Scrappy Floral Skirt Tutorial

In case you missed this post last month on Living With Punks, here's the project I made for her Scrap Your Stash series. (I just typed "srap" instead of "scrap" and honestly stared at it for like 4 minutes trying to figure out why I was getting the red squiggle misspelling line on it . . . I must have left my brain somewhere along I-80. I think I recall it making a run for the hills somewhere in Wyoming.)

 I've had my eye on this Anthropologie lampshade for a while now, and immediately thought of it as the perfect scrapbusting inspiration:

 

no longer available online; image from my Pinterest page

I loved the unusual floral design and mix of pattern and color, but my real crafty love is clothing. I wanted to incorporate this idea into something wearable, so I used their fun floral pattern to create a cute scrappy skirt!

 Believe me, folks, this project was a true scrapbuster from start to finish--even the skirt itself was in my scrap pile! I don't know if this is common practice everywhere, but at the Salvation Army in my town, you get to pick an item off a rack by the register to take home free for every $10 you spend (which means I end up with a lot of those freebies)--I chose this skirt a few shopping trips ago with the intent of chopping it up to use the linen fabric for something else. But now it has a new life in my closet as a beautiful skirt full of happy, scrappy memories!

 

I love the look of this skirt, but even more, I love that when I wear it, I'm carrying with me little reminders of sewing for the people I love--fabric scraps from a wedding quilt for a dear friend, a pillow given to a neighbor, and even a few pieces left over from my first sewing project ever contributed to this skirt.

Click "read more" to learn how to make your own!

Scrappy Floral Skirt at Living With Punks

I'm over at Living With Punks today with a project for the Scrap Your Stash series . . . one great idea after another to use up some of that huge fabric scrap pile!

Here's a peek at my project . . . a fun floral skirt that uses more scraps than you would expect:

And if you're still hanging around here and haven't clicked over for the how-to yet, I'll just keep on rambling! I'm like 90% sure I was invited to this series by mistake. I was all sorts of flattered and excited to be a part of her series until she sent out the posting schedule . . . and I saw the other contributors. Hmmmm. I don't know where she got my email address from, but I think it snuck in by mistake and Susan was just too polite to tell me so. There have been some pretty big, pretty awesome ladies involved so far (and I mean big like I would act all awkward and giggly if we met in person, not big like pass the Oreos, please), and there are a lot more big, awesome ones coming up. I'm just glad Susan was too nice to tell me to scram. So head over, check it out, and leave a nice comment so I don't feel like the loner in the middle school cafeteria!

Pleated Necktie Necklace

I wanted to point out something new I'm doing, in case you haven't noticed. You know how there are, like, a kazillion amazing blogs out there? And you're always looking for great new ones to read? Here's my little way to help you find some of them--check out my sidebar there . . . I'd like you to meet my Blog Crush of the Week. Every week, I'm going to feature one of my favorite, recently-discovered blogs that I think you'll love, too! Last week was Sarahndipities. This week it's Natty By Design. You'll love them both, I promise. 100% money back guarantee. So keep your eye on that spot if you want to find new blogs that you will love to add to your reading list!

Speaking of my sidebar, how would you like to have your ad on this here bloggy? Have an etsy shop to promote? A blog that deserves some extra attention? A home business you think is da bomb? If you're interested, shoot me an email and we'll set it up . . . I'm now taking sponsors! maybematildaquilts(at)gmail(dot)com

All right, on to the real stuff. In case you missed this project last week over at Running with Glitter, here's my tutorial for the quirky and cool Pleated Necktie Necklace!

 I used one of my husband's old castoff ties (by the way, is your husband's closet stuffed with really awful old neckties that make you want to scratch out your eyeballs? Jeff's collection is a doozy.) to make a fun pleated necktie necklace:

 

I think it's pretty dang cool, if I may say so myself, and I wish I could take credit for the idea but I stumbled across this picture on Pinterest (are you addicted? Is there a support group I can join?) and had to wipe the drool off my keyboard. It is awesome:

via

Since I couldn't find it for sale anywhere (correction! Here is it, in this etsy shop! If you have a few dollars to spare, go buy it from them! Unfortunately, I don't . . . dang husband wanting to be a doctor, racking up the student loans . . . but I do have a lot of old ties. I love to support handmade, but sometimes, well, sometimes I just plain can't), I went to town on Jeff's old tie and I think it came out pretty well!

Want one? Sneak into your husband's closet while he's otherwise occupied and get to work!

(Click "read more" to learn how I made mine!)

Pleated Necktie Necklace at Running With Glitter

How do you like my latest necklace?

I know, it's pretty rad (I'm not entirely sure that I'm the sort of person who can pull off the word "rad," but I'm giving it a shot anyway. Did it work?).

I'm guest posting today over at the lovely Kelly's blog, Running With Glitter, with the tutorial to make it! So head on over, check it out, and tell her I say hi!

 And get excited, because Kelly's bringing her awesomeness this way next week with a cool project for you!

Floral Love Tee

Alternate title: I'm Booking a Cruise With the Money I Saved on This One.

I'm normally not a huge fan of clothes with words on them (unless they're huge and pink and splayed across my behind, of course), but this top is an exception. It just doesn't have that "look, my shirt is speaking for me" vibe that I usually get from graphic-type tees, and it won me over with the cute floral print:

 

Floral love tee @ Delia's

Isn't that cool? I really like the mix of rough and sweet. And I know, I know, you're thinking, "Another Delia's knockoff? Seriously?" But hey, if they're going to keep sending me catalogs, I'm going to keep knocking off their clothes. I need something to flip through while I eat my Cap'n Crunch in the morning.

The original shirt isn't even very expensive--$19.50--but my frugality knows no bounds. And part of me refuses to pay for something I could make myself purely on principle. Sure, I could have bought that shirt from Delia's . . . but to know that I could so easily make it for under $5? Buying it with that knowledge would kind of be a slap in the crafty face. So I made it.

Like it? It cost me $3. And that $16.50 I saved is really going to make a dent in our student debt, let me tell you. When we finish repaying those loans precisely 1 hour ahead of when we otherwise would have, thanks to that $16.50 I saved, I'm going to buy myself some ice cream.

I think you should make one, don't you agree? And although step-by-step instructions probably aren't necessary for this one (you could pretty much look at the picture and know what I did), I made them anyway. What can I say, I guess I like to hear myself talk (or type?). Click read more and get to work!

Opinions, please!

Do you remember this dress? It started out as a truly heinous 90s jumper and ended up being a real cute little almost-Modcloth-ish-if-you-squint-and-tilt-your-head summer piece:

I was happy with it riiiiiight up until I got my latest Delia's catalog in the mail and saw this dress:

I want it. I want it bad. 

I was starting to plan out a knockoff dress and realized I'm only a crochet neckline away from making a really similar version out of my 90s jumper dress. And when I made this top the other day for my etsy shop, I couldn't stop thinking about adding this same neckline to my dress:

But my husband flipped through the Delia's catalog and insisted that I had found  

the ugliest dress in it to add to my wish list.(But the man leaves the house regularly in mismatched sweatclothes, so I'm not sure I should really listen to his opinion on fashion.)

So I need your opinions . . . Am I crazy? Do you like the Delia's dress, too? And most importantly--should I try it out on my black dress? 

 (I would lower the dress's existing neckline first so it has more of a scoop neck, so if it doesn't look cute, I'm not sure the dress will look that great even if I take the crochet part off again!)

MJ58W8Q647PJ

McIntosh Knockoff Dress

Say hello to my latest summer dress . . . a cute little knockoff of Spool No. 72's McIntosh dress. Here's the original (which would have cost $54 if it weren't sold out):

And here's my version, which rang up at a whopping $4 (really broke the bank with this one):

 Not bad, eh? The top came from a long-sleeved tee I already had (so I'm not counting it toward the cost) and I got the pink cotton on sale at JoAnn for I think $2-3. Toss in some thread and we'll call it an even $4. Search as I might, I couldn't find the sort of coraly-orangey color in the original dress, so I settled for a bright pink.

I wanted my version of this dress to have short sleeves (check!), pockets (check!), and a gathered waist only across the front and back, not the sides--personally, I think those side gathers aren't doing anybody any favors--and I like the slimmer silhouette that this version produces.

This green number was my practice run--and you know, I actually think I like it better than the final draft. The pink skirt above was an A-line shape, but the green one I just cut straight.

 (For this one, I used an old tee that was a hand-me-down from my sister (or is it a hand-me-up, since she's younger?). When she saw these pictures, her response was, "Dude, that's my shirt." She'd better not be expecting to get it back now.)


Want to make one? It was super-duper (luper-buper) easy, and you'll be done in an hour or so!

Click read more below for the tutorial . . .