A Sailor Skirt for me…

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Sailorskirt

Today I’m sharing this Sailor skirt I made for a magazine tutorial. I sent it off Monday and photographed myself in it before. The tutorial is based on a child’s tutorial I wrote for drafting your own sailor skirt last spring. The skirt has a flap in the front that opens. It could also be made with a side zipper, which would probably be smart if you don’t want to open the flap. It has welt seams throughout. I like how the welt seams look on this thick textured twill I bought at The Fabric Store on La Brea in Hollywood. The buttons are vintage I think. I bought them at a yard sale. I hope I get it this skirt back in time for spring!

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I’m wearing this little striped top I made a couple of years ago. It’s one of those things I seem to wear a lot! It was a simple pattern to make and just takes a few minutes to draw it.sailorskirt3

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Awkward face pose….

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The Norah Dress Inspired by Wednesday Addams

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Norahdresstitle

  I'm so excited to be a part of this guest tour for Hayley from Welcome To The Mouse House's Norah Dress pattern tour! OK... I totally love this dress pattern and had so much fun making this little dress inspired bu one of my favorite rerun heroines as a child. Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family! When I saw collar on the Norah pattern I knew I had to make it. Hayley's design is easy, so simple to make and turned out so cute that I totally recommend this pattern. It packs a lot of punch! I did add some cuffs to the pattern and sewed on some vintage pearl buttons to give things my own spin. I made my cuffs slightly longer as I wanted more of an early 70's feel on this dress. This little girl had some attitude. And so does mine! How cute is this collar?We had fun taking … {continue reading}

Upcycled Christmas Dress From Nightshirt : Scattered Thoughts Of A Crafty Mom’s Holiday Sewing Tour

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FlannelChristmasUpcycledDress

Today I'm taking part in the lovely Jamie from Scattered Thoughts Of A Crafty Mom's Holiday Sewing Blog Tour. There are lots of great inspirational Christmas sewing projects over there so be sure to check them out! I love Jamie's blog. Such a clever and talented lady she is , always coming up with great sewing tutorials on a weekly basis and beautifully photographed too.. If you don't follow her, you should!I have to admit that I went to JoAnn's Black Friday sale last week at 6AM. Well, I did have a good excuse to be out so early. I had to drop my son off at his friend's so he could go on a rock climbing trip. There just happened to be a JoAnn nearby, so of course I went! I was planning on making a cozy flannel dress for Gigi and I knew there was a Door Busters sale selling flannels at a … {continue reading}

Mod Podged Letter Mini Canvases #Fabulouslyfestive

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  I love the clean and modern look of these JOY canvases. These ones are for Christmas, but this would also be an easy project to do for a kids room. Would you like to make some too? I bought all of the supplies at JoAnn stores as they were nice enough to send me a gift card to buy supplies for their #fabulously festive series. To see lots of Christmas craft projects, you can visit JoAnn's Craft ideas page. Here's how: Supplies that I bought at  JoAnn's: 6 inch Canvases Glitter and Christmas scrapbook paper Mod Podge I also used my electro The paper I bought was the same size as the canvas, 6 inches square so I Mod Podged it to the cnavases. I cut out some letters to spell JOY on my Cricut machine to fit onto the canvases. Then I glued them tot he canvas I added another … {continue reading}

An Advent Calendar Made From an Old Frame

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Advent Mini Stocking Calener Sew Country Chick

I have been very busy making crafts for the Christmas season! I've never been that great at making Christmas crafts and decided I would make a special effort this year.  I had my Advent wreath from yesterday and now I'm sharing this Advent goodie calender I made for the little girls. I have been meaning to make an Advent calender for years, seriously. Every year it creeps up on us and I end up buying a Trader Joe's one because I never got around to making one for the kids. Well, I only have one little kid left ,so I had better get busy, I thought! My oldest just turned twenty so that tells you how long I've been dilly dallying! Seriously , it sometimes seems like I can put things off for my entire life. And many of us do ! I actually sewed these little stockings up two years ago, … {continue reading}

DIY Advent Wreath

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Adventwreath-SewCountryChick

Today is the first Sunday of Advent so I'm sharing my DIY Advent wreath just in the nick of time ! We will be lighting the first candle tonight. Children love the tradition of lighting the advent candles at dinnertime and say a special prayer on each of the four Sundays of Advent before Christmas.  I'm trying to do more of the advent activities with my two youngest girls.The advent wreath is a circle to symbolize the Alpha and Omega, the eternity of God. It contains greenery because green represents hope, new life, and all that is good. The candles of the advent wreath each have a special meaning and are meant to be lit every Sunday of the four Sundays preceding Christmas. There are a few different versions of the advent wreath used by the different Christian denominations. I  made … {continue reading}

A Silk Taffeta First Communion Dress from a 1958 Pattern

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First Communion Dress in silk taffeta

  I finished the First Communion dress ! Actually it wasn't totally finished but it was 5:30 PM on Saturday afternoon and the dress was supposed to have been delivered by 6 PM to the Reagan Presidential Library where the gala was being held a half hour's drive away. Yikes! I still needed to get ready, too. I threw on a leopard skirt and black jacket and was out the door with hubby, dress form in tow for the display . I hadn't had a chance to add the sash yet, so it wasn't quite finished in my eyes. Plus, If I had had more time I would have made a few more changes. But it would have to do. A classic case of my not giving myself enough time for a project, stressing myself out, and feeling like a contestant on Project Runway. Do I see a pattern here? The pattern called for … {continue reading}

Runner, napkin ring, and dinner napkin tutorials #turkeytablescapes

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DIY-Napkins,napkinrings,runner#turkeytablescapes-sew-country-chick

I was really excited to participate in the JoAnn Fabrics Thanksgiving Tablescape challenge this year. I needed to refresh my Thanksgiving table decor and this was just the motivation to get me to do it! If you'd like to get some of your own last minute ideas, here is a link to JoAnn's craft page. JoAnn was kind enough to send me a gift card and with the coupon which I'm also sharing at the end of my post, the cost of everything I made was super reasonable. Here are the projects I created from my supplies: Napkin rings Double sided 18 inch square dinner napkins A burlap table runner decoupaged with silk leaves A burlap vase made from a soup can   With my JoAnn gift card I bought these supplies to create my tablescape: Burlap for my runner and vase I made. Burlap … {continue reading}

Silk First Communion Dress- Reducing Sleeve Cap Ease

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silk-first-communion-dress

After all of my simple pencil pouches and peasant dress sewing for the craft fair, I'm enjoying sinking my sewing teeth into a project with more demands, details , and learning opportunities. I agreed to sew a First Communion dress to donate to the school auction tomorrow night, and after spending hours wondering if I should make my own pattern and looking at patterns online, I found a vintage 1958 sewing pattern on Etsy that I felt was perfect for what I wanted to try. I've never done tucks or any type of heirloom sewing so this pattern was a perfect fit for what I wanted to learn. I bought some lovely silk taffeta in downtown Los Angeles last week to use for it. Whenever I want to improve my sewing skills, I get out one of my vintage patterns and my old sewing book. Many of the old … {continue reading}

A line skirt pattern tutorial: New and improved version.

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A line-skirt-tutorial-one

I've been blogging over three years now and I have an old tutorial that has been pinned quite a few times. It's my A line skirt tutorial and I was just looking at it and thought," Wow this really looks bad!" You know how it is in those early blog posts! Not that I've improved that much but I could barely see the dark, blurry photos.... You can see the post from October 2010 here. So I thought I would write a new improved version for my newer readers who may have never seen it. It's a very simple and easy to understand method for drafting your own A line skirt. the A line skirt is a perfect pattern to have as you will be able to use it as the basis for so many different designs. Creating the A line pattern: The skirt will be drafted on a quarter folded pattern for both front and back … {continue reading}