70's housewife to cool mom

i found this dress at a church clothing closet, loved the color and print but didnt love the whole 70's looking dress. 

so i cut off a good 5 inches of length which that became the new sash, removed that collar and those funky 3/4 sleeves and this dress is the result.  I love the outcome.  i gotta get better at taking pics of my projects and better after pics too

lets go fishing!!

I do not like to buy clothing if i dont have too, i really enjoy refashioning items that have been cast aside. I found this really shapeless dress at a church rummage, while I absolutely adored the fabric, which had these bright little fish on them, the dress had no shape, it was pretty sad, almost nightgown looking, it really just hung there sadly.  I of course grab it soon as i saw the bright fabric and fish, I just couldnt wait to get the dress home and breathe some new life into the garment, extend its life.

this is the before dress, lots of potential

this is after i whacked off the sleeves and created a tank version for the top and also created a v-neck

decided i wanted to go with a tank top, absolutely love my new cute tank top, best part is no one else will have one like it

its school time again

Once again school is almost upon us and I have been busy making clothing for my children for school, along with altering clothing on the side for profit for helping to support my family. I am so grateful that I was taught to sew years ago by my grandmother and mom and then extended that knowledge with a clothing and apparel class at my high school.

This is the stitch upon a time brazi bra pattern, it is my favorite for sports bras and my girls love them also

all my girls love raglan tees and the patterns for pirates relaxed raglan is perfect

more raglans

my youngest daughter is growing up on me no more little girly prints for her, she picked these fabrics herself for her flat front elastic back shorts

this one is her favorite pair so fair, this corduroy fabric is so fun

I modified greenstyles brassie joggers for a fabric with no stretch and my daughter absolutely loves them, though these are actually for her sister she had no issue modeling them and told her sister if you dont want them I do. So I will be making another pair of her fabric choice for her.  Sewing is such a fun and practical hobby. 

upcycling shirts into a quilt

I was commissioned by a lady from boston, my furthest client to date. Makes me feel pretty special too. Anyway she asked me if i would be interested in making a tshirt quilt for her if she sent me all the tshirts that she would like to be incorporated into the quilt and that she would like it to be atleast a full sizes quilt.  I had never done a tshirt quilt but thought sure why not i had done several other quilts just not s tshirt one.  So i accepted the order and waited a few weeks for the tshirts to arrive and then got to work, there were 35 tshirts total that i recieved to work with and only one wasnt suitable to use in the quilt. I cut and trimmed and stabilized and stitched for several days both the front and the back of the quilt were done with tshirts. I absolutely love the end results too and would love to keep the quilt for myself but alas it will be mailed out this weekend to the client

head in the clouds

i recently was able to test a quilt pattern that is absolutely adorable. "head in the clouds" quilt (#rachelrossidesigns)  was pretty easy to construct as long as you read the directions carefully, i, at first, skimmed the directions and assumed in knew what was going on and stitched two pieces wrong and had to make quick friends with my seam ripper, thankfully it wasnt a huge issue and one that i was able to catch early. This quilt has so many color combination possiblities along with the vast choices of quilting stitch options when you are finished piecing it. I did not have any quilt batting on hand so i used a layer of cotton flannel for the core. I mitered the corners of the binding which for some reason is always a challenge for me but i was able to get it done. See photos below of my progress and results.

first block finished

finished top

front and back all done

and the completed top

the background fabric is actually shimmery though i couldnt get that to show in picture

Well summer is upon us, and fall is not far away, mixed emotions about kids heading back to school, i am hoping to have several things sewn up for them to defray cost of clothing this school year.  I have been testing a pattern for ckc "celeste" boatneck dress pattern this past couple weeks, it passes my daughters "princess" standards, I personally am not a fan of 3/4 sleeves but my daughter loves the dress so it doesnt matter. The dress was a fairly easy sew up for me except lining the bodice was a bit tricky for me but i did get it done.

fabric and more fabric

A local couple near me blessed me with quite a bit of fabric, so i have been making good use of it! I made my son some shorts which are so cute, shirts are coming up to coordinate with them.  I made my middle daughter a reversible blanket and pillow to match.  I even made a blouse for me! I was stunned by the couples generousity and hope karma pays them back with good favor! I will be passing the good favor forward also!

here are a few pics of what i have made with my good fortune

building blocks

I recieved the priviledge to test a quilt pattern called "building blocks"  a design made by Rachel Rossi.  It was a very fun project from beginning to the end, granted there were a few pull your hair out moments but that had more to do with my skill in free motion quilting rather than anything to do with the design or the pattern.  My 3yr old son adores this quilt, I even allowed him to help with the free motion part of quilting, that was an experience on a whole new level with anything i have ever sewn. This quilt has tons of possiblity with using different colors and prints and you could even add a few textured fabrics into this design for a whole new look. I highly recommend trying this pattern out.

underground railroad quilt in the works

I recently read a book called "hidden in plain view: the secret story of quilts and the underground railroad" and was really intrigued with the idea of secret messages being relayed in quilts and quilt pattern placements and the like and i do realize that there is alot of skeptism behind those that believe in this idea and that alot feel its just a hoax to up the sales of quilts. Regardless of the reason for the book I love quilts and history and have decided to work on recreating a quilt that might have possibly have been used during the Civil War Era with using fabrics as close to what would have been used during that time as well, this post will be updated as I progress.

upcycling!!

My toddler son is ever growing out of his clothes so to curb the cost of new clothing that he will outgrow in a couple months time I have started upcycling things for him (i had been just upcycling for myself) but I love to upcycle so he gets included also. I was given a button up sweater by my mother in law that was in  great shape except none of my girls wanted it since it wasnt a girly looking sweater and it was also missing a button so I cut it apart at all the seams and drafted a pattern for my son and recut and reassembled it to fit him and I totally  love the results I still need to replace the buttons though.