New Blog Header!

My blog went through some renovations this morning. My friend Emily over at The Cute Octopus made me this great custom  header, which perfectly matches my background from Hot Bliggity Blog. If you're following me in a reader, come over and check it out- and don't forget to stop by The Cute Octopus to see what Emily's up to, too!

A jar of lemonade

Summer classes are taking up a lot of my time this summer. But that doesn't mean I can't have lemonade...and strawberries.

Is anything better than a glass jar full of iced lemonade? Use a  mason jar if you've got one, but this is also a fun way to reuse an empty pizza sauce jar. If you're going on a picnic, screw on the lid and you're ready to go!

Paper Bag Skirt from Ruffles and Stuff

You guys know how I love an upcycled project. I think this paper bag skirt from Ruffles and Stuff is great. She takes a too-big skirt and uses the excess to make a ruffle and a belt for the top of the skirt. Super cute.

The buttons down the front remind me a bit of a men's shirt, which is another clever fabric alternative.

One Dress, Four Ways

Madison Magazine just released an article called Versatile Vixen, featuring some clever ways to wear a little black dress.

We've all seen these types of articles before, and I'm sure that some of you frugal and creative fashionistas could devise many, many more ways to fashion a plain black dress. The addition of a simple black H&M dress to my wardrobe this past weekend has me thinking about how I could take it from class to work to church to an evening out.

What are some of your favorite ways to remix your LBDs?

Amy Butler Birdie Sling

I was so excited to win second place in Sew A Straight Line's Make it Work challenge for my sweater dress upcycle, and I was extra excited to receive my prize in the mail the other day. 

Sabra sent me this pattern, the Amy Butler birdie sling bag. The last thing I need is another tote bag, but this one looks great, and it's so fun to look around and see what kinds of fabrics people are using to make it. 

Here's some great examples:

Small Fry and Co.

This one by Fabric Junkie might be my favorite

 Sew Very Carrie

Check out this flickr album for even more!

What I Wore Wednesday

I've worn shorts once this summer, and skirts and dresses the rest of the time (well, and pants on those couple of pesky 55 degree days). I never used to be that way, but now I've converted- dresses are just more comfy on a hot day.

This is actually one of the dresses I made this summer. It's really simple! Check out this previous post for more about the pattern, plus some pics of it styled with red accessories instead of blue.

I'm wearing:

Navy sweater: Second hand

Yellow Gingham Dress: Handmade by me

Blue belt: Thrifted by a friend

Navy flats: Goodwill, $4

Upcycled Floral Dress

I've been wanting a floral dress for summer, but I've found that almost all in stores are either out of my price range (which is as low as possible), or are from Forever 21 and are too short on me to be decent. Luckily, there's an easy fix for that problem.  I recommend going to thrift stores, which are full of floral-print 1990s monstrosities. I know, that sounds awful, and it sort of is.

I bought this floral dress of unflattering 90s length for $1.50 at St. Vincent de Paul, chopped it off above the knee and gave it a fresh hem. Add a belt and it's almost trendy.

(If this looks familiar, it's because I wore it yesterday for What I Wore Wednesday. Check out yesterday's post to see it styled! )

Need some inspiration? Here's some sort-of similar looks (for considerably more $$):

Topshop, $64, DKNY, $325

Forever 21, $20  , Topshop, $70

What I Wore Wednesday: Upcycled Floral Dress

Is it the floral dress that says, "I'm a librarian!" or is it the belted cardigan? Once again, I felt like I was wearing a librarian-in-training costume...especially as I sat at the reference desk this afternoon at work. I went for a short length in an effort to be more fashionable than frumpy, but sometimes it's a close call!

This dress underwent a transformation last week. It started out as an ugly thriftstore find, but a few minutes with a scissors and a sewing machine and it is much improved! Stay tuned for more about that tomorrow.

I'm wearing:

Short sleeved cardigan: Kohls, $6

Floral Dress: Thrifted and upcycled, $1.50

Belt: from another dress in my closet

Flats: Rummage sale, $1

Everybody Everywear: Lace!

I didn't participate in this month's Everybody Everywear, but make sure you head over and check it out. The theme is lace, and it's always a lot of fun to see everyone's pictures!

Recycled Men's Tie Wristlet

Thrift stores seem to have more oddly-patterned ties than anything else. They're usually very inexpensive, completely outdated, and fairly unwearable. That doesn't mean they're unusable! I really like the idea of repurposing a men's tie into a wristlet.

If you're interested in making one like this, a tutorial is available here at The Reuser's Guide to Green Living (Update: Many readers have informed me that this tutorial is no longer available).

If you don't want to make your own, Tearful Touch sells these similar wristlets on Etsy:

Have you made one? Leave a link in the comments; I'd love to see!

Vintage Pattern Mail Delivery!

Look what came in the mail this week! I won this pattern, Simplicity 8381 (c.1969) in Rebecca's giveaway over at Ugly Cute Designs 

My to-do list just got longer!

Simplicity 9494

This is a project post, but it's not finished yet. You might remember that I've been working on an 90s pattern, Simplicity 9494. Maybe I should have been turned off by the 1994 date, but I wasn't...and now I'm trying to fix it! I mostly finished it last night, but there's several problems that I've got to address. The gathers in the skirt got a little bunchy looking, for one, but that shouldn't take long to fix.

Most concerning, though, are the sleeves. There's no padding in those suckers, but they still look huge! I went back and forth on whether to include them, and finally decided to use them as-is in the pattern.  I'm sure cap sleeves would be cute, but there's just so much fabric going on up top that I'm leaning toward just cutting them off and going sleeveless.

The back is another problem. As I had feared, the bow is too high to cover a regular bra strap. I don't really want to move it lower, as I do like how it looks as-is. It looks a little bunchy on the right side in the pic, but is better in real life.

Any fix-it ideas? Leave a comment or let me know.

What I Wore Wednesday: Skirt as a Dress

This could also be called the "everything for $1 or less" edition. Do you agree that it's easier to be thrifty in the summer than the winter? Anyway, for today's What I Wore Wednesday, I'm wearing a skirt as a dress.

It's REALLY easy to turn a skirt into a dress. Just hike it up and belt it. It makes for the perfect quick dress for a 96 degree summer day.

I did end up sewing darts in the bust of this one, but that's not always necessary, especially if you're going to belt it anyway. If you've been following me since the very beginning of Simply Step Back (just under a year ago), you might vaguely remember this skirt-to-dress how-to (of sorts). Today I opted not to wear the big white belt that I made for it; that just made it look too much like a party dress for a regular day.

I'm wearing:

Polka dot skirt-as-a-dress: Thrifted, 75 cents

Blue belt: Thrifted by a friend

Shoes: Rummage Sale, $1

Heat wave

Remember all winter long, when I was complaining about the cold and wondering if summer would EVER come? Maybe you were in the same boat. Well, today we have a high of 96 degrees, so I'm not complaining about the cold anymore!

More posts to come this week; I spent nearly a week hanging out back home with my dad, and now I'm back in Madison with my sewing machine, and some projects in the queue.

If you've got heat like we do, try to enjoy it! Or hole up in a nice air conditioned library, like I'm going to do. :)

"Make it Work" Winner!

Remember my men's-sweater-to-sweater-dress tutorial?

I entered it in the Transformed Clothing division of Sew A Straight Line's Make it Work Challenge, and I'm very excited to have won second place!

Click here to read more about the challenge and see the other winners!