...And Thursday

With my last round of tests over until finals, life in San Diego is easy and fun once again.  It's spring time and while the sun is out the wind is keeping me in coats and jeans, instead of the V-necks and skirts I prefer this time of year.  Sitting inside looking outside at the pretty blue sky has me itching for all the things about summer I love.  I am daydreaming about events that are sure to be mentioned in detail while they are happening.  One of my favorite summer events is my annual 4th of July party. Everything about the party is a surprise until people arrive.  I plan the menu and decorations way in advance.  As in- I already have the main and side dishes planed, still working on desert and drinks! I have been working away on different ideas for a few weeks now and when I stumbled upon this dress, I knew that I would be wearing a version of it on the 4th!

 Isn't it amazing?  It is the perfect mix for nautical and patriotic, something I can wear all summer long!  But there is no way I am paying over fifty dollars plus shipping for this dress. So here is my plan.  Find a suitable tank top replacement and add it to a skirt in a similar cherry red.  I will probably make the skirt myself.  It is a fairly simple A-Line number with a little extra volume in the form of pleats/ruffles at the top. Sounds pretty easy and fun, I hope to keep the entire look under 20 dollars.  I am currently debating between two different tanks, one about five dollars and the other ten. I might actually go into forever 21 and see what I can try on in person as well.  But here is where the fun feature come in! I am defiantly not going to rock a huge bow on my waist, like some pretty package waiting to opened...UM ICKK!  Bows are one trend I cannot get with!  Instead I am going to make this...

Totally Awesome Rose Belt!

I think this belt would be the perfect topper for my tank dress. A fun detail at the waist, but not a huge bow like a bride's maids dress! The belt is simple to make, all you need is some fabric, interfacing and 2 D rings.  Another positive about this over the bow, is that I can wear it with more than just my dress.  Hop on over to Emily Spark's blog and browse the fun other fun tutorials she had.  But don't forget the awesome rose belt! 

In other news, I graduate in less than 30 days! 23 days and 19ish hours according to the senior tab on my school's website!  Once I return home this blog is going to be SO MUCH MORE AWESOME!!  I will actually be able to sew some projects!  I will have all my craft items in one single place, instead of split between California and Washington.  Needless to say I am very excited!  But I will keep crafting and sharing and writing in the meantime.  A big thanks to all the readers who have supported my baby blog, which is growing up everyday!

...And Thursday

So far in my pursuit of gathering the fun and easy fashion projects out on the internet I have focused on actual clothing.  But everyone knows accessories are a girl's best friend.  So today I am happy to feature a great, easy, beginning project that can go with so many different outfits. 

Jersey Necklaces!

Click here for the tutorial,

picture via I Still Love You

For minimal effort you get an amazing professional looking versatile piece of jewelry.   This project is perfect for beginners, grab a some jersey, some scissors and your sewing kit, that's all it takes!  Another theme of the projects I feature, customization! She makes these out of T shirts, imagine all the different possibility, you could even braid in something sparkly for a more after five look.  Anyway, use your imagination, and before you cut up that shirt, pick something that will go with your most worn outfits and tops! 

Happy Crafting!

Fashion Forward Wednesday

Onto the fashion...finally! I have been an avid reader of Adventures in Dressmaking for quite a while now.  The blog features great tee shirt make overs and drool worthy home dec pictures for inspiration.  I totally admire the great woman who runs the blog, she makes something new practically every day, I would be exhausted!  One thing you must check out if you click on over to her site?  Her Amazon Store in the top section of links, she has a great selection of books for the sewing and craft minded person.  

So back to project!  Have you seen the rolled cuff slightly longer than normal jean shorts out there?  

 Via Adventures in Dressmaking

Seems like a trend for only the super fashionista, right? WRONG!  That short is amazing, the inseam is a bit longer so its age appropriate for people who have are past the booty shorts age, and a great weekend look for any young lady on the go!  Sometimes picking up a trend piece is just not worth the money, especially for artificially destroyed jeans, but this is a great way to add a fun spring and summer trend piece from something you already own.  Grab a pair of jeans that still fit, but you might not wear so much any more and click on over to the amazing step by step tutorial and hack away.  Come the warm days of summer, you'll be glad you did.  A great variation to this trend?  have the cuffs lined in a soft plaid so the rolls contract the jeans a bit.  I have seen some great ones in the April/May fashion magazines!  If I make the lined version I will be sure to let you all know how I did it!

...And Thursday

Spring has sprung in the hearts of fashionistas around the globe.  Anything and everything from television adds to magazines spreads, even bloggers are sharing the latest spring pieces.  But as most know, spring can be a difficult time to dress, one second its sunny and the next it is blowing rain in your face, and messing up your hair, uggg!  Pieces that are just a bit on the warm side are perfect for spring and summer evenings. A perfect transition into summer is a knit dress, good with tights, leggings, or even jeans now, and great for summer evenings later.  Enter on of my favorite free knitting pattern blogs out there Pickles.  This is the third Pickle's pattern I have featured, so you know I must visit the site often, I do.  When I am there I usually stop over at the store to droll over the yarns too.  Someday when the amount of yarn I own can fit in just one SMALL box, I will buy from the store.  I really recommend their yarns, as buying the yarn helps support the free pattens, plus they are reasonable in price and the colors are amazing!

But back to the dress...

Is is a sweater, or is it a dress?  It can be anything you want.  Since your are knitting it you can control the length, a little longer if you want to wear it as a dress alone, a little shorter if you are short like me, or super confident, or plan to wear it as a tunic style sweater. Another great way to make this fun dress perfect for spring, knit it up in the nudes and pinks that seem to be everywhere. One tip when choosing colors, if you are fair stick with pinks, roses and warmer colors, if you have tan or olive skin the lighter cooler colors work like gray, and if you have dark skin think bronze when choosing yarns or any nude pieces for that matter. Knitting the trim in a black or navy would be a great way to get a pop of dark in the dress! Another idea, you could knit it in two colors, color block style, with the change at your waist and then belt it to exaggerate the color block style. The possibilities are endless.  Have I convinced you yet?  Simple stated this dress is quick and simple to make and sure to become a spring favorite! Click here to visit Pickles and the sweater pattern!

Fashion Forward Wednesday

Today's Fashion Forward post comes from a blogger who's style I have admired since I stumbled upon her blog once upon a time.  I encourage everyone to go take a peak at Alisa Burke's blog, she is totally unique, unlike anything I have seen on the web, and I mean that in the best way possible.  She is so creative and I am sure I will be featuring her in future posts! Today I am showcasing a project that involves no sewing or knitting, just the willingness to let your creativity go nuts, with paint!

The Messy Dress

If you head over to the amazing tutorial to create this dress, you will find that with a few tools and some fabric paint you can turn a plain target dress, into your own custom work of art. Like most of the other projects I have featured, you can customize the final product with different dress choice, she shows a gray and green dress, and different paint colors.  Another perk of this project, you start with a fairly cheap dress, and end up with something totally fabulous looking, so much craft bang! Once you have tried her method out you could even expand the technique to tee shirts or skirts. Let your imagine run wild! Check out her awesome tutorial here!  As the artist said both the dresses are "simple, graphic and a little edgy" a perfect addition to you spring wardrobe and sure to become a dress you will love to wear!

See you tomorrow!

 

So Much To Say...

   
      Well my midterms are over for the time being. In case you are interested out the the four I got A's on two and the other two I don't know the outcome yet.  But the good news is they are OVER. Now I can get back to what I like to do, blogging, crafting, and not doing homework.  But another reason I have not written is that I just haven't felt inspired to create much this past couple weeks.  Crafting just for the sake of crafting isn't really doing it for me anymore.  So in order to remedy this I have decided to focus my blog a little bit.  

     Since my aspiration within the realm of creativity is to build a successful line of accessories and maybe clothes in the future, I think gearing my entries towards fashion will unleash my creativity more.  Not that I am a fashion expert, by any means, but I will be sharing my thoughts on how we can all be a little more fashionable, without heading to the nearest deparment store or empty our wallets.  Part of what makes fashion so amazing, is that everyone can express themselves differently and still look great.  I think that when we customize the plain stuff from a store, or make something from scratch ourselves, it is much more a pure expression of our own style.  In this vein I will be adding a post called "...and Thursday" This post will be in addition to my Fashion Forward Wednesday post.  I will now be featuring two patterns or projects, per week that I think will make a stylish addition to any wardrobe.  In an aim to please every kind of crafter/DIYer I will try to feature a mix of projects for sewers, knitters, and beginners. 

      I will also be adding a post in conjunction with a very style minded friend, called "How do I style it?"  Here I will ask a close friend who works in the fashion industry to help me style an item of clothing each week.  My plan is to post the clothing in question a few days ahead and then have her write how she would style it, giving some helpful links to the clothes to pair with the item being styled. The post will end with me, or who ever is asking how the item will  be styled, pictured rocking the new style. And yes, if you have a styling question I encourage you to send me an e-mail with a picture of the piece you need help with. I would really love to have some readers be featured in these posts.

     Since I am a poor college student, I am always interested is saving money, and doing crafts on the cheap. I will be spending time on fashion and home dec crafts.  I will be moving in May and again hopefully in July, so look forward to some decorating tips and projects for those on a shoe string budget.  Other projects might include designer inspired jewelry and clothing tutorials, like the ones I feature on Wednesdays, but my own.

   

      Finally I am participating in the Dollar Store Challenge over at Dollar Store Crafts. This week the theme is place mats.  I am currently working on my project and will have it posted with a tutorial before the deadline of March 30th.  I think the challenges are going to be ongoing, one every two weeks, so I will keep going with the challenges for a while.

Oh... just a last thought, I am going to continue with The Sunday Five.  I just love it so much, remember to add your five every Sunday too!

 Lots to look forward to here, so please stop by as the future unfolds!
Hope you enjoy my new look/layout! 

Fashion Forward Wednesday

Most ladies out there often find themselves in the "Dressing Room of Doom". Where you pull something off the rack and drag yourself into the dressing room, even though you hate trying on clothes, or are not is a shopping mood, etc only to be slapped in the face. You really have to like something to even make it back to the dressing room and then once you get under the florescent lights your own image assaults you. Dang, you think to yourself, if only this were looser here, or shorter there, or the print wasn't hideous. Once I get through all the if, ands or buts, I usually leave the store empty handed, with slightly lower self-esteem and a bad mood. Do you need any more reasons to sew your own clothes? Have I painted a bad enough picture of shopping yet? But then you cut out a pattern, based on the same, often insane, sizing as retailers and what do you get a slightly less bad version of something you could have bought at a store. Well, dang, what is a girl to do?

The obvious answer to to design patterns and clothes ourselves. Perfect! Oh wait, you can barely thread a needle let alone design, and sew your own clothes? Enter the sewing blog I discovered a bit ago, Petit Main Sauvage. Heaven for the sewing obsessed, like me. Even better is the simple directions and inspiration to take on this crazy craft called sewing!

But I digress, a simple, and straight forward tutorial is what awaits you at Petit Main Sauvage. With the easy gored skirt pattern, you can have a pattern tailored to you specific measurements in no time, and a skirt pretty quickly after that! I know this is the second skirt I have featured, and I promise that I will diversify, but I implore you to click here to make your fit fantasies come true! Everyone can use another skirt in an fun print!

Come on ladies...Get Your Spring On!!

Here's that link again

Fashion Forward Wednesday

Today's Fashion Forward Wednesday is so simple that even non-crafters will want to break out the scissors. When I first came across this post I thought to myself, wow this has a lot of craft bang! You see craft bang is a project that is easy, fast, or cheap and produces great results. So things, like mittens on size zero double pointed needles are tedious, and while the result are often worth the effort, it is refreshing to start a project that will take very little time start to finish, and give you something amazing afterward. Hence today's choice...

The Leather Clutch

Head on over to EvaForeva and look at the simple and straight forward directions with pictures. While I am with the author, I like the look of leather alone, you could easily add some pretty extras, like embroidery, or beading. This is another great project that can be tailored to suit your taste and (growing?) wardrobe. Another way to make this clutch your own, add a simple pocket to the lining for your cellphone, or chap-stick. I think you all should make one and grab it when you head out on the town to your local farmers market, who needs a huge purse and a big bag of produce to carry around? While I don't have any leather to cut into here at school, I am on the look out and once I find some, I will definably be making this clutch! Break out that spring top and slip on your jeans and head out the door to enjoy the day, but don't forget your new leather clutch! Don't worry we won't tell how easy it was to make!


*Picture via EvaForeva: Leather Clutch Tutorial

Fashion Forward Wednesday

I couldn't think of a better title for the post. Lame I know but here we go-

Welcome to the second week of Fashion Forward Wednesday!

This week I thought I would mix it up and feature a knitting pattern! If you have been reading this blog, or my twitter feed for very long you know I love the site Pickles! I really really really do! They feature free patterns all the time and have great yarn at decent prices. Knitter heaven!

Head on over to pickles to pick up this pattern, free in a size large, or if you need a different size you click over to the store and buy the PDF file. Make sure you click the British flag for the store to be in English. In case you didn't already figure it out, the lovely ladies who run Pickles are from Norway!

Wild Vest

So why should you knit the Wild Vest pattern? I don't know if you have noticed but the menswear thing is still happening. I still see people in suit-style vests all the time. This vest works from that style in a slightly softer knitwear version, that is extremely wearable and customizable. You can pick what ever color you want, and the single color daisy stitch adds nice detailing; fun to knit and pretty to look at! Another great feature is the bottom ribbing, the ribbing is knit on smaller needles and with 31 less stitches than the body of the piece, this keeps it from ridding up and creates a more open vest look. I don't want to ruin all the surprises but the body is also knit on size 13 US needles, making this a quick project once you get a hang of the daisy stitch. So go grab your needles or head to your local yarn store and cast this puppy on! Its a great piece to grab as the days start to turn warmer, and perfect for a cool summer night! Also check out their store with the yarn they used for this and other projects. Really wonderful stuff, I promise!

Happy Knitting!

(Pictures Via Pickles)

Should Be Wednesday Pattern

I was all set to start my new themed day yesterday. All I needed was a cute pattern to show. Well I got a little stuck. I couldn't find the pattern I had in mind so I ended up postponing till today.
First let me explain the point of this. Every Wednesday, I will be featuring a pattern, knitting or sewing, that I think is fashion forward and should be added to your wardrobe. Now anyone could search around all day for simple sewing and knitting project that are fashionable. But why spend the time when I will be compiling them here for you? The point is to give you a go to spot for handpicked pieces when you have an itch to make something new for yourself or as a gift.

So here we go!

This week's pattern is something you might already have in your closet. It is something that just about eveyone can pull off and is fairly simple to make. The Pencil Skirt! Don't click away just yet, even if you already have one or think you can't pull off this look. Even if you already have the standard wool black pencil you should consider making this one. Not only, can you never have enough simple work skirts, when you make your own everything is totally customizable. The fit, the buttons, the fabric, you can even add a lining so it doesn't ride up with tights. I hate that!!

Enter BurdaStyle my favorite go to for sewing patterns. The patterns are cheap, sometimes free, and you can print them at home, follow the directions and assemble the pattern easily! Another reason to give the pencil a go? Its fairly cheap supplies wise and a great pattern for a sewer looking to increase confidence- its easy, and it is sewing instant gratification. You can make it in a short amount of time and put it into the rotation for work right away! Another great aspect of BurdaStyle is that it is a network of sewers, so if you have questions you can post right on the pattern page for help. You can also browse other people finished projects and their comments on the process and any hiccups they had.

This particular version of the pencil has some great detail in the front as well as a cute side tab style button. According to the pattern description "It fits just below the natural waist and with pleats on one side, it accentuates both slender and curvy figures." You can make it a very serious piece with suiting
material, or you can go funky. The possibilities are endless!
So please go check out the Alexis pattern #7945 and get sewing!


Also if you have a snappy name for my fashion forward Wednesday post please drop me a line in the comments section! I want to tag them all the same so people can easily look at all the featured patterns, but I am currently at a loss for a snappy name. Thanks in advance!

**Pictures are from BurdaStyle users

Inspiration Take 2

Now that I am thinking about it, I guess I really love a lot of things. So far I have mentioned quite a few things, sewing, knitting, jewelry making, adding glitter to anything and everything. Today I endeavor to talk about another thing I love even if I am an amateur. Fashion.

I really really enjoy pretty clothes. And all the bloggers I love have been taking things from stores and recreating them themselves. Ruffles are fairly easy to sew and it seems a lot of people are cutting up their tee shirts and sticking ruffles on anything with two sleeves. Which I think is awesome. I once believed that I cannot pull off ruffles, but my mind has been changed. It could help that everyone seems to be wearing them so when I do, I don't feel like I am stick out like a soar thumb.

Since I follow Nina Dobrev on twitter, I saw some different tops she has been wearing for different covers and shoots for The Vampire Diaries. I really like how they are styling her, and low and behold they stuck some ruffles on her. Now these ruffles are a little different that the stuff I have seen around so, I am going to give this shirt a go!

I really like how the ruffle become the sleeves and how the shirt dips so low in the front. Plus I am in love with navy blue so that's a plus too. I haven't quite decided what I am going to start with though. I am thinking I could either sew the entire shirt myself from a sleeveless blouse pattern or I could find a button down in navy blue, make it more fitted if I need to, and then add the ruffle. I was leaning towards the second since it would probably be easier but I would probably have to buy 2 shirts just to get enough matching fabric to make the ruffles, which would defeat the cheapness. So I will probably just make the entire thing myself since if I need more fabric or I mess up, that tends to happen when I sew, I can just run to the fabric store, or rip out my stitches. This will also give me a lot better control of the fit of the shirt too.

The sad part is I won't be able to make this beauty until March since that is when I will be home again and can use my mom's sewing machine. But until then I will be hunting for a pattern. I can't wait to show you all what I come up with. Like I keep saying, inspiration strikes in the oddest of places! Oh twitter how I love you!

While I am talking about fashion, which I know very little about compared to my other hobbies, I would like to direct you to a fashion expert! Kelly Skahan writes for the Examiner online, covering the Seattle fashion scene. She is currently stationed in New York, so she really has here thumb on the pulse of fashion! She writes great articles on how fashion amateurs, like me, can pull off the newest, coolest, looks without looking like a crazy person! Go check her out!!!








Pictures via twitpic.com and the examiner.com