Dots All Around

so, i recently made myself a new dress.  i originally bought the fabric to make another circle skirt, but then thought how i would love to have a new dress.  then i remembered my awesome retro 60s dress pattern i bought, and hadn't used yet!!

and how fitting to make a 60s retro dress using a printed cotton called 'retro dots'?!  thus, lo and behold, i created this dress!  when i tried it on before hemming it fell below my knee and after hemming it was too short to be a dress so i now have a new tunic. lol  nonetheless, i still love it!!...although i am a little sad though that i won't be able to wear it with my awesome red tights.  i can't wait to make more, and see what other fabrics i can try out.



Makin' Necks Warm

so i finally sat down friday night and completed all the infinity scarves for my family.  in total, i made 6 scarves and 1 fleece hat.  i don't know why it took me this long to finish them, i guess i was having a lack of motivation.  now i'm glad that they are done and i can get back to making myself more clothing!  i have a tutorial here, http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/simple-infinity-scarf, that shows how to make the simple infinity scarf.  hope y'all enjoy and can make necks warm too!

Goin' In Circles

i know, i know, i've needed to update, but i've been busy making things! 

so, i am completely in love with the styles of the 50s and 60s and have become inspired by them.  lately my new thing has been making circle skirts ofr myself.  they are sooo easy to make and are classically cute.  here,http://ficklesense.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-to-make-circle-skirt-full-34-12-14.html, is the website where i go to get the equations to figure out the measurements for my skirts...and what's even better, is that they have four different skirt variations.  full circle skirt, 3/4 circle skirt, 1/2 circle skirt, and 1/4 circle skirt.  the only one i haven't made is the 3/4 circle skirt.  so far, all the circle skirts i've made have been out of printed cottons i've gotten from Hobby Lobby.  i use 2" elastic for the waistband.

this cherry skirt was my first ever circle skirt, and is a full circle.  i was really excited to find this fabric b/c i love cherries, and it has that vintage 50s look!

this skirt was my second circle skirt and is a 1/4 circle.  for me, this skirt only requires one yard.  i took this picture before i got a chance to add the black bias tape to the hem, instead of doing a regular hem.

this skirt, probaby my fave b/c of the colors and pattern, is another 1/4 circle and has an off-white bias tape hem.

this skirt is a 1/2 circle and has a turquoise-y bias tape hem.  i absolutely love the pattern b/c it has a wonderful retro feel to it.

this, is my latest skirt, just finished it today.  it is an awesome printed corduroy i found at Joann Fabric and Craft store.  i figured i needed to make some skirts that had more of a winter-y feel.  since it is corduroy i added a full lining.  i also did an invisible zipper and...a ral hem!! yes, i did what seems like the impossible to a circle skirt and did a real, turned up hem.  now granted, i did cheat and use my new-found friend, Stitch Witchery, instead of having to sew the hem.  i did the same for the lining.

so, as you can see, i have been busy over the last few days adding new clothing to my wardrobe.  for the cherry skirt and the green dot skirt i added tutorials on my site here, http://www.burdastyle.com/profiles/betterhandmade/my_studio.  i am also keepin with my new tradition of making christmas presents for family and friends, and seeing as christmas is in 10 days, i guess i should get to workin on the fleece infinity scarves i am going to make for them.  of course i will post pictures of the finished products.  so, until next time, happy sewing!..and a little inspiration from a fabulous pin i found on Pinterest

An Infinity Dress For Everyone

so, i've come to love a site called burdastyle.com! this is a site that offers free and purchasable patterns and people can upload projects that they have been working on.  while browsing one day i found a tutorial for an infinity/convertible dress.  basically, this dress has a circle skirt attached to two straps at the top, which you can arrange in an array of different ways and change the look of the dress.  i decided i wanted to make the dress, and do my own variation.  so, here is the tutorial for the way i did mine.

step 1:  to make this dress, you will need 3-5 yards of fabric, depending on how tall you are and how long you want your straps.  for me, my skirt was abt 17" long and my straps were 100" long.  to get your srap length you take your height and multiply that by 1.5. since i am 5'7" i took 67"x 1.5"= 100.5"  i also used a stretch jersey for the top and a cotton print for the bottom.

step 2:  to make your skirt, fold your fabric in half length wise, the inhalf again width wise.  measure your waist and divide by 6.28 to get me measurement of your first arc.  for me, my waist was 30" and divided by 6.28 was 4.7".  so 4.7" from the corner point of my fabric i started making my arc.  then to get the length of my skirt i measured 17" down from the waist.  once you have your lines drawn cut out your skirt and you will have a big circle.

step 3:  now, you are going to cut out your straps.  on pretty much every tutorial i've looked at for this dress they talk about how much of a pain it is to cut the straps b/c of the length.  to make it easier for me, i took half of my measurement and folded my fabric so that it was half of my strap length on both sides.  so basically i folded my fabric so that each side was 50" long and cut it out, and that way when i opened it up they were 100" long.  to figure out how wide your straps will be, you will measure across your chest from the center to under one arm and that is how wide you need to make your straps to make sure they cover you.

step 4:  this step i added myself and is what makes my tutorial different from others.  since the dress is basically two straps up top, i made a band to cover my top half to make sure the dress wouldn't be too revealing.  to make the band, i cut out two pieces the length of my waist measurement and to get the height i measured however high up on my chest i wanted it.  for me, that was 11" and the band is above my breasts and sits under my armpit, but not up in it.lol

step 5:  this is the step where you will begin to put your dress together.  all the other tutorials use one seam, but i knew for me i would need more than one for things to stay in place while sewing.  so first, i attached the straps.  when you attach your straps you'll want to overlap them 3"-5" in the center then pin to the ends and sew in place.

step 6:  next, you will attach the waistband.  for this step, i pinned the waistband in place then sewed it.  then i sewed a seam up the back using a flat zig-zag stitch to close the band.  once you close your band you are done, and can enjoy your new dress!

now that you have your new dress, have fun discovering all the ways you can arrange the straps! here is a link showing the different ways you can do them https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUnS4HBI2siznd4WqQ5v0x555dcHaRJR2kakOsJK8EtVF1-eKbn6Qt2HFH8SbuajfBMMBPKIF_YpU1FNdRLjTkvbLbWfoivAHvvg3sdB7h8MnbWHrWJev69NyOnADYRBNxUb15o1BecZhA/s1600/InfinityWearingIdeas.png

also, here are the tutorials that inspired me:
http://knucklesalad.com/convertible-infinity-dress-how-it-almost-defeated-me-and-what-you-need-to-make-one/

http://sewlikemymom.com/little-red-infinity-dress-tutorial/

http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/jersey-convertible-dress

http://rowena.typepad.com/rostitchery/infinity-dress.html

Sharing creativity for all to see

So, I have already created one blog, one in spanish as a way for me to continue to work on my Spanish and Portuguese since graduating college.  For my creative outlets I've always enjoyed painting, crocheting and knitting.  Recently, I decided to teach myself how to sew and I'm ABSOLUTELY addicted!!  Now, I've decided to create a blog dedicated to my sewing ventures.  It's my intent to post all sewing projects I do, and hopefully I'll be able to put up tutorials with some of the projects I do.  As you guys will hopefully follow me, I hope I'll be able to inspire y'all as others have inspired me.  Below are a few projects I've done so far. 

 a fleece infinity scarf I came up with

 ankle length maxi skirt I made myself

 cross-body purse for myself

solid grey knit dress from a pattern I made up on my own