The Most Versatile Dress Ever

  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

Hello Readers. Let me show you the most versatile dress I have ever seen and worn. It's fun, it's cute, and it's easy to wear.

  This sleeveless red denim dress is so versatile! (Similar here.) This sleeveless style is so classic, it works for so many seasons. It is casual, but not too casual. The styling possibilities are endless. Let me show you what I mean.

  

Just a note, if you need to alter a sleeveless dress you might want to keep the fit a bit loose. If the dress is very tight or very fitted, it limits the options you have to wear the dress with other clothes. I had so many ideas and outfit plans for this dress and some of them required some extra space in the dress. 

This dress is great all by itself. I liked it as it was. The style is simple and clean. The fabric was cotton and felt like a lighter weight denim. The sleeveless top is perfect for hot summer days. The light denim has enough body that it doesn't cling to any lumps or bumps. That makes it really flattering for a lot of people. It fits well but I have room to move around easily.  

If it's colder outside (And it is!) I won't want to wear it by itself. I added tights and a long sleeve t-shirt under it. This extra layer under the dress would be warmer. The dress fit on top of the shirt well and looks just as great as it did alone. And the light denim doesn't cling to the tights. I didn't need a slip or anything like that. (I hate nylon slips. They always feel itchy. That might be a me problem but I thought I would point it out.)

 

Let's imagine it is REALLY cold out. December is really cold and wet and windy where I live. I added tall boots and a thick heavy pullover. That will be nice and cozy on a cold day. The collar on the dress works well with the neckline of the pullover. The boots will keep my legs warm. This is a good winter outfit for me.  

Getting dressed with a dress this versatile the different styling possibilities are fabulous. Thanks for reading along, now go style up something fun for yourself. And stay warm out in that cold winter weather.

 

 

 

 

Make an Easy Bow Wreath

 Hello Readers. The holidays are upon us and it doesn't matter if we were ready or not. It is time. This little wreath is fun to make and easy to put together. Older kids that can handle sewing pins safely can even help. It is cute and festive. Let me show you how I put it together. 

 What a fun festive wreath! 

  I started this project with a pool noodle. These are popular for lounging in the water during the summer months. But now it is time for a new life, as a holiday wreath.

I peeled the sticker from my noodle to get it out of the way. I used blue because that was the color I liked. You can use any color you want.

  I put toothpicks in the end. These are just simple wooden toothpicks. They will help keep the noodle in a circular shape. 

 I also used some clear shipping tape to keep the ends of the pool noodle together. This noodle has to stay in a circle to make my wreath. The tape, on top of the toothpicks will be strong enough to keep the noodle in a circle shape. 

 When my pool noodle was in position I needed to tie a piece of thin ribbon around the pool noodle. I wanted to be able to tie the wreath onto my door knocker so I added the ribbon for that. Any kind of string or yarn would work for this. It is easier to tie the ribbon on BEFORE the bows are in place. 

 This is a bow wreath so I needed some bows. I wanted to use these bows that are a classic staple of Christmas gift wrap. I went with blue but you can do any color or colors you want to use. I used 2 bags of bows to make this wreath. 

 These bows have a sticky back. You can peel the paper off the adhesive if you want to have them stick to the pool noodle. I didn't think that would be enough to hold the bows over time.  I had another plan to attach the bows with pins. 

 Yes, I wanted to use straight pins that are normally used for sewing. I used pins I already had. 

 I used pins with small heads, larger pin heads would show more easily. I didn't want the pins to show.

I pushed the pins through the center of the bows. They went right through the ribbon and the adhesive square, this was not difficult. 

 I pushed the pin, with the bow, into the noodle. This was super easy. 

 I tried to spread the bows all around the wreath. I wanted to different shades of blue to be scattered around the wreath. I didn't want all the white together or all the silver together either.  

It took a little while to stick all the bows to the noodle. I wanted to fill in the wreath and cover the noodle as much as possible. I just kept sticking the bows all over the wreath. My wreath was done. I loved all the bows. 

I wanted the wreath on my front door. You could use a wreath hanger. These are great and easy to hang on the door and they hold any wreath you want to hang. 

 My door doesn't close well with the wreath hanger on it so I tied the wreath to my door knocker. My little front porch is covered and has protection for the wind and rain. I know my bow wreath will be safe outside. And it looks so fun on my front door.

 Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. And I wish you a happy holiday season and a peaceful new year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.