Men's Work Shirt Skirt Tutorial

Here is a cute tutorial on how to re-use your lovers work shirts. You know how I love to recycle :)

What you'll need:
One men's dress shirt with a straight hem, wide enough to be gathered at your waist, long enough from the armpit to the hem for the skirt
Ruler
Scissors
Sewing machine and thread
Pins
1/2-inch elastic about 30 inches long
Large safety pin

1. Lay your shirt down, folded in half lengthwise. Following a ruler, cut straight across the shirt, from under the armpit to the buttons. This bottom piece is your skirt.

2. Using other pieces from the shirt, cut two waistband pieces, about 5 inches tall by the width of your hips. Cutting from the rest of the shirt, cut pieces to combine together to make two belt straps. These pieces should be 5 inches tall by as wide as you can get.

3. Combine the belt pieces to form two strips that are roughly 24 inches long by 5 inches tall. Press the seams flat where they were connected. Fold one strip in half with right sides together and sew, forming a long tube. Stitch one end closed and repeat on the other strip. Turn the tubes right side out and press flat.

4. Lay out one waistband piece face up. Lay the two belt pieces on top of the waistband piece, on each of the two short ends, about an inch from the bottom. Lay the other waistband piece on top of the first one, matching sides. Pin the two short ends together, including the belt pieces. Stitch each side, capturing the belt in the side seam. Fold the waistband in half, wrong sides together, and press flat.

5. Baste the top of the skirt and gather to fit the width of the waistband. Pin the waistband to the skirt, right sides facing and with the belt pieces toward the front of the skirt, with the raw edge of the waistband lining up with the top raw edge of the skirt. Stitch together, being careful not to sew the belt pieces into the seam. Leave a 1-inch opening in the seam when connecting the waistband to the skirt.

6. Cut a piece of 1/2-inch elastic to a comfortable width for your waist, plus 1 inch for overlapping. Pin a large safety pin to the elastic and feed into the waistband casing. Once you've gone all the way around, pull the pin out the hole and overlap the two ends of elastic about 1/2 inch. Zigzag-stitch them together and release into the waistband. Stitch the hole closed in the skirt.

7. Press all your seams crisp, and slip on the skirt. Tie the belt pieces in front and go!

You can find it at: http://www.craftstylish.com/item/44969/how-to-make-a-belted-skirt-from-a-mens-dress-shirt

Enjoy!

Project Runway Season 6 Update

So it has finally been settled. Project Runway Season 6 will debut now on LifeTime on August 20th, 2009. I can't wait!! I hope they do not change it because it's not on Bravo anymore.

Yeah It's here

The fabric and pattern came for the new project. I love it and I am going to start asap on it.

Upcoming project idea!

This is my new idea. I just ordered the materials and pattern. I want to make the patterned dress, but with the black and cream pattern. The red will be the middle width part of the dress. I fell in love with this fabric. It is Alexander Henry Sofia. I can't wait to make it!!!!!!!! I was invited to my friends Whitney wedding shower in Napa and I think it will be great for Napa. I hope the pattern and fabric comes today so I can get started on it.

Purses & Handbags

I really like purses and hand bags. Who doesn't. Although you would think that I don't because most days you will see me using a canvas bag or Bare Escentuals bag as my purse. I carry too much crap around with me on a day to day basis. I am a pack rat and I am cheap. I guess I think that I will get stranded and will need something even though there is a Walgreens on every corner. Here are two examples of bags I made. The tote bag I made at a class at Stitch Lounge. It is made out of cotton and is reversible. The other bag is a Amy Butler pattern. I had this idea of making a black bag with buttons, but it turned out bad and is ugly and I am going to re-do it. Tote bags are easy, but any other bags are really kind've hard. There are a lot of angles and interfacing's. I can see why bags these days are expensive, but at the same time I don't get why they are?

My Summer Halter Top

This pattern has been sitting around for a couple years now and I finally got around to making it. It is a fairly easy project. I used an Amy Butler pattern. The thing I like about this is that the bust part is lined. This is one that I think we could do with the crafties.
I am glad it is warming up so I can wear it :)

My 28th B-day

For some reason I wanted to have a picnic and go dancing for my Birthday. It wasn't a special Birthday date, but I like getting people together and planning things. So I did both and that means I needed a party dress. I found this pattern on burdastyle.com and made the dress over a weekend. I bought the fabric from Fabrix and decided to use the opposite side of the fabric. The other side was too light. I made some changes to the pattern. I added an extra high slit for dancing, a belt to cover some bad sewing, and buttons everywhere because I learned how to do button holes while making this dress. I like the red touches of satin at the bust and on the pockets. I think it fits really well and I am glad at the way it turned out.

P.S. I like the picture in the top right because I actually have some cleavage from this dress :)

Holler

San Francisco City College Extended Ed Class Project

One of the benefits of my urban forestry stint in San Jose is that I received $5000 for school. Since I am not really sure what I am going to do and that 5,000 won't really cover much I have decided to use it to improve my sewing skills. I want to make more professional things and this takes practice. I signed up for a 5 week class. It met every Tuesday night for a few hours. It was open lab, so you brought in a project and you worked on that for the 5 weeks. I downloaded a pencil skirt pattern from Burdastyle.com and made a pencil skirt. I really like the class because she would walk around and help you, but you had freedom and motivation to complete the project. I am hoping to take her week long class this summer. http://www.sew-it-all.com/

Happy Tax Day!

This dress is made out of tax forms. Yeah!

burdastyle.com

I am addicted to this website. Help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is where I downloaded patterns for my B-day dress and pencil skirt. The patterns used to be free, but now they cost about $3. You download them, print them out and tape them together. They have awesome patterns for everything. They put a new one up every Tuesday. I love it!

Hawaii

My new thing is to make a piece of clothing for a fun event or a trip. So when my parents invited me to The Big Island of Hawaii I was excited to make a dress. I didn't want just a summer light hawaiian dress. I wanted a more dressy, but relaxed dress that I could wear out to a nice dinner. I found the fabric at Fabrix on Clement and across the street at Satin Moon found a pattern that was 75% off. It was a match made in heaven. I had some real trouble with this one. It was my 1st time making something fitted and had a zipper. By the way I did not have a zipperfoot so I hand sewed the zipper which is a no no. I was working on this up until the night before the trip. It looked okay. It fit me well. When my mom saw it she could tell it wasn't up to par so she helped me fix it before I wore it. :) I took a class recently where I learned how to do a zipper and I bought a zipperfoot, so I am planning on redoing the zipper just in case I go to Hawaii again. :)

Flannel PJ Pants

Next I wanted to start making real items of clothing. I needed PJ's so I got Pattern # and made some flannel pants. I added a drawstring and pockets on the side. Pretty easy you would think, but it was my 1st time reading a pattern. With a little help from my Mom on a trip to San Diego I was starting to get the hang of it. They were completed and looked good, but every time I wear them they rip in the crouch. :) Oh well.

Apron

I saw a picture of an apron on-line and really wanted one. My other passion is cooking and so I figured it would be great to have an apron. I had this funky kind've hippy african fabric that I didn't know what to do with. I didn't use a pattern for this, I just went with it. It has two places where it ties in the back and I put two pockets in front. It turned out pretty good.

Starter Projects

I always have had a fascination with clothing. Growing up I had a unique sense of style. I used to make sketches when I was little of outfits in my head. If I find them I will post. I can play dress up for hours and enjoy it. In Highschool I would hem things by hand, but then I got a sewing machine for a birthday and then that changed. I first started off altering fabrics. The skirt was something my mom picked up from Ross that was a size XXX so I made it fit me. The shirt was a pattern that I found on-line where you take a Mumu and make it into a slouch shirt. I tried to teach it to "the craftgroup" and I found out I am not a very good teacher. I did wear my mumu shirt out dancing once. :)

About Me

I am asked this alot on the Internet: I am a 28 year old single women who feels that I am not fit for the 21st century. I am a feminist, but sometimes I wish I could just stay home and be a house wife. I have a bad back and I am very emotional. I am a temporary worker for the 2nd time in my life. I have an Environmental Science degree which I hope to use again in my life. I love the city, but hate the rat race. I love clothes and can't wait to sew sew sew. I am so into health, but I am in a constant struggle to de-stress myself. I never seem to win so I probably will die when I am 40. I think that is good enough for now.

This is all new to me

I have never done anything like this before. I don't even like to talk about my self, but I really like looking at other people's blogs, so I will give it a try. I think I might just have it be a place where I post and talk about new projects and inspirations I have. It also may be a place where I get my daily thoughts out. Who knows.