{Tutorial} Strapless Yoga Dress

I've done it again... do you remember the yoga skirt? Well yoga skirt can now meet yoga dress. It took me just about all summer to complete this dress. I had a few "hiccups" along the way. Like 2 major boo-boo's which caused me to not only have to re-cut out the skirt portion but also the top portion. I learned a lot once again, and am partly glad I messed up. I really like how the dress came out! Technically I had the dress completed before summer and since I live in Florida I still have a few more months that I can wear this gem!

Supplies: 

Coordinating knit fabric for top and bottom *amount depends on your size

Sewing Machine, Tape Measure, Straight Pins, Seam Ripper, Scissor, and Chalk Line

*Knit Sewing Needle (trust me... your life will change after you invest in the set of needles)

I used the yoga skirt I made as a pattern for the "skirt" portion of the dress. On a flat surface, I laid out the knit fabric in half, so that when I'd trace the skirt I would have two pieces already cut out in the exact same shape. I laid my yoga skirt onto the knit fabric. *If you don't have a yoga skirt to trace measure from your hip to the length of where you would like the skirt to fall. Then to measure the band/top portion measure roughly 6inches. I then took my chalk pen and traced around the edge of the skirt. 

Before I cut the fabric I pinned around the chalk line ensuring that the two pieces would match perfectly. *You'll notice that originally this was supposed to be a full print dress. I made a boo-boo... like a BIG boo-boo! I (stupidly) cut the skirt with the  non-stretchy part horizontal. After I sewed up each side... i went to put the skirt portion on me and I felt like a stuffed sausage. There was no give in the fabrci. At that point I didn't have enough fabric left to just cut a new skirt portion, so I went back to JoAnn Fabrics where I prayed they would have more fabric (and they didn't). That's when I decided to use a matching solid blue.  

Next, you will want to cut out the band to form the tube of the top. I measured my bust (plus cheated and used part of the measurements from my yoga skirt).  *Remember, you will need two double sided pieces for the band (top portion). After cutting the first band I then traced around that band onto another portion of the fabric, pinned, and cut it out. 

Next you will want to sew the two top portion pieces together. *As pictured above. Apparently I measured on the large size... this top was swimming on me. That's when I decided to take it in... 

Here you'll see where I had both sets of stitching. I should have only taken it in half of what I did as pictured above. This time around it was way too tight! So I went back to the drawing board... and made another top... perfect on the first try! 

Once part "A" the skirt portion and part "B" the top portion were sewn on each side I then placed them together as picture above. You'll want to place the top band open seemed with the right side of the skirt. Does that make sense? 

Pin the two pieces together and sew it using a zig zag stitch. Be sure to sew close enough to the edge, and sew all 3 layers. 

Next, you'll want to make a tie for the dress. The dress looked very unfinished with the zig zag stitch that held the bottom and top together. To get the length of the tie I just measured around me until I had a desirable length (after being tied).

Sew the fabric into a tube. Then pull the fabric through so it's right-side facing out. Then finish off the ends. 

After I put my dress on I realized that my top was a smidge to long. 

Easy remedy... fold a portion of the dress down. 

I folded it about an inch. 

It will look like pictured above. *Downfall is that you will have unfinished side seems exposed... but who really looks under your arms any ways? 

You can see what I was talking about with the "unfinished" look between the top and the skirt. 

Once you add the tie this is what it will look like! 

One simple (if you don't have any sewing mishaps like me) summer/fall dress! lol. No pattern needed other than a skirt/dress you already own!  For those of you who live where its starting to get cooler you can pair it with a cardigan (which is what I do) and you don't even realize it's a strapless dress! 

{Mini Tutorial} Lifesize Spider Web with Webbed Accessories

Early last October (2009) we watched an episode on HGTV that was all about decorating for Halloween. One of the DIY decorations they made was a very large spider web and webbed person. We ran to the store the very next day, purchased the supplies we needed, and began constructing a lifesize web of our own. 

This is the best picture I have of the web from last year... as you can tell it's good, but not great! We wanted to strive for a bigger and better web this year. That's where the larva sacks come into play. 

How to construct the web: 

We used 2 packets of 25 foot thin white rope. Cut a 6-8 inch center ring and then take 5 equal pieces of rope and connect them to the center ring. These will be the pieces of rope that connect to the walls. From there you just start building off of it. *I wish I had pictures to show you, but this web was constructed last year! This year we sprayed a black spray paint on to parts of the web to give it more of a rugged look. 

How to construct the webbed person: 

 This webbed person is about 4ish feet in length. 

You can make it to be as large or small as you'd like. 

We constructed the body using about a week's worth of newspaper and a roll of white tape. 

Then we used a few packages of cheese cloth and wrapped him until we could not see any more newspaper. Since pulling him down from the attic this year we noticed we could see quite a bit of the newspaper so we wrapped another package or two of cheesecloth around him. Once you have all the cheesecloth applied you'll want to add cobwebs to your "webbed" person! 

Now it's time to hang this poor soul... 

We literally hang him by part of the cob web we use to wrap him with! 

Unfortunately, a thumbtack will not hold this webbed person up. It's too heavy, so you will need to drill a hole in your ceiling and attach the mummy with a anchor and screw! 

How to construct the larva sack's:

 At the beginning of September I posted on all of the Halloween projects I aspired to recreate that you can purchase on Grandin Road. Well the larva sacks were one of them!

First you will want to ball up newspaper and tape it together. 

Then you'll want to spray the newspaper white. Attach a piece of string to each of the sacks, and begin wrapping with cheese cloth. After you have enough cheesecloth on your sacks you'll want to wrap some more cobwebs around them. 

Now you may begin to hang your larva sacks. 

Luckily we did not need to drill another hole into our ceiling! 

Regular push pins worked fine! 

Lastly, you'll want to add tons of cobwebs to your lifesize web and additional spiders of all sizes! 

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{mini tutorial} Bloody Bathroom

Enter if you Dare... 

*Guest bathroom from last year*

In my attempts to create cool inexpensive decorations last year (and now this year) I had stumbled across this website that had a Horror Movie shower curtain and bath mat. But at $20 each I knew I could make my own! 

*Picture from ThinkGeek.com 

For a whopping $20 I was able to transform my whole bathroom from normal every day to creepy scary!

This is how I transformed our guest bathroom for $20:

-white plastic shower curtain $1

-Clear plastic shower curtain hooks $1

-red paint (I had)

-old white towel (for bath mat)

-2 Fluorescent Screw In Black Light Bulb $7/ea at Home Depot

-1 package of plastic fake blood splatters $3

-foam core & spray paint (mirror/already had this)

-double stick tape for foam core mirror panels (already had this)

-skeleton face sticker $1

*picture from last year*

*picture from last year with the flash on so you can see what we did to our mirror. 

For the mirror we cut out white foam core and lightly painted it with black spray paint. We then applied double stick tape to the plain builder grade mirror which held the foam core together. We also applied the skeleton face sticker onto the mirror. *Sticker peals off relatively easy and you can reuse it for years to come.

*picture from last year*

For the shower curtain, I laid it out on the grass and splattered red paint on it. Then you will want to dip your hands in red paint and dragged them down the curtain (make sure someone is home and ready to open doors for you so that you don't get red paint everywhere... not that this happened to me ;). The same goes with the bath mat (splatter paint, dip your feet in the paint and step on the mat)! I use plastic hooks on the bloody shower curtain, so that I don't have to unhook my normal every day curtain. I literally pick up the curtain holding all the hooks and hang it in our guest room closet. Super smooth transition! 

As you can tell the lightbulbs were the most expensive part to this project, but added to the creepy impact! We just unscrewed the other two light bulbs so that they wouldn't turn on but didn't remove them completely. *If you haven't purchased any now--you may be out of luck! These tend to sell out the month of October at all hardware stores. You want the expensive ones too because you can package them up and use them for years to come, plus they are much more powerful then the crappy .99 ones! 

 Our guest bathroom was the biggest hit of our party last year, and everyone wanted to spend there time in the bathroom under the black lights rather than in the rest of the house!  Since we upgraded our guest bathroom a few months ago we have some new surprises in store, but we can't reveal them until after our Halloween party (since some of the people who read this blog will be at our party)! 

I made the cut! The CSI Project: 

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{Tutorial} Mummy Head on a Platter

 

*My Version $18*

*Inspiration picture from Grandin Road*

The month of September is half way over, and that means that Halloween projects in our household have kicked up into full gear! Earlier this month I wrote an entry about some of the Halloween projects I'd like to take on before Halloween this year. All of the projects were based off of expensive decorations from Grandin Road. One of these projects was the Mummy Head on a Platter. It retails for $70. I knew I could recreate this project for way less and still acheive the look and feel. I'm so glad I gave this project a try! Super easy and it's going to look great with all my other decorations. Above you'll see the look I was trying to achieve from Grandin Road.

Materials Needed:

- 1 Styrofoam head  ($4 at beauty supply store)

-Platter of your choice ($1 at Dollar Store)

-Spray paint (if needed to spray platter) ($7 at Lowes)

-Spray Adhesive,

Drop Cloths, Scissors, & Exacto Knife (owned)

-Saw (to cut part of the head off) (owned)

-3 packages of cheese cloth ($2/each at Lowes)

-2 tea bags & water (to dye cheesecloth) (owned)

Total Cost of Project: $18

1. You will want to dye your cheese cloth using tea bags. This will give the bright white cheese cloth an aged effect. I simply brought 3 cups of water to a boil then seeped 2 tea bags. Let the tea come to room temperature, and then start putting a package at a time of cheese cloth into the tea mixture. Letting each package sit in the tea for about 2-3 minutes. Then I would quickly run it under cold water, ring it out, and then set it to the side. I did this technique 2 to 3 times with each package of cheese cloth. When you start to rinse the tea out of the cloth the color will start to come off. This is why I repeated this process multiple times. After the color was to my liking I let it air dry over night. 

2. Next you will want to spray paint your platter. I found this awesome platter at the dollar store for $1! I knew it would be perfect for what I needed it for, but I knew I would need to change the color. I applied a few coats of a crackle silver spray paint until I was happy with the color/texture. 

3. Next you will want to saw off a small portion of the head, so that the head sits lower to the plate. I let my husband handle this part. {I'm not fond of sharp objects!}

4. You will also want to carve out a portion of the mouth. I worked on some of this, but my husband felt the mouth needed a little extra help! Now it's already to be wrapped up! 

5. Next you will want to lay down some drop cloths either in your garage or outside (since you'll be using spray adhesive). You will also want to start cutting your cheese cloth into small pieces (this makes it much easier to adhere onto the head). 

6. Now you will want to start adhering one package of cheese cloth to the head. Lightly spray one portion of the head and start applying small pieces of cloth (there is really no precise way to do this). *Remember spray adhesive is very sticky, so be careful not to get it on your hands. If your hands start instantly sticking to the cloth. Go wash your hands and start working on the head again. Keep applying layers of the spray adhesive and cloth to the head. Once your done with the first pack you'll want to apply the second and half of the third package to the head, but without any spray adhesive. You will want the head to start having a more organic look. 

7. Your almost done. Place the mummy head on the platter. Take the last half of the cheese cloth and cut 3-4 inch wide strips. Wrap these around the neck of the mummy.

You now have a mummy head on a platter!

Here are a few more photo's of this delectable creature:

 

As seen on:Craft Gawker

I made the cut! The CSI Project: