I run into Raw Edges while researching Design studios and I just had to share this project. It’s so awesome and colorful! That studio is a collaboration between designers Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay. They have other installations of painted floor in their site that you should check out and I can’t help but feel inspired to prettify the floor or maybe a big carpet?

I love how they show process pictures for the dying and the installation. All of those colors together look so awesome.

Continue Reading

1- Make your own fabric prints using the sun via How About Orange
2- Another great fabric print with sun via Inkdye
3- DIY Glitter Tape form Pugly Pixel via Glitter guide
4- Puffy paint letters by Virginia and Charlie

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
XO

So this past week was pretty bad blog-wise, my blog and website got attacked with malware. My feed was having issues and subscribers seemed to banish. Happily most of it is fixed now and I am happy to be able to blog again (I didn’t wanted to post anything until I was 100% sure the malware was completely cleaned) And if you saw my site down, that was the reason =] I had this post saved from weeks! so finally here it is!

A few weeks a go I showed you all how this dress turn out (I previously asked for color advice) and it’s finally time for a tutorial so you can also try it out! To make this dress I used Ken’s old sleeveless T-shirts and some fabric leftovers from a project I did years a go – Actually I was researching if those kind of shirts had a special name here because in Chile they are call “musculosas” because guys wear them to showoff their arms. All I found tho is tank tops, but I’m not sure if that describes that it is a men’s sleeveless T-shirts, but you know what kind of shirts I’m talking about, and let me know if you know the right name for them =]

Anyways, you will need either one long sleeveless T-shirt or 2 short ones. Since Ken’s were pretty long I only used one but it depends on how many rows of ruffles you want and how condensed the ruffle will be.

I love how comfortable this is, I actually wear it for a friend’s wedding, we danced all night and I could have not being more comfortable =] well until Ken made me spin around and I felt like I was showing my shorts, but that was a whole different problem hehe.

The whole project took me about 2 hours and I would say 1 and a half were ruffle making. I experimented a few different ways, hand-stitching and on the machine. So to me in the machine was faster and easier, but you can always make them by hand if you don’t feel comfortable. Remember to always secure the beginning and end of all your stitch lines and sew everything with 1/4″ seam allowance.

MATERIALS

• 1 or 2 sleeveless t-shirts
• 2 yards or less of fabric depending on the length and how gather you want the skirt portion of the dress. I also made a sash with the extra fabric I cut form the bottom.
• 1″ wide elastic (I used less than a yard)
• Scissors and ruler pins
• sewing machine, even tho if you want you can make it by hand with no problem.

MAKE IT

[Click on images to enlarge]

	1- First you need to try the T-shirt and mark a line under your bust, you will be adding about 2 inches with the elastic, so have that in mind. After that cut all the bottom in stripes of 3″
	2- After cutting, set 2 of the stripes a side to be used for the elastic belt (inside and out) I cut the stripes to make one long stripe and add 3 together to make a super long one, after that I sewed both edges with zig-zag because I don’t have a serger, that will prevent the fraying on the ruffles when you wash your dress, if you like the fray look you can skip this step.
	3-Make the ruffles either by hand or using a sewing machine, you can see detailed instructions here
	4- Measure around the neck of your shirt to know how long your ruffle or ruffles (if you decide to go with 2 or more rows) In this case I added 2 rows of ruffles and used 3 full straps of 3″ to make each set of ruffles.
	5- To attach the ruffles first make sure the T-shirt is extended either my someone wearing it or set on a dress from. Why? because that way the t-shirt will not be shrink, otherwise it will not fit correctly when you wear it. First pin the ruffles and play with the ruffles to make them the length you need them to be.
	6- For the Skirt I used 2 pieces of 24 inches of a leftover fabric, I straighten the edges. I placed the elastic blow my bust and pin it in the end, comfortable enough for it to fit tight and loose enough to take the elastic above my head, sew it several times. I used the maximum extend of the elastic as my measure for the width of the top skirt, I made pleads around the skirt until I reached my desire measure.
	7- After that with the 3″ wide stripes you set a side we have to make a sandwich, keeping the skirt in the center, like it shows the image. Place the stripes wrong sides facing out.
	8- Sew on the top all the way around, after that turn both stripes up.
	9- Now it’s time to attach both pieces together. Since the bottom is a little bit bigger, because it got stretched when sewing the skirt (remember that the skirt is wider than the T-shirt, that’s why we will use elastic) we have to put pins to guide us.
	10- Place pins on the sides, front and back like it shows in the image, that will make the sewing a lot easier. Place both right sides facing each other and pin it all the way around, remember to only pin the stripe that faces out, because we will sew the other after we put the elastic. After you finish the dress should look done on the outside, but now we just need to add the elastic in the inside.
	11- Now you just need to place the elastic in the inside, fold the edge up to the inside line and pin carefully, so that when you sew the seam line of the front goes below the back line, that way it will look clean on the outside and it will be secure on the inside. The pictures shown here are of the inside of the dress, and how I folded 1/4 inch on the top and then placed the stripe on top of the elastic, pin it and sew it.

To finish the look I made a 3 1/2 inch sash with the left overs I had from the skirt, a very simple tube that I topstitch on both edges.

Now if you wish you can just make the ruffles with a second T-shirt and keep the length of the sleeveless t-shirt. That way you can either wear a skirt or make the skirt separately so you can mix and match. Wear a belt or sash to cover the top of the skirt and you are ready to have the exact same look, being able to mix and match with other skirts or tops =] here more images of this dress.

And remember that you can mix and play with different color t-shirts and Fabric or old skirts to make different dresses and looks =] Below the first dress I made, you can see more pictures in the link.

* This tutorial is provided for personal, non-commercial use only.
Check the Site policy at the bottom for further information, Thank you!

I was so excited when Beth from Sew Mama Sew! invited me to contribute to their Back to School month of projects. I thought it would be the perfect time to actually make the laptop bag I wanted for quite some time. Right after I received the colorful-and-oh-so-awesome fabrics from designer Jessica Jones, I knew I had to use them for this project, her fabrics are one of my top favorites, so you should check them out! Actually it was so hard for me to pick just one fabric, I used 2 different ones, one for the front and one for the back! I love it because it’s like I have 2 bags in one, I just switch the side!

So today finally the tutorial went live at Sew mama Sew, and Jessica also posted about it in her blog How About Orange, could this day get any better? My little project is 2 of my favorite blogs at the same time =]

I am actually working on a passport pouch and checkcover to match the bag so wen I go to Chile in september I can take all of them with me and of course I will share the how-to’s for you to do the same if you’d like!

But for now let’s start with the laptop bag! And if you want the bag to levitate you can always use a plastic string because I am sorry but the levitation power is not included =]

And to all of you visiting from Sew Mama Sew! Welcome to HowJoyful! so happy to have you here, I hope you have a good time, take a look around and hopefully I will see you all again soon! Mi casa es su casa, or actually in this case My blog es su blog =]

I hope you all have a wonderful day!
XOXO

* This tutorial is provided for personal use only. If you wish to sell items made with this tutorial please purchase a limited production license.
Check the Site policy at the bottom for further information, Thank you!

First I wanted to start this week THANKING all of you for the emails, comments and tweets after the lost of Conner last week. This past weekend we got to talk a lot about what happened, Ken and I are so thankful for all the love and prayers, you guys rock! We do want to have another puppy in the future and hopefully this time we will see it grow and enjoy it for a longer period of time.

I also wanted to give you a preview of the tutorial I have for this week, I know I teased about it long time a go, when I showed you the first one I made, back then I asked for advice on what color to use for the skirt part and most of you agreed that the teal/turquoise would be very cute, so here it is finally finished!

A few weeks a go I got a remote control for my camera and this was my first time to actually get to play with it, so as you can see, I might have had way too much fun with it. At first I could not make it work properly, but it’s all about the angle you set it. It took me more than a few tries, but now I think I know how to use it hehe. And I totally recommend it!

And of course I had to make a mini session including Curly! He is all good now, but we are extra careful when he want’s to go play at his grandparent’s house =]

I hope you all had a great weekend and stay tuned for the tutorial of how to make this cute dress =]

UPDATE: the tutorial can be found here