A Staple Dress

Hello once again!

September has been a crazy month. I had 2 weddings and a 10k to run, all on consecutive weekends. Crazy, right? I can't lie- I'm pretty exhausted from all of it. But do I get to rest this week? No, because I have something booked for myself to do after work every night this week. All fun things, don't worry, but man. I am going to sleeeeep this weekend!

But you came for pretty things, right? Hopefully this qualifies.

Yes, I made another dress! This time of the Staple variety. I picked up this Anna Maria Horner voile aaages ago and just now decided what I was going to make. It was a difficult decision. The fabric is just so pretty and I didn't buy enough to make anything terribly complicated. So this was really the perfect solution.

I know everyone and their mom has made a Staple dress and so you have probably already heard how comfortable they are. Well, they are. Simple, comfortable, easy to wear. And the light voile made this a perfect late summer make. Not that I will have to stop wearing it in fall. Because Tucson.

I kind of love dresses with pockets, but I think this fabric is probably too light to make them very useful. If you put anything in them it drags the dress down in a rather unattractive way. So I don't use them much. Next time I will omit them if I'm using a similarly lightweight fabric.

I'm afraid I haven't finished much else this month, but next time I'll show you what I'm actually working on instead of waiting til the end. I'm not great at remembering to take progress shots, but I will try!

Happy first day of fall!!

Adelaide Dress

I've been working on my clothes making skills lately. It is long overdue!

Have you heard of Seamwork? It's a sewing e-magazine put out by the people behind Colette patterns. Every month there is a new issue with a bunch of articles from sewing techniques to fashion history to sewing resources online or in a particular city. That part of the magazine is free, but if you want all the patterns, it's $6/month. You can also buy each pattern on it's own for $7.

Anyway, that's where this pattern came from. I like button down dresses a lot and I thought this one would be a good place to start.

The only alterations I made to the pattern was to grade down a size on top, which is something I have to do fairly often. Three cheers for pear shapes! There is a little bagginess along the neckline still, though, so I might take a bit out next time and see if that fixes it. Still, I love how it turned out! I had to wait for my chartreuse snaps to come in (I got them from Cowgirl Snaps on Etsy), but it was so worth it to get something fun instead of just the boring white they sell at Joann...

Bit of an awkward pose. I was trying to listen for the sound of the camera. I can't find my remote so I've been having to use the self timer... :( Not nearly as convenient. Anyway, as you can see the back fits really quite well! The fabric is a chambray I picked up at Imagine Gnats. It wrinkles a bit, but that's expected. I still really like the way this fabric looks and feels.

Close up of the snaps! I picked up a pair of snap/eyelet pliers at an estate sale for like $3- score! I hadn't really used it until now. But it works! It's a little annoying to get all the pieces lined up in the right spot on the fabric, but by the end I was starting to get the hang of it. In the end I only ruined one snap! And it was a backing piece, not a pretty front piece, so it was fine. I would definitely use them again :)

I'm pretty proud of this dress. It fits well and I took my time and followed the directions, no shortcuts. It's also the first dress I used my new serger on! Did I mention I bought a serger? Well, I did. It's very exciting. I'll have to take some pictures for you ;)

The Dress and Starting Again

Here I am, over 6 weeks later making good on my promise to talk about the dress. I've spent the last weeks thinking about a lot of things craft related and who I am as a blogger, as a maker, as a person. I didn't intend to take time away from the blog, but I think it was good for me because it gave me a bit of perspective. I started this blog as a Quilter. I wanted to make quilts and read about quilts and quilting and fabric all the time. But more and more I found myself straying into other crafts. I love yarn, for example. I've been crocheting longer than quilting and now I've taken to knitting as well to the point that I think about yarn more than I think about quilting. I've also been experimenting with sewing clothes more and looking at other things I want to make or do as well. I'd love to figure out how to keep plants alive in a real garden, for instance. Or to dye yarn. The more I started learning new things, the less I felt like I could share them here. I felt like anything that was not to do with quilting had no place here. Sure, I mentioned my other projects once in a while, but quilting was supposed to be the Main Event. When that stopped being the case, the blogging dropped off.

But lately I've been thinking about how silly that is. I started this blog because I wanted to reach out and find other crazy people like me who think that spending 5, 10, 40 or even more hours on making something we could easily go buy in a store is worthwhile and even fun. Most of us crafty people don't just stick to one craft, after all. So why shouldn't my blog be about whatever I'm pursuing at the moment? So now I feel ready to return with less expectations and pressure on myself, with more of an attitude toward exploration and sharing those explorations with you.

So, in the spirit of all that, I'm going to talk about making my own wedding dress.

This is my family. In case you're wondering, the older gentleman is not my grandfather, he is my father.

First, a note about wedding dresses. I don't understand wanting to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a dress you're only going to wear once. I also don't understand the appeal of white dresses (so hard to keep clean!) and dislike the symbolism that has come to be associated with them, so I pretty much rejected the traditional expensive white wedding dress from the beginning. From the start I knew it would be hard to find a purple wedding dress. They just aren't a thing. So I figured I would have to make it myself if I didn't want to pay a huge amount of money for someone else to make me a custom dress or if I didn't want to choose from the cocktail dresses and prom dresses available in department stores. And that was totally fine with me- it would be cheaper this way, anyway and allow me total control of the dress.

In the spirit of that, my dress cost less than $100 to make. Really, including the price of the pattern, the thread that I didn't have on hand, and the sparkly belt I bought on Etsy, it was about $70.

And Mario's family.

The pattern is the Flora Dress. I only made a couple of alterations to it. I had to do a small bust adjustment, which went just fine, though I probably could have taken out another quarter inch or so. And I had to take a wedge out of the back on either side of the zipper so the straps wouldn't slide down my shoulders. Other than that, the pattern sewed up easily and more quickly than I expected. The dress was one of the first things I crossed off my list!

The fabric is a polyester satin with a crochet lace overlay. I picked both up at a local fabric shop for around $3/yard. They aren't super luxurious, but I love the way they look and I love the way the dress turned out. It has a great weight and swish to it that I really loved.

Originally I had this notion that I would construct this elaborate dress with layers and layers of chiffon cascading all around me (likely this came from too many hours browsing Pinterest for the perfect dress- it's dangerous!). But then I thought about what a headache that would be and how terrified I would be all night about getting it dirty or catching the floaty chiffon on a cactus or something and I threw that idea right out the window. This was a much more sensible dress and really, it's much more my style.

So, there you have it. A simple, homemade wedding dress for a simple, homemade wedding. I'm really excited to share all the other things I've been up to these past two months! It feels good to get back in this space.

The Wedding

Guys! It's over! It's finally over!

I know that may not sound like the nicest reaction to having gotten married, but that's how I feel! Don't get me wrong, the wedding was lovely and fun and everything I wanted it to be. But I am so happy to be back to my regular life that does not involve guests lists, catering appointments, or agonizing over whether or not we bought enough booze to keep my thirsty friends and family happy (we did).

So how about some pictures?? These were all taken by my lovely mother. We haven't gotten the photos back from the photographer yet.

This was the ceremony. In my backyard. Most of the decorations are homemade. Remember I showed you a picture of all those paper flowers I made? Here they are, hanging in all their glory! It was a lovely, short ceremony. Maybe 5 minutes total. That was exactly what we wanted. Short and sweet and to the point :)

Yes, my dress is purple and yes I made it. I'll do a whole post about the dress later, I promise!

Just after the ceremony picture :) We smiled a lot that day!

My lovely bridesmaids/sisters. On the left is my sister and on the right is Mario's. Love them!

Here we are with Mario's parents :)

And the whole wedding party. Yes, I am short. 

 See that crown of flowers on my head? Mario's youngest sister (not pictures) made it for me. Those flower are made of clay and attached to a bark covered wire crown. Isn't it lovely? She's so talented!

I'll leave you with this one, which pretty much sums up the day. In spite of all the stress, everything went perfectly and everyone had a great time. I'm so happy I've found such a wonderful partner and have such wonderful friends and family. I feel so lucky :)

A Chiffon Staple Dress

For my next adventure in clothes making I give you a chiffon Staple Dress!

Yes, my head is cut off. Yes, this is the same photo shoot as the last one. My camera is a little too heavy for the little tripod I have and it was getting tired...

There we go. I made this out of a polyester chiffon I got at a local discount fabric store. It went surprisingly well for my first experience with chiffon! I did a straight size small and opted for the drop hem version. I had a little bit of trouble on the sleeves... my machine decided to try to eat one of them while I was hemming :( So I rolled them again and added extra stitching over the slightly mangled area. Then I added a line of shirring to hide the mangled-ness. Because of course that couldn't happen down near the armpit. Had to be where everyone would seeee. But I kind of like how they look all scrunched up! I might do this again in the future. In case you haven't heard, this was a lovely, easy pattern to follow. I made it up in an afternoon, mangled sleeve rescue and all. Definitely recommend for beginners!

I wasn't sure I would like this pattern on me, but I was pleasantly surprised! It's comfy and flattering and light, which is wonderful. I wish it wasn't almost winter so I could make all the summer dresses... Although, I could just wear leggings under EVERYTHING. Hmmm.

Yes, this part of the shoot is lacking in photos. Because the dogs were getting sick of me and doing this:

I know you can't see my face, but trust me. It was not amused. 

OH. One last thing. In case you don't follow me on Instagram, I kinda got engaged this weekend! Well, officially engaged. Mario and I have really been planning our wedding for quite a long time but we wanted to do things like finish school and buy a house before bothering with a wedding. But we've done that and now we're bothering! Look how sparkly! 

Mario does have the best taste :) 

More clothes! Sorbetto and Sew Simple Leggings

I know, I expected this post to come sooner, too. My only excuse is that I ran out of time to have a photo shoot over the weekend! And by ran out of time... I mean totally forgot I needed to do that until the sun was gone. Inside pictures at night don't look good. Trust me.

But anyway... Lately I have decided I want to make more clothes for myself. It's fun and challenging and results in some awesome stuff for me to wear. But where to begin? I have sewn a few clothing items in the past, but I am definitely still a beginner. So I started with some beginner things: Leggings and the Sorbetto top.

Now, I don't wear these together out in the world. I prefer to wear leggings with long tunics or dresses in the winter. But for the sake of ease in my photo shoot, I am wearing them together!

Okay. You see how my dog is smelling me? Yeah, that was going on pretty much the entire time. But I couldn't lock them inside because they'd whine and wake up my boyfriend, who works nights so he sleeps really late. Dilemma! SO I guess you guys get some ridiculous pictures of me modeling with my dogs being like "Mom! What are you doing? What's on your legs? What making that beeping sound (the camera)?" WEEE!

Charlie found the leggings fascinating. I found them to be incredibly easy to sew. The ones I'm wearing here were my first pair. I read somewhere that lowering the rise would probably be a good idea if I don't like leggings to go all the way up to my natural waist (which I don't) so I took off 3 inches right from the start. That's the only alteration I made to this pair and they fit great! They ended up just slightly long (because I'm short) so in the next 2 pairs I made (yes, I made 3), I took out an inch from the bottom. I don't have any pictures of those because they're in the dirty laundry basket ;)

This is my "Resigned to my Fate" face

The top is the second Sorbetto I've made. The first one I found to be a little too short, so I added an inch in length. I also decided not to do the pleat all the way down the front. I saw a few like this around the internet and really liked it, so I decided to copy the inverted pleat look. I think this would be great lengthened into a dress with a belt around the waist! Maybe someday I'll do that.

Look! It's my butt! And you can see Charlie's pretty eyes. Aren't they pretty? Ahem. Right. I really like this version of the Sobetto and am planning on making another when I find some suitable fabric. This floral fabric is rayon and it's super soft and light and wonderful while still being opaque enough that I don't have to wear an undershirt. A really good summer shirt! I know it's October now... But it's still getting up to the 90s here. So I will still get some wear out of it.

Me having a very stern talk with Charlie while scratching his head. I don't think he got it...

As I said, I made 3 pairs of these leggings! I definitely recommend the pattern. I know there are awesome tutorials online on how to measure yourself and make a custom leggings pattern... but I'm lazy. And this was $3. So worth it. And they're so quick to make! These take less than 2 hours a piece from start to finish. Awesome! I want to make like 5 more!

What have you been working on? I will have more clothes to share next week! Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

ALSO! Just a note- I have had a couple of requests for a tutorial or at least cutting directions for my Wedding/Star in star quilt. I am at least going to get the cutting directions written up for you guys and posted next week :)

The Bridesmaid Dresses

At long last! Pictures!

So I made some bridesmaid dresses for my best friend's wedding. They were super simple infinity dresses. Took about 2 hours each to make. But I love how they turned out! We all got so many compliments. If you would like to make one of your own, I used this tutorial.

Here we are with the lovely bride. This was a very handmade wedding. Bride's dress? Handmade by the bride. Her beautiful crown of flowers? Handmade by her sister (standing to the Bride's right if you couldn't tell from their amazing resemblance!). There were handmade decorations, our bouquets were also put together by her sister. It was pretty damn fantastic.

We all styled our dresses differently, which was really fun. They were light and comfy, too. The fabric I used was a rayon/lycra blend I bought at fabric.com. Perfect for an outdoor, late summer wedding. I think my favorite compliment of the day was from someone who didn't know all our dresses were handmade who said how amazing it was to have dresses that looked awesome that we will actually wear again. So true! These can be dressed up or dressed down pretty easily- I hope the other bridesmaids wear theirs again!

Here's the whole bridal party. Aren't we cute?? It was a very special wedding. I've known the bride and groom separately for years and it was me who introduced them! Isn't that awesome? Plus, Sofia (the bride) is also my future sister in law! I know, my life is like an awesome fairytale. I am going to have a best friend/sister in law. And I'm super excited about it!

Next week I'll have more clothes to share, so stay tuned! I wanted to share more this week, but it was cloudy every single day, so no good pictures were taken. Next week I am counting on the desert to produce some sunshine!

What have you all been working in?

Around the World Blog Hop

So. The lovely and talented Audrey of Hot Pink Quilts tagged me to join this crazy chain of bloggers answering questions about themselves. I'm really not sure where this started, but it's so fun to see how many people are participating! Seriously, just google Around the World Blog Hop and maybe add quilting and tons of results will pop up! Isn't it amazing just how many of us are tied together in this online quilting and sewing community? I think so! So without further ado...

1.      What am I working on?

The Catvent Quilt Along top from last Christmas... Yeah. It's still just a top.

Mario's quilt also really needs quilting. I still don't even have a backing for it. Definitely need to finish this by Christmas.

Nothing major right now. I have 2 quilt tops I need to finish and turn into quilts. Aiming for the end of the year on those. I've also been working on making more clothes for myself, so expect to see more posts about that in the future. Really, right now I'm coming down from a month of intense, deadline-driven sewing, so I'm taking it a little easy. Just sewing what I want to sew, catching up on bee blocks, and planning for the future. So far, I am enjoying September very much!

Some leggings I finished this week.

2.      How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Hmmm. That's a tough one. I have a tendency to do what I want and not care about things like what the pattern tells me to do or worrying about trendy color combos. I try to just make what makes me happy (or what will make the intended recipient happy!) and not worry about anything else. I don't know if that really makes what I do different, but it definitely makes me happy!

Swoon blocks... still waiting to be sewn together...

Mother Day Dumpling bags

3.      Why do I write/create what I do?

I create to fill a need. I don't do well with idleness and I find I am the calmest and most satisfied with my life when I am actively working on creating something. What I create can vary widely- I love crafts of all kinds, but I also love writing. Little known fact about me- I studied English and Creative Writing in my undergrad career with an emphasis in poetry. And those poetry workshops were the best classes I took in college. I've loved writing since I was really young. I still have the first book I ever wrote, laminated and spiral bound for the Young Authors program in Washington. Lately my writing hasn't been so regular, but I'm working on that!

So I guess long story short, I create because I love it, because I need to, because it's fun and fulfilling in a way that nothing else is. 

A wonky wedding quilt I made for a friend

 4.      How does my writing/creating process work?

I think this one is even harder because it really isn't a standard thing. Sometimes I have an idea that I need to make or write RIGHT NOW or the WORLD WILL END. And I get started as soon as I possibly can, taking breaks only for my day job and sleep. But sometimes I have no idea what I want to do, so I just wander around my sewing room or doodle in my journal until I figure something out. Sometimes I work on something a little at a time, sometimes I focus on one thing to completion, sometimes I jump around from project to project. I guess my creative process is just really flexible and sometimes unpredictable. Which suits me just fine.

So now it's my turn. I suppose I will get the other ladies of the Fierce Quilters Bee in on this action- Kitty, Allison, and Sarah. TELL ME STUFF, GUYS. :D

Busy, busy, busy!

Just wanted to drop in and say hi!

I've been spending most of my free time frantically sewing things for the upcoming wedding. I haven't had much time to think about other fun things like blogging or my Etsy store or, you know, anything! I promise a full reveal post for the wedding quilt and the bridesmaid dresses, but here are some previews from Instagram:

Please excuse the messy surroundings. We have not yet decided on a home for our records... Also, this one is a little big on top because it is for one of the *ahem* bustier bridesmaids. But I was so excited to finish it that I had to get a picture!

Infinity dresses are the best! We're going to look so fierce! (And don't worry, I won't be wearing a bra that shows to the actual event!)

Here is the center of the quilt. It is actually almost done now! I finished the top last weekend and started quilting this week. I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend and then figure out something awesome for a label :D

How has August been for the rest of you? My energy is flagging for sure. Looking forward to September!

Making Clothes

Lately I've been on a bit of a clothes making kick. I made an infinity/convertible dress, which I have no pictures of except this one from Instagram:

I know. Super glamorous bathroom shot. I promise I'll get better pictures soon! It was really simple to make. Only took me 2 hours start to finish (I didn't hem anything though). I followed this tutorial minus the tube top part. I think I have enough fabric left to add one, though, so I might be doing that. It's such a fun dress, though! I might be making 3 more as bridesmaids dresses for my friend's upcoming wedding :)

I also made myself a Sorbetto tank top.

I'm not the biggest fan of this fabric. In this picture it looks like little white dots, which would be wonderful, but they're actually white dots with green dots inside. It's okay, but not great. But I got it at Joann for like $2/yard, so I thought it would be good for my first attempt at this pattern! So think of it as kind of a muslin ;) It was a nice, easy pattern to follow. And it was free, so that's a huge plus! I think the shape is great for a basic tank and once I make a few little changes (like better fabric!), it could easily become a summer staple.

You can see the little pleat in front better here. On my next version, I am going to make it longer for sure. I really don't like shirts that show my tummy when I lift my arms and this one will definitely do that. I will also move the darts slightly lower. I feel like they hit me a little too high. I already made the alterations on the paper pattern. Now it's just a matter of sewing up version 2!

I really want to start making more of my own clothes. They're so practical and there's such a sense of accomplishment when you finish a wearable, well fitting garment. So satisfying! So look out for more posts about clothes here ;)

Did you finish anything this week?

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!