Self-Stitched September: Labor Day Weekend Edition

Since I'm getting a little late start, I'm going to cover the entire first week of September with one outfit. Because I'm being nice to myself, and am not going to let this challenge be stressful. Just fun :) Just moving last weekend gave me a late start, but also gave me a fresh look at my wardrobe as I was packing and unpacking it, so hopefully I can get creative here. I'm also hoping I have some time to squeeze in a little sewing time to make some new additions to my wearable handmade collection. Here's the weekend barbecue outfit!


What I'm wearing:
Dress: Made by me, details here
Belt: Wal-Mart maybe?
Shoes: Fit-Flops

Self-Stitched September....A little late!

Okay, so I've been absent for awhile! The last couple of weeks have been crazy. My sewing machine had to go in to get serviced, I started teaching and taking classes for the fall, and we moved. And the computer was in a box.....so that meant no blogging. Also, it means that I totally missed the beginning of Self-Stitched September because most of my clothes are still in boxes as well! But, I think I'm going to catch back up on Monday or Tuesday, to get started after the labor day weekend. Here's my pledge:

'I, Sasha of sashamakes.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavour to wear at least 1 handmade or refashioned item of clothing or accessories every day for the duration (or rest!) of September 2010'

So that's what's getting ready to happen. AND....I finally have my own space to sew/craft! I'll share pics when I get it in working order. Yay! Check back next week for wardrobe pics and some sharing of works in progress!

Frock by Friday: Finished Anda

Here's my finished Frock by Friday! It really was a simple dress, and I will probably churn out another one in the future. For this one, I used a knit, and my sewing machine did not enjoy it. Also, I notice in the photo that the sleeve looks wonky, but I think that's just due to the fabric clinging on the dress form...oh well! It will be another comfy cute dress that will carry me into the fall with some tights and boots. :)

Recycled Tank+TOMS+Leftover Fabric

Many of you might know about my love of TOMS Shoes. I'll save the details for another post, but for every pair of shoes purchased, they give a pair to a child in need. I also interned there for a semester. After quite a bit of wear, I was getting tired of my black wrap boots, and decided to cut the wrap off and turn them into booties. So a couple of long ace bandage-like pieces of elastic have been hanging around, looking sad, and waiting for another life.

Here's the wrap boots if you're not familiar:

I also had a tank top where the hem had started to unravel, and had shrunk up to be too short to wear in public. The missing piece of the puzzle was about 1 1/2 yards of fabric leftover from this romper. I didn't want to make a whole dress out of it, since it would be pretty close to the romper, and quite frankly, I was looking for easy, patternless sewing. This is what I came up with:

I cut the fabric up the middle fold to form a front and back, hemmed it, gathered the top to attach to the elastic, and then attached the elastic to the tank at the waist. I even put some sneaky pockets in at the side seam. Probably took me about an hour. A super-cute way to up-cycle some pieces I had laying around! Maybe I can post a tutorial for this later??? Would any of you be interested in that??

Summertime and the Reading is Easy...

I just finished reading "Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea," by Chelsea Handler, and I have to say it's hilarious. The perfect read for summer, as it made me laugh out loud, and had plenty of inappropriateness to go around. It's a collection of ridiculous tales from her life, and takes me back to the summer of 2007. (If you should know what I'm talking about, you will.)

I also hit up the local library to pick up a few more books to finish of the summer right. My library card is one of the few things I'll miss about living in town, if we get moved to the country. It may have been a little ambitious, but I picked up 2 books, and went back a day later for a third. I'd hate to risk one of them being checked out when I'm ready to read! Here's what I ended up with:

Superhero dress

This is my second use of the pattern from this post. It was such a simple and comfy dress I couldn't resist making another one. This time I used a screenprinted stripe fabric (with lightning bolts, duh), and some matching rib for the edging and contrast. Maybe a little wild, but it really is great for summer. My husband of course dubbed it the "superhero dress," and that's fine by me.

Frock by Friday

Have you heard of the "Frock by Friday" challenge over at Grosgrain?? I am loving this idea. For anyone wanting to hone there sewing skills, she posts a dress that you can follow along in making throughout the week, and by Friday you have a finished dress. I have actually been sewing long enough that I don't need the step-by-step, but it's still fun to see the way she does it, and to challenge myself to follow through with something.

This is the tech drawing for the pattern they are using that you can get here.
I love how simple it is, and I think I'll dig into my fabric stash and find something to follow along. You can follow along this next week here!
Anyone want to join me??