Ideas

I love a good idea. Who doesn't? But I especially love ideas on how to recycle stuff I have lying around my house.

Make a jump rope out of old speaker wire and markers.


http://www.readymade.com/projects/article/speaker_wire_jump_rope

Things to do with old t-shirts.


http://wildonionstudio.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/tee-bags-a-tutorial-to-recycle-a-tee-shirt-into-a-shopping-bag/


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/05/tshirt_recyclin_1.php




http://www.ohmystars.net/craft/index-surgery.php?page=tsstut6


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/diy_tshirt_surgery.php


http://www.savvyseams.com/apt/tpillow.php

Make them into wall art.

New fabric

I bought 5 yards of this fabric on ebay and it arrived last week.

The photo just doesn't do it justice. It's so gorgeous.

Now I just need to figure out something to do with it. I have been going on a pattern buying spree lately and here are some patterns I have that I'm considering using this fabric for.


The dress on the right:

The dress in the middle right box:

Here are some other patterns I recently purchased, but wouldn't work for this fabric.

I like the neckline on both of those dresses, but especially the one on the right. I think those necklines are pretty flattering on me.

I just like short swingy dresses. I don't like the neckline on the one on the right, so I'll probably never make that one.

This dress just looked classy and I thought it would make a nice out on the town dress for my more elegant evenings.

I figured this was a nice classic coat pattern and I figured I'd pick it up while the patterns were on sale.

I love the swing coat and I want to make the white one in the front. I'm not sure if I'll ever get the time or ambition to do it though.

I picked this one up because I thought the construction and detailing on the skirt could go into a future dance costume.

Spy Girl dress

I want a dress like this.

http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses/Espionage+Dress

It's similar to this one

from Stop Staring! http://www.stopstaringclothing.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=200

I like the 2 godets at the bottom of the Stop Staring dress, but I like the keyhole detail and sassy bow of the Mod Cloth one.  I'll have to see if I can find a pattern for this kind of dress and play with it.

Links to helpful sewing guides

In preparation for making a dress for Showcase on August 24th, I've been doing some research. I wanted to make this dress:



Not the wedding gown, but the dress in the upper corner. I thought it would be nice to do in a dark purple.

SyFabrics.com had this Plum L'Amour Satin for $4.99/yd.



And Fabric.com had this Amethyst Duchess Satin for $8.98/yd.



So, I've been looking at the instructions for that dress and come to find out, it calls for "bridal loops" which is a row of loops on a tape used for all those little buttons you see on the back of wedding dresses and other higher end fashions.



Since I'll be changing in the bathroom at the hotel from the semi formal daytime event to the formal evening event, I don't really want to have to ask random strangers to button me up. So, I'm trying to figure out how to put in an invisible zipper. Believe it or not, I've done very little with zippers and I've never put in an invisible one. It seems pretty easy.
I found this website about how to sew an invisible zipper with nice drawings to help illustrate.
http://www.sewing.org/enthusiast/html/el_zipinvis.html

The dress also calls for horsehair braid which I've never used before, but I also found this website about how to apply horsehair braid to hemlines, with photos.
http://www.farthingales.on.ca/crinbraid.htm

Anyway, I ended up finding a lovely formal gown in a light blue at Value Village for $20. It needs a little work, but I feel like I have much more time to make alterations and decorate a dress than to build one from scratch. I'll take photos and post about it when I get started.

fabric!

I found a website that sells fabric pretty cheap. You can order swatches for $1 each, so I ordered a few to get an idea it looks like in real life and what combination I’d like best. The spandex seems like a good deal, but I want to see how thick it is and stuff. It’s really cheap and that makes me nervous. But, I’ll probably have 2 layers of it on my body because I plan on doing a built-in leotard that’s a bit more snug than the outer dress to help smooth out my "curves."

I like the lace, roses and tiger ones the best, but the sequins might be better for a dance dress. Whichever contrast I pick, I can make some sort of decoration to put on my black shoes. I’ll also want to think about making something that my partner can wear like a tie & cummerbund or something. I'll have to check with him what he thinks about that. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tango Dress

I agreed to do a Tango routine and we're shooting for the Summer Showcase, which is August 24th. So, it's coming up pretty fast. We'll see if I can get it all perfected by then. The most worrisome thing for me right now is what I'm going to wear. I'm planning out my dress. I've found some photos online of dresses that I like.

I like the top portion of this dress. I like how it has sleeves and the back is pretty low to show off a lot of skin, but it would still cover up my "trouble areas."

This is the dress I'm going to try to model my creation after.

Here's a similar style dress.

I purchased a few Vogue patterns because there was an online sale for $6.99 each.

I think I'll end up using this one for my tango dress. I'll either just extend the top to be a dress or make the top and a modified version of the shirt and figure out a way to hook them together. Probably the first option will be easier to wear and move in.

For some future creation. I just really thought this dress was pretty and I could figure out a way to make it into some sort of dance dress.

I bought these patterns just because they are so darn cute!

Medal Ball

Yesterday was the Arthur Murray Spring Medal Ball. It was a lot of fun. Since Mosquito was in San Diego running his marathon, The Punkin was my date for the day. I danced in two heats -- cha cha and tango. I slipped a bit on the slippery floor during my crossover breaks in the cha cha, but recovered fine. Other than that I think I did well. I have to schedule my consultation with the judges to see what they had to say. I'm still registered for Bronze 1 even though I've been giving the green light to test out and move on to Bronze 2.

My dress got several comments. I wish I'd taken before pictures. I did quite a bit of altering to it. I just can't bring myself to wear strapless or even sleeveless dresses. I just have way too much loose skin that hangs out in really strange and not attractive places. So, I have come up with some creative ways to add sleeves to a sleeveless dress. The last medal ball I just wore a shirt under my dress and safety pinned it all together to produce this:

.
It looked great from the front, the back didn't look all that cool.

So, this time around, I actually made my dress into a sewing project. I really wish I'd thought to take some before photos of the dress and the shirt I started with and photos of the process itself. I was in such a hurry to get started that I didn't even think to do it.

The top was just a satiny V-neck babydoll top, similar in style to this one, but in a green/white/black animal print mixture.



I removed the stitches to take the top and bottom of the shirt apart. So, what I ended up with was sleeves and a neckline with the bulk of the fabric removed. I found the middle of the back and cut the top in half. so I have 2 pieces, each with a sleeve and half of the neckline.

The dress was a strapless dress in a light icy blue color. It had some ties in the back that I carefully cut off. I pinned one tie to each of the top halves, following the neckline in the front and folded over the raw cut edges of the back of the top and pinned it to the satin tie. Now, I pinned each sleeve to the dress itself, matching the front opening with the front seams in the dress and in the back, I angled the satin ties a bit right next to each side of the zipper so that it made almost a V in the back. The ties increases in width and I used the narrowest part in the front and the wider part in the back. I ended up doing some tucking in the front as well. But I think it looked great. I had to hand sew the entire thing because I was attaching it to areas that would show. So that took a while. The dress also has gathered satin at the waist that was the same material as the ties I had cut off. I had intended to use some of the excess material from the top to create a couple of stripes within the waistband, just to help tie the dress and top together a bit better, but by the time I was done with the sewing it was after 4am and I was falling asleep. So, if I decide to wear that dress again in the future, I'll think about doing it then.

Here are some pictures taken at the Medal Ball so you can see the dress in action. I'm very proud of the creation I made. Especially since it was all so very last minute. I bought the dress and top at Nordstrom Rack around 2pm on Saturday and had the dress modifications done in time to wear the next day.


This was a very delicate cha cha crossover break after almost falling on my butt during the first one.

Tango shadow rocks. Do you like my serious tango face? haha My right arm should have better styling also.


A shot of the back of my dress.

Hoodie project

Look at this super cute hoodie on the Craftser.org forums.



Britt from cucumbersome had a link to this among some other cool things. I totally am going to do this....someday.

Very nice detailed instructions here.

Hooded towel

I'm going to make one of these for each of my two nephews and the niece who is on the way.  Punkin has one that one of her Great Aunts made for her several years ago and it's really nice.


http://infarrantlycreative.blogspot.com/2008/02/kids-hooded-towel-tutorial.html

dress update

Looks like I've got some more time to contemplate my dress design.  I tried it on today and it doesn't quite fit.  I bought it a while ago and it almost fit.  But it had been taken in a bit, so I thought it would fit after I let it back out + losing a bit more weight.  Well, I didn't lose any weight in the past few weeks and the part that was taken in wasn't the problem area after all.  Sometimes having large breasts really sucks.

So now I have 2 1/2 days to find a dress to wear on Sunday.  And I have something going on Friday that won't allow me to shop and Saturday evening is booked as well, so I'll only have tonight and Saturday morning and early afternoon to shop.  And so that means I will have to pray to find something that just works, since I won't have any time at all for any alterations. 

Oh, and we found out yesterday that we are, in fact, dancing an exhibition (of sorts) on Sunday, so that just adds to my franticness over this dress. 

dance dress

Well, I'm thinking about making my first attempt at a ballroom dance dress.  It won't actually be a complete construction, and it wouldn't even be used in anything sexy like a competition or exhibition.  I picked up a lovely hunter green dress at the Goodwill.  I'm guessing it was a bridesmaid dress.  It's long and fitted with this weird big swoopy thing around the neckline.  I'll get photos to put up once I start working on it.  I copied a guide created by Laura at DanceSport Image and mirrored it on my server, just in case that website goes away.  I'd hate to lose such a helpful page.

Anyway, my plan for this dress is to find a nice contrasting color -- I'm thinking a light shade of green, but I'm open to other ideas -- to create fitted sleeves and to make godets to increase the fullness of the bottom of the dress.  I was hoping to get this done in time for the annual Medal Ball that is happening on Sunday, but I don't think I'll have the time.  I don't think the sleeves should be too difficult.  Certainly not as difficult as adding sleeves to my wedding dress was.  But, the godets may end up being more complicated than I expect. 

dance costumes

Ballroom dance costumes are very expensive. And I'm picky about what I wear. So, I'm going to look into making one. It'll be a while before we're actually good enough for me to need to have one, but it'll also take me a while to get started thinking about it and practicing.

I found a website with some how-tos and tips, etc. http://www.dancesportimage.com/

Here's a manual for $45 http://www.dancesportballgowns.com/manual.html

And some tips can be found on the dance forums