Simple Purple Dress

I just made this dress yesterday. I am in love! So comfortable and cute. I am a huge fan of being comfortable!!! First, pictures of the finished dress and then below some construction photos if you want to make your own.

 

 Loooove the back. I cut the butterflies out from some burnout velvet I have and then appliqued them on the back. I love those little things that make a simple thing special and different. 

Although this dress is pretty simple, it uses stretch fabric and should have some knowledge of sewing. This isn't going to be an exact step by step, this is just going to give you the basic idea of what I did. I  used a four way stretch cotton from Spandex World.

Lay a dress or a shirt that you like the fit of on the fold your fabric. Trace around it adding seam allowance. I folded up the sleeves a bit because I wanted 3/4 sleeves. This top part should go down to about the widest part of your hips. I made mine pretty straight (the whole dress is wide enough to just fit around my hips) because I wanted a bit of a looser look. If you want when sewing you can make yours tighter at the waist. Just make sure you cut it out wide enough to fit around your hips. Cut a front and a back. They are the same. 

I originally thought I might want dolman sleeves, so I cut it out that way. I later decided I didn't like that and cut the sleeves smaller. Here you can see where I cut small sleeves smaller. 

 

Skirt! My skirt part is two layers of the same shape, one is just shorter than the other. Here you can see the basic shape, if you don't have have a skirt to trace just make the top of the skirt the same as the bottom of your dress and then draw a shape like above. Make sure to cut out a front and a back. 

Sew together the front and back top. Sew together the sides of the skirts. Layer the skirts together. Sew skirts to top. I didn't take any pictures of this part... it is pretty much the same as putting together any other simple dress. Is that alright? 

Make sure to use a zig-zag stitch, ballpoint needle and polyester thread (I HIGHLY recommend Gutermann)

I originally cut neckline much smaller. For one thing, stretch fabric stretches. For another thing, it is always easier to make the neckline bigger but you can never go smaller! I tried the dress on and adjusted the neckline a bit at a time till I got it how I wanted. 

Sew the neckline with a straight stitch being very careful not to stretch it. 

That is it! I didn't hem the sleeves or the skirts. 

But I wasn't reaaallly done... 

Blue dress inside out and about to become purple dress!

 I used Rit Dye in Scarlet. I divided the dress in to five sections. Dipped the first section in for two minutes, then put the dress in deeper for another minute, then deeper again. About one minute for each section till the last one where I just dipped it in, made sure it was all wet then pulled it out. It might be kind of hard to tell in the pictures, but the dress is darker on the bottom. The effect will of course be stronger the longer you leave the item in the dye. 

Rinsing... it looks like blood...

Yes... the tub is now stained pink. 

The buttons on the sleeves! I couldn't decided which ones I wanted so I got them all and mixed them up. I love how it turned out. 

So that is all! I am done with this dress. If you wanna make your own and have any questions let me know! I will do my best to help. 

Tweet!

Hey! I have been busy today making a dress. ^_^ Husband said I have to use all the fabric I have before I can buy more fabric.

And! I can't find any dresses I want to buy. Or at least that I want to buy and are affordable...

I don't love sewing, but I am glad I know how. It can be really helpful. I have been taking pictures of the whole process. You will get to see when I finished!

In other news... I made a twitter to go along with my blog. You are welcome to follow me. http://twitter.com/ToBeHisWife

Homemade Stovetop Granola

As you can see my little sister even enjoyed granola and yogurt while she visited me.
I mixed in a little Elderberry syrup for her, that is why the yogurt is pink. 

For about a month and half now I have been obsessed with eating granola and yogurt with a little fruit and honey on top for breakfast. Everything about it is healthier than a bowl of processed cereal (more fiber, more protein and omega 3s just from the granola, not to mention the benefits of yogurt, fruit and honey), it is just as easy and it actually tastes better.

Since I like cooking and doing things myself I wanted to try my hand at making granola. I read a dozen different recipes and didn't find anything I wanted to try. I can't eat nuts unless I want a migraine and most granola recipes call for nuts. Also, I don't own a suitable baking sheet for making granola in the oven. I decided to go the stovetop route and made up my own recipe.

• 2 cups Rolled Oats
• 1/2 cup Steel Cut Oats
• 1/4 cup Ground Flax Seed
• 2 TBS Coconut Oil  
• 2 Tbs Brown Sugar
• 2 Tbs Honey
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract 
• pinch of salt

The reason my recipe has steel cut oats in it is because I accidently bought 2lbs of steel cut oats only to get home and realize they weren't what I wanted, but I didn't want to waste them and I thought the extra texture would be good. If you don't have steel cut oats just leave them out or add another half cup of rolled oats. Granola isn't an exact science.

Add all the ingredients to a large pot or skillet.

Stir on a medium-low heat for about 10min or until toasted. 

Remove from heat and let cool. I poured mine into a 13x9 pan. 

Enjoy! 

I don't think this was really any more cost effective than buying my granola, but it was easy and I liked it. I finished my last batch so I think I will make some more today! 

My Introduction to Yoga

I grew up in a very high stress environment. It was so bad that even now that I am married and away from all that environment I don't know how to not stress. Constant stress is actually really unhealthy mentally as well as physically. I have been slowly working on learning to lose the anxiety.

I think that being outside in nature is calming and apparently exercise is also supposed to help anxiety. So as a New Year goal I wanted to take walks every other day or at least just get out and be in the sunshine and grass. However, the last few months have been quite rainy and cold! I was able to really get out maybe three times. Those times were helpful, but not enough and I can't keep sitting around waiting for it to get nice out again.

Basic Yoga for Dummies

Then one day in Sam's Club some yoga DVDs  sparked my interest. Instead of buying one right then I went home and checked my library catalog. I picked one from my library and requested it.  The day I checked it out I put the DVD in and did the first four poses. 

In the Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies DVD Sarah Ivanhoe goes over twelve different poses explaining them and the breathing that goes along with them fully. I never understood yoga before this. All I had ever seen of yoga was in books or pictures. I just thought you stood for a bit in a funny pose and somehow that was supposed to be helpful. Actually it is much more interesting than that! The poses MOVE! I never could have know that without seeing yoga practiced in real life or on a video. 

Soon thereafter I told my husband about new interest in yoga and find out, much to my surprise, that he would actually do yoga with me! (This is a relationship lesson for everyone: Never assume you know what the other person is thinking.) The very next day we popped in the Yoga for Dummies DVD and went through all 12 poses together. It was more difficult than we expected, but still easy enough. We really liked it. 

AM and PM Yoga

On our next trip to Sam's Club I picked up another yoga DVD. AM & PM Yoga for Beginners by Elena Brower. And we did the AM workout less then 24 hours after we finished the 12 Dummy poses.  Which was fine... until the next day when the soreness hit. Wow! I never knew yoga was so intense! But it is a good soreness. I think we, or at least I am, hooked to this whole yoga thing. 

By the way, we are super glad we did the Dummy DVD first. Although we really like the Element DVD there is no instruction on the poses. Without figuring out the poses beforehand we would have been super lost and frustrated and probably given up on yoga. So if you think you might like to try yoga I highly recommend the Dummy DVD as a starting point. 

We have been doing the AM workout every few days for the last three weeks. It is not exactly getting easier yet, but I have noticed a significant difference in my level of stress. I'd like to be practicing yoga three times a week, but if I get it in at least twice it makes a difference.

I don't think we are going to give up yoga anytime soon. After all, it comes from the same people who wrote the Kama Sutra. Well, that and it is just plain good for us! 

My 6th Birthday

Excuse me for not posting last week. I had a birthday. A real actual birthday. That doesn't happen very often. I was born on February 29th. This was only 6th birthday even though I turned 24.

Dan and I were dating last time I had a birthday, but he was out of town. So this was the first time we actually got to celebrate my birthday together. He had mentioned wanting to take me to San Antonio, but never made concrete plans.

On the 29th Dan bleached and dyed my hair for me. I had it done in a salon a year ago and loved it. It was really nervous about doing it ourselves, but it turned out great! It was totally worth it. Thanks so much to my husband for doing the work!!!

Shirt is from Love Culture. Thanks to my sister for introducing me that store!

Dan decided he did want to go to San Antonio after all so as soon as my hair was dry we were rushing around the house packing up so we could get to the bank before it closed. We made it just in time! And headed off. It is pretty much a straight three hour drive from Houston to San Antonio. We didn't get their till late Wednesday night. We spend the next two days touring The Alamo, Downtown San Antonio and wondering around the Riverwalk.

San Antonio is so pretty! Especially the Riverwalk. I have not found any truly beautiful parts of Houston yet. It was quite refreshing to spend a few days away. The trip made feel incredibly happy, special and blessed because of my husband. It really would have been enough to make my birthday amazing and memorable. But apparently my husband didn't think so. He surprised me with an extra special birthday gift. An amethyst ring!

Isn't it so pretttyyy!!!!!! I think the ring and my wedding band complement each other well. Amethyst is my birthstone, purple is my favorite color, and I prefer square cut gems. Also, I like my gems to be really rich and dark. Dan told me he looked all the rings they had and picked the darkest one just for me. ^_^ I had actually shown this ring to Dan a few weeks ago, but I really didn't think he would get it for me. Especially since he said we could skip out on the trip and just get the ring. I was tempted to choose the ring, but life experiences are more valuable than jewelry. And then I got both!

Super excited with my new ring!

My birthday felt like a great excuse to wear my tiara. 

I had the best BEST birthday ever thanks my incredibly amazing husband.