DIY Maxi Dresses: Cheap and Easy

If you know me in real life, you know that I only wear skirts and dresses, I wear my skirts and sleeves long, and I like a high neckline. Only someone else who dresses this way would understand just how difficult it is to find clothing that fits these guidelines. You might say it's about like finding a unicorn, especially when you consider the fact that I'm unwilling to pay anywhere near $100 for anything I'm not being married in. (My wedding dress - nearly 16 years ago now - was a sample gown from a California bridal shop that I picked up on Ebay for $125, shipping included.)

So you might imagine my excitement to run across an idea on Pinterest of how to easily make your own maxi dresses without having to sew them completely from scratch. I'm a fairly accomplished seamstress, but I can't say that I relish sewing a lot with silky knits, which are my absolute favorite to wear. Besides, those silky knit fabrics can be pricey. I've been spoiled for thrift store prices.

So, let me tell you about how easy this is - after I link back to A Small Snippet, the blog where I got my inspiration. The really funny thing is that I modified her idea a bit (by using premade clothes - all knit), and she modified her idea from the woman who inspired her (Talk to the Trees). This could go on endlessly ...

I had recently done a closet purge, and a few of my favorites went out with that purge. As my body changes with midlife realities, some of my formerly favorite clothes just aren't flattering on me anymore. Therefore, I didn't wear them. This allowed me to rescue a few favorites and change them so that they were flattering on my new proportions.

The basic idea is this: Cut a tee to about empire-waist length (just slightly under your bust area). Sew on a maxi skirt or the bottom of a dress (being sure to use a stretch stitch), and you have a dress! It's really that easy.

This is the first one I made. I loved the flower detail on the neckline of this top, but it irked me to always have to layer it to make it modest enough for my personal standards. Oh, and it was longer than my ideal. I'm short.

The bottom part was from a dress that had thinner stripes on the top. When I bought it at the thrift store, I thought it wouldn't bother me. In reality, I just couldn't bring myself to wear it like that. Mismatching stripes are not my personality.

The bonus part of this dress was being able to fill in the neckline of this top with what I cut off the bottom of it. I love it now! 

This was my second dress. I loved this yellow top but had somehow managed to get a pink stain near the bottom of it. This allowed me to cut off the stain but still use the good part.

The skirt part came from another dress that I bought when I was a size smaller than I am now. I loved the big, bold houndstooth print and the silky knit. But I didn't like how it showed every imperfection of my new size. Raising it slightly to sit just below my bust made it flattering again. I can't tell you how happy I am to rescue this one!

You'll notice that I added a belt as an option. They fit fine without one, but I think it dresses up the look just a bit. I could really wear them either way.

This borders on life-changing. Summers don't have to be spent sweating in layers. I don't have to pay $80+ for a pretty dress (thanks to thrift stores where I can buy the tops and bottoms to sew together) - not that I would anyway.

On a side note: Did you notice that I have a dress form now? I've been sewing since I was somewhere around 13 (let's not talk about how many years that's been), and I've always wanted one. But I never wanted to spend what they cost brand-new. I picked up this one at a yard sale for less than one-third of what it's going for in the store. It's in excellent condition, and I'm enjoying the ease of sewing and mending when I don't have to personally try on all of the clothes at every step of the project.

Altered Composition Books

A few weeks ago, I ran across the "lowest price of the season" sale at Michaels. I was there for something completely different, but the 12x12" paper stacks for $5 each caught my attention. I used to do a LOT of papercrafting, but I haven't done any in a long time.

There were some gorgeous paper stacks. And at $5 for 48 sheets, that's a lot of papercrafting for just a little bit of money. How could I say no? (Please don't tell me if you know how to resist this. I've enjoyed my foray back into papercrafting.)

Since it's so close to back-to-school season, I was also able to get a great deal on college-ruled composition notebooks. I've made decorative composition notebooks before, so it was a logical project for this pretty paper.

This one came mostly from the Marishka paper pad. I just added a little accent of gold foil paper along the corners.

This came entirely from the Marishka paper pad, as did the next one.

The front image on this one was a full 12x12" page. The word "love" fit onto the front of the composition notebook, so I just cut it down to size.

This is the inside of the "Love" book. I added solid cardstock inside the front and back covers of each book to hide the ugly school charts and completely disguise their humble beginnings.

All of this came from the Marishka paper pad, except for the accents of gold foil paper.

I really like the page borders that come in these paper pads. There are two whole pages of them. I just had to cut them apart.

This one came from the Grace paper pad. I added accents of gold foil paper, as I did on several of the others. The "Have Faith" sentiment was one of several 6x6" accents in the paper pad.

This one came from the Pink Champagne paper pad. I would have made a lot more with that paper pad, but I'm trying to save some for an activity for my daughter's 13th birthday party that has a black, white, pink and rose gold theme.

This was another 12x12" full page that happened to fit onto the front of my composition notebook.

I made this one from the Bless Our Home paper pad (minus the gold foil accents underneath the corners of the flower card).

This also came from the Bless Our Home paper pad. I just added a strip of matching washi tape where the two papers joined. The flower paper was a 12x12" border page. This is a perfect way to use that type of page.

This was actually the very first one I made, and it came from the Bless Our Home paper pad. The sentiment came from the bottom of a full 12x12" page. The sentiment and accents are all in gold foil, which is a little tricky to capture on camera.

There was a tree image above the sentiment, and I used it to make another notebook (up next). I thought this would be particularly neat for someone collecting genealogy information. I added gold foil paper to the insides of this one.

Lastly, this was made from the tree image leftover from the last composition notebook. Everything except the silver glittered washi tape came from the Bless Our Home paper pad.

So ... what am I going to do with all of these?

I like to give something to each of our church people for their birthday. This year, all the ladies got handknit dishcloths. (Guys got candy and will still get candy next year. They're impossible to shop for.) Next year, I plan to give each of our ladies a pretty composition book. These would make great journals, guest books, recipe books - almost anything you can think of.

October 2018 Bullet Journal Setup - Sunflower Theme

If you know me, you might know that one of my favorite colors is yellow.

When I thought about a theme for October, sunflowers came to mind. Now, before we go any further, I should explain that I am no gardener. I admire flowers (especially roses, double peonies and sunflowers), but I cannot grow a flower to save my life. Flowers practically wilt overnight when they find out they're at my house. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but it seems like it sometimes.

Anyway, I said that to say this: I have no idea if sunflowers are still blooming in October. I just like them, they are a fall-ish color, and they're not difficult to draw. So that made them a perfect theme for my first attempt at drawing in my bullet journal.

 Why did I decide to try drawing in my bullet journal?

First of all, if you've noticed the bullet journal themes I've shared in the past, I've been using washi tape as my main accent and taking colors from the washi tape. However, washi tape - even when used only on every other page - tends to make the pages quite thick by the end of the journal. That can't be easy on the spine.

Secondly, when I'm very busy, I don't always have time to spend on creative pursuits. Creativity recharges me, and I feel restless when I can't do something creative for weeks on end. (If you don't understand, that's okay. Fellow creative types will understand.) However, when I'm busy, I rely heavily on my bullet journal to make sure I get everything done. So if I can work some creativity into my bullet journal, I can still have a creative outlet on my busy weeks.

Thirdly, I enjoyed trying a doodle challenge last month. It made me realize that I can draw simple things if I concentrate on the shapes and details. This made me wonder just how much I might be able to draw if I practiced and concentrated. Hence the desire to try out drawing in my bullet journal.

Inspired by @chrochlo on Instagram

I really love how my title page turned out!

I'm a math geek at heart, and I love it when I can find a pattern to make something that puzzles me. I used a protractor to make sure my petals were spaced evenly (one at 90 degrees, one at 45 degrees, etc.). I used a ruler to make sure the petals were all the same length.

I did freehand the shape of the petals, which is pretty obvious if you look closely. They vary a bit. The inside of the sunflower is filled with tiny little circles to mimic the seeds. It seemed like there were a million of them when I was drawing them, but I really like the finished effect.

The monthly spread was inspired by one I found on Pinterest. Unfortunately, the pin only led to the image, which had no watermark on it. If you recognize this spread, I'd love to credit the original designer.

I changed it up a little bit by adding my trackers on the righthand side and then filling in a few bare spots with partial sunflowers.

I used the same basic sleep log and budget page as usual, but I added a partial sunflower to the pages to dress them up and make them fit in with the theme.

I left my check register page without any sunflowers, since I really need all the space on this spread. I brought in the theme simply with the colors.

In case you're wondering, yes, I keep my checking account register in my bullet journal. In this age of debit cards, I burn through the check registers from the bank way too fast otherwise. I keep all of my bullet journals anyway, so it makes sense to keep my check registers in them, too.

Another big change I made this month was to try out Dutch door layouts and actually layout the entire month at once.

I discovered that I was using the same number of pages for each week, so why not make it look pleasing to the eye? The Dutch door feature ensures that I can see my weekly menu the entire week, instead of having to flip back whenever I go to the next page.

Here is a closeup of where the Dutch door is on my page, since it isn't very obvious from the first picture.

Notice on the far right of the picture that I didn't cut the paper the whole way to the spine.

Many people have noted that cutting the whole way to the spine weakens the binding of the journal and eventually makes the facing page loose where the cut was made. To prevent this, I simply cut up to the very last partial square near the middle - and then left it intact from there. In real life, it blends in. You wouldn't notice it at first glance unless I told you.

Another thing many people have noted about Dutch doors is that they tend to make mountains and valleys in the journal when too many are used back-to-back. To counteract this tendency, I'm experimenting with staggering where the Dutch door is placed from week to week.

On the first week, I placed it at the bottom. For this second week, I placed it at the side. On the next week, I placed it at the top. Cycling through this pattern should help to avoid having huge dips where I've cut out the Dutch doors.

On this particular layout, I was able to include my "to do" list on the lefthand side, which meant I had an extra block where the days are. I simply used it for a "brain dump" section, since I find those are helpful to include on a regular basis.

This is the last of the Dutch door layouts, this time with the cutout at the top. Other than that, it's basically the same layout as the one where I had the cutout at the bottom.

Once again, you can see the "Dutch door" part a little better on a closeup.

I'm excited to try this out for a month! I'll try to remember to update you next month on how it went, what I liked, and what (if anything) didn't work so well for me.

Coloring Pages as Bullet Journal Monthly Cover Pages

I recently found this book at my local Ollie's store. If you don't have an Ollie's store near you, the motto is "Good Stuff Cheap," and that's about what you can expect. The store has a warehouse feel to it. You're getting a good deal on the merchandise, partly because they keep overhead costs to a minimum. I especially enjoy their book section, since I can usually expect to find books at 75%-off the regular price. I've found a nice selection of adult coloring books there in the past year or so.

This book caught my eye because it's about the same size as my bullet journal. I looked through it and discovered that I like most of the images. Most of them would work as monthly divider pages - also known as cover pages - in my bullet journal. I've been looking to branch out of just washi tape decorating my bullet journal, and this seemed like a good place to start.

I don't know about you, but I can't color well in a bound book this thick. So I took a utility knife to it and cut all the pages out.

I cut as close to the spine as I could, and it worked perfectly. Now I have a whole book full of coloring pages that will stay flat while I color them. I was inspired to get started on one right away.

This is the finished product with the pencils I used and my homemade blender (on the far right). When I first looked at the blank page, I wasn't sure what colors to work with. But I started with the obvious - the leaves. Then, since I know virtually nothing about flowers, I searched online to find out what type of flower has five pointy petals. I found a yellow one with an orange-red center. That color scheme works perfectly for this time of year, so I went with it.

I enjoyed blending the colors a bit - something new for me (at least without using baby oil). I outlined each letter in red, then colored it in with orange. It created a lovely, blended color.

My baby oil is long gone, so I used some vitamin E oil that I had on hand to blend the flowers a bit. It didn't turn out exactly like I had envisioned, but it will do. I'll get better with practice.

I'm envisioning cutting around the outside edge - letting the leaf and flower edges spill out onto the page. I don't want to do that until it's time to paste it into my bullet journal, since I don't want to risk having the leaf and flower edges bent or torn.

I'm not sure what to think about adding it to by bullet journal with the oil blending. I didn't think about that part until after I did it ... I may put it between two pages until next month to see if it leeches any oil. I'll keep you posted!

DIY Decorative Phone Case for a Cheap Phone

If you're budget-minded like me, you can't justify spending $700+ for a smartphone when a $100 or less model will suit your purposes just fine.

The two main differences I've noticed with my phone - a Galaxy Core Prime model from about three years ago - is the camera quality and the built-in storage space. Since I have a nice camera to use for photography, the camera issue is not a dealbreaker for me. At 41, I'm probably not your typical cell phone user, either, so my 8 GB of built-in storage works just fine for me. I added an SD card to help with photo storage, and I really don't miss the extra built-in GB.

However, the big downer for me was that no one sells pretty phone cases for my phone model. Again, though, it wasn't worth spending a few hundred dollars more for the option of pretty phone cases. I simply found a clear case for less than $20, added a color card I reference often, and called it good.

I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me sooner to add something pretty, but it didn't ... until I saw a video on YouTube of someone designing a custom-drawn insert for their own clear case. I'm no artist, but I have all kinds of pretty paper and old calendars hanging around. I love paper, after all.

So I sat down and remedied my boring phone case in less than an hour. It was very easy!

The first thing I did was go through my old calendar stash and look for pictures I liked that would fit inside my phone case. Overly large pictures won't work, but often you can find a smaller detail that works in larger pictures. In this case, it was the sunflower. I love yellow, and I love sunflowers. This was perfect.

The next step was to trace around my phone case. In retrospect, I think it would have been much easier to trace around my phone, but my phone case is clear, so I was able to make sure I had the details exactly where I wanted them. I paid special attention to where I was going to be cutting out rectangles for my camera lens, flash and microphone (at least I think that's what the third rectangle is on my phone). I didn't want that to be in the middle of the main detail of my picture - the sunflower.

Then I played around with it a bit, trimming a little here and there, until it fit nicely into the back of the case. Then I used a pencil to draw around the camera, flash, and microphone rectangles on the case so I knew exactly where to cut and how big to make the cutouts.

Here you can see the pencil marks before I cut them out.

I used a small craft knife to cut out the rectangles. Precision is important here, since you don't want a tiny remnant of paper clouding all of your pictures.

I put it back into the case to make sure it all lined up perfectly before adding the phone. My case is pretty hard to get apart without a screwdriver, so I wanted to make sure I had it just right.

All that was left was to add my phone, snap the front on, and admire the results.

This makes me ridiculously happy. I hope it helps someone else.

If you've done something similar, I'd love to see yours for inspiration!

DIY Footed Serving Dishes

I showed you my DIY apothecary jars the other day. Today I'm going to share one of my favorite glass re-dos to date:

 I found a set of three of these glass flower plates at the same yard sale I mentioned in the previous post. They were too pretty to just languish on the table as a humble plate. They needed something to raise them off the table and show them to best advantage.

I used two matching candlesticks (from the same yard sale) and one slightly shorter candlestick as the bases. This allows for some height variety if I decide I want to use all three together:

Additionally, I can stack two of them, if I want:

I can't tell you how happy I am with the way these turned out. They're exactly what I was hoping for!

I'm also happy with the price: next-to-nothing! You really can't beat yard sale transformations.

DIY Apothecary Jars

One of the things I enjoy doing is making pretty things from ordinary ones. This idea is certainly not new, but I thought I'd share my recent creation that I love so much:

I purchased all of the materials at a recent yard sale for next-to-nothing. A little bit of E6000 transformed them into exactly what I had hoped - perfect apothecary jars for my fall mantle this year!

In case you haven't already figured it out, the bottom is a pretty candlestick. The top is an old, empty Home Interior candle jar that reminds me very much of the shape of a pumpkin (hence the fall mantle thought).

I'll try to remember to show you these in action when I change out my mantle this fall!

And if you've been trying to access my blog through the regular address in the last few weeks, it hasn't been working because I never saw the email about renewing my domain registration. (What can I say? Yahoo Mail annoys me with notifications every 30 minutes if I allow notifications. I don't see important emails if I turn off notifications. I think it's time to switch to a new email provider that isn't intent on annoying me.) It should be fixed soon, though, because I finally found the email and made the payment.