Bow Pretty

I suppose I can't hide my love of bows. Not that I was trying. But here is my second post featuring bows. What delightful creations. Perfectly girly and pretty.

I found a tutorial for fabric bows here. There are probably hundreds of them out there in Googleland, but this is the one my cursor landed on and the instructions were easy to follow. There are other, faster tutorials with the use of a sewing machine, but I like the satisfaction of hand sewing sometimes. So organic. I made my bows a bit bigger. For the starting piece of fabric, one was 9.5" by 4.5", and the other, 8.5" by 3", approximately. If you haven't noticed, I like to improvise.

Inspirations to make the most of your bows: hair clips, bow ties, belt accents (as pictured below), pin to a shirt, dress, or shoes, add to a necklace, decorate a journal, a purse, or a wallet. Bows are quite versatile. Add anywhere to give an extra level of cuteness!

Happy bow making!

<3

So A Sew

I've never sewn an article of clothing before, so yesterday I decided it was time to tackle this new challenge. With this pretty purple and mustard material I found on clearance at Joanne's and the "one hour" skirt video from my previous post, I felt ready to conquer a little morning project. Let's just say this should have been tittled the "one DAY" project. Yes, it's simple, but not when everything chooses to rebel against you (Now I can empathize just that much more with the designers on project runway). And yes, I may have been slightly cocky in my garment making abilities, but I'd like to blame it on the instructions. I chopped off more than 15 inches of width on this skirt to make it fit and the elastic should be smaller than your actual waist size. I was drowning in fabric. Pulling out stitches is the worst process. Not only is it about 5 times as slow as sewing the original seam, but it's like walking backward when you see the finish line. Definitely built some character yesterday! 

Here are a few pictures from my process:

And the finished result! I can't wait to style it. It will be perfect in the fall with some tights and boots (my favorite combination). For now, I'll make it work in our 80 degree weather. Not that I'm complaining. I love my beautiful LA sun! 

Now to find a new project. Any ideas?