7 Days Makes One...Strong!

After my Valentine's Day 'gift of the knowledge of sewing',

I embarked on a week long journey of refashions, mending, and crafting

to strengthen my sewing skills.

It was also the week I decided to go through my Pinterest boards, pick out some projects

and actually DO THEM! 

So, over the course of seven days, I did 12 projects!

1.  Button Bobby Pins

 

 

 

A pinterest project, I think they turned out really cute, and they work so nicely!

I sewed and hot glued the buttons to the top of the pin.

 

2. Necktie Collar/Necklace

I had this gorgeous tie given to me, so I made my own Pinterest tie collar!
I admit, I haven't gotten up the courage to actually wear it out yet!

3. Refashion- Trousers to Pencil Skirt

 

This refashion was made from a pair of dress pants.
It is really simple- you seam rip the legs, sew them together in the middle front and back,
then cut the length off where you want the skirt to be.
The ridge that runs up each leg was already part of the pant design, so don't let it confuse you.

Here is the pin that will take you to a blogger's great and easy explanation
on how to make your own!
It was a really good first sewing project since it was all straight lines!

The top I am wearing in these pictures is actually from...

4. Refashion- Long Sleeve to short sleeve ruffle top

 

Sorry, no before picture.

This was a simple long sleeve knit shirt- I made the sleeves short and using

the extra sleeve fabric, made one wide ruffle that run up the center of the top.

Then I added different kinds of cream buttons.

 

In my version, I used one ruffle and ruffled it with one row of stitches down the middle.

It was easier that way as compared to the way it was done originally.

 

 

5. Refashion- Long sleeve button up to tank

 

Before

 

 

 After

 

 

 

 Also, another Pinterest For Real project. :)

This was my inspiration/directions-- only my top actually fit me,

so I seam ripped off the arms and changed the neckline.

 

 

6. Flower Pins/Clips

 

Following these directions, I made three lovely 'french pouf' fabric flowers!
I hot glued a pin to the back, that way I could wear it as a pin and still easily slip a bobby pin over it and wear it in my hair.

Hint: In making these flowers, when folding the flower cut out in half, don't be OCD like me and line the petals up so they are perfectly symmetrical- if you fold them in half messy, it actually adds to the fullness and flowery look of it. I speak from experience!


7. Refashion- Long skirt to ruffle hem

Once again, no before picture.
This was a skirt I had buried in my closet and didn't wear.
It was just a few inches short of ankle length, I chopped it off to just below the knee,
and using the left over fabric, made a ruffle hem.
It turned out pretty nice, I think I will actually wear it now. :)

8. T-shirt scarf

I whipped this scarf up one evening while watching a movie with the family.
And yes, this one I have worn out! :)
Another Pinterest project to check off my list!


The next few projects don't have pictures, because, frankly, there isn't much to show....

 9. Skirt Fix #1- take it in and take it up

This was a skirt for my little sister that sat in the mending basket for months.
Being way too big for her, I took in the entire width of the skit by sewing a line from the point on her waistband she needed, straight down to the hem. It was a very flowy skirt, so I could do this without it looking strange. Then I cut off a good 6 inches from the hem.

The left over material I used to make her a little scarf and one of those fabric flowers!

10. Skirt fix #2- box pleat
 

Another project for my little sister.
A really easy fix that introduced me to the box pleat.... and now I'm in love!

11. Skirt fix #3 mending hole

Pretty self explanatory.
It was one of those tushie holes, sooo, yeah, it needed fixing before I could wear it!

12. Skirt fix #4- Replace zipper

I found an adorable blue/green stripped a line skirt at a thrift store,
it was in great shape except for a broken zipper.
This was my initiation to sewing zippers, and yes, that is why I saved this project
for last on my list!
It was scary, I'll admit, especially since I loved the skirt and didn't want to ruin it,
but it turned out in the end and now I can wear it!
 

*Fwew!*

There you have it!
My week of crash course sewing and crafting!
I think that may possibly be the most productive week I have had in my entire life!
It felt pretty amazing to look at all I accomplished and the various sewing
skills I learned during that time.

The culmination of my week however was the project that followed...
and that is for another post.

Until then,

 

DIY Name Plaque

I am a chronic procrastinator!

There, it is now blog official.

Once again, I was attending a wedding this past weekend and didn't have a gift!

Talk about cutting it close...I came up with a brilliant project the day before the wedding!

 It's just a fact, my creative juices flow better with
a shot of panic.

And I'm being completely serious.

So, what was I going to do?

Well, a couple days before while perusing one of my favorite blogs, ReFashionista,
I came across a post where she made some adorable invitations
by sewing paper and fabric pieces together.

It inspired me!

I decided to make a name plaque for the newlyweds using that same idea.

After a quick run to our local thrift shop, I had just what I needed.

 

 I picked up this slightly beat up black frame 

with a cheep computer printed picture stuck inside.

 

And this old antique looking book with small print words.
Also, a few pieces of fabric scraps.

Then I set to work.

First, I typed up the last name in all caps, each letter in a different font.

I printed those out a plain white paper for a test run.
I wanted to be sure of the sizing and look before I printed them on the paper I intended to use.

Tearing some of the pages out from my book, I laid them overlapping onto the back of the picture board.
Then I started experimenting with how to arrange the letters.

 

Next came the material scraps.

I tried finding colors and prints that worked with each other

and were in the bride and groom's color scheme. 

 

 Once I liked what I had laid out, I reprinted the letters onto my stationary,

cut them out, and sewed them onto the material pieces using a zig zag stitch.

I was being particular, and decided I wanted the letters closer together,
so I trimmed down the fabric blocks until I got them to look like this.

When I was completely satisfied with it all,
I used a glue stick and glued down the pages.

Then I secured the letters in place with double stick tape.

Next, using a pair of scissors, I set to work distressing the frame.

It had a few scrapes already, but after I was done with my scissors,
it looked like it was supposed to be that way. :)

 

 Almost done...

 

Lastly, I twisted a piece of copper wire around a pencil to spiral it, 

then stapled it to the back of the frame.

 

 

Ta-da!

You can't see and fully appreciate how well the distressing of the frame
turned out from my poor photos, but trust me...it was beautiful!

I was oober pleased with my afternoon project,
it looked like something you pay good money for at a boutique.

Spent:
Frame: $2
Old Book for Background: $0.25
Material scraps: $0.10

Total: $2.35 (plus materials on hand)


Creativity pays off!

 

Memorial Day Makeover!

A problem.

 

Yes, that is what I've had lately... or rather, one could more aptly put it...a lack of motivation

when it came to sewing.

 

Why is that, do you ask?

 

Well, because the sewing machine was stuck in a dark, dingy corner of our computer room....

there were always people trying to squeeze past me into our library/play room

and the clutter from my 'wall neighbor', the computer desk, inevitably flowed over onto the sewing table.

 

Not a fun or well ordered work environment. :(

 

I realized one day that I needed to put in a request for a change.

With a growing list of sewing projects and no desire to work in that dark corner,

 something needed to be done.

 

The long and short of it is, I got my wish!

 

 Before

 

Just plain ol' white walls.

This is just before the color went up...all the nail holes filled in, drop cloths down and furniture covered. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the family and myself spent pretty much the entirety of yesterday painting the computer/sewing room.

 

 

 

The color starting to go up!!

 

 

 

 

Happy painter. :)

 

 

 

 

A shot from up above...the pretty, yet poorly illuminating chandelier that will soon be replaced.

 Hooray for better lighting!

 

Originally, we were aiming for a nice peachy color,

but once we got it out of the can and up on the wall, it was a lot more pink than we anticipated.

 

Of course, we realized this after we had painted all the walls.

 

With one can of color left, we got creative.

Using some brown paint we had on hand, we slowly mixed it in with our original pink-peach

until we got a more toned down and comforting color.  

 

Leaving one wall the original shade, we preceded to repaint the other three.

We were much happier with the results the second time around.

After

 

 

 

This is the end result.

 

 

 

The wall to the right is the original brighter color, the wall the piano is against

is our modified color.

Can you see the difference?

(Please ignore our dust...we were still cleaning and rearranging.)

 

We also did some custom mixing for the trim color...a little of the original wall color...some white...and a little bit of brown.

The look of the room turned out different than I had envisioned it, but all in all I like it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I am so excited to have a pretty, more friendly working setup for sewing!

Now the sewing machine has its own wall space and no more dark corner!

Yay!

 

Next up, getting that space organized and pretty-fied!

 

I hope y'all had a great Memorial Day. 

 

Vanquisher of Icky Things

There she is.


Lurking through the grass....

waiting....

watching....

ready to pounce.



Hmmm, sounds like a cat, right?


Nope.

It is me.

I was on a mission....
for a day I was....
a bug assassin.

*Dun-dun-DA-DUN*
(dramatic music)


While watering my poor little herb garden the other day,
 I was distracted and let the water run off a bit.

As my gaze followed the meandering rivulets, I saw them pouring into
small little holes in the ground.

Low and behold, it wasn't long and a big, ugly Mole Cricket popped out of its soggy home.

If you take a moment and image search these little guys, you will understand this next sentence

.....

I killed it.


They are ugly, and destructive, and I certainly don't want them
under foot near my plants.


Looking around, I noticed our poor dry, soil was pitted with oodles
of these little monster dens.

So what did I do?

I took my hose and proceeded to flood every. single. one.

Armed with my long hoe, I happily disposed of six of the ugly little fiends.


But I was in for an icky surprise.

It turns out there are other creepy crawlies that live in those holes.

Like, say...oh....six inch long centipedes!!

I'm talkin' gross...this thing looked it crawled out of that one Star Wars movie!

Eww!

Needless to say....

 it died too.



I have picture proof of my brave exploits.

I would show you.

But I don't like bugs.

You probably don't like bugs,
I mean, who really wants to see ugly pictures of hacked up icky-ness?

Right.

Not many.

And so, you will just have to take my word for it
and feel better knowing that I have rid the world,
or at least my immediate part of it,
of a few ugly little creatures.

I know my garden appreciates it. :)


What 'Seams' Impossible

 

Have you ever tried to learn something new and it just. didn't. make. sense?!

 

It feels like learning an alien language...

 

fitting a square peg into a round hole....

 

trying to pretend you could live without chocolate...

 

some things are just impossible.

 

 

 

That was me when it came to sewing.

 

Honestly, I can't count the times I tried to learn to sew over the course of my lifetime.

 

I think of several occasion where mom and I even made a special shopping trip.

We picked out pretty material, a simple pattern, all the necessities.

 

Needless to say, it ended with a red faced, tear stained me

and a head scratching mother who couldn't understand why I couldn't get it.

 

After numerous tries, I gave up.

Accepted the fact that I would never be able to sew,

even though I really, really wanted to.

 

Since then I admit I have had moments of temptation...

it is quite inspiring when one of your friends can whip up beautiful clothes practically in her sleep.

 

But, I always remembered those tearful episodes, and mentally chided myself.

Some things just weren't possible.

Until one day...

A number of wonderful factors came together that changed all that.

One, I received some great advice and inspiration from one of my childhood heroes,
Kristi Yamaguchi.

There was a magazine lying around our house that had her smiling face on the cover,
I picked it up and read a great article she wrote about facing fears.

She said something that struck me right between the eyes,

"Why should a dream have some part of it that was so scary?
Why would I have to do something I feared in pursuing something I loved?"

Sounds so simple, I know.
But for me, that moment, it was a profound thought.

I realized fear was my big stumbling block when it came to sewing.

I was afraid of that machine, with all its buttons, bobbins, knobs and levers.
The scariest part was threading it...so many little holes and twists and turns.

It made me dizzy.

But no more.

Armed with Kristi's words and a determination to face this fear,
 I sat myself down in front of that machine, already threaded from mom's previous project,
...and...just...stared.

For probably 5 minutes, I mentally threaded that machine several times,
memorizing each little detour the string took on its way to the needle.

Then....*gulp*...I unthreaded the string, and soon it was weaving its way through the
eight-sequence maze until it was safe through the eye of the needle once again.

And you know what?
It made sense.


Everything fell into place.

It was like a veil was lifted,
the blinders were removed,
the hieroglyphics made sense.

I was still a beginner, I didn't know how to read a pattern yet, or how to sew a dart,
 but the hardest part was over.

I had faced my fears.

I had forgotten that...
“With man this is impossible,
but not with God;
all things are possible with God.”
Mark 10:27

There was no doubt in my mind that He had made it possible.

And the fun part?

It was Valentine's Day.

What a lovely gift...


"There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear"
1 John 4:18 



Emily Dickinson, A Historical Cake Recipe

Hello!

 

Along one of my various 'bunny trails' I stumbled onto something quite interesting that I wanted to share with you.

 

Did you know that a recipe, handwritten in the script of the famous poet Emily Dickinson,

has survived the passing of time?

 

Yes, it's true!

 

There exists a recipe for Coconut Cake, listing only the ingredients.

 

 

 

I found it very interesting.

 

Here is an article with some history on the poet as well as the original recipe, as pictured above.

 

It sounds like something I would like to make!

 

If you would too, here is a link to another blog in which the blogger takes the recipe

and provides directions for mixing and baking.

 

 

The link and article she mentions in the first few lines is the article which I initially read,

and while the recipe on *that* site isn't true to Miss Dickinson's,

it is still a diverting read.

 

 

Enjoy!