New Years Eve Project

Happy New Year Readers!

Original dress

So every year I go out shopping for the perfect NYE dress, and it takes forever and costs me a fortune, not the best way to start off the new year.  The greatest idea ever came to me while shopping at a thrift store in Austin, Buffalo Exchange.  I found a dress for $12, that for some reason was calling to me, "Make me beautiful Jess!" I snatched it up and began sketching some ideas out. 

While at the park with the dogs and Moose, sat with my pencil and Michael Jackson notebook, my favorite notebook that I put all my ideas.  I liked the choker style neck, so that was definitively staying, but the long skirt had to go.  I also wanted to add more flare to it, I usually like simple and use my accessories to jazz it up, but I wanted something else this time.

Sketch of NYE dress

I wanted to cut the back leaving a slit all the way down to the skirt and the front as well. I have also been on a flower kick, and everything with flowers seems to be beautiful to me.  I also did not want just any straight seem skirt so I wanted to have some pickups at the bottom.  I had the idea of lace or tulle on the skirt to add a little something extra, but I wasn't sure.  Later on I went to the fabric store, my favorite store ever JoAnn's.  I found the perfect lace to cover the skirt. I bought felt for my flowers, and black shiny buttons for the flowers and extra just in case I should be inspired to put them somewhere else.

Back of dress with added fabric

I only had a day in a half to produce a dress suitable for NYE in downtown Austin. First thing was to cut the skirt to the length I wanted it, just above my knee.  After I tried it on the skirt fit me kind of tight like a pencil skirt would and I really wanted it to be kind of loose "free flowing" if you will.  That was my first hurdle to get over.  Making the skirt about 6 inches wider was harder then I thought. Using the extra fabric left from shortening the dress, I added it to the skirt. I wasn't too concerned about the seams showing since I was going to add the lace over it. 

Added a slit in the back

After sewing in the extra fabric I made a hem at the bottom. Only about an inch thick.  Now it was time to sew on the lace.  That was also a hard and time consuming part of making this dress.  I had to hand sew it verses using my machine, because the fabric was too delicate. I also wanted the back to have a wow factor so I cut the back all the way down to the skirt.

Felt flowers

Now it was time to add the flowers to the top. I originally planned on cutting a slit in the front too but decided to 86 that idea and leave it.  I made the four flowers out of felt and all different sizes.  This part was the easiest to do.  My dress was finally complete and ready for me to wear!  I wore it with black tights and black ankle boots, it came out just the way I wanted it to.

Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year! Jess out.

NYE Dress

Close up of NYE Dress

An Apron for Leiah

Hola! Blog Followers!

Leiah's original picture

For my bff and cousin Leiah, I really wanted to make her something special, so I looked on her Pinterest account to give me some ideas.  I also recently learned that she likes to cook, even though I have never seen this. ;) On one of her boards she had a picture of an apron that I thought was beautiful and I was on a mission to make it for her! As you can see it is pretty awesome, but fairly simple to make it, at least I thought!

Things you will need:

• material, I chose linen (beige like the picture)
• sewing machine
• scissors, measuring tape, pins, thread (any color, I chose brown)

As you probably can tell without a pattern I kind of just made it up in my head of how I thought I should do this.  Due to the lack of formal instruction I decided to just give you a summery of how I did it.  If you have more questions you can always email me for further instructions.  

Square cut out of fabric

The hardest part I think was measuring.  My cousin Leiah is the tiniest person I know, and seeing as it was a surprise for Christmas I only had her Husband, LT, to help me figure out her measurements.  I took her waist measurements, using her pant size, and her chest measurements using her bra size.  Using those measurements I cut out a square of the fabric.

Cut out base design of apron

Then using the square I cut out the shape of the apron I would be working with. Of course you will need to cut out the same piece for the back as well.  I then began working on the skirt and sewing on the ruffles.  I found an online tutorial of how to sew ruffles without using a ruffler foot tool for your sewing machine.  Start by setting your stitch length to the longest length on your machine.  Increase the tension. This is where it becomes a little 'dependent on your machine'.  After I finished, I began sewing on the ruffles to the "base" cut out of the apron.

Next, It was time to sew the strings that she would use to tie the apron.  I wanted to create that criss-cross effect that the original picture had.  I knew two strings would suffice to keep the apron up, but I felt two wouldn't look right.  I decided to sew on more strings, but only long enough for looks.

After that I sewing the back piece, on the base cut to hide the seams on the back and I was finished. Special thanks to my cousin Kristina for letting me use her apartment and keeping me company while I finished the apron.  Leiah I hope you love it, Merry Christmas!

Thanks again! Jess, out!

Finished Apron