Made: Closet Case Ebony

Dress #2 in my swing dress head to head comparison — the Closet Case Ebony:

Made: Greenstyle Scarlet Swing Dress

I finally managed to photograph and write about the first pattern in my swing dress head to head!

Knock it Off — My Modcloth Knock Off

I had so many options and such grand plans for my stop on the Knock It Off tour this year!  But when it came right down to it, I went for something simple.  That’s partly because I really do prefer simple shapes and simple clothing, and partly because my spring pretty much went to hell in a handbasket.  Work has been crazy busy ever since the beginning of the year, and then my husband blew out his Achilles, and my oldest had a rare autoimmune reaction to a virus and spent 5 nights in the hospital.  Whew!

 

I took the pledge!

Me-Made May (hosted as usual by the amazing Zoe of So Zo…What Do you Know) is right around the corner!  I don’t think I did an official entry last year, but this year I decided to jump on the bandwagon again.  So here is my pledge:

“I, Katie of the Creative Counselor (http://creative-counselor.com), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’17. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade item each day for the duration of May 2017”

Who is joining me?

Made: Pirate Pencil Skirt

Patterns for Pirates has many lovers in the indie sewing world, but it’s not a designer I’ve used very often.  I do have several of their patterns, so maybe I’ll have to work my way through reviewing them.

Even though I haven’t used their top or dress patterns, I am a fan of their Pirate Pencil Skirt, which is free to members of the Facebook group.  I love me a good knit pencil skirt — they are easy to wear in almost any situation and take virtually no time to sew!

Made: The Ogden Cami

The True Bias Ogden Cami has been in my stash since the day it released and I’m just now getting around to making it!

Made: Closet Case Morgan Jeans

These jeans originally appeared on the Cali Fabrics blog, along with details on how I faded and distressed them.  You can see all those details here.

DIY Survivor Buff

I’m popping in today with a quick tutorial for my favorite summer or just really-need-a-shower hair accessory and the fastest sewing project you will ever undertake.  Introducing, the DIY Survivor Buff:

Yeah, I didn’t know they were called Survivor Buffs either until someone mentioned it on Facebook one time.  I just knew that my friend had this awesome lightweight jersey headpiece that REI was selling for about $20.  I looked at it, realized it was just an unhemmed tube of cotton jersey fabric, and said, “Dude, I can totally make that.”

Now usually when I say that, it’s much easier said than done and sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn’t.  But this project really was that easy!  One square of fabric, a single seam, and BOOM, your very own DIY survivor buff.  Make one in about 5 minutes.  In an hour, you get a dozen!

So if you want to make 1 or 1 for every day of the summer, I’m going to tell you how!

How to Make a DIY Buff:

1.  Choose your fabric.  For this, I like a lightweight jersey with NO spandex in it.  That’s right, I said NO spandex.  So if you have a 100% cotton or rayon jersey sitting around that, this is the perfect project to break it out.  I say no spandex because the circumference of the buff should be a little smaller than your head so that it won’t fall off.  If the fabric has spandex, it will constantly want to recover and pull back to its original shape, which gets tight and uncomfortable after a while.  A jersey without spandex should stretch out nicely to fit your head comfortably.
2. Cut your fabric.  For this project, you will need a single square of fabric that is 21″ wide and 18″ tall.  The stretch goes width-wise.  So your fabric square looks like this:
3. Fold the short ends of your fabric, right sides together:
4. Sew along the short (18″) side of your fabric.  There’s no need to serge this seam, but I do think it’s faster.  Secure the ends:
5. Turn it right side out and put it on!  See, I told you it was the fastest sewing project ever!

Check out my jeans!!!

I finished a new pair of jeans recently and they may just be my favorite pair yet!  They’ll make appearances here eventually, but for right now they are up on the Cali Fabrics blog.  Check them out here.

D&D Melilot Shirt

Long time no see, friends!  I hope everyone has had an adequate 6 weeks since I last checked into this space.  If I said that I had a great 6 weeks, I would totally be lying.  To be honest, the last 6 weeks have been rather shitty in my corner of the world.  My husband ruptured his Achilles in late February playing basketball with the first graders, so he has been in a boot and using a scooter to get around for the last 5 weeks.  He had surgery to repair it 3 weeks ago.

And we have spent the last 3 days with my oldest an inpatient at the children’s hospital, with expectations of being here at least another 5 days or so.  He had a very rare reaction to some sort of viral infection.  Still trying to figure out exactly what, though he tested positive for flu and little sister has mono.  Yeah, when it rains it pours.  “Go big or go home” is the Lee motto this year.

Anyway, before the proverbial shit hit the fan around here, I managed to complete this Deer & Doe Melilot shirt, which further cemented my love for D&D patterns.  They’re just so nice!