Little blue casual skirt I made

Hi guys, I just made a little blue skirt yesterday afternoon. I did not use a pattern but I have a little black skirt that I love to wear because it’s so comfortable and I wanted to make one similar to it so I used the skirt as a guideline for size and made this… here it is. 

The pictures do not show the exact color of the skirt because of the lighting,too much sun was exposing the color.
I got the fabric at Fabric Ville in Halifax, NS. It is a heavy cotton, almost like denim.
The fabric was white and I dyed it pale light blue. Here is a closer representation of the color.





This is a top I made last year that
goes well with the skirt.



There is a little pocket on the side, always nice to have a pocket.




This is my attitude look, lol but I don’t have one!! Unless I need it. 


My cat Minou is always under my feet whenever I try to take pictures. She acts like she doesn’t want to be in the picture but I think she secretly does. hehehe

A wider belt looks good too.


I know!!! But I forgot my sun screen !!! Uh Oh


       Jewelry close up


This is a more casual look.
I think I like this look better.





For those that are following my weight loss, those rolls are coming off soon!!!! I hates ‘em!!! lol


My jewelry for those who like to look at jewelry

On my way to make another skirt…. a different one this time…not sure what I’ll come up with though…it’ll just happen.
Have a beautiful clothing day!!! I will!!! 

Make your own great clothes easily-Skirt

This is a magazine cover I designed just playing around, although it would be fun to have my own magazine I believe it takes a lot of work and dedication to do it and I believe it takes a team of talented people to do it. So for now it will only be my wanna be magazine because I don’t have a team to work on it.

The sewing style I`m using is not your traditional style of sewing, everything is not perfectly sewn here but it is done quickly but still looks nice to have clothes to wear for yourself and your friends at a very low price. I would NOT recommend you do it this way if you want to be a professional.

I have been sewing since I can remember but I only started being serious about sewing about 8 years ago.
I worked for a Vietnamese lady in a sewing store doing prom dresses and alterations for 1 year and learned a lot from her. I then was asked to take over another lady`s business making draperies which I gladly accepted. I have been making draperies since 2003.

Although I like making draperies, my real passion is in clothing/designing. All my life I’ve been dreaming of making and designing clothes but I’ve never had anyone that could show me how it’s done. Living in a small place, there is not much going on around here as far as designing clothes goes. We also don’t have the schools and education for such things close by. So when the internet came around here and we hooked up to it, that’s pretty much all I did was surf the net for designing clothes, clothing illustrations, manufacturing clothing etc. I found Granton Institution through an ad in the mail and took a correspondence course in Fashion Design and Merchandising.
I really enjoyed taking this course. It was a course that I could do in my own time and so it doesn't put any pressure on you if you are working. I also bought any good books I could find on pattern making, pattern draping and pattern fitting and I studied them and did the work. I learned a lot doing this but I also learned that it’s a lot of work to make a pattern, finding your fabric and learning how to sew it up correctly to fit you properly. So I started thinking… how could I cut some corners, make great looking clothes in less time and cheaper.

 

I loved making the patterns from scratch but it just took too much time. 2 or 3 hours making the pattern and then placing the pattern on the fabric and then cutting it out and sewing it. It was taking me two days to get one outfit done. Too long for me, I want to wear my clothes NOW.

 

So having become familiar with how patterns look and an artistic ability, I laid my fabric down and could SEE the shape of a simple stretch skirt on the fabric. I measured half my waist and made sure the top of the skirt was the same size plus seams. I cut out the shape in sort of triangular shape using a ruler with the top of the triangle cut off on a piece of fabric that I doubled. I then sewed the side seams together and decided not to serge the seams because the fabric doesn’t unravel and I’m the only one who sees the insides and I don’t care what the insides look like and it saves a lot of time. I tried the skirt on for fitting and adjusted the seams as necessary for a good fit. I then hemmed the skirt where I wanted it and put in an elastic for the waist. Skirt done!!! done in a very short time!!! about 1 hour!!! maybe a little less if you are really fast!!!  

This skirt is for someone that has sewn before, not for a beginner. You need to know how to put in an elastic. If you want to know how to put in an elastic just Google, “ how to put in an elastic in a skirt” and you should come up with good examples of it.

 

 

TIPS:

*Fabric must be a stretch fabric

*Measure half your waist and add half an inch for seams on both sides. Sew your seams a half inch seams

*Flare or straighten the bottom of skirt according to your taste in skirts. Make the bottom line of the dress longer if you are curvy and shorter if you are straight (not much hips)

*Find your length that you like and add about 3 inches for turning hem (You could measure the length of a skirt you already own)

*If fabric is thin double all your pieces and work as one

*If you have a protruding butt, cut the back length about two inches longer in the back.

*If you have a sway back cut the front waist about an inch deeper slightly curving down and the back length about 2 inches longer.

 

 

1.Use a ruler to mark the lines for accuracy

2.Use a zigzag stitch down both sides of the skirt so that the stitch will stretch with the fabric

3.Insert elastic for the waistband (see inserting an elastic in a skirt)

4. Hem the skirt to your desired length

 

 

 

 

Skirt with a wrapped top to wear at the beach

The back of my wanna be magazine

I hope you enjoyed my wanna be magazine and that it gives you ideas on sewing your own clothes. Have fun!!!

Marriage is a piece of cake!!!!

First you have this beautiful cake and it’s wonderful and beautiful and it’s all you want
Then you realize it’s your cake and you can eat it whenever you want, it’s always at your beck and call

Slice by slice you take and eat from this cake

Slice one…….infidelity….and it looks sooooo good!!!   = separation of one unit, disharmony, dysfunctional as a family, disunity, distrust, guilt, condemnation, resentment
Slice two…….lies,deceitfulness and omission  = lying to partner, lying to self, lying to friends and family and co-workers, neglecting to tell facts to partner, minimising the truth…..covering up comes so easy
 Slice three……..Arguments about money, religion, children, addictions etc… there are so many different things that people can argue about and it leads to strife, frustration, disappointment, unforgiveness etc. etc.

Slice four…….pornography =  lusting,laziness,boredom,lack of intimacy, loneliness, craving for intimacy…
Slice four……..Disrespect = uncaring, unloving, thoughtless, selfish, self centered, angry, foul language, violent, abusive
Slice five…….Jealousy……distrust, secretive, suspecting, accusing, fearful,watchful, sickness, guarded, resentful, bitterness, unforgiveness….see slice one and slice two.

Slice six…….house chores = uneven labour, burdened, pressure, unequal, too much responsibility on one,
Slice seven….. lack of communication = lack of communication, lack of intimacy, misunderstandings, neglect, being unsure of one another,

After you’ve eaten some or all of the slices of this cake, this is what you have left of your marriage

Not much is it? ……. your marriage may be able to be saved though, but you’d better start baking!!!!

,
Go back to the cake you had in the beginning and start appreciating it!!!
Leave the cake as it is, don’t eat it but add to the decorations,
Earn trust back by being honest,
Show adoration and respect,
Make them feel valuable,
Tell your partner how beautiful she or he is,
Tell them how precious they are to you,
Admit the truth, own up to your wrong doings and more than that, tell them you know what it did to them.
Help your partner in everything you can.
Keep your mouth shut sometimes and open it when you should.
Be kind and considerate.
Show appreciation,
Go out of your way once in a while to please,
Listen, listen listen,
Talk talk talk.
Communicate!!!
Share!!!
Treat them as you did when you met them, even if you have to fake it for a while!!!
You won’t get anything if you don’t put anything in it!!!

 Yeah, marriage is like a piece of cake so savour it as much as you can or you’ll find yourself facing nothing but crumbs and sometimes crumbs can’t be made back into a cake and it’s just not the same. Turn things around before it is too late.
Just a thought…. maybe that’s why we have wedding cakes at weddings… lol
Have a beautiful “piece of cake” day!!!  xox

My friend Ida

This is my friend Ida. We’ve been friends since we were 4 years old. We met in my grandmother’s back yard while our parents talked and where I eventually moved to when I was 6 years old, and we’ve been friends ever since. We went through skipping ropes, hopscotch in the driveway, swinging endlessly on the swings at her house, playing all kinds of games, skating together, going for walks, playing with Barbie dolls, making camps, boyfriends -mine and hers- mostly mine!! lol, puberty, makeup, love, hate, pierced ears, hurts, arguments- though not many, our marriages, our kids, my divorce, my accidents, my sicknesses, dances, a few drinks here and there, deaths and cancer along with many other things and we’ve remained friends through everything. I believe the older we get and the closer we become.
It’s so nice to have a friend where you can go to their house and not talk much if you are not in the mood, maybe just watch TV together. It’s so nice to have a friend that can come to your house and say, “ok put on the tea kettle now”. Or a friendship that you are comfortable to sit where you like, even wrap up in a blanket if need be.
Great friends are those you can share personal things with and know you are safe with them. You don’t have to hide who you are.
My friend Ida is not shy about telling me what is on her mind! lol  She’s very blunt but that is why I love her. I don’t have to guess what she’s thinking, she’s more than willing to tell me. hahaha ---------I would much rather have only one friend like this than 100 other friends that are going to act all nicey nicey to my face and then go talk about me behind my back and judge me.
I’ve noticed through all the years we’ve been friends, when everyone else would have turned their backs on me, she was still there. When people thought bad of me, she was still there. Through everything I went through, she was there still being my friend like nothing ever happened. Not questioning anything or trying to get involved but just there and that’s something to be appreciated.
I am proud of my friends accomplishments in life…. She is good at  handling finances, she is very determined when she wants to do something, self disciplined like you wouldn’t believe(I’d like to shake her sometimes so some of it would fall on me lol), almost everything she plans comes to pass for her, she’s been with the same man since she was 18 or 19 years old, she has a nice house and she’s a great mother to 2 beautiful healthy children, a boy and a girl and has nice friends.
Another special thing I like about my friend is she has never shown jealousy towards me and I really appreciate that in her. She’s comfortable with herself and that to me is really beautiful.
Hopefully we can be best friends for the rest of our lives!

My friend Ida, who rarely asks me to do anything for her, asked if I could do her hair on new year’s eve day, so I did. I had done her hair and makeup for her wedding so she knew that I could do it. She has the thickest hair ever!!! Layers upon layers of straight hair!!! I wish I had half of it!!!! lol  It turned out pretty good although her hair is really hard to curl. It took around 1 hour to curl all her hair!!!  So then since she had a nice hairdo, I asked if she wanted me to do her makeup. Well of course she did, so I did her makeup and then I had to take pictures of course! How else will I be able to blog about it without pictures! hahaha
Here are the results of my beautiful model



And from this picture, it inspired me to do this blog page!