Archive for October, 2010

Legxicon Tights Review & Giveaway *CLOSED*

October 25th, 2010
123 Comments

This post is brought to you by legxicon tights.

Again, you know how picky I am about tights. After reviewing tights for Hanes, I was so glad to hear I’m not alone in my tight snobbiness! Shortly after the review, Legxicon asked me to try out some of their tights to see how I felt about them. Gladly I accepted!

Legxicon has a wide variety of printed tights, which immediately piqued my interest. Do you see the above tights? They’re perfect for jazzing up my boring black dress. Oh, and by the way, this is the maternity dress that Chris hates, if you wanted to know. He hates the polyester & thinks it’s a witch dress. I love it. It was my mom’s or at least I think it was. I rescued it from the Scott family dress-up pile years ago.

I love these tights for their subtlety. Mixing & matching prints & patterns is so “in” right now, these tights while patterned are so perfect for pairing with even the busiest of prints. I also liked how surprisingly thick they were. I’m not seeing runs any time soon.

Seamed tights are the BEST! They instantly add a touch of vintage flair to any outfit. I have a similar pair from Victoria Secret, but they don’t compare. The waistline on my old pair is high, tiny (who has an 18″ waist these days?) and not stretchy. Legxicon’s waistband is soft, generous & low.

I thought I’d try out some leggings as well, and I love them! They’re a tad on the sheer side for me, so I wore black leggings underneath in this outfit. They’re stretchy, comfortable, rouched at the bottom and did I mention comfy? So comfortable, in fact, I wore them to bed the other night.

I’m very impressed with the quality, style & fit of Legxicon tights & leggings. I’ve had a lot of fun pairing outfits with them and I think you would, too! Legxicon is offering one lucky reader their choice of two pairs of tights. I know you’ll all fall in love as I have. Here’s how you can win:

  • Visit Legxicon’s site, check out their tights & sign up for their newsletter (at the bottom right) – it’ll automatically enter you in their monthly drawing for a pair of free tights!
  • Leave a comment on this post telling me what tights are your favorite
  • This contest is open for US residents only
  • Only one (1) comment per person
  • Comment by 11:59pm (MST) Thursday, October 28, 2010
  • No purchase necessary
  • One (1) winner will be chosen via random.org & announced Friday, October 29, 2010

Good luck!!

Last-minute Watercolor Class!

October 23rd, 2010
2 Comments

Sadly the watercolor class scheduled for Art Weekend was cancelled, but you haven’t missed the opportunity to learn it yet! Monday night from 7-9pm in SLC I’ll be teaching beginning watercolor. You’ll learn all sorts of awesome stuff about materials and about how to make rad watercolors for your own home.

Let’s be honest, this is not going to be your grandma’s or your kindergartener’s watercolor class. We won’t be playing with saran wrap or salt; we’ll be getting down to the nitty gritty of actual painting. You know you want to come. The class is $20 + $17 materials fee. Comment or use the contact form to let me know if you’re interested. I hope to see you there!

Circus Inspired Handmade Top

October 22nd, 2010
8 Comments

So Sew Word of the Week: CIRCUS

Sandy’s Project • Krista’s Project • So Sew Flickr Group

This week’s word had me completely out of ideas. All I could think of was Penelope’s clown suit and possibly making another one. I love that little suit and I’m heartbroken she’s grown out of it. Thankfully a few of you came to my rescue & gave me some more inspiration! I decided to run with the whole pennant idea & make a little shirt for Penelope with embroidered pennants on the front. Oranges & yellows also remind me of the circus, so that explains the color palette.

What do you think? I’m really happy with how it turned out, even though it took me 3 hours longer than I had anticipated. I think Chris was a tad annoyed that I spent the whole night glued to the sewing machine & ironing board.

I used the vintage pattern, Butterick 4782 (Tie her jumper over a T – awesome name). I can’t seem to find it anywhere, so it must be out of print. I modified the shirt pattern by adding the tie, adding about 4″ to the hem (so glad I did that! look how short it is already on Penelope!) and by adding the pennant iron on. Unsurprisingly I had a hard time fitting the shirt over Penelope’s head, so I’m going to have to make a few modifications to the pattern if I make it again.

Have you made any circus-inspired crafts lately? Please share! Add them to the flickr group and/or include a link in the comments!

Recycled Wedding Announcements

October 21st, 2010
3 Comments

I’ve posted about this before in regards to my brother’s wedding announcement. My mom is a card maker/scrapbooker extraordinaire. Birthdays, Valentine’s, Anniversaries are always celebrated with a handmade card from mom. Chris got the sweetest card for his birthday, and it was almost entirely made out of my my sister’s leftover wedding invitations!

She’s made all sorts of cards & gift tags using Linnley’s wedding invitations. The repeat pattern I used on Lin’s wedding invite was one of the first repeats I ever made. I hand drew all of the little elements, scanned them in & digitized them. It’s just so satisfying to see them on paper & in card form! I think this is why I would love to be a paper/textile designer.

I personally would love to see a settee upholstered in this print. I think I would cry if it actually came true.

Maternity Skirt + Tutorial

October 19th, 2010
22 Comments

I’m practically fresh out of Sunday clothes. Nothing fits! I borrowed most of my maternity clothes when I was pregnant with Penelope (best thing ever, btw), so this time around I don’t have the same wardrobe to work with. It’s good & bad. Now I only have two maternity dresses & no maternity skirts, oh and Chris hates one of the dresses.

This pretty much brings back stressful memories of getting ready for church as a child where I literally had nothing to wear besides what I wore the week prior. But don’t think I had a deprived childhood. I was just terribly picky with clothes. Still am.

I have about 7 yards of this vintage jersey knit material that I’ve been meaning to make something out of and a maternity skirt seemed to fit the bill.

When it comes to maternity fashion, my philosophy is: if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Show off that belly bump, don’t hide it under yards & yards of fabric. When I try on flowy maternity skirts, I feel like they make me look 15 lbs heavier & 6 inches shorter, so I like the more fitted approach. I definitely use this when it comes to pants: HELLO JEGGINGS! You are my fave.

Outfit Details:

  • headband – Forever 21
  • jacket – thrifted
  • top – Forever 21
  • skirt – handmade
  • tights – Legxicon – c/o lexicon
  • shoes – Aldo

So here we are. I now have 3 dressy maternity items in my closet. The skirt took me 2 or so hours to make, watching Friday Night Lights while sewing really slows down my process. It was a very easy skirt to make, I’m sure if I did it again, it’d take me less than 15 minutes. You want to know the best part about making this skirt? I didn’t have to hem anything. It was pretty remarkable.

Click on the button above to download the tutorial. This tutorial is free for personal use and should not be distributed without my consent. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

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