FO: Clowning Around Hazel

"Clowning Around Hazel"

 

Just the Facts:
Fabric:  44" of a poly/cotton given to me by a quilter FREE!
Notions:  Thread, zipper, and interfacing, all from stash $1.00
Pattern:  Colette Hazel
Year:  modern ~2012 I think
Time to Complete:  about 5 hours over a few days
First Worn:  September 29, 2013
Wear Again:  probably
Total Cost:  $1.00; yeah, I'ma go with that

 

 I think this is going to be my last hazel for a while.  This is my fourth one in 5? 6? weeks.  I do love this pattern, but it is time to branch out.  It was really windy out when I was taking the pictures, so excuse all the crazy hairs in advance.   :)

 

This fabric is part of that quilter's destash that I blogged about a couple weeks ago.  This was 42" or 44" of a poly/cotton (I'm guessing) fabric.  The fabric is very similar to the blue and white striped Hazel I made last month.  I'm still so in love with that first Hazel.  Perfect fabric and pattern pairing and I wear that dress at least once every two weeks.  Anyway...  I cut the skirt with vertical stripes and the other pieces horizontal.

 

I'm not in love with the horizontal stripes on the back.  I kinda think that was a mistake, but such is life.  I think it just makes the pattern a little too busy.

 

I also wish I had taken more notice of where I was putting the skirt pieces on the fabric for cutting.  There is just the tiniest stripe of blue on the sides and it is similar for the back.  

 

Oh.  The fabric is a bright green and navy blue.  I HATE the way these colors look on me together.  It just feels so clownish.  That's why I'm feeling so meh about the FO.  I wish I could love it, but win some, lose some.  Whatcha gonna do?  The colors really remind me of the Riddler from Batman.

 

I like this Simpsons version.  And it's really good illustration when you can identify what cartoon this is from based on the illustration style.

 

And I just might have found my Halloween costume for this year.

 

Back on topic...my bust darts are a little wonky on this one.  I have some points going on.  I also have a couple firsts in this project.  This is my first garment using my new serger!  I bought the Brother 1034D.  It wasn't my first choice, but it had a lot of reviews and I really couldn't spend $400-500 for the one I really wanted with fewer Amazon reviews.  I have to call Brother about a missing spool cap thingy.  It was a giant pain in the ass to get the serger out of the box because it comes prethreaded with regular sized spools of thread, which had become all tangled together from the missing spool cap thingy.  /rant  I found it fairly easy to thread once I got through the tangled mess.  There are diagrams right on the machine that show the step-by-step threading process.  It took a few seams to figure out the tension, but that's good too now.  Yay!  New toys are fun no matter your age.

Another first was a lapped zipper I installed with the use of the Craftsy class "Mastering Zipper Techniques."  It's free, so click over there and learn some new zipper techniques.  My lapped zipper kind of sucks.  I worked so hard to get all my stripes matched up, which I did, only to have the whole thing turn weird when I added the facings.  So annoying.  It was perfect.  I had it all zipped up at the top and looking good and feeling proud.  :( Stupid facings.  It was another nightmare with those facings too.  Because I used a lapped zipper, I couldn't put the facings in as per the pattern instructions.  I ended up folding the zipper edge of the facing in to match the seam allowance and stitched the facing on as usual from there.  After I had the facing attached at the top and before understitching, I pinned the facing edge to the zipper edge and stitched down the sides, matching the stitching from my lapped zipper.  I stopped at the waist seam though.  Hopefully you were able to follow that.  I like the look of the lapped zipper and I will be using that style again for sure.

 

Gawd I hate this color combo on me.  So much that I decided I needed ONE MORE COLOR!

 

This color is not accurate at all, but I thought the colors were fun and wanted to include them anyway.

  

You know how everyone has a certain garment they love and they buy one in every color?  This cardigan is mine.  I bought them about 10 years ago.  I have 6 or 7.  They are falling apart though and this makes me sad.  It's a silk cardigan that looks like cotton.  From Express.  Remember when the clothes at Express were actually things you could wear to work M-F?  I miss those days.  My wardrobe used to be 1/3 Express and 1/3 J. Crew.  Not anymore.

  

I'll leave you with the silly picture of me attempting to button this damn cardigan.  It takes me at least three tries to button it, but those buttons don't come undone once I do!

That's it for this post.  I FINALLY! finished making my pattern adjustments to the Laurel top and I am ready to cut out my fashion fabric.  I hope I have enough fabric leftover to make bias tape for the neckline.  I didn't take that into consideration when I bought the fabric.

I just realized I barely squeezed in another FO for the month.  Go me!

Fashion Plate: Dimmer Party Dress

Make this Look: Dimmer Party Dress by ellelittle featuring lined dresses

I decided to give this Polyvore thing a shot.  I found this really cute dress on ModCloth, the Dimmer Party Dress.  I thought the fabric was familiar and sure enough, it's the Scary Lighting fabric by Michael Miller.  Fabric.com happens to be sold out of this colorway, but I'm sure you can find it somewher else.  The sillouette I thought this dress most resembled is New Look 6910.  You'll have to add the pockets and collar to the dress, but the princess seams and A-line shape is right there.  I love this dress!  This fabric is stealthy Halloween too.  There ARE bats there, but they blend in so elegantly!  This is my first attempt at Polyvore.  What do you think?  I'm also taking suggestions at the label.  I love Make This Look, but that is a tumblr already and I don't want to steal.  You Can Make This?  maybe?

September Stash Enhancement!

I bought some new fabric from fabric.com about a week ago and it finally arrived!  I didn't go too crazy.  I bought three yards of Michael Miller Eiffel Tower in Turf Green and one yard of a stretch lace.  The MM fabric might become a Chantilly or another Colette dress and the lace is to try to recreate my favorite underwear.  TMI?  Not sure.  I buy those underwear in triples because the lace always tears after a couple months.  So annoying.

 

And on Thursday night, I was gifted with a bunch of other fabrics from a quilter.  Some of the lengths are just too small for me to do much of anything with, as I'm not a quilter.  Some of the other fabrics were decent lengths.   Let's get to the haul.

This green and navy poly blend was 42" or 44" (can't remember).  It's already cut into a Hazel dress.  I just can't get enough of that pattern.  I think this was a 60" fabric, which is why I was able to get so much dress out of so little fabric.  I hope to sew that up this week.

This is actually a BLACK background.  My camera hates black.  There is maybe 1/2 yard here.  It will be a struggle to get anything out of this.  Maybe a tank top?

I think this is 40" of what appears to be a crepe back satin.  I like the dots, but this might have to become pillowcases.

This is a decent length of a poly blend.  I don't remember it having any stretch to it, so this fabric goes into the Danger Zone.  It's another black fabric.

I love this one too.  It's 30" of a home dec fabric.  More pillowcases?

More polyester Danger Zone fabric.  This one even comes with some holes in it.  I do have somewhere in the neighborhood of 52" of this one. 

I think this one was 60" of a polyester "let's pretend this is silk" fabric.  Not sure what this will be.  I might just list it on ebay and hope for the best.

 

About a yard of a purple dotted knit.  This could be PJs.  We'll see.

Random tiny bits of fabric for more pillowcases.  This is probably what the gifter had in mind with all these fabrics.  I do like the colors.

This is about 54" of knit.  It looks very childish.  I don't know any kids to make PJs for with it.  That's exactly what this fabric reminds me of.

A fancy stretch knit (dance type) fabric.  I could see myself making a slip with some lace detail out of this.

More weird "let's pretend this is silk" polyster taffeta stuff.  I hate taffeta.  I think it's 50" worth.

 

Getting new fabric is always fun, especially when it's free!  I know I won't be able to use all of it, but even just that green and navy stripe was worth the effort of picking the fabric up!  I got my serger last week and I successfully threaded it and sewed a project on it.  I don't like using the blades.  I might once I figure out the fabric feeding placement, but for right now, those things are lowered. 

 

I need to get busy sewing!  My fabric tub is overflowing now.  FWP?  It is nice to have a bit of a fabric stash built up because I can think of something I want to make and find something to make it with in the stash.  I also just hate letting that money sit there.  How do you get over that?  I know I have the money when I buy the fabric, so I really should just forget about it.  I just feel like what I bought is being wasted by just sitting there in the bin.  How do you get over the "stash guilt?"

 

~elle

Freezer Friday: Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt

I love making food stuffs and I especially love feeding my friends.  I haven't made any ice cream in a while, and I didn't have anything I was craving, so I asked Ryan what his favorite flavor of ice cream was.  He responded with "Froyo!"  Uh...Ryan...that's not a flavor.  I poked some more and he finally said, "peanut butter and/or strawberry."  I found out from one of my Harry Potter fan friends that peanut butter strawberry ice cream is a thing.  Something about being the thing when they went to Diagon Alley.  I made peanut butter this time, but I think I will try a strawberry froyo with peanut butter chips in the future.  I could get behind something like that.  Let's get to the recipe:

Peanut Butter Froyo

 

Ingredients:

2 cups vanilla yogurt (I used chobani)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons agave (more or less to taste)

a scant 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, mix all the things together until thoroughly combined.  Pour into an ice cream maker and allow to mix for approximately 15 minutes.  Put the now soft-serve froyo into the freezer and allow it to firm up for a few more hours.  You can also put the mixture straight into the freezer, it just won't turn out as creamy.  If you are doing the straight to freezer method, fork fluff the mixture about every 30 minutes as you would for a granita.  This will help with the texture and keep the ice crystals at bay.

For a fun variation, add a few handfuls of chocolate chips for "Peanut Butter Cup Froyo."  It is so good!

Here's my play-by-play in pictures:

 

 

Cast of Characters:  Milk, vanilla yogurt, salt, agave, vanilla, peanut butter

 

Whisk milk and yogurt together

 

Add in the vanilla

 

Add the scant 1/4 teaspoon of salt (I'm salt sensitive and I err on the side of less)

 

This is real peanut butter.  I hate that someone decided to mess with something perfectly good and add a bunch of crap to it.  Why would you need sugar in peanut butter?  What are they hiding? 

 

The salt is questionable, but this is what I want to see.  The label is probably required to say the salt because of possible cross-contamination or something.

 

 Peanut butter oily goodness.

 

Dump the 1/2 cup into the yogurt mixture

 

Whisk it really well until it's smooth

 

Add to your ice cream maker and allow it to mix for approximately 15 minutes.  It wasn't quite ready in this picture, but I lowered the bowl to take the picture anyway.  No regrets.

 

Froyo, or how you know your ice cream bowl is really really cold.  I couldn't scrape it up fast enough.

 

Remember those chocolate chips I was talking about?  Yup.  So good.

 

My friends enjoyed this froyo very much.  Ryan even dug into the peanut butter cup version, which he insisted was me trying to ruin perfectly good froyo.  Next up on the ice cream list is going to be a chocolate stout ice cream.  That was the first thing I wanted to make with my ice cream maker attachment and it still hasn't happened after 4 months!

I still want to know what your favorite flavor is.  Leave me a comment and let me know.  

~elle

Pinteresting: with some skates!

I keep seeing "Skater Dress" all over the fashion world.  While the name is new(er), the style certainly is not.  This silhouette has been around since at least the 80s and is reminiscent of the babydoll dress of the 90s.  The style gets it's name from the resemblance to ice skating costumes.

 

The skater dress is fitted at the waistline and skims over the hips with a full circle skirt.  The hem typically falls from the mid-thigh to just above the knee, although you can also make that skirt longer for modesty (or comfort).

 

And, most importantly, did you see that skirt?  Maximum twirlability, which means maximum winning for me as twirliness is paramount for me in a good dress/skirt pattern.  I just purchased the lady skater pattern by Amanda of Kitschycoo and I'm pinning style ideas like crazy.

 

Simple, classic Tartan. Let the fabric do the work

Mid-length skirt; another classy option

 

This cut-out back is very fun, especially with the tie.

I love this radiant red V-neck version

Great twist on a classic design; high neck front, low scoop in the back.  It reminds me of my ballet leotards.  :)

Two fabric version is an easily achievable look.  This skirt is justasmidge too short for me though!

 

Stripey version is one of my favs.  I love stripes.  They are so interesting.

 

Knot-front creates a sweetheart neckline.  I added this pin specifically because of that bodice detail. <3

Another simple black version with a shorter skirt.  I prefer this length.

Options if you weren't already sold on the skater dress

Another great bodice option

crepe inset makes for a dressy version in red

more proof this is such a versatile look

Where was this dress this summer?  I need one of these.

 

In sum, I am smitten with the skater pattern.  This is one I can make again and again and one that I can toss in my suitcase and wear over and over on my travels.  I have some Icantevenremember black knit fabric that will be perfect for my first skater.  I have to pick up a some clear elastic stuff and then I can get on it. 

 

You can make your own skater dress using this pattern that's only about $10!  Leave me a comment and let me know which is your favorite look.

~elle