Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

how to tailor your own clothes

~ SEWING

“Hello Mrs. Sarah,
One of the many things I love about your blog is how you buy something so much bigger than your actual size and make it so much smaller. How do you make your clothing “smaller”? I really struggle with that! I started sewing a couple of years ago but I have never been really good at alterations. If there is anyway you could tell me how you do what you do? I would love to know! I don’t have money to by those high end looks but if I knew how I could find the time!” -M.B- I don’t know about you but I’ve tried on clothes in the dressing room many times and said, “ah, only if this was bigger here, smaller here, tighter here, looser here…” but now that I tailor my own clothes all the time, even if it doesn’t fit right, I don’t sigh and wish, I just buy it and fix it so it fits just right.
And I think every woman should know how to tailor their own clothes, because instead of saying “oh I wish my body was smaller here, bigger here.” to fit certain type of clothing that you try on, you can say instead, “I don’t have to conform my body to a certain size, I make the clothes conform to me.” and it helps to have a better body image and self confidence when you wear a clothing item that fits you like it was made for your body that fits perfectly and accentuates the positive.
i’ve struggled with very poor body image and hated my body for many years and that is why I’m more passionate about this and the reason why I want to have my own clothing line one day. to help women have positive body image and accept and love the body that they have instead of wishing and waiting. but we can talk about my business concept later. on black friday, my friend rachel and I went to nordstrom rack, and I SO badly wished I had bought more than just one groupon! because even though some didn’t fit right, I saw the potential once it was tailored. here are some things I’ve tailored this past weekend.
before:

a black lace top that’s a little baggy.
after: before: a grey t-shirt dress that’s too big.
after:

I sewed the middle of the back of the dress from the neckline to the bottom hem of the dress and used the extra fabric from the back as a tie. I could have sewed the sides but then the flowers on the side would’ve been sewn over so that is why I tailored the back instead.

you can enlarge the picture to look at the back of the dress in more detail.
before:

a grey plaid dress that I look really silly in.

after:

*and just to clarify, when I say sew along the white lines, I mean from the inside out.

and this dress was possible to sew the sides since it was a back zipper dress. if it was a side zipper, it would’ve been harder to tailor, and you would have to tailor it from the back middle part like I did with the light grey dress above. that’s how I do it anyway. I hope I helped in some way in answering your question M.B! I’ll have more tailoring DIY’s and tips next week. I usually post my DIY projects on Monday but from now on, I think I’ll post them on Tuesday.

BCBG Maxazria knotted panel dress DIY

~ SEWING

Hi everyone! And if you’re visiting from Sew Much Ado, welcome!
I’m a guest blogger for their Copycat Challenge
and it sounds so fun, I just might enter one too!
(not this one I’m posting right now of course. 🙂

but I hope everyone had a great weekend! besides listening to christmas music on the radio(yes! they started playing it a few days ago! i’m so happy about it!) mine was filled with my daughter’s 3rd b-day party planning, stressing, staying up late baking/sewing/crafting for the party, and celebrating the special day and can I just tell you I’m SO glad it’s over? Her 1st and 2nd birthday she was so young that we didn’t need to have any entertainment really, just great food and mingling but now that she’s older and there actually needs to be entertainment, games, prizes, etc., it was so stressful! Do you other mothers stress about planning birthday parties too? so i came up with a simple solution. my husband’s going to plan the whole party for my other daughter’s birthday in march. genius right?
anyway, here is my inspiration:
BCBG Maxazria knotted panel dress
(i came across this store this past may when i went to vegas to celebrate weaning my baby. my friends wanted to go in and once i stepped inside i was like, “whoa, look at this! look at this! WHAT STORE IS THIS???” and my friends were surprised i’ve never heard of this store! which comes as no surprise however since i’ve never heard of chanel, dolce and gabanna, louis vuitton, etc., until i was 20 yrs.old and went to korea. where have i been all my life right? in the bubble of course. anyway, i loved almost everything in the store. except for the price tag… )
eh hem, moving on from my tangent…
in my closet i found
a gray sweater dress

and i bought a yard of gray silky fabric from walmart for $1.50
i wish i found a gray ribbon to work with instead but i couldn’t
find a light gray thick ribbon anywhere. so i had to go with plan b.
1. cut the fabric in 5 strips, about 5.5″ wide and however length you’d like it to be.

2. sew the right sides together(which means the side you want it to show touches each other on both sides and you can’t see it but is on the inside when sewing like this)

*and yes, i have the most ghetto sewing machine due to my girls drawing on it with a permanent marker.
3. flip it inside out. i didn’t need a safety pin since the strip was wide enough for my fingers to go in and pull.)
it looks like this.

4. iron it flat.

5. safety pin the strips along the neckline.

*after many trial and error, this was the only way that worked for me.
i tried sewing the neckline first,then the strips vertically,but it would bunch up,
it wouldn’t come out straight, so after many attempts and unstitching many times,
i felt like giving up for the night but then i thought of you(yes you!) and so i continued and finished! aren’t you proud of me?

6. let the strips hang straight down and with liquid stitch glue the strips down to about 2″ below your belly button. leave about 1″ space on the very top of the strips so you can sew it easily later on.

7. take the safety pins out and safety pin again, this time so the neckline is clean and the strips below are straight and unwrinkled.
it should look like this.

8. tie 5 knots.

9. cut all the strips the same length in a straight horizontal line.

10. use fray check on the ends of the strips.

*i knotted first then cut since i wanted some knots bigger than the others but still the same length.

and after:


i wish i had the strips a little longer like the original dress but i had to match the other strips to the length of the strip on the shoulder. oh well.

(keep in mind the strips are on the right side just like the inspiration dress
but since it’s taken through the mirror, it’s shown the opposite way.)

i like it without the knots too. (w/o the wrinkles of course.;)

i saved over $200!

giveaway winner+design contest+J.Crew DIY project

~ SEWING

in case you missed my saturday’s post

my dress made it to the top 15 for the dress design contest!!!  i can’t believe the old skirt i found in my mom’s closets even made it to the top 15 because the 14 other designs are really great.  but of course i’m so happy and grateful!!!  so if you’d like, you can vote for my dress #9 by voting here.  voting ends monday, nov.15th.

thank you for all your support, you guys are awesome!

onto my DIY project for this week:

my inspiration.
J.Crew ruffled flower top. (from the girls’ section)

in my closet I found:

a long baggy top

and a gray silk tank top, leftover from this top I made. 

1. Cut five of 2″ thick strips from the tank top. 2. mark where you want the flower to be. 3. sew the strips in stitch length 5. 4. it should look like this. 5. pull just one of the two strings while pulling the fabric the opposite way. 6. it should ruffle like this. 7. place the ruffle on top of the shirt and pin it. then sew it on regular stitch length 2.5. 7. repeat again by placing the ruffle strip, pinning it, then sewing. 8. continue until the top part is covered. the middle part, you sew it in a little circle for the flower effect. 9. sew the ends by the neckline so it’s a clean seam. the left side isn’t finished, the right side is. 10. the inside of the shirt should look like this. 11. iron on medium setting with another fabric over it to protect the silk fabric from burning. *12. I also tailored the top into a plain long gray top. You are now DONE!!!

After:

Now go try it yourself! Best luck!

*i was a guest blogger for this project at sew dang cute and living with punks.
it’s an honor to be be featured on your awesome blogs, thank you!

Anthro DIY-torsade tee

~ SEWING

inspiration: anthropologie torsade tee

in my closet:

a short sleeve sweater that’s too big.

1. cut the neckline off.

2. it was double layered when it was opened.

3. so i cut the strip in half. i only ended up using one piece.

4. sew the wrong sides together.

5. pull it out the right side out by pinching the inside and tugging it out.

6. it should look like this when it’s all pulled out.

7. pull the middle part together and twist 3 times. i had to twist it manually meaning put the right side to the left, the left side to the right, and back and forth 3 times.

8. safety pin the twist to secure.

9. safety pin the back also.

10. cut the extra neckline off leaving about an inch.

11. fold the extra 1″ neckline inside of the sweater
and hand sew the twist all the way around the neckline.
after:



and…
I have 3 good news:1. CSN is sponsoring a $45 giftcard giveaway to any of their 200+ stores so click here to enter! the giveaway ends this friday, 0ct. 22nd. 2. i’ll be a guest blogger for Sew Dang Cute this wed. the 20th to kick off their Crafting with the Stars competition! they’re going to choose 12 winners who will be in a 4-week challenge and will be eliminated every week to see who will be the last one standing. how fun does that sound? so make sure to check out their blog on wednesday! 3. i entered a design contest. check it out here!

DIY-pleated dress 2

~ SEWING

remember the pleated dress i transformed a few weeks ago?

well, i found another pleated skirt in my mom’s closet.

except this skirt is below the knee unlike the white one i made before,
which was to the ankle, so i couldn’t do the same to this one or the length
would’ve been too short.
so using a seam ripper, i cut off the gold whatchamacallit and the 2 tabs.
then i cut one side of the skirt to make a waist-tie, so when
i wear it as a dress, i can tie it on my waist(or else the pleated design
would make me look like a tent!)
so it can either be worn as the original skirt or as a dress.
after:



as you can see, the skirt/dress can be worn in many ways.

in case you wanted to know how i made the waist-tie, here is a tutorial.




pull down the scrunched part as you go.
so you’re basically turning the fabric the right side out.
fold the tip inside and then sew to secure the tie.
and don’t worry, the pleated design is very forgiving
on the chunk cut off and you can’t even tell.
i’m planning on hand-sewing the snap buttons to the ends of the tie
(since it’s not long enough to just tie)
but we moved this week so i didn’t have enough time. oopsie!

and make sure to come back in a few days,
i’ll be entering a design contest!