I Live!

Hello everyone! I'm alive. In case you missed me, I've been absent for a few days as my son has been quite sick all week which has resulted in sleepless nights and unproductive days. It was just a stomach bug but it hit him pretty hard. He's on the mend now and should be back at school tomorrow, which means I can go back to actually getting things done during the day. I missed my classes on Monday and Tuesday and haven't been able to get much work done on any of my assignments so I'm going to be very busy trying to catch up over the next week.

I finally today got around to taking photos of the skirt I re-did. I originally blogged about it back in July when I bought a pretty table cloth from an op-shop and made it into a skirt. Here's the link to that blog entry if you missed it. Anyway, I've only worn it once or twice because I couldn't get the waistband right and it looked quite rough and unfinished, so I decided I would fix it. I shortened it a bit, took it in as it was quite large, added a waistband made of a different fabric and installed a zip. Its still slightly large on me but its MUCH more wearable now than it was before. I forgot to take pictures of it hanging up by itself this morning, and by the time I got home tonight I was too tired to bother, but hopefully you get a good idea of how it looks with pictures of it on me.

Project Makeover Fugly Dress!

This morning I woke up with a clear sense of purpose! Well no, I woke up grumpy and groggy like every morning. But once I was properly awake, I had a clear sense of purpose!

A dress arrived the other day which I had purchased on Ebay for super cheaps. It looked a bit nanna-ish in the picture but I figured it was only a few dollars and I could probably do something with it. When it arrived, it wasn't quite was I was expecting! It was really a sack with buttons on the front. Everything about it was just so wrong. It was too big, the "waist" was super low, the skirt was too long. The whole thing was about as unflattering as a dress gets.

So I had a think about what I could do with it, and decided to spend today trying to actually do it. I'm pretty sure I've said before how inexperienced I am with sewing, so I'm learning every time I sit down at my machine. But I'm actually really enjoying it and it gives me a great sense of accomplishment once I actually finish something. There is definitely room for improvement with this dress. The bust area is still a little loose, some fabric in the front folded over while I was sewing and I didn't realise so I went straight over it, so I probably need to do that part again, and I'm not completely happy with the gathering at the sides but I was sick of fiddling with it tonight so its staying that way for now. However, as I said, I'm still very new to this so I'm still happy just to end up with something like what I was aiming for!

Here's the dress:

Before and After

And here it is as part of a complete breakfast... um, outfit!

Please excuse the bra straps, I don't even own a strapless bra! The shame!

Movies and Shopping and Sewing, Oh My!

Today was my son's day off school for his birthday, which was yesterday. We went out to one of his favourite restaurants for breakfast, where we stuffed ourselves with bacon, eggs, danish, fruit, yoghurt, and other breakfasty treats. After that we went shopping to kill time before a movie. My son had some birthday money and he spent a little of it on megablock and lego, and I bought him a Playdough set that comes with little molds of some of the Transformers, which I thought was super cool. I also found a little monster plush toy that had to come home with me. He was simply too cute!
We then watched Despicable Me 2 at the cinema, which was great. My son's aunt was with us with her two year old daughter and even she was transfixed through the whole movie. I had actually already seen it last week when I went to the movies with my friend and his kids, but it was still extremely enjoyable, which says a lot for it I think as I'm really not a huge fan of going to the movies.

Awful photo booth pictures, awesome day :)

After finally getting home, I decided I really needed to get a start on making myself a skirt. I bought myself all the materials I needed including a sewing machine, but have been putting it off for a week or so. So with the aid of this tutorial and this Youtube video I set about drawing up a pattern and cutting and sewing fabric and all that jazz. While cutting out the fabric, I realised I'd made a mistake when measuring, as I totally forgot to allow for a seam at the waist, but by the time I realised there didn't seem to be much I could do about it so I just kept going with it in hopes it would all work out. The good news is I made a pretty nice skirt, and this is my first attempt at doing anything like this really. The skirt I fashioned from a table cloth already had the pattern, all I really had to do was the waist, so I'm pretty proud of myself for doing as good a job as I did. The bad news is that because I forgot to account for the seam when measuring, I ended up making the skirt a little too small for me. But its not the end of the world, because I am working on losing the weight I've gained since I moved, so hopefully as I start slimming down, the skirt will become wearable.

I am a little disappointed, because I really love the fabric and was looking forward to having something I could wear now, but I'm pleased I managed to get through it and ended up with a decent looking skirt without breaking a needle or injuring myself with my sewing machine!

My skirt!

Shopping Part 2 - The Thrift Edition

So I mentioned yesterday that my friend and I hit a few op shops (thrift, charity, what have you). My purchases have now all been washed and dried, and photographed for your viewing pleasure! So without further ado:

Purchases 1 & 2: I am a cardigan addict and never leave the house without some sort of cardigan/bolero/shrug, no matter how hot the weather. Most of mine have long sleeves so I was pretty happy to find these short sleeved ones, which will be a little more comfortable to wear in the constant heat where I live. I've grouped these two together because they're actually the same brand and style, just in different colours. The brand is called Master & Margarita, which I've never heard of before, but they feel like good quality and both are in really good condition. The black one cost me $5 and the mustardy yellow one was $3.

Purchase 3: Another cute little bolero I found was this this black one. It has a lacy trim and ties up in the front, so its a little more delicate and feminine than the other two I bought. Again this one is very light and feels like it will be comfortable in the hot weather. The brand is Jacqui E and the cost was $3.

Purchase 4: This dress is definitely one of my favourite buys. Its a brown floaty layered dress by Jacqui E. It fits really nicely, except that the shoulder straps have been stretched out, but I can easily take them in. I love the light, flowy fabric and cinched waist. I don't know how much this would have cost new, but Jacqui E isn't cheap, so I was thrilled when I saw the price tag on this one was only one dollar! That's right, $1. Simply because the straps are all stretched out so it needs a little sewing. Awesome score, I think!

Purchase 5: I love this top. Its in perfect condition and is so pretty and feminine. I've been on this kick of wanting everything to be delicate and floaty. Maybe I just want fabric that flies in the wind when I go on bike rides lol. In any case, this is another light, flowy item that fits the bill. I love the lace and the little buttons. I love dainty little buttons, they're a weakness of mine. The brand is Target and I got the blouse for $5.

Purchase 6: A tablecloth. Stay with me. I've been looking at online tutorials on how to make circle skirts, and  found quite a few which make them from old sheets, tablecloths or whatever else you may have available to re-purpose. With this in mind I kept my eye out for such things while shopping, and saw this gorgeous tablecloth. Its already circular, so that saved me some time in cutting it to the right shape, and it had this gorgeous little detailing on the edge that I thought was perfect.
I'm not much of a seamstress, my sewing skills are pretty much limited to fixing the occasional fallen hem and such, so I was pretty nervous (but super enthusiastic!) to start this project. I stayed up much of last night finishing it and I think I did a decent job for my first attempt. There were a few problems, the first of which was that the waist hem (where I cut) was fraying more than I had hoped. I'm going to get some ribbon or something to trim the waistband so prevent further fraying. Secondly, I finished sewing in the waistband, tried the skirt on and it was too long! So I'm going to need to unpick all the stitching in the waistband and sew it down lower to shorten the skirt. This will actually work out well because then there will be more fabric to gather around the waist and I think that will look nicer. Its just so much work! I should probably mention I don't have a sewing machine so all my sewing is done by hand. CHORE!
Anyway, I'm still pretty proud of myself for doing it, and I'll be prouder still when I shorten it and actually have a wearable skirt!