:: Fashion - asymmetrical collars

I'm loving these little girl dresses with the

asymmetrical collars.

I'm trying really hard to resist the desire to make a few.

:: jcrew

:: Playful Pickles via Color Issue

:: Clothing the Littles - holiday dresses

I love little girl dresses.

Especially the holiday dresses.

This one is from H&M for only . . .

$9.95.

No joke.

I'm in love.

Of course it wasn't at the H&M near me.

And they don't sell online.

Has anyone seen this dress?!

{doesn't look like it'd be hard to make though - maybe I'll try}

Oh and if you're not into making Christmas dresses,

a great place to buy them is off of ebay.

Some people buy the dresses just for Christmas

and then never use them again.

So they're cheaper but still in great condition.

I found the cutest dress for Reese

for my brother's wedding in February.

It was bought from Gap for probably around $40-$50, used only a few times

and I bought it for $7.

Love it.

{but watch out.  ebay can be pretty addicting.

also, make sure you know how much shipping is because

sometimes the item will be really cheap, but the shipping is a fortune!}

What I'm Loving Wednesday: Valentina Dress Pattern and a Giveaway!!!

The Easter dresses were a success. They both looked adorable in them, so I of course had to do a quickie photo shoot.

So, a little about this dress pattern . . .

A few years back when I started blogging, I found a sewing/refashioning blog that I loved called
My Mama Made It. Since then she's changed the name of her blog to Made by Lex that you can find here.

She came out with a pattern that she sells on her etsy site here called the Valentina Dress. Love. It. The pattern comes in size 6 months to girls 8 that you can see here {currently the pattern isn't on her etsy site, but she says she'll be adding more soon}.

And it is so easy to make! No button holes and no zippers. Just the way I like it! I also love how versatile it is. You can make it casual or really fancy looking {like the Easter dresses}. It really is my go-to pattern. I've made about 5 or 6 of these dresses now and not one is alike.
Well, Alexis has been so kind and generous to giveaway one of her Valentina Dress Patterns
{pdf} to one of my fabulous readers. How sweet is that!!!

Here are the details:

This giveaway starts Wednesday, April 27

and will end on Saturday, May 7 @ 9 p.m. (PST

{Make sure you leave your e-mail in the comment section so I can contact you.}
To Enter:
1. Tell me what's on your sewing to-do list.

For Extra Entries:

1. Follow my blog, come back here and leave me a separate comment letting me know and if you're already a follower, let me know too.

2. Follow Made by Lex, come back here and leave me a separate comment letting me know. {I love her blog - - especially her amazing refashions}

3. Become a fan of Lex Designs on facebook, come back here and leave me a separate comment letting me know.

4. Post about it on your blog, facebook, twitter, etc.

Good luck! If you're the lucky winner, then you'll be sent the pattern in PDF form through e-mail shortly after.
Oh and because I know that you're totally not sick of seeing a ton of pictures of my little girls in their Easter dresses . . . here are some more.

I'll be posting to these linking parties found here.

Sewing: Easter dresses finished!

Here are the finished products! The girl's Easter dresses made from $3 thrift store fabric. Love it.

And I'm very proud to say that I finished them before Easter. {I'm a procrastinator.} I'm also very proud to say that this is the first infant dress I've ever made. I didn't really get into sewing for Ava until she was 1 year old.

I love how they turned out! I'll share all of the details with you next week. But this pattern is my go-to pattern. So easy. Can't wait to share it with you. {Although I did tweak a few things this time.}

Thrift Store Obsession: fabric for cheap

I'm still here. Promise.

Anyway, I'm busy making Easter dresses for my little girls this week.

Why do I always procrastinate?

I don't know.

I shouldn't have.

I've had this material for almost 8 months now.
Don't ya love it?

Guess where I got it at?

Yep, the thrift store.

This bolt of gorgeous fabric was only $3.

Man, I love thrift stores.

Now, I know I always say you'll see the finished product soon and then ya never see it (for example: our kitchen, our coffee table, etc - - need to really work on this)

but, you really will see this finished product by the end of this week.

Easter is on Sunday.

Adios!!!! I need to get sewing!

Photography: 3 year old pictures

I finally took Ava's 3 year old pictures. And I'm loving them.

We'd seen this cool looking tree from the freeway and found the road to get to it. It made an awesome backdrop. And really, I think that's definitely part of what makes a photo shoot amazing (of course, besides the people)!

Awhile back, I'd bought a Groupon for a gift card to spend at Shabby Apple. Love. This. Store. So, I bought one for me and a birthday dress for Ava. I bought this one for me (wore in this post here). Not only do they have amazing dresses for women, but they have the cutest dresses for little girls. I wish I had enough money to buy them all! If only. The dress is located here.

Ava absolutely loved being there. I asked her to run towards me and for the next five minutes that's all she was doing.

Refashioning: christmas dresses for the girls

I absolutely love refashioning clothes. Mainly just for my little girl (soon to be girls). The other day, I received a free $10 card in the mail from Kohls. And now I know why I don't ever shop there. We would be there every day, all day long, and in some major debt! I couldn't stop looking at those clearance aisles.

I was trying to find some type of outfit that I could make the girl's Christmas dresses out of. And I think I found it. I found this cute Lauren Conrad skirt. A little too tiny for me but could be perfect for what I have in mind. It was on clearance for $13 and so I was able to get it for $3. Amazing. We'll see how it turns out. I'll keep ya posted.

Will you be making any Christmas dresses this year?

Upcycling Obsession: Summer's End Toddler Dress Tutorial

Pin It

Now, the Summer's End Toddler Dress reveal and simple tutorial.

My inspirations were taken from these adorable JCrew dresses below. Just didn't want to pay the $50 price tag. $4 and a few hours is more my style.




And here it is on little Ava. I have a pretty cute model, don't ya think?


I had found this cute XL woman's skirt at Target on clearance and knew it'd be perfect as a dress for Ava. I've had it sitting in my sewing bin for months and thought it was time.

So, here's the easy tutorial. But, first of all. Just so you know. I don't explain things very well. I wasn't trained professionally so I don't know all of the technical sewing terms. So please ask questions if you're confused. Which you might already be.

This was made for a 2T-3T.

Here's how:

-measure the skirt (at the skirt's waistband) around her chest (inside out) underneath her armpits (while bribing your model with chocolate chips if she held still - -pssst. . . always works). It ended up being 21.5 inches around the chest and back.

-from there, I pinned down the skirt and made it look as symetrical as I could with the other side by just folding the dress in half and cutting off the extra material. *** don't forget to leave about 1/2 inch extra for the seam.

-with right sides together, sew down the skirt on that one side.

-I wanted the dress to go to her knees, so I just cut a few inches off and because of this ruffly fabric, I didn't even have to hem the bottom (from under the armpit to the knees, it ended up being 16 in. long). But in most cases, you'll probably have to hem it.

-Now time for the straps. Because this was a woman's XL skirt, there was some fabric leftover. The skirt had a slip like material underneath the ruffles so that's what I used to make the straps. I cut the material 3 inches x 11.5 inches (2 of them), sewed down them lengthwise making them into tubes and turning them right side out.

-I then tried the dress on her and determined where the strapes would go, pinned it, and sewed them to the dress.

You're done!

Hope it wasn't too complicated. I was really just doing it as I went.

I also glued fabric roses that I'd made from extra pieces of the fabric onto an elastic headband. Now that I see these pictures, it does seem a bit too big for her head, but oh well.

To take the pictures, I had to bribe her by taking her across the street to feed the fish in the lake. Works every time.

Hope you like it!

I'll be sharing this upcycle and tutorial with some of these link parties at the bottom of this page. So, check them out!!!