Two weeks ago, I was invited to my boyfriend's cousins wedding and decided to make my dress, because events are great excuses to make pretty new dresses and I've wanted a high-low dress for a while. The pattern took a few nights to make and the dress was completed in about 3 nights of on and off sewing.



The dress on




The dress on my dress form, before hemming and before the halter strap




My original sketch compared with the final dress.


More pictures and details here: http://minipip.typepad.com/mini-pip/2013/04/high-low-spring-dress.html

Comments welcome! Thank you for looking!

I can't believe I haven't been on Craftster for 2 years! I need to catch up! Anyway, I wanted to show off a piece I'm really proud of, so I thought this was a good place to go.

Coheed and Cambria has been my favorite band for almost 9 years, and last Saturday I was able to see them at Radio City Music Hall. I wanted to show my support to a band that has been amazing to me so I decided to add some handmade flare to my outfit.

I made my own skirt pattern, after making a sloper, and wanted a really sturdy fabric. I used vinyl, which I thought would be like a faux leather, but I think the vinyl was "tougher" (stronger).  



Next I took one of Coheed's "symbols", which is called the keywork. The original plan was to fill in the stitching, but I actually liked just the outline. I have no experience with hand embroidery so it was just a simple stitch. The thread that I used changed from shades of green to white which I thought gave it an awesome effect.






The concert was incredible and my skirt got a some attention  



And so you can see just how excited I was...



If you want to see more pics or read more detail, you can check out my blog (http://minipip.typepad.com/mini-pip/2013/03/stitching-and-certificates.html)

Thanks for looking! Can't wait to get back into visiting craftster regularly!

I've been in a sewing funk lately, not wanting anything to do with my sewing machine and having all these ideas in my head but just unable to get them out. I was hoping that by doing this project it would get me out of this blah mood.

So, background story...my mom had this two piece suit from the 80's. It was a pair of navy capri pants with an attached white t-shirt, then it came with a matching vest. I found it in my mom's closet when I was looking for a Moaning Myrtle costume for a Harry Potter party a few years ago (it worked perfectly). Eventually, I got rid of the pants and top but I fell in love with the vest. The problem? It was a 4 petite, and I don't even fit in a 2 petite. I was only going to make it smaller but decided that I could do more with it.

This is what the vest turned into:



The before image:



and the back:



At first I cut the back open down the center and brought the front of the vest up But the back was so bad (it didn't iron right and the cheap fabric was a pain to work with) that I just decided to make another back:



I decided that I wanted a pencil skirt with the vest, so I got the pattern from Diana Rupp's book "S.E.W.: Sew Everything Workshop". (Good book, I recommend it). After the dress was finished, I remembered a belt I saw somewhere..and decided to make a similar belt:



This is my first real reconstruction, and I'm really proud of myself with this. And I think I got some of my motivation back! Thanks for looking!!! And one more picture just 'cause. 

Over the summer my boyfriend of 2 years broke up with me, so I had some time on my hands and after going through the whole sobbing and feeling sorry for myself phase I decided it was time to move on and improve myself and my sewing. This is called my "make him wish he never broke up with me" dress. I'm pretty obsessed with checking modcloth.com everyday to see all the pretty new clothes and one day I saw this dress (http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses/The+Thimble+lina+Dress) and knew I wanted it. Too bad I have no money, but that's where my sewing skills come in! I used Simplicity's Project Runway Pattern 2951 and it was really a great pattern to follow.

Here is the whole dress


Closeup of the top


and the applique


I cut the flowers out of a larger piece of fabric and fused them on with fusible web. This was my first time putting in an invisible zipper and, well, it's crooked. So I made a little ruffle covering in the back (which I don't have a picture of). It isn't exactly like the original dress but I'm really proud of the way this came out, even though there are tons of mistakes. Thanks for looking! 

This is my very first project post, and I finally thought I made something good enough for Craftster! It's my boyfriends birthday tomorrow and he said he didn't want anything. So, what's a crafty girl to do? Make him something, of course! He is zombie obsessed! He loves to play Left 4 Dead on xbox 360 and he has even got me into it. So I thought it would be fun to make him a total zombie gift.

I made him the Hunter, who attacks people by jumping on them and completely rips them apart. Gross right? But the game is really awesome! To make the doll, I bought the book "Doll Fashions" but the patterns in it were for an 18" doll, so I had to cut the pattern in half and I took different clothing patterns from Craftster and Google to make him complete.

First, here is the reference picture, http://www.left4dead.be/wp-content/gallery/l4d/l4d-boss-art-hunter.jpg

and here is my zombie!







To make it more manly and not so much as a doll, I made an action figure box for him. It's a painted shoebox with the front cut out and cellophane put in the middle. The box art is from the game cover and pictures on the internet. The back also has the Hunter's abilities and a description of it.





Since we are in a long distance relationship, I don't get to see his reaction when he opens it but I hope he loves it. It was sent out today, all wrapped up with zombie sayings and designs on it. Thank you all for looking! Comments would be great, good and bad =]

and just for fun...