Mrs. Claus Dress

 Hello Readers. It is time for the annual Dressember Fundraiser. What Is Dressember? They are an organization that works to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S and all around the world.   Since 2013, Dressember advocates have raised over $20 million to support International Justice Mission (IJM) and its partners. I will be wearing and refashioning dresses all month in honor of this mission. You can learn more at Dressember.org

*Repost from 2018*

 This dress started as a robe of some kind. Or was it a nightgown? Did that count as a dress? I said yes. This robe was peach and and miles too long and I just wasn't loving it. It seemed like a nylon fire hazard to sleep in it. But I thought it had potential.

The first thing I did was use dye made for synthetic fabric. This kind of dye needed very hot water and at least half an hour.

Here is what I ended up with. The hem didn't seem even so I put it on my dress form and used a yard stick to measure as I cut it to knee length.

  

To make "fur trim I used batting. I didn't want to buy fur. The whole point of this blog is to try and NOT spend money. Or at least spend as very little as possible. 

 I cut the batting into strips and made little curved cuts in it. I thought that would look more like fur. Really straight lines didn't seem like fur to me. I didn't make it perfectly even in width either.

   

 I added some white lace on top of the batting just to jazz it up. I used narrow lace everywhere and wide lace at the collar and cuffs. All it needed was a wide black belt to look like Mrs. Claus. This would be perfect for Christmas day or anytime I want to look like Santa's wife.

Thanks for reading along, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.

Tight Green Dress

 Hello Readers. It is time for the annual Dressember Fundraiser. What Is Dressember? They are an organization that works to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S and all around the world.   Since 2013, Dressember advocates have raised over $20 million to support International Justice Mission (IJM) and its partners. I will be wearing and refashioning dresses all month in honor of this mission. You can learn more at Dressember.org 

Let's get to work. Look at this pretty green floral dress. I really liked the fabric. The colors seemed perfect for fall. 

Before and after.  

The top was too tight. It was not comfortable at all but the skirt was so full, I could make something else from it. 

 

I cut the dress apart. I wanted the skirt so that it would be more narrow and I cut the top of the dress off I saved some of the top to make a new waistband. I thought a more narrow skirt would be great. 

 

I wanted to sew the new skirt together and the waistband on.

 

I used my serger to sew the new skirt into shape. 

 

I ironed the new seams to they would be smooth and flat. 

 

I liked how it turned out. It's more narrow compared to how full the dress was.

 

The green is right up my alley. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Make a Cookbook Knife Holder

 Hello Readers. I wanted as knife holder so I could get my kitchen knives out of my kitchen drawer. The knives would bang against each other and other utensils too. There must be a better way to store my knives right? Let's make something fun and useful. And cute! Let's make a knife holder out of cookbooks. (This will be twice as handy because it will get my cookbooks close to where I am cooking too.)

The knives are handy and ready to use. And no books were harmed in the making of this knife holder.

The first thing you need to do is gather some of your cookbooks. You can also borrow some from your friends, your parents, steal some from grandma, or go buy some cookbooks for yourself. I like to look at thrift stores, there are always a lot of cookbooks there. Used bookstores are great places to get books for less too. 

  

When you have your cookbooks gathered together you are ready to go on to the next steps.  

 

I took all of the paper dust jackets off my books. You don't have to do this but I liked how they looked without the covers. They just seemed more cohesive without the extra cover art. But yours might have a really fabulous cover so do whatever you think looks the best. 

 

I arranged my books with the tallest in the middle and the shortest on the outsides. It made a slight pyramid shape that looked really nice. 

 

I wanted to tie the books together. They need to stay closed to hold the knives so I found some natural looking twine or cord. You can use any kind of ribbon or string that you have and any color would work so use whatever you like. You can match your kitchen or use something for the season or upcoming holidays. 
 

I used 2 pieces of cord, I wrapped it around the set of books and tied a simple knot in front. You can tie a big bow if you want, I wanted the books to be the focus so I kept it simple for now.

 

You can set you books right on the counter if you want. I like this basket-tray. (It keeps my cutting boards from falling over.) I slide the knives in between the pages of the books. I put the largest knives in the largest books and the smaller knives in the smaller books. If you have a lot of knives you can add a couple more books to hold them. If you only have a few knives, you can use less books. Make a set-up that works for you and your kitchen. 

 

Having the cutting boards and knives right next to each other is really nice and handy. Will this make me the next Julia Child? No, it's not going to work miracles. Will this make me a slightly better cook? I can't promise anything, but we'll see what happens. 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

The Fanciest Lace Skirt I Could Make

 Hello Readers. I decided to make this skirt at the last minute for a wedding I went to last week. I had all the fabric and all the notions, so I thought I should make it super fast for this wedding, that was the next day. 

Going to a fancy party?

I got to work with my fabric. This black knit was the inner layer of my skirt. 

This sheer fabric with the applique was the star of the show. The under layers were just to show this layer off. 

 

I used the opaque knit, a sheer middle layer and the fancy fabric layer on the outside.

 

My layers had to be sewn into tube shapes to start. 

 

Even the sheer inner layer was sewn into a tube shape. 

 

I used a simple elastic waistband. I pinned it in place and arranged the layers inside the elastic evenly all the way around. 

 

 

I used a zigzag stitch to attach the waistband and all the layers together. 

 

I loved how it turned out. It was so pretty and fancy. But was it too fancy for an afternoon wedding? It felt like too much for 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. 

 

I decided I better tone it down a little. 

 

We had a great time at the wedding. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

No More Batwing Sweater

 Hello Readers. I found this fun purple sweater at a clothes swap. I liked the purple and gray tones but the fit was not great. But I loved the cowl neck, I read that they were back in fashion this winter. I don't know if that is true but I liked it. Let's make it fit a little better. 

Before and after.

The sweater was super soft but the bat wing shape was not what I wanted.   

I marked where I wanted my new side seams. I was going to taper the side seams out into the armholes of the sleeves.  

 

I used my serger because it works so well with knit materials and it cuts as it sews. Use a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine if you don't have a serger. It will work just as well. When You are done, you can cut off the extra material. 

 

This was more like it! I liked the fit and new sleeve shape. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

Striped Dress to Skirt

 Hello Readers. Check out this dress. It seemed like Adidas stripes on the bottom and lace on top. I wasn't sure how I felt about that combination or the fit of this dress. 

Before and after.

The top of this dress was tight and lacey but a little worn out. The bottom was sweat suit material. I love navy blue though so I decided to try and rework this dress. 

 

I cut the top of the dress. It had an elastic waistband built in already. I could have a fun striped skirt. It had a zipper in back that I didn't really need. 

  

I sewed the zipper closed in the back of the skirt. It could just stay in the skirt, it wouldn't bother me. Or so I thought. Spoiler-This was going to be a problem. 

 

The skirt made me look twice as big in the bum. I knew it was full cut but this was not going to work.

 

I cut the zipper out of the skirt and some extra fabric too. I also cut off the elastic waistband. I could make the shape and fit of this skirt different. And better.

 

I added a new elastic waistband. 

   

OK, this seems like a much better fit for me. This skirt is still loose but the fit is what I had been wanting all along. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.  
 

 

 

 
 

 

Make Small Shirt Bigger

 Hello Readers. Do you ever have a t-shirt that gets a bit small or a bit too tight. But you really like that t-shirt. What can we do?  

Before and after. I loved this t-shirt with the "golden spiral" on it. It is based oh the math concept of phi (Not my area of expertise.) and looks like the inside of a seashell to me. Anyhoo, I like the shirt but it was a bit tight and it was not very stretchy so I never wore it.  

I started cutting up this button down shirt. It is going to be the sides of my new shirt and I cut out the middle of the shirt. I kept the side pieces as wide as possible to add ad much fabric to my new shirt. 

 

I cut my t-shirt as wide as I could too. I wanted a loose fitting shirt so larger pieces will give me the bigger shirt I am looking for. 

 

Now I needed to sew the pieces from the 2 shirts together. I put the right sides together and sewed the pieces in place. I made sure to line up the shoulders because my shirts are different lengths. That's OK, I can fix that next.

 

My striped shirt was a bit longer than my t-shirt. I cut the tips of the striped shirt so the lengths matched up better. 

 

I turned the edge under and sewed it down to make a smooth edge that connected with the hem of the t-shirt.

 

My new shirt was finished and I liked how it all turned out. 

 

I also found a fun way to use the collar of the striped shirt.

 

I used some Fray Check on the cut edge of the neckband that I cut off of the striped shirt. 
 

Fray Check is basically like a permanent glue that you can use on a cut edge of fabric to control fraying. 

 

I went through my buttons and picked out a bunch of black, gold and silver buttons. 

   

I sewed random buttons all around the collar. There was no order.

 

I thought it was a fun accessory, almost like a necklace. 

  

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.