No Pants Summer Has Officialy Begun!

And I nearly forgot about it! Thankfully, Haizle gave me a reminder the day before we started. Otherwise, it would have been pants for a day spent at the park. Instead, I fished this dress out of my closet, gave it a quick hem, and voila! An old dress was given new life :D

I made this dress a few years ago, and always felt it was too long, so it just languished in my closet. I feel like it will end up coming out to play a lot more often now.

I've been busy busy all of May, with 6 day weeks, so I haven't had as much time to make things as I'd like, but I did manage to bang out 3 dresses. I finished 2 more for my etsy shop:

I'm obscenely in love with that crab fabric

And a dress for me!

I used Simplicity 2886 for this dress. This is the third time I've used this pattern, and I gotta say, every time I make this dress, I like it less and less. I changed the neckline to give it a proper scoop, as the pattern is actually a weird almost-scoop-but-almost-v-neckline. It does a weird gape-y thing at the armholes, which would have been a simple fix had I remembered that it does that. Oh well.

I also added a little more flare to the skirt. There's actually nothing wrong with the skirt as it was, I just like really flowy skirts.

All in all, the dress is okay. It's wearable and has pockets, but I'm wishing I had saved this fabric for something else. I had been waiting for the perfect project to use it for, and this just wasn't it. C'est la vie.

maybe I should try to hunt more of this down

Is anyone else out there playing along for NO PANTS SUMMER?

Hooray for free time!

Hello everyone!

I'm on the tail end of a two week break from school, and I've gotta say, as stressed out as I was by the end of the semester, I sure do miss it! BUT, these two weeks have allowed me to be very productive! I have made two dresses, got started on a few knitting projects, and opened up a new etsy shop. That's right! I'm selling dresses now!

So far, there are only three dresses in the shop, but I have three more cut out to be sewn up, as well as a dress for me (selfish sewing rocks).

The two dresses I made over the break (so far anyway) are these pretties:

They're simple sundresses of my own design, that are very much a style that I like to wear myself. In fact, I'll be making myself a couple of these very soon :)

I have a few more ideas that I'm working on right now, so stay tuned for something new within the next few weeks :D

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I have signed up for a couple of classes over the summer (well, they are only in May and June, so I'll still get a bit of a break before the next semester starts), so I'll have a little less free time as of next week. But that's fine by me, as there will still be time to sew! Which is good, as I have four weddings to attend this year, and I need to get started on dresses to wear!

The first wedding is a more laid back backyard party, but I still want to have something pretty to wear. I've narrowed down my choices to five different fabrics from my stash, but I need your help deciding which one to use. So please, dear readers, help me choose which fabric to use. The pieces I've picked  out are:

Red and Black Poppy type fabric

Roses fabric (pardon the blurriness of the pic)

Skulls and Roses fabric

Black, White, and Blue Hibiscus fabric

Lobster fabric (just for fun)

Please let me know what you think in the poll below. 

I can't wait to see what you choose!

Fabric Porn

I may have gone a little overboard while fabric shopping recently....I stopped into a local fabric shop to get interfacing for a school assignment and ended up with this:

There were actually a few more pieces that made it home with me, but as they are things like black denim, and lining, and the like, I figured there was no need to photograph them ;)

I'm hoping to have something to show off for you guys soon! 

I can't decide!

So, we're down to the wire with my summer holiday sewing (we leave in a few short weeks and there's still so much post-vacay house guest cleaning to do!) and I'm currently paralyzed with indecision on something.

I picked up some crepe rayon from fabric.com with the intetnion of making a maxi dress with it.

I figured a maxi dress is super easy to wear and would be great for the crazy heat that will be Vegas in July. I got to cutting and as soon as I cut out the bodice I started re-thinking things. Do I make it a sundress? A hi-low (aka mullet) dress? Stick with the maxi dress?

Help!!!

In the meantime, I'm finishing up a bridesmaid dress for an upcoming wedding, and desperately trying to get pics of all the other pretties I've made in the last few months. I promise to have something to share soon!

No-Sew Mojo

The past week has brought me a serious case of No-Sew Mojo, meaning I've been paralyzed with too many sewing ideas, and unable to start any. So instead, I've been knitting. Then along comes the realization that Hallowe'en is LESS THAN 2 WEEKS AWAY and I don't have a costume! I gotta say, that has driven the No-Sew Mojo away!

Sorry for the crap pic

Can anyone guess what I'm going to be?

What helps you banish your No-Sew Mojo?

WIP Wednesday: August 1, 2012

It's Wednesday! You know that that means....it's time to show off what's in progress!

This week, I'm working on a supercoil yarn, as well as a super secret test knit. Since it's secret, I can't show off a close-up of it, but it did find it's way into this picture:

Can you tell what it is? No? Good. It will be shown off at the appropriate time.

You may be asking yourself why I'm plying the supercoil yarn on a drop spindle while my spinning wheel is sitting right there, all lonely and unused. Well, the answer is simple, the orifice on my wheel is too small for the bulkier parts of this yarn, so I'm plying it up the old fashioned way (read: the way that takes way too long).

What's on the sewing table? Well, I'm working on another dress. I have no real progress pics to post, as for now I only have it cut out, but here's a sneak peak:

I picked up this fabric a while back for a different project, but because I left it for so long, I forgot what I had originally intended it to become. So now it'll be a dress (not exactly as pictured on the pattern, I'm going to make a few changes). This is what I'm working on while I figure out what to make with the possibly granny fabric.

Check out more WIPs with Tami's Amis!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Fashion on the Ration: What to make?

So, while I still haven't had an opportunity to get pics of the dress and top I've made (bad Andi!), I did get all antsy and hit up a fabric sale. I know I've been trying to stick to stash only, but 50%-75% off was too tempting to resist.

So, what did I get you ask? Well, I exercised some self control and only picked up two pieces of fabric.

The first was a total impulse buy. I have no immediate plans for it, but do have an idea of what I'd like to make with it (probably a blouse of some sort). I got it for $3/m!!!! (Originally $10/m)

It would be super cute with some sort of red accent...

And the second is this cotton fabric, which I couldn't decide if it was granny or cute. It certainly was an excellent deal though. $3/m, originally $17/m!

I want to make a dress out of this, but am unsure of which dress to make. I have a couple patterns on hand that this might work for:

What do you think? McCalls M6554 or M6600? Or do you have an alternate suggestion?

While this gets figured out, I'll keep working on a dress that I've already started (teaser to be posted tomorrow)

Fashion on the Ration Stats!!

Coupons Used: 18 - Coupons Remaining: 48

Projects Completed:
Old Timey Tractor Dress - to be posted as soon as I get some pics - 0 coupons
Red Gingham Shirt - to be posted as soon as I get some pics - 0 coupons

Items Purchased:
Black and Grey Striped Sweater - 5 Coupons
6.5 metres of cotton fabric - 13 Coupons

Awesome Score:
Brand new Docs given to me by a friend - 0 Coupons

Old Timey Tractor Fabric

So, I picked up this fabric prior to starting the Fashion on the Ration challenge (which I still haven't finished anything for....Bad Andi!) and have been hemming and hawing over what to make with it.

Well, as of last night, it is destined to become a dress. I need to pick through my fabric stash to see what black fabric I have on hand for some accent bits. I'm hoping to have this dress done soon so I can finally post some progress on the FotR thing.

Have a great week everyone!

Expanding Mr. Social's Fashion Horizons

One of the things I love about sewing for Mr. Social is that I get to have some say in how he dresses (it's like playing dress-up!). As a result, I get to push him out of his comfort zone a little bit. Now, I would never make him something I don't think he'd wear, despite constantly teasing him that I will make this shirt for him and he has to wear it because I made it:

I'd make it in gold as it'd be more flattering to his skin tone

So, when we were discussing his summer wardrobe and his need for new shorts, I asked him what his thoughts were on plaid. At first, he said no way. He figures plaid shorts are for old men or golf courses (or old men on golf courses). Of course, I think plaid shorts are an excellent idea, so I went ahead and picked up some fabric for him in the hopes he'd be agreeable...

Wouldn't you know it, he likes the fabric! So it looks like he'll be getting some plaid shorts in the near future. I just need to dust off my plaid matching skills and hope the shorts work out as planned.

Wish me luck!

More Nerdiness

What has two thumbs, more Dr. Who fabric, and big plans? This girl!

Nerd Squee!!!!

It came! My awesome Dr. Who fabric came!!!! So excited to use it :D