Polo shirt to dress

My dad is so sweet. A few months ago he gave me this purple polo shirt that had gotten too short for him.  His idea was for me to wear it as a maternity shirt.  Instead, I got really excited and said, "I think I'm going to make Violet a dress out of this!" And he gave me a look that said, "You're crazy, but do whatever you want."  So I did.

I cut out a little dress pattern while trying to use as many of the existing  hems as I could. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do buttons or a zipper (I hate them both) so I just made the neck big enough for her head to fit through.  I made the sleeves out of the sleeves from the shirt and added some embellishments from fabric from another shirt I had.  It worked perfectly. 

DIY art

Last week we actually had a pintucksandruffles reunion.  I flew out to see Brittany and help her get her new place set up.  We didn't do anything too exciting besides paint and shop, but we did have a lot of time to think about home decor.

And I started thinking about art.  I love to paint, although I don't do it nearly as often as I should.  But when people find this out about me, I always get the same response: "How cool!  I wish I was aristic."  And I always want to say, "Well, you play the piano, don't you?  I bet your mom made you practice every day when you were little.  And you probably weren't good right away.  And I really bet that if you practiced painting every day, you'd be much better at it than I am."  But for some reason, not many people enroll their children in art lessons or make them participate in an art team that travels from school to school and competes.  That enthusiasm is saved for music and sports.

So, why not try it?  I put some pictures here that wouldn't require much skill.  Sunsets are always easy.  I did a sunset once and it took me three hours.  And I painted it with a knife.  The middle picture is a litle more complicated but when you look at it closely, it's just a bunch of vertical stripes and dots on a blue and brown background. And the last one-- seriously, anyone could do that.  If you don't have a lot of technical skill you can always call it abstract.  Don't have any good ideas?  Just copy something you like.  (I went to a lecture by an art critic once-- he said real artists do it all the time.)

by Wendy Puerto

by papermoth on etsy

Happy painting.  I promise, it feels awesome when you finish one.

Fabric dressing room

This summer I have been helping my mom decorate the "play room" for the grandkids.  We decided that we wanted a little screen for the kids to change behind when they play dress-up.  At first I envisioned a painted plywood wall, but I remembered how kids like to knock things over.  And then I envisioned a trip to the emergency room to suture a dressing-room-induced wound from it being pushed onto one of the kids.  Not such a good idea after all.

And then I remembered PVC pipe. It's light, easy to cut, has ready-made joints, and rarely injures people (unless you make a potato gun out of it, but that's entirely different.)  So I headed to Lowes and concocted this frame, using four 4' segments, two 2' segments, four 1' segments, four t-joints, four 45 degree joints, and four 90 degree joints.

 This was the only tricky part.  They didn't have a 45 degree t-joint, so I had to use a plain t-joint and attatch a tiny peice to connect it with a 45 degree elbow joint.  It worked out just fine.

 Then I sewed up some curtains that were easy enough that they don't even need an explanation.

It's going to look so cute in our lemon parfait-colored room.  Ahhh, PVC pipe.

a short story

So during Thanksgiving break last year, some friends (Katelyn and Leslie) and I decided to make the 2.5-hour drive down to Colonial Williamsburg to learn a little bit about our nation's history live a childhood fantasy of visiting the home of an American Girl doll.  As it turns out, Colonial Williamsburg is supremely boring, but the trip was totally worth it because just as we stepped out of the car, we saw an eight-year-old girl not only carrying her American Girl doll, but dressed in an American Girl costume!  We may have stealthily (read:  slightly creepily) taken her picture.

Then I found this website (offering free American Girl dress patterns).  I totally know what Katelyn and Leslie are getting for their birthdays this year.  (And I may even try my hand at making a life-sized version as well.)

gingham dress and other projects.

Here are the pictures of the gingham dress I made.  I still think it needs to be tweaked just a little bit, but not a bad start.

I also happen to own about 18,000 yards of gray jersey material, so I am working on making myself a new wardrobe made entirely of gray jersey.  Most of my inspiration came from Anthropologie.  I will post pictures as I finish each one.  Sewing has been slow as of late, what with all of the sitting by the pool and reading books that I've been doing.  Super important stuff, I know....

okay, okay

My funk is over, I suppose.  A long time ago, I came across a picture of this dress (also very similar to this one from Shabby Apple) and really wanted it.  But alas, it was $450.  (I probably should have expected that since Lauren Conrad was seen wearing it.  I'm still not quite sure who she is, but apparently she's famous.)  I, however, am not famous so I decided to save some money and make my own.

It turned out just a little shorter than I had wanted (but there's a large hem that I can easily take out) and the original sleeves were way too poofy and had to be altered, but other than that I am pretty happy with the final product.  Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures (yet) but tomorrow I post some.

hiatus

I have taken a bit of a sewing hiatus in the past month.  Besides doing some hemming and mending for coworkers and taking in some shirts and skirts, my sewing machine has been oh, so quiet.

And then today I suddenly had the urge to sew something beautiful.  But then I looked at my fabric pile and realized that I had no idea what I wanted to make.  I need to make a trip to the fabric store soon.  So instead, I am perusing sewing blogs and clothing catalogs for some sort of inspiration.  I lost my groove and am looking to get it back.  Just call me Stella.  (haha)