Dress to Skirt Refashion: a tutorial

Okay, this is easy peasy.  Seriously, took me maybe 15 minutes to do and I now have a comfortable, roomy skirt from a dress I never wore.  Here's what I did.....

First, I cut the top of the dress off from the bottom.  This was pretty easy to do given the design of the dress I used and the fact that I wanted to keep the pleats.  Depending on your dress though, you may need to measure to get the right length.  Just don't forget a seam allowance!

Next, I found something to use as the waistband.  I had this bit of jersey leftover from when I made this shirt and thought it would make the perfect yoga-styled waistband.

So, I just pinned the waistband onto my skirt, matching the right side of my skirt to the wrong side of my waistband.  I didn't need to do anything to my waistband or the skirt but if your sizes are a little big, you might need to trim your waistband a bit and maybe gather or ruffle your skirt.

Then, I just sewed them together using a basic straight stitch.

And, that was all there was to it!  Now I have a new, super-comfy, casual skirt for the hot summer that is certainly coming.  Mine ended up quite loose on the top, but I like it.  Not only does it give me room to grow but it also allows for maximum comfort which is needed in the hot and humid summers here in North Carolina.

Long Shirt Refashion: a tutorial

Do you ever have shirts that are just a little too long or a little too short for your taste?  I know that happens to me often; especially after you wash the shirts!
Well, I happened to have two too-long shirts that I hardly ever, okay maybe never, wore.  The other day while trying to figure out what to wear, I decided to fix them up a bit.  Here's how I did it....

First, cut the too-long part off the bottom of both shirts.  Having two shirts in nice because you don't have to do any hemming.  You can just use the existing hem from the shirt.

  

Next, take the bottom of the looser, (dark grey) shirt and add a little ruffle to the top of it.  This was the easiest solution to me, since it was looser than the white shirt.
To add the ruffle, just sew a basting stitch without stitching back and forth at either end.  Then you just pull the bottom thread until you reach the desired ruffliness (is that a word?).  I had to adjust mine a bit to get it to fit just right.

After making the ruffle the right size, just pin the new bottom to the top, right sides together.  (Make sure the right sides are together...I accidentally messed that part up the first time and had to re-do it.)

Then you just sew it up.  I used the zig-zag stitch for jersey knit so that the fabric would have room to stretch when I was all done.

And that's it!  You could add a topstitch on it if you'd like or maybe a ribbon trim for some extra fun.  I might go back later and do that.  But, for now, I love the result and how it isn't too long or too short.

You could easily do something like this to a shirt that is too short and maybe just some scrap fabric you have.  You'd have to add a hem, but that would be pretty easy-peasy.
I haven't done anything with the darker grey shirt.  I think I might just leave it as is and wear it since it's jersey and a hem isn't really needed.  But who knows...I'll let you know if I do anything fun to it!

One Year Later

We've been living in Raleigh for just over a year now!  It's crazy to think that it has been a year, but is has and I couldn't love Raleigh more than when we first moved here.
I thought I would miss Provo a lot when we left, but I really haven't missed it that much.  I fell in love with Raleigh.  I feel like I fit in here and Raleigh really has a little bit of everything to offer.  Since it is the Capitol of the state, you get the city vibe and have a downtown to explore and lots of free museums and ridiculously good food.  Then, it's a college town so there are lots of younger people around but there are still suburbs to balance it out.  Plus, it is crazy green and there are so many parks like Lake Johnson and Pullen Park.
I love living in Raleigh and am really not looking forward to when we leave here.  So, I won't think about that for now.  Instead, I'll think about how I'm going to pick up Curtis from work soon, on my bike of course, and we are going to ride down to Cameron Village to get Goodberry's and celebrate the end of the semester...yummm!

Pom Pom Flowers: a tutorial

I love Country Living.  I love the magazine and now the website.  Over a month ago now, I saw this here on their website and decided I could totally make them on my own!  They are super easy and can be made in like 20 minutes, seriously.  Plus, I now have a super cute decoration and flowers that never die.  I mean, I love real flowers, but ya know, they only last so long.

All you'll need to make these pom pom flowers is:

cardboard
scissors
yarn
twig/sticks
glue (I used E600, you could easily use a glue gun if that's all you have)

Since there are lots of tutorials out there on how to make pom poms, I'll just show you the one that I used.  It's a step-by-step tutorial that is really easy to follow.  Plus, it's been cloudy lately and that makes is hard to take pictures of me actually making one...lame excuse, I know, but totally true.

Pom Pom Tutorial

So you'll just make your template like shown in that tutorial and then you can make as many pom poms as you want with whatever yarn you have.
After making the pom poms, you just go outside and get some twigs that you like the looks of.  Make sure they are dry and not too dirty.
Then, to make the flowers, just add a dab of your glue to the end of the twig and put it into the center of the pom pom.  Hold it there for a few seconds to make sure it really sticks.

And that's it!  Just place your pom poms into a vase or jar and arrange them however you want.  Easy-peasy, right?

Happy Crafting!

Men's Polo Refashion: a tutorial

I've been organizing and cleaning out this week...kind of an early spring cleaning since (minus this week) it has felt like spring here.  While going through Curtis's clothes, I found a shirt he never wears and asked him if I could use it to make me a new shirt.  I came across this tutorial ages ago, and decided to make my own version.  I think I did some of the same stuff that is on this tutorial but since I only used the image for inspiration, I decided to make my own tutorial.  If it doesn't make sense, please refer to the other one for clarity...ha ha.

Start with an old men's polo that is still in good and wearable condition.  Mine was a large and worked great for me because I like how long it ended up being.

Then, carefully cut off the sleeves and set them aside.

Using a shirt that you really like the fit of, measure how much of the sides to cut off.  Turn the polo inside-out and draw lines where the other shirt fits onto the polo and cut about 1/4" bigger.  Save what you cut off; you'll use it to make the bow.

With the polo still inside-out sew up the sides, using the lines you drew as a guide.

Next, using the sleeves from your shirt, trace lines onto the sleeves(inside-out) of the polo to make new sleeves that will fit well.  Cut about 1/4" away from the lines you drew for seam allowance.
Then, pin the sleeves onto the polo shirt (right sides together) and sew.  You've now made the polo fit to your body.  You may want to try it on to make sure you like the way it fits.  Make any changes if you need to.

Now, using the left over fabric from the sides that you cut off and some of your own fabric, make two sash-like things that you will use as bows.
To do this, Cut the two sides in half, so you have 4 long pieces.  Sew them together so you have two long strips.  Cut the same length strips out of the other fabric.

Pin the right sides of the strips together and sew, leaving a small opening and tapering one end to a point.  Turn the strips right side out and sew up the remaining hole by hand or on you machine.

Finally, sew each strip onto the edge of the collar on the polo.

And that's it!  You can tie the strips together however you want.  And now you have a new shirt that was free and has a wonderful bow on the front!

Sewing Machine Cover: a turtorial

When we went to Ikea several weeks ago, I finally got me a craft table!  I'm very excited about it.  Especially since it means that I can leave my sewing machine out and don't have to brave the closet to retrieve it every time I sew.  Always having it out though, made me realize that I needed a better looking way to cover my machine than the big plastic cover that came with it.  So, while browsing Pinterest, I came across this idea from marthastewart.com.
I thought it was the perfect way to cover up my sewing machine so it, not only looks pretty, but also so Scarlet doesn't mess it up...ha ha.  I quickly realized that I didn't have any kitchen towels or tea towels nice enough to do the job.  So, I went searching for an inexpensive solution and finally found a tea towel at World Market yesterday.  Yay! for World Market...seriously, I love that store.
So, here is a quick little tutorial of how I made my sewing machine cover.  It's easy-peasy and really only took me about 10 minutes.

First, I had to hem up my tea towel because it was a little on the big side.  I wanted it bigger but it was too big, so I just folded over the longer ends once and sewed them up to shorten the towel a little bit.

Then I took some ribbon and cut two equal length pieces.  (Sorry,  I didn't measure them.  You can really do whatever length you want.  I made mine long so I could have nice bows when tied together)

Next, I measured the tea towel when folded in half (like a taco) and decided where to put the ribbon.  I pinned the ribbon down on the matching sides of the tea towel.  And I did that on both sides.

Then I just sewed the ribbon on, making sure to go over it several times.

I now had two loops of ribbon on each side of the tea towel.  I pulled the ribbon tight, cut it in half and then melted the edges to prevent fraying.

And that was it!  Turned out nice, didn't it?  It looks much better than the plastic cover I have and protects my machine nicely.  Thanks Martha Stewart!

Making Mozzarella

Curtis, going to school and working where he does, has access to lots of things that normal people wouldn't.  Namely, all the supplies to make mozzarella cheese.  So, this weekend we decided to make some!  It was quite fun and exciting, and the resulting cheese was ridiculously good.

We used lots of milk... non-homogenized whole milk...yack! for drinking but perfect for making cheese!  We warmed the milk to a certain temperature, kept it there for a while and then added the magic ingredients.  

After adding the ingredients and waiting a little while, we had cheese curds!  Lots of cheese curds.  We let those sit too. 

Then we dumped out all the whey and just had the curds left.  Did you know that if you cook mozzarella whey you can make ricotta cheese?  We want to try it out next time.

Then we hung up the curds in some cheese cloth to let the rest of the whey drain out.  After a couple of hours we put the curds in the fridge because it was past midnight and we decided to finish the process the next day.

To turn the curds into mozzarella, we just cut up the curds into small pieces and then added really hot, salty water to them.  This cooks to curd and adds salt and flavor.

As the curds cook, you are able to pull and stretch them, making mozzarella cheese.  This was really fun to do even though the curds were pretty hot.

And that's all there was to it!   We ended up with delicious, fresh mozzarella that we used in lasagna.  And we have some left over that we plan on using for pizza soon.  Talk about yummy!