Gross!!

Clothes are everywhere/handyman is coming tomorrow/can’t walk to my sewing machine, so a new post will be headed your way then!!

Displaced coats!!

Dealing with the loss of my leather jacket I got in Florence when I was in college thanks to some mildew attacking.

Oy!

Happy Thursday!!

“Marisa – this dress  comes to you via my grandmother who had this in her collection of  ‘pieces worn to family weddings’ part of her closet.  Not sure who’s wedding this was worn to, but it was worn somewhere.  Since it’s taking up space in her closet and she was sorting through things to get rid of, I asked if I could send it your way and she said  that she hopes you make something wonderful out of it!  Have fun!!  Lots of love, Stacey & Nana”

Week 9: Stacey - Before

I’m feeling pressured to make something that stands up to Nana’s liking so fingers crossed it works out

Drapey Fabric Party!!!

Let’s work!!

I decided to make this a top, so I began with removing the sleeves from this dress.

Sleeve Seam Ripping!

I grabbed seam rippers and took each sleeve off completely.

Sleeves Off!!

I tackled the drapey parts next.  There was drapey fabric connected to the front and the back of the piece and I first removed the seams on the sides of the dress that kept them together.

More seam ripping!

Once the seam was removed, the front and back drapey pieces were now separate.  I began to trim off the area on the shoulders that kept the back piece attached because I’m taking this completely off.

Trim, trim, trim

With the back drapey material removed, I went to the length next and trimmed half of it off.  Wanting to make this a top/shell, I trimmed the piece about two inches south of my waist, saving a bit of space to be hemmed.

Shirt time!

After I trimmed the length, I pinned down the raw edges at the bottom of the piece as well as around the arms and stitched them in place.

Stitching complete!

Now the front of the piece still had the drapey fabric hanging on each side, so after I put on my new piece, I took each end and tied them together in the back, making a knot.

Week 9: Stacey - After

A shot from behind…

Knotted from behind!

Such an easy way to make a dress like this work – you don’t have to get rid of all that extra fabric, just reposition it!

I caught up with my gal SZ over a spread of a chopped salad and the house red…lovely way to end the holiday weekend!

Hello amaze sequin applique!!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!!

Stacey and Nana – thank you both oh, so much for sharing this piece with me.  I felt special and chic getting to wear this in my own way.  xo

Wallet & cookies

Budding entrepreneurs, selling very crafty wallets and delish snacks on the sidewalk = perfect way to end a day of running around.  I’m going to have to check back with my new amigas next weekend.  I snagged a wallet for myself but may have to snag another to giveaway here!!

Today’s creation comes from my gal Val (hey, that rhymes!) who decided to make over two separate pieces and wear them together.  (Love that pairing!!)  This is what she wrote…

“I have been reading your blog for a while now, and I was particularly inspired a while back when you dyed a lacy shirt.  I decided to try it out myself with an old coffee stained vintage shirt that I found for fifty cents at an antique store. 

Val's Lace Shirt - Before

I also had an XXL large dress that I bought for a Halloween costume a while back, and I decided that these two should come together!

Val's Purple Dress - Before

Time to mesh together these two puppies!
I initially had it in mind to just sew the top lacy part of the shirt into the (huge!) neck of the dress and just take it in a couple inches. My seamstress skills are still developing, and I just couldn’t get it to look quite right as a dress, so I chopped, took it in a bit more, and made it into a shirt!  I decided to just leave the edges raw at the bottom because it was a jersey fabric and didn’t seem like it would fray. 

Lace collar!!

To finish off, I took the large amount of fabric I had leftover over from the dress and strategically chopped it to make some “yarn”…

Ball o'cotton "yarn"

…which is what I used to crochet the flower embellishments on the bodice area.

Val - After

It took me the better part of a morning and afternoon to get all this done, and I could definitely stand to brush up on my sewing, but I am pretty happy with the result.

Thanks for inspiring me to take the plunge!”

I’m glad you took the plunge Val – so happy I was able to assist with the little arm floaties

Wooly Mammoth - Before

It was super cute to begin with – lovely cable knit, thick wool piece – but it was just not making waves in my closet.  It was making waves in my donation bag until I saw this…

Berroco's Gold Foiled Yarn

I was completely inspired by this gold foiled yarn that I saw while scoping out Berroco’s site.  This struck me as awesome, and when I was gathering road trip warmness from my donation bag, this sweater screamed ‘try this out’, so I did!

Using Tulip’s Fashion Glitter Shimmer Fabric Paint and my little foam pal, I was REH, TA, GO.

Paint & Brush time!

I decided to focus on the thick cable knit strips (the ones right on top of the word ‘time’ in the photo above) to paint on top of.  Two on the front, two on the back and two on each arm.

I began with that foam brush and then tossed it and used my finger instead.  Nothing like finger painting on wool!!

Finger paintin'

After working on the front of the sweater, giving it some time to dry, and then finishing up the back, I had a button down sweater with some hints of golden shine!!

Wooly Mammoth - After

After seeing how this came out, I’m thinking that I want to add more gold paint, to make it even more apparent!!

View from behind...

The subtle hints shined in the sun and it gave the sweater just a little bit of sass.

Shimmer ECU!

I wore this piece my last day in the south when it finally hit 30 degrees.  I saw my breath, friends.  I saw my breath!!

Sibling love!

Road trip is finished and cold weather gear has been unpacked from my large suitcase.  I’m hoping LA gives me a few days here and there where I can rewear some of these warm goodies.

Happy weekend friends!!

V Day Work in Progress!

I was completely inspired by Zooey Deschanel’s AMAZE Rachel Antonoff dress she wore hosting SNL this weekend and thought to myself, ‘Self, get out your fabric paints, it’s time to make a little copycat version using an old Banana Republic sweater hanging in your closet.”  (OK, so that was a bit longer than the actual conversation I had in my head which was, “Self, let’s do this!”

Zooey rocking her monologue in Rachel Antonoff!

Using an old BR sweater…

Old Banana Republic sweater

…I’m getting my craft on!!

I took some thicker notebook paper from a wire ringed journal and folded it a few times and cut heart shapes out!

Template Cutting

With my squares of cut out hearts, I placed them all over my sweater.  I’m using these as my templates to fill in with fabric paint!!!

Template covered sweater!

To ensure these puppies don’t go anywhere, I went to town with the tape.  No, scratch that.  I went to city with the tape.

Tape Down!

When everything was taped down in place, I went to Tulip Soft Velveteen Fabric Paint in white, a foam paint brush and filled in all the lil’ hearts.

Paint time!

Letting the piece dry for a few hours, I started the hike up tape removal mountain.

Removin'

It was fun peeling everything off and seeing cute little hearts left on the sweater!

Hearts!

There was a small spot where some paint went awry (aka, I got a little paint brush crazy) so to fix this small mistake, I used Tulip Glow paint and covered it up.

Small snafu...

Painted a small little heart free hand, and we were back on track!

Snafu handled!

My finished Valentine’s Day ensemble…

V-Day Sweater - After

I was totally thrilled with how it came out and felt like Zooey’s heart-shaped twin.

Justin Bieber Heart <3

PS, I will still rock this past Valentine’s Day.  I’m gonna be Queen of Hearts in March and in April too.

Mwah!

And to finish today’s post, in NDAD tradition, my favorite V Day related clip straight from 30 Rock.

Happy Valentime’s Day friends