The One With Remakes Part 2: A New Skirt

I know you'll all been on the edge of your seats dying for part 2 of my remakes. This one took me forever to finish; I think I started in May. I'm sure I took out 100 seams I sewed to correct mistakes before getting something I was happy with.

So first of all, let me tell you what I started out with. I went to Goodwill, looking for something I could turn into a skirt. (Goodwill because if you're going to tear something apart, with the possibility of ruining it, paying only $4 is the way to go.) I found a fantastic pair of men's pants. Let me tell you--they were huge. Not just huge, but ginormous. The waste was a 44 and I'm kicking myself that I didn't take the inseam measurement. They were so long that I couldn't really get all of them in the picture. They were very close to the length of the door they were hanging on. When I held them up to my head, they were almost as tall as I am. I can only guess that these pants were made for a man whose waist was almost 5'7. Then how tall would that make this man? 7 feet? Yeah. I said they were ginormous.

This is what I could fit into the picture.

The other thing about these pants was they were linen. Navy with a white pin stripe. Now, I don't know about the kind of men you know, but I have yet to know any that wear linen pants. I think linen pants are reserved for pimpin' black men (and by pimpin' I mean down-like that, you got it goin' on kind) or white men who wear polyester shirts, white sports coats, Sperry Topsiders with no socks, and straw hats. I can only imagine that the man who wore these pants had to duck while walking through doorways and had to drive a Ford Expedition and still had to have the front seat custom made to sit a few feet back than normal because his legs wouldn't fit in any other car. If you see this man wondering the streets of Lafayette, please let me know. I'd love to meet him.

Ok, so back to my point. I decided these pants would be my new skirt. These were very high-end pants and the details were very impressive: the waist band, lining (yeah, they were lined even), and interior piping. I can only imaging the classy 'Massive and Huge' store ('Big and Tall' doesn't quite cut it for these pants) at which they were purchased. I really wanted to leave as much of the original details and integrity of the workmanship that went into these. This was easier said then done. I started by taking apart seams. I took the pant legs apart, began to take the waistband off, cut out the lining, and cut out the panels that had the front and back pockets. Since I had so much fabric to work with, I didn't need the pockets and didn't want them. I did keep the original zipper because of it's quality.


Taking pant part off the waistband.

Detail in the waistband.

Pants coming apart and lining removed.

I cut the bottom half of the pants off and sewed in more panels to create a full skirt. It was hard to figure out how wide to make the skirt so I had to try it on a lot, all pinned up, trying to get the size right. I also started to work on adding the pleats. Trying to make the pleats evenly spread was difficult as well. Once I got the pleats right I sewed it back into the waist band.

Pinning pleats together.

Pinning back to the waistband to work on the fit.

Finally, several months later, I ended up with this.

This is the inside view of the original waistband still intact. Well, half of it anyway.

So there you go. Now go ahead and get back on the edge of your seat as you wait for part 3. If there is a part 3, that is. So suspenseful, I know.

The One With My Summer Remakes Part 1: Denim

This summer I was really wanted something like this but didn't want to pay that price (or any price for that matter). So, I fished around my closet for something I could turn into that.

I had these capris that were a dark and heavy denim (and kind of hot for the summer). I didn't get a pre-picture. I had already done a layer of distressing to these.

I started off by sanding these over and over again. I used a small electric detail sander. It was taking too long to shed the dark color. So, I went to a heavier duty circular sander. A belt sander would have been great, but I didn't want to look for it. Like sanding wood, where you are taking off layers of wood, sanding denim took off layers of denim leaving it softer and lighter in color and weight.

Using a utility knife I started slicing small incisions into the jeans where I wanted the holes. The best way I found was to cut small horizontal holes, close together, one under the next. Then you can begin to pull out the blue fabric by hand, leaving the white behind. But do it carefully as you don't want to pull or break the white. Then wash. The result is a long, white, distressed hole.

After putting these on I figured out I needed to add a denim patch underneath so my unders wouldn't show through. It also helps the hole to not get bigger with wear.

The pocket hole is bigger than I wanted but I had a sharp knife and the fabric was really soft. These were my first try at "boyfriend jeans" so it was a little experimental. But now I know what to do and not to do the next time around. (The lighting in this picture is a little off. They aren't quite this light compared to the before shot.)

The One Where I Take Zach to School and He Stays There and I Go Home

That's what happened. The end.

I took these pictures in May after he turned 6. He's in first grade now.
I used picnik for the effects.

July 30, 2009
Zach is a red belt.

Because I Thought You Might Be Interested

I saw this tutorial and decided I had to make one for Zach and Eli. Zach was first. He picked out these fabrics. (From my stash of Amy Butler, so he didn't have a lot of choices.)

Zach was less than excited about it once it was done. He didn't like it. I made him wear it once but I thought it was too small for him anyway. So I gave it to Eli and Zach picked out new fabric. (Again from my stash of Amy Butler. I love her.)

It's too big for Eli but I love it. I'll make another for Zach. It's really easy, mostly done by hand. I didn't follow the directions completely; I added a complete lining instead of the interface and small corner linings. Does anyone want to join me to make one?

The One Where I'm Over It

Zach received his brown-decided belt. One year till black belt!


Zach's Self Portrait

So, I'm really totally over the whole blog thing. Really. I haven't decided if I'm going to just delete it or leave it for some unforeseen need. But really, if I just copy and paste the wanted posts to my journal, I won't miss this at all. I did give it a try. But I do have adorable kids.

The One With Outside Findings

We were outside on Saturday enjoying the warm and sunny. J was mentioning how we got this crappy soil for part of our yard from some guy who was supposed to have really great soil. But it's all weedy and crabby. J pulled out this bundle of weeds. He then asked me what it smelled like. Smells like? Sure, I'll play along.

Onions? They really smelled like onions. And not just a little bit. Very potent onions. So we dug some up and found these roots.

Crazy, I think those are really green onions. I'm a little scared to actually use them though. I envision them full of poison and a few weeks after consumption someone will find my family dead in the house completely decayed with... I'll stop now, you get the point.


I love the red and orange buds of Spring. The red is from our trees and the orange is from bushes we planted this past Fall around the deck.

Mushrooms growing in the mulch under the swing set this past Fall.

These birds are from a couple years ago. We found a nest on our porch light. The mommy bird would sit on the neighbor's fence while we went in and out of the house. She would sit and stare at us.

The One With More Whatever

So, I've been super busy and I'm way tired. I actually used the phrase "pushing deadlines" to my mom the other day. She called to tell me about her scanner that didn't work and she always calls me when she has technical problems as J and I have become her official tech support team. But we actually were trying to finish a few things that had deadlines. I told her I couldn't talk, busy, deadlines. However I have never needed to say that in regards to my work. I have said, "It's 86ed" and "¿Para fumar o no?" and "I need parsley on that."

Which actually leads me to this funny story about work. I worked as an expediter in the kitchen at Marie Callender's. Among other things I had to make sure all plates were garnished correctly before being sent out. The cooks often would forget to put chopped parsley on the plates. Well, as most (all) the cooks were Hispanic and spoke little English I used that as an opportunity to advance my Spanish. So, as I often did, I asked them, "¿Como se dice parsely?" Well, the one guy, my very good buddy who would always save me the last chicken pot pie because I loved them, answered, "mota." My friends, let me tell you that mota does not mean parsley. However, I went weeks (maybe more??) thinking that it did. And now I wonder if I should tell you what mota means as it's funnier if you figure it out yourself, I think. I told my BIL about it, who speaks fluent Spanish, and the second I said mota he just started laughing. So, go out and ask your Spanish speaking friend what mota means. And then go about your laughing as you imagine me saying, "Necisita mota" or "Mota por favor" to the Hispanic cooks in the back of the kitchen. And if you were wondering, parsley is actually "paraji" though I'm not for sure on that spelling.

What was my point? That I'm busy? And more work is coming as Jason forms his new company into another new company for tax, legal and investor benefits and I have to make sure all the books are straight and accurate and investor worthy so that they can give J lots of money and we won't have to move in with my parents. My parents are already in their own dire straits as my dad watches everyone around him get laid off at work. He's a building inspector for the city of Henderson (next to Las Vegas) and I guess they aren't building so much these days. He's been there forever and so would only be laid off if the whole department was shut down and maybe not even then.

Apparently Zach and Eli were playing "spys" the other day. I'm not sure how one would normally go about playing with an 11 month old but Zach does it by pulling, pushing, yelling and laying on the floor so Eli can climb on him. Then Zach can grab him and roll around with him.

Eli is not too sure about playing spys.

Zach is giving me his best spy face.

Is there anything better than this? I was actually hoping the picture taking would wake him up because I had to go get Zach from school. I've never been more tempted to leave Eli home for the 10 minutes it takes to get Zach, then at this moment. It seems as though it shouldn't take that long to get Zach but it's actually 5 minutes round trip. 6-7 minutes total for drop-off and about 10-15 for pick-up. Maybe more if I get stuck waiting for the crossing guard to cross kids. That lady rocks the stop signs. She has two signs so she can stop traffic in two directions at once. Seriously. But look how perfect he is here. Not whiny or needy or hungry or poopy or mischevious or loud or crying. I can't get over those little feet sticking out with the little baby toes.