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Hi everyone! I did it...I finished the "Green cardigan project" I have been working on. All I needed to do was to take a nice picture. Then, guess what... It SNOWED today! So, you need to wait a little bit longer for me to be able to share the tutorial for that project.

In the mean time, I am going to post a tutorial I did for the Knock-off Series at Kojo Design last week.

I love going through Anthropology and JCrew catalogs; there are many designs that inspire me. My recent knock off project is an Anthro inspired necklace. Usually when I see something I love, I will internalize it and when I create something, the finished item is different than the original one. It definitely has my own twist. That is my way of doing a "knock off". Figuring out how to make then go from designing to creating; it is all such a fun process!

Today, I am sharing a dress I created inspired by JCrew. Here is the original;

Golden Raindrop Dress...


Isn't it gorgeous? The name alone is very dreamy, but this dress is also very feminine and stylish… looks like you can float in the wind. It is made out of chiffon... with a price tag of $750.00!

Wow, I just woke up. It is a beautiful dress, but there is no way that I can justify $750.00 on a dress.

Here is what I came up with;




I call it Ivory Sunlight Dress... (If you have a better name feel free to email me :) )

I used 100% cotton; it is textured, very light weight almost like gauze fabric. I found it at Joann's for 6.99/yd. I used my 40% off coupon for three yards of fabric, so my version of the dress cost me about $13.00! Because I wanted to make it for every day wear, cotton is better choice than chiffon for me.

I am so in love with my new spring dress...


I wish I could just take a small vacation to somewhere very peaceful and quiet. Take only a few books and some necessities (that includes one of my favorite cardigans, just in case I get cold)

Ok, I will show you what I did...

{Top part of the dress}

1. I wanted more coverage than the original dress. I used pattern 3152 by Kwiksew for the top portion of the dress. It is very simple to make, you can make the top in no time. The only thing I did was to bring up the neckline a little. I drew a line 1/2" higher. Also, I used a shorter line for this project. You can use any similar pattern to create the top.



{Cutting & Constructing the skirt and dress}

1. Cut the skirt out. Please use the picture as a guide to get a better idea of what I am talking about. I measured the bottom of the top part of the dress, and it measured 18" finished. So, I cut out...


2 pieces of 13" X 18 1/2" of fabric for the top part of the skirt
2 pieces of 13" X 28" of fabric for the middle part of the skirt
2 pieces of 13" X 44"(it was the width of the fabric) for the bottom part of the skirt

There are a few things... I came up with this measurement pretty randomly. I am about 5'3", if you are taller or shorter than I am; obviously you need to make some adjustments.

Another thing, I used my Serger a lot for this project, how you finish up the seams is totally up to you, depending on that, you will need to adjust the seam allowance as well.

2. Mark the middle of the fabrics for the skirts. This will make it easier for you to make the gather equal later on.


3. Gather the fabrics to make the skirt, sew the top part of each piece with the largest stitches with your sewing machine. I sewed two lines, so that it is easier to make more even and prettier gather. Pull both threads to gather the fabric.
Put top and middle parts of the skirt right sides together and sew. Treat the seam with the method of your choice. Press, repeat the process with the middle and bottom part of the skirt. Then, attach the skirt to the top part of the dress in the same way.


4. Measure yourself under your bust and cut 1/4" wide elastic according to the measurement.

Sew the elastic on the seam line where the top of the dress and the skirt meet (inside of the dress). Don't forget to stretch out the elastic as you go.




{Cutting & making the ruffles for the each row}

1. From the top cut (I used my Serger to treat the edges. If you choose to fold the edges to sew straight line, you need wider strips for this).

1- 2" X 44" strip for the first row

Cut enough 3" wide strips to make a 76" long strip for the second row.
Cut enough 4" wide strips to make a 96" long for the third row.
Cut enough 5" wide strips to make a 128" long for the very bottom row.

For the very first strip, you need to create a curvy shape on both sides. Treat the edge all around it.


For the other strips, sew them together to make a big circle, so that the ruffle will go around the skirt. Treat both sides of the seams with the method of your choice.

2. Make ruffles out of them. Use the same method for gathering the fabric as you did to make the skirt.

3. Attach the ruffles on each seam line of the skirt. I sewed about 1/4" into the ruffles.

Make sure that the ends of the very top ruffles will meet in the middle. It is helpful to pin both sides in the middle before you start to sew.



{Making flowers}

1. Cut strips.

Large -- 3 1/2" X 28"
Medium-- 3" X 20"
Small--- 2" X 18"

2. Treat the edges. Zigzag would work, if you are not planning on sewing them to the dress, you can leave the edges raw too.

3. Use the largest stitch setting and sew in the middle of the strips. Pull the thread to gather the fabric. If you are making a large flower shrink the strips to 10”; shrink to 8” for medium strips, and 6” for small strips.



4. Fold the strips in half horizontally, and fold the end of the strip to start sewing. Sew, and roll the fabric as you go along to make the flower.


5. Sew three pearls on the large and medium flowers, one for the small flower.

6. Honestly, I couldn't decide where I wanted to sew the flowers on. I thought about sewing two of them of the sides too. I hand sewed the flowers in the middle for now, but who knows, I might change my mind later.


If you decided to make this dress, I hope you will enjoy it as much I do. :)

Hi again,

I have had several of you ask how you can help the tornado victims, thank you. The American Red Cross is a great place start but there are so many organizations helping out, a great list can be found here. I did want to mention that tonight there is a local telethon being hosted, Neighbors In Need, by ABC 33/40. For those who aren't local you can watch HERE.

I got a picture strictly for the frame...I wanted to use it for a chalkboard. But when I took the frame off, I noticed the picture was a "real" painting on canvas, and I decided to hang on to it until I found the perfect project...and I did!



The painting was mostly smooth, except for the sheep, which had been painted with big chunky swirls and things to resemble fleece, creating a very rough surface. I painted over the whole thing with Behr Ultra paint--yes, regular old latex paint--but the rough spaces stood out too much.




Then, using this is my inspiration, I designed the lettering on my Silhouette and cut everything out of vinyl. It was a painstaking process to get the vinyl on the canvas in a reasonably level manner! The vinyl wasn't going to stay on the canvas, but be used as kind of a "reverse stencil." That means I paint over the vinyl and all, and then carefully lift the vinyl off while the paint is still wet.

I laid awake for hours (no, I'm not kidding) wondering what kind of paint I should use for the yellow coat. I worried about how quickly spray paint can dry...sometimes that leads to the paint tearing off around the vinyl when you remove it. If I hadn't been stuck at home with sick kids, I might have bought a sample pot of latex paint to use. But I was, so I didn't! Brushing on paint has it's own hazards--it tends to bleed underneath the vinyl.

Here's what it looked liked when I was in the process of taking of the letters!


I was in luck...the spray paint seemed to dry more slowly on canvas. I only had the tiniest bit of tearing on the very last letters, and it isn't noticeable. Two people pulling off the letters at once would have worked perfectly!


I love, love, love it! I painted on the little red heart with acrylic paint, and I washed the whole canvas with diluted white acrylic paint--so this one canvas has three kinds of paint on it! Probably four, if you count what's underneath!

It is HUGE: 30" x 40". Right now it's sitting on my buffet in front of my chalkboard. It doesn't get to stay there, but I love looking at it for the moment!

Yesterday I posted my recipe for Spicy Grilled Shrimp with Corn Relish.  Well, we had some leftovers and I decided it would be fun to turn them into something new for the following dinner.  There are very few additional ingredients for this pasta dish, but your family will never know they are eating something very similar to the night before.

If you would like to make this dish, but fear you might not have any leftovers from the night before, just plan ahead and make a double recipe of the spicy shrimp.

I just wanted to say thank you for two things. First, thank you for all your calls, texts and e-mails yesterday regarding the tornados in Alabama. We are okay, the really bad tornado missed us by a few miles. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for so many others, including a really wonderful client of mine (they are physically fine which is such a blessing). Also, I wanted to say thank you for all the childcare comments and e-mails. I needed the advice, trust me! To take time out of your busy days to send me the wealth of information you did is really awesome. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and if I have not e-mailed back yet it is not because I am ignoring you, it is because the computer virus that won't quit is still having a blast in my computer.

I hope you have a wonderful and peaceful weekend.

PS- Anyone have any idea what why my right sidebar is not showing up? If you click on older posts it is there but not with the newest posts....

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