My totally new OLD outfit.

Well, the moment of truth has arrived.  I am ready to reveal my entry in the sew and tell challenge.  (Drumroll, please)

Ta-da!

Ok, folks I ask you to keep in mind 1) this is actually the FIRST TIME I have sewn for myself and b) I hate being photographed.  

In light of the above I’d like to think I did a pretty good job.  Ok, so it may not be like crazy amazing, but I did it.  I completed the circle skirt.  And furthermore, it is wearable.  

And considering I had some finagling to do with the skirt that was NOT in the actual tutorial, I’m even more amazed with myself.  

I will be creating several tutorials in the near future, so those will be available in a week or two... I had planned on showing you a tutorial each time I completed an item, but some things took a little longer than anticipated (ahem, vest) and I am going away for the weekend!!!  Woo hoo!  Which means I won’t be on the computer at all again until Monday.

So here are the details:

I made a circle skirt - tutorial found on MADE.  My issue is that I was INTENT on making it out of this awesome yellow linen-ish fabric that I got at the thrift store months and months ago.  I love it.  But as I was folding and laying fabric and patterns (just like the tutorial instructed, I might add) I discovered there wasn’t enough yellow material.  Now, in the tutorial, Dana discusses how you can do the circle skirt with two seams.  But it required more math and all kinds of stuff.  So, I decided to just make a skirt with the length of yellow material I had and include a strip of a different material on the bottom.  Easier said than done.  Yikes.  

BUT, I actually pulled it off.  No snags, no pulls, no weird sewing the front to the back.  Of course when I finished, I wondered what in the world I’d done.

I mean, look at this:

I became convinced that I’d look like I was going to a square dance.  I brainstormed ways to make it better, but my sister convinced me it was fine the way it was... and after twirling in it for a while I chose to believe her.  So I left it instead of risk ruining it.

I did, however, make a few things to spruce it up.  Remember the Stay Put Bookmark?  No, I didn’t make my skirt a bookmark.  But I did turn said bookmark into a belt:

Or two:

Voila!  Instant pizzazz.

Velcro makes the flowers changeable, so I can use any combo of belt/flower I would like!

A while ago, I inherited some things from my sister and her husband - among them a large gray t-shirt he didn’t wear anymore.  And I don’t mean a size Large.  I mean, he’s like a seriously tall football player who shops at the Big and Tall.  So... I made a vest.  I took it in and cut the top off.  And made it into a v-neck.  I wanted to finish the neck and the arm holes.  The idea was to use some of the gray t-shirt for binding... but I cut the rest of the shirt up into strips to use for something else without thinking.  Sooo, instead I cut the bottom hemmed edge off of a few old white t-shirts.  I cut about an inch above the hemmed edge, then folded them down and ironed on the fold.  I liked this idea because, obviously, the edge was already finished and I didn’t have to do extra sewing or hemming.  BUT I don’t really like that it’s white.  

I should have just left the edges unfinished.  Live and learn.  I was inspired by a picture of the Raw Ribbon Tank, from Made it on Monday.  And although I didn’t use her tutorial, I did like the idea and the look.  So I cut strips out of the rest of the gray shirt, a white shirt and a yellow shirt and hand sewed them around the v-neck in loops.  

And then I thought the whole outfit reminded me of Spring.  Which is great.  But it’s winter.  So how to winterfy it?

I made the hat out of this thrift store sweater:

I thought about using the back of the sweater to avoid the pocket and zipper.  But I went with the front in order to include the pocket, because I thought it would be more unique.  And I’m really glad I did!  I basically used a hat to determine the width and height, then - using the finished bottom edge as the bottom of the hat, I did some fancy cutting and sewing to the top, and that was that.  

But, if you want a little something extra, you can always make a pom pom out of t-shirt strips - the idea for which I got from Craftaholics Anonymous, and the tutorial is here.  For mine I also added some scraps of vintage fabric I got from my grandma.

It’s simply tied onto the top of the hat.  Because sometimes you feel like a pom pom and sometimes you feel like...

A cute barrette.  I made this one out of the same sweater.  I cut some circles and glued them together and added a button.  I rolled up the rest of the bottom of the sweater for the rolled rose and cut out the zipper and rolled that as well.  All of it hot glued.  I love hot glue.  I think I like it better than my sewing machine.  I glued them all to felt, and glued the felt to the barrette.  Easy.

The boots were made out of the sleeves of the sweater.  I used the main idea from this tutorial on Instructables.  But I used flip flops.  Not shoes.

I did the back of the boots differently too, and added a button to the back for a little detail.  

Paired with tights, I think it’s passable for a winter ensemble.

However, not without a coat.  It’s blasted cold out there.  As you can probably tell in every picture.

So, you will be seeing tutorials for:

The Two-Tone Circle Skirt

The Strips and Scraps T-Shirt Vest

The Hand-Warmer Hat

The Bookmark Belt

In the near future.

And now, I bid you adieu, because I am off to beat the winter blues.  

(but check back tomorrow, because I scheduled my Yummy Monday post for then...)  

*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!