So many adventures. So few times.

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My life is pretty dull. I play with a toddler, watch a lot of Yo Gabba Gabba and experiment with the crock pot. I have no bed time and I find humor in Laffy Taffy jokes. Conan O'Brien is my anti-drug.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Sewing Tutorial (for the lazy seamstress)



Like about 800 million gazillion women between the ages of 23 and 85 in the United States, I freaking adore LulaRoe. LLR. Lula. Roeing with my homies. Lullz (Okay, I made that last one up). My girl Heather has her very own LuLa Shoppe that I pretty much treat like my own extensive closet/private shopping center, with over 2300ish pieces at any given time. Ya know, unless I've been there. At that point the count is more like 600 or something. 
Anyway.

If I had my way, I'd own hundreds of the Carly dress. It's not really all that flattering on me, but it is SO comfortable! I was going through some of my fabric stash this morning and was wracking my brain for a new project, when a light bulb went off and I decided to attempt my own rendition of a Cary! We'll call it a Buffly. But, as the title of this post suggests, I'm really damned lazy. And here we go. 

First, I took my dress off. Because seriously, I wear them ALL the time.  


I decided to make my own pattern using my dress as a template. FYI, you will need about 2 yards of a knit fabric/something with stretch, a zig zag stitch, and an optional 1/2 yard or so of contrasting knit fabric for the sleeves, pocket and neck band.

My stupid, lazy, first hack of the day is to use a couple chip clips to keep the fabric folded in half. Otherwise the skirt goes crazy, the shoulders get kitty-wompus. It's a whole thing. So fold the dress in half, tuck the draped back of the skirt up so you don't follow it, do the same for the neck and get to drawing on your paper. Be sure to add about a half inch for the seam/ messing up.
Got it?



Now take the chip clips off, fold your dress again the other way so the back of the dress is exposed and do it all again! 



Trace the basic shape of the outer sides of the sleeve. I know it seems weird, but when you cut the fabric you'll have the shoulder part of the sleeve on the material fold.



Cut out the pattern, pin it to your fabric on the folds, cut out your fabric, admire the pieces you have obtained.  


Sew the shoulders and sides of the dress, and then sew the sleeves so they make sweet little tubes. If you want, you can take this weird moment to hem the bottom of the dress, which I know should technically be saved for the end but it's the least fun moment and the second the item is done I just want to throw it over my face. So yeah, I hem right now too.
Don't you love my super technical image above? 

Okay! The sleeves! This is where it gets sexy. Turn the sleeves right side out. Ya know, like how you'd normally wear them. Shove them inside the dress (which is inside out) and pin them together so shoulder meets shoulder, pretty side meets pretty side. Sew that nonsense together.

 


I eyeballed the size for the standard Carly/Buffly boob pocket and neck band, both cut in contrasting fabric. So... yeah. You're welcome for my lack of help. This neckband tutorial is the bomb.com. The neck band should be approximately 24 inches long by about 2 inches wide. As for the pocket, this tutorial makes it stupid easy.
Guys, I know it probably seems like a lot of nonsense, but this dress was SO easy to make! I think the majority of the time spent was me figuring out why my thread kept getting jacked up - surprise! The machine was threaded incorrectly! It only took me a few hours of my life to figure out that one.




Don't want to go through all the effort of making your own super cute, custom Carly (or Buffly, whatever) from one you already own? Check out my favorite consultant on earth, Heather! She is so sweet, so generous, and she runs giveaways CONSTANTLY. You're welcome. 






Thursday, October 13, 2016

My Thursday gift to you

Anyone want a little Thursday inspiration and/or do you want to feel really clean and/or completely normal? 
My house isn't filthy, but it's definitely messy. I've been ignoring it for a full week.

You're welcome. I guess it's time to get to work?