let it snow?

I sewed this skirt today. It's my own (very basic) pattern. Invisible zipper in the side seam with tiny button & loop closure. Slightly gathered in front and back, with a top-stitched waistband.

This was "global"-themed designer fabric I bought at Joann's, something that says "Jester Red Diamond M..." on my receipt. I guess when they label something "global" they just mean... non-Western. They didn't specify what part of the globe inspired this design. I kept leaving and coming back to it and decided it could make a pretty sundress or skirt. Red and white is a palette I'm always attracted to. (Go Cards).

When I took the bolt to be cut, the chatty scissors-wielding employee said, "Oh cute! Snowflakes! Are you making a Christmas dress?" Oh no... I didn't realize global could mean North Pole.

After she cut, she told me the price per yard and the total I was going to have to pay. I guess I had misread the sign, or just assumed everything is always on some sort of sale at Joann's. Nope, apparently not the global fabric. It traveled a long way to get here, maybe via Rudolph's sleigh, and that costs a pretty penny.

I bought it anyway -- smh -- and spent a few weeks just kind of eyeing it in my fabric stash, occasionally wrapping the yardage around my body to see how much it actually looked like snowflakes and whether I could force non-Christmas apparel out of it. I finally made the skirt today, still unsure, and now keep staring at these pictures to determine if I look like Mrs. Claus' kitchen assistant. I like the weight and drape of the fabric but this snowflakes thing is killing me. HELP ME.


I hate making things that I'm not confident to wear. I'd probably never question it if that woman hadn't said anything about snowflakes, but now I'm just in a blizzard of confusion. Pun intended (forced)-- you're welcome.

summer to fall: dress alteration

I bought a linen Mossimo dress from Goodwill for $5 this summer. It is (was) a halter top, which I don't like, but it fits well and is an A-line shape and a lovely shade of green, all of which I do like. Bonus: the skirt is lined so I don't need to wear a slip, AND it has in-seam pockets.




The halter style signifies summer to me, and since this dress is solid color and fairly long, it should be able to be worn in colder months as well. I typically prefer base pieces that can be worn year-round with some smart layering, and halter tops don't really let you do that. Plus they're just kinda juvenile.

To make this dress more friendly for autumn and an office environment, I simply readjusted the straps so they laid over my shoulders and attached to the bodice at the back. I marked the new length they needed to be (with bobby pins--not as secure as pins but easier to use with one hand when you're your own dress form):
I snipped a little below this and folded the raw edges down into the strap...

Pinned them where they needed to go...

Then sewed them on, retracing the existing stitches along the back of the bodice.


I cut the scrap ends of the halter straps to make three belt loops.

Pressed them in so long edges met in the middle.

Placed them around the waist of the dress, folded down the short raw edges and top-stitched. (I act like this step was easy, but I in fact messed up so many times and actually threw my seam ripper in rage after my fourth time of accidentally catching a strap or something on the underside of my stitches).

Simple changes and yet so much better. Throw on a cardi and welcome to fall.

paperbag skirt

I could have bought a paperbag-waist skirt on ModCloth for $50...

But why, when I can make a similar one myself for $10?

Also, it's no longer sold on ModCloth. All I had to buy was 1 1/2 yards of a linen-look navy cotton, $4.79/yd, plus a 7-9" inch invisible zipper for $2.49.

I followed the paper bag skirt tutorial by Suzannah at Adventures in Dressmaking. I just made mine slightly longer than hers. I've probably only made something with an invisible zipper once, and that was in my "Fashion Design 101" joke of a class in high school. So this was my first time attempting it by myself -- and without an invisible zipper foot. I read this post on Sew Serendipity on how to do it and found it really wasn't difficult at all.


The hardest part of this skirt was aligning the pleats so that they were even with each other and still fitted to my waist size. I tried taking it in a bit but it still is kinda too puffy at certain angles, but I really don't want to redo the pleats. If I make another, I'll just start off with less fabric. The tutorial did call for 2x the waist size and it probably could be less.


Sassy blurry wrinkled back view:

By the way, making a paperbag skirt will inevitably make you sing "Paperback Writer" by The Beatles for at least three days straight.

turn my swag on

i knew i needed a pendant lamp over my fireplace mantel to cure my dark living room woes. and to shine a light on my rad horse print.


i found this one at goodwill. i liked that it had a chain i could "swag" (like this) and that i wouldn't have to buy a lamp kit. it was brown originally, but in my genius mind i thought that a good old coat of spray paint would be all the makeover it needed.



ick. couldn't stop there. i was hoping that i could just rip the red stuff off and have the basic gold plate, chain and wire to use with a different shade. but of course the frame was made of metal, not wood, and i couldn't remove just the top part without, well, something that cuts metal.




i think i tried forty different things to make a new frame shade that fit my style. a $9 lamp at goodwill is pretty steep, after all, so i couldn't just waste it, right? i tried using the basket from this unused hanging planter:



but it was too shallow and looked pretty goofy:


since i hadn't removed the glue and staples from the base yet, i thought i'd hide it with the twine from the hanging basket:


wait, TWINE? i hate decorating with basket weave. this isn't my style at all, are you kidding me?
so i went a whole new route. the placements i bought for my dining table when i first moved in are not functional at all, but i still like the look of them.

 crumbs would easily fall through, and they attracted dust since they're made of felt or something. so i cut up two of them into six triangles. painted the metal frame of that lamp with leftover white paint. attached the triangles to the frame with needle and thread. and now i have this:










i don't own a ladder, so hanging this from my 10-foot-ceiling with a chair, a suitcase filled with books, tiptoes and a lot of cursing was a dangerous ordeal in itself. also explains why i got lazy and only swagged the chain up to where it was easier to reach on the wall.


a similar look can also be achieved with doilies, as i found on apartment therapy:

source: calinas (in swedish) via apartment therapy 


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Project linked to:

Today's Creative Blog
and

apartment tour

Yesterday I was a Tumblr who Tumbld, but today I am officially a Blogger who Bloggers. Mostly because I can't stand the omission of vowels in words. Srsly.

Blogger, meet my 450-square-foot apartment. It has a few more than four walls, and some of them are not square. What's in a name?

In case you're stat-happy, here are some slightly irrelevant stats: the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that fair market rent in FY2011 for a one-bedroom place in Louisville, Kentucky (where I live) is $585 per month--about what I pay. The highest I saw in the country is San Francisco at $1,465 and the lowest is in my dear state: Lawrence, KY at $383. I would never call $1,465 FAIR, especially because that's 150% of Louisville's rent but my current salary converted to SF dollars would only be 82% more.

Back to my apartment, which was featured as a house call on Apartment Therapy. I write that sentence with seventeen hidden exclamation marks. Srsly.

These photos are are old enough that they don't capture some of the changes I've made (moved photos, killed plants) and projects I've completed since summer (wrapped tin cans in fabric).

But taking all new 360-degree photos would mean I'd have to make the bed and do dishes or something equally awful, so I will slowly Blogger my way through some of the DIY stuff that's worth sharing. Some of it will be recycled from my Tumblr.