long story short, this rainbow fabric tried very, very, hard to be a cute dress but was given up on at the end of last summer. attempting to match the stripes was probably the cause.

BUT! somehow, magically, I busted out the sewing machine and turned it into a tank! without any trying to match the stripes. :] (so much more enjoyable, let me tell you.)





and, surprise! a little hidden heart. :]




--- this is the first garment i've sewn since stopping last summer! college is time consuming! :[

So,.. living on campus and not having a car or access to the proper supplies store can be <i>so</i> depressing sometimes! But I have to admit, making due with just contruction paper and a glue stick is oddly satisfying and is just as fun as when I was five.

it's a little simpler than I wanted.. but iuno. First valentine's for my boy & I, who want's to over do it? ;]

"we fit together like tetris" :]

So my graduation was last Wednesday and I thankfully finished it the Monday night before instead of last minute Weds morning - I was proud of my timeliness!

Unfortunately these are the best pictures I have - taken that Monday - I thought I'd get better pictures outside on the field on grad day - didnt work! :[




I am really not that stubby. I hope.



here is the best one I have of it in the sunlight to get the full effect of all it's colorfull glory (even tho my tokidoki fanny pack is smack right in the middle and my sister's eyes are closed [haha!] - sorry!)


Fabric I picked up from Joann's and I hemmed it with bright pink bias tape. :] thanks for looking!

woot!
what happens when you're not scheduled for work and you're in between terms for school?

you finally have time to satisfy that sewing itch!
(I hate how I got a job to be able to purchase supplies to sew, and now I barely have any time to cut and stitch.  )

the laptop that took almost my entire summer's savings to purchase:


the bag: (my first one)


pocket detail (unfortunately, I didn't think to make pockets on the inside until it was too late. so pocket on the outside!)




it is fully lined with the same outside fabric. :]
thanks for looking!

I call it my Afternoon dress because I completed the entire thing from drafting the pattern to clean up in an afternoon ;]
I call it "turned Night", because I had originally planned for a nice, flowy summery let's have tea kind of dress, but ended up with a dress that is not so much "me", but for someone who will dance the entire night awaay  

I like it tho; originally I wanted a dropwaisted kind of look, but I dropped the waist too much - it went just around the bottom of my butt! I guess I could of left it like that, but it was a bit too scandalous for my taste  :p

it features polka dots, a bubble hem, and a bow in the back. So craftster like!

[GREAT tutorial!]

using the words that countless others have used before me...
GREAT tutorial!

I'm in love with this new little wallet:

[Tutorial!]

Yes, so this was the first dress of my summer!
I picked up the materials on Tuesday, got out of school Wednesday (gah! jr year is over..  ) and finished it just in time to wear out for a day with the boy this afternoon.

Though simple and easy in concept, I struggled a bit and the back turned out lower than I planned and the boob triangles came out smaller. Oh well, everything looks normal unless you look at me from the side, where there is quite the boob skin showing   That's ohk.. i guess. Noone should be looking there anyway, right??









I just realized I'm wearing the same shoes I was wearing in the last post.  
anywho, does it look too showy? The boy said he liked the dress, and then I asked him to take pictures of me in it and then he said it was too... booby. oh well, that's boys for you.


Tutorial!
this is my first, so please bear with me. I apologize for not having real life pictures - I instead present the awsomeness of paint!

Notes:
This dress doesn't use a zipper - which is both a pro and a con. Good, bkus I hate zippers, but bad bkus I need to be extra careful in putting it on and off. If you're more comfortable with putting in a zipper, dont' sew the midsection and the skirt into a tube, just shirr and everything from left to right and add the zipper last!  

Notions:
fabric (of course)
thread (contrasting thread gives a nice effect, I think)
shirring elastic
mickncrispy's GREAT shirring tute http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=49544.0

Cut your fabric into these peices:


Sew the midsection into a long tube, as well as the skirt, and then sew them right sides together so it looks like this right side out:


Now doing pretty much what mickncrispy's tute says, shirr along the midsection tube. For the next row of shirring, you will have to streth out the fabric so you don't sew it gathered. Shirr the entire height of the midsection. Remember, right side up! Notice that after 3 or 4 rows of  shirring the garment shrunk to about half it's size! Ahhmazing!   Now its kind of like this:


Here is the kind of tricky part if you don't have a dressform (I don't).
Put on what you have so far - the midsection goes right below the goods. Take your triangles and hem the sides, and safety pin them to where you achieve the right amount of coverage, and when you take it off you won't get poked! Make sure when you pin them down, they are overlapping a bit on the midsection as I tried to show in the picture:


After you take the dress off, the midsection will be all scrunched again, so stretch it out before and while you are sewing the triangles to the midsection. Remember, right sides together!

Now the straps are just really long, skinny rectangles folded a sewn down the open side, then turned right side out and pressed. Sew these to the triangles, and voila! You have a basic triangle halter dress.

Go crazy in decorating it, and if anyone uses this tute, I'd LOVe to see what you do with it, so please post!
and also, if there's something you don't understand, please ask and hopefully I can clear it up for you  

so I completed this dress the night before a wedding that I was attending - and I used the term "completed" loosely. I wanted to redo the zipper and make a sash and bow (I used a sash from a different dress!) .. but trips to the store weren't possible, SO I wore it incomplete but I don't think too many people noticed :]

anywho, here are the pictures that I took up in LA bkus that is where the wedding was and it was just a great backdrop to take silly pictures  





and just bkus I can, here is a weird "action" shot my sister took of me jumping.

[Haha!]

Awesome!! They're great! Out of curiosity, why is he hiding his arms?

I know I'm just guessing, but I imagine it's to better show the pants, to not get in the way?

Haha! to be honest, YogiBear & Maliaka, I didn't know he was consciously hiding his arms in the first place. I caught one with his arm in it, and he semi freaked me out and said I couldn't use that one and had to take another.  

sometimes I just don't understand boys?
BUT, just bkus i can, heres the picture with his arm in it  

so maybe two weeks after receiving my sewing machine, the boyfriend asks me to make him so pajammas.
I would of had them done earlier, but my friend's dress and my own got in the way  

anywho, I used some "it's so easy, it's simplicity" pattern again, and they turned out WAY huge but I guess he likes them that way   it was kind of plain so I decided to try my hand at appliques (for the first time) and i ended up with a butt looking shaped heart. but you kno, it's cool :]

(ignore the messy bed and the fact that he's trying to hide his arms)






i loooove the fabric ($1/ yard!), and I want to make some pj shorts for myself, as well as a pair of the fancy burmuda shorts. Does anyone know a good pattern for those? :]