Chrysanthemum Skirt

This fabric thrilled me when I first found it. It was in an old cabinet stuffed with all sorts of material at an estate sale that, honestly, did not smell that great. And that is where this lovely skirt began. I knew from the beginning that I had to make a skirt with this fabric– it was the perfect weight, cutest print, and pure comfort. So when I ran across this tutorial I had to use it. This pattern met the comfort and cute requirements I had for the skirt. What I love about this particular pattern is that it took two hours; and I probably could have done it faster. So, there is the story of my new favorite skirt… Oh, and did I mention that the fabric was 25 cents? And also, the shirt I’m wearing was a recent estate sale find. I was deprived of estate-saling for an entire winter! Can you tell I’m glad it’s spring?

Lace and blue

Here’s a little sneak peek at my newest endeavor. I hope to finish it over the next few days. Can you guess what it is?

Dress Decisions

I’m in the process of figuring out my next project.  I want to do a dress that’ll work good for winter, so I’ve been thinking either a peplum or a shift dress. But now I’m leaning toward shift dress, because I’m not sure how great a peplum dress would look on my tall skinniness. There are still so many options to decide on though, so that’s why I’m asking y’all! Sleeves or no sleeves? Long or short sleeves? Peter pan collar? Oh, and is a shift dress supposed to have darts? If so, where? What colors…. solid, print? So, I already have an idea, but it is by no means certain: a navy blue dress with 3/4 sleeves and red heart patches on the elbows. Pretty simple, but cute and unique. But if you have a better idea, please share it!!! Come on, give me some feedback y’all!

Here are a few cute shift dresses to spur on the imagination.

Lace Trim Top

I’ve been hankering to do this project for some time since I saw a similar idea on this blog a while back. In some ways, it is moderately simple, but it must be done very diligently. It was super fun, though. You first have to piece together lace strips. I’ve read that some people use lace fabric cut into strips, but I just used several different lace trims. I used some neat lace that my granny passed down to us and some other lace that a sweet lady gave us recently. I spent a ton of time organizing the lace the way I wanted it. When it was finally perfect, I sewed the strips together (wide enough to fit the front and back of the shirt) with a zigzag stitch. Then, I just cut my pattern out of the fabric and sewed the side and shoulder seams. I finished all the raw edges by serging and barely turning under. I was imagining this to turn out great, but it’s far better than I imagined. I think it’ll be a perfect top to dress up or down. It’s cute with denim shorts, or, at least I think this would be darling, with a long black or coral skirt, which I need to make =D

Lace-covered Suitcase

Remember that vintage suitcase that my mom got at an estate sale for seven dollars? It got a makeover. I finally made the decision to cover it in lace (which happens to come from some thrifted, 50 cent, lace curtains). It’s a mix of the ideas from this post at A Beautiful Mess and this post I found on Pinterest. Just be sure to use the same amount of glue over the whole thing, or else you might have a slightly darker stripe, which sadly mine has. I had so much fun dressing up (I made the top!) for these pictures! I love the vintage travel theme.