Back to the sewing machine!

I made a skirt!

Check it out..

I made a scarf last year with this tiger print knit material and I could not let the leftovers of this fabulous print go to waist :) Here's how I made it:

I used a skirt that I already have to cut out the shape I wanted. Originally the skirt was going to be all tiger print, but when I put my red skirt next to this fabric I could not help myself. I knew I had to use some red for the back and luckily I just happened to have red knit fabric too.

 After I cut the shape I wanted, I started playing with layering the print (thanks to my friend Sara for suggesting it!)

I played around with different shapes and placed them in various positions until I liked the way it looked

 below is what I decided to go with, so I pinned it down and sewed the tops and sides of the pieces on. I left the bottoms un-sewn and unfinished because it adds movement and since it's knit, the material won't frey (here is a secret, knit is ridiculously easy to work with!) Ok, ok it's not a secret, but if you are looking for a forgiving fabric go for knit!

I did use a finishing stitch along the sides of the front and back panels before using a straight stitch to put them together.

 Then I measured and cut out two pieces of elastic and put a finishing stitch on those. I attached the elastic pieces to each other using a long straight stitch so that I had a circle and then I attached the front of the skirt to the back of the skirt using a long straight stitch.

 Finally, I sewed the elastic on very carefully. This is important: I used a large zig zag stitch that makes a dotted line looking zig zag because it is the most useful for elastic since it leaves room for stretch. To get a professional and finished look, I pinned the bottom part of the elastic to the inside of the skirt so that, if this step were shown in the picture below, the elastic would be sticking out the top. (Of course I forgot to get pictures of the most important part but I'll add some later.)

After I did the dotted zig zag stitch, I folded the elastic under so that you could not see it with the skirt facing out and I did one last top stitch along the top.

I decided to leave the back a little longer and curved and I did not finish the bottom edges because I didn't want it to look to "clean"

TA-DA!!!!

If you want a tutorial on sewing elastic comment below! Trust me it is not as scary as it seems!

 As soon as I get the chance I am going to finish my re fashion on this

And perhaps next time I'll have made something out of the pile of old jean scraps I've got..

Until next time!

Thanks for reading! 

Fast Fashion

Let's talk about important issues with the world we live in...

I know it's been a while since my last post and, for those interested, I do have sewing projects that I plan to post about soon, but today I want to start an important discussion (ok maybe not start it, but contribute to it in hopes of positive change.)

First off, I LOVE shopping at:

Love Culture

http://www.shoppartridgecreek.com/asset/get.asp?asset_id=768

H&M

http://www.shopwestfarms.com/asset/get.asp?asset_id=2909

Forever 21

http://thequickanddirtydirty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/forever21.jpg

and every once in a while I still go into Pac Sun

http://cdn.business.transworld.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/12/Pacsun-storefront.jpg

I recently saw a short video that a lot of people have probably seen:

http://www.upworthy.com/growing-up-he-was-told-that-folks-making-his-clothes-were-being-taken-care-of-he-had-no-idea?c=ufb1

The video made me realize that a lot of the clothes I own have probably come from sweat shops :( I feel like sweat shops were a big issue in the public eye for a little while back when I was in High school when Wal Mart was criticized. Then somehow the issue just dissipated. I don't know if it was because I lost interest or if the media and people in general stopped caring about it but I want to keep talking about the issue.

I have always loved shopping where I could find cute and low priced clothes, but I can no longer ignore the fact that labor laws in a lot of other countries do not exist and a lot of Americans take advantage of that. We help these horrible things continue to happen when we don't ask questions and when we turn the other cheek because we want what we want and we consume and consume, so interested in looking like the latest trend. I don't know how many people will think twice about looking into which stores are doing good in the world and which are not, but I really hope that after reading this you will help male a difference and only shop and places that do not do business with sweat shops.

If you know of awesome stores that do not support sweat shops please comment. Let me know what you think about this! Lets change the way we shop!