Hello! I am so sorry I haven't posted in so long! I have been really busy with moving and stuff so I haven't been very motivated to post in a while. Sorry :( BUT I am here now! And while this post isn't exactly a DIY tutorial, I wanted to show you all what I have been up to lately/hopefully provide some DIY inspiration! 
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Ok this is my fist thing that I made! It's a piece of wall art for my new room made out of dried flowers and twine. It was really easy to make, just knotting twine around the stems and then hanging them up on a piece of string. Easy peasy! But I thought it was so pretty once it was done; I love dried flowers- there is something hauntingly beautiful about them. 

PictureA close up on my project :)

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Sorry about the poor lighting in this picture! I took it last minute. But as you can see, the flowers dress up the wall nicely :)
PictureThe tissue box with some DIY flair :)
The other thing I did was to decorate my bathroom. I wrapped some string/twine around my soap dispensers  and the tissue box to dress them up a bit. (At the old house, the bathroom was very crisp white, but at the new house that style wouldn't work.) Something I do to make the bathroom (appear) more organized is I put the bath products that I use most often (my daily face wash, lotion, ect.) in soap dispensers. That way I can keep my necessities out at all times for convenience, but it still looks tidy.

 
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Hey everyone! Words cannot even describe how excited I am to begin my first tutorial! For this tutorial, I will be showing you how I changed this, uh, unique, dress ($6.00, wuddup!) from drab, to party-ready! 

I chose this dress for a couple of reasons. 
  1. I liked the fabric! What is more fun than navy blue velvet with a glittery-leaf-thingy pattern all over it? Plus it is stretch. So. Nothing. 
  2. It already had undergone some DIY from the previous owner. I will show you in a later pic, but you could tell that the last owner had already tried to add some darts on the waist. (It was still too big for me, though). I didn't want to leave the dress in unfinished DIY limbo! 
  3. I thought the neckline was cute and oriental-ish.
  4. Since the front of the dress is conservative, I wanted to try out adding an oh-so-trendy cutout to the back! 



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The first thing I did was say buh-bye to the shoulder pads! 

Hemming the Dress

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Then I tried that baby on inside out and marked how long I wanted it to be with a pencil. (Would have used chalk, but my room swallowed it.)

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Then I made the chop! 

I added those dots via Photoshop. In real life, my laziness ensued and I just guesstimated. 

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Here it is post-chop! 

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Next, I guesstimated how I wanted the sleeves to look and chopped those off too. 

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Here we are all chopped up! Looking better already! 

Now it is time to P+H (pin and hem)!

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Clockwise: 
1. Pinning the bottom hem
2. Pinning the sleeve hem
3. Sewing the bottom
4. Sewing the sleeve
 
First impression of using my machine on this fabric: "STRETCH FABRIC WHY ARE YOU SO ANNOYING?!" and when my machine got to one of those little leaf thingies, I would have to tug extra hard because it would get stuck. 

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Tried it on to check the length- success! It already looks so much more wearable! 

Ok, now on to the darts!

Taking it in

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As I was telling you before, this dress already had some DIY done to it! 

I found 8 of these lovely darts along the front and back of the dress. I could tell they were done post-purchase because they were a little imperfect on the edges. (No worse that what I can do though, let me assure you lol). 


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So, all I did to make it fit me, was follow the lines of the the already-there darts, and just take it in about a quarter and inch.

Of course, like always, I didn't mark out where I was going to sew, but I added those lovely dots to show you.

I did this on all 8 darts!

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Tried it on again. Woohoo! It fits perfect now!

Adding the Cut-out

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First thing I did to add the cut-out was put the dress back on inside-out. 

I then took some acrylic paint (OK- I know this is a total sewing faux-pas but I was out of chalk! I had to improvise!) dipped my finger in it, and put a dot right above where the band of my bra was. That is the bottom dot. 

Then I took another dot and put it right where I wanted to end on the top. 

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I then took the dress off, and put the horizontal dots on the dress. I attempted to make them as symmetrical as possible. 

(Now would be a great time to use a ruler to measure out the distances and make sure they all look symmetrical and perfect, but LOL nope I am not doing that.) 

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Next, I cut it out, connecting the dots. 

Again, it would have been much better to use a ruler and chalk to first draw out the lines, then cut. But I skipped that step. Oh well. 

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THIS IS IMPORTANT! After I cut it out, I added little slits at the four corners of the diamond. This made it so the corners where sharp and tight. 

I added little dashes via Photoshop to show you guys. 

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Now I got out my trusty pincushion and sewing machine for a good-ole-fashioned P+H! 

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And would you look at that! The cute little cut-out is all done! Sooo trendy! 

Finished! 

Yayy! You made it all the way to the bottom! 

I am very happy with how it came out! It is just too much fun!

Thank you so much for reading my first post! Keep checking back, there will be many more tutorials to come!

Love, Lauren 

    Author

    Lauren Adams is a fashion-loving 17-year-old who isn't afraid of a sewing machine. 

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