Made It: Tea-Dyed Eyelet Baby Skirt

A few months ago I saw some darling skirts on Zulily's website. {EDIT: Guess who showed up again on Zulily today! This very skirt! The company that makes it is Hazel, and for the next few days you can buy one on sale for $28.99 at Zulily. Or you can make one, for like $7 ish. But you really should check out their other clothes because they are sooooo darling, all of them!}

From the baby blessing dress I just made, I had some leftover eyelet that was the bottom section of the fabric that was unused. But it was white. White white. So I got this little idea in my head to try something I've been hearing about. Tea dyeing. I had a boxful of lemon-ginger tea that I didn't care for, so here was a great opportunity to use it up.
I found some instructions here, and loosely followed them. My tea gave me a satisfactory ivory color.
(Sorry, most of my photos are at night--the only time I can do much is after little {A} goes to bed).


I dyed the eyelet fabric as well as a lining material:

Then into the dryer it went, to help set the color.
Next, I measured the elastic and sewed it together:

Then I measured and cut my fabrics (about double the width of the waist band). Hemmed the bottom of the lining fabric:

And sewed a basting stitch along the top of each of the 2 layers.

Gathered each layer, sewed the side seams.

Finally, pinned the 2 layers upside down and inside out to the elastic band.

And sewed it on, using a zig-zag stitch to allow for stretching of the waistband.

Flip it over, and Ta-da!

I tried to get Ava to model it for me, but had little cooperation. It's still a tad big on her anyway.

Now you try one and send me a photo!

DIY Fabric Covered Shoes

Have any of you ever tried to cover a pair of shoes with fabric? I love this idea! I think I've given all my "I don't wear these anymore" items to the thrift store though. Maybe it's time to take a trip inside the thrift store to buy back a pair of "test shoes"!

The inspiration (I want these!):

 Her homemade version:

You can find the full DIY instructions at Burda Style. Let me know if you try it out!

Blessing Dress, Round 2

Remember this dress? Well this is actually dress #2! A sweet new mom of a darling adopted baby girl contacted me and asked if I would make one for her, and so here it is. I made this one about an inch and a half longer than version 1, because my original was barely long enough. And that's what I've been up to lately.

Even though I've made this dress before, I was still a little intimidated, so it took me a while. Making something for myself, I don't mind raw edges on the inside, and if something is a tad off here or there, but making it for someone else, I wanted it to be perfect. And since I don't really have a pattern, I was so afraid of messing up. But it turned out great. Phew.

Embellished Socks

How cute are these embellished socks?!

I just saw some grey & salmon striped socks at Forever 21 (sorry, can't find them on the website) that would be fun to do this with.
via Whip Up

Another Headband

I quickly made this headband one morning to go with a beautiful gold dress that Ava has. In the future I will try to take more photos of my processes and share them with you. I just used a crochet style ribbon, and two pieces of satin ribbon for the flowers.

17 months old, and that's all the hair she's got!

Military T-shirt DIY

Does everyone know what DIY stands for? I had someone ask me that once. Do-It-Yourself.

So here's a DIY that's as easy as one-two-three... four.

This idea came about from seeing 45 seconds of the show Cougar Town one night. One of the girls had on a pink slouchy T-shirt with basically this pattern of military design on it. I've had this green shirt that's a bit too tight, and this seemed like a good update and a way to mask the too-tightness.

So here's what you'll need:

One T-shirt; about 1/16 if a yard of fleece, flannel, or felt; 8 buttons (mine are antiqued gold color)

Step 1. Cut.
Cut 4 equally sized strips of your fleece/flannel/felt. (I recommend creating a simple pattern for yourself using wax or parchment paper. Or wrapping paper. Or anything.)

Step 2. Pin.
Put on your shirt and decide where you want your top strip and bottom strip to sit. Loosly pin those two on and carefully remove the shirt (and put on another one). Lay the shirt flat and now adjust your top and bottom strips so they are level, and pin in place. Evenly space the middle 2 strips and pin in place.

Step 3. Sew.

With strips in place, sew them onto the t-shirt, stitching around the outside edges.

Step 4. Buttons.

With a needle and thread, sew on your buttons, one at each end of each strip.

That's it! You're done! Now go show off your new shirt (and send me pictures!).