Made By Lex

Loungewear Revolution- Jersey Romper

 On of my favorite things to sleep in is this little jersey romper that I have.  Here’s a way to make your own!

Get two T’s.

Cut the first one off. This will be your top piece.

We’ll use the other one for the shirts part. Fold it in half and cut out a piece as shown. Sort of like oversized underwear.

Here’s what you will have.

Sew the crotch together. I don’t know how else to say that.

Fold the top over to create a pocket and put elastic through there, too. Also, I forgot to take a picture, but add some straps.

I added some lace around the shorts.

Here is the completed romper. Clearly, no modeling in this get up

Bondage Inspired Sweater

I had a cozy, lounging sweater that was on it’s last life. It was too oversized and kept falling off. But I couldn’t let go of it.

In comes two sources of inspiration.

One- This sweater I saw on pinterest. I just loved it.

via middlechildcomplex.tumblr.com

Second- this bondage trend I saw in Elle this month.

So here’s what I did with my sweater. I cut the back into a deep v. Then I sewed it wround the opening so it wouldn’t fray.

Then I just added three leather straps to the back.

(ps- do you know this is me? I think a lot of people think the blonde that I have modeling all the time for me is Lex. But it’s actually my sister. She is living close by in San Francisco so she can’t model at my disposal anymore. I have to do it myself a little now. yikes!)

I love the edginess of it.  To do it over, I wouldn’t have cut it so low. But it stretched FAR more than I thought it would, so keep that in mind if you try it.

I love the ease  of oversized sweaters.  They’re so versatile because you can wear them as loungewear or style them up a bit for an “I-don’t-care” kind of look.

Hope you all like this one!

And don’t forget my fall line of scarves is 25% off for a bit longer. 

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Twisted Strap Maxi Dress

Before I could post the loungewear tutorials I new I had to get the  maxi dress tutorial up. This time I used a couple videos. I hope they are easy to understand. First off, I apologize for doing the tutorial with black jersey. It’s a little hard to see all the details.

Ok, let’s begin. Before we start, simplify this in your head. You’re making a top. You’re making a skirt. You’re connecting them. That’s all. You can do this.

For the top I cut a triangle piece of fabric out. You want it to extend over your shoulder a couple inches and about an inch past your natrla waist. It will be large. That’s ok. Dont worry about that part yet. I put a pin at the top shoulder part so I don’t get confused with what point goes where.

You will need four of these. After I cut the four I put them up on my form so you could see what we’re going for.

The next step is to connect the top of the dress at the shoulders. Here’s what you’ll have.

Now for the twisted shoulder strap. All you need to do is twist each top at the shoulder strap until you like the way it looks.

(note: I wasn’t happy with the way mine looked. They looked really thin. So what I did was twist an extra piece of fabric around it to bulk it up. Just keep that in mind if you want it thicker.)

Now what we’ll need to do is sew the front, back and side seams. Make sure you take in to account how low you want the front and back to be.I made a video to help explain it easier.

pinning

After sewing them together here’s how I refined the armholes.

armhole

Now that the top is complete, we need to attach it to the skirt. Make a waistband that’s slightly larger than your waist. That way it will still be fitted but you can get it over your head. Then gather the bottom of your top so that it fits the length of the waistband. Sew it together.

Last step! Figure out how long you want your skirt. I make it the width of my waist band plus half. Gather it to the width of your waist band and attach.

Here’s the finished dress. I love the look of ease with this dress. It looks relaxed and flowy and still has great style.

I think the twisted straps add a nice, different detail.

That being said, let me point out it’s flaws- My stripes got all goofy and I ended up not being able to do anything about it since I ran out of fabric.

But that being said, I still love the dress and hope people don’t notice when I wear it

I hope you guys have liked the tutorial and go make your own version!

In other news, I have a new line of leather bound scarves  coming out soon! I have a sample sale going on of my Spring/Summer line. Out of these, I have the army/fushcia, navy stripe/silver, black/brown, grey/aqua and orange/silver left. Since they’re my samples they are over half off and on sale for only $30!

Email me at lex@madebylex.com if you want one.

If you head over to my facebook page  you can see some of my new designs for the Fall/Winter line, too. I’d love to hear what you think.

How to Make A Kaftan

You say caftan, I say Kaftan. I still don’t know which way to spell it.

One of my favorite summer essentials, a breezy kaftan. This is EASY! It’s just a giant, loose robe so follow along! I used this golden yellow RIT dye.

I knew I wanted something transparent for my kaftan, so against advice I used a polyester sheer material. I knew in my dying experience  that it would still dye, just very light which was fine by me. So for the record, if you use a polyester it will barely pick up the dye.  I got a large pieces and folded in it half over at the head. Here it is pinned on my mannequin so you can see what I did. (notice there’s no head hole yet)

I cut a slight shape out of the sides. After unfolding it, sew the sides together.

Next, fold it in half again and at the top folded corner, cut a little hole out for the head.

Now slip it over your mannequin or lay it on the floor.

Now I cut a diagonal slit across the front. I wanted the opening to be across and open at the leg.

Then I took some pins and opened it up the way I wanted it to lye on the front. Notice how it’s taking shape?

Repeat that on the other side.

Then from there you can cut off the excess and sew the openings, along with the hem and it’s complete! I love the way it covers and flows in the beachy wind!

For an optional belt I got two extra strips of the fabric along with some teal grosgrain that matched my scarf perfectly. I braided them all together.

For the ends I got a small piece of grosgrain and glued them closed.

Here’s the belted kaftan.

I have some more summer inspired tutorials coming so stay tuned!

Thrift Store Finds

Here’s a few recent thrift store finds.

I fell in love with this vintage dress for $3.25. It looked so Anthropologie/Tucker to me.

I think to update it I’ll take up the sleeves (maybe take down the neckline) and wear it with a great leather belt and leather boots.

I got this poofy tutu skirt for my daughter new with tags for $1.20.

Who can resist all these girls layers?

This vintage Anne Klein gold shell was $1.50.I can wear this so many different ways. This cream skirt was $2.00 and fit in great with this season’s skirt trends.

I love the detail and the pockets at the waist. It’s a very slimming skirt.

Finally, I found this dark eggplant leather skirt that I’m gong to tear apart to use to make a cool belt.  Because who can buy leather for $2.2o?

I love my thrift store finds!