Peplum Cowboy Shirt

Yes...you read that right...the peplum cowboy shirt is my latest sewing adventure. While in Pennsylvania earlier this year, my mom, brother and I went thrifting (one of my favorite pastimes). I found some great stuff including two XL mens button up shirts; one a purple plaid pearl buttoned cowboy shirt and the other an indian motif button up. I pictured sundresses made out of the shirts but haven't actually tackled the task.

The other day I saw a blog post where a girl took a men's shirt and turned it into a fitted shirt with a peplum bottom. Stinkin' cute! I decided that the purple plaid pearl buttoned cowboy shirt that I had tucked away would be perfect for this re-creation.

 Some 'before' pictures...

It ended up being much more difficult than it seemed. Cutting the sleeves off, resizing them to my size, and reattaching at my length....whoa....not easy. I actually messed up pretty bad but you really can't tell on the outside of the finished product. And the only reason I kept going to make the sleeves work (after messing up royally more than once) is because without them it was looking more along the lines of a snug jean vest....and that's rarely a good look.

See what I mean.....?

Soooo...here is the finished piece:

I ended up wearing it out to eat that night! I'm pretty happy with my first "real shirt" redo...$2 men's shirt turned custom women's shirt! Hopefully more to come! :)

Suki's Homemade Bed

You know I'm into sewing. And to Collin's astonishment, it's not as short lived as my other hobbies/obsessions. I actually love it....a lot! I always have at least one project ready to go....as in raw fabric that is so darn pretty laying next to my sewing machine....and always many projects on my mind. My biggest and boldest project right now...this one is still in my mind, but I do have the pretty fabric laying out too...is a really cute patchwork duvet for our king size bed! Don't think country, amish, or anything along those lines...that's not what I'm going for. More of a bohemian, eclectic, bold piece............ BUT that's not what my post is about....

Anywho.

I've been wanting to make Suki a bed but had trouble finding a "pattern" online that I liked. By pattern, I really just mean a tutorial because I have yet to sew anything with a pattern....apparently it's supposed to help you but it just seems like too much trouble!

I finally found one that I really liked and it seemed simple enough as well. It's actually for a little dog...one that Suki would probably beat the shit out of...but I could see Suki liking it just as much. Here is the tutorial that I followed: Dog Under My Desk.

Her finished product!

Adorable and super comfy...what more could a leopard kitty ask for!?

I bought cute fleece fabric from Joann's but haven't had time since Lauren's visit and then I worked five 12's with only a day off in between (aka no time off when you work night shift!) Tuesday morning was my last day of my long stretch so when I got home I got right to cutting, pinning, and sewing Suk's bed.

Well, I really whipped this sucker out. I got home around 7:45am, changed, ate, got Suki's moving crate together, and started cutting fleece. By 10am I was finished with the whole thing except the stuffing part....forgot to buy it! I was already unpresentable to the folks of Joann's, Target, or really anywhere outside my apartment, so I went to sleep for a while, woke up and went to run some errands, including stuffing.

How fast was that!?

I stuffed it and put it on the floor for the little princess.

She took one look at it and then looked up at me, eyes only, without moving her head.

Kinda like this...

"What the hell is that? Oh, you want me to lay on it...ha...no."

Yeah...she hates it...the little shit! I guess we're going to have to get a dog to use this thing. Collin curled up on it and said it was pretty comfy. Suki prefers places that aren't meant for her...so I should have figured she wouldn't like it!

Pretty little bed...no pretty little sleeping kitty. She won't even sit on it for a picture. She's actually half scared of the friggin' thing. Oh well....bring on that puppy Collin!

C Tee to E Tee

Refashioning is my new favorite thing. I've recently come across some awesome blogs about girls who take thrift store clothes that most people wouldn't take a second look at, ill fitting clothes of their own, or even their boyfriend/husbands old clothes and make some seriously amazing clothing for themselves (or kiddos). One of my favorite sites of the bunch is Cotton & Curls. This girl is ridiculously talented; if I could learn a fraction of her skill I'd be happy.

One of her projects was taking a simple mens T-shirt and making it into a fitted T for herself. She painted stripes on hers as well but I wasn't feeling that ambitious.

Cotton & Curls 2012

Both of those shirts were originally men's t-shirts...whaaaat!? Awesome.

While Collin was at work I peeped into his "goodwill bag" and pulled out a few T-shirts to practice. Here is the post, complete with directions, from her blog.

Here is my attempt:














After trying the shirt on inside-out, I pinned and sewed. That easy! Well, I had to re-sew a few times but it's actually pretty fool proof. You can't see any of the seams when it's done...no matter how many times you sew over it.

The sleeves and armpits were the most annoying part. I don't know how to make actual sleeves but the tutorial didn't make them any different than I did so I just went with it.

Next, I cut the bottom hem into a U shape and I cut out the collar and then cut the neck opening a little deeper.

It was a pain in the butt but I wanted to keep the original collar but put it into the new neckline so I had to seam rip the entire thing so that it was stretchable. It ended up fitting perfectly.

It came together rather nicely I think!

There we have it. Glamor shots and all. I have more projects in mind and will post when I get the guts to try another one!

Have a great week!

Baby Blankets

Project 2...actually happened on the same day I made my first two pillows. I was in a sewing frenzy. With two new babies in the family I thought I'd give blankets a shot. They are sooo soft, I really just wanted to cuddle up with them myself.

Super soft fleecey back with flannel fronts...this is baby Connor's

and baby Evelyn's

They are exactly the same except for the patterned flannel on the front. I was really happy with my first baby blankets! And then they sent me this pic and it just melted my heart... little Evelyn sleeping with her new blankie!

On to the next project! :)

Zippered Throw Pillows...so far

Ok...I become easily "obsessed" with hobbies, all sorts of hobbies...ask Collin. It's nothing new. But I think I'm truly obsessed with sewing and (tooting my own horn) I'm actually not too terrible at it (or maybe I just thought it was harder than it is...). Luckily, Joann's fabric store has so many employees because they should know me by name by now.

My sewing cheerleader!

Happy summer present to me!

"Sweet, a jungle gym!"

On Saturday I had the day off and I decided to tackle my zippered throw pillows. Yep, diving right into the zipper challenge.

My starting point...ahhhh

I decided to start with what I thought would be the most challenging pillow too: the 18x18 inch "patchwork" pillow (I don't know if it's actually patchwork...but I had to sew small pieces together so that's what I call it). Some of the pieces stretched and skewed a little and I realized that I worked it backwards so I thought it was going to be all messed up by the time I got the zipper in and the other sides sewn up but it turned out just fine! I was actually darn proud of myself!

A real, working zipper!

Finished product...front

and the back

I was super happy with the final result...so I kept sewing. Pillows two and three were to follow.

Pillow 1 and 2, front

Pillow # three:

And the trio...I still have two more to finish...

Hope you like!