Easy as Pie

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and stayed cool! I know I did! I can't wait to tell you about this weekend's project!

Since I work at a home decor store on the weekends, I find myself being super productive before and after my shifts so I don't feel like all I do is work. So of course, my first order of business (being productive of course) was to do some pinning on Pinterest. I found a dress that seemed easy easy enough to make (since I am now a professional seamstress!) so I thought I would make my first dress without the help of an experienced sewer (mom) by my side.

I found the tutorial here!

ANYONE can make this dress. If I could do it unsupervised then so can you! You can read a more detailed tutorial at A Small Snippet (she even shows how to make a short version for those of you not in to the maxi dress), below is my version.

First, (and probably the most difficult part of the dress) is picking your fabric. I always have a hard time with this. What if I hate the fabric I picked after I see it in dress form? I was with the husband who gave me a 5 minute maximum (what is it about men and a fabric store? I go into sport memorabilia stores without complaint!). I found one fabric I liked right away but decided to look around to make sure there wasn't anything better. After my time was up, I was still holding the first fabric. Even the husband thought it was the best we've seen. He might complain about being in a fabric store, but he at least will tell me what is ugly and what he likes. He and I both agreed the first fabric was the one! See, I told you this was the hardest part!

For the top, you just need a tank top. I knew I was running low on time and husband's patience, so I decided to go with a tank top I already have at home. I was going to do white, but since my fabric had a white background I decided I wanted something darker. I went with the combination you see below. I wasn't sure about the dark blue with the royal blue and white, but I ended up really liking it!

The next thing you need to do before sewing, is cut the bottom off your tank top. I wanted my dress high wasted so I cut off most of the bottom. Put your tank top on and decide where you want the waist of the dress. Then cut from there.

NOW it's time to sew! I got 1.5 yards and wrapped it around myself 1.5 times. I ended up not having to cut any off so I wet right to sewing the skirt. With right sides together I made a basic stitch to sew the skirt together.

With my bobbin replaced with elastic thread and instead of using the machine to wind the bobbin, I did it by hand. This was recommended so the elastic didn't get too tight. So now that my bobbin is the elastic thread and my top thread is regular, it was time to stitch the waist. You want your machine set to the longest stitch and then just sew the waist. It will look like this:

Now you are going to turn your skirt inside out and insert your tank top (it should be right side out) with the shoulders going in first. You want the long seam you made in the first step to match up to the back of the tank top. I may or may not have messed this step up 3 times before getting it right. I kept putting the tank top in either inside out or backwards. My seam ripper and I got lots of bonding time. :) Once you have your tank top in the right position, pin and sew just like you did the waist.

Here is what it should look like:

Now, just hem and you are done! If you have left over fabric, you can make a sash, but I'm more of a belt person so I just put a wide belt with it and Voila!

I hope you have as much success as I did with this dress! I can't wait to see your renditions of such a fun and easy dress. If you struggle, you can ask me questions here or go to A Small Snippet as she has some tips and a more detailed tutorial. HAPPY SEWING Y'ALL!

Today I am linking up with Still Being Molly for YOLO Mondays!

High Five for Friday/Stencil Giveaway

Whew! What a productive AND fun week! I had Monday off, so it's always a good week when it's a short one. Let's get right to it shall we?

1. Saw this beautiful rainbow right outside out house. If you look close enough you can see it is almost a double rainbow!
2. FINALLY broke down and purchased the bird painting I have been wanting from Kirklands since we first moved. It went on sale so I snatched it up!
3. The picture everyone has been waiting for....MY DRESS! I finally have it all finished. You can read about my trials and tribulations here
4. Going out to eat is always a treat especially when you get to see an old friend and her BABY! ( I know I'm getting old when my friends have babies...)
5. Lastly, it has been quite an exciting week for the Olympics! My favorite moment was when the Women's US Gymnastics team won the gold! LOVE!

The winner of the Moroccan Dream Stencil is.....MEGAN! Congrats girl! I can't wait to see pictures! Thanks everyone for entering and making my first giveaway a successful one.

I hope everyone had a fun week and are looking forward to the weekend! I know I am. I need some sleep after staying up until 1am every night this week watching the Olympics!

Link up here!

and here

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Last Chance to Enter!

Today is the last day to enter to win the Cutting Edge Stencil Giveaway! I know many of you are scared to enter because you are intimidated by this project. But I am here to tell you it really isn't that hard! (As long as you don't have 12ft ceilings) That for me, is where it got tricky. Having to extend my ladder as high as it would go just to get my design to the top. 

Good news is the stencil is about 3 feet long and 2ft wide so you can cover a good amount of wall space every time. Just be sure to purchase a foam roller and you will be all set. There are even some easy "how to" videos on their website!

Enough chatting for today....go ENTER!

Leaving you with a cute picture of the kitteh. :)

A Stitch in Time

For as long as I can remember, I was always crafting with my mom.  She deemed me her, "gopher", which to me sounded super important. (Let's remember I was probably 8 years old not really understanding the term). Either way, I loved being her gopher. It meant spending quality time together, but even more importantly bedtimes were non existent! (priorities were a little different then :)). Mom was always making something. Usually I would convince her one of my dolls needed a new dress or even better, I needed a dress to match them! We made costumes for school plays and Halloween. I got to learn how to cut out patterns and pin (not in the pinterest way) while she did the hard stuff and anything that required the use of the machine. This system worked out rather well for us. And then I grew up....:(

This is me modeling my Giselle dress from Enchanted (worn here)

Why the trip down memory lane? When I got married, I decided to register for a sewing machine blissfully hoping I could make clothes just like my mom one day! I figured if I had one in the house, I would eventually have to learn, right?  It has taken me nearly 2 years to bring that thing out of its box, but alas I did and am now going to see if I can create anything half as good as my mom.

I didn't want to waste my time with a silly pretend sewing project that I would just tuck in the corner of my closet somewhere and forget about. I wanted to make something I could be proud of! (Every time I struggled, I kept thinking about that easy little project I could have done instead) Good news: Mom was with me every step of the way. She took me to the fabric store and advised me on how to pick a fabric that both would look good and be easy to work with. You should have seen me in there, you would have thought I was picking the fabric for a dress for the Queen!

Next, I needed to pick the type of dress I was going to make. Many of you probably think dress patterns look something like this:

Believe it or not, they have some pretty cute stuff out there. The Simplicity brand was on sale for $1.99 so I was determined to find something in that brand. Even better, Simplicity has a Project Runway line that looked promising. After much deliberation (similar to that of the fabric), I settled on a cute little retro dress that seemed pretty simple, but more importantly, something I would actually wear.

Turns out, this pattern was a pretty simple and easy to follow (according to my resident expert). I still felt like it was going to be impossible for this to turn out looking like a dress much less fit! After reading some reviews on the pattern we decided to go for the size 10. I measured at a size 14 according to the instructions but reviewers were saying the pattern runs small so go about 2 dress sizes higher than what you normally wear. Once that was out of the way, we were ready to cut and pin! (I got a hang of this pretty quickly considering my extensive background ;) )

Turns out, cutting and pinning is the most grueling part of dressmaking. My mother had me fooled all these years! Pushing down on the pedal and sewing a straight line really isn't very challenging. Granted, I was getting step by step verbal instructions so that made life easy. If I was left alone in a room with just the instructions, I never would have figured out how to get past step 1 which was a dart! (for those who don't sew, darts aren't the easiest or the most fun)

As you can see, Milo was never more than paw length away from me. He had to make sure the sewing machine didn't win over my heart. :)

SUCCESS! I made something that resembles a dress AND it fits! Stay tuned for the finished product pictures! :) I will model the dress in my High 5 for Friday post!

UPDATE: New pics!

Also, don't forget to enter for your chance to win a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils via yesterday's post!

My First GIVEAWAY!

I want to start this post first and foremost with a heart felt thank you to all those who helped me win the Cutting Edge Stencils Facebook fan contest. I started this blog just a mere month ago and have been so excited to see that people are reading it and participating! Now it's MY turn to give back to you!

As some of you might have already seen in my previous post (here and here), I was working on a stencil project in our master bedroom that seemed to take forever to complete, when the company that I purchased my stencil through decided to do a customer photo submission contest via Facebook. I of course hurried to take a picture of my work and enter the contest for my chance to win. Much to my surprise, with the help of YOU, I won 2nd place! What did I win you ask? I got a credit to the Cutting Edge Stencils store.  I decided that since I couldn't have won without your help, why not host my first giveaway? After all, everyone else seems to do it.

So without further ado, below is your chance to enter to win the Moroccan Dream all over stencil. (The same pattern I used on my feature wall)

Photo credit: Cutting Edge Stencils

You get 2 chances to win: follow my blog and/or leave a comment telling me how you plan to use the stencil.  It's that easy! The contest ends on Friday so hurry up and enter!

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Weekend Update

We meet again, Monday. Don't you feel like Monday's come waaay too fast? I shouldn't complain because this weekend was filled with family, food, and fun! Not to mention a little work and productivity as well.  All of that combined makes for a GREAT weekend!

I started my weekend off with a haircut.  I love having short hair but I hate that it needs to be cut every 6 weeks. Oh well....makes for a good hair day!

 

No Friday is complete without our weekly (ok sometimes I have been known to go here a few 3 to 4 times a week! But Friday is mandatory) trip to El Vaquero West (AKA "Our Little Mexican Restaurant"). They have the best white queso and $5 big beers! How big you ask? Is 36oz sufficient? I know....perfection!

Running was another item on my to do list for the weekend. I was scheduled to run 5.5 miles and I DID IT! I haven't run in a few weeks, but I was determined to get my long run in no matter what. I was able to do the run in 52:38 which is about a 9:34 mile. I'm happy with anything under 10 min miles...SUCCESS!

My in laws came up to drop off an old pump organ we bought from an antique store. We all went to dinner (both sets of parents) and had a great time! It was a little taste of our cruise in March! We are so excited to finally have the organ in its permanent home! Doesn't it look great?! Can't beat the deal we got, $150!

Late night Olympic viewing of gymnastics and swimming was the perfect end to a perfect weekend. Can't wait to watch some medal events later today! Let me know how YOUR weekend was and what you did.

Check back tomorrow for my first ever GIVEAWAY! It's my way of saying thank you to all of you who voted and helped me come in second place for the Cutting Edge Stencils contest!

High Five for Friday!....Already?!

Happy Friday y'all! I can't believe it's already Friday! I hope everyone stayed cool and had a good week, and hopefully an even better weekend ahead!

1. FINALLY home from 2 weeks of travel!
2. My neice Hadleigh looking all cute while we had the whole family over for dinner.
3. I found this clock (matches my colors perfectly!) at Kirklands on super sale. It was $40 but I got it for $6!!!
4. I am working from home today AND Monday, so here is a picture of my home office. Makes me happy. :)
5. Last but definitely not least, the opening ceremonies of the summer olympics start tonight!!!!

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