For the Casual Gentleman....

Remember the ruffle picture shirts?

I was dying to make a boy's version for my nephew, Jack (or Cpt. Cheeks as we sometimes call him), so I got this little solid green shirt at Walmart, and used scraps from other t shirts in white, grey, and red, to make a collar and striped tie. He's such a little gentleman!

Cousins!

To make the collar, just measure the neck and cut out two pieces, shaped roughly like this:

Lay the two pieces on top of each other, and stitch all the way around the edges. Then sew them around the neck of your shirt! Cute, cute! :o)

P.S.

I'm having trouble finding the time to search for tutorials/ideas to feature on my sidebar, so if you see any cute ones, please do pass them on! Thanks!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!!

Chanel Inspired Ruffle Collar and Cuffs

(showing this here today: )

Pathetic confession of the day:

I've been camping out at Chanel's website lately. Sometimes I even go to the "Coco Cocoon" site and just leave it up in the background so I can listen the song it plays over and over. (Actually....I'm doing that right now......)

Anyway. I fell in love with these little ruffle cuffs and collar (some things that, oddly enough, have been on my "ideas" list for some time now!), and I made some of my very own!

I love the full, ruffly collar bit, but honestly, I have no idea where I'd wear that kind of thing,! So I made an understated version, using this shirt of my husband's that doesn't fit anymore.

I off the cuffs and collar band, leaving about 1/4" of shirt fabric on the edges, when I could....

Tried on the collar band, and pinned the back where I wanted to sew it, in order to make it small enough for my neck. And I did the same for the cuffs. (you want it to be a little looser than how you would normally wear it, to make room for the seams you will make)

Then sewed them, right sides facing each other, where they were pinned.

Then I cut a strip of fabric from the shirt for each side of my collar and cuffs that were twice the length, and about 3" wide. (4 strips for my cuffs at 22x3", and two for the collar at 28x3")

This is how your collar and cuffs should look before adding the ruffles:

Then I ironed my ruffle pieces in half, width-wise....

Sewed a gathering stitch down the non-folded side, and gathered them...

Then I pinned them to the right sides of the cuffs/collar, and sewed them on with a strait stitch!

Ta-da!

Then I had fun with my husband and daughter doing an impromptu photo shoot!

(Thanks husband!)

It was fun to dress up, but I think I'll probably be wearing these a little more like this:

Tucked under a crew neck sweater, it kind of looks like layered shirts! (without the bulk!)

Happily Giving Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

This year the thing I'm most thankful for is peace. This has probably been the hardest year of my life (so far), a lot of things have happened that I thought never would. But knowing what I do about the Lord's promises, and how short this life is, I have a wonderful sense of peace. I know that's sort of corny and cliché, but there it is. I'm grateful for it! :o)

I'm also thankful for my family. No one makes me smile and laugh like they do! And there's no one that I'd rather spend this life hanging around :o)

I'm also thankful for all of you! You just don't know how it brightens my day when I get an encouraging comment, or email from one of you. I really love you guys!!! (P.S. Cross your fingers for me, this is my first time cooking a turkey!)

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday today!

What are you thankful for??

My Before and After Living Room!

Back in September I posted that I was having trouble decorating the living/dining area in our new house. I got lots of lovely suggestions and ideas that were a great help! And I've been working on it little by little, but it's still not quite the way I want it. I promised some pictures a while ago though, so here they are!

This was before:

Before:

After!

I'm going to slowly fill this wall with frames, as I collect them. Right now they have random bird things in them, but I'm not sure how long that will stay...

(yes, I have my tree up. It's been up for a week actually.... ) :o)

This sign is my favorite part of the house. I found it in our garage when we moved in, and since my husband is a preacher, I just had to put it up there!

Another favorite: These are pages from an old 1800's Reader's Digest type book. The pictures and stories are just fascinating!!

This is a large frame I got on clearance at Target when we first got married. I couldn't find a picture to put in it, so I hot glued silk flowers on it instead.

The lamp I made here.

Cozy pillows!

I heart Christmas trees :o)

And so far the makeover has cost a grand total of............$13! Which was what I spent at a craft fair on the "antiques" sign over the sofa. Everything else was on hand! (Except the dining table, which I'm babysitting for my mom.)

The things I still need to get done are:

Replace the trim around the floorboards

Get curtains (ugh!)

Prettify my chandelier

Tutorial: The Jersey Skirt

This skirt is so easy! I made these three in less than an hour yesterday.

For a child's skirt, you can probably use a t-shirt that you have lying around, but for an adult skirt you'll need to get your hands on some jersey yardage.

Before you start: Fabrics usually have more stretch on one side than the other, so be sure that you cut your fabric with the stretchy side goes around you!

1) Measure around your hips (or wherever you wear your skirts). Then cut a waistband that is 3/4 your measurement, and twice as tall as you want your waistband to be. I think mine was 26"x11". (You can also just stretch the fabric around you until it's fairly tight, but not uncomfortable, and use that as your measurement.)

2) Cut a skirt piece that is about twice the measurement of your waistband, and however long you want it to be. Mine is 25" long.

3) Using your machine's longest strait stitch, sew all the way down the top side of the skirt panel, then pull the top thread to gather, until it's the same length as your waistband.

4) Fold the waistband in half width-wise, and lay the skirt panel on top of the open edges. Try to line it up so that the skirt panel hangs over the waistband edges a little bit.

5) Sew the skirt panel onto the waistband, using a zig-zag stitch.

6) Cut out two pocket pieces. Mine were 11" on the top, 6" on the bottom, and 7.5" on the sides. Make sure it's big enough to fit your hands in once sewn!

7)Hold your skirt up to yourself and mark where you want your pockets to be, then pin your pocket on to your skirt and sew on the side with the gathered top showing. For a slouchy pocket, you want your pocket to have extra fabric in the middle, so pin it about 6" apart on top, with about a 4" pleated bottom. (see second photo)

8) Sew the open ends of your skirt together, with right sides facing each other, and your done!

I love it as a high-waisted skirt, with the waistband unfolded!

Or folded down, with the ruffled edge showing...

Or if you're not feeling ruffly, just fold the band over them!

side:

For the bubble skirt, do the same as the first skirt(skipping the pockets), but double the length of the skirt, fold in half lengthwise, and sew open edges to the band.

For the grey skirt at the top, I did the same as the first skirt, but I made the skirt length 3/4 longer than I wanted the finished length to be, folded it almost in the middle (so that the bottom layer hangs down further) and sewed the folded edge to the waistband. Then I sewed a zig-zag around the skirt edges, stretching the fabric as I sewed to make it slightly ruffly.

I have quite a headache today, so I apologize if these directions make no sense! Feel free to comment with any questions :o)