DIY: Round Towel to Circle Skirt...with Pockets!

I think this summer may go down as the one I went to Walmart, LOST MY MIND, purchased all of their round beach towels and stitched them all into circle skirts.

And you know what? I'm okay with that.

Cuz now I'm the proud owner of an assortment of super absorbent, albeit VERY warm, food-tastic skirts. Perfect for all occasions. National Pizza, Donut, Watermelon, Kiwi, Orange and Hamburger Days. I should know cuz I've already marked my calendar. 

Because I know you will want to make your own, I've provided a handy tutorial. What this tute is missing is...pockets! 

That's right. After I made my pizza skirt, I realized that not having pockets was just THE WORST. What kind of monster makes a skirt without pockets? This one, apparently. I knew adding pockets to the last five skirts would add more time but, c'mon. Pockets are always worth it. 

After I made the pizza skirt and it was so simple, I literally hit Walmart and bought EVERY round towel they had. The lady at the check out counter asked me what I planned to do with so many towels. I was wearing my pizza skirt at the time and I said, "Look! I'm making them into skirts! This one was a towel too!" She just gave me the side-eye and was like, "oh, okay." She does work at Walmart tho...they see IT. ALL. 

Some towels translated to skirts better than others. Like this donut...I thought it would be my fave but it's not. 

 The orange one, however, makes me so happy. I didn't think much of it until I put it on. It's so cute!

The hamburger one...well, I'm still on the fence about it. It's wacky tho and that I can totally deal with. 

In other news, GUESS WHO HAS BEEN BANNED FROM THE ROUND TOWEL AISLE AT WALMART?! If you see any cute ones, pick 'em up for me, would ya?! 

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DIY: National Donut Day Dress, Part 2

This past Friday was National Donut Day! Because I'm pretty much a crazy person, I decided to create not one but TWO dresses for the occasion (the extremes I will go to to avoid cleaning my house HAS NO BOUNDS, PEOPLE). The first dress I made was an ode to Krispie Kreme. This here dress was dedicated to all the other fabulous donut joints out there! 

I decided to pair my dress with the Donut Hat (er, fascinator?) that I created a couple of years ago at a workshop. I started the dress at about 11:30pm on Thursday night. I'm a total night owl and it gets really out of hand during my summer vacation time!

 I used my easiest dress pattern that I've repeated both here and here. I love this dress pattern because it really just involves to pattern pieces (not including the two straps): the bodice and the skirt! It's a vintage Vogue pattern, number 8571. When looking for vintage patterns, your best bet is eBay or etsy. Using the sewing pattern number makes the search a lot easier. 

I decided to opt out of the waist tie (I did that here) and just wear my big ole pink belt. I did go with a circle skirt (like I did here) which took me a bit longer. I didn't have enough fabric so I had to do some "tasteful additions" to one of the back panels. I'm not telling you which one, I'll let you see if you can figure it out! 

 With the pattern pieces cut the night before, I got up at 7am and started sewing. This dress took me until 11am to complete...not bad, I don't think! Adding pockets and hemming that beast of a circle skirt did slow me down some but I was happy with my time. Then I had to bust it to wear both dresses to all my donut stops!

After hitting Krispie Kreme in my KK dress, where I picked up donuts for our school's custodial staff (and any other takers in the building!), I did a quick change into this number. These photos were shot by me with my self-timer right outside my art room door. Then I was off to Dunkin'!

So it turns out that Dunkin wasn't giving away free donuts...you had to buy a drink before you got a freebie. I bought a dozen donuts from there to take to my school's central office where the big wigs work. I work in a very small school district of just 8 schools and we're like family. It just so happens that they are less than a half mile down the road from Dunkin so it totally worked out. Everyone was so excited to get a donut and see my wild ensemble that it totally made my day. But they didn't eat all the donuts, I still had half a dozen left!

I remembered I had some banking to do which is also just down the road. I popped in there and delivered donuts to those hard workin' folks at the bank. Our bank is next door to our post office, right in downtown Franklin, so I popped in there too and delivered the rest of the donuts. Y'all. Folks were so stinkin' happy and excited...this was such a fun day! Who knew dressing crazy and giving away free sweets was so much fun? I really need to do it more often! 

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DIY: National Donut Day Dress, Part 1

Happy National Donut Day! Earlier this week, when I discovered that Donut Day was approaching, I decided it was just the deadline I needed to sew up not one but TWO donut themed dresses. So, there will be not one but TWO Donut Dress posts on this here blog. Do'not even act like you are surprised. This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands! 

 For National Donut Day, Krispie Kreme is giving out one free donut! How super amazing is that. And those folks were working hard at the Kreme when I popped by there today. It was a madhouse! Who knew that folks would go so nuts over donuts?! 

 I've had this fabric in my stash forever...so long that all I can tell you is that I scored it from the thrift store years ago. I decided to pair the small print with a bid and bold polka dot. Two days ago, I started cutting into the fabric...well, the best I could...

 Every time I do, I gotta contend with this. WHY IS THIS A THING, CAT PEOPLE?! The moment she hears that tissue paper on the floor, she comes a running and a sitting. It's hilarious. 

 I decided to do the same dress pattern mashup as I used on this pencil dress but decided to ditch the button. 

 The red dotted fabric was leftover from my superhero dress. This means I actually used fabric already in my stash for this dress...that never happens! 

I have decided that there are three things I hate the most about sewing: 

1. PUTTING IN A SLEEVE. Ugh, I get stabbed at least 50,000 times but the needles holding the sleeve in place as I struggle to get it around the machine. Someone come teach me a magical sleeve sewing trick!

2. HEMMING A CIRCLE SKIRT. Thankfully, I didn't have to do that here. Because I literally feel like I'm pinning and sewing a circle skirt for DAYS...but they are my favorite!

3. PUTTING IN A ZIPPER. It's not that it's hard to put in a zip...it's just that it's usually the final step and it's at the point in dress-making where I just WANNA BE DONE and NEVER SEW AGAIN. So my patience is pretty much extinct. 

 But then I wear the dress and feel all proud and start thinking of the next dress Ima bout to hate making. 

 Look, maw! Matched up backside! 

 Also, POCKETS. All my dresses have them. It's mandatory. 

Stay tuned! I'll have another Donut Dress to share with y'all super soon!

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