New Projects

One of my best friends in the entire world is a total ray of sunshine. Nothing gets that lady down- nothing! Being quite stressed myself, I decided to rip a page from her book and try my hand at crafting. You see, this girl has talent and is always, always producing something awesome. Boppy covers! New clothes made from old clothes! And don't even get me started on her crocheting skills. She credits a lot of her 'can't bring me down' attitude to crafting.

Now I'm no stranger to crafting myself. I grew up with a tattoo artist for a father, a seamstress/painter for a mother, a brilliant musician grandfather, a master woodworker grandfather, a grandmother who always had a project going, and a great-grandmother who constantly knitted. I've made at least one of my children Halloween costumes for the last three years and I recently made a totally recycled dollhouse as a Christmas present for my daughter. Before I became pregnant with my son, my dream was to go to School of the Art Institute in Chicago and study fashion design. Beyond that, I never really tried to make anything. Lord knows I can't follow a pattern to save my life and I despise sewing machines, so that gives you an indication of where I stand. Nevertheless, I made a homemade dress form, loaded up on $22 worth of material and decided to give it my best shot. While these pieces aren't fantastic and I see myself wearing them maybe a handful of times, I did fall in love with making my own clothes and it truly made me happy and drastically less stressed. My friend is definitely on to something. It was like a form of meditation for me and I'm getting ready to start on a few more dresses. I'm even giving my sewing machine another chance.

I'm not in love with this shirt but I don't hate it. It was my first attempt and I really had no idea where to start. I'm also pretty sure I have it on backwards in this picture, as the front lays flatter to my bust. It came to a total of about $3 and a day of my time.

I am pretty proud of this dress. It has a red base and a lace overlay. I'm considering adding lace cap sleeves. I do really like this but it is actually quite heavy and very itchy so I'm not sure I would wear it a whole lot. I do love the shape of it, as that is my constant issue when shopping for dresses. I also discovered I love working with lace, as it hides my crappy stitches. This totaled around $15 and took 2 days complete.

I also made some jewelry, which I really love doing. It's so simple and easy and I am beyond picky when it comes to selecting pieces to buy. The necklaces are quite long and fall below my bust (excluding the rose one). The crystal necklace and matching bracelet were crafted with chandelier crystals I saved from our old house. The new owner intended to trash everything and I couldn't stand the thought of our beautiful chandeliers going to the dump. A previous owner had them imported from her native England in 1950 and I loved the idea of having that history hanging around my wrist.

My next pieces will most likely be a black cotton trapeze dress, a nude base/black fringe lace sheath dress (think flapper meets 50's bombshell), and a color blocked bandage dress. We'll see how that goes, ha.