Sew Dang Cute Skirt

I've had this skirt on my to do list for forever and finally got around to it. I used this wonderful tutorial. This is the first time I've drafted my own pattern so it was a little intimidating, but I like how it turned out. In retrospect I wish I made the upper ruffle go up a little higher, but oh well. It was a hit at church. A girl asked me where I bought my skirt because she loved it. I love when people think the clothes I make look like something you can buy in the store because that means my sewing skills are improving. Maybe someday I'll be able to make my own patterns.

Dalmation Dresses

While I was in Lake Arrowhead, Matt's mom and I decided to make matching dresses for my nieces SaraJane and Blair. We used this polka dot fabric that Matt's mom had on hand. While we were making it and coming up with the design, we both laughed and thought it looked like a Dalmation. This is where this dress gets it's nickname.

We used this tutorial for the main dress except we only folded it over 2 inches instead of the 3 inches because we wanted a smaller ruffle at the top. Then we made 1.5 inch straps instead of adding sleeves.



We had some extra Ric Rac so we decided to make ric rac flowers for the top. We used this tutorial for the flowers. I love how it turned out looking like a chrysanthemum. I'm not sure what size ric rac we used, but it was a smaller sized ric rac which I think helped it look more like a flower.

The girls loved them. Blair said, "Im going to tell my mom that I want to wear this every Sunday." It's fun having such cute models!

Maxi Dress to Skirt Refashion

Before


After


About a month ago, I saw this maxi dress at Forever 21 on sale for $7.00 and knew it would make a comfortable skirt. Maxi dresses aren't my thing, but I do love how if you can find maxi dresses for cheap they give you a lot of fabric to work with. I wanted to make it into one of those comfy yoga skirts. I used this tutorial from one of my favorite sites. I actually made this when I hosted a sewing night at my house a couple weeks ago since it only took 20 minutes to finish. If you do end up making this make sure to subtract 5-6 inches from your waist measurement so it fits snugly. I LOVE this skirt. It is the most comfortable thing I have ever owned in my entire life. I'm debating if I want to buy another one in pink because it looks like they raised their price to $13.50 for this dress. Hmm it might be worth it. Sorry about the bad picture. I would have modeled it, but its hard to get Matt to take my picture for me. Take my word for it, it looks cute on. Who says you have to give up style for comfort?

5 Dollar Skirts

Growing up my mom always sewed with store bought patterns. Somehow she is skilled enough to dicifer the awful directions. I sewed store-bought patterns with her all the time, but she always told me what I was supposed to do to finish it.

When I first got my sewing machine 3 years ago, I bought this fabric on sale from Joanns and New Look pattern 6569 to make myself a skirt. The pattern was labeled easy so I thought I would be able to figure it out myself. Well, I cut it out and got to step 3 then gave up because I had no idea what I was supposed to do to finish the waistband. Who writes these directions anyways? Every year I would try to finish this skirt, would give up, and toss it back in my to finish pile. I meant to have my mom help me with it, but never got around to it.

Well about a week ago, I reread the directions and it finally clicked. Not because the directions made any sense, but because I've learned so much about sewing techniques in this last year that I knew how to finish it! I feel like I finally got to a milestone where I understand clothing construction.

It ended up being such an easy skirt to make that I made two more. I got the other skirt fabric from Hancock Fabric during their Memorial Day sale. These skirts cost me $5 a piece to make. Not bad for some gorgeous skirts eh? The black and white one is my favorite!