OOTD: Chunky Sweater and Cheetah Print Soft Skirt

 

“O come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord;
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.” Psalm 95:1 (amp)

Hello Everyone!

I pray all is well with you!  Can you believe it…?! Thanksgiving has already passed and we are in full fledged Christmas season.  I am feeling so joyful these days.  I made the decision that I was going to rejoice my way into 2019.  I’m not going to let anything get me down.  Not even the early winter weather we’ve been experiencing here in Wisconsin!  I’ve already pulled out my heavy sweaters and very soon i’ll be wrapping a scarf around my neck.   Good thing for me chunky sweaters are all over the runway this season.

As I was scrolling through pinterest I was very intrigued by how designers are pairing oversized chunky sweaters with lighter weight soft skirts.  Below are a few examples. The look on the left is from Pabal Gurung and the look on the right is from Ulla Johnson.

It made me want to go through my closet and see if I had anything that I could pull from my existing wardrobe to play to with this look. To my surprise I was able to achieve a similar look with a rayon crepe cheetah print bias cut skirt that I recently bought from the thrift store and my favorite cream colored chunky knit H&M sweater that I had purchased from the Goodwill a few years ago.  In order to keep me from looking overly frumpy I loosely tucked the sweater in at the front and back.  Paired it with my new black suede stilleto boots from Forever 21 to give me height and provide a sleek silohuette.  Paired it with some yellow tassle earrings and voile!  My version of the designer look!

 

Well that’s all for now!  Until next time.

xoxo,

♥Iris

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DIY Upcycled Faux Fur Mittens and Tips for Sewing with Fur

“Let the peace of Christ [the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling questions that arise]. To this peace indeed you were called as members in one body [of believers]. And be thankful [to God always].” Colossians 3:15 (amp)

Hello Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you all are enjoying your holiday.  This is my favorite time of the year.  I always look forward to the holiday meal preparations and family gatherings.

Today’s post is dedicated to the DIY gift makers.  A few years ago I made a bunch of fleece lined mittens from upcycled wool sweaters for the men in my family. They were a hit.  I thought about making them again when I realized that we might be in for a pretty frigid winter this year.  However, I wanted to give them a twist.  While I like how warm and economical it is to make them from wool sweaters.  I wasn’t esthetically feeling some of the wool sweaters that I was finding. They were a bit ugly or dated.

Then came an idea to try and source other kinds of wool fabric to make the mittens from.  I wanted them to still be warm and wondered if I could use an old wool suit or something like that.  I began to surf pinterest for ideas and tutorials but really couldn’t come across anything.  Then the other day the kids and I were in Target and I found these fun kids mittens made from bright blue, red and pink faux fur.  They were so cute.  They reminded me of cookie monster, elmo and cloe from Sesame Street.  The kids loved them.  So the idea eventually came to me to create my own furry version of a sweater mitten.

I found this beautiful black merino wool and angora sweater at the thrift store for $2.50.  It was the perfect weight and super soft.   

The faux fur I had in my stash from another project and I lined it with fleece that I had from some bath robes that I made the kids.

It took me a while to work out the design of this project and its still not perfect. But I liked the first go round.  I will say this project will work better with a short pile fur.  This fur is long and was meant to be used on a collar of a coat I was making.  But I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on this project so I just gave the fur a hair cut.  They look like chubaka and pepe le pieu had a baby lol! But I think they are fun a bit glamorous and 100% warm.  Just what every single woman who has snow shoveling duty needs in her life!

I also thought is was a great opportunity to give a few tips for sewing with fur. Below are some pictures and quick tips.

1.  Never cut into the fur. It will cause a lot of shedding. Instead turn the fur over so that the knit backing is facing you and the fur is touching the surface of your cutting table.
2. Place your pattern on the knit backing and using a marker trace your pattern onto the backing of the fabric.
3. Use the tip of your scissors or even better a box cutter and cut just through the backing of the fabric (not the fur) along the traced pattern line.
4. Once done.  Shake out all of the loose fur and pin your pieces together trying to keep as much fur out of the seam as possible.
5. After you sew your seams together you may have to trim some of the fur on the inside and outside of your fabric at the seams.
6. Never press faux fur.  You will have to press the seams down with your hands or a hammer.

Thats it.  Super simple. The pattern maker in me wants to work out the kinks in my pattern and play with fabric ideas.  So stay tuned.  You may see more improved versions of my furry sweater mittens.  Until then enjoy the rest of your day!

xoxo!

❤️ Iris

Pattern Hack Tutorial: DIY Puff Sleeve Peplum Top Using McCalls 7722

“An excellent woman [one who is spiritual, capable, intelligent, and virtuous], who is he who can find her? Her value is more precious than jewels and her worth is far above rubies or pearls.”

Proverbs 31:10 (amp)

Hi Everyone!

Happy Hump Day! I want to thank everyone for all of your comments and kind words from yesterday’s post.  It always keeps me encouraged.  Today’s post is short and sweet. As I mentioned yesterday I created a pattern hack tutorial for the peplum portion of this top.  If you missed yesterday’s post you can catch up here.

This was a fun make and creating the peplum wasn’t hard at all.  I basically created rectangles using my desired measurements and used the cut and spread method of patterning to create the fullness for the peplum.  You can download and print the free pdf illustrated copy of the tutorial by clicking on the link below.

Puff sleeve peplum top tutorial

If you make it and have questions feel free to reach out to me I’d love to help. And would love it even more to see your finished version.

That’s all for now.  I hope you have a great rest of your week. Until next time.

XOXO!

❤️ Iris

DIY Knit Asymmetric Peplum Top Using McCalls 7722

“And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (amp)

Hello Everyone!

Happy Tuesday! I pray that God bless you all with an abundance of peace this week. I was so excited to share this week’s make with you that I decided to post it a day early!

I loooooove this top! I got the inspiration from one of my favorite designers Johanna Ortiz. I love her work and have been keeping up with her collections for the past year. Below is the inspiration piece

While I love it as is. It’s cold in Wisconsin already and I wanted to make something more weather appropriate and practical for my lifestyle.

So I got the idea to create a knit version using McCalls 7722 for the bodice and sleeves and self-draft the peplum pattern. I created a pattern hack tutorial for the peplum. It will be up on the blog tomorrow.

This is a really great pattern as is. It has a cropped and longer length option as well as a few sleeve variations. It comes together quickly and the fit is good. I used view (A) for the bodice because it’s cropped and view (D) for the sleeves. I cut the pattern size 18 and it fit perfectly.

The fabric is a black ponte knit that I picked up at Joann fabric. I love the feel of ponte. The rayon in the fabric gives it such a luxurious feel and great elasticity. I plan on buying more for a few other knitwear projects.

This top has so much drama with the sleeves and peplum and is so figure flattering. I was aiming for a chic street style vibe. I paired it with my skinny jeans, a black obi belt and added more drama with black Stiletto suede boots that I recently purchased from Forever 21.

Well that’s all for now. Until next time.

XOXO!

❤️ Iris

That Style Though Sewing Planner Review

“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” Proverbs 31:25

Hello Everyone!

Happy Hump Day! I pray everyone’s week is bursting with productivity and new opportunities!  One of the things that I have been trying to do for the past few weeks is planning ahead.  Especially for the blog.  It has always been a blog goal of mine to be 1-3 months ahead of schedule. Having makes and post ideas done a season ahead frees me up to do other things as well as be more consistent with my posting.

I’ll be honest planning ahead is not really one of my strongest characteristics but it is something I have had to be intentional about. One of those intentional actions included using a blog and sewing planner. I had been looking for one for awhile without success.

Until an opportunity to collaborate with Dari from “that style though” sewing blog.  She put out a request for testers on instagram for her soon to be released 2019 sewing planner. I thought “great…! why not help someone else out and see if her planner layout works for my planning needs.”

This was definitely a win for me.  I love her planner because not everyone’s sewing process is the same and this gives you multiple ways to use it.  If your a sewing blogger or vlogger you can use it for that.  If your a sewist and just want a way to map out your design ideas from conception to finished garment; it definitely allows you to do that as well.

What I particularly like is that it allows you to organize your makes by seasons and/or months. For me, I am a seasonal sewing planner and I used it to map out my fall/winter makes not only for the blog but also for some other projects i’m beginning to work on for 2019.

I also like that it walks you through a project planning process which includes a mood board, a color palette page, a sheet to sketch out some of my ideas, pages to document the patterns I plan on using for my projects and even a closet inventory sheet.

If your looking to organize your sewing life I highly recommend “That Style Though” sewing planner. It was just released on November 6th and you can purchase your very own copy for $10 here.

Well that’s all for now!  Until next time!

❤️xoxo

Iris