We were traveling to Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando this weekend (our very favorite thing ever) and I decided to take an airplane craft with me. I love to take little embroidery projects with me because they are lightweight and easy to transport. Earrings are my favorite things to embroider: they are quick and easy to make and super lightweight to wear. I've made several now and I've shared the process on each in this blog post!
Recently, I was out poking around at Ross (for those unfamiliar, this is a discount everything store) and I stumbled upon the cutest shower curtain. It had a big and bold print on the fabric (which I love and is super hard to find) and it was Halloweenie! I'm a big fan of Halloween and I've already stitched up two dresses for the season (one I've not even shared here yet!). So I scooped up this shower curtain for a mere $8.99 and gave myself a challenge:
SEW A DRESS IN ONE DAY!
Let's see how it went:
Y'all! I love it!
I was super surprised that the metallic print on the fabric was so resilient. It didn't chip off when I stitched it which was my big fear. The fabric is super light and flowy, making it perfect for a circle skirt. AND I was surprised to find that when I ironed the fabric, it didn't harm the print!
I am wearing a crinoline under the dress to help with the poof. I'm a sucker for a poofy skirt.
I'm returning to Halloween Horror Nights this week...which is in Orlando. Knowing it will be hot, I'm excited that the dress is so lightweight. I can't wait to wear it!
I paired it with this black belt but I'm thinking I may prefer the black bow. What do you think?
I paired it with this necklace I found at TJMaxx (clearly, I'm a shopper) and some fun earrings and hairclips that I've had for years.
So I'm happy to say...I can sew a dress in a day! From a shower curtain of all things!
AND I just remembered...this isn't my first time using a shower curtain for clothing! Check out this number!
Hey there! Today I thought I'd share a tour of my closet!
I've been asked many times to do a little closet tour and I DID do one a while back...when my closet was an actual closet. You can check that blog post out here. But there have been MANY reasons why I've always hesitated:
1. Because my closet is now a room. And, like, that's kinda crazy. And excessive. And...a lot of things. I know this. But honestly, this room was just sitting unused. We don't have kids and we don't host house guests (yes, the family stays at hotels when they visit. Trust me when I say it's a beautiful thing). So we had this unused room. And now it's my closet.
2. Because...I have an embarrassing amount of stuff. I don't get rid of anything, y'all. Well, I take that back. I do weed out 'trendy' impulse-buy items. These days I try to only pick up thrifted and resale clothing as well as artist-made goods. Notice the key words "I try"...but fashion is my creative outlet so and your girl loves to create ;).
3. Because this space is usually messy. I've had it kinda organized for a while but not until recently did I really get a place for everything. And while it's clean, I thought what better time to tour!
It's a long-winded tour. I had to stop and share all my fave things, right? So I apologize for the length but...here you go! My closet tour!
I created an Amazon store with links to all of the organizational items I share so I'll be posting those down below. I know I struggled to find what works for me. Being a visual person, all of my stuff has to be out where I can see it. I tried to fight that method of organizing for a long time...but now I embrace it. It works for me!
Closet organizational items can be found here. From the pegboard, to the storage stool; from the cart to everything else, it's all in that link!
I will be creating a Thrift Shop video soon in case you aren't sure where to start when you hit the thrift. It's a blast but can be discouraging if you don't have any luck. It's one of those things where you gotta go often and keep an open mind.
Whenever we travel to towns, I always look for thrift and vintage shops to hit up. Fabric stores are fun too because then I can score something unusual to make into a dress!
For links to these wire racks and more home organization, check here.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments on the YouTube video. I had to turn off the comments here; I was getting so much spam it was crazy!
But if you are looking to embrace your inner fashionista or just wanna organize as a visual person, lemme know. I'd be happy to help!
Hi! I scored this amazing sweater recently and while I absolutely loved it, I hated the obnoxious plastic white buttons that were on the sweater. They just stuck out like a sore thumb! So I picked up some polymer clay at the craft store with the idea to create my own. Normally, I buy the 'name brand' polymer clay but this time, I was feeling cheap and decided to give the house brand a try. It was half the price and I have to say...despite the fact that the yellow clay stained my hands a pinch, it worked great! I'm used to stained hands so, no big deal!
I went about creating these factory style and it went pretty quickly. I made a video to share the process in case you need some van Gogh bling in your life. Like, duh. Of course you do.
So easy, right?
Once complete, I just stitched these onto my sweater and added some jump rings and a French hook to the earrings and I was all set in my new upgraded van Gogh sweater!
Not only that but this craft was just the creativity thirst quencher I needed this weekend. Thanks for letting me share, y'all!
I've had it on my mind to print my students artwork on fabric for a very long time. I've done just about every variation of kid-created fabric for dress-makin' such as having them color IKEA coloring sheet fabric which I then stitched into a dress (more details on that dress here):
Or the time I found the fabric of picture frames! I had my students draw their self portraits on the fabric before creating that into a dress. Both of these dresses were created with Graffiti fabric markers. They've seen plenty of washing and, while the colors have faded a bit, they still look pretty vibrant. And the kids absolutely love them. More details on that dress here.
But the idea of creating fabric from student work is one that I've been toying with every since hearing about Spoonflower. In the past, I've ordered fabric from Spoonflower and made a couple of dresses with designs created by artists.
You can check out the details of this dress and fabric here.
And details of this dress can be found here. Having ordered fabric from Spoonflower before, I knew I liked it. The fabric I ordered has a good thick quality which is great for the kind of full dresses that I like to create. So, this past spring, just before I hung some artwork up for our art show, I laid a bunch of it out on the floor and took a couple of snaps with my camera. After the art show, I uploaded the photos to the Spoonflower website and was shocked how stinkin' easy it was to rearrange the works of art to create the desired pattern.
In case the artwork on this dress looks a little familiar to you, it's from one of the more popular lessons on my blog: The Chris Uphues Lesson for All! Here's a peak of just a few of the works of art based on that lesson:
Take a look at the work of art above and then the print quality below. Pretty amazing, right?!
This weekend I decided to cut into this Chris-Uphues inspired, kid-created fabric and create a dress using one of my favorite vintage patterns. Now, I did use a circle skirt pattern for the bottom...so only the bodice was used for this dress.
Here's a little peak at some of the other fabrics I had made with Spoonflower. I cannot wait to make them into dresses too.
Usually I'm all about the big belt but when I tried my big belt on with this dress, it seemed to take away from the print. So I went with a hot pink ribbon for the belt instead.
Not wanting to waste even a scrap of this precious fabric, I decided to create a couple bow to be featured at the base of the shoulder straps.
I'm so excited to wear this dress to school and share it with my students. Big thanks to Spoonflower for working with me on this fabric-making adventure and to Chris Uphues for his constant inspiration.
What lengths will you go to in order to avoid unpleasantries? Me, I go to great lengths to dodge sewing. The thing is, I get myself into this sewing pickle every single time. It always starts with the super cute fabric. Currently, I'm in to BIG AND BOLD prints that I usually score at IKEA. Case in point: that bold orange print you see in the background there. I'm currently working on sewing it into a dress but I'm closing in on zipper and hem time and I REALLY don't like zipper and hem time. So, I made earrings to go with my yet to be complete dress!
Polymer clay (I like to use the brand Sculpey) is a clay that comes in a variety of colors and you bake in the oven to harden. I used it a lot in this book. When I wrote that book, I really wanted to include that kind of clay because my students and I love it so much. I keep a stash at home for when I want to work with it because it's so stinkin' fun.
If you are new to polymer clay land, I thought I'd make a little video to walk you through how I made these earrings. Really the only supplies you'll need are the clay, some jump rings, French hook earrings and jewelry tools.
When making polymer clay earrings, just a couple things to remember:
* Polymer clay is self-adhesive. Meaning you don't have to use glue to get the pieces to stick together. Just press and go! * Keep them light! You wouldn't think these would make for heavy earrings but they can if you aren't careful. In fact, the palette ones below, while my fave, are the most heavy and can only be worn for a short while. * Don't put the hole too close to the edge of the design. I learned this the hard way. If you make it too close, the clay just might break when you are sliding the jump rings in. * Don't make the clay too thin. Okay, it's a balance...light enough to be wearable, but not so thin that they break when adding the earrings. * Allow the clay to cool completely. I have noticed that when I take the clay out of the toaster oven, it tends to still be a little bendy. It will harden as it cools. * Bake at a lower temp than suggested if using a toaster oven. I like to use a toaster oven because they heat up faster and require less energy than my oven. That being said, they do tend to bake stuff a lot hotter...and I've burnt my share of polymer creations because of it. For that reason, I'd say bake at 200 for about 5-7 minutes.
My little stash of polymer clay earrings.
I also dig using paint pens on them when they come out of the oven...although I have noticed that the paint does tend to rub off over time.
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I also think that if you need a simple intro to embroidery project, this might be it! You can also check out all of my fibers projects here! 
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