Sunday, August 28, 2016

Summer PJs FTW

Next in my 'quest to finally blog the things I made months ago' comes this PJ set:


The robe is McCall's 6659 and was made quite some time ago with 5 yards of estate sale fabric. It was intended to be a muslin, but I ended up really liking the fit and print, although was never in love with the color. (Here's a picture of me looking silly to show what it originally looked like.)


When the Sleepwear Sewalong was announced over on the Facebook group, I figured it would be the perfect push to a) dye the robe a more suitable color, and b) make a matching tank top and shorts, since the robe didn't come close to using up the 5 yards I started with. 


The shorts are another pair of Purl Soho City Gym Shorts, but I unfortunately don't remember the name of the tank top pattern I used. (I know that it was a free PDF, but the pattern pieces aren't marked with the brand.)


You may notice that the dyed color and the original color aren't all that different...You can blame RIT dye and synthetic fabric for that. I bought a big bottle of blue RIT dye for this, envisioning a luxurious blue PJ set. Well, when I actually dyed everything, it turned out..purple. Which wasn't bad, I was just confused. Doesn't yellow + blue = green? Unfortunately, the nice purple color washed out and I was left with this slightly less-yellow set, but...still not too shabby, right?


Now I can feel semi-put-together when I'm lounging around the house! Hopefully I'll have one last robe to share with you in the next few days so I can complete my 6 sleepwear items! 


Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Getting Crafty

Hello! So, you know how last time I was here, I told you about all of those unblogged sewing projects I needed to share? Well...that's not going to happen today. Instead I have a crafty home dec project to show you!


When I first saw the tutorial for this project, it was an immediate queue-jumper! When I was little, I loved collecting gemstones. Any time my family went on a trip, I'd pick up one or two, and display them proudly when I got home. As I got older, they stopped being put on display, and eventually I decided that, since I didn't have a use for them, I should get rid of them during one of our many garage sales. 


Lucky for me, my mom didn't let that happen! She saved them, and when I asked about them (having forgotten I ever planned to get rid of them in the first place), she knew right where they were. Talk about serendipity!


Apparently gemstones in home decor are having a moment right now, because around the same time I saw the tutorial, I also saw this display at Hobby Lobby. The frames were too big for my purposes, and I didn't really want to pay $15 a pop, so I (again) decided that I could make my own!


Finding the right frames, and finding any agate slices (that didn't have exorbitant shipping costs) was harder than I thought it would be, but in the end, I think it came together really nicely! My necklaces are no longer a tangled mess, and I'm more likely to wear a wider variety than I was before, since they're all out there in the open. Have you gotten caught up in the gemstone revival?