Me-made May, Week 3

This week was a bit hit-or-miss, honestly, mostly due to the CRAZY weather:

Day 12: Floral Tania culottes

I tried to mix up the styling with these so I wouldn't look like I was wearing the same outfit every week (mayyybe twice/week) - I thought the green tee might give it a more casual vibe, but looking back on this, I definitely can't say I love the outfit. I might just have to stick with my original styling.

Day 13: Self-drafted dress

Wayyyy back in the day when I posted about my maxi skirt refashion, I said that I'd done something else with the top of that dress and that I'd post about it "soon" Well, consider 2 years later "soon" for the purposes of this post, okay? The top is what was left over from the original racerback dress, and the bottom is a 25 cent Goodwill skirt that I took the zipper out of and stitched to the top. I wore this dress a handful of times right after I made it, but for some reason it fell out of rotation. I think I felt that there were some fit issues around the butt, but I didn't notice them this time. This is definitely not the best-made dress in the world, and can certainly not be worn without a cardigan and a belt, but I have to say that I really loved this styling. I felt chic and comfortable all day long (and the girls looked great, which was an instant ego boost!). I think the mint cardigan really helps make this fresher and more spring-appropriate.

Day 14: Refashioned dress from a maxi skirt

After ages of purgatory in my "refashion" pile, this dress finally makes it back into the rotation. When I first refashioned it from a maxi dress a couple summers ago, I liked it and wore it pretty often....and then I lost 20 pounds and it kept falling off of me. I FINALLY got around to taking out some of the extra width the other day, so was happy to put this on. Again, this is not the best-made garment in the world - there's a lot of extra poofiness in the back, and it still falls down a little. Thankfully, one of the many wonderful qualities of jean jackets is that they can be thrown on over almost anything and cover up quite a variety of sins. I love the floatiness and the subtle mullet hem on this (I really never thought those last few words would escape my mouth (or fingers, as the case may be)). I think I'll definitely be wearing this a lot before the weather gets too hot for jean jackets.

Day 15: The weather was cruelly cold, and I had an event to go to in the evening for which none of my me-mades would have been appropriate. I hate to admit that I didn't even bother to wear handmade jewelry that day, but I did only pledge to do 5 days/week, right?

Day 16: Self-drafted striped tank

Another cold, rainy day, so this was the most I could be bothered with, both outfit-wise and picture-taking wise (it's REALLY a horrible picture, sorry about that).

Day 17: Self-drafted maxi

It was my friend's graduation (congrats, Alisha!), so I needed something a bit more formal, but still comfy and warm. I love that I have a million purple things that go with this - I decided to switch up the cardigan a bit, and also wore a darker purple scarf with it while we were outside. Also, I feel like this is the 14th time I've worn this dress since I made it - maxis for the win!

Day 18: I did not get dressed and therefore have nothing to show, but I DID spend the day in my PJs making the dress I'm wearing today (and one of the things I mentioned in my last post was on my to-do list), so...kudos to me? 

We're now more than halfway done with Me-Made May! How are you doing with your pledges?

Me-Made May week 1, plus quiet weekend projects

Well, week 1 was a short one, but I managed to wear 3 different me-mades in 2 days (I definitely didn't leave the house this weekend, so nothing to show for Saturday or Sunday): 

Thursday: Unblogged turquoise necklace and earrings.
Thursday (after a quick change for a cocktail party): Floral maxi dress
Friday (because I was feeling lazy and it was cold and rainy): Refashioned polo shirt with a go-to winter sweater and jeans.

My plan for the weekend was to stay in and have another super-productive few days of sewing again. Well, I DID stay in, and I DID sew, but it was not super-productive. I finished the second hem on my second pair of culottes (full post to come soon), and my first from-scratch project was another bow clutch with this beautiful floral fabric:

It's a simple quilting cotton, but I can't tell you how in love with this print I am. Does it look like old-lady fabric? Not that it matters, I still think it's beautiful. For some stupid reason, I only bought 1/4 yard of this (2 years ago?)...probably because that was my epic fabric-buying summer and I'd already spent SO much money, but still, stupid. For the lining, I used this leftover piece from a dress a friend made me (I was supposed to make it WITH her, but that never happened) 5 years ago. Wow. Combined time in stash for these 2 fabrics: 7 years. 

When I went to check out the tutorial for that clutch again, I saw that she'd temporarily taken it down because it's being published in the inaugural issue of Love Sewing Magazine...exciting for her, not-so-exciting for me! However, I figured that since I'd already made 2 of these, I could figure it out pretty easily. 

Well, I was right and wrong. I ended up making some stupid mistakes and needing to rip out a few things, and I had to guess on the measurements based on my previous makes, so it turned out a little smaller than before. 

Here it is with my second version, finished last summer (whose fabric I also love, but which I've never used, of course). Hopefully both of these make it into my summer staples this year! I also have enough of the blue left to make a pillow cover, so I'll get to stare at this pretty print every day!

I also started working on Simplicity 2250 with a bright pink floral and butterfly printed cotton: 

 

Don't ask me why I thought it would be a good idea to use THIS as my first foray into dressmaking with a commercial pattern. There is SO much pleating and darting, and I ended up not having enough fabric to make all of the pattern pieces as-listed. I think I'll have to do some creative piecing. The bodice is almost all done now, but I'm afraid I cut it too small. Oh well. If it doesn't work out, it wasn't fabric that I loved, anyway.

Did you guys do anything fun this weekend? Were you less hermit-y than I was?

Me-Made May

As I've seen more and more people post their Me-Made May pledges over the last week or two I've thought, "That sounds like so much fun, I wish I had more me-made clothes to wear. Guess I'll have to wait until next year to participate, when I (hopefully) have a much larger me-made wardrobe." But the more of these posts I kept seeing, the more I started to realize that the pledge doesn't necessarily ONLY apply to clothing, right? How much me-made jewelry do I own that I never wear anymore? Seriously, I have two go-to pairs of earrings and two necklaces, depending whether or not I'm going to the gym after work. It's ridiculous that all that beauty and hard work is sitting in a drawer somewhere and not being used and appreciated. 

[The only one of these that I've worn with any regularity is the turquoise teardrop necklace. The others are due to bust out of purgatory!]

[I have not worn those shoes ONCE. I need to brush the dust off and bring them out. And I'm not really sure where that purse is now...]

That jewelry, plus the few me-made articles of clothing that I have, bring me SUCH a rush in wearing them and showing them off. I was so psyched with my flower culottes that last weekend, the first weekend I've been home and near my sewing machine since I finished them, I made THREE new garments, one of which I'm wearing today! And in spite of locking myself out of my house this morning, I've been so happy today because every time I look down at my outfit, I think about how much I love it. So without further ado, here is my pledge:  

I, Alicia from Project Stash Bust, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavor to wear at least one me-made item five days per week for the duration of May 2014 with a round-up of outfits/items each week.

Now, if I could just find a trusty photographer...

Prada knock-offs

When I saw these earrings

 [Image from: Honestly WTF]

I knew I had to have some of my own. I set about looking for some roses at the craft stores, and instead found these teal chrysanthemums:

I also found this earring-making kit in my stash. I bought it years ago at Target during my big-earring phase, but decided the pendants would look better with my chrysanthemums.

Since the flowers didn't have any type of hole for a head pin, I had to get creative with some E6000. (I didn't take any pictures because the back looks kind of wonky, but the front looks good, right?)

I think I might like my version better than the originals. They're a bit more appropriate for everyday wear, no? 

Stash busted:

• Pendants
• Head pins
• Earring posts

Bought new:

• Chrysanthemums: $1.75 on 1/2 off sale at Hobby Lobby

These earrings were just the start of an earring-filled day. Stay tuned for the rest of them! What kind of earrings do you guys like to wear or make?

Anthro knock-off

Another recent Pinterest find: this beautiful Anthropologie original and Jessica’s stunning replica:

[image from: the Morning Letters]

I had just been wondering what to do with these gorgeous turquoise beads I picked up at a bead show a while back when I stumbled across this pin. As much as I loved the original, I didn’t want to buy a bunch of new materials, so I decided to use what I had on hand and drew my inspiration from this design. 

Stash busted: 

• turquoise beads
• silver beads (I have no idea where these came from, but I found them lying around)
• thread and ribbon (I really like the matching ribbon in the original, but in the interest of not buying something new, I chose a neutral ivory. Plus, I'd imagine that might be a hard color to match)
• crimp beads (never used these before, but I'd picked them up at the same bead show a while back

Bought new:

• Nothing! Success! I made a great new necklace and a small dent in my stash.  

 Are you guys fans of knock-offs? What have you knocked off recently? 

·

Turquoise teardrops

I'm going to be honest here - I've never bought anything off of Etsy. Some of the artists show real creativity that I greatly admire, but I also often think "I could make that." And the things I know I couldn't make are (deservedly) out of my price range, so....

LaLaCrystal has some beautiful jewelry in her shop, and the teardrop bead she used reminded me of some I had in my stash. I looked high and low for something resembling the leaf she used, but never came that close. Eventually, I found something that I thought might work at, you guessed it, Hobby Lobby. 

I kind of cobbled it together through some trial and error, but isn't that half the fun?

Stash busted:

• One lonely little bead

Bought new: 

• Chain ($2.99 at Wal-mart (all of the stores in my town were seriously lacking in chain selection)
• Leaf (part of a decorative clasp set - something like $1.50 on sale at Hobby Lobby)
• Setting for the bead (again around $1.50, although I ended up buying two different kinds because one of them really did not fit the bead. Of course I hadn't come to the store prepared or anything...)

Total: $6-$7. Oops. That was more than I wanted to spend, but I think it turned out nicely, don't you?

(Yes, out of all of the photos my friend took at this "photo shoot," this was the one I liked the best. Crazy.)

Stay tuned to see what I did with more of these turquoise beads. I'm still putting the finishing touches on it, but I think it'll be great when it's done...

Who else is in love with the Hunger Games?

I don’t know about you guys, but I LOVE to read. I always have and always will. Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to read when school’s in session, but now that summer’s here, I’m trying to make up for some lost time. Along with this love of reading comes a love of collecting books. Books to be read, books to be loaned, books that just look pretty…they’re going to fill the shelves of the library that I am determined to have in my house one day. So when I saw these, I just knew I had to make some of my own.

[Image from: mytwobutterflies.blogspot.ca]

 
As I was pondering which of my favorite books I should honor with some pendants, my thoughts wandered to my recent obsession with the Hunger Games, and how I could not only make some necklaces for me, but for friends and family who are equally enchanted with the stories. As soon as I thought of it, I was so excited to finish them, and am really happy with the way they turned out!

Here’s a better close-up of the covers. And if you want to make them yourself, here’s a Word file of the images I made and used. 

My favorite part is probably the surprise waiting on the inside…

All three books are so quotable that I decided to put my favorites from each one inside.

Other quotes from the first book:

“I want to find a way to show them that they don’t own me. That I’m not just a piece in their Games.”

“Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true.
Here is the place where I love you.”

Other Catching Fire quotes I added:

“I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you.”

“Stay with me.” “Always.”

And last but not least, Mockingjay:

Best. Quote. Ever. Other good ones: 

“Fire is catching.”

“Strange things did happen here,
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight
In the hanging tree.”

I gave some to two of my cousins and they loved them – and I absolutely loved their reactions! :) If I had more time on my hands, I would give handmade gifts more often…

I didn't bust any of my stash on this project (I added to it instead!), but it was so worth it. 

• Mini books: $1.80 at Hobby Lobby
• Spacer Bars: $0.75 at Hobby Lobby

I ended up making seven books, so I think that was a pretty good return on my investment, right?

What do you guys think? What books would you make?

5 weeks?!

Oops. Five whole weeks have gone by without those blog posts I was promising…I had quite a few of them in the works, but postponed taking and posting the pictures for so long that I’m just now finishing them up! I really have been crafting, I promise! Anyway, on to the post…

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of talented ladies creating a lot of beautiful things, so my first few posts will be my humble attempts at following (or drawing inspiration from) their tutorials. First up is some jewelry – this seemed to be the easiest thing to tackle first, as it involves taking up the least amount of space with projects-in-progress (unlike when I scrapbook or sew!). 

I’m sure that you’ve seen this image (or something similar) floating around Pinterest a lot lately: 

[image from: ECAB online]

I’ll let you follow Jessica’s tutorial, as she does a great job of explaining the steps. This project presented some firsts for me – first time attaching a chain, first time with bead tips (the things that look like clamshells) – but was really easy to follow. I used seed beads, since I seem to have a multitude of those lying around, rather than going out to buy the same beads she used. 

Here are my versions (forgive the picture quality - the sun just would NOT cooperate the day I took these!).

I started with red beads, since I don’t really have any red accessories (to go with the dresses I plan to make). While I’m probably the only one who would notice, there are a few things I’m not happy with in this necklace. The chain I bought was really fine, and I couldn’t get the jump ring through it, so I came up with the workaround you see below, involving crimp beads and quite possibly a bit of swearing while trying to get the chain through it twice.

(Ugh, looking at these again, it seems the red one just did NOT want to be photographed!)

A few days later, I decided to make the blue one with some brighter, bigger chain I bought for another project.

 
 It looks much better, right? Live and learn!

 Stash busted:

• seed beads 
• thread
• jump rings
• clasp (which I didn’t realize I had, so I did end up buying some more…)
• crimp tubes

Bought new:

• Clamshells ($0.74 on ½ off sale at Hobby Lobby)
• Chain ($2.99 at Michael’s - no sale, oops - I was tired of looking for the right chain, and Hobby Lobby’s selection was lacking…)

Total = About $4

This was a long (and long overdue) first post, but thanks for reading! Do you have any stashes you’re trying to use up? Or any big summer crafting plans? I’d love to hear from you!