The 24 hour project!

I found this super amazing tutorial online and I have been dying to duplicate it!

View said super amazing tutorial here (click).

The hardest part is actually finding something like the pleated skirt she used (HEY MOM, CAN I STEAL YOUR PLEATED SKIRT FROM THE 80'S TO MAKE THIS????).

I have been to 3 separate goodwills, and they are not as easy to find as you would imagine. Goodwill #1 had nothing even remotely like it. Goodwill #2 had one in a teeny tiny size, and it would have been too short.

So my challenge for this one was really to find a skirt that will be large enough for me. I'm not going to sugar-coat it. I'm a bigger girl, I get it. So I was just about to give up at Goodwill #3 when I spotted it.

...

It is a skirt that someone had taken the time to make at home with their own tender loving care and then DONATED. It had an elastic waist band, was approximately a size 10, and an added bonus that I didn't notice until I started cutting: POCKETS!!! Unfortunately for me, the pockets are going to be wasted, unless you come by me sometime and put a tampon in the pockets that are currently located in my sleeves.

So first things first, I will address that it does sort of look like a shower curtain. Who knows? Maybe it was. I don't care. It's pretty understated, and I sort of like that about it... Alright, who am I kidding? I would NEVER have spent $12/yard at the fabric store to buy this. Ever. But it was only $4! AND THE BEST PART: It was half off red tags that day. So I bought it for $2.17 <------- winning!

It was most likely donated to Goodwill because it was boring. But maybe I can make it better. We'll just have to wait and see.

I started with the immediate removal of the gross old elastic. Put it on over your head and dance, sans arms like this.

And then I went to town with the scissors. I sliced up some arm holes and sewed some side seams and like magic, I have something that I will wear for a photo. Not sure that it will see the light of day aside from this, but it'll be on the internet, so I guess I probably could wear it in public.

And now for the great reveal. I will preface this with a photo describing my feelings about Andrew's photographer abilities: 

(sheer horror)

And this:

(absolute disapproval)

Without much further ado, and the best photos my husband is capable of, here is what I made!

I hate the whole finishing step, but if I hear that this dress is cute enough for public, I might take the time to do it. What do you guys think?

We're in a library. It makes us look smart.

So before you see these pictures and think, "what the hell is going on here and why are these pictures kind of weird", realize several things:

1. I am sorta/kinda weird.

2. I used a film camera without a flash

3. I did not feel like cleaning my apartment to take photos everywhere.

4. I am not a professional photographer and apparently do not give good direction.

So, knowing that, LOOK!

This FANCY. 

Want to see the dress on a real person!??? I knew you did :) 

More photos/witty commentary after the jump!

The "select-a-project" project.

So while everyone eagerly awaits photos of my completed dress project, I have to figure out what to do with my time.

This evening, I gathered up all this crap:

From top to bottom, left to right: miscellaneous fabric, a goodwill dress purchased for $4, one mens size XXXL camo jacket, t-shirts needing alterations to make for a lady (plug: ESPN1380 -- you're welcome, Corey ), calligraphy set, jeans needing mending, miscellaneous felt, more fabric, fabric paint, ribbon, Andrew's hoodie needing a hole mended, crochet hooks and yarn, and a stencil.

"What is the point of all this," you ask? Well, these are things that are readily available, and are just hanging out around my apartment needing various things done to them, and many haven't even the beginnings of ideas of what to make out of them. I am definitely taking suggestions.

Anyway, tonight I started with Andrew's hoodie. It's one of his staples, and he wears it all the time. He'd ripped a 2-3" hole in the side where the smocked bottom meets the left hip. I mended it by hand and was done in 15 minutes. That was uneventful...

I NEEDED MOAR PROJECTS!

So I took my favorite jeans and decided to mend the two holes in them. I wore through the thighs in the 3 years I've had these jeans, but I still feel like there's life left in them, so I got to work! (Lucky you! I remembered to take some pictures of my process for this one!)

I pinned the seam back together (for the most part) on the inside of the pants.

Then I pressed some sewable fusible interfacing over the hole, and ironed a piece of fabric (I used a piece of the goodwill dress since it's non-stretch and relatively thick so it'll reinforce that area)

Now that it's all stuck together, it's time to sew these pantalones!

I would have chosen a blue that matches my jeans better, but I didn't have any on hand, and I didn't feel like going to the fabric store. I zigzagged all along the rip, and (not pictured), trimmed my patch fabric closer to the stitching.

And here's my finished (not beautiful), functional repair job! I've been wearing them since I fixed them, and the dance I did to show the husband how impressed with myself will go down in history as the most smug dance in the entire world. I will definitely be wearing these to work tomorrow!

And the disappointing conclusion of my crafty-ass night:

I started chrocheting a scarf. It's cream in color, and very boring. I'm not excited about it, but I'll think of some way to jazz it up. ;) 

Project # 1 : nearing the end.

I realized today that I have absolutely no idea where my zipper foot has gone. I haven't searched very hard, but it wasn't where I expected it to be, so obviously it's off having a threesome with the dish and the spoon or something. It's safe to say that I did not attach the zipper like I had planned to tonight. There's always another day.

Here's a few pictures of the dress to this point, including a close-up of a super pretty seam where the cap sleeve meets the dress at the princess seam. Super impressed with my self atm.

Expect some pictures of my beautiful cousin in this dress at some point in the future. It'll be all glam-y and stuff if I have anything to do with it.

I'm going to take inventory of stuff I've saved for potential projects to see what I should do next. There are a bunch laying around.

Stay tuned for the next crafty post!

Zip zip zipper! (a.k.a. overrated)

I only have one thing left to do on this project, and I don't doubt it's going to take me all week to finish. I have to install a zipper... The fit isn't great (which makes me incredibly sad -- I've worked SO hard on this project, and I think that the person it's for probably won't wear it more than once or twice. But I will say that for a very fitted garment, it could have looked WAYYYY worse... Any advice about installing zippers would be greatly appreciated! I'll upload some photos of it tonight, most likely. I also realize that I should have installed the zipper along the straight seam first, and then tried to fit it using the side/back panels instead. Overall, this has been a really good learning experience. 

Parting words: I hate finishing all the seams.

Seeking temporary partner for sewing unusual corners.

So....

I will not be making any garment resembling a tailored/fitted garment EVER AGAIN.

Aside from my machine's reluctance to go through more than 2 layers of fabric, making a bajillion changes to an existing pattern is a terrible idea. And, I lost a page to the instructions...

Maybe I'm in over my head here. But as soon as I complete this project, I can move onto projects that I actually want to do.



OMG AND I STILL NEED TO INSTALL A ZIPPER OF DOOM. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Anger ensues.

READER DISCLAIMER:
If you are a sewing machine activist or advocate for the feelings and rights of sewing machines everywhere, what you are about to read may upset or offend you. Reader discretion is advised.

First things first, I have to tell you a little back story about my sewing machine and our relationship.

The Christmas of 2005 I was a freshman at a college in Milwaukee. Because I was definitely engineering material and my mom wanted to sabotage me, she bought me my very own sewing machine. It was a starter, but it was awesome and distracting, which I definitely needed, because I was not really happy with doing homework. The first year, my machine and I got along great -- we crafted and costumed and we were happy to have each other.

It all changed when I moved back home and it had to live in the trunk of my car. From then on, it has never forgiven me.

The first 3 seams of a project go great, and then it starts playing games with me so I yell at it and call it names and hit it. Very mature, I know, but it's better than taking it out on Andrew.

So that's where my sewing machine and I stand. I should definitely name it. I will think of some names and poll my friends, so a name will come soon. Anyway, now for the actual reason I wanted to make this post: I want to publicly humiliate and berate it to make myself feel better, which might also in turn make everyone aware of how weird I actually am... On with the verbal flogging!

[Sewie] is so weak, it couldn't even make a crappy joke like this one
[Sewie] breaks needles so easily, a heroin addict could teach it a thing or two
[Sewie] is like spaghettios, it's only good for the first few minutes.

That's all for now. I had more, but some of them got vetoed due to content by a third party. I hope [Sewie] works for me again when I get back to it. And sometime in a future project, I will get brave enough to try out my grandma's old sewing machine... That's an adventure for another time.

COMMENCE AWESOMENESS

Project Number One.

Daunting.

Technology is the devil's work! (a.k.a. the beginning of my blog)

I'm experiencing a HUGE streak of boredom lately. I'm not sure if it's just laziness or what, but I am absolutely bored most evenings. The last couple weeks, the bassist for my band has been out of town, so we haven't practiced, and that could be part of what I'm dealing with, but mostly I think that I'm not tapping into my potential... Like at all. And I've had some time to reflect on what is different now than it was before. I'm about to get real old-lady on all of you and just say it: TECHNOLOGY! IT'S THE DEVIL'S WORK! 

Okay, so maybe not the devil's work, but it really is playing an enormous role in how people are communicating and experiencing life. Before I had netflix, and a laptop, and a smart phone, and all of this other stuff, I was having a better time than I am now. I was doing crafts! I was staying up until 2am to finish a costume I made for a silly event to which no one else was going to wear a costume! I had an absolute blast before I became another drone lost to the era of the smart phone. 

In my job, I am constantly problem solving and jerry-rigging, but at home I haven't done a damn thing in the last few weeks. So here is where I started. After a two hour binge of pinteresting, and for the last several several months, not having done a SINGLE pinterest project I have pinned, I have decided that I'm going to try to do two pinterest-related projects every month for the next year. I think it's an attainable goal, and some times I might do better, and others I might do worse. I might find things to do that aren't related to pinterest and I feel like tooting my own horn. Whatever. 

I'm going to attempt this whole "blogging" thing when I find myself aimlessly searching netflix for something to waste the hours before I can justify going to sleep (and that in itself is a time-waster. I definitely do not need 8-10 hours of sleep every night -- there are 3 hours each night I can dedicate to making or improving things!). 


My expectations:
Less boredom
Creativity
Thinking time
Shit gettin' done

Your expectations:
At least a few blogs/month
Jess to have put words on the screen in front of you
Pictures of shit Jess has done recently


So I guess it looks like everyone's happy, right? Alright. That's it for now... I guess I need to learn when to stop typing. Which is now.