They Like Me, They Really Like Me! (They, as in The New York Times)
I was completely blown away today when I opened the Style section of The New York Times to see my lovely book included with an assortment of other fabulous fashion reads!
Hello there 
I had my moment while sipping coffee…
Um, hello NY Times
…and then let out a little scream!
Yelp!!!
Since it’s a Times “holiday read” and there’s a little more time to still get those gift for friends, relatives, and even yourself, I’m doing a little gift with purchase. Anyone who snags the book (and fills out the info/receipt upload HERE) will get a zip file emailed with all the tunes on my “Sewing Playlist” mentioned in the book. You can literally listen to exactly what I listen to on the regular.
But wait, there’s more…
For each book purchased, your name will be entered into a lovely little raffle to win an assortment of crafty goodies, all curated by yours truly!
It’s like the NDAD Powerball!!
A little bit of RIT Dye, a bottle of Mod Podge, Martha Stewart paint, Aleene’s Fabric Fusion, some Darice floral appliqués, a tape measure, an assortment of needles, a lovely little travel kit, a mix of ribbon to use in crafting, as well as a few other items that will be added to this pile as the holidays get closer.
All eligible receipts must be dated and fall between Black Friday (11/23/12) up until December 31st, 2012. A winner will be picked on 1/1/13!!
$1 Remake: Lace Dress for LA Book Launch
It’s finally time to show you what I did to this lovely piece after asking for input on what color to dye it!
Hello Before!
We all remember this lovely yellowed stain…
Stains!!!
…so knowing that I was going to be wearing this to my book launch party, I decided to push the envelope a bit, go out of my comfort zone and pick…
Dye Party!
…CHERRY RED!!! (Thank you to Boatgirl, Kathy, Dani Marie, Leanne, Sarah, Tracy, Laura Whitman, Lovestosew, who offered this color as their pick!)
I was totally on the fence with Emerald Green/Cobalt Blue/Buttery Yellow/Turquoise as my other options (I loved all the jewel toned ideas!), but just felt that red was the color I needed to choose. I was especially excited to see how this was going to turn out because the bottom part of the dress was a polyester and was going to take the dye in a very subtle fashion.
Here’s a little teaser…
Party Dress!!
…full rundown of the project and fun party pics are below!
Crystal’s NDAD Creation
As we’re getting closer to Halloween, I loved this piece Crystal submitted. I felt it totally holiday apropos!
This dress was given (freeee!!) to me by a friend who liked it but said she’d never wear it. I immediately loved the unique design, the neckline, and the design on the front and while I liked it “as-is,”I thought I could improve upon it. It didn’t need a lot of altering to make it FAB. I was seeing sugar skulls!
Crystal – Before
The middle of the dress does look like a skull! Let’s see how Crystal finishes this up!!
8 Days to Go: Vintage/Rustic Table Setting Pieces
Hope everyone had a great weekend! What was on all of your agendas?
I spent some time garage sale-ing and Goodwill-ing, found awesome tabletop goodies to remake, and got crafty to create a fun, fall, vintage-rustic tablescape. Recycled goods-turned-chic-tabletop
Here’s a brief look at the table after all the hand-craftiness…
Vintage Tablescaping!
…and I’m going to show three fun items from the table that are super easy to recreate. Ready??
1. Napkin Rings
I started with some basic wooden napkin rings and some ribbon from my collection…
Rings & Ribbon!
…and got out my friend, the hot glue gun!! I dabbed a bit of glue in the center of the ring…
Hot Glue!!!
…and started to wrap the ribbon around the ring. I went around 11 times (I had to count to make each ring uniform) and then glued the ends to the inside of the ring.
Around & Around!
2. Napkins
Next came the napkins! I found some beige cotton ones to use because I wanted to dye them a new shade!
Cloth Napkins!
After seeing tons of ombré dye tutorials, I was inspired to create some on my own! I began a dye bath of Scarlet RIT Dye on my stove top…
RIT Dye Bath!
…and started to drop in my napkins!
Napkin Dip
I dipped the six napkins (all at once) into the pot a little less than their middle point, and held them in place for about five minutes.
Soaky Soaky, Now!
Once I let the bottom half soak for those few minutes, I brought the napkins out of the bath another halfway point. I wanted to let the bottom chunk be the darkest area, so I left this part submersed for about a half hour to really show the gradient.
Dip & Soak
3. Vase
I have to say that before I moved I had accumulated many, many, many vases from floral deliveries to take-homes from weddings. I held onto a few favorites but ended up donating about 90% of them. When I walked back into Goodwill this weekend, I was probably re-purchasing the vases I had given away!
I loved the shape of this vase and wanted to give it some texture, so I found some lovely yellow Bakers Twine (yes, it totally made me crave pastries)…
Goodwill Vase & Bakers Twine
…and began to wrap it around the neck of the vase using Mod Podge to keep it in place! After finding a good end place (aka, the location on the vase where I was, after spending about a half hour wrapping and adhering) I let the vase dry overnight.
Mod Podgin’
Here’s what I ended up with post project-ing!
45 Days to Go: Barbara’s Donation
I’ve had this amazing piece for close to a year – Barbara sent this to me last October and now it’s making a debut! I have a wedding to attend for some dear friends and knew I could make this piece work!
Here is the story….many, many years ago, I was given this ‘vintage’ unfinished sequined dress. I was supposed to fix it up, breathe life back into it, and make it something fantastic, but that never happened. Skip forward to today, I am cleaning my closets and trunks and there it is, as sparkly as ever in my cedar chest, but sad and unwearable. I hope you can rock it and make it into something really fun to wear! I can hardly wait to see what you come up with. This is a VERY special piece to me and hard to part with but it will just sit there forever, otherwise. I have had it for at least 25 yrs and hope it will make your list!
Barbara’s Donation Dress!!
I loved the sequins, but there was a bit of discoloration and there was no zipper!!
Zipper-less!!
There’s lots of work to complete on this and I can’t wait to get started. I grabbed some tools…
It’s Dye Time!!
…and got started!!
