The Eli dress

This is a very quick post, as I run the risk of taking longer to write the post than to make the dress! So for you to get an idea of what happened. Tuesday morning a few weeks back, we are leaving to the UK at 2pm and it is hot, I don't like any of the dresses and skirts I have (I live in a cold place so I don't have much summer stuff) and I want a new dress...shall I go buy one? No way, lets make one!

So I started with these:

A dress my friend Eli had given me a while back and I loved apart from the top that showed more than I intended to, and a T-shirt, plain very basic I bought (like a dozen - I go through them so quickly and they are so useful). Then I marked where I wanted to skirt to sit on the tee... not to under the bust but no quite the waist either.

And I cut off the top of the dress (yes just like that cut, cut, cut) and pinned it to the t-shirt.

Sorry it is blurry, but as I said I was in a rush! And then I sewed all around the elastic band (make sure you don't cut this out... I was in no time to attaching a new elastic band all around! I used zig-zag stitch as it stretches!

Turn inside out and try it on... mine fitted just perfect. So with the straps I made two belt hooks on the sides and added a sash I already had around! And how long did I take from start to finish... not quite a 5 minute craft but very very close. Here is the snap from my phone when I took the first picture to when I sent the finished pictures of me posing funny to my sister (if you read Spanish you can have a laugh at our conversation as well).

So 33 minutes from start to finish! I am already looking in my wardrobe to see what else I can recycle and re-purpose!

"Wear & Wash" travelling bag

Today I am very happy to present my new "Wear & Wash" travel bag as part of the Sew Lux Fabric design challenge (see post here). I curated this gorgeous bundle for Chrissy over at Sew Lux and she kindly sent it to me to let my imagination fly...

And I hope I made it justice by creating this travelling "Wear & Wash" bag for storing underwear, swimwear or small items of clothing.



Visit the Sew Lux Fabrics blog (here) or find it very shortly in the tutorial section of the blog.

Bring on August and more sunshine!

It has been an exceptionally lovely warm July... I kind of don't want it to go... but bring on August and hopefully more sunshine and lovely long days in the park! My flowers don't think to be loving the weather as much as I do, but I am happy!

Well actually the introduction was basically my excuse for not doing very much this past month really! I have been a little bit missing in action from the crafting and blogging world. The word of the month was design, and I have been drawing quite a few patters for my little shop on Craftsy and quite a few others that I haven't uploaded yet... here's a little recap.

First I added more patterns to my freebies (find them here)

Source: In love paper pieced pincushion via Nati DJ on Craftsy

Source: In love paper pieced needle case via Nati DJ on Craftsy

Source: All the Fabric I can hide via Nati DJ on Craftsy

Source: Puppy coat via Nati DJ on Craftsy

And then I added two new birdie patterns (find them here)

Source: Bird houses via Nati DJ on Craftsy

Source: Cute bird via Nati DJ on Craftsy

There is a new tutorial on applique on the blog (here)



And finally the WIPs I showed here are finished and I will be showing them really soon!

So what's in for the new month:

• The designer challenge at Sew Lux Fabrics is being shown,
• I have teamed up with an on-line shop that sells ribbons (a lot more on that soon) and I will be making some projects with gorgeous ribbons they sent my way,
• A few new designs for the shop, I am really working hard on coming up with cute and modern designs,
• And I really would LOVE to manage to finish my side tables (sneak peak here) and my bedroom quilt.

Look forward to seeing what you are up to, that's why I am linking up to Lynne's fresh sewing day