Polka Dot Dress Part Two: The Bodice

That title is pretty self-explanatory, but for those not in the know I've been working on a dress. It's a long process for me, but I'm taking my time so there are less mistakes. That's the plan anyway.

So far I just have the bodice done and, if I may say so myself, it's starting to look like something!

Going slowly is working out for me so far because I've only made one mistake and it was an easy fix. I got mixed up with the strap placement at first and could have had a problem when it was time to wear it. Thankfully I hadn't actually sewn it on yet when I realized what happened.

I just love the polka dots. Check out the cute fabric I found for the lining, too!

I originally was going to have a plain pink or purple lining but I couldn't pass up this precious floral pattern. Especially at $1.50 a yard; Wal-Mart is not my favorite place to buy anything but what a deal!

I can't wait to start work on the skirt soon. It has pockets. Pockets!

xoxo
Stephanie

T-Shirt Resize

I love t-shirts. They're comfortable, versatile, and it's hard to look bad in one. Over time I've ended up with a few over sized shirts and, being on the petite side of the spectrum, it's hard to make something that's just too big look flattering. It's a shame because I had a few perfectly good shirts that were not getting worn. So here's a project I've been going crazy with.

Over sized no more! I'm sure there's tutorials all over the web for this but here's what I did.

Here's one of the shirts in question:

I am super fancy. This t-shirt is super awesome because I friend of mine picked it up for me at Comic-Con one year (and scored me some original art) and I love it it pieces. As you can see, it's not exactly a great fit. I fixed that.

The first step is to gather up this shirt and another that actually fits. I chose a shirt that fit but was a little loose because if I chose something more form fitting I'd cut off some of the design of the blue shirt. If you have a design on your shirt, check measurements for that before you do anything drastic.
You will also need a marking pen or chalk and fabric scissors.

Fold both shirts in half and place the smaller shirt on top of the large shirt and tuck in the sleeves. Then trace around the smaller shirt, leaving a distance for a seam allowance.

Cut along your line. Next, trace out your new sleeve size by placing the new cut out on top the sleeves. Trace and cut. These sleeves didn't need much resizing, but every shirt is different. 

Turn each piece, body and two sleeves, inside out with right sides facing each other. Sew along the body sides (do not sew the armholes!) and the sleeve bottoms according to your earlier seam allowance. I'll note that the sleeves, while not traced with a seam allowance they should be sewn the same as the body of the shirt. The picture is blurry, but hopefully it shows what I mean.

Time to attach sleeves. Place the sleeves inside the armholes, right sides together with seams matching. Sew together.

Press your seams and turn the shirt right side out. You're done! Whoo! Time for the t-shirt dance!

Okay, I'm not dancing in that picture. Somebody was supposed to help me take pictures and instead I was left to take them myself in the mirror. The one that turned out the best I just happened to be holding the camera over my head. Good times.

Here are some others I've done:

 I do like me some bright colors. To put in perspective how long I've held onto some of these shirts that pink one is a band t-shirt for a garage band from high school. Junior year. Yeah, that's right. Seven-ish years I've held onto it because I love pink and I knew I'd wear it one day.

The Godfather one is awesome because it is extra long and would probably look pretty cool with some skinny jeans or leggings.

xoxo

Stephanie

Polka Dot Dress Part One: The Pattern

I'm just going to come right out and say it: I am not good with sewing patterns.

Once, way back in high school, I wanted to sew a corset. Nothing fancy or anything that cinched up like a real corset, just one of those tops that looks like one. I thought "that should be easy." Never mind that I'd never sewn much of anything in my life, that is what I wanted to do! I found a pattern, got some fabric and gave it my all! It was wearable.... once... but not super comfortable. Looking back, I should have started with something easier. Since then, I've had my mother help me with Halloween costumes. No joke.

Most of my sewing, as I've shown here, is re-fashion. The only thing I've made thus far from a pattern that I actually like is an apron. A full sized pink and black plaid apron. I love it to pieces and I should have blogged it. I didn't because I got over excited and forgot to take any pictures. It may turn up in one of my baking posts one day because I do wear it all the time.

Whoops. Digressing there. Patterns intimidate me a bit. Will I ever make something as cute as what's in the picture? Aprons are easy, corsets are do-able, but a dress? Well, I've decided to go for it.

Look! It's even marked "easy" for me. It's like they know...
I bought this pattern for $0.99 when Jo-Ann's was having a sale. No $20 patterns for me, no way. I didn't actually have any fabric when I bought this, nor did I buy some during the sale. Nothing spoke to me that day. I knew the fabric would come when it was ready.

 About two weeks later, it did. I was visiting one of my favorite thrift stores (now that I've moved, I need to find some new ones!) and I found the most adorable pink & purple polka dotted sheets. Yes, sheets. I can't remember the exact amount, but I don't think they were more than $2 or $3. It was just too cute and there was certainly enough for a dress.  Like the dress made of curtains in "Enchanted." Except I won't be as regal.

As always with thrift store finds, I ran the fabric through the washing machine and ironed it all out. I've decided to go with pattern "C." That's the red one in the picture if you can't read the label. I think it will look precious with polka-dots.

That's another first up in the top right corner. Fusible interfacing. This pattern is getting intense! This is what I have so far. I've only cut out the main pieces of fabric. I still need to cut out the lining pieces and the interfacing pieces. Once that's done I can start the actual sewing process.

I'm pretty excited about starting this project. If it all works out I'll have actually made something wearable from scratch! I know plenty of people do it all the time, but the only things I make from scratch are edible and don't last long.
I'm older and more patient than I was in high school, so hopefully I'll come out with a dress at the end of this.

Wish me luck!

xoxo
Stephanie

Yo-Yo T-Shirt

Awhile back a friend gifted me with a few articles of clothing that she no longer needed and/or no longer fit. This shirt was one of them. I love the soft grey color, but the sleeves were always a little loose down by my wrists. When I wore the shirt I usually rolled up the sleeves to my elbows. Then I had a thought about the last t-shirt reconstruction I did. If I could cut the sleeves off that shirt, why not this one?

So I did.

My Little Terrarium

I will be the first person to say it: I am not a gardener. I leave all outdoor (oh heck, indoor too) plant life to my boyfriend. He enjoys it much more than I do and, thus, takes greater care.

Something weird happened, though. I suddenly got it into my head that I wanted to make a terrarium. The idea of planting something in a glass case sounded pretty cool and I love how they look. So I hunted around at thrift stores looking for glassware that came with a lid. The lid was important to me; it was all about my vision.

I did finally find what I was looking for... sort of. I found a long, ugly cylinder glass with a fantastic lid, so I decided to buy it anyway. I took the measurement of the opening in the cylinder glass and found a fun circular bowl that worked perfectly. 

Next part of my vision was the plant; I needed something low maintenance if  I was going to do this. Browsing through the local farmer's market one Saturday morning I found a dainty little succulent. It was beautiful.

T-shirt reconstruction

Ever since I got my sewing machine I've been cutting up all kinds of t-shirts. I can fix shirts that are too big or fix something that isn't quite right.

Today I'm taking an old long sleeve and turning it into something frilly and girly. I love this shirt because it's comfortable and it fits well. Unfortunately, I got some bleach on the sleeve. Never good, especially with black.

I found a couple of cute t-shirt tutorials online but my favorite was from Ruffles and Stuff. She has some really cute ideas over there. The first step of this process was simple. Fold the shirt in half and cut off the sleeves to a desired length. The shirt is folded to make sure that the sleeves are cut evenly.

Ity-Bity Cake Stand

I have had the busiest week. First there were finals, I started my cake decorating class, and then my boyfriend graduated with his Bachelor of Science (whoo!) This of course meant there was family in town and I'd have eight people in my house, myself included. There was a lot going on. What does this have to do with the blog; aside from excuses for the lack of posts? Well, let's keep going.

I make a lot of tiny cakes. There's only two people in my household and making a large one would be excessive. So that's just fine and dandy but something that's been starting to get to me is the fact that these little cakes look so silly on my nice cake stand.

See what I mean? Not so majestic sitting up there. It's like wearing clothes that are too big, it's not flattering in the slightest.
The thing is, though, that I'd never had a real reason other than vanity to have a little cake stand. The large one does a fine job of displaying my cakes and there was no need for anything more.

That time has come.

In planning to host these seven people at my humble abode for a couple of meals I also planned to bake a cake! What kind of host would I be if I didn't? One that didn't serve cake, obviously.
So wouldn't one full sized cake be more than enough? Normally, this would be true, but one of my guests has some allergies and she'll be getting her very own tiny gluten and dairy free cake!

Now that the big stand will be host to a butter and wheat flour cake I'm going to need something else to display the tiny one.

I know that there are many do-it-yourself cake stands out there, but this is a first for me.

For this project I gathered

• A dry erase marker
• Small glass dish
• Small glass cup-thing
• Adhesive
• Q-tip, one cotton end cut off
• Ruler

This is a great project, and super cheap. The glassware cost me $1.50 at the thrift stores. Clean it up and it's perfect! 

Bonsai Tool Roll-Up Bag

Bonsai trees are amazing, aren't they? Itsy-bitsy living trees. In my home we have six. At the moment they're all new and at that beginning stage. One day they'll be fully grown, tiny trees. You see, my very talented boyfriend has just started this tree hobby and has taken quite a liking to it. I never realized before just how much goes into the whole process. Root trimming, branch shaping; a lot of time and energy goes into these.

I like to encourage hobbies so last Christmas bought him some actual bonsai tools. They came in a little cardboard box and he was ecstatic. However, we started thinking that the tools needed something more permanent than that little cardboard box. I took upon myself to do something about it.

The design was basic enough so I sketched up an idea and got some materials together.

• Canvas
• Straps
• Cutting board
• Rotary Cutter
• Fabric scissors (which I did not have at the time but have since purchased. Good decision on my part)
• Fabric marker
• Pins

See how simple my drawing is? Easy stuff. 

The first step was to figure out how long I wanted it to be when it was all rolled out and how wide. I then folded up the bottom to form a flap. This was where I'd be stitching up pockets. I got a little too into the project and didn't take a picture. You'll see what I mean in the next part.

I cut out some rectangular pieces that I wanted to be extra pockets, folded up the edges and pinned them to the flap, being sure I didn't pin them to the back of the bag.

The Girl Wonder | Cape

Happy Easter!

So the last few days have been crazy busy for me. Many hours of baking and sewing. I am exhausted today; I slept in until 9 o'clock. I never do that, 8 o'clock is usually late for me. I would have usually been irritated with myself for staying in bed that long but this morning I did not even care.

The superhero bowling was a success, but I still have yet to post about the cape. Tomorrow or the next day I'll show off the baked goods. They were pretty great.

Onward to the cape! Or, in this case, caplet. It was pretty adorable. I searched around to find a good tutorial and found this one. I liked it because it looked relatively easy and had good directions. This only uses on piece of fabric, but I used two because Robin's cape is black on the outside and yellow on the inside.

I lucked out on the fabric. Again, thrift stores are amazing. I found a large about of this amazing, shiny black fabric for $3.50 and bought a yellow pillowcase for $0.50. Yay!

First things first, and I undid all of the seams from the pillow case. I then pinned it to the black fabric to use as a template, to insure both pieces were the same size.
Once I had those I folded each piece lengthwise then crosswise and pinned all the sides together.

The Girl Wonder | Top

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Not just because it's spooky and there's candy involved; although I do enjoy that. I like Halloween so much because of the costumes. I love dressing up and I'm surprised I haven't had a costume party before.

I have to say, I really have a sense of accomplishment with this Robin costume I'm making. I've never made my own costume before. For those aforementioned Halloweens my mom's helped me make a costumer (and by "help" I mean "sewn herself") so this is a nice change. More than nice, it's great. I'm doing this on my own.

It may not be much, but I'm going in baby-steps here. The next step in the Girl Wonder project is the top. Pretty simple and I finally got to use my sewing machine!

I'll just take this moment to say that I found all of the shirts and fabric I use/will be using at thrift stores. They're an amazing resource for that kind of thing but remember to wash everything before using it. You just never know.

Needed:

• Green t-shirt
• Red t-shirt
• Scissors
• Sharpie
• Pencil
• Yellow craft foam
• circle to trace: I chose a cup
• Pins (not pictured)
• Sewing machine (not pictured)

 I'm going to point out that when I assembled all of my materials for this project I had already taken off the sleeves of the red shirt with a seam ripper.

The Girl Wonder | Introduction | Utility Belt

Has anyone had an idea, a simple idea, that ballooned into something larger? Something so incredible you can't believe you didn't think of it earlier? It may now be the best idea ever?

Okay, I may be building this up a bit. Simply put: I am a five year old boy at heart.

I decided that this year for my birthday I would have a Batman themed party. I was really just thinking of going to Target for some party supplies, make a yellow and black cake, and call it good. As I was telling this to a friend of mine, however, she made the statement that "we could all dress up!"

A light turned on. Yes, yes we could dress up.

That is, if everyone was willing. Not everyone enjoys that sort of thing but as luck would have it, my friends are awesome. I've got myself a costume party. Not just any costume party, either. Did I mention we'll be bowling?

This of course means that I'll have to make all kinds of things! There are goodies to bake and costumes to sew! I gave my friends free range and told them it doesn't have to be from Batman if they'd like something else. Funny enough, there will be a Batman but it won't be me.

As the blog title suggests: I'll be Robin. So for the next week I'll be going through the party crafting process. Today is the utility belt.  

DIY wall art!

Those vinyl stickers are all the rage, right? I know I love them. They always look really neat and they're handy for those who aren't allowed to paint on their walls (or those who don't feel they're good enough to paint on their walls).

I decided the other day that a door in my house was boring and needed a change. I haven't painted anything in a long while so I didn't have any art to hang... so I could make something new. After seeing this picture I was inspired. Also, I loved this from Amazon, but $25.00 for stickers? No. As pretty as they are, no.

Using an old frame that I had and some contact paper I came up with a solution.