From pants to shorts!

It is definitely summer time in Texas! 

I had been seeing some extremely cute lace shorts tutorials online, and they looked really simple! At the fabric store I bought 1/4 of a yard of crafters lace (like $3) and went to work! I had some pants that were given to me that were just right in the waist but were too short to be worn as pants.

So I cut then off with plenty of material to roll up because I wanted my shorts to have a thick cuff. When I tried then on with the cuffs it made my shorts way too tight around my legs. 

So after brainstorming a bit, I decided to add more material to each side my shorts. So I took extra jeans that I had from the legs of my jeans and cut strips that were just as long as my shorts without the cuff. Then I added some lace on top of the jeans.

I sewed the lace on both sides of the strip. I also made the strips smaller at the top and gradually get bigger at the bottom. I figured I would need extra material for the cuff. I made two of these, one for each side of my jeans.

After I made 2 strips, I ripped the seams out of both sides of my jeans. When I got to the waistband I just cut right through it. Now your jeans will look somewhat like a diaper.

Then I sewed both of my strips to the sides of my shorts, wrong sides together so the seams are on the inside of the jeans.

I tried them on and, of course, the waist was a little too big. That was an easy fix, I just took in the top part of the lace strips on both sides and now they fit great! Then I added my cuffs and sewed them straight across and TADA! They are so cute!

My new favorite shorts :)

Then I really wanted to add lace to the back pockets, which was the whole intention of this project anyway. So I place the lace over the pockets and cut out the shape of the pocket. For the top part of the pocket, I had to hand-stitch the lace to the pocket so that I would not sew the pockets shut. For the sides I used to sewing machine. Super easy project and so cute!

Not perfect but I love them!

The only tip I have for this project is be really careful when you are sewing the strips onto the side because the material is so thick! I bent my first needle on this project. When I did it I got so discouraged that I put it away for the night. Maybe I was pouting just a smidge....Oh well...I got back on it the next day and finished. :) My favorite part about them is that I have never seen jeans like this anywhere and that they are original. :) Oh and they were practically free. 

I kept it as a keep sake :)

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! Thanks for reading!

Sweet summer-time!

So I have a little story. So in my last post I told you that hubby and I got gym memberships. I have never been to a gym in my life but we decided together that we needed to go. So the very first day of working out we both do our thing (he does weights, while I do the treadmill and elliptical) and then we go into the sauna room. For those of you that don't know, the sauna is a small room that is 156 degrees and is supposed to get rid off the impurities in your body by basically sweating your tail off. We go in and we are the only ones in there until this extremely buff man come in wearing a full on sweat suit from head to toe. He looked like he was wrapped in aluminum foil! Anyway he sits by me and starts doing crunches.....I am literally barely making it just sitting in this room and he is doing crunches. Then he suddenly stops and takes his arm out of his suit and squeezes his sleeve to drain the sweat out into the drain in the middle of the room! Right in front of us squeezing the sweat out of his suit! I guess this is a normal thing that people do at the gym, I don't know but it was so gross!

Anyway my newest project is a super cute summer skirt. Knowing me I will definitely be wearing it in the winter too because I think it is just too cute to sit in a closet for 6 months. I made this skirt with pockets though! And let me tell you, nothing boosts your confidence like making a skirt with pockets! 

First I cut 2 rectangles of the desired length, which for me is about 20 inches because the gives me plenty of mess up room and if the skirt ends up too long, you can always just hem it up some more. 

Then, I zig-zag stick the edges so they don't fray.

Then I cut out my pockets with my left-over fabric. I made my pockets the same material of my skirt but I have seen many cute skirts with different colors in the pockets. When you make your pockets you trace your hand around the fabric and cut out 4 of that shape. You want to make sure that you make them bigger than your hand. My first pockets were way too small after I sewed then the my skirt and I ended up having to rip the seams and make new pockets. 

Then I sewed my pockets with the right sides facing onto my rectangles a little above the halfway point.   First, you just sew the straight end of the pocket to the rectangle. After you have done that for all 4 pockets, you then sew both rectangles together, going around the pocket shapes. This can be tricky if you try to go too fast file moving around the curves of the pockets. 

The pockets should look like this inside out.

After that I turned my dress inside out to check the pockets and then I made a casing for the elastic, fed the elastic through with a safety pin, and sewed the elastic together by hand, and then finished by sewing the casing shut.

My finished summer-time skirt!

And with the pockets out!

I wish I had taken more pictures but the bachelorette was on... 

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial, also I must say that my hubby and I have been married for 6 months :) Congrats to us!

Thanks for coming to my blog!

Another super hero skirt!

    Hello! I know it has been forever since I have posted but I have been so busy! My hubby and i got gym memberships last weekend which has taken up most of my free time. And after we get back from the gym I really just want to go to sleep! 

   So when I bought the fabric I made my first superhero skirt in, I also bought another material, also for only $5 off of ebay. 

I like this material the most because it has the comic books behind the characters! :)

     So I cut the material into 2 rectangles of the desired length because I did not have enough material to go all the way around my body. I used a zig-zag stick to make sure the ends did not fray and then I hemmed the bottom with a 1/4 stitch. For this skirt I was feeling a little risky and decided to just sew the material straight to the elastic waist band instead of making a casing for it. So I bought thick white elastic and dyed it red with rit fabric dye.

    It turned out great! Sadly I forgot to take a picture being so caught up in the excitement I felt from successfully dying something! When you are sewing straight onto the elastic you have to pull the elastic tight while sewing the fabric onto it. I was really intimidated by this but it was extremely easy if you just take your time. 

    I finished the skirt and put it on and realized that it was a little too short for my taste and for anyone who wants to bend down while wearing it. So I rummaged through my scraps and found some red material that would match perfectly if it added it to the bottom.  I cut it about about 4 inches long and the same width of the bottom of my skirt, did a zig-zag stitch to make sure it wouldn't fray, and then just sewed it onto the bottom of the skirt. It make the skirt just the right length.

Please excuse my lack of ironing!

   Then to ad some final touches I added some lace to the bottom.

Even superhero skirts can be girly!

 And Whala!

My favorite skirt so far is finished!

I LOVE this skirt so much! I think it is uber cute and so easy to make! I totally wore this to see the new amazing spider-man movie last week and I felt so in character!

 I am determined to make a bat-man one for the new dark knight rises movie coming soon!

I hope you all enjoyed my tutorial!

    

Everyone has artistic ability!

      Before I started sewing, I had been painting with acrylic paint on a canvas and I love to paint too, probably because growing up I had absolutely NO artistic ability. I have always been crafty but when it came to drawing or painting, I would just print whatever I needed from clip-art. My twin brother is an extremely talented artist along with my dad. I don't even like my handwriting! So when I started painting, it started as just a little project that I wanted to make for my boss for her birthday. I found online this neat idea where you trace your children's hand prints onto scrapbook paper and then mod-podged them onto a canvas.

Jack and Cole are the children I nanny. My boss loved her present!

       I made this project with a friend who convinced me that painting was easy and a great stress reliever. After I made this I was so curious if I could paint so I went out and bought some canvas and every color of the rainbow in paint and got busy! 

This is my sunset with the ocean waves. If you look really hard you can see a little black sailboat :)

This was my second painting for my husband. (can you tell yet that I like to make things for my husband??) 

This was my painting was watercolors. I think it turned out really great :)

Love this painting with the cross and the stormy sky. 

This painting I did for me because my absolute favorite color is purple. I am not finished with this painting yet, I still need to do some minor details but with my new sewing machine, it will just have to wait!

This canvas was really easy! I made this for my boss on father's day. These are their family rules and she wanted to make them into a modern artwork that they could hang up on the wall. I just put the words on the canvas with stickers and mod-podge.

I made this for my dad on fathers day. I painted the background and then mod-podged my dad's favorite song with stickers. The mod-podge also gives the canvas a shiny coat.

This one I also made for fathers day for my step-dad with his favorite Bible verse.

         Now I know that everyone has artistic ability! I had just never really seriously tried to paint anything too difficult. I love painting and giving them to the people I love.

Cross-stich gallery

       This is all of my counted cross-stitches that I have made in the past. I am currently not working on one, but there is only so much that can fit into one day! I love cross-stitching because it is simple enough to follow the pattern and you can sit and do it while you watch television. I love to make things for people as presents because I think they have so much more meaning. So without further a due, here are my cross-stitches. 

I made this for Jarred when we were dating. This was my favorite to make and I think it is very beautiful. :)

I made this one for me but Jarred wanted this one too.  

This makes me laugh every time I look at it because it is so my mother! She doesn't wear ridiculous clothes like that most of the time but  I can't count how many times my mother has said this exact quote!  I made it for her birthday last year. And I love the random chicken. 

This is the beginning of the cross-stitch that I made for my mother-in-law.

Almost done.

It turned out so beautiful and has such wonderful meaning. This one also has little purple beads on the vines around the outside. I LOVE this one and I was so happy to give it to my mother-in-law.

I was so proud of the finished project.

My superhero skirt!

GO Avengers!

            My first sewing project was this superhero skirt! It's actually only Marvel superhero's but I am sure you already knew that. I saw this skirt online but it was selling for $40! I am a college student and a newly wed and I definitely could not rationalize spending that much on just one skirt, and the hubby said no. But, while I was whining and begging him to let me buy it he said, "Why don't you just make it?" I don't think he actually expected me to but the fire was lit!

          So I looked up how much the fabric would be if I wanted to make it and I got 1 yard of fabric on eBay for only $5. Then after looking up many simple skirt tutorials, I measured my material which consisted of measuring my waist and I added a few inches for sewing and for gathering. I then measured another skirt that I have that I like the length. I cut my rectangle out and started sewing. I paid $2 for the elastic that I put in the waistband. I made it in one night and it was very easy! 

I love my new skirt!

           After that I was hooked! Any skirt for only $7 is a win in my book, but one with comic book characters on it too? Jackpot!

Introduction to Me! :)

Hello there! This is my new blog to show off my newest creations. First though, a little about me. I am a 21 year old newly wed to the love of my life! I got married on December 31, 2011 at the happiest place on earth, DisneyWorld. My husband is wonderful and we are very happy. My husband, Jarred (if  I refer to Jarred I am talking about my hubby :-P), however loves to play video games though (honestly though, which man doesn't?!). Which I think that after working a hard day I can allow him to play a little Diablo or whatever as long as he is good...meaning that he makes me dinner or buys me a bottle of wine. :) So I have acquired a few hobbies to keep myself from going crazy and being the "why don't you spend time with ME?!" wife. On top of being married,  I am currently going to school for education at the University of Texas at Dallas and I am a nanny to 2 wonderful boys.

I decided that I wanted to start a blog because I was getting a little tired of posting pictures of my projects on Facebook and annoying my news feed. I just got my very own sewing machine because we all know how tempting pinterest can be when looking in the DIY and crafts section. So I will be posting some of my projects and short descriptions of how I made them. I hope you all enjoy and maybe one day I will be a famous blogger! Just joking, a girl can dream can't she?