Settling In

A PCS (military move) is such a long process. Especially when you are moving from one side of the world to the other and buy a house. We left England April 22nd and moved into our house June 15th, it was another week before we got our household goods. We are getting settled in, most of our main floor has gone from drab like this

to warm and cozy like this.  This photo is an in progress as we still has a storage shipment that had not been delivered so be looking out for more updated photos.
It's nice to have color on our walls again after 4 years of renting.

My studio is set back up as much as it can be.  It's in our unfinished basement.  We hope to be able to finish it over the next couple of years.  Until then I'm working with what I have. 

I decided a few months ago to finally go with my heart and do clothing.  These next few dresses are the start of that.

I also have theses feather hair clips with flowers and button bling.  The dresses and hair clips are going with me to a craft fair tomorrow, the first one I have done stateside.  Hoping for some good weather and maybe a little lower temps as the heat we have had here in the Midwest has been very hard for us to acclimate too.

Excuse the Lack of Blogging

Family life has been busy the last few months and gotten in the way of creativity. As most military families do we moved. We said "Cheers!" to England for the second time and came just about as close to home we can get moving back to Illinois. Moving is a long process for us, first there is the wait to find out where we are going, then the wait to actually start going there. Now we are at our new base but we have another wait to be able to move into our new home. We decided to buy a house, if we were going to live on base or rent the wait would not be so long. On the upside we don't mind the wait since all our earthly possessions aside from 8 suitcases are still somewhere between Europe and us. Sleeping on the floor is not on our list of favorite things to do.

I got the camera out the other day and did some playing while the kids played outside.  Between rain/storms and not being used to heat and humidity we have been pretty cooped up the last few weeks.

Right before we left England I did take some time to be creative.  I did a little bit of scrap busting making some cuffs and headbands.

These will be going up for sale on the Military Wives Creations congo on Hyena Cart on May 21st.

There are small items listed in the ETSY shop and I'm looking into putting a storefront on the Facebook page.  I'm looking forward to getting re-established and getting to use some services like paying for postage online and having the mail man pick up my packages.  Shipping times will be much faster for you guys as well.

Simple Yoga Waist Skirt Tutorial

Sometimes when I'm randomly surfing the web I see stuff I would really like to make.  Sometimes I read the tutorial fully, file it away on Pinterest or bookmark it.  Sometimes I glance quickly say oh that looks pretty simple and go on to the next page.  This is one of the later so I have no idea where the original tutorial that inspired me is at.

What you will need:

• Knit fabric with a decent amount of stretch (how much will depend on what size and style of skirt you are making)

• a yard stick

• a tape measure
• cutting tools
• a cutting mat if you plan to use a rotary cutter
• tailors chalk or a marker
• serger or sewing machine with a ball point needle and stretch or zig zag stitch.

Gather your materials.  You will need to take two measurements.  The first is your waist the second is how long you want your skirt.  Cut two lengths of fabric the desired length of your skirt plus any hem allowance you wish to leave.  Lay these two pieces of fabric folded in half length wise on your cutting surface. 

Now for some math.  You will need to take your waist measurement and divide it by 4, so if you have a 32 inch waist your number will be 8 inches.  On your fabric mark 8 inches from the folded edge of the fabric.

Then using your yard stick mark a line down the length of the fabric.  You can make this straight or flare it out as I did here.

Using a rotary cutter or scissors cut down the line you just drew.

Now cut out your waist band.  I used a contrasting fabric for this skirt.  I cut two pieces that were half of my waist measurement by 6 inches.

Sew the side seams on your skirt right sides together.

Sew the side of your waist band together the same way.  Then fold the waist band in half line up the side seams with the main skirt body and sew right sides together.

The last step is to put in your hem.  There are a number of techniques you can use from a simple shirt tail hem to cover stitched hems.  I choose to finish mine with a lettuce edge that is simply a tightly serged edge with the knit fabric pulled tight as I ran it through my serger to give it a ruffled look.

This skirt took about 30 minutes to complete start to finish.  It can easily be made from toddler through adult.