This is Halloween! This is Halloween!

Did I mention I put up fall decorations? Well, I did. I love the holidays. My little witch and her crew have finally found their home on our front door. Makes the door a little less ugly I say...

And a few other odds and ends around the house that I've been collecting for a few years..

Bats!

People always think this says "Bod", but no.
It says "Boo!" Just in case you were wondering...

Nothing like some mini-pumpkins to...
look Halloweenesque

This little cat meows. It's awesome.

Birthday flowers :)

Save Paulo's education

Hello my crafty friends. I know there are some people who actually read this blog (I have a secret counter :) and I need your help now.

Or rather, Paulo needs your help. He's a friend from the foreign language housing, and he sacrificed a lot to come to B.Y.U. from Brazil and get an education, and now he's in a bit of a pinch.
All he needs is a small donation to help him stay in school and finish what he came here to do.
I know too well what it feels like to be in school and realize you have no idea how you're going to pay for life next semester. Or even next month. It is a scary, scary situation to be in.
So please, go to this website and donate. It'll only take a minute but it'll mean the world to Paulo.
This isn't some scam, and if it is you can personally come beat me up, I'll take full responsibility.
Now go! Do it!


http://savepaulo.blogspot.com


In fact, if you donate at least $10 and post on this comment, you can have a chance to win this awesome Halloween table-runner that I made!

See, there's even an incentive to donate. So go now! http://savepaulo.blogspot.com

EDIT: goal attained! Paulo has the money he needed now! Thanks so much if you participated! 

Because what you really need is another ruffle shirt tutorial...

It's true!

This shirt always felt a little off, sleeve in between long and 3/4 and the scoop neck was just wide enough that I always have to tug at it... so it's a perfect candidate for a remake! :)

The neckline is easily fixed with a few gathers..

And since I'm shortening the sleeves and have some extra fabric left... How 'bout some ruffles?!

Go here for a quick and easy ruffle-making technique.

 
Then sew them on. You can put a few in a row for longer ruffles

Tadaam!

They also help cover up the awkward gathers in the front.

Really quick, but now I have a brand new shirt. Best part is my husband really liked this one :)
I'm linking up over here:

Dress... done!

But I'm an idiot and made it too tight... ARGH!
I can fit into it, I can even move my arms around and sit, but I need to either go on a drastic diet or just continue to look... well, pregnant. No, I am not. (sadly) The sleeves are a little too perky, but oh well. The biggest issue is that it's too tight across the chest. I have depth perception issues a wide ribcage. Blech. I'm planning on convincing a friend or two that is skinnier to try it on and see if it at least works better for them. I still want to enter it into the Shabby Apple dress contest, I'll just have someone thinner model it.

But here's the result!

Don't breathe... don't breathe...

Neckline -- see, I even used darts! But still too snug.

Invisible zipper!

This is how I did the edges.. Unfortunately, going around curves didn't work as evenly as the straight bottom hem, but oh well.

Turned out quite nice on the bottom!

Smurfette toes :)

And I put so much stinking work into this dress that DANG IT I'll wear it on Sunday anyway.

Edit: Turned out not so bad with a cardigan :

Dress

No, nothing very exciting to show... Mostly, the dress is not cooperating, so at this point I need a longer torso for it to fit correctly. Blegh!

 
It's bunching at the waist and small of the back, and it's driving me nuts. Stupid dress. Apart from that, everything was going so well :(

Shabby Apple Design Contest

I am so excited about this: I am going to enter the Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest!

Of course, lots of people will enter, but hey--it's worth a try. You should too! It'll be good to have a challenge.

I'm currently working on a dress that I thought was a disaster, but managed to save (thanks to much encouragement from my husband) and I'm going to enter it as soon as I have finished (which should be pretty soon... finally!). So tune in soon to see the dress :)

Halloween table-runner

If you (the two people that ever read here haha) are sick of halloween stuff, I apologize, cause I'm just getting started :)

I made yet another themed table-runner. They're just too much fun to make! That and the fact that they are relatively simple and don't require too much time make it perfect for my short attention span. So here we go:

All I used was left-over scraps from the Halloween door hanging that I made. Cut into a few different sizes (I ended up doing two wide strips and one thinner one).

I call these "monster colors": orange and black with purple and green. Perfect for Halloween :)
Sew together your strips:

Now comes the fun part! Armed with my newly-acquired skills in quilting (beginner's skills, but still... I think I'm hooked), add on batting and the back fabric

(black is probably best, but I used an off-white...  I think it's called muslin? Incidentally, in French off-white is literally called "broken white." haha) and pin together the layers. And now....

Freehand sew a spiderweb all over it! (With a freehand foot... check out this post for a brief explanation)

It would probably be cool too if the spiderweb started in a corner and spread from there, I just went with a central one to hold all the layers together. See, double function, how easy :)
Now bind the edges and you're done.

This will go quite nicely in the living room :)

I'm linking over here: