Pants fitting and finishing tips

I'm compiling as many fitting resources for pants as I can find into this link. I'm no expert on fitting adjustments myself, but hopefully you'll find these helpful. (I'll keep updating this post as I find more.)

General fitting:
Pants-fitting basics, via The Coletterie. 
A link list for several pants-fitting issues, from Sewaholic.
This one is more for jeans, but some of the principles could apply to regular trousers as well. From Threads Magazine.
Baggy seat fix, also from Threads Magazine.
Adding a wedge for if you need more coverage in back, from Sewingplums.
Another trousers sewalong at A Fashionable Stitch.  (Thanks, Joanne and Alessa!)
An in-progress "Fit-n-Sew Along" at Maria Denmark. (Thanks to Maria and Not Sew Simple for keeping me in the loop on the Twitter discussion they were having about this while I was at work!)


Pattern-specific:
Lauren at Lladybird hosted a Thurlow sew-along last year, which I would have been all over if I hadn't been somewhat distracted by muslining a wedding dress. The posts for that start here. She also has a bunch of helpful links in this post to various other blog posts about fitting!

There's also a series of posts at The Coletterie for sewing the Clover pants.

I haven't found anything specific on the Juniper pants yet, but feel free to comment if there's something I missed!

Stepping it up:
Adding a "French Fly" with a waist stay, from Handmade by Carolyn.
Sewing a blind hem, from The Coletterie.
Also from Twitter- a video series on drafting and sewing trousers, from Joost. (This one is more for men's trousers, so the fit would obviously be different, but I'm sure that the ladies can learn something from menswear construction, too!)

Do you have any other favorite fitting tips or pattern alterations? Feel free to share in the comments, and I'll add it to the list.

As for my own progress, I haven't actually started sewing yet! Between an open-to-close work shift over the weekend, church and music activities on Sunday, and going to Philadelphia to see Muse on Monday night, I've barely had time to even sleep, let alone sew. But I did get the pattern traced out, and my (hopefully) wearable muslin mostly cut out yesterday. I still need to do interfacing and lining pieces, so I'm going to try to get that taken care of this afternoon. And maybe even start constructing, if time allows.

I'm dreaming of a blue craft room...

Production on the dress has come to a pause. It's partially because my schedule has suddenly exploded with things like having to work multiple Saturdays in a row again (boo), things I'm playing my flute for (yay!) and various social engagements, all of which conspire to keep me out of the house for multiple evenings. It's also partially because the only table in the house that's big enough to cut this thing out on is completely covered in gift-wrapping stuff, most of which is not mine and therefore I have no control over getting it cleaned off. So I don't think I'll actually get it cut out before Christmas, but before the end of the year seems like a pretty reasonable goal. I hope. The good news is that the muslin is dissected, though I do need to press it. Between that and some Craftsy/reading research on the underlining, since it's been awhile since I've done that, hopefully that will be enough to keep me feeling productive while I wait.



In the meantime, I'm now about 6 months away from getting.... *drumroll*.... my own sewing/craft room! I've been collecting inspiration on Pinterest for a few months, and the room is already painted. (I thought I had a picture of it, but I don't yet--it's a very cheery aqua color with a creamy yellow on the doors and inside the closet. It's such a happy-looking room, and I think it will be wonderful to create in!) My beads and most of my jewelry-making supplies are also already down there, and now super-organized thanks to my fiance. I also have this table from Ikea, which folds out to make a cutting table large enough to cut the legs of pants out, and therefore should serve most of my purposes.

The biggest question at the moment that still needs to be answered is how the heck to store my hundreds of yards of fabric, I figured I'd show a couple of the things that are inspiring me right now.

Marie over at A Stitching Odyssey  recently did a sewing room makeover, and I absolutely love the look of her fabric cubicles. It's a pretty nice way of keeping all of the different types of fabric together! Gertie did something similar, but with a whole bunch of canvas boxes.  Which is a nice way to keep the dust out, but I do kind of miss seeing the fabric!

I saw this closet craft room thing on Pinterest awhile back. Doug suggested that we make the closet into a little nook for my non-sewing crafts, like my scrapbooking and jewelry-making. So we've got a little table in there, and some shelves. I'm really looking forward to having a place where I can just leave layouts sitting out and work on them as I'm able-- I think it will do wonders for me actually getting pages done, since the biggest deterrent for a long time is that I have to drag stuff out every time I want to scrapbook, and my sewing machine is always out. I'm thinking that if I get an office chair where I can adjust the height, I can use it for both that and my sewing table.

There's a bunch of little things that need to get figured out still--where to put my pattern boxes and various craft books, what to do with my fabric and yarn, where to keep all of those various notions like threads and scissors and the like, etc. But I am rather looking forward to getting it figured out and seeing how it comes together!

What about you? How do you like to keep your fabrics and the like organized?

A poll in which your vote actually counts!

This adorable jersey knit is what I found at Gorgeous Fabrics today-- I happened to glance at it since I noticed there's a 25% off sale for today only. So since all of my fellow Americans are being told to vote anyway, I figured I'd run an unofficial poll (and see if I get any responses within the next two hours!) I should have known better...My stash guilt is warring with my desire for cute, colorful knits and my love for all things with a musical motif, so I'm leaving it up to you, the voters.


1. Should I buy this? Yes or No?

2. If you answered yes: Renfrew or pajamas?

Votes, if any, will be tallied by 10:30 Eastern Standard Time, because I'll only have half an hour left to order if that's the case.

(P.S. For the record, yes, I voted, mainly out of guilt from all of the women in years past who fought to give me the right to do so. But I'm not going to say who I voted for, because I hate political arguments and am equally apathetic towards both candidates.)

Edit, 10:51 pm: The people have spoken (all two of them--thanks!) and the results were unanimous-- I should get it and make pjs! (Which is probably the better choice, since I am in need of some warm-weather pjs. I had about 2 sets for the entire summer.) Of course, by the time I noticed the time and got to it, there was only one yard left. And it cost more in shipping than the yard of fabric-- I probably should have looked for something to coordinate, but there was no time. But anyway, the order is placed, so it's mine.

MMM, Days 5 & 6

I was going to try and go for the daily outfit posts, but it just seems to be working out better to do every other day so far. Any more than that, and I think the prospect of taking that much time to write a post when I could be doing other creative things would be too overwhelming, and increase my chances of dropping out of the challenge. So here's my me-made weekend...

Day 5:
Shirt: "Happy Camper" blouse, blogged here
Cropped jeans: Levi's (rolled up because I need to shorten them)
Bag: Mom-made!
Shoes: Array (can't see them, but they look like this in white) 
Accessories: Me-made green leaf beaded necklace-- pre-blog, but I've featured it before in Self-Stitched September (Day 28)

So here's me and my buddy Sid at the movie theater. I wanted to keep the outfit simple since I had very little time between getting off of work (on a Saturday, I know) and going to rehearsal. So I kept the same jeans I wore to work and threw on the top. After that, my boyfriend and I went out for a quick dinner and then to the movies to see The Raven.  I like Edgar Allen Poe's stories, so although it was a little unnecessarily grisly in one scene, I enjoyed it overall.

Day 6:

Dress: the famous Little Black Dress, blogged here
Shoes: Array, again
Necklace/earrings: Me-made-- again, pre-blog, but featured on Day 8 of the last challenge month that I did.

Believe it or not, this is what I wore almost all day! I threw a black and white cardigan over top of this for church in the morning, but I had to leave before the service was over for a 1:00 dress rehearsal before a 3:00 concert. I was supposed to wear all black anyway--it's standard for classical concerts--and I figured that since part of my justification for making a semi-couture black dress was to wear it for concerts, why not? I knew about half of the group would be wearing pants, and since I also needed to wear it for church, I did want to dress it down a little . Thus the flats and the funkier jewelry. Actually, this dress was surprisingly comfortable to wear for an extended period of time-- I guess taking all of that time to fine-tune the fit and using the nicer silk/cotton fabrics paid off!

I'm very excited--though I have to work again this Saturday, which I expected since it's a garden center and Mother's Day weekend, they gave me off on Wednesday. And since I only have one student for the entire day, you know what that means-- I have a hot date with my sewing machine! Hurrah, time to sew at last! Also, I'm still taking suggestions for what to do with that red twill if I don't make the Beignet with it as planned, as per my last post. Ginger suggested a pair of capris, and that seems like a good option--I was thinking maybe use it to try out my Clover pattern, but the twill has no stretch and that does concern me a little, given that Colette recommends a fabric with lycra. But I'm also thinking that if I make them a bit shorter, I could maybe do a vent in the side seams to make up for it around my knees. Maybe even with a few of those sparkly red buttons, so I can still use them as planned.

In the meantime, I did do something crafty, at least...I worked a bit on my scrapbooking after the concert tonight.

Two things:

1. These are the potholders I made to go along with Kristy's apron. Pretty easy, although the quilting made it a bit more time-consuming. I'm going to need to try to think of a better way to apply the bias binding next time I make something like this--the back side is a bit messier than I'd like, but I didn't have time to hand-sew it down.  She seemed to like them-- I think she was amused at how closely they match her current kitchen theme! (Which was the point, since she owns and he rents and so he'll be moving into her place after the wedding.)

2. I need a little advice....one of my friends asked me if I could hem her bridesmaid dress for the same wedding. She offered to pay me (and frankly, given how badly my day job hours have been cut back this summer, I need the money), and asked what I'd charge. I told her it would partially depend on how involved it would be--you know, lining, overlayers, that sort of thing--so I'd need to see it first. That aside....what would be a reasonable rate to charge for something like that? (You'd think that, given that I've been setting prices for my flute lessons ever since I finished college, I'd be better at this sort of thing....but I tend to err on the side of undercharging, I think.)

Thoughts on a little black dress

(Image courtesy of littleblackdressmagazine.com)


If you were following this blog last winter, you know that I was doing some fashion research to help me figure out what my style is. And in this process, I read several lists of the wardrobe "must haves". Most of these things wouldn't fit into my wardrobe at all, really. A cashmere sweater, for instance, would probably make me break out in hives due to my (unfortunate) extreme sensitivity to wool. (I can instantly tell if wool is part of the fiber content of something because my hand starts prickling within about 5 seconds.) Button-down white shirt? Owned them a couple times over the years, and inevitably got rid of them all because I never wore them--the closest thing I have to that now is last week's Wednesday refashion that I am currently wearing. Notice it is neither button down nor entirely white, and it suits me much better. But there is one thing on that list that I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to invest in--that "little black dress". (Though not so little in my case, as I'd probably keep it somewhere around knee-length.) Seeing as how I need something black for pretty much every time I play my flute in public, I have yet another relative getting married in the spring and it's an evening wedding (read: more formal affair), and it would go with a lot of stuff that's already in my wardrobe anyway, it would be pretty practical.

I've thought a bit about this so far--I know I want something pretty simple, so I can dress it up or down as needed. I'm thinking a scoop or v-neck, sleeveless (of course)-- I'd like it to be pretty fitted at the waist, and a more flared skirt, probably an A-line. My initial thought was that I'd like to make it out of silk jersey, because the silk would make it fancy enough for performances and weddings, but the jersey would make it comfortable enough to wear for say, a more casual summer evening out with the girls. There's only two problems with this plan (not counting the price per yard of silk jersey, which would come out to pretty much more than I've ever paid for a piece of fabric in my life). The main one is that I'm not having much luck finding a dress pattern for knits that I like and that fit my criteria. The other, somewhat more shallow reason is that a pretty huge part of me is thinking that I'd love to use a project like this as a learning experience and play around with some of those couture techniques that I've been wanting to learn. And honestly, I'm not sure that it's possible to really do that with a knit fabric, you know?

On the flip side, I've found some patterns that I've really liked the look of. But those are all for wovens. So I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out what I could make it out of that would be able to be dressed up and dressed down as needed. Stuff like cotton and linen seem like they would be too casual for, say, my cousin's wedding, while anything like silk or chiffon or anything along those lines might be way too fancy for if I wanted to wear it for an afternoon of teaching flute lessons or something.

I'm thinking I'd like this to be my big winter sewing project (since, if I'm going to wear this for my cousin's wedding, I need to have it done by April 15.), so I really need to figure out which direction I'm going to take this before too long! Have any of you ever sewn a little black dress? Any thoughts/advice? (Especially on fabric choice--that's going to be the huge deciding factor for what patterns I end up looking at!)

Thrift store scores

....mostly, anyway. I do have one purchased piece at the end that I need some styling help with, so stay tuned!

Other than sewing, the main way that I've gotten clothes into my wardrobe ever since I was a teenager has been thrift shopping. I got away from that a bit after I stopped doing the Wardrobe Refashion pledges (mainly because I desperately needed pants for work, and that's the one thing I've never had much luck with buying used--or new, for that matter--stupid pants. One of these days I will conquer fitting you!) But I've been getting back into it lately, mainly because I have a friend that I go with pretty much every time we hang out. I like it because you can find some really unique stuff, and it's usually a lot less expensive! So I just wanted to share some of the things I've found over the last couple of months.

These are some of my favorite finds this year. From the top: a long zipped-up vest thing (not quite long enough for even a mini-dress, but it'll be great for one of the concerts I'm going to later this summer!), a printed wrap top, an Asian print cross-over top, a striped blouse, and a mock-wrap top. Figures that most of them are crazy prints-- I just can't seem to stay away from them!

I often see fun details on them that I want to try and pull into my sewing, too. Like the pleats on the sleeve of the wrap top. Or this gathering detail on the green top--it's hard to see because of the print, but that was what drove me to buy it after I tried it on (the print was what grabbed me, of course!) The black and white pinstriped blouse is a kind of sedate print for me, but I loved the closure detail--it's a bunch of hooks and eyes rather than a button or zipper. (Which pretty much demands I wear a cami underneath in case of wardrobe malfunction, but I'll be warmer in the fall and winter that way anyway!)

Now for the styling help:

I can't really say this was an impulse buy for me-- I literally debated it for weeks, watched it go out of stock and come back in a couple of times, before finally getting the Thekkady vest from ModCloth. After going through my little style project, I decided it might be fun to try and pull vests into my wardrobe again, and this one was pretty cute. The only problem is, now that I own it, I realized that I have absolutely no idea what to wear with it! I don't have a lot of solid-colored tops, and many of the ones I have are V-necks or have other detailing that would make it difficult to wear with this. Not sure what, if anything, would work with it in the way of prints or dresses, either. So in order to actually make this work in my wardrobe and justify my purchase, I need to figure out what to wear with it (or what to sew to wear with it)! So any suggestions are welcome!

And with that, I'll now return you to your regularly scheduled crafty-related posts...after I write another one, of course!

I think I have a winner! (But I need some help.)

So I finally have a pattern that I think I can work with in making that dress for my brother's wedding! It's just a very basic McCall's sheath dress, and I've spent the last couple of hours basting it together and tweaking it. There are some definite changes that have to be made-- namely the neckline, which I'm going to have to reshape due to needing to take a bigger shoulder seam in order to get the armholes to stop gapping and get the bust darts, which I'd lowered some, to go back into the right place. (I decided to experiment with this to try and get it to fit, and it also told how to measure to get the point of the darts pointed at the fullest part of the bust, but I think I may have gotten it a little off.) But there are also some fitting adjustments that will need to be made, and for this I'm asking for the help of you lovely readers.


#1: The zipper in the back is gapping at the neck. I've already partially unbasted it and rebasted it to curve it in more-- currently at 1" in rather than 5/8". Is this something I should be worried about, or will reshaping the neckline throw it off further, or will putting the facings in (and therefore removing some of that raw edge) solve the problem?

#2: The bust darts. I've never quite been able to get this double-dart bodice thing down--it seems like I always get that weird fabric bubble between the two. This is no exception. I tried tapering the side dart to get less of a point, but I'm not sure if that made it better or worse. I did also have to take the vertical darts in a bit more because it was hanging way too loosely around my waist. Which I tapered it out from the seam, further down than the point. You can see that I'm also getting some weird wrinkles in the front from the picture, too, though I think it may hang a bit better on me than on the dummy.

(And another shot of the darts on the other side.)

#3: The back. This is where I'm getting the weirdest wrinkles. Again, I had to take the darts in some more, but I actually ended up letting those out further again than what I'd originally taken in, and then taking in a little bit on the side seams. That helped a bit, but I still don't think it should have all of those wrinkles in there.

So please, please, any advice you can offer me would be so welcome--the wedding is 3 weeks from Saturday, and with balancing 3 jobs right now, this pattern is pretty much my last shot at getting a dress sewn up in time! If the fabric is a factor, I'm using silk charmeuse, so it would be drapier than the muslin. And I really don't know what on earth I'm going to do with it--not to mention the silk velvet I bought to make a matching wrap--if I don't use it for this wedding. (Not to mention I really would prefer to not have to shop for a dress when I've got gorgeous fabric to play with!)

Adventures in formalwear (and other stories)

So, I'm a bridesmaid again. Another of my friends got engaged back at the end of August, and will be getting married in March. The kind of bittersweet thing about it is, her fiance lives in Australia, and so after the wedding, she'll be moving there and I won't see her again for several years. But on the up side, I'll get to spend some extra time with her beforehand, since I have a lot of craft involvement on this wedding!

We're reusing the bridesmaid dresses from J's wedding, because there's bridal party overlap, the other girls (J and her maid of honor) can get access to the dresses, and they just happen to be pretty darn close to S's (the new bride's) favorite color, which is cobalt blue. Yay for recycling! My wallet thanks her profusely. We are, however, making shrugs to go over them, because spaghetti strap dresses just don't work for the rainy, cold mess that is March around here. (Half the time, March is the one part of the winter that we actually get snow in!) So I, and another bridesmaid who knows how to sew (J's sister, whose name also begins with J... let's call her J2) will be sewing those.

The other project, which is what we're working on currently, is "blueifying" S's dress. Well, technically, we haven't started the blueifying yet. First order of buisness was to make a panel to insert into her store-bought dress-- it's a halter, and she wasn't really comfortable with how low it cuts. So she brought it over on Sunday, J2 worked on figuring out possible ways to bustle the train, and I worked on the panel. (On her, it doesn't bulge out like that.) I'm pleased with the look-- but I'll have to take it out and re-sew it in this weekend, since she wants it a bit higher.

Now, the blueifying... we're going to be adding some cobalt blue beading to the beading that's already there on the lace appliques. Just need to figure out where.

Now, to all of you who may be reading this who have experience in alterations--I need some advice! We divided the work so that J2 will be working on her and her sister's things, and I'll be doing mine and the maid of honor's. The MoH is wearing S's dress from J's wedding. Which S is then planning to wear again for formal parties (one of her fiance's friends apparently has one every year). My challenge is, I need to find a way to take it in a little at the top of the dress, but in a way that can be taken out again without leaving marks on the fabric. (It's a polyester taffeta sort of thing.) Please, I will take any and all advice!! (Including my mother's, which was "stuff her bra"! ;-)

Ok, I did promise other stories. I started sewing on that chevron-cut blouse last night. No pics yet, but it seems to be working so far. I do think I cut one of the pieces (the inner front) the wrong way, but fortunately it lined up for the stripes and even though the tops of the seam didn't line up, I was still able to sew it onto the top of the front without changing the seam allowance.

Friday Favorites, Episode 20 (and some belated Project Runway thoughts)

A short edition today, but that's ok.

1. My friends J, C and I used to do this thing on occasion where we'd get together our clothes that were destined for the thrift store anyway and dig through each other's stuff to see if there was anything we wanted to take. I think they call them "Naked Lady parties" around the interweb. It was kind of fun, and it always amuses me to see one of them wearing a shirt that used to be mine. The point of this story: Crafting A Green World had a post about a site called Dig N' Swap, which is basically the same thing, on a larger and more anonymous scale. It's a neat concept-- you post your clothes, if someone wants it they offer you an article of clothing in exchange, and it's free. I like free.

2. Mirela at Cutting Edge Stitches N' Seams consistently turns out all this beautiful, professional-looking stuff. And she posted a nice list of tips for working with stretch fabrics. Including avoiding those awful wavy seam lines that are a dead giveaway that it's a homemade outfit.

3. Just in time for me to be wanting to work on an embroidery project, I found a tutorial for transferring patterns to fabric. It's at a blog called Elemental Stitches, but I found it through My Half of the Brain.

Regarding PR...

Oh, Blayne. All the UV rays from your tanning addiction must have done unspeakably awful things to your brain. How else could you have NOT heard of one of the most quintessential rock albums from one of the most famous bands in the history of recorded music?!? The Beatles fan in me is appalled. Especially since I'm not that much older than you.

Didn't like either of the bottom two's outfits this week. With the hairstyle, Daniel's outfit made me think of Betty Boop, while the first thing I thought of when I saw Jennifer's sketch was Japanese anime schoolgirl. Wasn't really a fan of Jarell's either-- the mix of prints was well-done, but the outfit itself looked straight out of Titanic and that is not one of my favorite movies ever. I actually liked Joe's the best-- it just looked cute and sporty, and the most "Olympic" to me. And I agreed with Heidi that the two-tone zipper was very clever. I'm not sure how he did it, because I've never been able to put a zipper back together once it busts apart. I am glad that Korto won, though, because I just like her for some reason I haven't been able to put my finger on yet. I did really like Terri's as well--while I hate officewear and am glad I'm in a career where I can avoid it, jackets are one of my favorite fall/winter layering looks, and I really liked hers.

And now, off to finish dinner, because I'm hoping to sew some tonight. And I have a little hippie craft extravaganza planned for myself tomorrow, so we'll see how my plan works out!

Also, no pics of Sadie yet. Hopefully also tomorrow.

Friday Favorites, Episode 16: The Late Edition

I meant to put this up when I got home last night, but "fireworks watching" turned into "it started raining before the fireworks, which turned into a massive thunderstorm, which meant we watched a movie, some tv, and a lot of lightning instead", and I didn't get home until 1. So posting today instead. Still just up to Friday, though, as I haven't checked my blog feeds since.

First off, my Crafting a Green World picks of the week. There was a post featuring another company that sells organic cotton fabrics. Great to see there's more of a supply out there-- I just wish it wasn't so expensive! There was also a feature on milk paint, and possible ideas for how to use it in craft applications. Would be awhile before I need it, because I still have a massive supply of acrylic craft paint. It's thanks to my grandparents, who used to own a doll/craft supply store, and when they decided to leave the retail business when I was a teenager, let me have the run of the acrylic paint display and pick out a whole pile of colors. So I've been using those for years now on my craft projects and scrapbook pages. I'd rather use those up than throw them out, but once those are gone...

I got a kick out of a post at ThreadBanger about quilting. Mainly because it featured a Harry Potter quilt, and I have enough friends who are obsessed with HP that it amuses me. (I liked HP, after I gave it a fair shot...I'm just more of a Lord of the Rings girl myself.)

There weren't instructions on how to make it, but I thought this frog at Creative Kismet was really cute.

This week at My Half of the Brain, I found a link to vintage comic strips about sewing! More informative than funny, but I'm enough of a geek that I can't resist the lure of comic illustrations. Speaking of geekiness, they also had a post about how to knit pointed ear warmers. They called them "Spock Ears", but I think they'd work for a cold-blooded elf look too. (Not that I'll ever make them, because I don't knit, but I was still amused.

In the category of "seriously tempted to make it soon" was a charging station for small electronics featured at Recycled Crafts. But I won't yet, because I need a new cell phone first. (Mainly because I'm also seriously tempted to run over mine repeatedly with my car. Had it for just over a year, and it's been nothing but trouble since the day I bought it. But I won't, because it'll be a lot harder to recycle it that way.)

Several posts related to food caught my eye this week. Thimble had a post about some "pocket tarts" she made with a potato filling-- no recipe, as she got it from a cookbook, but she did have some illustrations and basic instructions. They kind of remind me of a baked, much healthier version of the empanadas I had in Chile. Eileen at Consumption Rebellion did an experiment with quick Moroccan-style preserved lemons, along with the first recipe she's planning on using them for. I'm hoping she lets us know how they turned out, because I love Moroccan food!

Ok, that's a wrap for this week. Off to take care of the necessary evil of laundry, so that I can sew more fodder for the next laundry pile!

Friday Favorites, Episode 14

Found all sorts of fun this week, mostly in the form of tutorials. Yay!

First on the list is from Craft Leftovers, who posted a two part series on using used books. The first post was mainly sources, so I'm linking the second, which had links to project ideas. Including secret compartment books (one specifically meant to hold an iPod!) and how to turn a book into a cd case.

Creative Kismet had a couple of skirts that she made. The fun twist? They were made from thrifted fabric bags.

I never fail to find useful tips at The Sewing Divas. The standout this week was some advice on cutting hard-to-work-with fabrics, like jerseys and silks, with underlays. Also, the mention of pattern weights is inspiring me to buy some rocks from work and turn them into some.

Recycled Crafts had a link to a site geared towards father-child craft projects. I'm at an age where creating with my dad would have to involve being able to afford my own place and power tools, but I still liked this butterfly from recycled wrapping paper. Also, though I have no plans to enter the art exhibition that this post is about, I thought this mosaiced fridge was pretty darn cool.

Have to do some more shameless self-promotion-- since Friday Favorites was posted early last week, I just missed noticing that I got a second mention at Crafting A Green World as the first runner-up in a mini-contest thingy they had for reconstructed clothing picture submissions. You should check out their crowned Queen of Upcycled Fashion-- she had some neat stuff in her Etsy. (And as first runner-up, that's got to mean I get a royal title too, right? At least a dutchess or something.) Also, they had a great post about trying to find eco-friendly fabric at the mainstream stores-- albeit slightly depressing, seeing as how Joann's is the only game in town. Pretty much literally, other than the internet. And in linking to them just now, stumbled across another fun link-- an entire site dedicated to eco-friendly art supplies. This could be dangerous, for my wallet at least.

Found several tutorials I liked at My Half of the Brain this week. Hands-down favorite, these summer slippers. I think I'll have to make a pair to stash in my flute bag for my Friday lessons-- I have a couple students who I commute to their houses, and the Korean family of one of them requested that I not wear shoes inside their house. They also recently redid the room that I teach their son in, and standing barefoot on a hardwood floor for an hour makes my legs tired, so this might be just the ticket! Other projects I enjoyed: fabric envelopes, these felt strawberries (Lydia, these made me think of you after all your strawberry posts!) and this pen case (which I mainly picked because I have some fabric scrap pieces that I thought would work really well in this style of bag! Just never had time to figure out the pattern. And now I don't have to.)

Ok, wrapping it up here...need to finish dinner, and my serger/sewing machine is calling me!

Friday Favorites, Episode 13: The Early Edition!

Yes, I know it's only Thursday. But this is the weekend of J's wedding and therefore tomorrow will be taken up with all of the bridesmaidish things like getting our nails done/rehearsal/washing my hair in preparation for getting it done/a bunch of errands like an overdue trip to the bank, picking up a few last-minute things at the drugstore like a new tube of mascara, and hopefully managing to get my dad something for Father's Day (I think I'm just going to go with an ice cream pie, because I really have no time to actually bake him something, and my dad is one of those impossible to shop for guys). So it's either tonight or Sunday. (Too bad, because Episode 13 on Friday the 13th would have been kind of cool.) And Sunday is when I'm hoping to be happily making a mess of the basement in cutting up my recent Gorgeous Fabrics purchase. So here we go...

My Crafting a Green World pick of the week: Recycled fabric paper. This stuff looks pretty cool, actually-- a bit pricey ($6-10 for a 22x30 sheet), but I'm thinking it might be great for something like if I ever figure out the bookbinding thing so I can use it on the covers. I also have to mention their list of green craft blogs that they mentioned today-- in part because it gave me the next couple of items, but also because I made the list!

The CAGW spinoffs:
1. The last link led me to Etsy's Earth Tones blog, which in turn led me to this list of ways to reuse/upcycle "disposable" items. By no means comprehensive, but thought-provoking.

2. Another blog they had listed was Recycled Crafts, which looks like it's largely a link blog (links to tutorials and places to purchase other crafters' wares.) I'll have to peruse the tutorials more closely, but looks promising. (Plus the fact that the server is called Craftgossip just makes me smile for some reason.)

ThreadBanger pick of the week: This tutorial for a studded belt. I wear a lot of belts. I have to, because I haven't yet mastered the art of making pants that fit me, and the stores around here haven't mastered the art of selling pants that fit me (at least not after I buy them and take them home and wash them, apparently. Grrr. Had that happen at least 3 times recently). So belt options are definitely good.

One of my biggest struggles in life is time management. How do I balance working two jobs, one of which requires a fair amount of driving, finding time to practice, finding time to craft, finding time to devote to other favorite pasttimes (reading, craft blog-hopping, etc), finding time to spend with friends, etc? So I loved this thought provoking post at Consumption Rebellion.

Craft Tutorials had a post that showed an easy way to make those cute ribbon-and-bead bookmarks that you find at bookstores and stuff. Definitely wanting to try this.

Since my recent fabric purchase, I've been following Gorgeous Fabric's blog. A favorite post this week was Easy Ways To Ruin A Great Project -- a good run-down of details that I wouldn't necessarily think of that can often make or break an outfit. (The comments are just as helpful a read.)

Some more good advice came from Fiber Arts Afloat, who posted a tutorial on how to change a princess seam from coming through the armhole to coming through the shoulder seam. In doll-sized proportions. Hee!

Thanks to In A Minute Ago, I found a tutorial on how to make some neat soldered necklaces. Which means I'd have to learn how to use a soldering iron...guess I can always use that for some father-daughter bonding time over power tools!

Last pick of the week: As you all have probably figured out by now, I have this mild obsession with blatantly stealing clothing ideas from Anthropologie. What can I say... so far, it's one of the stores that fits my style the best. And we don't have one around here. And I can't afford their clothes anyway. So of course I loved Koti*Koti's blouse, which was also a blatantly stolen Anthropologie-based idea. I also liked how she made it her own (and more doable) by opting to do a paint job instead of tediously copying the embroidery.

Better wrap it up here... I have to DIY the non-nail polishing part of a pedicure tonight, since I got advice from several people (my mom and some friends who have had pedicures before) to forego the professional one tomorrow due to my toe injury. Risk of infection from bacteria in the water and their tools and all that. So have a fabulous weekend, all!