Remake of Cherries!

A few weeks ago I took a trip with my dear aunties and Solly pie to the Islands and toodled around these adorable little historical touristy towns all day! It was so much fun and while we were out I saw something in the window of a consignment shop that caught my eye...

It was this adorable little rose print dress and I think the thing I loved about it the most besides the perfect fit was the contrasting red and white polkadot fabric that added such a whimsical but still sophisticated air to the dress..

I tried it on, fell in love, and shelled out $10 for it. It was an investment... I swear. ;-)

There were a few things I wanted to "alter" on the dress because I can rarely buy something and leave it the way it is now days :-P

The first thing was the straps, it was a strapless dress and I like straps, so I wanted to add some of those.

The second thing was the tulle that was hanging out underneath. It had a little charm in and of itself (with that adorable little polkadot border!) but I thought the tulle looked a little too little girly or like a ballet costume...

I decided that I HAD to do it that night (so I could wear it to church the next day... duh) which by the way, I used to decide at some point Saturday afternoon that I needed a new outfit for Sunday and then be up sewing till all hours of the day and night Saturday to finish it alll the time when I was *ehum* younger and had more energy ;-) Now that I have reached the ripe old age of 19 I decided to indulge myself once again in a spontaneous trip to Joann's and a late Saturday night sewing session =)

I found an adorable cherry fabric that matched the general color scheme and the finished product is below!

I ended up adding ties and a little waist band as well just to spread the cheery cherry around ;-)

Is that not the MOST adorable cherry fabric!! I adore it!

I added a hem band just long enough that the cuuuuute polka-dot fabric shows a little here and there at the bottom, but no tulle!

Then for Sunday I decided to go a little bit vintage and added a minty teal cardigan that my dear Auntie gave me, a string of pearls (that I forgot to wear in the picture) and my red TOMS wedge sandals that I adore and would wear with everything if I could. ;-)

I really don't need this last picture ... but I just loved the way it turned out, so... ♥

I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out! and I think I ended up spending about $13 total on it =)

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Shirt Makeover!

Okay.. so I found this shirt in the goodwill pile that I thought was really cute... just waaaay to big for me!

Case in point...

and....

Please excuse the one eyed dope face, really, I don't look that creepy all the time

The first thing I did was to bring in the back on both sides because I dont really have a very big back and when I put in the elastic for the high waist I didnt want an extra back puff. Highly successful method. ;-)

I then used my AWESOME serger and just made a seam on either side of the back and tada!

I marked the bodice below the bust line for the elastic....

Cut it straight in half!

Pinned it back together and sewed it in a small zig zag stitch (to preserve the stretchieness) at 3/8th seam allowance, and then folded the seam allowance up towards the top of the bodice and sewed it at 1/4th of an inch to made a casing for the elastic.

Wala! The finished product!

It was at this point that I realized something... this looked like a maternity shirt, so, if you are a size small and want a maternity shirt... do this!! I don't really need a maternity shirt right now, but it was a free project and hey... a learning experience!

yep, see... no belly at all... nothing but sheerly awesome abs.. that you ummm cant see O:-)

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Announcing: ACTION project!

Baby dolls. Such a simple item that can be found in almost every home in the United States. When I was in Mexico, I held a little girl as she received her very own baby doll. She was the only one of the girls to get one and all the others gathered around to gently touch her new "baby." The wheels in my head started to turn as I saw the desire in the other girls eyes.

About a month later, cleaning out the "toy bin" at home, I found five baby dolls that no one wanted any more. We have lots of girls and dolls in abundance, not to mention most of us are past the age of actively playing with them. What if we reached out to our sisters all over the world with something as simple as a doll? What if we could take our unused baby dolls and send them down to the little Mexican girls as a ministry? What if we could use that which we never use to change someone's life? What if God could take out "trash" and use it to bring treasure?

I talked to the missionaries down in Mexico and they thought that the dolls would be a great blessing to the girls down there!

The project: Collecting baby dolls cleaning them up and shipping them to Tucson AZ where they will be brought to Mexico and given to the girls.

Girls: Go through your closets and boxes! Get your friends involved! Make a day to clean and dress all the dolls for delivery. Just imagine what a blessing we could be to these little girls and what fun we could have while doing it!

Guys: Okay, so hopefully you don't have any dolls in your closet, but that does not mean you cannot be involved! Spread the word among your sisters and female friends! We will need some funding to ship all the dolls; perhaps your little sister is getting a box together; perhaps you can help her with the postage! If you don't have that option, I am sure there will be sisters with out brothers, you can sponsor a box for a sister in Christ that you may not even know!

Please feel free to email me at miakalista[at]hotmail[dot]com, if you have any questions or would like to contribute. =) On the right hand side bar is our Facebook group if you would like to join!

Love,

Hillary

Note: This is a call just for baby dolls, not for barbie dolls or stuffed animals ♥

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Excuses...

Good enough?

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