skirts skirts everybody loves skirts

Guess who finished her music-men skirt today? Me. I did. I did it. I did things. I am the best. I also had the pleasure of taking out some of the seams in my sister's prom dress because someone has grown since she bought the dress. (That someone is not me this time, guys.)

Anyway, onto this skirt, right? Here's the before picture in case anybody missed it and the way it is terrifying.

Beautiful! So here's what I did:

• Separated the top half from the bottom with my trusty seam-ripper
• Ironed over the top edge to put in elastic and began sewing the tube-bit for the elastic when I realized...
• OH NO GOTTA TAKE OUT THOSE POCKETS (which is sad, because I do love pockets... but they were very much in the way of where the elastic would be)
• Sewed up the sides where the pockets used to be (seriously...saddest that there are no pockets now)
• Put in the elastic for the waist band! Can we talk about how much of a pain pushing a couple feet of elastic through a SEVEN FOOT FABRIC TUBE is? My fingertips are angry at me for the death-grip I had on the safety pin I used to assist. 
• Sewed up the areas around the entry-point for the elastic.
• Sewed some of the skirt to the elastic to avoid it folding and twisting in the laundry/wear/etc.
• PUT THAT SKIRT ON:

(Excuse the part where you can see my bra through my t-shirt. Oops.) Also, after picture is complete with close-up of the fabric so you can see the glory that is the print on this skirt.

Anyway, now it is late and I have to get ready to do things tomorrow. What am I doing? you might wonder. PAINTING MY ROOM YES I AM. And I am very excited about it. Also doors. And trim, if trim is not to be replaced. Dearest room, you are going from ten-year-old's-room to capable-of-being-a-guest-room-when-I-move-out-without-making-guests-feel-awkward-and-ten-years-old tomorrow. Be excited. I am pumped to live in a grown up room. And put my white sheets on my bed soon after that.

Yessssss.

P.S. Happy birthday, Dad. I microwaved dinner-in-a-steam-bag because I am a super cook and daughter.

did some things!

Started off the day by getting some laundry going and then going for a nice bike ride in the lovely sunshine. Then I seam-ripped the musical-instrument-playing-dress to take the skirt section off. I want to do an elastic waist but unfortunately the POCKETS ARE IN THE WAY. A skirt with pockets already and I'm going to have to take them out. OR WILL I? We'll see.

Here's a sneak peek BEFORE PIC. Missing buttons, wide waistline and everything! In fact, once the skirt was removed, it got even wider, because of little tiny pleat-things.

Anyway then I did more laundry (laundry all day!) and then went to the gym and "ran" for half an hour in my new shoes and I have to say that they are far more comfortable than my $8 Wal*Mart shoes. NOW MY LEGS ARE SO DEAD ALSO.

But I think the really big thing today was the laundry. I have not done laundry since... probably for over a month. (I have a lot of underwear...) As of now I've done and folded four loads, with two more that'll be laundered before the night is over. I am a laundry machine.

so far so good

One day into blogging, and so far it's actually working for my productivity. I got up a bit late, but started the day with a trip to get some necessities like contact solution. Then, upon returning home, I started work on a thrift store dress I'd gotten a while back and wanted to improve. I went to the gym, also, and learned that I am ridiculously out of shape. More so than I've been before, so it's pretty ridic. Gonna work on that.

BUT ANYWAY the really exciting part is that I finished working on that dress. I had picked it up because I liked the print so much, but the fit at the top was really off and not modern at all, and the skirt was way too long. At some point, probably over winter or spring break, I took off the sleeves, and then today I finished the rest.

What should have been a fairly quick process of taking off the top portion and then shortening the skirt was probably a good hour or two longer than it should have been, because I had to sew the bottom hem four times, since I didn't pay enough attention to where the fabric was folded under and then kept thinking I could just sew over to fix it but that looked really dumb. Duuuuuh. But, lesson learned. Pay attention. Srsly.

The top of the skirt ended up really sack-like because the back of the dress is ruched (right word?) with elastic, but I like it a lot. I'm actually really happy with how this turned out. I've been wanting a skirt-of-a-decent-length for a while. Forever21 is lame in that way where they really target younger skankier people than I am / it is windy sometimes and I don't want to expose my butt (sometimes).

So here are some really great before and after shots! (Note that the before shot is not entirely legit; I never had a picture of the dress with the sleeves on it, but whatevs. Just imagine short sleeves and probably there were shoulder pads, too.)

Stuff you can't see in the photos: the dress is a wrap dress, so there are buttons and snaps and ties and things, and I left all of these, including the ties because they aren't offensive at all. I took somewhere between nine and ten inches off the length. It falls just a few inches above my knees and has pockets--good length AND pockets are rare in skirts I've come across / own lately, and I am really excited about this one.

So really, today was pretty darn productive. Skirts, exercise, and stores.

I did things!

P.S. I am really bad at self-timers on cameras.