A Rose is Still a Rose II

I finally was able to get around to making the dress that I wanted out of the beautiful floral fabric that I posted a little while ago. We've been having some terrible weather here, in my opinion, so I wasn't able to leave the house. I figured that since I was spending all of this time at home, I may as well get some sewing done. This black and red floral fabric is a polyester spandex fabric with quite a bit of stretch to it. It was very easy to sew up, and I really enjoyed working with the fabric. I made my own pattern for both my and Beauty Bug's outfits. Beauty Bug's outfit is a dress, whereas mine in a 2 piece separate. I want to be able to wear the top and the skirt with other clothing items. I only too pictures of Beauty Bug this time. She really enjoyed her "photo shoot", LOL

My niece loved Beauty bug's dress so much, that she wanted one for herself. We decided to do hers in leopard print. She tried that dress on over her jeans and we were so in love with it, I had to take pictures and post them here. I will most definitely be making the leopard print version for Beauty Bug and myself very soon! 

  

Sneak Peek: A Rose is Still a Rose

I promised that I would add a post about the fabric that Beauty Bug picked out for us. I can already tell that when she gets older she's going to be all about in your face fashion. Bold prints, lively colors, and textured fabrics. I absolutely LOVE it!! She's a girl after my own heart! This time, she's chosen a beautiful red and black floral fabric. It's a polyester spandex fabric with a good amount of stretch and thickness. I like for my tops to fit, so I opt for knits more-so than wovens when making them. Here's a sneak peek of the floral fabric, as well as an up close picture of the fabric for the tops that we wore with our taffeta skirts. :-)

Stretch Tafetta? Yes ma'am!

While browsing the aisles of Joann Fabric and Crafts Beauty Bug and I ran into some gorgeous multi-colored purple and tan sateen polyester spandex fabric. It was in the bottom weight fabric section. The fabric actually isn't that heavy at all, and it has a good amount of stretch to it. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I wanted to make tops from the fabric. It had just the right amount of thickness, especially for winter. I paired the tops with pleated skirts that are made from stretch taffeta. This was my first time working with taffeta and I must say that I loved it. I was so easy to pleat and so easy to sew up. The best part is how beautifully the skirts came out. I went for box pleats yet again because I love them so much. On Beauty Bug's skirt I didn't make as many pleats. I made the pleats approximately 2 inches apart. I debated back and forth on whether I wanted a high low midi skirt or a high low maxi skirt out of this beautiful fabric. So I made both! Beauty Bug received the high low maxi skirt, and I made the high low midi skirt for myself. On my skirt I made the front pleats about 3 inches apart and I made the back pleats about 2 inches apart because I wanted more pleats in the back than in the front. I am so excited about this skirt because it will be a regular on Beauty Bug's Boutique! Every girl needs a nice pleated midi skirt in here closet. Something about them just make you feel fabulous and feminine! Also, don't worry, the bow on the skirt is detachable. ;-) Now let me tell you, something about this outfit turned Beauty Bug into a karate master. This girl kicked and karate chopped every time she put the skirt on. Unfortunately because of that, I had to take the outfit off of her early so she wouldn't rip her clothing. That means I don't have any pictures of us together, but I most definitely got pictures of her. We do have another outfit in then works for Beauty Bug and myself. I'll post a sneak peek of the fabric so you can see what Beauty Bug has chosen for us. :-)

Release the Hounds!

Hello, and welcome back to Beauty Bug's Closet! Today's post is all about houndstooth. I found this awesome houndstooth fabric at Hobby Lobby on sale and I grabbed the little bit that was left. Houndstooth moves quickly around here! When I bought it I had no idea what I had in mind to make with it, but when I got home, that was a different story. I knew immediately that I wanted a jacket dress. I LOVE jacket dresses! I had never made a jacket dress before when I started on this one, so there as a lot of learning along the way. I used Mcalls pattern 6844 as a base for the top, and I freestyled the bottom. It's pleated and has two layers. This garment took me almost a week to complete because in all honesty I was creating and learning as I went. I wouldn't mind making another one, but no time soon that's or sure! Beauty Bug's outfit is a bolero jacket and a circle skirt. I really like circle skirts on her because they have such a girly element to them, and we all know Beauty Bug is quite girly. LOL Here are some pictures of the process and the final result. :)

Spots, Spots, and more Spots

This Sunday I was suffering from a horrible case of designer's block. I had a design in mind, that did not work out by the way, and after that fell through I had nothing. Literally nothing. I stared at the fabric and went back and forth between fabric choices for days. I went to numerous fabric stores in search of fabric that will "speak" to me and I got nothing. I scoured Pinterest, Google, and Instagram (although I don't have an Insagram account) and still came up empty handed. I decided that Beauty Bug and I will just wear something that I've already made. But, Sunday morning came and inspiration hit. So much, that we were a little late for service. Oops. The praise team didn't like that too much. LOL I'm glad that inspiration hit, because what I came up with was a play on polka dots. I decided to mix polka dot sizes and base colors. It wasn't the pattern blocking that I want to try (like mixing stripes and polka dots) but it was a great place to start. As usual, Beauty Bug worked it. LOL I made her a polka dot circle skirt, and I wore a polka dot "maxi" pencil skirt with a slit in the back. I had to line the skirt because the white polka dot fabric was so thin and see through. I also added a bow at the top of the slit. Let's get right to the pictures. Until next time Beauty Bugs :)

Red Wool Skirts

The weather forecast for this Sunday that just past said it was going to be a cold day, and it most certainly was. It snowed the day before, so I knew right away that the skirts I was going to make for Beauty Bug and myself to wear to church had to keep us warm. I knew immediately which fabric I was going to use. While in Hancock Fabrics, I found this awesome red wool blend. It wasn't too thick or too thin, and it was soft to the touch. I originally purchased it to wear for our red, white, and blue Sunday but decided against it and I'm glad I saved it for a later (and much colder) date. I decided to make us pleated high low maxi skirts. Mine skirt has a very slight high low hem. I was channeling the hem on this skirt:

I decided to pleat the skirts. I cut the fabric 2x our waist measurements and proceeded to box pleat the skirts. Somehow, they ended up looking like a version of inverted pleats on the finished product. I have no idea how this occurred because I don't know how to do inverted pleats. Well, I guess I do now. lol

I added a 3 inch waistband to the skirts and a zipper in the back of the skirts. I didn't have anymore invisible zippers so I used this as an opportunity to learn to insert other types of zippers. I do, however, believe an invisible zipper would have been the better choice. I need a lot more practice with zippers, I am not afraid to admit it. lol They make me anxious. The waist band is not interfaced. I didn't interface it because the wool was pretty sturdy. The waistband is doubled, so I originally cut a 6 inch band of fabric that was the length of our waist measurements plus 5/8 of and inch for seam allowance to add the zipper. I then folded that 6 inch band in half to get the 3 inch waist band.

I debated back and forth between adding a bow to the skirt or just leaving it as is. Then it clicked, why not have both?! I decided to make the bow detachable. I didn't want there to be any signs that there even was a bow when we wore the skirts without the bow, because you know we're going to wear these again ;) so I made the bows attachable by pins. Just pin it on, and then take it off whenever you want to.

The tops we wore were self drafted and make from this cute black and white 4 way stretch knit fabric. Didn't take long to make those. Beauty Bug was excited about this skirt since she saw me pull out the beautiful red wool fabric from the bolts of my fabric collection. The following pictures will show you just how much she loved this skirt. It's so heart warming to see your hard work being appreciated, especially since the receiver of you long hours of hard work is only 2 years old. lol At one point she got so excited, that she jumped on my legs and said thank you mommy, and flung us back into the wall. Yes my lovely niece got pictures of that, so I had to share them because they're funny. lol I couldn't forget my son. He was looking super sharp as well, going right along with the color theme of the day. I hope you enjoy these pictures. Until next post, see you later Beauty Bugs! :)