Sew With Us-- A Giveaway!

As you know, Rachel and I have poured a lot of time and love into our Sew With Us ecourse, and today I'm excited to offer 3 lucky winners access to it!  The response to the course has been just wonderful so far and I'm happy to have the opportunity to include more of you in something so dear to us.

To enter, leave a comment here telling me a bit about your sewing story.  Are you a newbie?  Have you sewn before?  What are you most interested in creating?  I can't wait to hear!


Rachel will also be giving away some slots on her blog, so stay tuned for that!

I'll be choosing the winner next Tuesday, April 7th.  Please be sure I have a way to contact you if you win.  Good luck, friends!!  xo.

Sew With Us Ecourse is Here!!

Rachel and I have been working for months on our sewing ecourse (heard me mention it once or twice?) and it's finally available!  I'm so excited to help people learn to sew their own clothing, and Rachel's home projects are just beautiful!  You can check out the course right here if you are interested.  Here are a few peeks from some of my lessons:


*Sigh* That non-traditional kimono is still my favorite.

The Sew With Us ecourse is on sale for $30 right now (from $45).  I have to say, wrapping up a project this large has me feeling pretty giddy.  If you are interested in sewing, but haven't really taken the plunge... or, if you have dabbled, but are feeling a bit rusty, this course is for you!

Now, excuse me while I run off to do a happy dance!  xo.

Take Me Out

1. Dress  // 2. Cat Purse  //  3. Sunnies  //  4. Shoes  //  5. Whistle necklace

I feel like I've mostly been living in jeans for the past several months and I'm SO ready to break out all my pretty dresses and bare legs!  This warmer weather has me excited to get dressed again.

Do you hear that, Johnny??  It's time for date night loaded with cheese fries and beer!  Let's go out!

**Guys, ModCloth is having a 15% off sale right now on spring dresses and Emerging Thoughts is having a 25% off sale on everything right now.  Just thought I'd share!!  

Last Week I Taught a Homeschool Photography Class

Hope goes to this sweet little homeschool group every other Thursday, where they learn anything from crochet to sewing to identifying things in nature to rock climbing... it's incredibly varied.  They have very adorably named themselves the "Tator Tots".  I was asked to teach a little digital photography class to these ladies last week, and I have to say, it was an absolute blast.  Most everyone was shooting with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad (say that three times fast), so most of my tips were tailored to those devices.  One of the girls brought her mom's DSLR with her and right as we got started, the battery died.  I let her borrow my camera and I just loved looking through her photos when I got home.  Here are a few of my favorites:

When I was going over my "Photography Tips and Tricks" I would stop between numbers and let them pull an object from my bag to practice on.  We went over different types of lighting, angles, rule of thirds, and perspectives.  Once we got through the tips, I handed each of them a scavenger hunt paper and it was great to see their creativity as they moved down the list.  Here's the sheet, in case you are interested:


We spent the end of class taking photos with different forced perspectives (they REALLY loved this) and making stop-motion videos with the Party!Party! app.  It was a very good time with a special group of girls, and I'm thankful I had the opportunity to do such a fun thing with them.  :)

Spring Pinafore DIY

Remember this pinafore I made for Poesy a couple years ago?  I stumbled across it recently and decided to make another one of these simple dresses.  I've learned quite a bit about creating and constructing my own patterns since then, and I knew I wanted to make a cleaner, more professional looking version.  So, I got to work.


The first thing I did was sew up my square piece from two pieces of denim and flipped them right-side out, so the inside would be lined.  Instead of simply attaching the top to the waistband like I did in the previous tutorial, I used two pieces of denim for the band, so I could hide the straps and front piece inside.


As you can see here, the straps and front piece fit nicely inside of the waistband.  The bottom portion of the waistband is still open at this point.


I ran my basting stitch through the top of the skirt pieced and gathered it to fit inside of the waistband.  Once that was done, I pinned it and stitched up the skirt/waistband and back of the skirt.  I finished the pinafore with a couple of vintage buttons and added some buttonholes with my machine.


(This photo will appear on the inside of Poe's new album, coming this fall.)

As you can see, my very expressive and enthusiastic toddler was totally into it.
This dress can easily be sized up to an adult version (yes, I would totally wear this) just by using your own measurements.  If you have a sewing machine and are still feeling intimidated, fear not!  The ecourse Rachel and I have been working on- Sewing Basics- will be out very soon!!  I'm getting excited!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

A Trip to City Museum

We went for a little trip to St. Louis this weekend to take the girls to the City Museum.  My favorite parts were the beautiful mermaid sculpture and the case of antique doll parts.  I'm apparently in the minority with the dolls, because the general consensus on Instagram is that "dolls are creepy".  Dolls and clowns, man.  People don't love them.

Anyway, I feel refreshed after a happy weekend and I'm ready to tackle this week.  How about you?  Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Warm Weather Daydreams

I know what you're probably thinking-- "Swimsuits?  Really?"  Guys, I can't help myself.  I shop for bathing suits year-round.  You never know when that perfect one will pop up.  I just got this MinkPink suit from ModCloth and I love it.  Now I'm dreaming of summer cookouts around the pool and mint chocolate chip ice cream in a waffle cone.  How's that for jumping the gun a little?  ;)

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you have something fun and exciting (or maybe low-key and restful-- whatever you prefer) planned for the weekend.  Johnny and I are playing a show as The Shel-tones tonight, so it's time to go brush up on some songs.  xo.

Weekly Wears: Sad Songs (Say So Much)

I don't want to jinx anything since we just had a bunch of snow last week, but it looks like spring might be here.  Even if it's just a preview, I'll take it.  I always get so pumped every time the season starts to change, and having more daylight at the end of the day has been wonderful so far.  Gimme all the sun rays and evening walks.

Shirt: Stay Home Club;  Skirt: handmade (part of my ecourse!);  Tights: old;  Booties: Seychelles;  Purse: Angela & Roi

I have quite the ever-growing collection of Stay Home Club shirts these days.  It's been so cool watching this company grow.  Remember this post?  October 2012-- man, that feels like a lifetime ago.  I love watching handmade businesses flourish.

Well, it's time for me to get my fingers to work.  Happy Wednesday, friends!