aprons!

I made these two aprons for my friend's sister and I'm pretty happy with the results.

P.S. Sorry for the icky photos, I was too lazy to deal with my camera settings lol.

mint chocolate chip dress

 a.k.a. The Million Mistakes Dress

Only read the below paragraph if you have way too much time on your hands ;)

I cut this dress out a month ago, and promptly forgot about it. Then when I started working on it again  I decided that the bodice would look amazing with a bias tape trim. Yeah, wrong! I chose a bright yellow (should have used the baby blue)  from my stash and was horrified when I saw the final combo of brown and yellow. So I gave up and considered cutting it up (to show the dress who was boss of course). Thankfully I didn't cut it up, and instead came back to it last weekend. I turned the ugly bias to the inside, top-stitched and was relatively happy with the result. After attaching the skirt and putting in the invisible zipper I got the brilliant idea that the skirt need to be shorter. And of course I decided to just guess at how much shorter, instead of putting it on. FAIL! I cut off way too much and once again abandoned the dress. My mom gave me the brilliant idea to use a pretty fabric for the bottom and I chose this Amy Butler (?)  scallop print. And the dress looked great until I decided to hem it with bright pink thread. I still have to rip out the hem and redo it white, but overall I'm pretty happy with the dress, and even more happy that I'm finally done with it. <3

 have a happy weekend!

where do I even start?

Well first off, it is Mother's Day, so obviously this post is going to be about my mom :) A lot of you have been asking how she's doing with the cancer (thanks :)) She is in remission!!!!!!!!! We, meaning our little family of three, knew she would be fine. But it was such a relief to meet with her doctor and hear the words come out of a professional's mouth :)

I was planning on being super mushy so my Mommy would know how much I love her. But as I was looking through pictures I realized that she already knows, because she loves me as much as I love her. Okay, already getting teary-eyed. But really, she is amazing and I can't even imagine what my life would be like without her. For 21 years she has protected me as much as possible, and pushed me to always do better. She is my BFF.

Here are some photos of us from the last few years. Maybe next year I'll scan the photos of us from my childhood :)

Hope you had a lovely day with your mum <3

spray paint magic

Happy Friday! 

I found these plant stands in an alley and have wanted to paint them for a long time now, and I finally got around to it last weekend. I love how a simple coat of paint can transform something from icky to beautiful :)

Before:

 

After:

date night dress?

Ikat is one of my favorite prints, after florals and polka dots of course. My mom bought this fabric for me in the Summer of 2009, and I was going to make a maxi dress out of it. Well it's been 2 years and I finally used it to make this cute dress for a date tonight :) I sort of used this pattern, but really only for the bodice, and I did away with the ginormous ruffles.

So here's the funny thing, I hate how this dress looks on me and will not be wearing it on my date tonight. The neckline is too low, the hem is too high, and the gathers at my tummy are not doing me any favors. I love the dress, the fabrics, my beautiful invisible zipper. But it makes me look fat, and according to my mom my eyes just don't sparkle when I put it on. So this dress will be going to my friend, Rachel. She is petite, lacks any type of tummy, and is sure to sparkle in this dress :)

Enjoy this beautiful day.

from Columbia with love

The second I saw this dress I fell in love with it. My parents brought it back from Columbia for me, and it is just perfect. Well almost perfect. The sleeves made me look like I had the broadest shoulders ever.

So I gently seam-ripped the sleeves, being careful not to tear the beautiful crochet work, and then finished the armholes with seam binding. Now I have a beautiful flowy dress that I'm sure I'll be living in come Summer time :)

 Just look at the beautiful neckline! 

note to self: MUST learn to crochet soon.

a quick little re-fashion

A few weeks ago Goodwill had all dresses on sale for $5.99. I may have gone to at least 4 or 5 Goodwills around LA in one week and bought at least 15 dresses. It is possible ;) Some of the dresses were perfect as-is, but some were in need of a little help. I'm pretty sure the dress below is a child's dress, but it fits, so who cares lol. It had this weird shirt attached that made me look like a five year old.

So I just cut the top out, and voila! a simple summer dress. I'm such a lover of stripes. I know they supposedly add visual weight, but for some reason I feel that I look thinner in horizontal stripes.

So looking forward to Summer <3

wedding dress shopping

I've spent the past two Monday afternoons with my lovely friend Stephanie while she picked out a wedding dress. We had so much fun and she found a beautiful (and my favorite lol) dress that is absolutely perfect for her June wedding. I love Steph because she's not a bridezilla. She didn't freak out if I told her that I hated a dress that she had picked out, or the time I told her the waistband of one of the dresses looked like it was holding a bunch of folded up napkins.

This is what I wore:

sweater: thrifted, top: thrifted, leggings: Target, boots: Target, bag: Urban Outfitters

I really wish we had gotten a picture of the seamstress looking really confused as I ran around in a long veil. lol.

what a lovely day.

happy 2011

Long time no post. So I have a quick little money saving sewing tip for all of you.

Because I sew A LOT it's really expensive to buy tiny spools of thread, and my machine is not equipped to use serger thread. So I did something about it ;)  

I simply put a spool of serger thread in a (cute vintage) coffee cup and threaded my machine as usual.

The placement of the coffee cup and where you start threading may be different depending on how your machine is set up. Don't be afraid to fool around with the placement and your tension until you get it just right :) 

happy sewing.