kids = ebola (and pinterest!)

Preschoolers; they're adorable germ-laden plague-bearers. Nothing quite like a feverish, booger-beladen kid to put a crimp in one's day week. Seriously? A week? Poor baby is bored to tears. But he sounds like Lauren Bacall after a heavy night (which is actually completely rad, just not on a 3 year old).

And cause some terrible guilt.

The guilt thing is 'cause, I, um, didn't even notice he was sick. 

We went out for Dim Sum with his Granny H, and he was a kind of tantrumy then kind of sulky. Both of which are really of out of character*, and both of which get pretty short shrift from me. It wasn't until we were in Holt Renfrew trying on perfumes-I-can't-afford that I noticed that he was sweating like crazy and had a blistering fever. 

Yah. Nice job me. Apparently I won't be winning the Parent Of The Year award, AGAIN.

Oh well, he can start saving for the therapy now.

Oh,  and he's infectious. Which means we've been hanging out in our jammies watching an embarrassing amount of TV.  But it does give me time to lurk around Pinterest, cooing over the pretty things. Do you Pinterest? This is me right here, hit me up in the comments if'n you want to be chums?  (on the proviso that I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with the whole thing and I get distracted easily by shiny objects).

And lastly here's a quick shot of Betty looking artsy. And you guys? I don't mean to brag, but she sews through leather like it's no big thing. She's all "Sure, whatever lady, give me a real challenge, bust out the titanium". I love her. Even her font KILLS me.

* The "out of character" thing? It kind of blows the idea of child-karma out of the water. Given what a horrible child I was, Teddy should be cross between Taz and an angry orangutan. As it is, he's a pretty awesome little chap. Perhaps he's saving it up until he's in his teens?

There, I Fixed That For You

What's small, blonde and has the destructive power of 10 angry tigers armed with chainsaws?
Here's a clue:

whud'up?

And here's what this guy does for shiggles when I'm busy making a new slip cover for the couch (and therefor totally neglecting him)

 There, I fixed that for you

That too.

And here's a bit more of a sneek peek at the reason for the radio silence and the child neglect. New couch covers. Dude. It's a LOT of work. but I love them so much. Actually I like the original crazy floral too, and this couch has a good story too, maybe for some other time.

The Skirt That Was In My Head

HAH. Got it done!
You know, the musing I was doing in that earlier post? About what I want to be wearing now?
Well for the last AGE I've had a skirt in my head.
A high-waisted, a-line, red one. Made of soft corduroy. With a Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five vibe (in my head that's cool).
Kind of like this one, Anthro's Hop, Skip and Jump skirt $78 - which is not too crazy expensive.

Or this one the Finishing School Skirt , also by Anthro also $78

But you know what's cheaper than $78? A meter of red corduroy I picked up at Goodwill last year for $1.98. And a pattern I already happened to have, McCalls 4783.
Here's my version:

I extended the waist UP an inch and a half (using the "meh, looks close enough" method of pattern adaptation).
I made the skirt less froofy and more gentle-a-liney.
And I added kind of off-center line thing (yah it IS a technical term) by folding over a little pleat and topstitching it down.

While I was making it the skirt tried to kill me a couple of times (I have pin-related WOUNDS!) but it came together fairly easily and now I LOVE it. Love Love it. I want to hold it's hand at a midnight showing of Pulp Fiction and make it mix tapes. Here's it in action today:

I had to wear thick tights, but it's super comfy and I managed to wear heels all day. Which is a win for me!

The Democracy Tunic to Dress Tutorial

Yesterday was a bit gloomy you guys. We have a new mayor, and I'm not a fan.
I love me some democracy, it's a privilege and I am thankful for it. Even if sometimes the result sucks. And to folks who don't vote I say "pheh" (and I totally roll my eyes).
Yesterday there was a polling station in the lobby of our building (yay for LAZY democracy!) Which means I could have gone and done my voting in my jammies BUT I have a "no jammies farther away than the garbage chute" rule , so I threw on this instead:

It's a tunic. You can tell on account of how it barely covers my bum. And is shaped roughly like a potato sack.
Now, tunics and I are not really friends, in fact we're barely even passing acquaintances but this is different. This is something I've had since I was pregnant and it has some pretty crazy history for me. But it is quite obviously too short, and I would have felt really uncomfortable going any farther than the lobby in it. So a refashion was in order.
I did this to it
Want to see how? Hokay!
Firstly of all I just happened to have some lightweight black cotton from another dress refashion project that exactly matched the tunic. You'll need a fabric that matches (or contrasts if that's how you roll ) depending on how much length you want to add a meter should be plenty.
Then you'll need to
1. Fold your dress in half straight down the middle.
2. Pop your folded-in-half dress onto your extra fabric, matching up the folds, like this see:3. Mark out however much more skirt you want, making sure you follow the line of the existing skirt (in this case it's a slight A-line). Replicate the curve at the hem on your new skirt bottom, and match up the curve at the top too. Don't forget to add a bit to your sides for a seam allowance (the solid line should be farther out. Oops!)
4. Mark out you skirt with chalk or pins. or just go crazy with the scissors if you're brave.
5. Snip! You'll need to cut out two skirt pieces.
6. Whip! Turn the new skirt pieces right-side-together then sew up the side seams so you have one piece of skirt. Press the seams open.
7. Pin the new skirt into the bottom of the old skirt, right-sides-together. Like ZIZ see:

8. Sew around the bottom of the skirt, where you've just pinned. Press the new seam UP. Try it on, admire your handiwork then hem it as you normally would.

And voila! Tunic to dress. Giving that sucker a waist instead of a sack shape is the next step. (I'll stick that tute up tomorrow, on account of some WAY to dark pictures and some shenanigans with Ernesta the body double).

If you don't have any fabric that matches your tunic you could go the obvious clash route and stick two different prints on the bottom, (kind of like in the original of this tunic).

Not a Quilt

Poking through other people's stuff without the B&E and subsequent costly legal fees = Yay!
What I'm saying is that I love a bit of yard sale action. Where we live doesn't have a lot of actual yards; BUT when the buildings around here have a yard sale they co-ordianate days and they go large. 700-1000 units in a relatively affluent area with a majority gay, aging population - BINGO for yard sale awesomeness.
So that's the backstory, this is the result:

I scored three fat quarters of this floral cotton for the princely sum of 75 cents. It was tucked into the bottom of a box of other fabrics (I bought most of them too) I love it crazy much. In fact I might have found it, squealed, ripped it from the box, cradled it protectively and cooed mineminemine at it whilst growling around me. Maybe.

I'm not much of a quilter, but I knew from pretty much the second that I plucked it out of the box that I wanted it to be a dress. A dress a bit like this one.

I used New Look 6803, (I happened to have bought it for another project, but that's a whole 'nother post) and meddled with view C.

I had to hack the pattern a bit to make there be enough fabric, there's a seam down the front but it gets a bit lost in the florallyness. I also had to piece together the bottom otherwise we'd have been talking tunic or indecent exposure, but again the print makes it barely noticeable.
This is it with different accessories, And the worlds glummest expression

In my head it's more sort of 60's with the kitten heels and skinny belt. I'm giving some serious thought to a pair of cream ribbed schoolgirl-type tights. But that might be... gack? weird? costumey? Opinions are welcome folks.

Yoga? MAYBE!

Hey remember how this used to be a blog where I made stuff and sometimes even used my sewing machine? No, me neither!
So. Lovely sunshiny weather and athelticalalal feats aside, I made something!
Actually it kind of related to both of those things... it's a hack down of a long sleeved tee (because it is hot NOW and I am in total denial about the existence of Winter . Winter? WHAT WINTER? tra la la!) into sleeveless yoga tee. As discussed before I don't actually DO yoga but I'm thinking I might have a stab at it, maybe. And this shirt just seemed yoga-y to me. So there we go.
Here's the before:
A hand-me-down from my lovely chum Sarah. In a colour I like a lot.
I whipped the sleeves off and tidied up the edges. Ruched the shouldery parts, which took care of any gappiness at the front (pretty sure nobody needs to see my uh, "Asanas" when I'm doing my downward dog).
Then I ruched the sides too. It's not showing up so well on Ernesta here (she's not terribly flexible, she really COULD use some yoga). But it is pretty flattering when it's on. Disguises the lumpy with more lumpy, if you see what I mean.

So that's that. if you want a play by play on the physics of whipping sleeves off then give me a shout. (Or check out make it and love it's tute. A-dor-a-bul!)

The Dress Form - Mark II

You guys!
Please allow me to introduce Ernesta:

This weekend between G20 shenanigans (shenanigai?), brutal football defeat (my poor sweetie is feeling a bit schlumpy) and new potty excitement, I wrapped myself up in tape and held still for a while.
Ernesta is made of paper watercolour tape ( $4.99 for a giant roll from Curry's art supplies). She's pretty solid (even without stuffing). And she does all my stunts for me. So USEFUL!
I'm so excited about her that I feel like I need to make myself something pretty RIGHT NOW.

She's not actually the first dress form I've made. In fact, it's been a year and change since I made the last one. I've talked about it before here, but here she is in all her cringe inducing glory (and this is her flattering angle! From the back she looks like a badly parked dump truck wrapped in craft paper).


What's funny is that I never actually used her. Except as a tool to really SEE how I looked, and as an inspiration to eat less pie and do more exercise. I think I can finally get rid of her now.

OWNED! The Lilly Pulitzer Knock-off Rematch!

'Member the giant fail Lilly Pulitzer knock off dress I made earlier this week? This one? With the boob distortion and the shortness?
WELL.
I've just finished the rematch and... SUCCESS! (It's not quite as cute as Suzanne's but I'm OK with that)


I hacked the dickens out of the pattern. Did a bit of swearing. Put the zipper in the side. Kind of fell in love with double layered facings (so tidy!). Did a bit more swearing. Wished fervently for a dress form. Realised I'd cut my lace too short. Did some SERIOUSLY filthy swearing (the lace actually cost three times what the fabric did. It wasn't SUPER expensive but you know... I'm cheap.) Pieced some sodding ggrrrr rashen-frashen lace together. Finished that sucker, then accessorized it with the cutest/weirdest dog I know.
And voila. I don't know it I'll be making this again in a big hurry. But I think I'll be wearing THIS one a bunch.

Oh and hey, Ian and Kate? I'm going to be dressing your dog up in a frock and making him have a tea party with me.
No. Really. I am.

CURED!

I, like The Prodigy, have THE REMEDY. The pulsating rhythmical remedy. Except not Pulsating or rhythmical. And also "Pulsating"?... kinda gross.

Wait, what was I talking about?
Oh yup! 'Member I had the yips? Where everything I touched turned to wet kitty poop? Well I CURED them. With a dress. THIS dress.


And it's a refashion, in fact it's a refashion of a refashion. And even the elastic I used was pillaged from someplace else. (jammie pants maybe?)
The bottom part started life last year as a smocked tube-top maxi dress. Bought for all of $3 in the Old Navy sale. I wore once but it was WAY too big. Just for the record - tube-tops + too bigness = a recipe for disaster.

So I made it into a wrap skirt. And it was... meh. So meh that I wore it once and then it sat in the refashion basket for a year.

The purple thing on top of it is a dirt cheap Old Navy ribbed tank that some genius (moi) splashed bleach on.
I whacked them together using Little Red Roost's awesome tute. And voila. I'm cured of the snausage-fingered foul-up-itis sewing yips . I'm also pretty happy with how it turned out and I predict a BUNCH of wear out of it.

Oh hey, I don't know it you've noticed, but I kind of like dresses. I was thinking about that because I've just signed up to do this:



And I'm having trouble getting fired up about sewing anything but dresses.
I THINK it's because dresses are my yoga pants.
Not that I do yoga in them. ( I don't do yoga in anything... wait... I don't mean I do yoga nekkid, I mean I don't do it at all!)
But you know how some women can throw on a pair of yoga pants and a tee and look adorable?
Me - not so muchly. I put on sweats and I look like I forgot to get dressed. I feel 10 lbs fatter and three inches shorter in yoga pants. And really. Who needs that?
This frock has the same kind of throw-it-on-and-you're-dressed thing as sweats but I feel DRESSED in it.
So that's that. Dress made, yips cured.

Noooooo!

Ever have one of those days when everything you touch turns to stinky melty yucky poop horribleness?
I appear to have the sewing yips. BAD.
Two projects in two days. Pooched. Unsalvageably pooched.
I had this in mind:What I made was NOT even remotely close. Nor did it in any way resemble something a human might wear.

I'm hoping to just keep whacking away at it till I get my mojo back, but a spot of very pretty yellow cotton has already bought the dust.
GAH.
Wish me luck?

It Twirls!

So, I'm one down in the big Sew What Challenge. My chosen material for the month is knits, I have a bit of it in my stash (some from half-done projects that went catastrophically wrong), and it's crazy cheap at Fabricland right now too.

This week the challenge was a skirt for mama or child in your fabric type or denim.
I made a skirt for myself because my sweetie gets a little twitchy when I mention dressing Teddy in girl clothes.


It's a skirt for my Flamenco class; now PROPER flamenco practice skirts are long and SUPER SUPER twirly and sometimes ruffly (some of my favorite things) but as we are just learning we need to be able to see our feet and leggies in the mirrors. So this skirt is knee length. But it does twirl! See:


And I'm actually fairly happy with it. The back has an extra gore/panel for more swishiness and it feels like you HAVE to swing your hips and wiggle when you wear it.
But using knits is... an experience? I chose them because I was hoping to learn something through the process and so far I've learned why I generally avoid them.
That said, the finished project is much more forgiving than it feels like it's going to be when it's in progress (if that makes sense?).
I'm hoping by the end of the challenge I will have learned to love knits or at least learned some really good new swears.
Can't wait to see what those girls have up next!
x

Still Alive... And PLOTTING!

I am I am!

I've been... slacking. And lounging. And playing out. And ignoring housework. And sipping martinis in our courtyard with my girl chums. and stomping to the parks. and sewing summer dresses (because I don't have enough of those nope nope nope). and watching my bear play with his new water table. And sitting in the sunshine with my brother. And eating icecream with my sweetheart (who is turning swoon-inducingly blond in the sun). And spotting new awesome street art projects to see with Teddy. and and and...*
It's sunshiny, see.
And cleaning the bathroom when it's sunshiny outside is like honking a spit in Mother Nature's eye.
That's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

Anyway. I have good intentions and there's rain in the forecast, so here's what's coming up chez my blooge over the next little while:


June is Sew What month with two of my favorite bloggers. Melissa of Until Wednesday Calls and the Cynthia (The Sewing Dork herself!) are running a challenge where you pick one type of fabric (linen, denim, whathaveyou) and stick with it for each project. I'm going with knits (because they scare me and I want to practice). You guys should join in, s'going to be heaps o' fun!

They other thing I'm doing is this



Which is just what it says. It's a creative kick in the pants. Only without the kicking (or the... pants?)
It's free, there's no obligation to share if your don't want and a bunch of pretty awesome folks are on board. I'm going to be using my camera. And I SUPER excited about it. (and also maybe a bit nervous? but in a good way).
There's still time if you want to play along with either of these. And hey maybe we could compare notes?

*Wow. Reading that list back is funny. I don't mean to sound smug (Do I sound smug? Maybe? Little bit? Sorry if I do...) it's just that I feel like my life is pretty charmed and writing down what's good is a nice way of reminding myself.

Invisible Extras

More dresses MORE AND MORE AND MORE. I seriously don't want to wear anything but dresses these days. Maybe because the winters here are so anti-dress. Or maybe 'cause dresses make me feel like dancing a bit? Or because I'm lazy enough to like the one-item-and-I'm-dressed routine?
Either way. I am on a dress kick. My only requirement is that they be long enough. I'm 5'9" and my leggies are... let just call them a "problem area". They get me from place to place (good job with that guys) but my thighs are the first place that cake goes to. Also flashing my undies has never really been my favorite thing.

So that's the back story. This is the dress/tunic in question:


Do excuse the blur and weird pose. Teddy and I were playing the giant squid game with the waist ties. (You know, where you wobble something fabric on your kids' head and go "OH NO. The Giant Squid got you! NOT THE GIANT SQUID!" Just me? really?)

Anyhoo, I'm wearing it with jeans because it was those vital 2 inches too short. BUT it did happen to have those (giant squid) waist ties.
SO I whipped the ties off. Unpicked the seams, ironed them flat, then added them to the bottom of the dress. Like so:


I'm pretty pleased with it. It is, of course, a compromise; I love the border pattern but adding the lenght above it was just WAY more complex. and I'm lazy. My real point here is that I'll be keeping an eye out for the "invisible" extra fabric in ties and straps to make stuff longer from now on.

To Mangle a Mockingbird

What a brill weekend. Really. Started Friday with a dash of inspiration and a spot of mad refashioning. (And got another-post's-worth of awesome from there).

The inspiration part came in the form of THIS tute from Grosgrain (Kathleen is all about the inspirational stuff; have you seen her sew-alongs? So awesome).
She calls her's The Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird Dress, and as I have a tiny fraction of her sewing skills mine is the To Mangle a Mockingbird dress.
I love the embroidery on her shirt but I don't happen to own anything half as cute. But I did happen to own this fellow:


It's... wrinkly. And WAY too big. I bought it from the Gap ages ago (two years maybe?) and it had this little 'lasticy waist thing going on. It was... "puffy" on me, and totally unflattering so I unpicked the 'lastic and wore it as is. A lot.
It's now too big but I love that ruffle so I planned on doing SOMETHING to it.
I did this:

Kathleen's tute is really easy to follow (and holy cats is her baby ever the sweetiest!)
However, I didn't do a circle skirt like she suggested; mostly because I hadn't enough of the blue print left over from the Sundae Frock. In fact I had to use some piecing together and swearing to get the skirt out of what I had left.
I also put my zipper in at the side rather than the back. (I always do that, even if it means hacking the pattern a bit. I just prefer side zips).
This would have gone together about a squillion times more easily if I had a dress form. I think maybe it's time to try making another one. yeesh. scary.
Anyway, here it is as I'm wearing it today. I'm pretty happy with it.


I shared over at Melissa's place. (And have you seen what those clever girls are sewing up next month? Eeep! Upciting!)

Paris, je t'aime. The Reveal!

Finished it! 'member? from here?
My version of Shabby Apple's Oh La La dress.

I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Now if only I could go pose in the Jardin du Luxembourg...

This was SO simple. All I did was whack the skirt bit off of the dress. Then I used my trusty little zigzag stitch (and a ball point needle) to sew it onto the t shirt. Same deal with the sleeves. I could have left the little cap sleeves but part of the reason that shirt was in the "yah. I'm ok with this being refashioned" pile was it's tiny sleevies, they didn't love my chubby armies back.

Also, as soon as I put on my scarily red lipstick Teddy did a classic double take and said "MUMMY LIPS NIIICE". Huh. Maybe time to wear a little more make-up.

Oh la la la la la LA! The teaser...

I don't know if it's the dress or the styling or the setting but this dress is KILLING me.

Oh let's be honest. It's Paris. It's ALWAYS Paris. But the dress seems like a spot of the Left Bank, wrapped up in a baguette and served with a slice of '68 and a side order of Edith Piaf. What I'm saying is I WANTS IT.

At $79 it's a BIT spendy but not CRAZY expensive. BUT. Well... I happen to have these two things:


See what I'm saying? One stripy tee and one maternity dress and a dash of inspiration (read "filthy swearing")...

I'm almost done. Just some fiddling around with sleeves left... I'm thinking later today for the big reveal. Meet you back here?

The Sunny Sunday Sundae Frock

I made a dress! Only it's not REALLY a dress. It's a FROCK. Dunno if there's any kind of technical difference, but in my head this is most assuredly a frock.
See?


Frock-y. Frock-like. Frocklicious.

It's New Look 6805 made up in a glazed cotton print. A glazed cotton print that was expensive enough to make my palms sweat.
But that I LOVE. A lot. I loved it when it was sat on my shelf looking like someone had sliced off a piece of Aix en Provance and folded it up neatly. And I love it even more now.

The pattern I almost love. Let's just say I'm glad I made a muslin before lopping up my slice of the south of France. And also lets say "Ah, New Look? You guys? What the what is up with your stupid strap design?"
So muslins, YAY!
I finished hemming it late last night and it was all
"HEY! Lookit me. I'm pretty! We should go for ice cream!" (Actually it said Regardez-moi! Je suis joli! Laisse aller pour la glace!) I told my sweetie and he agreed wholeheartedly.

So today that's what we did. I would have taken my new dress out for ice cream even if it had been pouring with rain like the forecast said BUT...
It was SUNNY! Unexpectedly sunny is my favorite kind. Which makes this the Sunny Sunday Sundae Frock.


And there's my favorite kid, in his new rat-pack hat. And my pooch halfway through her hair cut. Which incidentally, is the reason I look a little fried. Poodle parlouring is hard work.
And now for some gratuitous bear shots:




I done shared HERE:

The Swimwear Tute (that might make you dumber)

Ok before we start out I should say that I have NO expertise here. I've made a grand total of three wearable swimsuits in my entire life. And this "method" consists entirely of my own hacking and would probably send ACTUAL swimwear designers into paroxysms of horror. In fact there's a good chance that this tutorial is going to make you a worse seamstress. Or maybe dumber? Or possibly cause giant asteroids to crash into the earth?
So, fair warning. And if you want some info on making swimwear that will actually make you smarter then check out this site.

AND onward!

The first thing I did was score my fabric.
I used a Nylon/Spandex (Lycra) mix with 4 way stretch. My closest fabric shop (Farbicland at Bloor) carries solid colours of it all the time and occasionally gets ends of SUPER cute prints in too. There's some good info HERE on just what is up with swimwear fabric.
I also use a lining fabric, the best description I could get out of the scary Fabricland ladies was

*YAWN*. "A swimwear lining. For lining swimwear. No." *eye roll* "That IS what it's called. SWIMWEAR LINING."

Pah. Turns out it's made of Nylon too and has two way stretch.
I buy 50 cms of the fabric (unless there's a direction to the print, then I buy a meter) and a meter of lining fabric. I also buy 3 or so meters of pre-cut lycra binding. But it turns out that it's cheaper to cut your own and super easy too. You're also going to need a ball point or knit needle for your sewing machine.


Once I'd gotten my goodies together I needed a pattern. The first suit I made I just eyeballed a pattern based on my current suit. There is some info about making a pattern from an existing item HERE . This method took a bunch of trying on and hacking down.
For the second suit I took apart a swimsuit that fit fairly well but had that weird see-through bum thing. and voila. a muslin:



Then I laid the bits out on the fabric and pinned. I wanted a the neckline a bit higher and the bum and bit more covery so I marked that out.

Once all the pieces were cut out I made duplicates in the lining fabric. The lining I use has a two way stretch and I like to have the stretch go from side to side as opposed to up and down.

You don't HAVE to line the back of your suit. I do anyway though. This time I cut out the lining a bit smaller than the body of the suit. Which, it turns out, is not a super great idea.

Then it was time to do some piecing together. This is the stitch I used for sewing everything
(both piecing together and sewing on the binding) it's a small zigzag.

The most complex part is the back; and really, it not complex at all, you just sew the two bottom pieces separately (lining and fabric), then place them wrong sides together and sew on the crossy back thing. Easy.

Next I sammiched all the layers together.. The sammich goes lining- fabric- (good sides together) -fabric- lining.
Then it gets sewn together at the sides, crotch (heh the word crotch makes me giggle) and top straps. I used the same zigzag as before and was careful to include all the layers.


Then I flipped it right side out. And you guys! It kind of looks like a swimsuit! Exciting!

Except for the gappy bum issue; that needs to be fixed for sure. And that's where the binding comes in. For this suit I made a self binding. On account of the pre-made binding colours all looked terrible with this print.
I folded the width of the fabric in half. Folded it again. Then snipped 1.5 inch strips.

=

Then it was time to bind the exposed edges and fix the gappy bum problem all in one go.
This is what I do with the binding, fold it over like this:

Then encase all the layers like this:

Then sew it down with my zigzag stitch.
I don't worry about the raw edge, it doesn't fray and I chop it away once the binding is in place anyway. The tricky bit about binding the legs is that you have to pull the binding taunt and sew at the same time, making sure to catch up all the layers. Pulling the binding taunt should give this effect:


(Don't worry it doesn't look like a diaper cover when it's ON!)
And you only really want this for the back of your suit, not the front; so you give the binding some slack for the front.
When I get to the end I tuck the raw bit under and backstitch.
I repeat the binding process on the armholes, neckline and back hole bit and because there's no need to pull the binding tight I just pin it on and whip around. Which you can actually see better in this picture:
Once the binding is on I trim it close to the stitching. Like this:

And that's it. Gots myself a swimsuit. Of course you might NEED ruffles (really, who doesn't?) and to add those you just ruffle up a bit of you binding (or fabric) and sew it on with the same zigzig stich. I do this step before I even piece the suit together. And I only sew the ruffles onto the actual fabric, not the lining.
If you've read this far, (good job with that, this was a LONG post) then here comes the big reveal.
And I'm cringing RIGHT NOW. But here we go. Me in a swimsuit. On the internets, which is practically like PUBLIC. yeesh. OK. Just getting it over with. Look away now if you're easily offended.


See what I did with the ruffle there? and the neglecting to brush my hair?




Oh hey, and I shared here:

And here too: