I've been having a sewing block as of late, so I did a Goodwill run and picked up some stuff to play with. This was a super easy recon, just cut the dress, attached some bias binding, and stitched on some buttons. Presto... cute skirt in a couple hours!!

After:


Before:


Now, to find a use for that lace!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted, but I've been working really hard on pattern making. This summer I'll be making my bridesmaid gown for my sister's wedding so I've been playing around with bodice patterns. I think I've managed to create a princess line that fits my bosom well while still tapering nicely into my waist.





The teal is a knit, and the paisley is some sort of silky, rayon material. The skirt is a full three layers of circle skirt with bias binding. Love the off the shoulder straps although they are a bit of a pain to wear.




This dress turned out to be a wee bit short, but it'll be nice in the summer at outdoor events I think. The bodice is stretch satin, which I very much liked working with and may be the material I use when I do my gown. The skirt is made of a cotton, vintage airplane print fabric. I just had to get it when I saw it at the store! I cut the fabric short when I thought I'd do a bunched skirt but it didn't work. Went for a circle skirt, but ended up so short since I was low on fabric. That's when I decided to add the blue trim which ended up looking really nice.

First project I've done from the Son of Stitch 'n Bitch book!! I whipped this one up for my step father, and am super excited because I've never knit him ANYTHING. I won't knit for people unless I know for sure they're going to like it. This pillow is going to look amazing in the theater/bar room so I know it'll go over well.

It looks like there's no last r on Beermeister, but it's there, I promise.

Is this anyone on here's pattern?

This year both of my sisters are getting padded laptop bags for Christmas. They're both in college (the older one getting her doctorate at Yale, the younger doing her undergrad at ASU) so I figured they would come into use.



This one is for the younger sister. I didn't mean for it to look so Christmasy, but I liked the fabric. And her school colors are maroon and yellow so it should fit in with a lot of her stuff.

It was hard to get a good picture of this, but the side has birds on it. It's just the reverse side edging of the body fabric. I love the way it looks.

I didn't know the exact size of their laptops, so I had to guess a bit. The straps attach to the body with a strip of velcro so they can hold tighter or looser depending on the computer. I hope they'll both like them and get use out of them!

Thank you everyone for the compliments!! It's great to hear positive things about something you put so much time and love into. Here's a picture of the back of the costume:


And no, Chantelle, it wasn't too heavy it all. Just bulky.

Post with all my details: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=204981.0;topicseen

Oh man, I've been working for so long!! I started this in September so that if I messed anything up too much I would have time to start all over again. But everything turned out really well the first time around. I sewed the dress using a  Simplicity pattern and  made the tail feather from fabric, interfacing, wire, and 200 peacock feathers.




I'm so happy with the results. I had another post going with advice on how to create a tail piece so thank you so much to everyone who shared some knowledge with me!

After a weekend of parties, I have to say I'm pretty sick of having to walk through doors sideways and not being able to see behind me. Oh well, small price to pay for this awesome costume.

I carve pumpkins with my two friends every year. It's a great tradition. We use stencils, which are great, but man does it take forever! Here are the ones from this year:

Here are the close ups:



Deadly Diva here is the one I did.

So I found this monstrosity at Goodwill this weekend, but saw the potential in all that beautiful embroidery on top. It was incredibly boxy, didn't even have a zipper in it!


I ended up putting a zipper in the back, taking in the sides to create a bit of a bust line, chopping off the sleeves, chopping off a lot of the length, and adding some black velvet to the bottom.


The black velvet bottom was a happy mistake. I hadn't planned on it, but when I accidentally cut the dress a couple inches to short, I had to improvise. The velvet really holds the bell shape of the dress so it was a great addition!

Simplicity 4015


I just used this pattern for my costume, super easy.