School Again

Sorry for the lack of posts! I just went back to school and it is a bit hectic.

Some shoes I decorated a while back--









The glue on these does not look the greatest, but I was just a-learnin' and the shoes hold up quite well. I tied a simple knot to make the bump on the front of the shoe and used a hot glue gun to glue the pearl string on the shoes. Hot glue holds up surprisingly well.

I will try and post more often, posts will probably be less of what I make and more of sweet DIY I find throughout the WWW.

:)

Thanks to this old dress!

A while ago I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from a fellow blogger.



Connie makes the sweetest accessories from old t-shirts. I must say my favorite part of winning the giveaway was opening the package. She has the most adorable little note inside!



Talk about warm and fuzzy feelings.





Check out her blog. :)

Thanks again, Connie!

Summer

It's the end of the summer for me-- already nostalgic. Here are some of my favorite pictures I took. I love these photos because their expressions show who these kids really are-- whether they look ornery, confident, grouchy, guilty, happy, innocent, or kind.



























Remember on the first day of school when your teacher would ask you to write about what summer means to you? If I ever have to do that again, I'll turn this in.

. . . 'Cause my eyelashes catch my sweat

-- Regina Spektor (Folding Chair)


base skirt: Goodwill

flowers: part of that countless supply I made earlier this summer... (previous flower dress)

Tutorial? Here.











Slant hem.

Zippery Rose

I've really got flowers on the mind this summer.



I love these leopard flats from Target, but I felt like they needed something vampy.







There is a tutorial on how to make a different type of zipper rose corsage here or you can check out my very own tutorial here.

:)

Fendi Inspired Flower Dress

At the beginning of the summer, I saw this Fendi dress on a blog and I just had to try it.




Since I am a camp counselor who makes $8.25 an hour, buying this dress is out of the question-- I am sure it would take up my entire summer's earnings. I found this similar, (more bland, boring, and ordinary) Fendi dress, (with very few flowers) for $1200. That's about 140 hours worth of work, (without taxes!). Eek city. So. I made my own.





I love the angled, scalloped hem.

>

I made the base dress with a zip-up back out of a stretchy fabric that I got on clearance for 2$.



Here is a close-up of the flowers. I will have a tutorial on Cut+Keep later, so stay tuned. The flowers involved lots of textures including netting and chiffon feeling fabrics. I sewed two swirls on each flower. One of jersey-like material and one of a wispier fabric.





I love how the flowers are kind of hairy. It adds yet another texture.



You can kind of see the cinched waist.



I was originally planning on trying to sell this dress but it would have had to be around 200$ for me to make 5$ an hour. It took a LONG time. I could not help becoming emotionally attached to those little chunks of fabric.

Also-- I wore it to see Jersey Boys with my Mom, sister, cousin and aunt in Chicago this weekend. (Hence the late blog post, sorry!)



(Cousin Laura on left, sister Natalie on right)

Tutorial coming soon!

:)

***UPDATE: I have the tutorial! The link to it on Cut+Keep is here.

I've been blogged!

I got an email last weekend from the company that makes ShoeGoo asking if I would want to write a tutorial on how to make my shoes for their blog. Of course I said, "Of course!"


Check it out here.




What an honor! The nice people who contacted me said that they were going to send me some of their glues. I can't wait!

More projects to come this week, look out!