Quick Sunday Project

I saw this idea on Grosgrain a while back, and I liked it. I had four pairs of shoes that had gross insoles. The heels were all second hand shoes that were coming apart inside. The flats are super comfortable, but the fabric insoles had shredded apart and rubbed my feet all day. So, super quick and easy.

1. Traced foot on fabric and cut out.

2. Put in shoe to see where to adjust (mostly making the toe pointier). Recut 2 to glue in.

3. Hot glue in, in three segments starting in the heel.

4. Admire your handiwork!

I just used scraps on hand; admittedly, it would be cuter if the fabric coordinated with the shoe color.
Look at this sweet Mustang we saw at Home Depot.
Beautiful! I love my iPhone that Andrew got me for my birthday. I am not really a phone person, but it super fun.

Next project:
We'll see how cute it is. I am trying to think of a pattern to use for that beautiful red silk Andrew bought me in China. If this is cute, then it might work, and if not I have a nice summery dress. It's about 3 yards/meters I think. I want something beautiful, yet simple and sleeveless so I don't sweat all over it. (Lovely, right? But, practical.)

Any suggestions, vintage or modern?

Pendrell Blouse in Action!

I wore my blouse with the white shorts I made, and remade, last spring. It is a cute and comfortable outfit.

This was the picture I desperately wanted, but they were making everyone wear life jackets into the artificial lake that is maybe ten feet deep. Plus, no one riding in the pelican boat makes me think that they don't let people. So we just took a picture instead.

Then we went to a pork barbecue for charity.

I thought this was very funny.
Oh how I love Angry Birds!
It was very hot, so I look quite pink. I did put on sunscreen!
Have a good Saturday!

Mom-made blouse pictures!

Andrew took these for me this morning before work, and although my hair is fixed and makeup looked nice, I made goofy faces in all of them.

Two looks, tucked in and untucked (worn untucked all day). Also, these pictures prove that while the blouse is super cute and received quite a few compliments, the skirt is hideous and needs to be replaced. Stupid sale Banana Republic skirt. I hate the waist and the fly front- why, why would you add a feature that makes a woman's stomach look larger than it is? Ick. I will put a beige pencil skirt on my long-term to-make list.

Goofy.
Normal.
Goofy.
Goofy.
No face, but hair looks frizzy. Look how flat my butt looks! Another reason to hate that skirt! (and maybe to exercise....)

Now a power nap, and then dinner and sewing!

Pendrell blouse complete!

Well, I sat on the sofa with the dog after work and got up just in time to get some horrible flash pictures because the light had faded. Excellent work.

I left off the second ruffle because it was too much. Andrew hemmed and hawed, and then when I said I didn't like it and was taking it off, he said it looked like a suit of armor. Ha.

I need to add the second row of stitches on the hem, because the bobbin ran out of thread. Sometimes when that happens I just quit. Even though it takes maybe 60 seconds to fix.
Also, this deserves some nice daylight pictures. Andrew just came back from China, on a trip for business school. He bought me some lovely silk! The blue is deeper than it looks, and the red is a beautiful blue-red, which is the kind that I like! Yes, loot! Score!
I will have better pictures of the blouse and the silk later in the week. I have a fantastically ridiculous photo shoot planned for this blouse- it all has to do with the color scheme!

In the Works

I tried to make some knock-off Girl Scout Samoa cookies. They turned out very "meh" and Andrew and I both did not like them much. So, I took them to school and gave them to my 7th period for being so good lately and doing all their homework. The kids liked them!

It is a shortbread cookie dipped in chocolate, with caramel and coconut on top.

I am nearly done with my Pendrell blouse in yellow striped seersucker. I am waiting for Andrew to get home and tell me if the second ruffle on the shoulders makes me look like a linebacker.
My military dress is almost finished! Finally! I could have sworn I bought ten buttons, but I could only find eight. I need to go buy two more soon. More details when it is honestly and truly finished.

Here's little baby T-Rex when he was sick. Now he's on pills and is way, way better!
Any new projects in your world? Have a good week!

Mom-Made Blouse!

My mommy made me this blouse from a vintage pattern. It is really cute with brown and white polka dots. She gave it to me to add the buttonholes, since her machine makes it a pain. So after sewing club today, I came home and watched Netflix (1st season of a hilarious HBO show "Hung") and made the button holes (6) and sewed on the buttons.

Isn't it cute?
I bought these buttons for it at Jo-Ann. They are a similar shade of brown, don't let the flash on the camera fool you. They also remind me of the Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings.

See?

(image from mamapop.com)

On an aside, sewing club was fun. It was four girls from my honor's class and one very enthusiastic girl from my 7th period class. They are all wonderful. At this point, they all know how to use the Necchi and sew a straight seam, and to pin correctly. One girl finished her pajama shorts, two finished their headbands, and two are almost finished with headbands. Yay! Next time, we are going to make a pattern for a messenger bag!

Thanks, mom for the cute blouse! I'll try to get some in-person pictures soon!

Reading Books III

These are the books I returned to the library right before the trip to Oregon.

Two more David Fulmer books about the Creole detective in New Orleans, so now I have read all the ones the library has.

The Alexander Cipher, since I just taught the 6th graders about Alexander the Great. I read it on the plane, and it was very much a travel book. As in, you buy it in the airport, read it, and leave it on a seat for someone else to take cause it was only so-so.

Two more Sarah Addison books. The Sugar Queen was much better than the Girl Who Chased the Moon. I think I am too old to read books with teenage characters pretending to have a "serious romance." It makes me roll my eyes.

And then three Anne Perry books, which I really love. I have read a ton, but there are more! The Cater Street Hangman, Resurrection Row and Highgate Rise. They were all from the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, which I think I like best. And then I was reading online that she and her friend killed her friend's mother when they were teenagers! Can that be true, or is it internet nonsense? Crazy!

I love reading every book written by an author I like. It's very satisfying. I know I read every Nancy Drew and LM Montgomery book ever published as a kid! Fun fact!

Have a good Wednesday!

Grey and Pink Skirt

Originally, I had planned to use this fabric I bought in Portland over Xmas to make another version of this dress, which I love. I was being delusional thinking I could make an eight gore skirt and dress with pockets out of two yards of fabric, duh. In the end, I used the skirt pieces to just make a skirt with no waistband. It turned out really big, and then I had to go back and take in about half an inch on all of the seams, which fixed it.

Every time I take self-timed pictures, T-Rex has to interfere.
The back is simple. It would have been impossible to line up the print with the shape of the pieces, so I just aimed for having a pink stripe down the center of each sections, and I am pleased with the result.
I sewed on about four grey buttons, and then decided I hated them and they were boring. I went to Jo-Ann and picked up these cheap, but cute pink buttons. $2 for ten, whoo hoo.
It has pockets, which is a plus!
Also, you can see my garden so far. Now that the weather is in the 70s, I will be able to sit outside and enjoy the balcony again!

I am still trying to finish the devil that is my military dress. It is evil and I am frustrated. The benefit of only having one bobbin is I can refuse to switch it from brown until I finish the dress! Take that, Molly!

Vintage Wrapping Paper Part II

Here are the rest of the wrapping paper pictures. This is the one I wrapped Anna and Chris' gift in. It is too cute!!!

I think this one is my overall favorite.
This is more of a sea-green color.
More cute babies.
Even cuter babies!
The rest are the same paper- tiny baby cave people being adorable.

I hope you enjoyed these! Mom really lucked out when she found them!

T-Rex caught some kind of bug at the kennel and the vet is closed today, so I have been babying him (more than usual) and finishing my garden. I do have quite a few projects to wrap up, though.

Vintage Wrapping Paper

While in Oregon, I took some pictures of vintage wrapping paper. My mom picked up a box of gift wrap at an estate sale, the kind that is folded instead of on a roll. Some of them look like they may even be from as far back as the 1950s. These were my favorites.

This one is too cute!

I am always partial to dinosaurs.

This one is adorable!

That's only some of them. I saved the best ones for another post!

Anna's Wedding

We just returned from Oregon last night. I saw my family, attended the wedding, and went snowboarding with Andrew.

For now, here are some (awful) pictures of the wedding. This is a lesson in why I need a camera that isn't a piece of garbage. So many were blurry, or too dark, or just hideous. Boo. I had a Canon Elph before this one and every picture it took was wonderful, like it could be a magazine.

It was wonderful seeing Anna get married. We have been friends since we were about 4 or 5 years old. Her husband is very nice and I am so happy for both of them! Congratulations Anna and Chris!

Here's waiting for the ceremony to begin.

We all went and got our hair and makeup done the morning of the wedding, which was really fun. The makeup lady was awesome and she did an awesome job! I let her do whatever and it looked amazing! Luckily, my insane zit face had calmed down in time for the wedding. I didn't get her name, but she is the older woman at the Bobbi Brown counter at Nordstrom's in Salem, Oregon. Lol. In case you're in town...
We went to Salon 554 to get our hair done and Tiffany did an amazing job! She curled all of my hair with a flat iron and then pinned it into this updo. It's hard to see the top, but the curls were braided down into the rest of the hair. It was amazing, and held up the whole night. Definitely the best updo I have ever had done.
I thought this was a good picture. Every single picture of the ceremony was blurry, so I'll have to see if I can get some from other people.
Plus, I have the rest of this week off for Mardi Gras Break, so maybe I'll even get some sewing done!