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!

Spring Skirt

I've been on a skirt kick lately. Mostly because I'm in desperate need of skirts in my wardrobe. Has anyone else noticed how it's hard to buy modest skirts anymore? Since I'm 5"9 it's even harder for me to find a cute skirt thats long enough. This is where sewing comes in handy.

I found this fabric in the discount bin at Joanns a year ago and fell in love with it. Then I came across this free pattern online and knew it would be perfect. Since my fabric was see through I had to add lining. I decided just to serge the lining and the fabric together then make the skirt. Not sure if that is the correct way of doing it, but meh I follow my own rules. I love the fit of this skirt and it doesn't look homemade when it's finished. I got a ton of compliments at church on Sunday. When I told people that I made it they couldn't believe it. I think I have my new favorite skirt!

Hawaiian Skirt

Since we had fun sewing the Easter dresses together, Britney and I decided to have another sewing night. We decided to make skirts using this tutorial. We had a little too much fun sewing with everyone because we stayed up till 2 am. We paid for that the next day, but hey we had cute skirts to show for it.

I got the fabric while we were in Hawaii. I think it makes a fun and comfortable summer skirt. Now we just need some good weather so I can wear it!

Easter Dress

Right before we left for Hawaii I made a new friend in our ward. I found out that she loves to sew too. When we were over there, her husband bet her that she wouldn't finish her little girl Easter dresses on time. Well, we couldn't have him win that bet so we got together the next week and finished two of these adorable Easter dresses. I'm happy to report that not only did she win the bet and get a free dinner, but her girls looked adorable on Easter Sunday. We used this free pattern and tutorial.

Recipe Binder

I've been meaning to organize my recipes for a long time and just got around to it this week. I'm hoping this will make meal- planning way easier and save me some time. For the cover I used this free template and just printed it out on our color printer.

In the front I have a blank calendar where I can write in our menu for the week with a wet erase marker. I included breakfast and lunch because we work from home I have to plan for those meals as well.

On the next page I included a shopping list to go with my menu. I can just grab this binder before we go to the store to make it easy. I might even be able to plan on the way to the store.

On the next page I included a page for recipes to try. Sometimes when I'm blog surfing or searching through my cookbooks I find something I want to try so I can jot down where the source is and have a list available when I'm planning my menus. I'll can also write on this sheet which recipes I've tried, makes the cut, and needs to be typed out to be added to the binder.

Here is a look at the Dividers I designed in PowerPoint. I have it divided into Breakfast, Entrees, Sides, Breads, Dessert, Drinks, and Party Foods.

I dug through all my cookbooks and compiled all the recipes that have ever made it into our rotation. Now I don't have to eat the same old things and have some variety to choose from. I found so many things we love to eat, but forgot about because we were stuck eating the same things because they came to my mind faster. Also all the recipes are tried, tested, and taste good; no gross recipes included. Every recipe I would ever need is in this notebook in one place.

I know it didn't take much crafty ability to make this, but I spent 8 hours on this baby so it deserves an honorable mention on my craft blog. I love it and I feel like it's going to make my life so much easier.