Rainbow Chakra Yoga Pants

This is sort of a refashion post.
Last spring, I made a pair of yoga pants that were a little bit too big on me.
Here's a picture of the saggy pants, from last year:

Hahahaha! I know, it was too loose for yoga, but very comfortable as lounge wear. This year, I find myself in need for more yoga pants. Instead of making a new pair, I wanted to see if I can alter the existing pair. Make it fit a little better.

I wanted to see if I could turn the pants inside out and sew a seam an inch or two from the seam, as shown in the photo below.

Yes! Yes! It worked. What a simple way to make a large pair of yoga pants fit!

I teach at a yoga center, and at one of the classes, I am leading a 7 week chakra series. Each week, we do yoga postures for a chakra, and each chakra has it's corresponding color. And isn't it lovely that all the colors together look like a rainbow.
In honor of the chakra series, and to make my pants more interesting, I added color wheels. I took strips of scrap jersey, pinned and sewed (using straight stitch) onto one side of the pants:

I did not have the opportunity to get a photo of the pants when worn, but I did manage to photograph this pants, with the last rays of the natural light today. Just barely made it!I get lots of compliments on it, despite (or perhaps because of) the less than perfect look of each wheel.

Jumble Dresses

Over the weekend, I made some girls' spring dresses out of old t-shirts.

I started out with the test dress:


It was OK, but I can't say I was 100% satisfied with how it turned out.

Then I started making more, and they got a little better and I got a little faster:

And I made more:
And more:

And I'm still making more.
Help. I think I'm addicted.

My daughter has claimed the first one to wear this spring. They are all around size 5-6 and will fit my daughters, but I think I will more some more so that I can sell them at a green fair this April. They will my Jumble Dresses, because they are made out of a jumble of recycled t-shirts.

Sewing Machine Links that Blew Me Away

Alright. I'm being a tad bit dramatic.

In my last post, I griped a little about my hemming job. Someone pointed out to me that I could try a hemming foot on my machine. That got me thinking, that I should really learn more about sewing machine feet. So, as I was reading up on my sewing machine, sewing feet and etc., I found a few things that are worth sharing with you.

• First up, is this amazing collection of videos<==Amazing Link Here. You have got to check it out! This company, Sewing Machine Sales, has put together a list of videos demonstrating a whole array of sewing machine feet. Being a visual person, this collection really helped me understand the different machine feet that are out there. What a good resource!
  

• Next up, is this awesome organization called Tools for Self Reliance, based in the UK as well. In a nutshell, they send tools and refurbished sewing machines to six countries in the African continent. So cool! They also have many pdf files available for free<==next Amazing Link. These files will teach you how a sewing machine really works, and how to refurbish one, if you ever feel the need to do so. I know there are books that you can get from the library if you ever want to find information like this. However, seeing this resource freely available online, brought tears of joy to this sappy, geeky gal. I'm so cross-eyed from all that reading.
  

• Finally, you may have already seen this before, but this gif has been slowed down enough to put me into a hypnotic trance. I really like looking at it. What does that say about me?
  

This image is available on WikiCommons and was created by user NikolayS. Love it.

Refashion Trial - Start Small

I had this idea in my head for a while now. A flounce skirt from jeans. However, I thought it would be better to start off small, making it for my daughter instead of me.

My daughter's old jeans. Too torn to donate to charity:

I converted it into a skirt:

But it's too short. I think I like my girls in longer skirts:

I cut a few of these circles, from freecycled fabric.


Mathy stuff:: The circumference of the inner circle has to be measured slightly smaller than you'd expect. This is because the circle has to be cut on the bias at some point, and this causes the fabric to stretch. If you cut the circumference to the exact size that you want, it will end up being too big to attach to the skirt.

Here's the skirt, with three layer of flounce:
You probably noticed that I did not do such a great job with the hems. I ironed, and was very careful with it, but I failed with the slippery material. I will definitely be staying away from fabric like this. It still looked very cute, and my daughter really likes it.

She has a fever this morning, and she did not feel like taking pictures. However, we both had fun putting together some outfits. We came out with this:

She's now resting on the couch, wearing this adorable getup.....

So, what do you think? Should I make an adult version of the flounce skirt?

Red, Red Day to You!

I'm back! Hehe, bet you didn't even know I was away, did you? Well, we drove out to Montreal for a very last-minute vacation. It's just so cathartic to induce a change of pace when one is stuck in a winter's rut. Well, Montreal was wonderful. We did some touristy stuff, but we also spent a lot of time goofing off, watching the Olympics, and swimming. Wow, we spent a lot of time at the hotel's pool. Yesterday alone, we spent a good 4 hours there.
We're back now, and tomorrow is still a vacation day for most people in Ontario. It's Family Day, so we'll be doing Family Stuff. :)

I just wanted to wish those of you who celebrate Chinese New Year -

Gong Hei Fatt Choi!

Oh, and yes, Happy Valentine's Day too.

Swimsuit for me Me ME!

There I was, enjoying my own company in a hot tub, when I glance down. The churning and bubbling water had caused my very old swimsuit to balloon up in the most embarrassing manner. I looked like a uni-boob pregnant woman, or like I'm smuggling a beach ball under my suit. Luckily, we were the only ones in the pool hall that day, so I just closed my eyes and pretended not to see anything.
My husband came along and said something along the line of, "I guess it's time for a new swimsuit, huh?".
Smart Alec.

OK, after making a few swimsuits for my daughters, I am no longer afraid to tackle swimwear. I made this new swimsuit, using the old one as a template:


I wanted to duplicate swimsuit that I had, because I wanted to reuse the bra cups (they were in good shape). I really did not feel like going shopping for bra cups.

I cut up my old swimsuit to make the pattern. Notice how slack the old swimsuit fabric was:

A few points about making swimsuits:

• When in a pinch, lining the front of an adult swimsuit with the same material (doubling up), works well. Here's the inside of the swimsuit. I know, it doesn't look that great on the inside. I reused the bra cups, and did not even bother fixing the color of the thread. I did switch out the elastic. No one can really see the bra when I'm wearing it anyway :)

• I attached the elastic to the fabric using the serger, flipped the elastic under, and used a zig-zag stitch to finish the seams. Zig-zag stitch works even better than twin needles.

The swimsuit fabric was from stash. It had cost about $3.50 for half a meter, and the two packages of chlorine resistant elastic I used, was on hand (about $1.50 per package). So, this is a really inexpensive swimsuit:

Here are the links to my previous discussions on sewing swimwear:
Swimwear Sewing Tips: Part 1
Swimwear Sewing Tips: Part 2
Swimwear Sewing Tips: Part 3

If you've been thinking of making your own swimming wear, I really encourage you to give it a shot!

A Very Pink Birthday

First off, thank you for taking the curtain poll. I really appreciate you input. You guys rock!

Over the weekend, we celebrated my youngest daughter's 4th birthday.




Check out the bunting. It's supposed to say "Happy Birthday", but the lettering blended in too much with the fabric I chose. Hehe... ooops! However, I like the festive look, so they stayed up anyway.

We decided that we like Tulle. We really, really like using it to make a Magic Entrance.
My older daughter and I had fun making our Pouf Pink Centerpiece:

My husband made his chocolate cake from scratch (it's so good), and I, um, decorated it.
"Cool! Four hearts for the four-year-old!", said my husband. Er yeah! I totally planned it that way... not!
You can tell it's home made. Who wants to sign up for cake decorating classes with me?

We had a busy weekend! We had family and friends over on Saturday for a birthday dinner. On Sunday, we had a small crafty party for my daughter and her friends. We danced to Lady Gaga, played silly games, did a treasure hunt and ate yummy snacks.
We also made Princess Party hats. Most importantly, we made Princess Tutu skirts and princess necklaces for our own Fairy Bears:


Happy Birthday, Little (Big) Girl!
P.S. - I'd like to keep the illusion that I had all this planned out a long time ago, but you know it's not true. The bunting was done on Friday. I brainstormed for the little girls' party at 10:15am in my car on Saturday morning after teaching a yoga class, and went shopping for the party items at 10:30am. When I got home, we grocery shopped, bought one ice cream cake, made the special cake, cooked dinner for a bunch of people, decorated(and cleaned) the place, and planned out next day's little people party.
Talk about being last minute and scrambling eh? My husband and I, we work well under pressure. Thank goodness Sunday dinner was taken care of. We just showed up at our friend's house for her Feijoada party. Her feijoada is to die for.

Take the Curtain Poll

My dear friends,

Sometimes, the cold winter months of January and February does strange things to my brains. Maybe it is because I'm not a native of this over-changing North American climate.

For instance, against my intuition, I decided to be a little "different" and "adventurous" when choosing the fabric for the guest room's curtains.

Conversations in Su's head:

Stop telling me that orange is not my color, voice in my head. I'm dressing the window. Not myself.

It's gonna look weird with the green...

Bah, it's time to step out of my comfort zone, that's what I say.

But it so shiny. This is so not you! Listen to me!

Not listening... roma-ah-ah-ah, gaga-oh-la-la...not listening....




Here are the curtains. Judge for yourselves.

In the sunlight:

Without the sunshine:
Since readers of this humble blog are always so polite, and won't say anything unless they have something nice to say, I've decided to go the Fug Ladies way and set up a poll for you:

What do you really think of the curtains?



Thanks,
Su

Desperate for Chinese New Year Lanterns

My daughter and I saw these valentine lantern garlands at the dollar store. We were desperate enough for Chinese New Year decorations, that we decided to mangle up perfectly the good heart shape:
and cut them out into wonky circles:

And instead of a garland, we just had the lanterns hang haphazardly on the chandelier.
We rather like the festive effect:

Seeing as Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days, and Valentine's day is only celebrated on the 14th, we have decided to go heavy on the new year deco!