Momma Art

My beautiful daughter took this picture of this less than beautiful dress. I thrifted it for a few dollars a long while back. I picked apart the skirt andplaced a pants pattern in its place. Picked off the sleeves and cuffs. Whole lotta sleeves! Extra fabric to make a sash belt. I found the center of the cuffs and pinned it for reference. You will see what I do with them! Bias tape around the sleeves and attached the cuffs. Check out the sleeves! Its actually the cuffs! I love my new romper! See you next time!

Winter is not my favorite season.  I usually want to curl up in a blanket watch movies and eat popcorn.... I still have been doing that, (I make the best popcorn by the way).  I also have accomplished a few things in the past 3 months.  I've also sewn TON! I'll give you the run-down: I have spent time with my family At the beginning of December, I became a Zumba instructor! Whew! I did it! I'm working on making some pullovers for my new Zumba side-career... Oh yeah, one other thing: I also graduated with my Masters Degree in Educational Leadership!!!!  Yup! 2 years of hard work and we are done!!! Wahoooo! I wanted to make it special and memorable, so for our last class, I made a dress for myself, matching bow ties for the Gentleman, a pocket square for our instructor, and scarves for the ladies. It was a great matchy-matchy ending to the past hard working two years! Now that thing...

     I haven't posted here in a while. I do apologize for that but, I've been very busy gettin' my masters degree and being the summer school coordinator/internship for a month. I hope you forgive me? This beautiful dress refashion will make up for it.  I found THE best batik print dress a few months back at Goodwill, and I had to have it!  Alas, the top of the dress was too tight, and the style of the dress was just eh. I was inspired by my friend  Leslie  and I decided to turn it into a lovely skirt. Here's how I did it: I figured out where the skirt fit me with a little wiggle room, and I made a little chalk mark on the inside. Look at that gorgeous print! Then I gave it a good chop following the same curve of the bottom hem. I measured a piece of wide black elastic that fit snuggly but comfortably around my waist. I overlapped and sewed with a zig zag to secure the elastic in a circle.  I ...

Ok, seriously, does this dress scream 1980's or 1880's. I'm confused. I took it upon myself to try to liberate the fashion buried beneath this horrific piece of clothing. I know I'm a school teacher, but I think this is going too far... Not having a successful "before" picture moment. You get the idea.  Sally the cat was listening attentively.  Maybe this school-marm dress was working? Nah. I said listen up students! I've lost my head with this dress. (Get it?) Out came the shoulder pads first! Those things are huge! I might make somethin' outta those! Next, I had to pick off that delicate neck-lace. Ick! I then, picked off those sleeves, and chopped just a wee bit from the bottom. Sally of course, had to supervise. MEOW! I cut off a considerable chunk at the top of the sleeves and reattached them. I did NOT want those poofy ruffles! I also chopped off the wrists, ...

     This year on March 17&18th I had the privilege of attending the National Art Education Convention for art teachers across the country. There were about 4700 art teachers in one place at one time! It was just amazing that NAEA was held in Chicago this year so I could easily attend. ComiCon was there too...talk about a creative happening!! So Amazing!!! This year, I signed up for 2 workshops on Thursday that caught my attention. The first one was a Japanese Shibhori fabric dyeing class. We talked about how there is so much "waste fashion" in the world, and how much clothing really does go into the landfills. It was eye opening!!! This workshop really hit home and I was so thankful that I had started another year of not buying new clothing. I CAN"T say that I will NEVER buy off the rack again, but I will definitely think more closely about where my clothing comes from. Here are some pictures of the wonderful technique we were introduced to: Practice...