but if you have a 4-way lightweight stretch jersey, it'll take twice as long to sew. Having a serger really is a game changer for me. I whipped up these pants in just over an hour, including making the pattern. I had some leggings that were getting threadbare, but I really liked the rise and the fit, so I sacrificed them for the pattern. I simply cut carefully along the seams and laid it out flat. Since cutting out the pattern, I no longer had seam allowances. I didn't want to manually measure all of my seam allowances so I made up this little trick. I'm sure it's been used before, but maybe you can benefit from my funny little discovery? Tape three pencils together, keeping the middle one higher than the other two. It's just 1/16 shy of 5/8 inches. Not shabby. Not shabby at all. I sewed everything in a slightly different order than the leggings that I made for Felix, and I like how it went. It was a bit easier:

1. Sew front rise right sides together
2. Sew elastic to the wrong side of the fabric(you might need to stretch the elastic a bit during sewing)
3. Roll the elastic down
4. Sew the back rise, right sides together (including elastic!)
5. Sew the legs closed, right sides together
6. Finish hems

These leggings feel like pajamas. You'll definitely see me sporting these at Alt Summit this year. And here are some legging tutorials if you're interested in making your own: Baby Leggings Tutorial & Pattern • Basic Leggings •Printed Leggings • Ruffle Bum Leggings • Ruched Leggings • Making Leggings

It's been a really nice Christmas break. Our family ventured to Phoenix (you can see our shenanigans here). Chris is back home with his dad and brother trudging through the snow and skiing while I'm at the in-law's soaking up sun and eating all the grapefruit and oranges I can get my hands on. I'm taking a minute (maybe you're rolling your eyes because every blog is doing this?), to look back at all the things I've done over the last year (boy I've grown a lot). Here are my favorites in no particular order. I revamped a beautiful coat to fit in the 21st century, I made stamps out of leather, Felix loves his new leggings and I lengthened a dress with the powers of colorblocking. I wrote a few thank yous, I finally launched my online calligraphy workshop, I sewed a few neat outfits for Penelope and I refashioned a reversible maternity/nursing top. I made a tote bag out of a pillow case, I finally shared how to color block leather, I started the zero budget project and I painted magnets. I refashioned trousers into a skirt, I refashioned trousers into a skirt again, I designed a pretty bag and I made a high-low skirt. I finally settled on a color for the dresser, I upholstered some stools, Penelope loves her cosby sweater and I can't resist the combination of bows and leather. Now looking forward. . . Things may be quiet on the surface around here, but there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes. I'm just polishing off a rebrand (6 months in the works) that Chris now has the daunting task of coding. The new look will highlight content more and you'll be able to find old content easier. I'll talk about the restructuring later. I'm also feverishly working on completing this year's Alt Summit Business cards, several items of clothing (each outfit at Alt will have one or more handmade item in the mix - ambitious, I know) and a few side projects for friends. Chris gave me a serger for Christmas (!!!) which will make a few of those projects much easier. Over the break, I learned to use my mother-in-law's coverstitch machine and I'm completely hooked. I believe my handmade wardrobe just got dialed up a notch.