It's been awhile! Life has been crazy lately - then again, I always say this. If you've been following my social media then you know that Hugo and I were off having a blast exploring Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. Coming back from vacation and transitioning back into everyday life hasn't been easy, especially with all of the rain we've been having still - yuck! Adulting can wait, right?

Since it's been taking me awhile to get back into a routine, what better way to get back to it than a diy of this season's hottest trend? Every where you look, the 70's inspired peasant top seems to be  all the rage and the options are limitless! I'm finding a new love for 70s with their high-waisted flares, jumpsuits, free-flowing tops and dresses, and I've been wanting a peasant top ever since they found their way to stores earlier this year. Luckily these are really easy to sew yourself!

I found this maxi skirt a couple of months ago when I made a trip to my local Value Village. I was rather surprised to find it on the rack, especially since it was only a $1.99! The embroidery is so pretty and I fell in love with it immediately. Plus, the waist was smocked so it made it all the easier to transition into a cute top. Here's a good look at the before! 

Look Expensive on a Budget: A DIY Lace Curtain Refashion + Simplicity 1099

So far, April has been my favorite month this year. It's the right kind of busy where there is always something to look forward to or do. The Tulip Festival is currently running, the farm reopened, Easter is right around the corner, and the Spring Fair is at the end of the month. There are so many things to show the little bear and our weekends are quickly filling with activities - just the way that I like it!

While we aren't out, enjoying our breaks of sunshine, I've been working on spring and summer inspired projects! There's something about transitional seasons that really inspires me to sew. I love getting a break from a dark color palette and seeing the stores filled with pastels, florals, skirts, dresses and heels. Unfortunately, my account has also felt the crunch this time of year because of my love for all of those things [Insert the saddest face] However, I have learned that you can indulge a little and still maintain your budget without sacrificing taste or quality which brings me to these lace curtain panels that I found at Value Village for $2.50

DIY Gingham Crop Top

I am so excited that spring is finally here! Every where you look, there are fresh leaves, flowers blooming, and sunshine! Thank heaven for sunshine!

There's no better way to celebrate than with this season's staples: gingham, ruffles, and a crop. I've been wanting to try out a crop top for awhile but, I'll be honest, I hate working out and I love cookies so most crop tops don't flatter my shape. However, this design is belly friendly for those of us who want to wear a crop and eat our cake too!

St. Patrick's Day Refashion

The other week I went thrifting with my mom and I found this forest green dress from The Limited for $3.49 and in the cart it went. Lurve, at first sight. It's always interesting to go thrifting with my mom because, even to this day, whenever I pick something out, she gets a really nervous look and tries to redirect my attention onto something else. To be fair, the dress was a major don't for my body type. Drop waist, sheath but too tight on my hips, too short, and the 2000-esque bow nicely accentuated a post-baby bump that shouldn't be there anymore (it's just so rainy outside and I'm definitely guilty of sometimes giving into the sweet tooth).

DIY Evening Dress

The evening dress is finally complete.

I feel like there was a lot of build up to this moment throughout the month and there were so many moments when I thought that I was going to finish much earlier than I anticipated. I knew going in that this was going to be my hardest project to date and it was though, not in the way that I imagined that it would be. As you know, this dress was inspired by the Oscar De La Renta  gown that I talked about in a previous post. I knew that I wanted a classic bodice with a chevron paneled skirt in order to achieve a similar look.

Transformation Tuesday: Footie Pajamas to Mittens

This week was another busy one and a lot of routine hopping for the Hugo bear which meant nap and sleepy time were all over the place. Getting anything done was a challenge. Hugo is definitely an active little boy and I am learning how to keep him engaged in activities as well as directing his energy so he doesn't become bored so easily. I think boredom could be a large fraction as to why he doesn't sleep through the night. This week we experimented with alternating an activity at home and then with an activity out of the house. My mom got him a Mickey Mouse calendar for Christmas and we write down our big or outside activities and talk about any events that are going to happen that day. I am also trying to rearrange our routine at home. We're so used to letting Hugo determine how the routine is going to be set and doing things around his nap or nighttime. Since he's getting older, I think that starting to do things while he's awake and letting him participate a little is going to be beneficial in keeping him engaged and learning. I think that I noticed he was ready for a shift in routine at home when he wanted to "help" do the dishes, got really excited to see the vacuum, and attacked the broom. haha. He's the cutest!

Transformation Tuesday: Playsuit into a Sweater!

In November we bought Hugo a playsuit from Carters that looked so warm and adorable. Since we are awful at surprises, we couldn't wait until Christmas and gave it to him early so he could start enjoying his little suit. Let me say that I loved this suit for about 2 washes and then material/interfacing began to unravel at the inner leg seam. It was an easy enough fix, albeit an irritating one. I also began noticing a good deal of wear-and-tear signs in the legs like, matted material, layers of fuzz, and noticeable differences in the knee after about 4 wears. Nope, nope, nope. I think at this point, the creative wheels started to turn. It was much too soon to get rid of. That would be such a waste of money, plus it had some issues so it would most likely not sell at a thrift store. I thought my, that would be a cute sweater though. So, I made it a sweater! Also, Hugo grows the most in his torso and tends to outgrow the lengths of his sweaters and shirts long before the sleeves so I was really pleased with how much length I was able to get from the playsuit! It's so easy that it doesn't really require much of a tutorial, to be honest. Even Scott was surprised by how quickly it went and said, "You're done?! That took you like 15 minutes!" Yup, easy.

Transformation Tuesday: 90s holiday dress to toddler romper

Oh my gosh, guys. I almost didn't make another Transformation Tuesday! This was easily the hardest upcycle that I've ever done and I was literally sewing against the clock (well, my self-imposed deadline of tonight). The concept of this transformation wasn't difficult however, I cut all of my pieces two weeks before I began sewing. Of course, during that time Mr. Hugo bear had a growth spurt and I had to scrap my original design when I was 85% finished and let out all of the seams. That didn't work. I have used the seam ripper enough this week for my husband to know that if I am sitting on the couch, seam ripping and binge watching Netflix, it's going sideways.

Now that we've talked about what a wild ride this week was trying to get this transformation to work for me, let's talk about the inspiration behind this romper!

Transformation Tuesday: Updated Old H&M Floral Top

Like I said this week is a little backwards so today it's Transformation Tuesday, except on a Thursday!

I've had this shirt for years. It's a thrifted H&M top that I found for $5.99 at one of my favorite Goodwills when I was living much closer to the city. The floral print of this shirt is what really drew me in a few years ago and I still love it just as much. Since I have a habit of repeat wearing my favorite clothing items (and ignoring the rest of my closet in the process) I was starting to get a little bored with the style of this shirt so I tossed it into the "do something with this" pile.

Transformation Tuesday: Old Maternity Shirt to Ruffle Tank Top

I've always had this idea that sewing a shirt is really hard and I'm just not quite up to snuff to pull it off. Lately, it seems like all of the DIY/sewing projects that I've been viewing have all been shirts and it was just the motivation that I needed to tackle an old F21 denim shirt that I bought when I was carrying Hugo. Initially, I was planning on upcycling it into some trendy pants for Hugo until I went to a consignment store and saw another girl rocking the same shirt. It really caught me off guard how good the shirt looked and I started to think that maybe there was more to this shirt than I was giving it credit. So, of course, the shirt sat in my closet for weeks until, once again, my good ole planner said that it was time to do something with it this week. I really needed to come up with a game plan but I wasn't too sure which way to go so I just started with before pictures. Really, really, awful before pictures.

Transformation Tuesday: Onesie to Knotted Hat for Baby

About a month ago or so, I purchased a new set of onesies for Hugo on clearance at H&M. H&M is my favorite store for baby clothes because they last longer than any brand that we've used with Hugo bear and it's not nearly as expensive in relation to other stores. (Yayer!) It was however, a sad day when his white striped onesie was stained during lunchtime (the week after purchase, ugh!) and no amount of oxiclean or soaking was going to save the areas heavily stained. Darn those lunchtime mandarins!

I really didn't want to throw it out since I literally just bought it and since the staining was isolated on the sleeves, I knew that I could upcycle the onesie into something else for the Hugo bear! So, the onesie sat on my dresser for awhile as I thought about what to make with it. 

Transformation Tuesday: "UGG" Inspired Slouchy Boots + Free Pattern for 18" Doll

My craft room is starting to accumulate a lot of old clothes, and honestly, some randomish things. I don't know when or where this happened, but I started to save everything. Scott even asked last week if I wanted to keep an old pair of his jeans that he was going throw away and I said, yes.

I guess lately I've had a keen eye and just see possibilities. Lots of free, make something cool, kind of possibilities. So things have been congregating in the corner, piling up, for me to get to. Most of which are my old clothes from like, the late 80s and early 90s. Yeah, the 90s. It's been so much fun remembering: "Oh, I wore this for Easter!!! Awww!" and then tearing it up with scissors. Again, I have no idea why. Anyways, I digress! Christmas is coming up and doll clothes are on the agenda for Christmas presents and repurposing old clothes are perfect for just that.