DIY: A Scribble-Scrabble Back to Art Teacherin' Dress and a Contest!

So, what does one do when her art room isn't ready and her lessons aren't planned (um, I have a vague notion of what will go down that first day. It starts with something like, the kids will come to art...and that's pretty much all I got)? MAKE A BACK TO ART TEACHERIN' DRESS, OF COURSE. Yes, I'm shouting. Because, like, duuuuh. 

I decided a dress was in order because 1. I always make a Back to Art Teacherin' Dress (see exhibit A and B), it's tradition and 2. Cuz I was kinda feeling like this about the whole notion of heading back...

Staying up entirely too late and sleeping in til high noon, I will miss yooooooou!

But now that I've got a snappy outfit to wear on that very first day (which starts tomorrow with four daze, er, days of professional developementishness. But I don't really count that. The true blue first day is when the wee ones show up which is this Friday, eek!) I'm feeling much better about Back to Art Teacherin' land. In fact, I'm now feelin' a lil more like this...

I...Can....Do...It! 

By the way, I recently downloaded the giphy app and have henceforth been solely communicating with friends via gifs. It's like a super fun game for me tho I'm not quite sure they feel the same. 

WHUT, CHUCK NORRIS?!

But whateves, y'all. Forget about my gif obsession and let's talk CONTEST, shall we? 

HEEEEY, say what?! I just spent entirely too long making this fugly -n- difficult to read image. So lemme reiterate what that thar thingie says in all sorts of bulletpoints, words and sentences. 

* Snap a photo of your Back to Art Teacherin' style and share it on instagram tagging moi @cassiestephenz. If you wanna throw in a hashtag to boot, I quite fancy #whattheartteacherwore.

* No instagram? No problem! Email me your photo at cassieart75@gmail.com. 

* I'll share your amazing art teacherin' looks right here in a Back to School Fashion post! 

* You can enter more than once...and every time you do, I'll enter you to win a giveaway! (Yes, I know I'm currently doing ANOTHER giveaway. No, I've not announced the winner yet, stay tuned this week). I have NO IDEA WHAT I'M GIVING AWAY but I'm sure it will be something swell!

Oh, I so hope all y'all share with me your stylish ways! I can't wait to see what you be wearing! Now, on to that dress at hand...

Saturday, el hubbo and I decided to play tourist in our own town and hit the local antique and thrift shops. I was coming up pretty empty handed until I stopped in SMART: Scrap Made Art Supplies. It's a pretty magical place in the Berry Hill area of Nashville. It's completely stocked with just about every crafty making supply known to man for cheap. I stocked up on vintage patterns (a whooping 18 for $2) and this gem happened to be one of them. Bows on shoulders?! YES, PLEASE!

I used the pattern for the bodice only and just winged it for the skirt portion. I was having a fabric shortage (I scored this Lisette fabric from the sale bin at Joann's many moons ago) and managed to eek out this dress with a few scraps to spare. I love this print so much what with the wiggly marker-esque lines and the primary colors with a touch o' pink. It just screamed "Art Teacher" when I saw it. 

But those squiggles, y'all. Trying to match up those squiggles just about put me over the edge. At least the back skirt is matched up. The rest of it, meh. Not so much.

 The only thing left this dress needs: A Marker Hat! 

 Could I get it over that hair, tho? 

And there you have it, what Ima wearing to head back to school! Looking forward to seein' what all y'all are wearing. Til then!

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DIY: Artsy Sew Along, Stitching // Gathering and a Winner!

Whut-whut?! Guess who finally decided to come back to her own sew-along party? Das right, kiddies! My bottom-of-the-heartest apologies for the delay. I always forget that July is pretty stinkin' busy in Cassie-town, what with laying on the couch, taking a shower (occasionally) and deciding whether or not to get dressed to get the mail or just shock the neighbors again and do it in a bathrobe with the backside accidentally tucked into my grannie panties (like that visual image? Yer welcome!). I know, right?! It's amazing I've even managed to find the time to put together these two short clippies for you! Here's what I'll be yappin' about today:

1. You've already got your pockets in, riiiiiight? And it was super simple, yeeeeeessss? If you've not done that yet, no worries! Just hop over here and come back in an hour.  Now we are ready to stitch the front of the skirt to the back two panels!

2. From there, I'll show you how to add your gathering stitches. 

And that's it for this post. Short and simple. My plan is to be bacattcha soon buuuuut we'll see how I feel after a couple more days of couch rollin' around and Mad Men power-watching. It's a rough life, summer livin', I tell ya.

OH!! The giveaway! Thank you so much to all y'all that entered to win the goods to make your own Palette Purse! I recently carried my purse to an art event and got so many stinkin' compliments, if I do say so (and I just did. So there.) My fave comment is always, "Oh! Where did you get that?!" which is way better than "ooOOoooooh, that's...cute. Did you make that?!" like I'm some five year old wearing a moldy macaroni necklace. All y'all crafters know what I'm talkin' about. Anyway! The winner is...Andie Anders! Congrats, buddy! And thanks all y'all for playing. I seem to give away stuffs pretty frequently around here so if you don't come here for my good looks and charm (whuuuuuut?!) then pop back by for the free shizz. 

Now, let's stitch!

Please ignore that crazy nonsense about entering to win the contest! We already have a winner, duh, me.

I dunno what you do when you need a sewing break but I fabric shop. It's most def a bad idea that I don't recommend. I mean, lookie what's currently in my slacker-shopping cart: kitties! 

Bananas! 

And back to werk. 

Next time, we'll work on that waistband and the zip. Hemming should be a snap and we're done! Yay! If you are stitching, please be sure to share on the Artsy Sew Along page and on instragramz with the #artsysewalong. Thanks, kids!

 I leave you with more eye candy from one of my fave fabric brands Cotton and Steel. Til next times!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #142

 I Often Take Ridiculous Pictures...and Especially Ridiculous Pictures Look Like This: It's like I'm all "heeeeyyy, tripod snapping my photo! I tooootally didn't just put you there and I toooootally didn't just know you were about to snap my pic!" Golly. Could I be any worst of a model/actress? You don't have to answer that. It was one of them rhetorical question thingies. dress and poodle brooch: vintage; necklace: J.Crew; owl sandals: ancient Anthro; Enid Collins bag: y'all I LOVE Enid Collins box purses. They's my fave. This one was scored off ebay.

So I did a lil scrolling thru my blog a moment ago (is that called ego-blogging? Blogger-bastion? Bl-arcissist? I'm guilty.) and realized I'd not posted a What the Art Teacher Wore in almost a month. And I know all y'all were like, Praise Hey-Zeus, she's finally called it quits on that mess but SURPRISE! I got dressed and was semi-presentable for 5 outta 7 days this week, which is really something during summer vacation, amirite, teachers? Therefore, you're a-gonna have to endure this here WTATW for yet another post. YOU'RE WELCOME. 

Not only did I get dressed, put on my face and comb my hairs, but I also settled back into some stitching. You know I've been on that declutterin' train for some weeks now and, I gotta tell ya, I was starting to lose steam. I think it's because I kept looking longingly at my now uber organized sewing room wishing I could create. So I allowed myself this week to finish a dress and this weekend to start a new one. Wanna see?

That fabric is from Joann's and I scooped it up thinking I'd make me a second Monet dress. I'm just a zipper, a hem and some pink bows away from completion. I'll be sure to share it with y'all here next week. It got me thinking that y'all might wanna get in on this sewing game too. Many of you participated in last year's Apron Sew Along and I thought it might be fun to get the band back together, so to speak. When I spotted this at Joann's I thought it might be just the thing for us to stitch.

 This skirt spoke to me for a coupla reasons:

1. IT HAS POCKETS. Pockets are the answer to all the world's problems, I tell ya. 

2. IT HAS A CUTIE-PAHTOOTIE BELT/SASH/THINGIE. I am a big supporter of a belt. They singe the waist, they make you look all put together, and, personal fave, they are the perfect way to bring the colors of an outfit together. Just scroll thru the rest of this post. I'm wearing a belt EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

3. IT CLAIMS TO BE FOR THE BEGINNER. Welp. I hope so. I'm a forever-beginner sewist. 

I like the variety of lengths, particularly the longer. With all the moving around I do in the art room, I prefer not to flash anyone. Scarring children for life it not my goal, ya know? 

So! Who's in?! For now, all you gotta do is leave a comment here or on my Facebook page. I'll be sharing the details next week. If you wanna get your kitten mittens on that pattern now, you can scoop it up at Joann's. I hope you'll join me! Til then, later cats!

 Yet Another Dork Pose Tuesday: Like, why, y'all? Who knows. Had a lovely night out with a birthday buddy despite the fact that it's currently an inferno here in Nashville. We decided to take our chances and eat outside at Epice. Where we melted. Good thing the food was delish! AND a popsicle from Las Paletas made us feel must less hawt. dress: vintage; cumberbund: gift from a friend; shoes: Clarks; purse: another Enid Collins

 Stripey Wednesday: Oh, how I loves this dress. But, y'all. I cannot breathe, eat, or sit down in the thing, that waist! Such a waste! I'm putting it in my etsy shop this week for someone else to enjoy. dress: vintage; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; shoes: Anthro

 Sewing Class Thursday: Did I tell y'all that me and a sweet buddy of mine are taking a sewing class at Craft South? If you aren't familiar, Craft South is this amazing crafting studio and sewing goods store that was recently opened by fabric designer Anna Maria Horner. The class has been so fun and it's taught by sewist and blogger Devon Iott of Miss Make. Devon's been an excellent teacher and I cannot wait to share with y'all what I've made. If you live in the area and have a chance, I recommend you take a class at Craft South! top: Old Navy; belt and skirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; shoes: TJ Maxx

And here's that lil number that I started over a year ago (so I have this habit of cutting out the pattern pieces...and actually getting to the stitching part 12 months later. Sumpin wrong wit dat?) and finally wrapped up this week. I'm excited to sew with y'all on the skirt. Hope you'll join the funness! 

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What the Art Teacher Wore #110 and First Full Week of Skool!

 Maniac Monday: Some crazy man (aka Ginger Jesus) decided to photobomb my outfit posts this week. During my first photo attempt, I was outside snapping pics. When I scrolled through the photos, I noticed that SOMEBODY was in the background pressing his large white belly against the glass window. So I decided to snap some pics inside and he found his way into this picture. I'd say he should do a daily What Ginger Jesus Wore but it would just be a repeat of the previous days as this dude is always in head-to-toe brown. If ever I have to file a Missing Persons it will be "Sasquatch Man Last Seen in Brown". on me, top: garage sale; skirt: etsy; shoes: Target, last season; bangles: gifts; palette hair clip: made by me. On hubs: t-shirt: army surplus; shorts: thrifted

Well, hello friends! I'm proud to say that I made it through my first full week back in Art Teacherin' Land! It was a super fun week and I can't wait to share with y'all what we've been up to. Howeves,  if I learned one thang this week it's that I have to let go of my late nightin' ways. No more hitting the hay at 11pm only to rise and shine at 5am. Cuz ain't nobody shinin' when they crawl outta bed looking like a drunken zombie. So! Lesson learned. This week my new bedtime is 10:59pm.

Speakin' of this week, I'm super excited to announce that the Apron Sew-Along starts this coming week! Yippie! So many of you all have shared your fab fabric choices and I cannot wait the finished results. In this first week's Apron Sew-Along post, I'll share with you how to create your own pattern, cut your fabric, stitch a pocket and attach that bad boy to your apron! You can follow along with me if you wanna or create an apron design all your own. I'd love it if you'd join the Apron Sew-Along page and share your progress with the rest of us.

In this here post, along with my Back-to-School attire, I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of our first couple of days in art class and just what we've been working on. Teacher buds, did any of y'all head back this week? What are your lil artists creating? More deets on this projects soon. In the meantime, have a great week and I'll see you at the Apron Sew-Along!

Have y'all heard of International Dot Day? It's a celebration based around the Peter H. Reynolds' book The Dot. This book is a fantastic beginning-of-the-school-year book as it celebrates a young artist who once thought she was not. International Dot Day is September 15th and kids all across the globe are creating dots in celebration. We celebrated last year and got a great response from both the kids and adults. So we're back at it again this year. I'd love to hear if you and your student are celebrating and what they are creating in honor of Dot Day.

My first grade kids started painting during their first week of art. No sense wasting any time, right? These guys painted many a masterpiece in kindergarten so we didn't have to use too much time chatting about painting dos and don'ts. That totes had this. Instead we painted about our artist inspiration: Wassily Kandinsky and made concentric circles, aka circles that hug each other! More on what is to become of these paintings soon.

Cat's Butt Tuesday: If it's not the hubs doin' the photobombin', it's the cat. Here she is showing you her better side. top, shoes and skirt: vintage, thrifted; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing

In second grade land, we are making reversible paintings on pizza rounds. I know, right?! I decided that we'd also use Kandinsky as our inspiration and remembered there being a REVERSIBLE KANDINSKY painting featured in the movie Six Degrees of Separation. And I was all I'M A GENIUS! Check out this clip:

Guess what I learned after doin' a wee bit of homework? Kandinsky never painted a reversible painting. GAH, what?! A movie LIED to me?! What'll I find out next, that there is no Wizard of Oz?! Aw, well. We're still making reversible paintings. Humph.

Kindergarten Wednesday: We had an invasion of the littles on Wednesday. I had two 45 minute classes of the just-turned-five-10-minutes-ago set and they were amazing! Seriously! We took a tour of the art room, learned the Word of the Day (deets to come), found that we are artists and that we were gonna create a sculpture! What I love about these little guys is their enthusiasm. It's like pure joy. I wish I could bottle it. Like, seriously, sometimes, I wish I COULD bottle it and put a cork in it but on this day, it was precious. sweater: thrifted; heart top: Target, last season; skirt and shoes: Anthropologie

Every the kids heard the word of the day, which was artist, we all gave a "whoop-whoop!". We took a ride on the art train, chugged around the room admiring everyone's sculptures and proclaimed each kid to be an artist...after which they received a "whoop-whoop!". Trust me, after 45 minutes of "whoop-whoop!" was I just about whooped out. Er, wiped out. Whatever.

The base for our sculptures were, you guessed it, a dot!

Thursday!: Did I tell y'all that I now have my 3rd and 4th for an hour after YEARS of 30 minutes?! You guys, it was amazing! In one fourth grade class we learned our word of the week, chatted about Kandinsky, played instruments, danced, painted, SPLATTER painted, cleaned up, read a book, played a game. Seriously. Every time I looked at the clock I was like, wait, we have more time! skirt, shoes and top: thrifted

Y'all aren't gonna believe this but I got all sorts of techie this week. Suriously. I showed a couple of Prezis (so fast, fun and easy to create! I use the art gallery template), played music via Pandora (after I complained that my CD player was broken, a 3rd grader said, "um, use your computer!" Duh.) and I made these super fun signs on recitethis.com. Y'all gotta check that out, it's the jam.

Fried-Day: Totes. I ain't used to this 5 days a week biznatch! Time to up the b-vitamin/caffeine/sugary-cereal intake. art supplies blouse: DIY here; pencil-y skirt: DIY here

Oh, well, lookie here. Don't worry, this didn't happen in the art room but in our kitchen on Saturday morning. I had this grand idea that I'd bake banana bread even though 1. I don't bake, I start fires (obviously) and 2. I don't even like banana bread all that much. Especially when it looks like chewed-up-spit-out meatloaf (which meatloaf already looks chewed up and spit out but I digress). When I opened the oven the flames were actually huge. I quickly closed the door and ran for my camera. As I ran by hubs who had this "what's that smell?! why are you running?!" look on his face I told him, "I know you smell smoke but don't worry. It's just breakfast. And the fire is self-contained". 

Looks like you'll never have to worry about finding any cooking posts on this hear blog, eh? I'll just stick with the stitchin' and teachin', thank ya vury much. Until next time, get that apron fabric ready, kids! And we'll chat soon. 

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DIY: The "Uh, Are You an Art Teacher?" Ensemble

The other night I was meeting up with a group of non-art-teacher buddies (yes, I have those. Two, actually, thank ya vury much) for dinner. I was just coming from my first day back at school so I was in my normal art teacherin' garb. Paint palette in mah hair, pencil-y shoes, some sort of embarrassingly obvious art teacher dress...you know, the norm. When I wear this wacky tackiness, I honestly don't think twice about it. In fact, I often forget that I look rather ridiculous. My non-art-teacher buddies, however, never forget. 

NATB: When we go out, people seriously look at you funny.

Clueless Me: No they don't!  

NATB: Um, yes they do. It's like they are trying to decide, "Is this a crazy person? Does she realize there are crayons in her hair and she's out in public?!" And you don't even notice!

Okay, so I totally thought this was bogus until yesterday. I got it in my big fat art-teacherin head that I needed to create some miniature art supplies. I'd seen some amazing ones here (gah, y'all! This artist must have magical fairy fingers!) and was totes inspired. So I ran to the nearest big box craft shop and loaded up on Sculpey. When I got up to the register, I realized I didn't have my teacher ID for a discount. Then this went down:

Me: I'm sorry, I don't have my school ID. Can I please get a teacher discount?

Not-Looking-Up-From-Scanning-Countless-Sculpey-Blocks Check Out Chick: You have to be a teacher.

Me: I am a teacher, I promise! I just left my ID at school. 

Still-Preoccupied Check Out Chick: I'm sorry but I don't have any way of knowing if you're really a teacher. 

Me (remembering my convo with NATB): Look at me.

Check Out Chick, startled: Huh? Oh. Wow (taking in that number above). So, you're an art teacher, huh? Kay, I believe you!

And I actually think she gave me double the discount, y'all. As she should all crazy art teachers.

Thank goodness for that wee discount otherwise Ida never been able to make these mini-masterpieces. You know, cuz every approaching-middle-age lady needs a set of Art Supply Shoe Clips, amiright? More on those in a minute, for now, let's talk about that discount-gettin dress, shall we?

You might recognize this fab fabric from my Dreaded Art Supply Order post (which I will be posting a revision of. Y'all made SO MANY super duper suggestions that I've already rewritten my order!). I decided to pair it with some orange and red chevron fabric I thrifted years ago that were curtains in it's previous life.

As for a dress pattern, I settled on that 1970's number on the left. I totes loved the bodice (I fer realz have a thing for dresses with a midriff band. In case you've not noticed every-freakin-dress-I-stitch has a midriff band. Band? Belt? Thangie? You know what I mean). However, I wasn't loving the skirt options. Here's the deal, that mini is just a lil too mini. I don't believe in shaving above my knee caps so I pretty much look like an orangutan from there up. Just ask the hubs. Good thing he's into primates. As for the maxi, y'all, I can't do a maxi in the art room. Every time I squat in a maxi (um, that sounded bad. I mean squat down to pick something up off the ground, not like, to pee outside or something. I may look like an orangutan but I'm not an animal, geesh), I inevitably step on my hem, start to stand and fall over. It's quite classy. For that reason, I decided to go with my skirt standby, good ole Project Runway Simplicity 0320.

Now, let's address the big fat hairy elephant in the room...those 1970's bat wings...

Yeah, those. Y'all know I'm not really a lover of stitching sleeves but I was willing to forego my hate for these guys. I mean in the sketch they looked so hippie and cute! In fact when I wore this dress the other day, all my flower-power teacher buddies reminisced about the dress they had as teens with "wings". However, these guys should really come with some sorta warning label. The entire time I wore this dress, I could see those wings outta my peripheral view and kept swatting at 'em. Once I thought there was a bug on me, another time a bird and I swear I even saw a group of dancing bears. But that was after accidentally consuming some of that Sculpey clay (hazards of eating and crafting). So there's that.

I also have decided that absolutely no dress is complete without pockets. However, I really hate where the pocket are placed in this particular dress pattern. It's impossible to have your hands in your pockets and NOT look like you are piddling (scroll upward, y'all and tell me I'm lying). I opted to use some more of that chevron for pocket town.

Oh! Can we talk about that vintage pattern for a pinch? Cuz it was just about the weirdest pattern I've ever used. Tell me if you find this odd: it had me separately create the front and back of the dress...

And then stitch the front and back together at the side seams. Huh? I mean, I've always done it where you make your bodice and your skirt and attach those together. I actually kinda liked it this way as it made gathering the skirt portion a lot less taxing. I just found it kind of odd...have y'all every sewn a dress this way? What are some of the pros and cons cuz I'm thinking of going down this road again when it comes to other dress patterns.

Oh, look, crafting shrapnel. This is what you don't want your dinner table lookin like, FYI. Not unless you want Dancing-Bears-on-Shoulders hallucinations. 

To make these into shoe clips (and sweater, hair, nipple, whatever clips) I simply glued a little alligator clip on the back. I'm kinda addicted to making these right now (well, as of last night) but I'm in need of more mini-suggestions. Whatcha got for me?

And there you have it, kids! An ensemble that will most definitely get you stares and the occasional discount. Off to see if it'll work at the liquor store! 

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