Me Made May 2013

So, remember when I was going to be sewing two garments a month and updating my blog?  Hah.  That's funny.  So, I've made a new things since I made my new years resolution, but not anything close to two a month for myself.  Despite my failure at following my resolution thus far, I am going to embark on Me Made May.



 I, Sara of Little Red Lily, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear two handmade items a week for the duration of May 2013.  I will also make or refashion one additional item per week. 





But, as you may have noticed, it's now the second of May.  And because the universe loves me, it's raining, and I don't really plan on leaving my house until Roller Derby practice tonight.  I guess that means some me made derby shorts are on deck this evening. I'm also too late to "officially" sign up.  But that won't stop me!  While summer hasn't come on as quickly as i would have hoped here, I still want to be prepared with some self stitched outfits that make me happy. I'm going to try to stay on top of posting at least once a week to update you on my me made outfits, but i'll also be instagramming them. My username is littleredlily if you would like to follow me!

12 Projects: Tree Skirt

I bought my fake tree five years ago, for my first Christmas in New Jersey and the first I spent away from my family. The two cats I had at the time loved sleeping under it, so I didn't spend much money on a tree skirt.  In fact, I bought the cheapest one possible: a little red felt number from a big box store.  

Charlotte and Bailey under the tree, Christmas 2008

For my first Christmas in North Carolina and in my exciting new apartment, I wanted something new.  I wanted something cute and colorful with a vintage vibe, but nothing too precious as Bailey still loves to sleep under the tree.

I wanted to use up some of my scrap material, but I ended up supplementing with a few quarters of a yard from a JoAnn's sale.  I sketched up a simple scalloped pattern, and cut out a bunch of red and green wedges.  They are pretty imperfect, but i like it that way!

I was able to use the sleeves from two of the sweaters from the pillow project, and fabric scraps from a few past Halloween costumes.  I stitched the wedges together, alternating red and green.

Once it looked big enough, I layed it out on two yards of this green and red star fabric.  I sewed around and turned it inside out, making a quick and dirty lining for the underside.  I may add batting and quilt it in the future. 

It is a great size for my slim tree, but should fit around future trees.  Check out those peppermints!

What do you think of my tree skirt? 

Sorry for all the delays in posting, I've been caught up in other projects.  Most recently, I made one of two planned winter holiday dresses, and I even wore one to visit Santa.  

What have you been doing to get into the winter holiday spirit?

Missed something?  Check out The 12 Projects of Christmas.

12 Projects: Holiday Pillows

For my first project, I decided to dress up my couch for the holidays!  I already have a red couch, so it made a great starting point. I've been planning to do some pillows for everyday, but with Christmas right around the corner, I figured I would go for some with holiday designs first!

These three pillows are made from old sweaters. I cheated a little here, and bought them from a thrift store.The green one is children's, and the other two are adults. I chopped off the top halves, and stitched up the sides.

I cut shapes out of felt and glued them to the sweater pieces with Fabri-Tac. 

After letting them dry, I secured each shape with embroidery thread and a blanket stitch. 

This reindeer is probably my favorite.

 Trees!

I had some sparkly felt in my stash, perfect for tree ornaments. I used a chain stitch for the "strings".            

                             

I also made two pillow covers for my regular couch pillows from an old curtain, painted with silver and glitter paint. It had been sitting in my closet waiting for the right project.  I made two very basic envelope backed pillow covers. You can find directions for making pillow covers here, at Martha Stewart.  

  My painting skills leave a lot to be desired, so I went with a simple snowflake design.  It is definitely not perfect, but the covers turned out pretty cute!

Please forgive my blank wall!

 I hope you enjoyed project number one!  See you later this week!


Missed something?  Check out The 12 Projects of Christmas.

A Fresh Start, and Shower Curtains

So, as many of you know, I moved a few weeks ago!  My new home is Wilmington, NC.  I needed a change in my life, and moving 11 hours away is certainly a big change!  I'm 10 minutes from the beach, which is something I love, and I have a two bedroom apartment.  I have a balcony and a second bedroom for my office and sewing space.

 The best part about a new apartment is having the chance to decorate a new space.  I already own a fair amount of basic furniture (even if most of it is from Ikea).  I am planning to slowly replace a lot of my old Ikea stuff with vintage or handmade furniture.  I've already started some plans to tone down my bright red couch, and I've hung some sheer curtains.  Other than that, I am in planning and unpacking mode.

One of my biggest struggles thus far has been planning the decor of the bathrooms.  It sounds a bit silly, but I've never had a guest bathroom before, so I would really like it to look nice.

My starting point is this loteria card I came across on Pinterest:

La Sirena from "Perroit" Loteria

I love the simple artwork and the bright red with light blue.  As a bonus, I already have red and light blue towels, so that part is easy.  I've got plenty of decor items in the beachy/ocean realm, not to mention red and light blue. My biggest hurdle has been finding a shower curtain.

Ikat shower curtain from World Market.  Wrong colors.

I feel like this should not be so difficult. I'm fighting between my urge to spend as little money as possible (I've been showering with just the clear curtain liner in my own bathroom), and the desire to have something perfect and unique.

Nothing really piqued my interest at Target or Walmart, so I began looking at fabric.  This couldn't be too hard, right?  Fabric for a shower curtain can't be that expensive.

Hah.

I found some great sea life prints at Calico Corners.

Oceana by Thomas Paul in Aqua

Coral Cay in Seafoam.  This also comes in Red!

 The trouble is, at their least expensive, these beautiful, high quality home decor fabrics are 25 dollars a yard.  That would mean a 100 dollar shower curtain.  Sorry guests, I don't like you that much.

So, I shifted my fabric sights to good ole www.fabric.com.   I very quickly wandered away from the home decor section, and went in the direction of quilting cottons.

Lanikai Aquatic Stripe in Blue

Michael Miller Spa Cote D'Azur Sea

Lanikai Ikat in Blue

I have a few good contenders, right?  I should be content to go about my business and order some fabric.  But, alas, I get it into my head that I want an octopus shower curtain.  Enter Spoonflower, and this lovely design.

Rococo and a bottle of rum in blue by Ceanirminger

Mermaids, Octopi and pirate ships.  YES PLEASE.

Now, an additonal struggle has arisen.  Do I want a nice, grown up, pretty shower curtain, or an awesome octopus shower curtain.  I can't decide if it's time to be a reasonable grown up, or awesome and quirky.  What would you do? Is a shower curtain really the best thing to stake one's adulthood on?

Mad Men Dress: Challenge Accepted.

If you cruise the sewing blogs, as I tend to, there's no way you could have missed JuliaBobbin's recent post.  A fellow lover of vintage style, she's challenged sewists across the internet to whip up a dress inspired by the ladies of Mad Men.

I love a good challenge, and I've always had an affinity for period costumes.  The era portrayed by Mad Men is no exception.  The classic lines of this time period have come back into modern fashion in a big way (pencil skirts aren't just for pin ups anymore), making this a piece one could easily integrate into their regular wardrobe.  I've been trying to incorporate some vintage stylings into my everyday aesthetic, and  a dress that looks classy instead of costumey would be a great addition to my closet.

I sew best under a deadline, and Julia's provided one for me!  I have until March 30th.  But I'm in no rush, and i'm enjoying the inspiration part of the design process.

Should I go for a sexy, curve hugging Joan dress?  It is Christina Hendricks after all, and you all know how i feel about her.

Or what about an often demure and always polished Betty dress?  I do love a good floral print. 

She always looks so angry.

I imagine most of these would be pretty easy to style if you have a decent collection of vintage patterns at your disposal. I don't, so whatever I make will be cobbled together out of what patterns I have, and what i know about drafting.  I love a good experiment, don't you?

If you want to check out my ongoing seach for mad men inspiration, check out my Mad Men Pinterest board.

What Mad Man's character makes your heart flutter?  Is there a great inspiration dress I must see?  Am I not giving Peggy's style enough credit?  What Mad Men dress would you make?


Sara

A Day in the City

My first trip to New York City was a one day bus trip with my 6th grade class.  We visited a few major sights: The World Trade Center, a boat trip past the Statue of Liberty, a car accident in Chinatown, and the UN just before they closed for the day.  Then we boarded the bus back to Virginia, and spent another 6 hours to get home.  It was very exciting for a bunch of 11 and 12 year old kids.  Most of our field trips were to DC, which was fine, but had become old hat.  I went again in high school on a weekend long theater trip, where many of us got our first taste for independent city life.

Shiny and colorful

One of the things I like about living in New Jersey is the quick and easy access to NYC.  Since I moved here for grad school, I've been there for concerts, tourist dates, even work-related functions.  It's fun to have reasonable access to a place that attracts so many big things.

Despite my frequent visits, there are so many places I haven't been.  As a lifelong sewist, I've done some minor visits to the garment district, but i've never fully explored it's wonders. As I am in the process of starting my own sewing business, I needed some specific supplies.  Now seemed to be the perfect time to expand my knowledge.





On Tuesday, I made the trek into Manhattan with a twofold plan:

1. Visit Spandex House and Spandex World
2. Take the subway to Brooklyn to visit my boyfriend.

I got into the city around 10:30, with a plan to head to Brooklyn around 1.  I spent 3 hours on ONE BLOCK in the garment district.  I had spandex on the brain, so my purchases had a specific focus, but I couldn't help but browse every store I passed. I was a little overwhelming, to say the least, but I managed to control myself. I made lots of mental notes on things to come back for (and what kind of game plan I should have on my next visit).   But don't worry, I did bring plenty home.

 

This was my haul, in bag form.  Note that i made purchases from both Spandex House and Spandex World. Can't leave anyone out!

 

 My shiny and printed yards from Spandex World.  They are all 4 way stretch.

 

Milliskin spandex from Spandex House. The purple, red and green are all shiny, while the pink is matte.  These are also 4 way stretch.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "what's with all the spandex?" The first part of my sewing business plan is making and selling roller derby shorts.  I've been playing for about a year and a half, and one of the coolest parts about this sport is incorporating your own style into your practice and game outfits (the latter is known as "boutfits"). I'm hoping to use my sewing skills and my knowledge of the sport to create comfortable and fun gear for skating.

My only non-spandex fabric purchase: 4 yards of thin yellow and white flowery cotton. I think this will make a fantastic summer dress.

 I felt like i really scored when it came to notions.  It had never occured to me how much cheaper they were when purchased from a bulk distributor.  The 8" invisible zippers were 50 cents a piece.  I bought 10 yards of elastic, and then found the same elastic on a large spool for even less.  I also bought a big box of tailors chalk in different colors(which i always lose), some wider elastic, and a zipper to fix a friend's coat.  Everything was so low in price.  I'm never buying notions from a chain craft store again!

The second part of my plan had a few flaws (construction causing the subway line i was on to reroute) but I made it to Brooklyn safely.  No pictures of that, this time, but you can expect there will be many more city adventures in my future. 



Sara