Super-Easy J. Crew Re-fashion

I was looking around on J. Crew, which, if I had to pick a store that I think defines my taste in clothes perfectly, it would be that one. Anyway, I was looking around and found this beautiful shirt:



I really liked it, among others on the site, but I decided I wanted to re-create, with a few differences. I wanted to combine this with another idea I have seen around that I love. I love when clothes have an artsy feel, and I LOVE shirts that are painted, or look like they are! So for this shirt, I decided to use the same concept and design, except I wanted to have the stems painted.

I used acryllic paint for the stems, and if you do this, make sure you put cardboard or something in between the front and back of the shirt, to prevent bleeding through on the otherr side. You have to let it dry a couple of hours, just to make sure it is set. I free-handed it so it looked sloppy and hand painted.

Once the paint was dry, I cut two 24X1 inch strips of satin, and two 5X1.5 inch strips as well. I pleated the shorter strips with an iron, and evened out the edges, then sewed down the middle. The longer strips become the petals, and the pleated sqaure becomes the center.

I hand-stitched the petals on the shirt by just folding the strip back and forth over itself in a circle pattern. I stitched it on the shirt in the middle, then stitched the pleated center on.
(Sorry I don't have pictures of the process, I couldn't find the camera until after I finished.)

And there you have it!!!


And here is a close-up of the flowers with the pleats.

Craft Gossip Feature!!!

Wow! What a week! The How-To Gal e-mailed me tonight, and let me know that the tutorial I wrote up for her blog ended up getting featured on Craft Gossip as well! Thanks Craft Gossip, and thank you How-To Gal for making it all happen!

Here's the Link to the feature:

Craft Gossip

P.S. Hopefully I'll get some more stuff up this week, I've had a lot of projects I've been working on lately, just none of them are done!

Featured on The How-To Gal!!!

Big thanks to The How-To Gal for featuring my shirt refashion! Check it out here, and be sure to check out all the cool projects she's done!

Halloween Costumes

Sorry I posted this so late, but it's been crazy with projects lately, and I have just been so busy that I didn't find time to post these as soon as I wanted. I suppose you can remember this post for next year's Halloween though!

Anyway, Breck went this year as the Mad Hatter. It was a fun costume to put together. Here's what I did:

What I used:

Foam hat from JoAnn's, Michael's has them too
Feather Boa
1 yard Crazy fabric
Boy's White Shirt
Boy's Vest
Boy's Pants
Boy's Wing-tip shoes
One of my old button-down shirts
3x5 card

For the hat, I made a band to go around it, using the fabric. I hemmed the edges, then pleated it, and hot-glued it to the hat. I took the feather boa and hot-glued it to the end of the hat leaving a little space in the front open. On the back of a 3x5 card, I wrote 10/6 which is what the Mad Hatter has on his hat. It's an old-fashioned price tag.

I made the bow tie by cutting two 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 rectangles and sewing them together, wrong sides out, but leaving a little space so that I could turn it right side out. Stitch up the hole once this is done. I ironed it flat, then sewed a little band around it to gather it in the middle. I then sewed a longer band, and attached it to the bow tie. Then you put velcro on the tips of the band.

The Jacket was an old shirt of mine, that I took in the sides, and cut up the length in front to look like a "tailed" jacket. It was of course, complete with tails in the back. I trimmed the edge of the collar, to give it a more jacket look than a shirt, and ironed it down, to give the jacket collar effect as well. I put a faux pucket and kerchiff on the front too.

The rest of it was just his normal dress clothes, though I put the shirt collar up, and ironed the tips down to look more like a mid-1800's collar.

Sienna's costume was fun.

Here's what I used:

1/2 yard white fabric
Blue Dollar Store onesy
Blue Tulle
Elastic
White Stockings
Black Mary Janes
Black ribbon

The Apron was the main thing that I made for this. I didn't use a pattern, I just looked at the picture of Alice from the Disney movie. I couldn't find an apron for a little girl like that, so I just took measurements of Sienna and where I wanted everything to hit, and it was actually pretty easy!

The skirt was a tutu, so check out my tutu post from last Christmas to see how to make those. I'm pretty sure most people know how to make those by now though, so you probably don't even need to get instructions.

Then I put black ribbon in her hair, put on her stockins, onesy and shoes, and she was ready to go!






*Note* 2-year-olds may not like a big hat with feathers...

Shout Out to Other Bloggin' Gals

This is just kind of my "Thank You" note to all those bloggin' gals who have been so sweet in the last month or so.

First of all, Thank you to Mique form 30 Handmade Days for the Shabby Apple Dress giveaway! I got it in the mail a couple of weeks ago and LOVE it!

Second, Thank you Kelsee from Pumpkin Pie Crafts for your Apron giveaway! She made this beautiful apron (pictured below), and I won it! She also made the flower pin, but I decided to stick it on my necklace for the picture! If you haven't been to her blog, stop by and wish her a happy belated birthday, she just had one! Plus, she makes really cool things, while being a wife, and mom of two!


(Sorry this picture is kind of funny, sometimes I get awkward when I'm the only one being photographed...hence the funky right foot)

Third, Thank you Disney at Ruffles and Stuff for featuring my Anthropologie inspired dress! It was such a pleasant surprise! She has an amazing blog as well, so be sure to check it out!

And Last but certainly not least, thank you to all you of who found my blog through Ruffles and Stuff (or anywhere else) and left such nice comments and became followers! You guys are great, and I was so touched to recieve such support!

You guys are the BEST!

Sienna's Valance

I finished this awhile ago, but hadn't taken a picture, because I kept spacing it. Basically, You cut and hem two pieces of fabric that are 1 1/2 to 2 times the length of the window. For the height of the peices, cut one about 3 inches taller than the other. Once all hemmed, sew them together with two different lines that are about 2 inches apart, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inches on the top for the ruffle.

Copy Cat Design/Another Refashion

Does anyone else remember the Favorite Tee from the Gap? They may still have it, I don't know, but it used to be the biggest wardrobe essential before Down East Basics came up with the Wonder Tee. They were just basic, crew cut tees in long sleeves and short sleeves, and different colors. They lost their steam when The Wonder Tee came out with a more up to date neckline and body length. That's about when I lost my steam with them too, having a need for a longer tee shirt to fit my afore mentioned large frame.
That didn't change the fact that I had literally a dozen of them, just laying around, waiting to be worn.
Around the same time I was pondering what to do with these shirts, I was looking around at one of my favorite idea stores (I say idea store because I can't afford to shop there, so I just get "ideas" from it), Anthropologie, and was noticing their cute little dresses, that were just so basic, yet chic and comfortable. It was this one that really caught my eye:

It was then that a little light bulb went off, and I realized i could make a sleeved version of this dress with one of my "Favorite Tees". I had a different idea for the top, however, because I wanted to save this beautiful circle ruffle for another top. Here's what I did to re-create this lovely piece:

First, I cut the trunk of the shirt across where I wanted it to hit.

I then, used the bottom that I cut off to cut 4 2 inch thick strips. (It doesn't really matter how thick, just as big as you want your ruffles.) I then took them to the sewing machiene, where I adjusted the tension on the machiene to the highest tension, and the stitch length to the longest length. I then only had to sew one straight line on the edge, and it came out like this:

I then sewed each ruffle to the top half of the shirt, starting with the bottom ruffle. This is how it turned out once finished with that part:

Next I found another "Favorite Tee" that I had used the trunk of to make the gaucho pants I posted about earlier. I used just one of the sleeves for the mid section, evening out the width before sewing it on.

Later, after this next picture was already taken, I decided to put vertical gathers in it every 4 inches or so. I did this by attaching elastic that was cut about an inch shorter than the width of the band, and stretching it out as I sewed down the width of the black section.

After that, I found some material that I thought would look cute with it, and cut it to the length I wanted, leaving the width the same as it had come. I hemmed up the bottom, then I measure the right size of elastic to fit around the t-shirt at the open end. I attached this elastic to the top by using the same method for the gathers above. Then I folded it in half with the wrong side facing out. I sewed the sides together, then turned right-side out again. I then attached the skirt to the top, and was just about done when I decided I wanted just a little more flare. I found this tutorial for fabric flowers, and took some black satin to make it, and I sewed on the pearl beads after I was done. I also hot-glued felt to the back to kind of seal it all in, then I attached it to a pin.

The finished product:

Just add some black skinny jeans and some pumps, and your ready to go!

Re-Fashioning Again...Skirt

I love pencil skirts. They are so sleek and classy, and can go with virtually anything. I've had the hardest time buying one. Not a whole lot of places sell the type that I like, that is, one that is a dressier skirt, rather than having zipper, button, etc. on the front like jeans. Anyway, even when I would find the dressier kind, they'd be too short, meant to hit above the knee, which of course in itself is not what I want, but it also means that it hits my 6'1" frame mid-thigh.

Well, I finally found this beauty and snatched it up. It hit me just above the knee, but that was the best I could find. So I decided to dress it up AND lengthen it by adding some pretty trim.

Now of course, since I had EXACTLY what I wanted for the trim in mind BEFORE actually shopping for trim, nothing met up to my vision. So I made the trim myself.

I made it using black satin. First, I measured how much I would need. For this kind of trim, you need 3 X the length of the measurment of whatever you are trimming. I cut the strip 4 1/2 inches wide. I then hemmed the strip, then pleated it by ironing folds into it. After ironing, I sewed the top of the strip to keep it in place. All I did after that, was treat it like normal trim and sew it to the skirt! Pretty fun and simple!



This one is so you can see the fold/iron pattern:

Diaper Stacker

If you want a tutorial for this stacker, refer to my previous "T-Shirt Stacker" post for a link. I did the same thing with this one as I did for the first, except it's smaller (for diapers) and I put bows on the top to attch it rather than a hanger.

Re-fashioning

Okay, I don't know about you guys but, though fun, shopping can be a bit frusterating for me. I get ideas in my head of how I want an outfit to look, what exact outfit I would want (without ever actually seeing it somewhere), then of course, I can't find anything close to it, when I go shopping. So I decided to start making over clothes myself. This is the first of many more projects to come like this. It will be done by buying cheap clothes that have basic lines, or a basic shape that I am looking for, and I will be using extra pieces of fabric either from the same garmet, or from a duplicate that I buy.

This one was my first; very easy, and very pleased with the outcome.

I bought this shirt at Ross for 4 bucks.


Then I cut the entire turtle-neck off (to be used as my extra fabric).
I then cut 3 1 1/2 inch thick strips from the spread out turtle neck fabric, then folded and pinned them to the neckline in this pattern (if you're looking down at the edge of the strips)


I then just sewed one straight line through the middle, at the neckline, and voila!

Are Those Pants...or a Skirt???

They're Gaucho pants! I decided to make some for my little Sienna Buggeroo. She was lacking in the pants department, and since I think gauchos are pretty much the most comfy pants in the entire world, I decided to introduce her into their lovely world! I got this idea from another site, but forgive, me, I can't remember where, I happened to be craft-blog-surfing, and forgot where I was at, but if any of you know where these are from, please let me know! Anyway, the great thing about these gauchos, is that you make them from an old shirt that you don't wear anymore! You'll need some measurments of your little girl; you'll need the waist, the hips WITH the diaper (if not potty trained), the distance from croch to waist, and the inseam to where you want the pants to hit at on her leg. So here we go:

1. Get your measurments
2. Find an old t-shirt (with enough material to cover your measurements), and lay it flat, smooth, and all the seems where they should be.
3. Cut the shirt (through both sides) as pictured below. Make sure the part that will hit her hips is 1/4 the measurement of the diapered-hip measurement. Each top cut should measure 1/4 of the waist. The curved line should be the croch/waist measurement, and from the tip of the curve down to the bottom should be the inseam measurement.


4. Unfold each piece and place together, wrong sides out.
5. Sew together at the curves only
6. Now re-position the pieces so that the curved seems are both in the middle of the front and the back.
7. From this point you should be able to see the pants shape, so then you sew each leg up to the croch, or curved seems.
8. Flip it back so that the right side is out, and you pretty much have it, except for the top.
9. What I did for the top was, I sewed elastic (cut to about an inch smaller than the waist measurement) to the top of the waist in a smocking fashion. Then I cut out some more of the shirt to make a "binding" to cover the top of the waist.
10. There you have it! Now put them on your little girl and admire!



The Top Binding

Kreative Blogger Award

The Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Blogger.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

Thanks to Suzi from "Suzi Homemaker" for this lovely award!

Okay, for the 7 things... I'm not very interesting, so this should be... uh, interesting...?

1. I'm on an anti-hair dye spree. I'll likely start dying again at some point, but for now I'm determined to have my natural hair color (and not DYED to my natural color) the only color on my head, for the first time since 6th grade. Which means right now I'm a half-head, with roots down below my eye-balls, but hey, I read an article about celebs purposly getting their hair dyed with roots... so I write it off like I'm just REALLY in style! Seriously though, I'm lately all for anything natural looking.

2. I can get my 1 year-old daughter's hair into a messy bun with no clips! She's amazing.

3. I'm crazy about food!!! It's no wonder I am going into nutrtion! Nothing makes me more mad than diets! (And by diets I mean fad diets, or celebrity diets, not the sort of diet , or meal-plan a doctor puts you on because of a health issue) Food is NOT an enemy! Food is our firend, and can do marvelous and amazing things if we know how to use it properly. Too much of ANYTHING is bad, so of course over-indulgence on certain types of foods can have a negative effect, but when we know how to use different foods in the right portions, they can strengthen us, give us more energy, keep us from getting sick, and even in some cases, fight diseases! Food is so amazing, and I love learning about it so much!

4. I had serious pride issues when learning how to knit. I had crocheted for 8 years, so going again through the process of uneven rows, loose stitches, dropped stitches, added stitches, etc. really threw me for one. I'm just not used to not knowing what I'm doing when it comes to yarn crafts, so I had some major pride issues to get over. Luckily, I overcame, and I'm now secure in my sloppy knitting!

5. I still get so giggly everytime one of my kids toots.

6. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to read!!!! I go through cycles of the kind of stuff I like to read. I love reading religious and political non-fiction, religious fiction, historical fiction, and romantic ficiton (not the trashy romance novels though). Thanks to my mother-in-law, I am currently on a Jane Austen spree, which I can't seem to get enough of! I'm such a library junkie!

7. I've seriously had Breck's 3rd birthday party planned since before his 2nd birthday party. I know. I'm insane.


And now for the nominees:

(I don't know too many creative people who have blogs for their crafts AND who haven't already recieved this award, so I will probably nominate people who don't have craft blogs, and maybe some who don't even have any blog!)

1. Chelsea Peterson from Chelsea's Crafts

2. Lindy Walker and Alise Wrigley from Lindy Lou and Baby Too!

3. Alyssa Stevens, she doesn't have a craft blog, and her regular blog is private, but let me tell you, she makes amazing bows!!!

4. My Sisters-inLaw, Shasta Baisden, and Shawnte' Morton. They don't have craft blogs at all, but if they did, you'd be blown away at their amazing skills!

5. My Mother-in-law Sherry is an amazing seemstress. She made her own wedding dress, not to mention tons of dresses, diaper bags, etc. for all of us, our weddings, and babies!

6. Erika Allred at Red's Vinyl Lettering. She makes some awesome decorations with her vinyl lettering!

7.Okay, I'm actually going to just tell you to visit the blogs of anyone in my ward in Moscow, which you can find by going onto my family's blog and clicking under any of the "moscow Friends" because they are ALL so creative, and they all SHOULD have blogs for the stuff they make!

Sienna's Crib Bedding... FINALLY done!!!!

You may have noticed that it's been awhile since I have posted. Here is my excuse.. I've been working on THIS baby for awhile! I wanted to take my time with it, so it wouldn't stress me out, and so I could pay attention to detail. Well, I finally put the finishing touches on this morning, so I'm happy to announce, this bedding is DONE!

I did it a bit differently than I did Mary's crib bedding. The bumper I sewed, then stuffed like a pillow with normal "stuffing", then I tufted it in the middle to give it a more flat appearance. I used ribbons to tuft it.

The crib skirt I scallopped at the edges of the tan. I have a scallopping option on my sewing machiene, so I used it along the edge, then cut in a scallopped shape around it.

The blanket is pretty self-explanitory, but I did reinforce the smaller squares by sewing over the top edges as well, before attaching to other side and batting.

All of the measurements are the same as the bedding for Mary.

This was a lot more fun to do because I was not rushing myself, and probably because I was more familiar with what I was doing. I have been in full force re-doing Sienna's room, so stay tuned for other projects that I am doing for it.


The Ribbon-Tufting

The Blanket

The Skirt with scallop detail... I'm obSESSED with scalloping!

Changing Station Pad Cover

The time has come to start conquering the list of tasks for the kids' rooms! My goal is to be done by late fall with both rooms, so we shall see. Here is one of the first projects for Sienna's room (Besides ones I've had done for awhile), the changing pad cover. I just measured around the pad for the top of it, then for the bottom, I used the same measurments for the lengths of the sides, but I cut 4 strips (about 6-8 inches thick), 2 of the strips being the length of the long sides of the pad, the other 2 being the length of the short sides. I sewed the together with the corners coming to a 45 degree angle, then I sewed elastic to the inside of it. Then I sewed that whole piece to the top piece, and then I had my cover. Super easy. If you're wanting to do this project, and those instruction weren't clear enough, let me know, and I'll be a little more specific with everything!

Josten's Birthday Present

Well, I wasn't the most creative in my idea for Josten's present this year, but he liked it so that's what matters right? I crocheted him a beanie, one that looks like one of the little boy ones I made for my first week of farmers market. I thought it looked studly on Breck, and as predicted, it was the first one to sell. I hadn't made another one like it since though, so I decided to make it for Josten.

T-Shirt Stacker

Okay, so this isn't the most flawless or thorough project I've ever done, I kind of just slapped it together, but I wanted to do it for two reasons:

1. I'm making a diaper stacker for Sienna's room, and I wanted the practice
and
2. Josten has very little closet space, and needed a place to put his million t-shirts.

Thus I created The T-Shirt Stacker.

I didn't use a pattern for this, and sometimes when I do that, it's a little hard for me to describe what I did without showing you in person. I did find a great tutorial, however, that you can look at here.

This one uses a clothes hanger, though for Sienna's I will do it with ties on the top to tie to the changing table.

Breck's 4th of July Shorts!

Instructions for these shorts might get a little lengthy, as I did not use a pattern, so if you would like instructions, just let me know and I'll be glad to post it. For now, I'll just say there was a lot of measuring, and comparing with Breck's existing shorts. It was fun though. I pieced all the patchwork pieces together too, so it was a little tedious, but simple.

Front

Back

Sienna's 4th of July Smocked Dress!

I made this dress for Sienna for the 4th of July. The smocked dress that I made a few months ago was in preparation for this dress. So with that said, if you want to know how I did this dress, follow the instructions below for my first smocked dress. The only difference with this dress is the trim along the bottom. I did that by cutting a piece of elastic to the length of the bottom of the dress. I then cut a piece of the trim fabric to 1 1/2 to twice that length, hemmed it, then sewed it just like you would for the elastic in the dress. (see below instructions).


The flower is a hair-clip that my friend Alyssa made. I just thought it would look cute on there too!

Mom's Birthday Gift

For those of you who know how to crochet, you could pretty much figure this out, but here is a tutorial anyway.

I made the towel, just two simple pieces of fabric sewn together, with ribbon and patterned fabric trim. Pretty easy!




The Card

Father's Day Cards

Here are the cards I made for the special Daddys in my life!