The Bridesmaid Dress

I have been asked to be a bridesmaid in my boyfriends sisters wedding! I am totally excited by this, while at the same time, worried. I guess that just about anywhere a person gets a dress it would need to be ordered and shipped, so it can take some time to receive the dress.

Well, that just isn't good enough for me. No way. I need to at least see the dress more than three days before the wedding.

I feel like all of the sewing I have done up to this point was all in preparation for this dress. Tiffany blue is the color that the bride wishes us to wear. So, I took my hour lunch one day and went to the fabric store and what do ya know, I found the fabric!

The really sad thing about the fabric is that it looks like a different color each time I take a picture of it! The image with the red background and lighter is once I actually took it outside into the sun. This is the best picture that I have so far of the color. 

This is the dress with the sweetheart neckline and halter top. I do no think that I will be using that top..

Here is an example of one variation of waistband. 

Here is one made with tulle.

And there is what the sweetheart looks like exposed. Not sure what direction I will be taking, but at least I know that Ive got what I need, and that no matter what I will be wearing something the right color and that resembles a dress.

hehehehee.

Halloween Dress... 4 Months Later

I havent been doing much sewing lately... But right around halloween I felt that I needed a really cool dress to wear to work. And so I made this!

I love the way that it came out! LOVE LOVE LOVE! I had so many compliments on the way that it came out I wish that I could just wear it a couple times a week. That would be AWESOME! 

The wig was purchased and so was the hat - but the hat was really plain so I added a few feathers!

Western Dress Pattern ReImagined

I guess I forgot to say something about this when I made them, but here are a couple dresses that I made. Both are from the same pattern. They were supposed to be Halloween costumes, pioneer women dresses or whatever. For the first one that I made I used old fabric I had laying around. Trying out the pattern and all that. Why spend money on something I might not even like? Haha. 

 

So for Halloween I thought it wold be cool to use some of the fabric I had just LAYING AROUND AGAIN (funny how this happens) and made a version of the dress that was on the scary side. I have a thing for hats and bought an awesome pirate hat once upon a time and WA LA I was a pirate wench for the day! The spiderweb pattern is actually black lace sewed over a solid red fabric. I then had to sew a kind of trim over the top of that to make sure it wouldn't distort the images while I was wearing the darn thing. I made it all of the way through a day at work and I didn't even bust a seam.
I was afraid that I would, so I brought a whole separate costume (zombie has always been my fallback) I could change into if there was a "wardrobe malfunction." I think that I like the second version of the dress a whole lot better but that might just have something to do with the colors. Hahaha. The other fabric was quite dated.
I recently found a pattern for a wedding dress and I plan to make it out of anything BUT white. Maybe a purple or something like that. Im not sure. Haha. Thought it would be a funny joke for my boyfriend and leave it laying around the house for him to see... but I don't want him getting any CRAZY ideas, like I would WANT to sew my own wedding dress. hahahaha.
Once the weather turns back to the cold time of year Im sure Ill be sewing more. But until then I will just keep painting and playing around with tie dye.

Inktense On Fabric!

I tried a few different ways of using Inktense on fabric. After reading on the internet that this was possible I had to see for myself. It has taken me awhile and there is no excuse for that but my laziness after I get home from work. 

I found a scrap of white cotton fabric and hemmed the edges. Lucky for me I sew and paint so I had scraps in my bin! I drew onto the fabric (dry) with the pencils and used a paint brush to wet the fabric. One of the samples I painted fabric medium over the color while it was still wet. I then let these set for a day and a half. That was the hardest part! WAITING! 

I used my clothes iron to heat set two of the three samples. Next step was the wash. Threw them in with some other dark clothes that needed to be washed. I wasnt entirely sure how this would come out! I can be such a dummy sometimes, and I forgot to take a "before" picture... BUT I do have the other!!!!

Oddity Circle Lap Quilt

I made this piece for my boyfriends sister for Christmas. She loves zebra stripe and teal and thank goodness I just had BOTH laying around the house. The idea was to make a piece of art that she could throw over the back of a chair or onto the WALL if she wished. Or it could be a nice piece to cuddle under for a movie on the couch.

Either way I just love how this turned out! This is, I think, my second quilt EVER!

Front.

 Back

 Detail 

Detail

Fun with Applique! A Scarf with Pockets!

I have been experimenting with applique a bit lately and it is a lot of fun.

I have learned after some research that the corners need to be turned under before sewing them together but you live and learn, right!?

A friend of mine on facebook saw me making this scarf...

So she asked me to make her one. When I inquired as to what colors she would like to have she answered, blue, green and purple. I did not have A SPECK of purple, but I did have these colors... 

And THIS IS WHAT I CAME UP WITH! 

Inside detail 

Outside detail. 

Detail outside detail. 

Detailed outside detail with POCKET!

I love love love the idea of a scarf with pockets and will be doing this over and over. There are a few  reasons that I like this project so well; one is that it doesn't take much time to complete. Two, you can use little scraps of totally cute fabric. And three, it keeps people warm and thinking of you! 

NFL Men's Cooking Fashion

These were the second things I made with the machine.  I just fudged it from an apron I had here at the house.

Modeling his Christmas gift, is my boyfriend.

First Machine Quilt

My wonderful boyfriend gave me my Christmas present early this year. It was a sewing machine! I found fabric I had up in the closet that I had bought when I was hand stitching quilts. Needless to say it wasn't even cut!! Lucky for me I had everything I needed to start and finish so I started right in !!

Piecing. 

Nametag from my Aunt!

I made a body pillow case from the scraps. 

I love the colors on the batik!

Neatly made bed!

The two pieces of fabric that remained.  4x4in

Baby Girl

These were all scraps that I thought worked well together. 

Quilt for Bear

The First Day of the Last Semester

I have been ultra busy lately preparing for my triumphant return to school. As I am slated to graduate in May these are the last classes that I have to take.

WAAAHHHH HOOOOOOOO!!!

Any-who.

In one of my sections today we had to partner up with a classmate and get to know each other. Once five minutes was up we then had to *stand* and introduce the other. We both were just excited to find a job of ANY kind after graduation and so the professor asked us what our dream job would be.

That one didn't take me long. For some reason I popped off with an answer of sewing quilts that had haiku on them. She said she would buy that, and then asked for a show of hands from people who would ALSO purchase them. Most raised their hands. And when I say most, I mean, like, 20 out of 25!

I could sew a quilt of hexagons and then in some of them, or across the top, I could have a poem or something concerning bees or honey. Hmmm.

These are the things that we think about.

I came home from school today to find that my mother had found another three drawer storage system thing for me. YAY! She also found a few patterns and like 10 spools of thread. I am sitting here writing when I should be sewing!!!!