Made By Lex

I have been loving these dresses from Anthropologie. They look like skirts and tops, but are one piece. They are super in style right now and I’ve seen them everywhere- solid on top, print on bottom. Love them!

So I thought I’d try my hand at one. Here we go…
I took a wife beater(Sorry, i still call them that. Ribbed tank to be PC) Then Emmy
had given me this dress in a pile of giveaway stuff. It was the perfect combination.

Cut your shirt at the desired length.
Here’s my tip. We’re going to belt this and you always want to belt at the narrowest part of your waist. Always.
So, cut it off at your narrowest part and leave a little extra length to add the skirt on to it.
Cut your dress (or get some material you have)at the desired length of your skirt.

Here’s my other tip. When you work with ribbed material like this it often stretch A LOT when you add another piece of material to it. Figure out how wide you want your shirt. Obviously it’s stretch so you might need to stretch it out a little to get your waist width. Then what I did is I took a 1 in wide strip of fusible interfacing. I measure it to the width I want my shirt.

Then I iron it on to the inside of my shirt. This will keep your stretchy shirt from becoming huge when you serge or sew it together. It also just keeps it really clean looking. It’s not 100% necessary, but makes it look really nice.

Next get your skirt and gather it at the top. I know I go over this every time, but just in case… To gather, set your stitch length to the longest straight stitch and set your tension to the loosest(highest number) it will go. Sew and it’ll ruffle right up!

Now get your skirt and your tank and pin them, right sides, together. Sew or serge them together.

Doesn’t it look great already? Just wait tillwe get to the belt. Almost there!

I didn’t take a picture of this, but I added a side zipper. I’m not going to go through those instructions, just follow the instructions on the side of the package. Add one on the side so you can’t see it. It would look funny on the back.

Now for the belt! I had some extra material from the dress. If you want a belt from the same fabric, make sure to keep that in mind when cutting your fabric.
Cut it your desired length and width.
Then get a piece of fabric for the backing in the same dimensions.
Turn them inside out and sew together.
Turn them right side out.

Here’s mine. I added little ties to it to tie in the back. But you could do snaps, buttons, elastic, a belt closure… really anything!!

I also did diagonal stitches all the way across.

Then I decided to do another one in 2 different colors to give the dress a different look.

Doesn’t it look great?

Here it is!

With the turquoise. Isabel actually told me the dress needed a “pop of color” and picked out this blue. Man, she’s got the eye already.

Here it is with the yellow.

I love how one belt changes the look so much.

I have a tutorial coming up in the next couple weeks for, what I’m calling, “The Fail-proof Dress”. It’s the kind of dress you can wear casually or dress it up for a really nice cocktail party. It also involves interchangeable belts, but the design of the dress is awesome. I’m slowly working on it and will have it ready as soon as I can!

I hope you all like this one!

Hello!!!
I wanted to do a new tutorial and thought I’d use a jersey T for this one since I’ve used cottons for most of my other ones.

I took this vintagey looking t-shirt that was in my little sister’s giveaway pile.
Then I cut off the sleeves.

Next, mark your new neckline, however you want it. Then cut the neckline out.

Cut the sleeves open at the seams. I also had wrist bands on mine and I cut those off.

Then cut those sleeves in half. So you’ll have four strips at this point.

What I did next was connected the two arms pieces. Just fit them together and sew them together.

Here’s what it looks like after you sew them together.

You’ll do that to both pieces, then cut them in half. At this point you also want to trim up the sides so you have even, straight lines. You will end up with four strips.

Then sew all the strips together to make one long strip.

Now it’s time to ruffle. If I had to name my blog all over again, it would include the word ‘ruffle’. It’s one of my favroite things to do SO… set your tension to the highest number it will go, then set your stitch length to the longest stitch your machine will go, then away you go! Here’s what you’ll get- one long, lovely ruffle piece.

Now get your shirt ready and find the center of your ruffle piece.

Center it to the middle of your shirt and pin it in place.

Work your way all around the neckline and pin the ruffle to the top of the shirt’s neckline.

Go all the way down the front of the shirt, too. Pin it well! Now all you do is stitch it in place. You don’t need to hem anything since it’s jersey!

Here’s how it turned out!

Here’s Ava trying to bite/kiss me.

Here’s the back…

“Run to me!!”

Arms full of love.

I really liked this one! I have so many long sleeve shirts in my refashion pile. I like that it’s a t-shirt, but dolled up. It took no time at all! Let me know what you all think. Remember to add pictures to the flicr pool!!

I hope everyone has a beautiful day, full of love and life

I’m at my parents today and discovered iPhoto. I’m in love with it! Then I went a little nuts and set up this photo shoot and had my sisters model some of the clothes I made recently. Here’s the purple flower shirt I made yesterday.

Here’s the back.

This is a shirt I made a while back, but I can’t remember if I ever posted pics of it.




Then since I was having so much fun on my “set” I made my youngest sister, Ana, put on this fabulous beaded skirt of my mom’s and I took a couple pics of her.

Isn’t this fun? I felt like a real photographer!! Let me know what you think of the shirts and the photos. I always love your comments!!!

I made this shirt today and am am obsessed with it. My sister had a similar shirt and I decided to try to make one that was like it. I used this Anna Maria Horner fabric and the orange accent is an Ikea duvet I got years ago because I loved the fabric.

In person…

Here the front is up close. I did a tuxedo detail with a ruffle around it.

Here’s what the back looks like on.

Then, perhaps, what my favorite part is, is that I kept having to add more fabric in the sides because I wanted it baggier so i added some different pieces and I love the way the sides came out!

I really am happy with the way this came out. It is SO Anthro, which seems to be the goal of everything I make. I wish I could do a tutorial for this, but it would be too detailed for me to explain, but maybe a pattern in the future….???

Wow! That title is a mouthful, isn’t it? Here’s a super easy way to spice up a tank using scrap fabric. You don’t even need a sewing machine!! This project takes only a short time and can really change the look of something.

This is my scrap pile of different strips of fabric.

Safety pin them each on one end.

Use your braiding skills and braid each one. Safety pin it at the end when you’re done.

Get whichever tank you want to use and cut off the straps.

Grab your braided strips and pin them in place at the front of the shirt where you want it attached. I like to wrap the tank around the back of the strap. Pin it in place.

Here’s what it should look like at this point.

I love using embroidery thread and hand sewing it on. This look is so deconstructed that I think it looks better than sewing it on neatly with your machine.

At this point, you can use a sewing machine is to stitch the back of the tank where you cut it off. It’s not necessary, but you can do it. I also think it would look cool to hand stitch it with the embroidery thread, too!

Bring the two strap together in the back. I used my machine to stitch them together so it would be easier to attach to the shirt, but again, not necessary.
Now attach it to the back of the tank with the needle and thread.

Here’s how the front looks.
And the back.

This is an up close of the strap of the one I did for my sister after we washed it. It got even more condenesed and looked really great! Another shot of hers.

I love this project because you can spruce up any tank. I was also thinking of all the different ways you can add braided strap to things, like kids clothes, purse handles…. Share any more ideas you have!