Skirts I've Made: Part II

Continued from Part I
 

If you are reading this blog first, definitely go back and read Part I by clicking the link above. And if you have any questions about any of the skirts I've made, please feel free to leave a comment!

~ Here is my super low rise pair of jeans with the cute seam down the front of the leg plus knit strap summer shirt turned skirt. Sorry, that was a mouth full ;)  It also has a  DIY belly band turned waist band. These jeans were way too tight on me. I bought them and loved the style so for maybe a year I suffered through the constriction. Once I decided to take the skirt plunge with them I had to get rid of the waist and create my own so they would fit properly. I had made a few belly bands when I found out I was pregnant and once I lost the pregnancy I really had no need for them at the time so I went ahead and used one for this skirt. The gray is the band. I fold it down over the seams where I stitched the bottom of it to the jeans... not a very clean stitch but 4 layers of knit material plus jean material is not easy to sew through! The summer shirt was naturally tiered like a peasant skirt with elastic so it stretches to give this skirt a nice flow in the front and back.

~ I liked this skirt because it was one of the easiest to make... it was already a skirt!! I ordered it online as a floor-length skirt but I way underestimated with a Sz5. I wore it several times but did not like the way it hugged my back side too tightly. I almost always wore it with a longer shirt that would hide the tightness a little. So I cut it way down and used an old sweater to create a similar waist band like I did in the above skirt. It is sewn to the skirt about 4 or so inches above the bottom of the sweater and the rest folds down. I also used a chunk of the sweater to patch a spot that came on the skirt to make it look rugged. Originally it sat lower on the skirt of course but once I cut it, it was way up on my thigh and I didn't really want thigh skin showing through so that was my fix.

~ This is my favorite and most creative skirt IMO!! I made this skirt out of jeans and my mom's wedding dress from the 70's. Yep! I cut up her dress! She offered it to me to do whatever I wanted with it, so I took her up on the offer and snipped it all up. I used the bottom hem of her dress and wrapped it around the bottom of the skirt then wrapped it in to a rosette.

~ I decided to do the wedding dress skirt again with the rest of the bottom hem material from my mom's dress, but this time I decided to make it much more neatly than the last time, take my time with it then post it to with the intent to sell! It is currently up on my Etsy shop, ModestGrace, now waiting for a buyer. There are more photos of it on Etsy so feel free to go check it out if it is still available!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my creations!

Skirts I've Made: Part I

You might notice with this post that I make a lot of skirts. First of all, they are super easy to do and extremely cheap if you have an extra pair or two of pants laying around! Secondly, I just don't wear pants very often. It's a personal choice of mine, and while some people feel very strongly about the topic on either side, I don't really care if a woman wears pants or skirts exclusively. 

There is a level of modesty I feel when wearing them, It seems to 'force' me to dress up a little more which makes me feel better about myself, and I find it hard to put on pants now because they kinda hug up in places and make me much more uncomfortable throughout the day than a skirt does. Most of the pants I turned in to skirts originally gave me that problem. I'm all about comfort these days!

I have two separate pages, Part I and Part II, for this post. I didn't want to make one post too terribly long so I thought splitting it up would be best. Enjoy!!

~ The very first skirt I made was for Jaiden. My MIL had bought her a couple pairs of jeans that were way too long for her. One of them she fit perfectly in the waist with the elastic unstretched and still a bit a wiggle room so I took both pairs and whipped this up within a week of getting my sewing machine.

~ Here I used two pairs of stretch khaki pants I had recently bought at Goodwill. They so happened to be the exact same pair in the same size in a good name brand... how awesome! I wore them a lot early on but they fit me a little tight. I decided to make them in to floor-length skirt then just give it away but once it was cut up without the rise (crotch) it fit me better so I kept it. The hem job on this was a disaster and very recently I had to cut the entire bottom hem off and re do it . It's maybe 3inches shorter but looks much cleaner.

~ For the twirly skirt I followed some very detailed instructions from HouseOnHillRoad. It was so so cute and looks professional! It is made with the same exact fabric I used on the car seat recover... I took this pic with my cell phone so the colors are not very true. The car seat pics give you a better idea.

~ This next one was a peasant skirt I made for Jaiden. The hardest part about it were the measurements. The site I used had a formula to use based on size of the wearer so that I could cut all the pieces properly. It turned out so much better than I thought! I didn't think basting and gathering stitches would be easy but it was not bad at all.

~ I made myself a panel skirt, which is not an easy beginner project really. It looks good from the outside but it was a mess to make. I wasn't going near zippers or buttons so I opted for a thick elastic waistband covered with a khaki stretch material. What a pain!!! I was going for something that I could grow in to, like if I gained a little weight or got pregnant. It fits that purpose well, but the waistband should not be seen by outsiders... awful job lol. And the same stretch material I used to cover the waistband creates a 2nd layer 'lining' inside the skirt. It's a 5 panel skirt made with a cotton poplin material that reminds me of linen in the sense that it wrinkles so so easily and is awful to iron out. Despite all the heartaches that came with it, I do still love it :)

Click here for the rest of the skirts in Part II

DIY Anniversary gift - Simple and sweet!

I had quit the time trying to come up with a budget-friendly and meaningful anniversary gift for my hubs. He was planning me some elaborate (to me at least) weekend getaway and I had absolutely nothing planned for him! He said "make me something." So after some hunting around I found a few ideas. I couldn't really bring myself to do the ones I found... they just didn't sound right for us so back to the drawing board and my trusty blog website, www.childmade.com.

Here is what I found and who I credit the idea to...

http://wave-and-smile.blogspot.com/2011/08/free-project-is-my-favorite-kind.html

So here is what I did...

It encompassed everything that makes us who we are in a simple, elegant way that we can hang on our wall and share with others... PERFECT! 

What you see is my birthday, my husband's birthday, the day we started dating (a looong time ago in 10th grade!), our wedding date, the birth date of our beautiful Jaiden, and the date we found out we were pregnant with our 2nd baby that we miscarried. I also was sure to leave a little extra space for any future pregnancies/births.

For the original blogger, the project was free. For me, it wasn't but that's because I just didn't have anything handy to make it, so it cost me about $24.

I bought:

Photo frame

Piece of scrapbook paper

# stamps

Stamp pad

Brown ribbon I actually already had

I cut the paper down to fit the 8x10 frame. then laid out my stamps to see how to space them because of course once you start stamping you can't go back... and I didn't buy an extra sheet of paper. I made sure to write down all of the dates I wished to use so I would put them in the right order and not accidentally skip one. I did make a few booboos. I even stamped the wrong number on my last date but I just cut out a piece of scrap scrapbook paper and taped it down with the right number. From there I added the ribbon border with a little bit of hot glue. The ribbon is a little crooked but I just need to open the frame back up and adjust it.

I accompanied it with a note (that I bawled my eyes out writing) and gave it to my hubby on our anniversary night. Real men shed a few tears ;)

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Phase I: Laminate flooring install - Beautiful Brazilian Cherry!

This last weekend hubby and I tackled what we thought might have honestly been the impossible. And that's funny seeing as how we were terrified to redo our kitchen! We started the laminate flooring install and are a little less than half way done with the entire house (all 630sq ft that we plan to cover)!! I can not begin to express to you how much I am in love with my new floors... they are so beautiful. And the best part is the nasty stained up Berber is OUT!

Here are a few things we used that I recommend you buy or borrow before you get started:

Flooring, of course! - we bought Home Legend Brazilian Cherry from HomeDepot.com for $.99/sqft

Underlayment appropriate for your subfloor type - We used Roberts 630 sq. ft. of Harmony Premium 3-in-1 Underlayment for Laminate and Wood Floors that I purchased from Amazon.com for half the price it is listed for at Home Depot. We have a wood subfloor.

Floor leveling compound appropriate for your subfloor type - We used a Henry brand self-mix bag. It was last minute when we realized a spot in the hallway was way too uneven to put flooring over. I had to trowel a bunch on to make a more level surface for the flooring to go over.

A laminate flooring pull bar and wall spacers - You can find that stuff in a kit for less than $20 that also comes with a tapping block. I highly recommend a 2x4 about maybe a foot long instead of the tapping block. We happened to use a scrap we had.

Door jamb saw - you may need this to cut those pesky door jambs for your flooring to fit under.

Rubber mallet

Table saw

Saw Zaw - This came in super handy for the vents.

T-molding for door ways

Quater round - If you are like me and do not remove the base boards prior to installation, quarter round will be necessary to cover the gap between the floor and the base board.

A bar of soap - Yes. A bar of soap. You would be amazed at how much that helped when we first got started. By running the soap along the edges of the tongues and grooves it allowed us to fit the pieces easier when we were working on the first few runs of the flooring. Good spur of the moment idea and I happened to have some Ivory on hand! 

Thursday my mom, Bryan and I did the fun part of emptying out and moving our large shrunk from the living room in to our bedroom. It was the only room in the house that we could fit the pieces. Downside = we couldn't sleep in our bed at all for the next 4 nights. 
(Keep in mind during this entire install process the couch had to be left in the room because of its size)
  Friday night we started ripping up carpet. It did sound easy at first (for a newbie)... almost fun. That is until you start to see those spike strips all around the edge of the wall, then pull up the padding and see all the staples you have to pluck from the floor. That was probably a 3 or so hour process with 2 people.

So Saturday the real fun began. Laying the underlayment, then just figuring out how to put the flooring down and get started...



As you can see, the guys (hubby and my mom's hubby) started to get the hang of it. You can also see where we only ripped up half the carpet. Once enough flooring was laid they were able to move the couch over and finish the de-carpeting process.


    
I had to work Saturday so didn't get to see past the first couple rows of laid flooring. Bryan was sure to send me little pic updates a few times which is mostly what you see above. When I got home later that evening this is what I saw:


Over the next two days, Bryan and I were able to complete the living room and hallway all by ourselves. I thought we made a fantastic team! We were cruising along, working through obstacles and minor problems that would come up. I really truly enjoyed our DIY time together.


Here is a vent hole we created. That was really a test of our brain and math skills lol. Thank the Lord for the Saw Zaw!



Bryan and the table saw. I really think he enjoyed using the power tools once he got the hang of them!


After 3 days of hard work laying the flooring we finally reached our finished product. What a relief it was to get our living room put back together! We still have 3 bedrooms to do but they will be a piece of cake and after seeing my living room complete I can not wait to get them done! 


Enjoy!



This is my cute "before" photo of the carpet. It's our little girl when she was 8 months old gnawing on an unopened can of caffeine free Coke :P





(Don't mind the creepy dog eyes)






Obviously there is still work to be done; quarter round in many many places is a biggy, painting (don't even get me started on the trim pain down the hallway... previous homeowners could use a knock upside the head for that one), and other little things here and there I can't think of. It wasn't a super easy project but overall it wasn't a complete pain. Once you get started it's not so bad. You really learn as you go, and although it might not be 100 perfect and beautiful, and there might be a few nicks here and there, I think doing it yourself vs paying someone $1-$3+ a square foot to install it for you is well worth the experience if you can shimmy in the time. We both work full time and had a toddler running around half the time!

Cube organizer on the wall - Laundry closet redo

I looked almost everywhere for a blog, website, tutorial, anything that would prove I could put my cube organizer on the wall... No luck. 

Obviously I didn't let it stop me, muwahaha!

I really needed to find a new home for it. Recently I got a bedroom set that once belonged to my Mamaw. The armoire wouldn't fit in Jaiden's room with the rest of the pieces so I decided to put it in the extra room. That meant the shelf had to go.

It sat for a couple of days until I decided I would go ahead and completely reorganize my laundry closet and find a way to get that sucker on the wall!





Yeaaahh, that's my nasty laundry closet. Of course at this point it has been emptied out. Before this it was a disorganized mess so believe it or not I did spare you some pain.


It took me about a day and a half total to finish it up. I had to putty old holes, clean up all the dust and lint, and paint. (Thank you to my friend Judy for selling me an entire unopened can of great quality paint for cheap!) Then I had to hang up the cube shelf. 
That was hilarious and I never want to do it on my own ever again.




I'm not 100% confident in the bracing of this shelf. I think my stud finder is out to kill me. Had much better luck knocking on the wall looking for studs after I had already screwed a gazillion holes everywhere. Argh! So only a few of the brackets are actually in studs. 

The rest of the weight is supported by a lot of prayers and the arms of the wall shelf that was already there!

A little tugging on it did seem to prove fairly safe :\



This is to the left of the dryer. There are two shelves. The top shelf reusable bags, my Hefty & Ziploc bag collection, as well as some bread for now. The bottom shelfs holds all of my paint cans. 

After I got everything in there I realized it needed to be covered. It just looked so cluttered. There is a water softener system and water heater back there.  
(I used hooks screwed in to the top shelf and a leftover piece of quarter round, of all things, to fit across as a make-shift curtain rod.)



Just some Dollar Tree fabric cubes I used to organize little things.

Now instead of having junk piled on top of the washer and dryer making it more difficult and annoying to do laundry, I have everything organized with a home and it only cost me about $30 for the paint, Dollar Tree cubes, and wall brackets!!


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Linked:

The Wise Woman

My handsome husband & I 
September 2010

Last September my husband and I joined our new church after about a month or two of attending. It truly has been an incredible blessing to our family, our spiritual growth, and our spiritual strength! We hit a rough patch in our lives and our marriage last year before we joined that was a complete eye opener. (It was important for us to get right with God before we committed to joining a church and the whole situation was a testimony to how God's timing is always the right timing!) I'm not going to share every little story or problem we encountered, it's a private thing and we all should keep our private lives private, but please heed my advice. I do give it with love and a little smidgen of experience! What I will say is it's simply amazing how disobeying the Lord can tear you apart piece by piece while simultaneously tearing apart your home. Proverbs 14:1 tells us "Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands." I was doing just that; foolishly, selfishly plucking my house down one brick at a time, letting the devil sneak right through the threshold of my front door to freely roam.

I am a true believer that a wife should reverence her husband, build him up, and show him you love him, always. Not easy to hear when WE THINK he's being less than perfect, not helping around the house, or working too much. I'm speaking from experience when I say criticism (even if you think it is constructive) and a bad attitude (even if it is not his fault.. just you having a lot of bad days) can and will slowly bring your husband down to a whittled twig that you casually and unknowingly step on during your daily walk. I'm not saying don't have a bad day. Your husband should be there for you on your bad days, but don't drag it out. It won't happen over night but give it 6 months, a year, 10 years. Eventually he will grow tired of your lack of respect and foolishness. Tell him you love him every day he walks in the door. Give him a hug and a kiss whenever you get the chance. Don't complain around him about anything that he has done wrong or failed to do. Focus on all the positive attributes, even if only a few, instead of the negative.... And watch him flourish knowing his wife loves him!!

When I look back on what is written above I can't help but think of my Mamaw, Daisy. What a beautiful example of a virtuous woman. I wasn't very proficient on Bible knowledge growing up but she was the light of my Papaw's life, and he hers. I never heard my Mamaw say an ill word to my Papaw. She always had a smile on her face and you could see the love they had shared for years was blossoming even in their frail and old age. When Mamaw passed away in May 2011, a year and a half after my Papaw passed, the preacher at her funeral said "If I could sum up the life of Sister Daisy it would be this verse.. "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." (Prov 31:10) He was so right. She was the most humble and virtuous woman I had ever known. An amazing example of a woman who merely wanted to please her Lord by pleasing her husband.


Mamaw and I at my wedding, September 9, 2006

In 2010 after joining our church my husband and I attended the annual Couple's Retreat hosted by Shawnee Baptist Church at their beautiful Indian Creek Baptist Camp, a ministry of the church. We made it a very serious and necessary point to go to the retreat. It was important to our marriage that we surround ourselves with Christian couples in an environment that would focus on marriage. What an incredible, and I mean IN-CRED-I-BLE blessing it was to us! During one sermon the preacher went verse by verse through 1 Corinthians 13, telling us about charity (Christian love). Here is a short post I published that has the verses listed for quick reference if you wish: How do you describe love...

There was a period during the first evening that the ladies and men got separated so the preacher's wife could speak to us, and the preacher speak to the men. That was a wonderful blessing also (speaking from my experience... hubby said he thoroughly enjoyed the men's part but I can't speak too much for him)... Just to hear her personal story and her wisdom and advice on how we can be better wives... could not have asked for more!

What I loved from last year was when I looked around, I knew that all of the couples have experienced a little, or even a lot, of turbulence. We have endured struggles of all sorts, arguments, fights, maybe separations, some even divorces, remarriages, learning to raise our children, not being able to have children... the list just goes on. What made it just a joyous fellowship was knowing that we were all children of God, saved by His grace and forgiven of our sins. What better way to spend two days out of your year, completely surrounded by Godly people who want nothing more than to please Him, and what better place to let it start than with our marriage. 

 

I just want to be a blessing to ladies around me. I'm young and learning my way through life and still have a lot to learn ahead of me. I am so thankful for the Christian ladies who have inspired me through their blogs, speakings, and even the ones who inspire me visually through their mannerisms and modesty.

Couple's Retreat - October 2010

I'm praying you will Be Inspired!

DIY Spool Rack!

I feel like I'm on some sort of creative roll, and I have no clue where I got it from. I take that back, yes I do! I suppose the Good Lord sees how frustrating my old ways of organizing and decorating are to me so he has given me a nudge in the right direction. I am very thankful for it. It needs to be done, plus I'm having a blast with it!

This week I started work on a spool rack. 

Since it is my sewing room I have to have a place to store thread spools.  
Originally I had them in a tiny drawer and that got old way fast especially when I ran out of room. Then I bought wood craft boards that I wrapped with quilt batting and brown fabric, then hammered nails in to at an angle. My goal was to wall mount it. That project failed because I bought nails that were too short so the larger spools slid off :(

I wanted to do this project at ZERO cost to me, using materials I already had.

Thank you, previous homeowners, for leaving behind this ugly wall hook rack for me to keep hung in the same place for nearly 2 years before realizing how hideous it was and making it over for a beautiful new purpose!

I can't find any better pictures of the before product. You get the idea though... the other half isn't hiding any surprises. Trust me.

After a little hunting around and brainstorming I decided to use a box of corsage pins I had as the hooks for my thread spools. I hammered them in just enough to hold the spools. Then I hung the rack on the wall along with an old "Trust In The Lord" sign my MIL gave us a few years ago. 
It was pretty ugly before I painted it which explains why it sat in a closet for a long time.

 I took the old brackets off the top that allowed the shelf to hang horizontally and moved them to the side so it would hang vertically. I also had to create a way for the sign to hang since the old method was with a metal wire hot glued to the back that was in bad shape, so I nailed brown ribbon to it. I'm not too terribly pleased with the way that part looks but I'll fix it one day when a new idea comes to mind. 

Here is a close-up to give a better idea of how the pins serve their purpose. On smaller spools I can keep the bobbin with it, otherwise I just stack the bobbins up on another pin. It also worked great for my tiny stash of ribbon!

As always,

Be Inspired!

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