And... Done!

OK, so I'm feeling a bit better after my long to-do list this morning.  Today I did actually get some work done around the house plus I got around to making 2 dresses!  Yup.. TWO of them!  I even got a few more rows knit on my sweater as well :)

My sister came by after stopping and picking up some fabric at JoAnn.  I took a few measurements and got started with her new dress(es).   A few days ago, my sister, Whitney (of Caught You on Camera), sent me a link to the McIntosh Knockoff Dress at Maybe Matilda... and asked me to make her one.  It's a super cute dress and honestly, really very similar to my Kate Dress that I have made for my daughters.  Same basic concept, except the McIntosh Knockoff features this really fun sash and the best part... pockets!

I was really excited to make a dress with pockets in it... I've never done it until today, and I must say I'm hooked!  I'll probably never (or rarely) ever make a skirt again without pockets.  Shoot, I might even go take a look in my closet and start figuring out which dresses and skirts I could add some pockets to.  hehe  I better slow down though for now. :)

Anyway, the tutorial was super easy to follow and really simple to do.  To be perfectly honest, if you can cut a square/rectangle and sew a straight line, then you can make this dress.    Here's how mine turned out...

This was the first one I made...

I followed the directions exactly - the measurements given in the tutorial were exactly the same as my sister's measurements - how lucky is that!? :) We measured to have the waist of the skirt fall right below her belly button.

On the second one, we made the skirt about an inch above the belly button.

This one I did a little more A-line. I didn't have a skirt to trace, so I just cut my squares a little wider then folded in half length-wise and cut a diagonal line from the top to the bottom, making sure that I left the width of the waist large enough so that I could gather the skirt still. I just did a straight hem on this skirt and it worked just fine.

The only problem we had was with the sash.  I didn't cut it long enough the first time around, so I ended up going back and having to cut it and add more.  The extra fabric is still here so I think I'm going to re-do the sash to make it look better.

Oh yeah, and the sash... this was the fun part of how it turned out for me - I had the idea that since the fabrics that Whit brought over coordinated, that we could make the sash double sided.  This way I only had to make one sash and also both prints would show when it was tied, adding a little bit more fun to the outfit. :)

These dresses would be really cute with various belts really... just to mix up the outfit a bit...

I'm going to make myself one soon hopefully!!

what to do first...?

I've got a long list of projects I'd LOVE to work on this weekend.  I'm feeling pretty crafty right now and all these projects are all over the spectrum - knitting, sewing, hair bow making, jewelry making, etc.  I really should learn to focus on just one thing at a time.  Oh well. 

Also this weekend, We've got to get some progress made on de-cluttering this house.  We decided that we will work on the final touches of getting our bedroom back in shape - so mostly just getting the last of the clothes put away somewhere.  Next, we will tackle the kitchen.  My main project in there will be to get the table and shelves cleared off of all the junk that has gathered and maybe clean out the pantry.  There's so much stuff in there that we have likely forgotten about and is probably stale by now anyway.  Time to get it out of this house!

So on top of my house cleaning that has to get done, I'm wanting to do all sorts of fun stuff.  I'm being realistic knowing that it won't all get done... but I do want to at least accomplish something.  I should probably start with the netbook case that I've been working on... it's so not going well though.  I tried following the pattern, but it's not written out very well... because I'm totally missing something.  I'm going to be having to make some adjustments to not waste what I've done so far.  We'll see how that goes.

I also need to hem a skirt for a friend, and hem a pair of my own pants.

I need to make these earrings for another friend.

And I need to make some hair bows - a big sister/little sister combo.

I'd like to work on this dress that my sister asked me to make for her, but I haven't heard back from her about any plans to get together - so this probably won't happen.  I'd also like to make one for myself, so maybe I'll gather the materials for mine at least.

I had saved this pattern in my stash awhile back, and now would like to try making it for my girls.  I've got the pattern printed out... next I just need to cut and tape it together.  Then choose my fabric for the top. :)  We all know that's the tough part... ;)

I'd also like to make this skirt for myself... the pattern has been sitting around here for almost 2 years now.  I'm having trouble picking out which fabric to use as well.

Let's see what else...

I want to make some more progress on my Garter Stitch Swing Cardi.  It's kind of taking awhile because I keep laying it down to work on smaller, quicker projects.

And speaking of smaller, quicker projects.  I need to make another of these hats for a friend at work.  Also, I need to make some flowers to go on a few of the hats that I have already finished.

So you see, that's quite a long "would like to do" list and I know I won't finish it all - but maybe having this little list will help me work on things in the right order and get at least some progress made. :)

WOW

I hadn't realized It's been so long since I've posted anything... Geez... I'm sorry about that.  I really had the best intentions of keeping this thing going.  I'm not giving up just yet, just consider the past 2 (almost 3) months a bit of a vacation.  I'm getting back on board to post again, at least once a week. :)

So yeah... I have actually been busy with lots of stuff, just haven't found the time to post about it.  A big thing that has kept be busy, and tired in the evenings (besides the kids) is that my DesiLea Boutique co-hort, Desiree got married!  Yeah!  We have been spending lunch breaks at our "real job" running errands for her wedding... so yeah, if you've ever gotten married or helped anyone who has then you realize why that's been keeping us busy.  Of course, that means our Etsy shop went on a bit of a vacation as well.  We are working on some ideas to re-stock the shelves (or pages, however you want to think of it) and will have things back up and running sometime this summer.

I have actually been crafting stuff too... I've gotten back to my yarn crafts and have been busy obsessing over buying new supplies (cause you can never have enough, right?) and browsing through all sorts of patterns for all kinds of projects.  By the way, have you ever looked through all the patterns and such that they have available on Ravelry?  I warn you, it can be addictive... but there are some really awesome patterns out there and so many of them are 100% FREE!  Even better, right?

So far, I have crocheted a few hats, and flowers and stuff like that.  I've started a crochet sweater which took a wrong turn so I frogged it (what?? It means that I unraveled the whole thing and it no longer exists :)  ).  I started a knit sweater, and ended up putting it down for a few days... when I came back to it I noticed that somehow I managed to knit a hole into it, so that was frogged as well.  Now, I'm using that same yarn that I started the other two sweaters with and trying once more to make a sweater with it.  I figure that either 3rd time's the charm or I just need to give up and try a different yarn (maybe it's bad luck or something?  LOL).

Like that? That's the Garter Stitch Swingy Sweater by Jenn Pellerin that I am currently working on.  It will be black and I hope to find some really fun buttons to use on it.  I'm going to worry about actually completing the sweater first though before I go to look for buttons.  Good idea, right? 

My favorite thing about the pattern is that it's kind of a guideline/formula to follow to knit your own sweater in your own specific size.  I just hope that I've done the math correctly, and this ends up fitting me.  If not, then I can probably find someone who it will fit and save it as a Christmas gift or something.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to.  I'll be back soon with more fun stuff... promise :)