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I'm a sewer, a crafter, a voracious thrifter, potential hoarder, and owner of a 1984 Westfalia Vanagon. I'm a writer and a designer, but mostly just a secret cat lady. Learn more about me here.
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Category Archives: she’s crafty
monocled lop sneaky peeks
I could not be more excited that it is Friday. Not even if I TRIED, you guys. For realsies. Too bad I'll be working all weekend at my real job. Wah wah. Get money, get paid, right?
I've been diligently pedaling away with Chico Dusty this week getting things ready for some serious Monocled Lop shenanigans.
Want to see some sneak peeks? I'm just so excited. I can't really contain it, you know? If Emily and I had it our way we'd just learn how to become wizards so we could magically whip this up with some magical mystical words and open up shop tomorrow. Until we unlock the secrets of wizardry, here are some sneak peeks of what we've been up to!
Yes indeed things are cookin' over here. Royal also likes to help, but his help more often than not turns into kitten shenanigans. Any sewing cat ladies out there I'm sure can understand.
What are your plans for the weekend? Exciting things I hope? I'll be partying hard up in Idaho (ha! that's a funny joke) and then coming back home for some fathers day foolishness. My dad is pretty much the coolest.
Happy weekend!
$2 Thrifty Thursday: the return of project restyle!
Boy oh boy I sure do love restyling thrifty finds. Remember good old Project Restyle? It's been awhile since I did one, but once I found this $1 dress at the Desert Industries in Portland I couldn't resist. ONE DOLLAR! ONE! A singular dollar!
The only thing was, this $1 wunderkind was in straight up muumuu land.
But the pattern was too adorable to pass up, and I knew that with a little vision and some good lovin' this muumuu could be something pretty great for summer. A take in here and a snip and hem there and bam. I had myself a new $1 sun dress!
The material is incredibly light and comfortable, so I wanted to keep the styling casual. A cardi for the freezing office and my corduroy mustard Toms were just the ticket for a warm and casual day at the office. Or a completely failed jump shot.
Not bad for $1, right? I swear there is nothing better than a good restyle. And it only took me 20 minutes! My sewing prowess is slowly but surely improving.
To see my other restyles from Project Restyle, click here!
Someone else had some awesome luck thrifting and restyling--Karen from the lovely Zazazu found this killer light fixture for a mere $2.98! Yes! She added a nice coat of red paint and put that baby in her kitchen.
Restyling is where it's at. Karen also has a gorgeous Etsy shop with some incredible vintage lovelies, so head on over and check it out!
What did you find thrifting this week? If you found an incredible thrifted find for $5 or less, send it here and I'll feature it next week!
the greatest sewing accomplishment to date
I'm trying to think if this really stands as my greatest sewing feat to date......yes. I think it does. Maybe it's because it was 3 yards of fabric. Or maybe I feel that way because the bodice was awful. But no--I actually think I say this because it was silk.
Word to the wise (or at least the sewing novices)...steer clear of the silk.
But if you REALLY want to sew a silk maxi dress, then you should do it. Because I did. And here it is. And I LOVE it. L-O-V-E.
I bought this pattern a bit ago knowing I needed a maxi for summer. And of course I had to wait and find the perfect fabric for said maxi because, well, it's A LOT of fabric, so it needs to be pretty awesome. But it also had to be cheap because it was 3 yards.
I have a rule about sewing clothing--if it's going to be more expensive than buying it at a store, it probably isn't worth it for me. At this point in my sewing career, anyway. So once I found this incredible feather silk for $3 a yard, I was all over it.
I took this baby out for a test run when we went to the Living Traditions fair last week. It was 76 degrees and this dress was a DREAM to wear. And let's be real. If you don't own a maxi dress yet, GET ONE. You will not regret it.
I love the colors of this fabric. And the feather pattern that perfectly matches my feather necklace. Love when that happens.
So there you have it. My first maxi dress and my favorite sewing project to date. It looks simple, but that bodice. And that silk. Again--please reconsider any silk projects in your near future.
It should be noted that this dress was only possible due to my incredible sewing teacher, Miriam. She runs an outstanding blog called Mad Mim, so head on over and give her some love. Her DIYs are to die for.
What are you working on? Any sewers out there? I need to get more daring and sew with more patterns on my own outside of lessons. Am I the only one terrified of making this big sewing leap?
