Week 6: Viva Texas

Hello, hello!!  I've finally made it to Texas (currently in Dallas) and am cruising on over to Austin first thing in the morning!  My SXSW outfits are packed and I'm ready to go!!

Before tomorrow's outfit post, today I'm giving away a copy of the fun new book, Mend It Better by Kristin Roach!  I was asked to contribute a while back and crafted a lovely piece that started off looking like this...

...and ended up looking like this!

Totally not used to seeing someone else wearing the piece I made!!

This is just getting me even more super excited about mine coming out this fall!!  (More details on that very, very soon!!)

One randomly picked reader (on 3/20) is going to receive their own copy of MIB.  To win, leave a comment below with one of your favorite concert experiences!  I've got music on the mind right now, getting festival ready, so share with me a memorable music moment of yours :)

Here's mine...it's a total doozy.  It's 1988.  I'm wearing very, VERY heavy earrings with beads, dangling charms, and other assorted random wire shapes hanging from them and I'm with my parents, my little 8-year old friends, and the parents of my little 8-year old friends.  We're all going to see Tiffany - remember, it's 1988 - at Jones Beach on Long Island and are running a bit late (story of my life).  We're hustling through the parking lot, pulling the arms of our adult chaperones to make it into the amphitheater in time, and we begin to hear high pitched singing.  Obviously we start freaking out that Tiffany is on stage and we're missing her.  We get inside and don't see Tiffany on stage but instead a fivesome of boys with girlish sounding voices.  It was New Kids On The Block, the opening act.  It was right before they blew up into crazy-teen-stardom-frenzy so we didn't really know who they were at the time.  About six months later, Joey, Jordan, Jonathan, Danny, and Donnie would be plastered all over pillows, T-shirts, and sleeping bags at slumber parties across America.

I'll be posting Facebook and Twitter photo updates while I'm out and about roaming the Austin streets!  (PS, thank you to all who sent over favorite Austin spots/eats to scope out!)

Week 6: Brittney

This dress was sent to me by Brittney, who was the lovely reader who crafted that knit rose for me that I wore a few weeks back... (Refresher HERE)

This brown dress was in the package she forwarded and this is what she had to say:

"A friend was going to take a bunch of clothes to Goodwill, and she let me look through them first.  I didn't find anything that I wanted to alter, but I knew I wanted to send to you.  When I pull out my mom's sewing machine, it's usually to work on a quilt, make curtains, or mend a small hole in a seam.  But I'm on the lookout for something I can recreate, and when I find it, I'll definitely send in pictures."

It's a super thin material with a ruffled edge neckline.

The dress is a bit frumpy on me, so I have a few tricks to work out to make it out-of-my-house ready!

I began with removing both sleeves.  They had elastic at the cuffs with more ruffles and I wanted to make the neckline the focus, so with a seam ripper I started to remove...

I took off one sleeve, then the other!!

Instead of taking the dress in, I decided to add a drawstring element to the waist!  I turned the dress inside out and pinched the waist about an inch underneath the worn out elastic.  This pinched inch (sorry about the rhyme time!) is going to be the space where the drawstring will be, so I went around the waist and pinned marks where to sew.

Once the waist was pinned, I began to sew around.  I left a two inch space in the front center of the piece to allow for the ribbon drawstring to go in and out.

After sewing my little fabric tube, I took black nylon ribbon (I used 3/4") and a safety pin...

...pinned the safety pin to the edge of the ribbon and began to weave the ribbon through the space left at the waist.  I made sure to bring it all the way around and then cut my ribbon when I had enough to form a bow when I was finished.

It's looking a little like my pajama pants!!

With the sleeves gone, I decided to do a little cinching and pinching!!  I tried the dress on and C&P'd at the collarbone with a mini-safety pin on each side.

Once the sleeves were finished, I added some tights, ankle boots, and tied a bow at the waist to complete the look!  It's tae bo time!  (Sorry...just couldn't resist when it came out of my mouth naturally.)

I loved this dress - the ruffles are way more pronounced now and you can actually see them!!

It was a pretty warm day, but it cooled down fast.  I brought a jacket and a sweater along with me and had them both on at one point.  PS, a thin dress, tights, and a metal park bench = not the most genius idea when it's cold out.

But, when a picture is being taken, the model fights through the pain!!  I was just thinking about the Mexican food that I was going to be nibbling on and the faster I got the shot, the faster I'd be munching on chips and salsa.

It worked!

Thank you to Miss Brittney!!  (And a little note of congrats to her as well, as she just secured an awesome teaching job in China!)

Week 6: GK's NDAD Creation

Today's piece comes my way from GK and is modeled by her granddaughter who is absolutely adorable!!  Her letter put a grin on my face (:)-GRIN) and I can't wait to share.  Here goes... "After I showed my granddaughter your web site, she said forlornly, "I wish you would buy me ugly clothes and make them pretty..."  I was ready for her the next time she came over with the dress shown below...

...given to me by a friend who'd never worn it.

Let's see where this piece goes!

I didn't think she'd have the patience to watch me make an actual garment for her, so I suggested we make a throw pillow for her bedroom, but she was a no go for that idea!  She really loved the soft, stretchy fabric and she'd been inspired by what you'd done, so we began mulling over other ideas.  Dress?  Blouse?  Toga sash?

"Friends, Romans, countrymen!"  Instead we ended up with the top shown below...

 Thanks so much, Marisa, for all the fun and inspiration you've provided!"

I love this little top remake - it makes me SO thrilled that you and your granddaughter had a fun day to create and spend time together.  I get really excited hearing about moments like these...they're the best and a day that will be cherished by you both.  Love it!