Spring bedroom refresh and DIY striped or plaid tassel throw tutorial!

5.02.2018

Spring bedroom refresh and DIY striped or plaid tassel throw tutorial!

I've said before... our bedroom in this little apartment has been looking pretty sad. We sold a lot of furniture like our DIY black four-poster bed and aren't quite ready to invest in big new pieces yet, so our bedroom was kind of a hodgepodge. Also, I've been Team All-White Bedding for yeeeears and it usually looks elegant and fresh, but in our little headboard-less room it just looked plain and depressing.

Also, I've been using throw blankets a lot recently for naps (new baby schedule) and changing up temperature throughout the night, but our throws are all pretty standard/small throw size and look dinky at the end of the bed! I looove the look I see at the high-end interior designer stores of a black and white or grey and white striped throw with big pompoms or tassels at the edges... they can be like $300+, though, so I did a DIY version!

I partnered with Tuesday Morning for this project and post.

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Navy with teal lace, texture-blocked dress

1.03.2014

Navy with teal lace, texture-blocked dress

I designed this dress ages ago, but finally finished it over the holiday. This amazing bright teal lace, plus some of my fave navy cotton twill (I got like 6+ yards of it years ago and have been slowly using it in pieces), in a colorblock/fabric-blog/texture-block dress. Panels of lace down the center front and back panels of the bodice (anchored in the princess seams), plus a panel hand-sewn down the front.

I used Simplicity 1913, which I've used before even with some piecing, but I've never done a contrast panel with the center front and back, though it's so easy to do with a pattern like this with the princess seams.

I got this incredible emerald/teal chemical lace fabric c/o WholePort, but it's so heavy it didn't really make sense to make an entire dress or skirt out of it. I cut the center front and back panels of the base fabric (navy teal), the lining fabric (navy lightweight cotton, not visible in these pics), AND the teal lace (see my Sewing Circle post on how to sew on lace and some lining options).

I sewed the front and back panel pieces as one with the navy twill, so the lace edges are sewn into the seams and zipper. I matched the centers of the lace in the front panel, but didn't space it out perfectly once the seam allowances were in. Oh, well! Maybe I'll belt it to distract! ;)

On the skirt I tacked the lace down very carefully with relatively methodical hand-stitching in teal thread. You can't see it from the outside at all. Then I hid the top and bottom edges in the seam and hem.

It was fun!! And I love manipulating simple patterns to get a totally different look from the envelope picture, with the same structure.

 I highly recommend it!, and thanks again to WholePort for the lace!

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Simple handsewing makes a top more modest!

2.10.2012

Simple handsewing makes a top more modest!

Modest in a good way--as in, not gapping and showing my bra or tummy in the middle of the button closure.  That's never a good thing.

Let me back up.  I got this top at Old Navy while it was 75% off or something, one of their sales.  I've been wanting more things in a powerful, true red color!!  (You may remember my red jeans and brights Pinterest board...)  So I picked up this tee.

I tried it on at home and it had some serious gappage issues.  You'll notice the buttons are spaced pretty far apart--and the bottom button has a big gap before the tie at the bottom.  Tummy peek-through!  NOT flattering.

But I had a solution (more elegant--and permanent-- than a discreet up-and-down safety pin between the buttons, I swear!)!  I do the safety pin thing on blouses that I have to unbutton to put on and take off, but this is a knit with a decorative button front.

Rather than return it, I did a little mending to repair the gapping places--mainly the bust, where my bra was showing!, and the space between the bottom button and the tie.

So here's my simple handsewing technique--using the seam allowance of the placket, you can easily do invisible stitching with a little whipstitch.  You never grab the main fabric of the shirt, so it won't show through anywhere!

The "after"--all better!

Hmm.  Actually, if you really scrutinze, as I write this post I notice the space between the second and third buttons from the top is gapping a little, too.  I can't even imagine how this top would fit someone with a larger-than-average bust.  Guess I need to do a little more hand sewing!

But hey, the point is, check it out now.  Way easier to wear!

Have you solved gapping problems on tops and blouses before?  Is the safety pin good for you, too, or have you had success with fabric tape, sewing, or other methods?

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This summer's DIY cut-off jeans shorts--Tutorial!

8.23.2011

This summer's DIY cut-off jeans shorts--Tutorial!

Last summer, I noticed bermuda-length cuffed jean shorts were all the rage, and I made my own out of a pair of old jeans (tutorial here).  I did the tutorial here, and still love those shorts and have been wearing them around this summer.

But this year, I've noticed another trend in magazines and such.  The original cut-off jean short, with a small (sometimes raw-edged) hem.

Express (4" long inseam!)

Flickr via Pinterest

J.Crew like a year ago

J.Crew this summer

Lucky Mag

Nordstrom

Pinterest, original source unknown

You could pay $181 for these True Religion ones...

YesStyle.com, $50

Anyway, so you see the range of styles, lengths, and tightness-es.  Quite a few ideas to work from!  In all, I'm noticing shorter and looser than last year's longer cuffed jean shorts.

I went into my closet, and pulled out this ancient pair of old favorite jeans.  They're from, literally, like 2006.  They have spandex in them so they stretch, and I have worn them while at many different weights!  Haha, they've been around--they have holes starting on the knees, some paint, and some of my original jeans-mending method patching on the butt.

I wish I had a slighly looser pair, but these will do for this fun DIY project.  Here goes the tutorial!

• Start with your old jeans and try them on.  Mark with a pen about 2" below where you think you want them to hit your legs.  Just in case, you'll give yourself that extra room since you may waste some straightening etc.  Begin to cut.

• Cut through the top layer only, to start with, rather than chopping both off at once.  The grain is slightly different on the front and back, and you want to get a true straight line.

• Once you've gone all the way around, fold the jeans in half and cut the other side to match as closely as possible.  They'll really look homemade if they're not symmetrical!

• Fold them in half and look at them from different angles to make sure both sides are the same.

• You may also want to turn them inside out, so you can see the straight grain of the denim, and shave off little bits of the edges to make them straighter.

• Try them on again.  They should be about 1" longer than you'd like them to be.
• To the ironing board.  Press about 1" of the jeans up.  No need to hem or turn under twice!  Wahooo, these are simple!

• Now get out your needle and denim blue thread.  This part is sort of optional, I guess, but these will be most wearable if you do this step.  Basically, to lock in the cuff and rolled-up look, without always having your shorts moving around in length, you'll hand sew the cuff in place.
• You'll do a running stitch, but make the stitch on top just a millimeter long, and the stitch underneath more like half an inch long.  You cover lots of ground quickly this way, but your stitches don't show on top.
• If your jeans stretch at all, like mine did, you'll want to do this in a zig zag pattern.  The thread doesn't have the same give as the jeans, so by zig-zagging you give the stitch some flexibility.

All done!  Wear and enjoy--your personalized jean shorts, exactly the length you wanted!  And so trendy right now!

And, pretty much free.  You can't go wrong.

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My birdcage veil!! A tutorial

8.09.2011

My birdcage veil!! A tutorial

I have been inspired by a lot of veils in the past few months.  Lots.  I decided I wanted a birdcage veil before I really knew what that meant, and there are a lot of variations!  I wanted a big flower or other hairpiece, with veiling.  Where to start?!  So many types out there.  Here are just a few:

From BHLDN (headbands, hairpieces, and veils):

From Ruffled:

From Style Me Pretty:

Even ModCloth has little fascinators of the same idea:

But I figured out my own style, since I have NO idea how any of those are made!

My mom has lots of millinery experience, and gave me the right tools and tips to make a structured, quality birdcage veil hairpiece.  Here's a tutorial for what we did!

• The materials you'll need are:
• A cool flower or decoration
• About 1 yard of veiling (sold in bridal departments of fabric stores or online)
• About 1/3 of a yard of hat wire (I suppose you could use some other kind of wire in a pinch... needs to be lighter than a coat hanger, but heavier than chicken wire)
• Buckram, a sturdy hat form material, cut in an oval shape.  If you don't have this, you could use some other very stiff fabric.  Two layers of canvas sewn together, maybe?  This piece should be smaller than your flower/decoration.
• A comb

The decoration I'm using is a flower a lot like the ones I made for my wedding dress.  The basic flower tutorial is here, and you can see more about how I made this shape of flower for my wedding dress here.

Here are a few editions I made to my wedding dress flower style for it to go on the veil.

• I attached some feathers to the back of the flower, sewing through their stalks to secure them.

• I tore apart an old, cheap fake flower and used the stamens.

• I poked a hole through the center of the flower with an awl.

• I stuck the stamens through, although you can barely see them.

So the basic point of all that was, make or find a great flower or bow or something!  Then follow these instructions for the tutorial for the veil itself:

• To make the mini-hat-like base, take your buckram and hat wire and carefully line them up along the edges.  Curve the hat wire as you zigzag it down around the edge.
  

• Cut the wire once you get all the way around, then double it up where it overlaps and zigzag it all down.

• Give the buckram/wire base a little curve to match the curve of your head (or hairstyle, in my case!)

• Hand sew the comb to the wire and buckram at the top.

• Fold your veiling in half and round the corners off both sides at the top corner.

• Begin hand-gathering at the remaining corner and go all the way along the edge of your 1 yard, putting the needle through each little tightly woven joint.

• Don't pull the thread as tight as possible; leave several inches of gathering thread to play around with.
• Arrange the gathers pretty evenly around the base piece and tack them down by hand, sewing around the gathering threads you used.

• Grab your flower or decoration and hand sew it down to the buckram, covering the base.

That's all!  Ta-da!  Done!

Here's the veil in a few teaser pics from the wedding...

Photos by Becky Nerpel, Studio623Photography.com

More pics coming later--I can't wait!

The veil was super fun and easy to make.  I guess when you make your own dress like I did, the veil is sort of an afterthought.  Comparatively it took almost no time, just an hour or so of mostly hand sewing.  Too bad I only needed one, since they're so fun and pretty and simple! ;)

(If you made any of your accessories, or did any other DIYs for your wedding, I'd love for you to share them in the Adventures in Dressmaking DIY Weddings Flickr group!!)

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