now featuring: the Bootleg Tailoring Corner!

I’ve been thinking for some time now that my blog is in need of a regular feature so here it is ladies and gents: Bootleg Tailoring! Although I have never used a sewing machine and patterns scare the crap out of me, I do a fair bit of tailoring on my own clothes. I started doing a lot of thrift store shopping with my brother when I was in junior high, and being that we were the only people in our very small town looking for things like vintage prom dresses and suspenders we found some amazing stuff. The only bummer is being a fairly small girl with somewhat different measurements (boobs and no hips or ass at all) it’s hard to find things to fit me the way I like. I took to sewing a little bit in high school but didn’t really get into it until I was about 20. For me hand sewing is one of the most relaxing, rewarding things I can do and if you add in some Project Runway I’m basically in heaven. However, like I’ve said I have no training in sewing really, I just sew logically. I’ll show you what I mean with my latest project- I picked up these amazing pants at the swap, but they were waaay too big on me.

Pretty heinous and unflattering right? I mean, I love the pattern and what they became, but I can see why everyone seemed kind of horrified when I was excitedly showing them around. I just think they’re so goofy- I mean, they actually say the words ‘primitve’ and ‘ethnic’ on them! I also love them for the extreme M.I.A. factor.

Annnyway, I started by turning them inside out and having my very handsome boyfriend pull them tight and pin all the way down. Make sure to leave enough room unpinned at the top to get out of them!

Doesn't he look so thrilled to be doing this?

So next I took them off veeeery carefully so none of the pins would fall out and laid them down to go over the hemlines with a pen. Basically just draw a line all along your pin line. Ball point pens work great for marking fabric and usually come out in the wash if you don’t want to invest in a fabric pen. (That’s what I use.)

Don't mind my little voodoo pin cushion...

Depending on how much you take them in you may need to snip some of the extra fabric from the edge so they don’t look bulky. Just make sure you leave at least a half an inch so your stitches don’t get pulled out. If you’re working with polyester you can use a lighter to singe in raw edges so it doesn’t fray- but be VERY CAREFUL not to set yourself and your garment on fire.

Sorry it's so blurry!

Tah-dah!!

I am probably the most proud of these than any other alteration I’ve done. I wore them out last night and got some great compliments on them, and they’re also super comfy since they’re a little stretchy.

I hope these tips may help some of the sewing-impaired, and there will be more Bootleg Tailoring posts very soon! Please ask if you have any questions, I’d love to help other people enjoy sewing as much as I do!

art museum blogger date

I have to start by thanking everyone who came out to U-Swap, it was such an incredible success! Molly and I had a great time and can’t wait to do it again (although hopefully in a less sweaty place and time). The fabulous Rachel Elliott took some shots for us, so I will post those as soon as I get my hands on em! Thank you so much to Kasmira, Tamia, and Paige and all the other Cincy bloggers for coming too- it was so great to meet everyone and see the people I did know again! As always everyone looked fabulous!

These pictures are a few weeks old now since I am a slacker extraordinaire, but Molly the Sister in Second-Hand Sequins and I went to the Cincinnati Art Museum recently to check out the temporary display of antique neon signs they currently have on loan from the American Sign Museum. They only had a few, but after I saw how huge they were I understand why! If you’re near Cincy you should absolutely make a trip to the Sign Museum – they have weird hours but are also open by appointment. We had a really good time running around though- thank god that Molly had her camera and Jacob didn’t mind being our photographer.

He's comin' for ya Molly!

Hudy - delcious Cincinnati beer

I must admit in a little disclaimer here that I don’t drink beer. It just makes me feel all sloshy and sleepy so I pretty much stick to mah favorite super cheap wine: Crane Lake Riesling. Mmmmmm….

Just look how softly he glows. Like an angel.....

They had one of the balcony areas all separated with matte wallpaper and these cool frames for people to draw in!

The museum also currently has some really beautiful Charley Harper prints that are really out of his normal realm. Most of his pieces are centered around nature and look more like the picture below, but these featured a lot more industrial scenes. It was a small exhibit, but I definitely recommend it if you’re in or near Cincinnati.

I love how geometric most of his work is.

Then we ventured around the little courtyard outside to enjoy the sunshine…

The low back on Molly's leotard top is so cute!

One of my many beloved veil hats

Ain't nobody here but us style bloggers....

If only the big swing in front of the museum wasn't anchored...

I love this one that Molly snapped of herself. Suuuch a cute outfit!

All in all a very fun excursion! I love these little playdates and can’t wait to do one with Paige the Midwest Darling too!

WHAT: white cage veil hat, chicken lays an egg

daisy dress, chicken lays an egg

je taime double ring, forever 21

mustard mary janes, target

white vinyl bag, chicken lays an egg

WHERE: art museum and then work

WHEN: tuesday, sometime ago…

don’t waste stuff

It was another crazy busy weekend at the shop last week- we got an AMAZING custom mural done in our courtyard by local artist, Chris Gliebe! He drew up this incredible sketch a few weeks ago, and I was amazed how much it looks like the finished product!

He completed this masterpiece in FOUR HOURS! That blew me away. I will do a separate post for that though, because I’d like to try to make a gif out of all the pictures that Maya took while he was painting it.

So we had a little shindig that night to celebrate, complete with lots of PBR and NorthSlice Pizza, the deeeeeliocious new pizza place that just opened across the street from us. It was a spectacular night and hopefully I’ll have some more pictures from the party soon too…… We’ll see what I can finagle.

Anyway- this post is really about not wasting stuff! My fellow Cincy blogger, Paige of Midwest Darling has set everyone to the challenge of saving a once-loved but now ruined item of clothing and make it wearable again. I really love the spirit of this challenge, we could all save a little more. I do a fair amount of altering and hemming on my own clothes, and have recently started to do a little tweaking on some clothes at Chicken Lays An Egg. A very fashion-forward friend and photographer was in the shop the other day when he suggested that we start doing some serious alterations (more in the vein of upcycling). I am really excited by this idea and although I have never used a sewing machine and have very limited sewing education, I think I could do it. I’m sure I’ll mess up a few dresses along the way, but this idea is really exciting to me. Since Rosie of The Brush Factory will be doing alterations at U-Swap on Saturday, I plan on chatting with her about that a little.

Right now I don’t really have anything that has been messed up and needs a new chance at life, so I thought I’d show you guys some little things that I’ve altered or hemmed instead. This first one I found at a yard sale for $1, at just had to buy it even though it was about 5 sizes too big and 3 feet too long for me.

That's about what it looked like (before I cut that big chunk out of the middle to hem up)

So to fix the giant waist, I added a pleat in the back. Thankfully the material is busy enough to hide it for the most part.

To accomplish this I just kind of pulled the slack inside and then folded the elastic waistband down to stitch it. Sorry the picture doesn’t illustrate that very well…

Sorry the picture is so blurry, my camera would not focus on what I wanted it to.

In the end, it was a fantastic save. Just look how deep the pockets are in this thing!

This next project actually was more of a destroyed piece that I brought back to life. Dana brought this beautiful dress into the shop, and the original material that was in the sunburst was very sheer and light and was very quickly ripped in the dressing room. I told her I’d fix it and bring it back, but instead she just gave it to me! (She’s very generous like that.) I was thrilled and couldn’t decide what to use to replace the ripped fabric until I found this super shiny gold shirt at the thrift store.

Now I just need to lose a few pounds (or ribs maybe) to fit into it… I think I can do it. I do also have a dress that I recently picked up at a thrift store and would really like to repurpose into a little tube dress for myself (with maybe a little sweetheart neckline?)

I haven’t ever really tried anything that ambitious though, so we’ll see how it turns out. Thanks to Paige for encouraging more reusing, we should all do it when we can!