Lucy is a small dog. We think she’s a chiweenie (that’s chihuahua and dachshund). When it’s cold outside, Lucy shivers and shakes. We bought her and Fritz matching fleece-lined puffer jackets, but Lucy always manages to wiggle out of hers. Something had to be done. I’ll just sew her a sweater, I thought. Piece of cake.
I know, she’s the cutest dog in the world, and no, you can’t have her.
Recently, I checked out Betz White’s Sewing Green from the library. It’s all about using what you have, left over fabric, thrifted stuff and so on to make something new. She goes into great detail on using felted wool. I had no idea what this was before her book. Basically, felted wool is wool that has been felted, duh. Ever shrunk a wool sweater in the washer and drier? You just felted your wool.
When you agitate the wool fibers in the washer and drier they sort of mesh together creating a stronger fabric (while losing the knitted quality). This means you can cut it without unraveling the fabric. Got it?
I recently moved to the cold weather, so I don’t have any old wool sweaters lying around. The Goodwill to the rescue. Found two cute sweaters, washed them, dried them, vacuumed piles of wool fibers out of both machines, had felted wool.
And now for the Lucy sweater. Cal Patch has a nice tutorial of how to sew a dog sweater on Craft Stylish. I used it, you can too.
Here are my three sweater pieces before sewing.
Sorry! No photos of the sewing part. I spent an entire hour trying to make my machine do a simple zig zag stitch. It’s easy to do, but the machine kept messing up. I said it, the machine messed up, not I. After wrangling the thick wool through the machine, I had myself a cute dog sweater.
Dearest Halloween,
I love you. There, I said said. I look forward to you every single year, usually planning my costume months in advance. Candy. One of my favorite parts. Especially those mini Twix and Snickers. Oh, and I can’t forget the jar of candy corn that has been sitting in a nice little basket on my end table since last year. Remember last year? I know, it was so sad. I was too sick to dress up and go out. The horror. The tragedy. This year, I have the cutest little frilly black dress. I can be a vampire, a witch, a dark fairy, a goth girl, or some other frilly black dress thingy. I can’t wait.
Yours truly,
Ashley
Now, for all of you that came here for costume ideas, I thought I’d raid the vault for some of my favorite costumes throughout the years.
Elementary
Simple and Easy:
Animal (In my case, a bunny.)
circa 1988
Re-purpose:
Zombie Princess and 50s girl (My sister’s princess costume was actually her flower girl dress that she wore to my aunt’s wedding. The great poodle skirt was made by my seamstress extraordinaire grandmother and was for a school program.)
circa 1989
Now fast forward many years in which I dressed as a hobo, Kermit the Frog, Country Girl (plaid shirt, overalls, braids, hat), genie, hula dancer, witch, Gypsie, among other costumes.
The College Years
(I went a little crazy…)
Crazy All-Out:
Space Cadet
circa 2001
Now all the world can see me in hot pink fishnets. I think I totally rocked that pink wig.
Next is one of my all time faves.
Two friends and I decided we’d all dress up as different Madonnas. I bought the fabric and then waited until Halloween day to sew myself a dress. BY HAND. I did not have a sewing machine at the time. I sewed a freakin’ dress. BY HAND.
Sew Yourself Something:
Material Girl Madonna
circa 2003
Post Grad
Things calmed down a bit by this time. Let’s be something sweet…aw.
Find a cute dress at Ross that looks like it could be a costume:
Ladybug
circa 2006
Rock & Roll Superstar:
Slash and Axl Rose
circa 2007
That’s my guy and me. Dameian totally looks like Slash. Really, he always looks that.
Alright…that’s a wig…and a fake nose ring.
Yes. That’s a flower petal waterfall, if you will, flowing down my shoulder. Cheri, from It’s So Very Cheri, twisted my arm and convinced me to make one. You may have seen something like this before. Say, J Crew maybe? Or on other blogs. This my my version.
I bought an organic cotton scoop neck tee from Wally World for $5. Then I found an old tee in my closet that would make perfectly aqua cascading prettiness on the plain black tee.
Next, I cut a bunch of roundish flower blob-like shapes out of the aqua tee. Cut through both layers to minimize cutting time.
Mix and match petals (I sewed two, stacked, at a time). Sew onto shirt. I placed them in a cascade starting on the left shoulder of the shirt. You can either hand sew or machine stich the petals onto the shirt. I did it by hand.
Then I asked Dameian how it looked.
Dameian: “I don’t know, is that what it’s supposed to look like?”
Me: loud dramatic sigh, “Yes.”
Dameian: “Yeah, it looks good.”
Hopefully the petals will stay on through a wash cycle. Once I run it through the drier, the petals should curl slightly and be a bit more fluffy.
This is my everyday look. Glasses, bangs clipped to the side, black tee, jeans, no makeup.
I went to The Goodwill this weekend on the hunt for some pretty dresses. My goal was to find dresses with decent fabric that I can recycle for a few sewing projects. The Goodwill never lets me down – I found four dresses, a silk skirt, and two organza shirts – beautiful fabric and cheaper than the fabric store.
Here’s a mini fashion spread for your enjoyment. I won’t be wearing any of these dresses, but I thought it would be fun to pair them with different pieces from my wordorbe.
This next one was my fave!
I already ripped this dress up a bit and made this cute little fabric carnation pin.
Today’s thrift Treasures at Southern Hospitality Blog
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Blogeritaville
Dameian and I don’t have much in the way of family heirlooms. However, the few items we do have are very dear.
This yellow platter belonged to my grandfather’s mother, I think. Sometimes I display it on a plate stand, sometimes I use it as a fruit plate, and today, it’s a candle tray.
It says Lu-Ray Pastels USA on the bottom. The line was made 1938-1961. According to this ad from 1942, my platter cost 60 cents. I’ve also found that the color is “Persian Cream.” Doesn’t that sound better than plain ol’ yellow? Here’s another ad, my platter is #11.
This little piece belonged to Dameian’s grandmother. I think it was a gift to her from one of her artsy friends. Dameian’s grandmother, Mawmaw, was very crafty and was a talented painter. It think it’s so cute!
This next trinket is one of my favorites in my home. It’s a metal airplane that Dameian remembers from his childhood visits to his Mawmaws. He says it used to wind up and play music, but we haven’t been able to make it work. It’s very special because Dameian’s grandfather was a pilot by trade. He eventually lost his life in a plane accident.
**Come back next week for a BIG announcement!**
Heirloom Party at Emma Calle Me Mama
I recently converted my office into an office/guest bedroom. We bought a wood-frame futon on CraigsList (I heart CraigsList) and then bought a new cover at Target. The result was a nice addition to the room, but it was pretty plain. My solution, mosey on over to my favorite neighborhood haunt, The Goodwill.
The Goodwill makes me so happy. I have bought so much stuff there; actually, I usually don’t leave the store without anything.
(Quick tangent: This past Saturday, after a long day of yardsaling, I stopped by The Goodwill. I didn’t find any home items, but I did score a really cute Banana Republic sweater and a great Banana Republic linen skirt, all for a whopping $8!)
Back to the plain futon. I heard it whispering to me, you know, metaphorically and all, “I’d love to have some pretty pillows to dress me up…” So I went to The Goodwill (yes, I like to call it “The Goodwill”) and found a few nice men’s shirts and a cute flowery dress from Old Navy that would make great pillows. I decided I would sew a pillow a day until I had a whole mess of cute pillows. How’d I do?
This one took the most work, and even after carefully measuring and cutting each and every square, and swearing up and down that I used a .25 inch seam allowance on each row, the quilted pillow still came out all crooked.
The hearts on this pillow came from the Old Navy dress. On the day that I finished it, I declared it my fave pillow.
And then I finished this next pillow, and I changed my fickle mind and declared it my piece de resistance. Her name is Sugar.
Just to keep it real, this is what my dining table looked like for an entire week while I sewed:
