NumberNineteen

Easy Elastic Waist Skirts

I'm excited to share with you a sewing project that I completed this summer -- make that 3 projects in 1!  I've been loving cute skirts that I've seen both in online stores or on bloggers, but I either haven't been able to find anything like them or they were too expensive.  Being me, I thought "I'll just make what I want!".  Those words always get me in trouble.... Honestly, though, these skirts were so easy.  I love being able to pick out any fabric I want and customize the length.

I followed a tutorial that I found A Small Snippet.  It is super easy to follow and requires 3 items (aside from a sewing machine): fabric, elastic and thread.  I made a few changes to the original directions that I think made it even easier & makes the skirts look better on me.  They are:

-I didn't include pockets, but it looks like it would be easy to include them.

-I didn't line my skirts, though I will probably will the next time I make them.  Again, it doesn't look hard at all.

-I made one adjustment to the directions and I think that it really important: She suggests that if you are making the short version of the skirt that you should cut out two pieces of fabric, each equal to your waist measurement, minus 3-4 inches.  I originally followed this and ended up with WAY too much fabric.  If you want a really full skirt, then go with the original instructions.  If you are like me and a really full elastic waist skirt is not flattering, cut out two pieces of fabric that are your waist measurement minus 6-8 inches. 

I realized this after I'd sewn them and I ended up pulling out the seams, cutting 2 inches off of each piece of fabric and re-sewing them.  The skirts in the pictures are from pieces measuring my waist measurement minus 6 inches. 

Here are my skirts -- I finished all three of them (not counting the day that I re-sewed them) in 1 day!

A close up of the anchors because they are so darned cute!

Seersucker for the win!

You can't go wrong with navy blue and polka dots.

I purchased all of the fabric, thread and elastic at Joann's for around $30 (most of it was on sale).  $30ish for 3 skirts!!!  I love how they turned out so much that I am planning on making more eventually.

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August Flea Market Finds

It's time for another round of monthly flea market finds! I am quite thrilled with my finds this month.  There aren't many of them, but they are top notch. 

Hope joined me for the market today, which surprised me.  I was under the impression that she thought that any vintage hunting was "sooo BORING", but it turns out that flea markets are OK with her.  She always manages to find some kind of treasure, whether it is a bracelet, a book or a toy. She brought her own money and was very thoughtful about how she spent it.  She got two horse figurines (she is a horse nut) and a plastic lion mug that I must share with you:

It's a tiger statue...but no!  It's more!  The head flips back to make it a mug!  It cracks me up that this is the thing she zeroed in on out of the entire market.

Do you spy the new additions to my British royalty collection?  Let's get a closer look:

I really love both of them because they are a little different from the coronation souvenirs that I usually see.    But, truth be told, I'll buy just about any coronation memorabilia if I don't already have it and it's the right price.  I think that I was English in a former life.

I am head over heels in love with this 1950s tablecloth.  Look at those roses!  I sincerely don't think that I've ever seen a vintage tablecloth as pretty as this one.  The dealer wasn't in the booth when I found it, so I had to wait around until he returned.  Hope was getting pretty impatient, but I couldn't leave without it!

So, not a big haul (I also found a piece of ironstone that will eventually make it to Etsy), but I'm in love with every bit of it.  Well, maybe not the lion mug ;)