Jan 1, 2010 | DIY
Okay, maybe not the easiest skirt in the history of the world…but pretty darn simple nonetheless!
It took me about an hour and a half to make – tops! And it’s a simple, sweet party skirt that also works great for the everyday.
You Need:
*1 yd. of medium to heavy-weight satin, sateen, satin peau, or taffeta
*7/8″ width woven no-roll elastic (length of elastic = your waist circumference – 1″)
*matching thread
*scissors
*pins
*measuring tape
*iron & ironing board
*sewing machine
*sewing needle for wovens
*1 safety pin/bodkin
*overlocker/serger (optional)
How To: (sorry no step-by-step photos)
(I think this size will work on Small-Medium-Large…for a Small, the skirt will be fuller and more cinched in at the waist. If you want more width to the skirt, increase the width of the panels. My waist is 27″; hips are 34.5″. Cutting directions, marker, and yield are using a 60″ wide piece of fabric.)
CUT PIECES
1. Cut two rectangles on-grain for the front and back pieces: both are 21.75″ long; the front piece is 14 3/16″ (that’s fourteen and three-sixteenths, if the way I’ve typed it is confusing). For the width of the back piece rectangle, add 1/2″ (therefore width of back piece = 14 and 11/16″).
2. Cut 2 rectangular side panels on-grain: both 21.75″ long and 11.125″ (eleven and 1/8″) wide.
3. Cut 2 pockets: both are the same width as the side panels (11 and 1/8″) and are 9″ high. (The front, back, and side panels you can all fit side-by-side on a 60″ wide piece of fabric, but the pockets can’t fit and will have to be placed above this row when cutting. So technically, when using a 60″ wide piece of fabric, you only need 30.75″, not really a whole yard. For a 45″ wide piece of fabric, you can only fit the front, back, and one side panel side-by-side; the next row up you could place the other side-panel on-grain and thereby require 43.5″ of fabric (about 1 yd. and a quarter), or, alternatively, you could place one side panel on the crossgrain and only use 11 1/8″ + 21.75″ = just about a yard total. This is what I did because I thought I had bought a piece of 60″ wide fabric but it turned out to be only 45″ wide – so I had to conserve fabric. In satin, I honestly think on-grain vs. crossgrain difference is negligible.)
4. Overlock/zigzag stitch on top and bottom edges of pockets.
FINISH TOPS OF POCKETS
5. Fold 1″ under on tops of pockets. Iron to set the crease. Stitch seam at 3/4″ down from top of crease.
SEW POCKETS TO SIDE PANELS
6. Start by placing pocket on top of side panel, right sides together. Align top of pocket about 4″ above bottom of side panel, and align pocket side edges to side panel side edges. Stitch 3/8″ below top of pocket, through both layers, from side to side.
7. Fold pocket up, taught against the seam you just sewed; iron to set the crease. Pin side edges of pocket to side edges of side panels – then staystitch the pocket to the side panels a scant 1/4″ from side edges.
ASSEMBLE THE SKIRT
8. Overlock or sew each side panel to either side of the front piece; join back piece in the same way.
HEM THE SKIRT
9. Overlock/zigzag bottom edge of skirt all the way around.
10. Turn up 3.25″ from bottom of skirt; iron to set the crease. Stitch hem at 3″ up from crease.
ADD THE WAISTBAND
11. Overlock/zigzig top edge of skirt all the way around.
12. Turn under top of skirt 1.25″ from top edge. Iron to set the crease. Stitch at 1″ from crease – leaving 2″ unsewn, to create the waistband casing.
13. Attach safety pin or bodkin onto end of elastic. Thread elastic through the waistband casing, entering and exiting through the unsewn area.
14. Overlap ends of elastic by 1/2″. Pull elastic ends out of the unsewn gap in the casing, and stitch a square shape on the top of the elastic to secure.
15. Tuck elastic back into casing area – then sew the last 2″ of the casing closed.
You’re done!
This skirt is super-cute and can be worn in a casual ensemble.
Or you can dress it up and pair it into a party outfit – layer over a corset, for instance, or under a sequined vest.
People will feel a strange attraction to it when you wear it.
Everyone will love it unconditionally!
Happy DIY’ing…and Happy New Year!
xo
Carly
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Dec 31, 2009 | Life
So – I have to apologize first off for not keeping up with this blog as much as I’ve been wanting to.
First the Christmas rush – then the rush of sending New Year’s cards, then some other things happened, so I took a bit of a breather from my self-imposed once-a-day posting schedule.
Just a little time off, ya know? It’s the holidays – and I’m proud to say I’ve been slacking!!
So what have I accomplished in this time?
I’ve spent alot of time with the family. Just relaxing at home, playing games and doing activities. Finally putting the Christmas lights up.
I’ve baked and decorated more cookies and sweets than I ever want to see again in my life. Chocolate Coffee Toffee Oatmeal Cookies, Lemon Yogurt Cookies, Sugar Cookie Cutouts, White Chocolate Cranberry Bark, Chocolate-Dipped Ginger Almond Cookies, White Chocolate Lemon Shortbreads. Enough already!
After all the holiday hoopla had died down, the birthday/Christmas presents unrapped and oohed and aahed over – I also sprained my ankle. It was one of those dumb injuries where I was just walking along, tripped on nothing, fell down, and hurt myself. Well, not really.
The real story is that I was done taking some photos of a finished DIY that I was going to post here – I was holding the dress in one hand and my camera in the other – went to place the camera on the table, and my slipper got caught under my foot and the dress got caught around the dining room chair – I twisted myself around so as not to shatter the camera lens and place it as best I could on the table, overbalanced, spun around in aformentioned godforsaken slippah-o-death – cracked my hip on the windowsill behind me, and managed to come down hard on my right foot in precisely the wrong way – and my foot turned like 180 degrees as I fell. I swear I couldn’t do it again if you paid me.
So I couldn’t walk last Saturday (the day I did it) and it was kind of puffy and blue on top – even though I kept it elevated for most of the day – then, progressively, daily it’s gotten bluer and – sort of dead-looking. The puffiness has gone down, but there’s a ton of blood pooled right under the skin. It’s disgusting. I can finally walk again by hobbling around but I still can’t bend the foot properly. I really mashed those darn metatarsals!
I’ve also beaten Crash Bandicoot and Crash Bandicoot 2 (both for the second times in my life) on Playstation. All very well and good. I know – I’m cooler than cool.
I’ve managed to get through a couple letters in Nina Garcia’s The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own, which was a birthday gift from my mother. It’s a good basic – and surprisingly witty at that. I think I’m on B by now. (I swear, once you have kids reading goes out the window. Well, it’s either reading or blogging – not both. Does reading “Cars: The Official StoryBook to the Pixar Movie” 3 times in a row count??)
I managed to send in a couple entries to Steve Madden’s Sole Search on Brickfish.com just mere hours before the contest deadline, so since the prizes are decided by highest voted entries – no one had any time to vote. Ah well – I guess I shot myself in the foot with that one or sprained my foot hardy har har. I found it particularly ironic that I am designing glamazon shoes with teetering 5″ heels while at the same time propping up one black-and-blue puffy foot on my desk. Here are the shoe designs I submitted:
I’m also beefing up my illustration portfolio to submit to some local companies – and I have one big project in the works – can’t say anything specific just yet (will rev
eal more in late Jan/Feb), but I promise there are many forthcoming DIY’s to do with said project!
I’ve also ordered (well, because I’m immobile, instructed Hub to order) the traditional Japanese 2-tiered New Year’s Celebration box of food – brined shrimp, pink-and-white fishcake, kelp-wrapped simmered carrot packages, stewed lotus slices and rolled devil’s-tongue jelly, sweet beans, chestnut paste, salted herring roe, and candied sardines galore. Thank goodness I don’t have to piece it all together from scratch like I’ve done in previous years!! I’ll be eating out of this special box for three days straight come New Year’s, as dictated by Japanese New Year’s traditions. *sigh* Honestly, the only things I like in the box are the chestnut paste (middle row on the right), sweet black beans (upper left in green circle), and rolled puffed egg (second from right on the top – those things that look like brown cogs). The brined shrimp and the salted herring roe and I have an agreement: neither one of us looks the other in the eye – and thus, I can get away with not consuming them. Besides, Hub is the one who really enjoys the contents – Little Tot and I will fight over the few sweet items. (Truth be told, I am okay with the candied dried sardines as long as there’s walnuts mixed in with them, but alas, not in the box we ordered.)
Ah yes – and in the past couple days (perhaps anticipating my New Year’s Box of herring roe and kelp packages??) I’ve snacked myself silly on toffees and Walker’s shortbread (the shortbreads being one of my MAJOR vices. Damn you, Walker!!) Back to eating healthy tomorrow!
How about you guys? Anything you’ve managed to accomplish during the holidays?
xoxox
Carly
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Dec 30, 2009 | Fashion
After seeing not one but TWO of my blogger friends posting that they were in Honolulu for the holidays, I felt compelled to create a shopping map of one of the towns I know best in the world. (I didn’t live there for 4 years for just the pineapples ya know! [the affordable ones are the ones flown in from the Philippines BTW])
The thing that always got my goat about shopping maps of Honolulu/Waikiki was that the ones distributed there are all sponsored by various corporations – so they leave off a whole slew of great places and instead list a bunch of stores that are way beyond the average person’s price point or not selling fashion, or completely untargeted, or an attempt to corral the Japanese tourists. The stores aren’t good, trendy, cute, affordable – or even unique…what you got on those maps are the stores that cater to the tourists with Aloha shirts, Hawaiian jewelry crafted in precious metals, kukui nut and shell necklaces, leis, coconut bras, crappy touristy gifts, t-shirts with “Hawaii” or “I got Lei’d” on them that shrink after 2 washings (thank you ABC stores), muumuus, personalized mugs, dog shirts…and on the other end of the spectrum, Gucci, Fendi, Chanel, etc. (Actually I find the Japanese tourist shopping maps a little more extensive/exhaustive in shop listings than the English-language ones, just my 2cents there.)
You can also get an individual map of each shopping center on the island – but you have no idea which stores are worth a visit and which you should pass up. Those maps are so misleading! You have a map that says “Shopping in Waikiki” and you end up walking to a store thinking that it’s worth visiting…then find the same pile of junk you found at the store you were just in. A waste of time, in my opinion!
Having lived there for enough time to accumulate all the above touristy crap I can tell you I definitely don’t want more of it! And if you go there, one trip down to the ABC store on the corner or to Hilo Hattie’s will definitely suffice for the tourist in ya. (Better yet – buy at Hilo Hattie’s online or the ABC Store online – and ship it to you at home.) You’re only there for a short time – do you really need to look at more aloha-print shirts??
And the high-priced designer stores? Sure, I’ve been dragged into them by my mother-in-law when she buys three pairs of the same shoes in all the different colorways at Salvatore Ferragamo been lucky enough to visit a few…but why bother? I can’t afford anything in those stores – and the designer stuff is so much cheaper on the internet – whether on Ebay or Gilt or even at a Saks online 70% off sale. (In Hawaii, the designer stuff is about 15 – 35% more than it is in other parts of the U.S.!!) So not worth wasting a Hawaiian minute stopping in, even to look! (And trust me, there’s nothing exclusive to those stores in Waikiki that you can’t find elsewhere…except maybe J. Crew on-the-island…yes that’s the real name of the J. Crew store at Ala Moana Shopping Center…must find out more regarding this anomaly.)
Anyway, unless you’re Japanese loaded, are you really going to visit Fendi, Louis Vuitton, and St. John’s in paradise???
Do you really want to spend an entire day just at one mall?
Well, in case you do or are loaded or want one of those corporate-sponsored maps that lists everything indiscriminately and leaves off all the neat trendy boutiques who didn’t want to fork over the cash for inclusion in said maps, you can check this out here or this here (but you have to click on the individual maps of each shopping center to view them.) Why can’t there just be one single map with everything cool on it???? Okay, there is – a printed map – available in Waikiki. Not on the internet – why, I have no idea. (someone please correct me if I’m wrong???!)
Well, I made one. Here ya go.
(I have failed to list the souvenir-y, gift-y places like The International Marketplace, ABC Stores, Hilo Hattie, Hula Supply Center, King’s Village, Island Treasures Antique Mall, Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, or the Aloha Flea Market (a larger pile of dirtier crap I have not found elsewhere in the world) – because the clothing/accessories at those places is nothing to go out of your way for. If you have a few extra minutes, stop by to say you at least went…but otherwise, those are not places that warrant extra shopping visits, IMHO.)
Ah yes – and for you crafty DIY people – you may want to check out Fabric Mart, Bead It! (Kailua), Kaimuki Dry Goods, Ben Franklin’s, Craft Supply of Honolulu, The Bead Gallery at Ward Centre, or Isle Knits…though all the shops listed about have prices way beyond what you would pay on the mainland for pretty much the same items. (Though if you’re hankering for aloha-print cotton fabrics, Fabric Mart is your best bet – and likely cheaper than on the mainland.)
WAIKIKI SHOPPING MAP
(Clothing/Accessories/Shoes/Bags/Jewelry ONLY!)
…and a couple nail art items; I couldn’t resist.
(click for full-size; this thing’s gigantic)
Hope this helps you guys on a trip there!!
Any stores I’ve neglected on the map that you think are a must-see? (I haven’t been back in a year, so I may be a little out of date – I did google “waikiki shopping” to get the most up-to-date, ridiculously untargeted, mapless information I could find:-)
Have fun and aloha!
xoxox
Carly
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Dec 30, 2009 | Fashion, Media
I just came across the website The Selby through Fatlace. I was completely unaware of its existence up until now – but am so glad to have stumbled upon it! Photographer Tod Selby has compiled an online photo-journal of people and their homes around the world (Tokyo, Brookly, London, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Milan, Paris…) Seeing people, photographed in their homes, and the variety of living spaces they inhabit – so cool. (Am I also a little creepy for being curious about how other people live??)
Fabulous photography – arresting characters – a voyeuristic peek into the lives of others – what more is there to say?
Except this…I was doubly surprised at a collection of photos of model Elli-Rose (click to link to her personal blog – in Japanese) – a model anyone who reads Vivi Magazine will recognize instantly. There she is, in the home she and boyfriend Gui inhabit in Tokyo – lolling around, playing with their kitten, opening up their closets, being frank with the sex-talk…v. interesting to see her like this. I had no idea – nor that she was only 20! (Or maybe I did and I forgot.) It’s always interesting to see a more intimate portrait of people who you know so well by sight but in reality…don’t know very well at all.
more of Elli-Rose’s apartment here
I love the photographer’s selection of items he photographs around their apartment – the tiny minutiae and objets so seemingly insignificant – it really gives you a feel for the owners’ personalities. I was ROFL over the “Super Premium Catty Milk” above! Those silly Japanese and their penchant for English words on their products!!
Definitely check out The Selby is you have a free moment (or a free hour) for more intimate looks into other people’s spaces – and to satisfy the inner voyeur we all know is there.;-)
-Carly J. Cais
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Dec 29, 2009 | Fashion
I got some lovely items for my birthday and Christmas – will be sharing soon! But first, a last wishlist for 2009…(since there’s always room for more;-)
Roses Umbrella, $19.95 (sale), Signals.com / Studs n Belt Engineer Boots, $65, YesStyle.com /
Wild Diva ESTER Oxford Booties, FlyJane.net / Jessica Simpson Michaela in Olive Gray, $60, Piperlime.com / Stripe Acrylic Blend Mohair Long Scarf, $39, AmericanApparel.net / Gray Fedora, $48, YesStyle.com / Blaque Label White Lace Dress, $135, Chickdowntown.com / Ruched Cut-Out Infinity Scarf, $15.60, GoJane.com / Sequin Embellished Vest, $29.80, Forever21.com / Chain Trim Jacket, $59.99 (sale), WhiteHouseBlackMarket.com
(interactive polyvore is here for those of you who like the rollover effect….Blogger just compresses my polyvores too much when I embed them as is)
There’s alot of items I found on Polyvore from YesStyle.com. Must investigate further.
What’s on your wishlists? I’m wanting a sequined vest to ring in the New Year like there’s no tomorrow.:-)
xoxox
Carly
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Okay, maybe not the easiest skirt in the history of the world…but pretty darn simple nonetheless!
Or you can dress it up and pair it into a party outfit – layer over a corset, for instance, or under a sequined vest.
