Merry Christmas!! - LBD & Simplicity 1325

Helloooo! I hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas and were able to spend it with the with people that you love and make you happy! I had an amazing day yesterday with my family and friends. The older I get, the less excited I am about holidays but I do appreciate having time off to just BE with my family. And I thank God for Jesus and all of the blessings that came with that gift alone :-D. 

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to make a dress for Christmas but I knew that I wouldn't have a lot of time. My mom and I were recently going through clothes and deciding what we could give away, when I came upon a stretch velvet little black dress that my mom had when she was my age. Just a basic tank dress. I decided to use it as an easy upcycle project and turn the dress from a basic LBD to something a bit more glamorous and appropriate for the season.

This:

To THIS:

My Singer is finally in tune!

You see what I did there? lol

YES! I FINALLY took my vintage Singer to the shop to get it cleaned and tuned up and now it is ready!

To be honest, when it was given to me, I didn't even really explore what was in the box. Not the original box. The box full of dust and cobwebs that was reused to house the sewing machine and it's bits and pieces. I never even plugged it in to see if it works because of all of the dust. I'm a little bougie lol I decided when I found a shop to take it to, they would deal with all of that lol.

Anway, this Singer 5528 was gifted to me by my mother. It has 6 different stitches and 4 more for creating buttonholes. All metal everything, this joint ways like fifty-eleven pounds forreal.

No UFO's going into 2015!

Well not any unselfish ones anyway lol. I have a nice sized pile of of UFO's of projects that I was supposed to complete for other people. Some dating back to April. I know. smh. I have so many things that I want to make for myself but I feel really guilty about making yet ANOTHER selfish project when I have promised these things. I'm not gonna let it go down like that. 

And since it IS the holiday season, this is a time of GIVING. I pledge to finish all of my unselfish UFO's by January 1st. I will sprinkle in some minuscule projects for myself (i.e. lining beanies, xmas dress) but most of my focus will be on others. So what do I have to do?

Puerto Rico 2014!

Not quite sure why it takes me so long to blog about my travels when it's mostly just a photo dump lol Anyhoo, I went to Puerto Rico last month with my friend Macy. I had a five day weekend so we went just because. We stayed in San Juan at her friend Detti's apartment and his roommate Lucia. Puerto Rico was such a beautiful country and is one that I plan to visit again in the future!

Unfortunately, the first day it got there, it rained all day! And I don't mean just regular rain. It was like a torrential downpour lol The people there were even surprised. Lucky for us, it had stopped by the night time and we were able to go out to La Plazita. But before I get ahead of myself, first, we went to Bebo's Cafe in the afternoon to eat.

Another Leopard Vogue - 1314 and N&F Meetup!

Hello friends! It's been a couple of weeks but I finally have something to show for it lol. I've been traveling and moving sewing locations and trying to get a room all set up. I'll talk about that more in another post thought. A week or so ago, I hosted another meetup for the Needles&Fashion facebook group for the people in the DMV area so I HAD to make something to wear. I didn't HAVE to but I HAD to lol

I don't know when the weather decided to just be winter, but it's gotten ridiculous. I knew I wanted a long sleeve dress, knit fabric because I didn't want to have to deal with any darts and stuff, no extra notions, and I wanted it to be long. I was originally going to make McCalls 6886 and lengthen it but I cannot find it for the life of me. I had to find a quick alternative because of course I was making it the night before. This is Vogue 1314, a Tracy Reese design. (it really does pay to have a pattern stash ;-) )

Scandal Challenge & TMS November - McCall's 6209

Welcome back! I've squeezed in the mini available corner of my dining room to actually make something! lol Can't wait to be done with all of our house renovations so I can have some space to sew! lol But enough about my #sewingroomwoes. 

Last month, PrettyGirlsSew decided that October would be The Scandal Challenge *shutter clicks* lol. You had to pick one of five categories to make a garment for.  "9-5 on Capital Hill", "Date Night with Jake", "Inaguration After Party", "Lunch date with the Gladiators" or "Stakeout with Huck". 

I chose "9-5 on Capitol Hill". Now that I think about it though, this look for many would be a "Lunch date with the Gladiators". But this is actually something that I'd wear to work on any given day. And I work in DC at a "good gubment job" lol

With coffee in hand and my badge around my neck, I can see Olivia walking into the White House about to go fuss at Cyrus about another person he's threatening to kill lol.

This is McCalls 6209 View A. I thought View A looked the most Olivia-Pope-ish lol

Crochet Braids with 100% Kanekalon Hair

It's been over a month since I debuted my newest hairstyle on the blog. This has been a protective style I have been wanting to try since Chinelo opened my eyes to it: Crochet Braids!

at the Panamanian Day Parade in Brooklyn

Once I read that the style she had wasn't her hair, I immediately ran over to Mother Google to find out more about this witchcraftery lol. I went down a black YouTube hole which ultimately led me to discover the 100% Kanekalon Hair version of crochet braids. I rarely use heat and I don't straighten my hair so I though this would be a great alternative. Plus I was getting super frustrated dealing with my hair and I knew I had to put it away for a while.