Today I made an elastic waist skirt with pockets using a tutorial I saw on Freshly Picked. Overall the skirt is easy but I did have two issues with my skirt.

1) It is really really hard to sew 60 inches of fabric onto 30 inches of elastic. You have to keep stretching and pulling while sewing and it can be difficult if you are doing it alone. I had to get Bryan to hold my sewing machine so it wouldn't slide away.

2) My pockets. When I was cutting the pockets they looked big enough but once I got them on the skirt I realized I couldn't fit my whole hand in. Next time I'll make sure to make bigger pockets. :)

Supplies: 1 yard of fabric and 30 inches of 2 inch elastic

Time: 3 hours (I haven't hemmed the skirt yet)

Cost: $10

I figured I might have issues with this skirt so I bought a cheap fabric to figure everything out on. Next week I'm going to sew a better version of this with an Amy Butler fabric I bought today at The Needle Shop. Hopefully the next one will have bigger pockets.

 My Amy Butler fabric:

Tonight I decided to start a project I've been putting off for a while...the easy finished skirt I saw on verypurpleperson in December. After finishing it, I definitely think she's more experienced than I am since she's calling this easy.

My supplies:

2 yards of brown cotton fabric, 1 1/2 yards of ribbon, 1 1/2 yards of elastic

My sewing station: (someday I'll have a whole room for this)

My little helper: (he lays by me every time)

The almost finished product: (just need to hem the bottom)

For 2 hours and $10 it's not that bad...right????

Tonight after exactly one week of working on my JCrew skirt I have finished. In total it cost about $18 and it took me about 8 hours to complete. I'll admit that I probably jumped the gun with this project but I think it's better to try and fail then to not try at all.

When I started last Sunday I sat down with 3 1/2 yards of fabric and I just stared at them. I honestly didn't know where to begin. I was trying to figure out how I was going to make one very long roll of fabric look like a cute skirt. The first thing I did was measure myself. If you can avoid measuring the size of you ass, do it at all costs. My ass seems so much bigger now that I know its size in inches.

After measuring twice I got ready to cut 2 rectangles to make the skirt. But I had a feeling I should google "how to make a skirt" to see if anyone had any tips before I started cutting. I stumbled upon a YouTube that had step by step instructions about how to make a skirt. Guess what...if you cut a rectangle skirt you will end up with...a rectangle skirt with no shape. Apparently you are supposed to cut skirts as trapezoids so they flare at the end. So I redrew my cutting lines and started over. After cutting out the skirt shape I cut out the 3 panels for the ruffles.

I won't bore you with all the details but after lots of pinning and modeling and sewing, I ended up with what I consider a great finished piece. I'm proud of myself for doing something like this without a pattern and I definitely think it is something I can improve upon if I try it again.

So what do you think?

Yesterday I was in JCrew and I completely fell in love with their Ruffled Carly Dress. They didn't have it in my size and I thought it would be much cuter as a skirt so I picked up some fabric today and I am attempting to recreate the dress as a skirt.

Wish me luck!

Ever since I got my sewing machine I've been scouring the web for ideas for fun projects. While technically I could spend all day looking at beautiful fabrics, that really wouldn't be productive. So I'm starting to create a list of great sewing blogs and tutorials for upcoming projects.

The blogs:

ISLY

Craftzine

Freshly Picked

How About Orange

Readymade Blog

Sew Mama Sew

Esty How to Tuesday

Simply Handmade Blog

Very Purple Person

The books:

Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol

Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter

In Stiches by Amy Butler

One Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins (which I already own and I've made 2 pieces from)

Applique Your Way by Kayte Terry

What I'll be working on in the coming months:

Ruffle headband

My own clothing labels

Skinny jeans

Easy full skirt

Pillow with rosette clusters

Do you have any books or projects to share?