DIY: Tan Pants Turned Into...



I got up this morning and thought, "People are reading my blog now, I'll *have* to update somewhat regularly to keep you all coming back!" This is equal parts "really awesome" and "really sucky." So, here goes nothing. I started out with these pants I got for $0.50 a while back:

Either my legs are too skinny or these pants are too billowy.

I was thinking they'd make a great pair of tight cropped pants. I was really excited to get started.

These pants had some fabulous pockets.

I'll need about a million pins to get these pants fitted.

The pants pinned to where I'll get a nice tight fit.

Decided to try them on, inside out, because I knew I'd look really supermodel-y

Then I sewed those legs up!! Thumbs up, dudes!

And this is where this story takes a turn for the worse...

Holy holes. Those aren't supposed to be there!

When I tried the pants on, right side out, I realized that if I made them any tighter, the pockets were going to need to be sewn shut. They kept trying to pop out of themselves. In order to pin/sew them so they'd be wearable, I had to cut part of the pocket away from the waistband. When I did that, I accidentally caught part of the front of the pant fabric in the path of my scissors. I royally messed this up. Things were going so wonderfully and now I wanted to brain bleach these pants out of my head. This was a complete bust!!

Or was it...? The holes I made were near the outer seem. I couldn't turn them into anything I could wear, but maybe I could turn them into something for Quinn. It was worth a try. Here goes nothing!

I could really kick myself for my mistake, but I wasn't going to give up just yet.

I finished cutting off the stupid, hateful pockets. I ripped the seam I'd just sewn in the crotch and about 3 inches down each leg and then cut the rest of the legs off.



Quinn can't be bothered for a fitting, so I grabbed a skirt of hers.

This skirt has elastic in the back but not in the front, just like the pants. I hoped that I'd get the right fit using it as my "pattern."

 

I sewed it up...

Cut off the excess...

And sewed the hem.

I hoped and prayed that this would work, otherwise, I really was going to have to chuck the whole thing and I would've been ridiculously bummed out.

And.. OMG... My finished product did NOT suck!! At all!!

Hello gorgeous fruit of my loins!

She wanted to jump for the pictures. It looks like she's twerking. Haha

There's a wonky part on the hem, but who's looking at hems with that face around?!

Whew! That was a close call. I almost had my first official "fail." I really don't mind failing, in general. In fact, I know I will, a lot more than I want to. But if I fail, I don't want it to be because of something really stupid like cutting a hole in the wrong part of the fabric.

One more picture because I just love this little girl so much!

DIY: A Better Fitting Brown Button Up Dress!

I bought this dress over a year ago with the intention of someday remaking it into a cute dress.

I'm amazed at how gorgeous I look in this ill-fitting dress.

I've followed a few fashion and re-fashion bloggers over the last year or so. Right away, I knew I wanted to be a part of that world. This dress was the perfect inspiration as it was only $0.50! Great price! If I screwed it up, I'd barely have wasted the cost of half a candy bar.

I like taking pictures of myself in the least flattering way.

It was so perfect. It was only a tiny bit too big. It was only 6 or so inches too long. It was missing it's belt, but who cares?! I was pretty sure, after much procrastinating, that I could turn this into something cuter. If not, I could always salvage the buttons for some other project.



Snip, snip little belt holders!!

Snip, snip long skirt that looks terrible on me.

OK, this is where I confess something that I *almost* screwed up. I *almost* cut the bottom of the dress off to the length that I wanted without taking into consideration that I'd need to hem it. *Almost!!* I can't believe I was so stupid. Luckily, I stopped myself and made sure to cut off 5 inches, instead of 7 inches!! Whew. Crisis averted!

I hate that my counter is the best place for this. I feel like I am constantly cleaning it!

Then I folded and pinned the raw edges. I was feeling pretty confident that everything was even because this part took me like 15 minutes to do. I was very thorough.

ZORRO!!!

I took the scrap that used to be the hem of my dress and decided it would make a great sash! I am a pro already!



Beautiful Sewing Machine, oh how I am learning to love our time together.

I sewed the sash and spent the next 10 minutes turning it inside out. Next time I will google "easy ways to turn sashes inside out" before I attempt that.

Quinn bugged me all morning to paint her "Doc McStuffins" cardboard canvas.

Uh-oh... Bored kids.. I knew I'd either have to start paying attention to them or figure out something fun for them to do. I put Mitchell's fave episode of "Bubble Guppies" on (the one called "Happy Holidays, Mr. Grumpfish") and I set Quinn up at the kitchen table with me to finally let her paint this picture. She was thrilled beyond belief.

Hahah... Having a cute kid with me makes this even more fun!

With the kids all set for a few minutes, I sewed the hem and prayed that it didn't look like it was sewn by a blind monkey with no arms. *Fingers crossed!!*

We were done our projects at almost the same time!

Just one more picture of Quinn before I show off my awesome dress. Every other minute she would say to me, "Thank you so much for letting me paint, Mommy. I love you so much! I am so happy!" My heart melted all over the place. She's such a sweet kid.

Decided to change up my background for something more interesting.

And here we are, folks! I am actually really happy with the results this time around. I ended up with a great, flattering length. The hem looks great. The sash was the right length. Everything happened just the way I'd hoped.

Doing my best kiss face.

Oh, I almost forgot, the sleeves were just slightly bigger than I wanted so I also sewed them up from the armpit out, just to tighten them up a tad. It gave me just the effect I wanted.

Do I light up your life or what?! (-;

What a happy accident during my self-timed picture taking. The sunlight adds a little drama. I don't mind drama in pictures, just as long as there's no drama in the process!

She was really proud of her work, too!

Quinn wanted to show off her finished product with me. She deserves it! She did a great job; a little mini-Me in the making.

I'm getting good at these before/after collages, too.

I had so much fun that I can't wait to do this again! I have another couple of dresses in my closet that could benefit from a makeover, so stay tuned!!


Shopping With My Mom...

Several times a week my mom and I go out on shopping adventures (with my 2 little kids in tow). Sometimes we go to the same places and sometimes we enjoy finding new places to check out. Today we decided to try somewhere new, which turned out to be really fun. We drove a couple of towns over to one of my old haunts, circa my late teens.

It was pretty exciting to see how the little town of my youth had completely changed into a booming area! There were several new shopping centers, restaurants, and other new businesses. I think we'll visit again soon, just to get more acquainted with the area, not because we need to do more shopping, but we aren't necessarily averse to spending some money!! (-;

The best part of getting together, though, is getting to wear all the cool/cute items we've already purchased. Today, we really out did ourselves though.



This is my pretty mom.

My mom is in love with the red-white-black color scheme, to the point that she has a room in her house decorated in those colors (and it used to be my bedroom!!). She, obviously, goes for other color combinations as well, but I see this one the most, so I try not to wear it too often so we don't show up in matching clothing (which we've been known to do!).

My parents dog, Daisy, wanted to get in the picture, too!

We are also a couple of blazer lovers. My mom has 40 blazers. That is a real number. I asked her and she counted them. She is addicted. I'm right on her heels with 2 dozen or so myself.

Silly Daisy, you're photobombing my picture!!

What did I tell you?! I just love argyle. I started the day wearing that light overcoat (that I got for a steal at my local thrift store), but as the day wore on, it became unseasonably warm. I think it hit 70 degrees where I am in the North East. I'm not complaining though! I'll take warm weather as long as I can get it!

See all those leaves!? They're a lot of fun to clean up this time of year!

The only things that I have on that I didn't buy at a thrift store or receive as a hand-me-down or gift are my shoes, which I bought on sale. Otherwise, the rest of my outfit cost less than $7.00!

A close up of my pretty pearl necklace, a Christmas gift from my husband, and my argyle sweater.

Yes, I really am about 5 inches taller than my mother!

After our morning shopping excursion, it was back to my mom's, where we took these dorky photos followed by my mom making my kids some of her delicious home made french fries. There was even enough for my dad, myself, and my nieces to partake of the awesomeness!

Told ya we were dorks!

Jill Can Cook: Sausage Penne Pasta

I was feeling a little adventurous and found this fabulous recipe online. It looked like it would be great to serve to my little picky eater, Quinn (ehh... Who am I kidding?! I am also pretty picky, too!!).

Sausage Penne Pasta

Ingredients

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Adapted from My Recipes

• 6 cups unsalted chicken stock (such as Swanson)                               
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 10 ounces uncooked penne pasta
• 1 tbsp. onion powder                               
• 1 lb cheesy garlic sausage, removed from casings
• salt (to taste)                
• pepper (to taste)                                                              
• 1/2 tbsp. oregano              

Preparation

1. Bring stock to a simmer in a saucepan (do not boil). Keep warm over low heat.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add sausage to pan; cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove sausage mixture from pan.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low, add oil and pasta, stirring frequently. Cook until lightly toasted. 
4. Add stock, 1 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of stock is nearly absorbed before adding the next (about 35 minutes total), stirring frequently. Stir in sausage mixture, onion powder, salt, pepper, and oregano. Garnish with cheese, if desired.

All the ingredients.

Browning the sausage and simmering the chicken stock.

Toasting the mini penne.

As you all may know by now, I am not much of a cook. I usually rely on my husband to cook our meals. If I am ever the one to cook, I quickly grab for something boxed or a tried-and-true fallback meal that's ridiculously easy. Since I've found Pinterest though, it's really inspired me to try new things and really put myself out there! I was immediately attracted to this recipe because 1) it seemed easy; 2) The kids liked noodles and sausage; 3) We keep most of the ingredients on hand at all times. I was not disappointed! It turned out so great!! Mostly because Joe took the kids outside to kick around a ball while I cooked! I really loved the peace and quiet!

Mmm.. Look at all that yumminess!!

That bowl of food is just about as big as my head. I planned to eat it all!!

Joe was so excited that I cooked, that he grabbed the biggest spoon he could and shoveled dinner into his face!

Quinn loved it!! She doesn't love a whole lot so I consider this a victory!!

Really?! It was good enough to finish my plate?! And Joe and the kids did, too?! Yay!!!

DIY: A Man's Button Down Now Fits Me!

I went thrifting earlier this week and got a great deal on a man's button down shirt, in black material. It was only $0.50. It was begging me to bring it home and turn it into something spectacular. Unfortunately, it did not know that I am new to sewing and pretty much suck at it. I've only had my sewing machine for a few months and have only started/finished one project, so, this shirt was pretty much just begging to go live in my garbage can.

The shirt in question.

As you can see, there's nothing special about it, so this should be super, super easy, right?! Aww heck no!! My sewing machine is threaded with white thread. It took me months to pull the bobbin thread up and after one project, I think I'm good enough to try to fuss around with the thread again?! I am obviously pretty dumb.

Looks easy enough! Nope. Changing thread is worse than going to the dentist!

Making a black thread bobbin was easy, but getting that bobbin to stay in the underneath part and do it's job was a complete no-go. In fact, I bent the needle trying to make this work. I can't believe I actually suck that badly. I had to go to the store and buy another one (and a few more just in case I bend another one). I didn't want to screw things up even worse, so I had my husband, Joe, put the new needle on.

Joe, I'm taking a picture of you lovingly helping me! This is the look you give me?!

Of course, he acts like he's sick of doing stuff for me, but he secretly loves it. He just likes to act like he hates me.

Now, was that so hard?!

"I will keep taking pictures of you until you look like you actually love me," is what I told him in order to get this shot. I only had to take 2 pictures. I'd say that was pretty good direction on my part!

Couldn't find my sharp scissors, so this looks like a child cut it.

Back on track, finally! I cut the arms off.

I REALLY need one of those pin cushion things. But first, I need to get better at sewing!

I tried the shirt on and pinched the sides to get an idea of how much to take it in. I have small shoulders, but am wider at the hips. I didn't want to take it in too much. I decided on an inch and a half.

I have no idea what I'm doing. I think I did this right. We'll find out soon!

Then I pinned the arm holes. It seemed like I was going to be left with big gaping holes, but I figured I could sew them more shut after I got a good feel for the fit.

I really do have a pinky finger. It's just really small, I guess.

Then I sewed everything together, now that I had a brand new needle and somehow magically threaded the bobbin in less than 30 seconds!! Go ME!!!

Hmm.. Got a big cat fur on my shirt already.

I cut all the excess fabric off and tried the shirt on. I didn't take into account that since it was a man's shirt that the shoulder area would be WAY broader than my own. I didn't really feel like re-sewing the armholes, or finagling something to tie it up with the scraps, so I thought maybe sewing down the shoulders would solve the problem of the gaping armholes AND the extra flap of fabric over my shoulders... You can imagine my surprise when it actually worked!

Hubba hubba!!

I threw the first pair of jeans I could find on and had my husband snap like 35 pictures of me. They all came out terribly. Black on dark wash was not very flattering... Back to the drawing board!!!

Thanks for the red belt, Mom!! It's just the pop of color I need!

I was WAY more impressed with the white jeans.

Trying out sexy faces to impress you with. I like this one a lot!

Joe didn't enjoy spending another half hour taking 78 more pictures, but he did it because I promised I'd make a delicious dinner for him the next night.

I'm not really all that in love with the shirt. It's a learning curve. I know I'm going to have to fail sometimes and this falls into that category for me. The fabric is WAY too heavy and gets all bunchy when I tuck it in. I should've grabbed something a little thinner. Or maybe I should stick with women's blousey tops to get the fabric and easier fit that I want.