"Upcyle" Shirt

I made Elisa this little over-shirt out of fabric from an old shirt of mine that was too big.  I have to say, projects like this are tricky because you have to work with what you got!   And I had just enough material to make her this.  I used/altered a bodice pattern I already had and added some fringe on the ends.  It was a fun, little side project and I love how easily it makes a boring onesie into a fun outfit!  I will now go through my wardrobe--which I have recently considered burning--and reuse instead of setting fire to. :)

 

Total Price:  $0

Peasant Top/Ruffle Pants Outfit

I was inspired by this from etsy. So cute!

I found a free pattern for a peasant top here, and the pants are a free pattern from here.   Peasant tops are pretty easy to make.  You would think pants were too, considering they were the first project we made in my sewing class in college, but these here pants did NOT want to be made.  They fought me the entire time!  But I showed them whose boss and they got made despite their protesting.  Okay who am I kidding.  I'm an idiot and sewed the ruffles to the top instead of the bottom, not only that but I cut them out all wrong, among several other idiotic mistakes.  I had to run back to hobby lobby and buy more fabric because I messed up so bad!   Pathetic.  As soon as I start thinking, "hey, I'm getting kind of good, maybe I should start my own Etsy account" something like this happens.  I'll take it as a hint that I should NOT start up an Etsy store anytime soon.   

Regardless, this is one of my favs on her.  I love the shirt and I love the pants, even though they were a beast to make.  I love the 3 ruffles, I would make her more pants like this but now I'm scared of them...ha.  Sorry for the crappy pics, but you get the idea, she's definitely a little fashionista in this:
 

Price? Let's see: $2.50 for the shirt (1/2 of a yard of Hobby Lobby's fabulous fabrics) and $3 for the pants.  Okay really $6 since a screwed up.  Still, under $10 for this adorable outfit, not bad!

Ruffle-Back Dress

 Let me just start off by stating that I love Hobby Lobby.   Okay, now we can continue...


I stalk Etsy to the point of obsession, but I justify it because once in awhile I'll come across a few gems now and again.  Of course I am too poor to buy them so I just make them instead.  One of these gems includes this fabulous dress:

Adorable, right??  It's from here. Too bad it's $79 + shipping.  Yikes.  Well, going back to Hobby Lobby (a store that I LOVE), they have the most amazing selection of fabrics.  And not badly priced either.  They have a permanent 30% off sale on most printed fabric, and I cannot resist buying it!! So a month or so ago I spoiled myself  Elisa and bought some very striking and cute fabric.   Here is my version of the above dress in the Hobby Lobby fabric:

SUPER CUTE.  It came together fairly easily, the ruffles did take some time but all in all it wasn't too bad.  It's a tie-back dress with an elastic casing in the back bodice.  I love the colors, and the ruffles make it all the more striking.  Total cost?  Let's see: I paid $3 each for the lime and pink fabric (with about 3/4 of a yard left over), the black was already in my stash, and I got 1/2 yard of the print fabric so it was about $2.50! Okay so less than $10 for this dress, even less if I would have bought just 1/4 yard for the ruffles.  So one could make this dress for as low as $6. Awesome.  Oh and I got a hair bow as well!  I love Hobby Lobby.

Elisa's Christmas Dress

I know I made this dress WAY too early  (I actually made this dress several months ago), but in my defense, I was not planning on making it for Christmas--I accidentally made it a little bigger than I wanted so there is not much choice. 
I bought this fabric at Joannes a while back.  I really can't remember how much it cost!! I need to post more often so I don't forget! I'm quite sure it was no more than $10 for everything.  I used polyester costume fabric, lace, and tulle.  
This was another experimental dress that turned out quite well.  I wanted a lace-up back and a gathered bodice, and of course lots of pouf, lace, and gathers.  I think everything was exectuted pretty decently, though I would have gone about the bodice differentyl now that I (kind of) know how to make a gathered bodice. 

Isn't she stunning in her pretty red dress?  She looks like a princess.  I can't wait till she wears it, she'll turn heads for sure. 

Sew Tweet!

 Joannes had a sale a month or so ago--50% off of all remnants, which are already 50% off the regular price! Not only are remnants cheap, but they are also perfect when sewing for small children and if you're planning on mixing and matching fabric. The selection can be pretty pathetic sometimes, but luckily for me I found this cute cotton bird-print fabric.  The bodice and bottom layer are made from cotton broad cloth.  It's cheap, only $3/yard at hobby lobby.  It is quite thin, but not a problem in this dress since the bodice is lined.
I had a lot of fun making Elisa this cute little dress. I couldn't resist making a little birdie on her bodice. It is machine-embroidered on.  I only wish I would have put it on higher so it sits more on her chest instead of her tummy.  Oh well.   After the bird was done, the dress came together quite quickly.  What I love must about this dress is that it will grow with her so she can wear it for at least another year!

I'm not sure of the exact price, but I can tell you for sure that I paid no more than $5 to make this dress!

Flower Smocked Skirt Set

So this is how I employed the flower smocking technique.  It was quite tricky getting the folds to lay evenly.  If I were to do it over again, I would have spent more time making sure they were more even and straight, but I think it looks okay.  I would have also sewed the beads on instead of gluing them!  I've got such a bad habit of going all glue-gun happy.  Anyway, I love the texture and uniqueness the flower smoking gives this little outfit.

I also discovered the circle skirt technique while making this.  I LOVE the circle skirt--I love how easy it is to do (and quick too), I love how it lays, and I love how it twirls!  I didn't want a gathered skirt this time so I'm really glad I came across this tutorial on MADE (best sewing blog EVER, by the way!)

Smocking aside, the top was a pain to make, mostly because I decided I didn't like the sleeves after I put them on.  So I unpicked them and made it a tank top. However, something went askew in doing so, so it doesn't quite lay right :( It's not totally obvious, but it's bad enough to bug me.  I hate it when I sew things like that: not horrible enough to trash, but just bad enough to not want to put her in it very often.  Boo.

The fabric was 50% off at Joann's (so about $4/yard) and then I got another 25% off so I paid I dunno, like $8 including tax for two yards of this fabric.  A pretty good deal I think, especially since it's not the cheap costume fabric so it doesn't fray like crazy--it is pretty easy to work with.      

All in all, this outfit is probably one of my most ambitious outfit in terms of trying out new techniques.  I don't know how I feel about using the flower smocking on wearables.  I think most people use it for throw pillows and such, not to mention it is difficult to gauge the amount of fabric needed to get a good fit.  

This woman used a different type of smocking for a dress, I think it looks okay.  I mean, it looks okay within in the context of being on a dress.  The smocking itself is amazing.  I've tried this braid-smocking and it's fun and not too difficult. I think if the sleeves were different on this dress (or it was just sleeveless) it would look better, just my humble opinion.  But again, such a neat pattern, don't you think??

But I digress, here is the beauty in her new dress set:

Smocking!

So I've found a little corner of the sewing world that I have not previously explored and I just want to share it will ya'll (I live in Texas now so it is required of me to say ya'll). 
It's called smocking, and there are many types of smocking.  The first you have all (ya'll?)  seen before, it is especially popular with baby dresses.  Elisa has a few of 'em:

It is created by running fabric through a machine such as this:

Basically, the machine makes a bunch of tiny, even pleats, in which the seamstress then hand-stitches a design within the pleats.  Super-cute! This type of smocking is quite old-fashioned--it's been around forever--but cuteness never goes out of style!

As fun as this looks to do (and I say that in all seriousness), I do not have $200 to shell out for a pleater machine. Luckily for me though, there are many beautiful, fun, amazing smocking designs that are done by hand.

I'm not going to post them all for you, but if you go to this lady's website, you can see all the neat smocking designs you can do, and I believe she has a tutorial for a lot of them.
I tried out the easiest--the flower pattern.  You make a square, pull it together, and wrap and tie! Easy, slightly time consuming, but it looks totally awesome! Even the back looks neat:
 

  
I don't think I will be getting super into smocking, but it was fun to try it out!