starting easy: circle skirts

these skirts.

these skirts should have been blogged a loooonnnnng time ago.  BUT, i’ve figured out a good way of justifying the fact that i made these for guinevere ummm…two years ago.

ready? here it is: THEY STILL FIT HER. two years later—and the girl has grown substantially, but because of the elastic waist and the length she is still wearing them. when i first made them they were closer to mid-calf length, now they’re still below-knee length.

add in the fact that both fabrics were bought at walmart for $1.50/yard, and well…i’d say we certainly got our money’s worth out of em.

i bought 2 yards of each fabric (that’s $3 per skirt, for those following along at home), and followed dana’s awesome circle skirt tutorial—which, EVEN THOUGH IT INVOLVES MATH, is really really REALLY easy to follow.

honestly—neither of these prints are my absolute favorite. but the gal needed some skirts at the time, they’re a super quick sew, and they’re comfy and easy to wear. and they were $3. did i mention that?

that probably explains why she’s still wearing them coughcough 2 years later.

because of her height i couldn’t get the full cut out of my material, and i solved this in a different way for each skirt.

on the brown and peach one, i used a piece to fill it.

now you see it…

i made my quarter-circle pattern piece, then folded and laid my fabric underneath and marked where i needed extra length. then i sewed additional pieces on where needed, refolded and cut the pattern out.

because the skirt is so full and the pattern is so busy you can barely tell where this was done (especially when that part is on the side which is how i MEANT for her to wear it. sheesh)

now you don’t. kinda.

on the silver one i took a piece of tissue weight black knit and added a border to the bottom. because the bottom hem of the skirt is curved and the border is not there’s a bit of wonkiness right where the two meet.

but again, the fullness of the skirt covers a multitude of sins.

i hemmed it with a lettuce edge hem, which you can find a tutorial for HERE.

it truly doesn’t get much easier or more comfortable than this. and let’s face it—no matter how big you are a twirly, spinny skirt never gets old. ;)

my secret shame

i can’t even believe i’m going to post a “before” photo of this chair, it’s that bad. but as awesome as the “after” photo is….knowing just how bad this chair started out makes it that much sweeter.

it’s your typical cheap foam toddler chair…but this one’s been around quite a while.

rewind about 11.3 years. guinevere was around 16 months old, and she had just learned to climb in and out of chairs all by herself. in typical new-mom-of-one fashion i was all she must have her own chair now! so i set out to buy her a little chair all her own.

found a cheap little upholstered number at walmart, how about $15 said the manager because there was no price tag on it, sold i said. this chair has served us well for the last 11.3-ish years, sat upon by many a googie and many a visitor. i’d say we got our $15 out of it.

but it’s showing it’s age…

let’s face it: it was ugly to begin with. the stars and hearts and stripes were never my thing. the torn fabric and accumulated dirt didn’t do much to help. but i could never bring myself to throw it away—knowing it was one slipcover away from being the super cute toddler-sized arm chair of my dreams.

oh boy is that chair disgusting. trust me—it’s way worse than it looks in this picture. when i pulled off the fabric of the seat it actually felt grimy. so, so gross. i finally buckled down and made myself do this because otherwise i was literally giving a large disgusting piece of trash a place of honor in my family room. the cover is really what holds it all together, so with the tears it wasn’t even really functional. so it was unfunctional trash, which obviously is even worse. it was do or die time.

construction wise this thing is crazy simple. the entire body is made of foam, covered with a fitted cover which is stapled to the base underneath.

the base is just a piece of plywood with two curved wooden pieces so the chair rocks.
once you rip out the approximately 9 staples holding it in the base comes off the bottom. such quality.
the only other thing holding the cover on is some scrap fabric pieces attached on the back of the inside corners of the chair, which are pulled through and tied on the bottom of the chair to keep the inside snug. i just snipped the knot with scissors.

from there it was pretty straightforward: slide off and take apart the old cover, label all the pieces, cut new pieces from the new fabric and sew it all back together.

i managed to squeeze it out of a piece of fabric we had left from our family room throw pillows. it’s a durable outdoor fabric, so hopefully it will withstand some rough treatment and another 11 years of use ;) Plus now we’re super matchy matchy. ha.

i cut it a little too close on that front arm and some of the selvedge shows. boo. i forced myself not to sweat it. it’s a kid’s chair.

three cheers for easy, cheap fixes!

love all.

once upon a time i read a study explaining why a little bit of competition can be good for a marriage. their test? pairs tennis. the couples that played on opposite sides of the net, well…let’s just say they had a better time then the couples who played as partners.

works for me.
a little competition. check. keeping the fire burning. got it.
except…jeremy and i maybe compete a little differently than many couples.
i mean, we used to play tennis. but with five kiddos it’s a little hard to find the time for that these days. so there’s less “DOUBLE FAULT!” and more “let’s see who’s got the bigger fabric pile!”
oooooh.
he sends me videos of his sharp new fabric scissors. bragger.
we trade sewing tips.

what can i say? it works for us.

hello, my name is shannon and i’m married to an upholsterer. so yes, my husband has a bigger fabric stash than i do. i’m so ashamed.

but it has it’s benefits—namely lots and lots of scraps. and the scraps you get from large upholstery projects aren’t tiny bits and pieces—they can be anything from 1/2 to 5 or 6 yards or more. unfortunately a lot of them are not really usable for clothing. but every once in a while i snag a piece that can be.

so it was with this purple fabric. i’ve had it sitting in my sewing room for probably three years or more. and a couple of months ago i got around to using it for ava.

it’s pretty heavy, and this is actually the wrong side of the fabric. but i thought the texture was so interesting i went for it. there are flecks of gold and light blue and dark purple running through. i threw the fabric into the washer and dryer before i did anything with it. i figured i’d make sure it could withstand that before i put the time into sewing something with it. surprisingly it came through with flying colors.

also, excessive use of the word through/threw in one paragraph. flag on the play.

i had just enough to make a long circle skirt, and of course the math is from dana’s circle skirt tutorial. i seriously must refer back to her math instructions like 3x a week.

but circle skirts are just so fun for twirling. what more could a little girl ask for?

i used a 1/2 yard of deep purple knit from jo-ann’s for the top. a simple boat neck and 3/4 length sleeves.

fun tidbit: when i attached the skirt to the top it was so heavy it pulled the knit waistband down much more than i expected. i ended up having to hack a good 3 inches off the waist band and reattaching the skirt! the perils of making clothing from upholstery weight fabrics.

the flower was a last minute addition—just circles cut from remnants of both fabrics, sewn together and glued to a safety pin. 

also—i’m super proud of the stitching on that neck. high five.

this dress turned out pretty and very feminine and super easy to wear—it just slips on over her head. and i love ava in a boat neck. plus it cost me about $4, so…yeah.

sometimes workin’ with what ya got can lead to good things! who knew?! :)

also…this child? almost impossible to take pictures of. she’s got no head in most of these, because…well, this:

i’m such a good wife.

my entire life i’ve been a Reader—anytime, anywhere, any lighting. i’d sneak books in my bed, reading by the light from the hallway. and so, my entire life i’ve had people saying to me “you’re going to ruin your eyes!”

guess what. turns out eventually they were right.

i need glasses now. boo. well, sometimes boo. because sometimes they can be cute, too. so when firmoo contacted me about trying out some of their glasses i was like YEE-HAW!
digging on that hipster nerd look? they got you covered. want something more classic? yup, they got it. even sunglasses.

but.

i’m not the only glasses wearer in the house—my mister’s eyes are about 1000x worse than mine. and when firmoo contacted me about reviewing glasses, he was more in need of some new pairs than i was. so, i let him have it, err…them.



yup. i’m totally the best wife.

i <3 nerds with glasses and bowties

okay—pros: these glasses are nice. just as nice as any pair we’ve gotten for him locally. they came in hard cases, with a little kit for repairs. shipping was fast, and the biggest thrill—the price was AWESOME. compared to what we normally pay for his glasses this was a HUGE savings (although these 2 pairs were given to us for review purposes, we did figure out what the cost would have been).

he’s been wearing these two pairs every day for a few months now, and they’re just as nice as when he got them. seriously—dude is blind without glasses, they go on first thing in the morning and don’t come off until he’s going to sleep at night. jeremy has an astigmatism in one eye, so each lens is very different. the prescription was perfect.

cons:  honestly i can’t really think of any real cons. the only thing that was a little hairy was the whole process of entering all his prescription info and measuring his eyes. we couldn’t get the “virtual try-on” to work for us, so we based our choices on just the measurements and descriptions of the glasses on the site. we usually have a terrible time finding glasses for jeremy—he’s almost 6’4, and a big guy. most men’s glasses seem a little…smallish on him. but it completely worked—these glasses fit him perfectly. and in my honest opinion i think the ordering process is something that will be more difficult the first time and NBD every successive time you order from firmoo.

also a con—having to force him to take these photos. he did not want to. at all. stinker. and then he gave me a straight face in every shot. so i made him laugh. i don’t even remember what we were laughing about, but i love these shots (even though his eyes are closed). ;)
bottom line? i absolutely recommend firmoo for glasses. if you know or have your prescription definitely give them a try. for the price it’s worth taking the chance, even if you’re nervous about ordering glasses online and not being able to try them on first. srsly.
got more questions? check out firmoo’s f.a.q. HERE.
disclosure: we were provided two pairs of glasses at no cost for review. but all opinions are my own, and i would never recommend or endorse a product i didn’t trust and believe in! true story.

the handmade revolution

FAIR WARNING: long post and huge soapbox ahead. continue at your own risk.
this is not where this post was going to go when i made these dresses.



this is not where this post was going to go when i posted the photo on instagram.



this is not where this post was going to go when i took the photos of my girls wearing these dresses.



but somewhere along the line things changed. and this post became something completely different.
here’s the thing: these dresses were inspired by the dresses made by jessica at dreamcatcher baby. and i had all intentions of saying that in the original post—credit where it’s due.



i competed against jessica in sewvivor, and she did awesome. she was selling these adorable baby girl dresses and coordinating boy bowties at the time, and shortly after sewvivor ended her dresses got picked up and “pinned” by a big name blogger…and the rest was history. jessica’s business has virtually (literally and figuratively) exploded over the last few months. she’s got pre-orders, pre-sales, dresses that sell out as fast as her two little hands can make them (whilst juggling a husband, young son and newborn baby boy).
and rightly so: her dresses are impeccably made, and her fabric choices and pattern mixing is top notch. the bows on the fronts of the dresses always have the pattern perfectly centered—a little detail a fellow seamstress can appreciate. it speaks to an extra minute or two spent planning, rather than just churning these bad boys out as fast as she possibly can—chopping that fabric whichever way gets the most cuts out of each yard.

unfortunately, the supply/demand ratio and the popularity of her dresses make their price out of my reach.
fortunately, i sew.
so i made my own version of her adorable dresses for my littles. what i planned on doing was posting about them with a link to her shop for anyone interested.

no tutorial.

why not?

truth bomb: i’ve copied/been inspired by/whatever you want to call it etsy sellers in the past. sometimes i post the things i make-most times i don’t. there are many things i make that never see the light of blogging. they’re for my own personal enjoyment, and too close to someone’s hard won success in their little shop. i can’t justify telling someone else how to do these things, at the expense of another’s livelihood.


(image source)

but then that raises the question: where’s the line? when is it okay to say “hey i copied this from XYZ shop and here’s a tutorial to make your own” and when is it not? because isn’t that like…80% of what’s blogged?

in the blogging world it seems like a rather unspoken rule that that copy-and-paste type inspiration is okay if you’re taking from the big guys: the anthropologies, the pottery barns, the west elms. but not from the little guys: the etsy sellers, the big cartel sellers, the independent pattern makers.
i admit—this is kind of the line i follow to. but why is that okay? i’m not being smart—i genuinely want to know why and when this is okay. is it because we’re taking from a faceless “big corporation” vs. just one or two or three people working in the back bedroom of their suburban home?

and then the reverse comes in to play: the accusations of stores like urban outfitters ripping off the hard work and content of etsy sellers. (go ahead and google…there’s a ton of it out there).

when i see a must-have pillow at Big Store selling for $45 i think hey, i could do that in my home for $5 worth of supplies, and tell other people how to do it on my blog! when i see a cute or funny printable on etsy for $20+ i think hey, i could do that on photoshop in my bed and print it out and it’s costing me like 50 cents for paper and ink …and not show anyone.

again: stick it to the Big Stores, protect the little guy.

same with dream catcher baby’s dresses: i love them. but they are far out of my reach—especially for two (or three…or four…) of them. and here’s the part where i have drop another brutal truth bomb, knowing that jessica may well read this—they’re really very basic sundresses…empire waist, full skirt, bow on bodice. any home sewist with basic knowledge can make it on their own quickly and easily. my first dress from measurements to finished hem took just over an hour—while i did 10 other things in the meantime. and i did a similarly shaped dress last summer—same basic idea, just without the big bow on the front.

but that’s really beside the point, isn’t it?
the reality is ease of creation < how much people are willing to pay.

(image source)

the fact that i can make this dress myself cheaper than i can buy one from her basically has nothing to do with the dresses jessica is successfully selling. because as long as there are people out there willing to fork over the money for a Dream Catcher Baby original, then she’s fine.

but then…again i ask—where’s the line? if i post a tutorial showing how to make an easy high waisted, full skirted sundress, am i stealing from her? what if i add a bow to the front? what if i make the bow and dress two different fabrics? at what point am i “stealing” from her? and how much do i have to change to make it “mine”? and is it different if i open up my own etsy shop and sell something similar?

+

so what prompted all this? well, jessica had quite the blowup on her instagram account not long ago. the pictures have since been deleted—and i don’t blame her. a comment from one person along the lines of “i wish you weren’t so expensive and i wish i had money” spiraled out of control—people attacking her prices and people defending her work.

the one comment that really got to me was someone who said basically “i can make 2 or 3 of these dresses at home for the price she’s charging.”

i’ll admit it—when i saw what she’s getting for these dresses i almost choked. whoa!

but let’s stop and think about it for a second: yes. you or i can run out to the fabric store and buy the yard of fabric and fat quarter and (using a coupon OF COURSE) whip up one or two of these dresses for a mere what…$6? go crazy—buy designer—$12?

so we can sniff down our noses at the etsy sellers and their foolish customers and post comments like “bah. made it myself for 1/32nd of the price you fools are paying.”

but now…what if someone wants to pay you to make one for their daughter.

well now. suddenly you are spending your time picking just the right fabrics for her daughter. and sewing for her daughter. and pressing it and packaging it and mailing it. oh, wait. now you’re in it for $18 or $20 with shipping because boxes and pretty tissue paper don’t grow on trees…and you still didn’t charge anything for your time. cause you’re nice like that.

and now everyone LOVES your two dresses. and LOTS of people want them. yayyyy me! kermit arms all over! so now you’re buying bolts of fabric and storing them in your home, and your sewing machine and your serger are churning away for hours each day…oops—gotta get them serviced at $100 each—and you’re spending hours listing each dress on etsy and driving to the post office and communicating with Susie from Nebraska who wants this one for her sister’s wedding but can you make the bow a little bigger and can the fabric be a touch bluer and can i have it in 3 days? and then etsy takes a cut. and paypal

takes a cut. and uncle sam takes a cut.

how much is your time worth? because after you dish out for ALL of that, you still have yourself to pay. this isn’t charity. this isn’t dressing other people’s children out of the kindness of your heart.
ask yourself: what do i make at my job per hour? why should a seamstress’ time be worth any less?
sewing isn’t some magical art. this isn’t sleeping beauty, i don’t have a magic wand to conjure up dresses with. it’s real HARD, frustrating, tiring WORK. you get cramped hands from cutting, painful sewer’s back from leaning over your machine for hours, a tired brain from figuring and measuring and all.the.math.



if you can do it yourself—rock on with your bad self. i can, and i did. but if you can’t, and you’d like me to do it for you—THIS is how much it will cost. and if you don’t like that well then have a nice day no hard feelings.



if you want to scoff at a handmade dress because you can buy a dress at walmart for $8 then go ahead and go to walmart and buy your $8 dress. maybe you want to take a look at the non-monetary ‘cost’ of that dress before you get up on that high horse you’re riding, though.

because guess what—jessica can make 2 or 3 of these dresses FOR HERSELF very easily too. but if you want her to give up her free time—her time spent with her babies and man—her time spent watching dvr’d reruns and double fisting popcorn in her sweats on the couch—then THIS is how much it will cost you. and she shouldn’t have to apologize for that.

truth bomb #3: i’m as guilty as the next seamstress of under valuing myself. when people ask me to do work and offer to pay me i mentally tally up hours and then tell them a number…much less. and that’s why i find myself sewing for people late at night, hand stitching things for what amounts to $3 or $5 per hour. would you work for that? my husband just gave my sewing-freely-for-others-self the smackdown. no more, he said. at least for now. i’ve taken on too many things and stressed myself out over them too much lately.

alida makes wrote a post about this a few weeks ago. it’s a good read.

sooo…where do we go from here? i’m curious what your thoughts are on the matter. let’s talk.

disclaimer: if i’ve ever sewn for you…know that i did it happily and enjoyed doing it. i’m not talking about you, or us, in any of this. :)

straight up dining room, part two

i’ll take it easy on ya today. less waxing poetic re: my dining room table, more straight home decor photos of the dining room.

talked about my plans for the dining room HERE, revealed the new table HERE

one of the biggest—okay, the BIGGEST eyesore in the old dining room was the unfinished fireplace. remember this?

EEEK! i hear scary stabby movie music every time i look at that. it was terrible looking, and we’d had the tile to finish it sitting in the shed for yeeeaaaars. i was pleasantly surprised to come home to this one day:

tile done. a basic slate from the home depot. it’s another spot where we like the interplay of something a bit more rustic (the tile) with something a bit more refined (the mantel + surround).
the firebox was painted with a high heat spray paint. we don’t light roaring fires in here, just the candles and the occasional wax firelog thingy. the candle holder was given to us as a hand me down. i may spray it black eventually, but for now it works.

the mantle itself is very simple. an open box on top mimics the open frames on the walls.

seriously. every stinkin’ time i look back at that ‘before’ shot i shudder. i can not believe we lived with it like that for so long. ugh. anyway, moving on.

(library picture--Home Goods clearance, $15, hotel sign—Home Goods, $5, schweppes plaque---yeah right i’ve had that since the year one. maybe $4?, motorcycle—Ross, $15, candle holder—Ross, $3)

this area above the mantel has given me hives since the wall frames and mantel were built. it’s not a big space—only 29” high from the bottom of the trim to the mantel, but it’s 65” wide. it needed something with PRESENCE, something worthy of being ABOVE THE MANTEL. but any mirror or picture i tried putting there was just too tall.

i’ve finally managed to cobble together this collection of things, and for now—i like it.

moving on around the room…

there she is. the frame that almost broke the camel’s back. or something like that.

(frames—IKEA ribba, $15 each, prints—IKEA, $12 for all 3)

in the end i decided three frames was fine…mainly because i found this set of three prints at IKEA and fell in love. i do kind of wish there was a fourth…maybe someday when i’m bored i’ll play around with photoshop and come up with a fourth. which city? hmmm….i’m thinking something like mumbai or pisa or something. suggestions?

i love these prints. probably more than any one girl should love three prints. i won’t apologize.

one of  the other major changes we made was moving the buffet from this wall to the window wall.

before:

after:

okay, yeah. that’s not the same buffet. the new one is much narrower, much lower, and in much better condition. and are you ready for this—it was $12. TWELVE. DOLLARS.

this is the photo i sent to jeremy when i found it at the thrift shop on half-off day:

how do you know it’s the right size? he asked.
i measured, i answered.
what do you mean “measured”?

he knows me so well.

i stood next to the window and figured out about how high up on my leg it could come and still be under the sill. don’t worry, it’s perfect. kiss kiss mwah mwah.

why is that a problem? i don’t always have a tape measure with me, but i always have my thighs with me.

probably i need a beard to really pull this off. but enjoy.

this is picture i instagrammed of myself bringing it home:

don’t worry—i took this while stopped. because clearly i’m concerned about safety.

a few coats of satin finish black spray paint, and some silver on the hardware, and there it is.

 

sideboard—thrifted, $12, spray paint—$9

oh—and some greasy kid fingerprints on the front to really make it feel at home.

the top got another collection of things…

(lamps—owned, $3 update for fabric paint on the shades, urn—home goods, $9, oyster—home goods, $12, candle—owned)

the lamps i discussed HERE. they got a cheap and dirty $3 makeover to fit into the new dining room. the blue urn has a chip in the back, so it was super cheap. and the oyster was my big splurge—12 whole dollars i paid for that. i really love that little thing. and the kids love making sure it always has a “pearl” in it. the wire candle holder is the misfit in this grouping—i feel like it needs something green and plantish. but i had this, so it’s a free placeholder for now.

the curtains were an easy DIY project, and they got their own post HERE. they were the first choice for the dining room, and the wall paint color was based off the birds.

curtain fabric + grommets—$49.50 total for the pair

the last major change in the room--

when we initially started this dining room makeover/finishing i was ready to write off this light. i was pretty much over it, and wanted something more modern…maybe rectangular to fit over the new table? the light was a $50 j.c. penny’s outlet purchase right after we bought the house. it hung in our kitchen first, then moved to the dining room when we built our addition. safe to say we got our $50 out of it.

but on a whim i decided to spray it black.

now this is where i tell you what it means to be my friend: it means when you find out your nincompoop of a friend is going to spray paint her ceiling light black—WHILE IT IS STILL HANGING IN THE ROOM, you drive yourself over and take on the unforgiving job of holding a board behind the light to catch most some of the overspray. it means you go home with black feet, because the board didn’t catch some most of the overspray, and then text photos of your blackened nostrils to me later in the evening.

anybody want to be my friend? because that’s all the stuff laura did. <3 you, girl. and i think it was worth it. because painting the base black and spraying the metal shades white took it from this:

to this:

and now i LUUURRRRVVE it. just like that. i’m calling it a free upgrade, since i used spray paint i already had.
the last addition to the light was these little crystals:

a friend made them for me a million years ago—they’re simple beads strung on wire and attached to magnets. there’s 8 of them, you can attach them around the edge of a lampshade for a little added bling. here they perform the function of hiding the little screw end that’s missing a cover (that’s why it was $50 in the first place).

i’m not gonna lie—it wasn’t the easiest job, or my brightest (ha!) idea. but the difference it makes is amazing.

and that’s it. the dining room in toto.

one more time for the people in the back…

BEFORE:

AFTER:

cleaner, lighter, brighter. that’s what my goals were when i started this. i’d say it’s a check, check, check.

my other goal? CHEAP. let’s see how we did:

DINING ROOM COST BREAKDOWN
paint – free (had an HD credit)
table – $30 for misc. supplies (screws, glue, etc.), labor, wood & finishing were freeeee!
chairs – had
pictures + frames – $57
fireplace – free (already had the tile, grout & supplies)
fireplace decor* – $38
buffet + spray paint – $21
buffet decor* – $21
curtains – $49.50
lamp upgrade – $3
chandy upgrade – freeeeee!
---------------------------------------------------
TOTAL: $198.50

*i only included the new items i bought, not the things i already had

looks like another checkmark to me. just squeezed under the $200 mark for my room upgrade.

there you have it. dining room done.

googiemomma out.