It's Been a Difficult Week...

And I thought the worst thing that would happen was that my phone was off for repair.  The kids and I came home on Monday to a 50% flooded apartment.  The people upstairs had a flood and it leaked down to our place.  Thank goodness all of the damage was to my things.

But then Tuesday came.  Since I'm working full-time now, mother had been picking my kids up after school.  She wasn't waiting to pick them up on Tuesday.  My daughter called to let me know.  I called and got no answer.  So I asked my boyfriend (thank goodness he lives in town and was home) to go to my mom's and see if her vehicle was in the drive.  It was; and when he rang her doorbell, my mom's doggie barked and barked without my mom shushing her.  I left work and came to my mom's condo.

I have a key so we walked right in.  I found her lying on the floor.  My mother is gone - she had only turned 60 in May.  I am devastated yet still in shock.  I have to write her obituary today.

Using a Smartphone to Blog is Frustrating

I dropped my phone and the screen cracked too much for me to use it. (*Sigh*)

Thank goodness I paid for GeekSquad black tie protection up-front.  But now I have to wait for my phone.  I miss it like a good friend.

I have been keeping up with SSS – taking photos but not posting.  I hope to get them up soon.

Self-Stitched September Day 7: Painted Shoes!

I didn't wear anything I sewed today, but I was so stoked to wear the shoes I painted!  This was my first attempt at embellishing shoes.
It is hard to find nice pairs of size 11 shoes at thrift stores so when I did, I bought them.  "Them" being these pink Via Spiga leather kitten heels.

I am not a fan of pink but have wanted kitten heels a la FLOTUS for a while now.  But what to do with the Pepto pink shoes?
After some Internet searching, I came across Sassy Feet!  I ordered the book (there's a new book coming out this month!) and paint starter kit. I'm reply glad I did!
I started out using the pearlescent turquoise: it took 3 coats to cover the pink (I painted while watching a movie). The turquoise alone was B.R.I.G.H.T.  I used black lumiere and the fan-shaped brush to randomly pattern over the base color.
Then there was the issue of the buckle.  I strung thrifted seed beads onto beading wire I had on hand, then wrapped the buckle in the strung beads.
And here's the finished product.  I'm pretty pleased with myself!

The Little Miss got in on the shoe painting act too.  She painted her sneakers for school.  She chose to use paint from Martha Stewart's new line at Michael's.  I thought she would choose one of the many pinks available, but she chose ... Turquoise *lol*  She did a great job!!

Little Miss's sneaker - before

Little Miss's sneaker - after
Painted with Martha Stewart Acrylic, laces with Lumiere

Self-Stitched September Days 5 & 6

Day 5

Poncho: Me-made (yes, a repeat already!)

Jeans:  Refashioned – bootcut to skinny

Monday was half-price day at the thrifts so my mom marshaled me and the kids out of bed at 7:20 a.m. (it’s not even a school/work day!) to check out bargains.  We went to two Goodwills (Clinton and Middletown) with my mom and had lunch at Price Chopper instead of McDonald’s.  Everybody was happy and I got coffee to keep me awake!  7:20 a.m. , really?

I just threaded a brown ribbon through the coming home poncho.  It feels like early October, not early September here so I’m glad I had the poncho.  I turned the jeans from bootcut to skinny last year and have gotten good wear out of them.  They were too short as bootcuts but perfect for the streetwalker 80’s skinny jeans look.  And the label says size 12 – so I’m going to hold onto these for as long as I can! *lol*

And yes, that’s a snood/hair net.  Is it a snood or is it a hair net?  At the beauty supply shop, they call it a hair net and charge $1 for it…

Day 6

Dress:  vintage Butterick 4125 (1975) in brown linen

Belt:  Notre Dame Church Tag Sale/Flea Market (Durham)

Shoes:  Thrifted

I finally have a pic of me in this dress.  This is version 1 of my Plain Pattern Project dress.  Sorry the photo is from the end of the day, so the wear wrinkles are in full force!  I was glad to wear the belt with it this time around and liked how the dress looked with the waist cinched.

I always think the second or third wear of a sewn garment tells the best tale.  The mandarin collar decided to turn under (like a, um, collar) and lay flat against my neck.  I didn’t mind that look at all, but I’m going to have to keep that in mind for PPP version #2.

I got the belt for $1 from the church’s monthly flea market.  It was priced at $3.75, but because of the peeling synthetic surface, the seller knocked it down to $1.  I like the color so I wore it in its natural, peeling form yesterday.  Nobody noticed.  J

Princess-Seam FBA Progress

On the princess-seam FBA front - I have made great progress! I'm working with OOP Simplicity 7924, which is the pattern I used to make my high school graduation dress.

I have a love affair with this pattern and Simplicity 8345 (which sadly got destroyed in one of my adult house-moves) and made at least six different versions of these princess-seamed dresses.  Instead of using the princess-seam fba instructions, I added 5" to the bust using pivot-and-slide.  I wound up adding too much to the bust.



And, looking at the muslin on MeToo, my short-waistedness was glaringly obvious.  MeToo's hanger is off-center and that makes her a little lopsided...
MeToo and I had some real fun marking the muslin and taking in the excess. It's very liberating to write on fabric with a permanent marker!  I wound up making a 1.5" short-waist adjustment.



I'm ready to cut out the wearable fabric! And just in time - the twins' father is getting married next week and invited me and my
boyfriend to the wedding rehearsal and wedding! Stay tuned.

Self-Stitched September Day 3

Yay, the kids are back! Boy am I wiped out from all the driving last night and running around we did today!

Skirt: Me-made, M5431 Slip (not pictured), white camisole, jean jacket, & yellow canvas shoes: Thrifted

I finally got the chance to wear the M5431 skirt I made last September.  And I'm pretty pleased with how it looks.  I sewed view C in a straight size 20 in quilting cotton I purchased from Affordable Fabrics in Rocky HIll.  I topstitched the waistband and hand-sewed topstitching around the back zipper.

Everything else in today's outfit was thrifted. The shoes were a great find at GW Outlet last year: never-been-worn L.L. Bean canvas slip-ons in size 11! Ok, they are yellow, but I can live with that for now.
Let's see what tomorrow holds in the way of self-sewn goodness!

Self-Stitched September Day 2

Sweater:  Refashioned

Necklace:  Refashioned

White Tee:  Target, 5 years ago

Denim Crop Pants:  Thrifted, GW Outlet

Shoes:  Parade of Shoes, 10 years ago

This SSS challenge is helping me get off my refashioning duff!

I love this sweater.  I love the color and the shape.  I got it for about $10 on clearance from Chadwick’s about 5 years ago.  Because it was on clearance, I ordered what they had (an XL which should have fit).  I used to swim in this sweater – and would put a belt or ribbon tie around it for shaping.  Here is the original on MeToo:

I repositioned the buttons to turn this into a wrap-style sweater and I’m really pleased with the result.

 

After wearing it for hours now, I think the buttonholes need mini episiotomies (*ahh, the painful memories*) to stay closed.

About 2 years ago, I bought a $5 vase-full of ugly necklaces from Goodwill.  The necklace I have on today used to look like this…

After dunking the pink necklace in the bucket with my jeans-dyeing experiment and restringing it with another Goodwill necklace (and some pink glass beads from the GW Outlet), I came up with this:

This necklace is awesome now!  And I’m proud of myself for finally tying off the fasteners well.

The scoopneck on the white tee is a tad too low for work (and the cotton too thin to wear out anywhere!) so it’s perfect to wear under the sweater.  I bought the denim crop pants in June during one of my trips to the Goodwill Outlet – they had never been worn before and were less than $1 in their by-the-pound pricing.  I think they are seriously too tight, but the kids and boyfriend like them.  And I have fulfilled the denim Friday peer pressure at work while looking sharp for dinner with my bff tonight!

Updates and Self-Stitched September Day 1

Hurricane Irene came through and we fared well!  We never lost power and only had some tree limbs down.  Too bad the first two days of school were cancelled.  I had to take the kids back to their father on Monday night because I had to go to work (I'm still on probation at work).  There was a lot of crying during the hour drive down, but at least I know they are supervised at their father's.  But I pick them up (again) tomorrow night!  Yay!

Today is the first day of September & the first day of Self-Stitched September! Today's outfit is an ease-in entry - not all made from scratch.  At least the colors coordinate!

Dress: Refashioned
Slip (not pictured): Thrifted
Poncho: Crocheted by me
Shoes: Payless
This dress was on sale at Kohl's two or three years ago.  I loved the color combo but the store didn't have my size, so I bought a 1X. 1X is too big for me and so this dress has been hanging in the closet since I bought it.  I did a simple refashion on this dress to make it wearable - I took about 1.25" in on the side seams to the waist (yes, it was even bigger than this).  Today was the third time I've worn this dress.  I've gotten compliments each time I've worn this dress, but I'm not sure I love it.  The empire waist seam sits too high on my bust and I'm not sure I love the a-line hem sitting above the knee on me.  This may have a new life as a skirt soon...
The poncho is the famous Martha Stewart "Coming Home" from prison poncho. I crocheted this lovely piece in 2005 from acrylic yarn from Ames that I had squirreled away from high school.  I usually wear this with jeans but my office is like the frozen tundra so I always need something to cover up.