How to make a gathered skirt [Tutorial]

Full skirts are possibly one of the best fashion items ever invented. They're comfortable, easy to combine, flirty and elegant. You can pair them up with tees, blouses, shirts and cardigans, and you can wear them with sandals, wedges, heels and even slip-ons. You can put together a casual look or a classic outfit with one of these beauties.

In the video below I am sharing my very own tutorial on how to make a gathered skirt. This is how I've made most of my full skirts, with one or two variations.

Follow me if you want to see more tutorials and other curious findings!

My first serious dress

My passion for fashion started to develop when I was very small, possibly due to the fact that I owned a lot of Barbies and loved to dress them up with an enormous variety of doll-sized clothes. I started crafting clothes for them with fabric and silicone, until I taught myself how to hand-sew. After that, I made some other clothes sewing by hand, until my mother showed me how to use the sewing machine. Some time later, my grandma helped me make the Dorothy Dress (check out my previous post). Even later, I dared to make my first dress from scratch and completely on my own. 

Crafted from an old fabric that my mom had kept within a fabric stash since many years ago, the dress follows almost the same pattern as one of my Ixia dresses. I traced out the pattern directly from a dress and adjusted it to fit some seam allowance and zipper space.

It is made from some kind of white and blue printed curtain or tapestry fabric. It holds up nice and firm, but the fabric is still still somewhat soft. Even though the seams are not perfect, it still has some pencil markings on the reverse side, and it has some fitting mistakes, I am very proud of my first serious dress. I wear it with pride, knowing that it was the start of what has been a wonderful progress as a self-taught seamstress.

Here’s a collage with several shots of the complete dress-making process.

Keep an eye out for more fashion posts! 

New project: 365 Mickey Ears

This month I decided to start a new project that could blend my love for design, Disney and amazing prints. On a daily basis a pair of colorful Mickey ears will be posted on my new Instagram account: @365MickeyEars.

I will be making 365 Mickey ears -one per day of the year- with different motifs, colors, themes and other inspirations. I will try to capture most important holidays worldwide and portray a wide diversity of color combinations, patterns, shapes and styles.

Follow me on Instagram ( @joycasasc & @365MickeyEars for those who don't follow me yet) with the hashtag #365MickeyEars to see the complete collection.

Pretty in plaid and pleats

Another pattern that I'm very fond of is plaid; perhaps because it's created upon the intersection of stripes or lines (yay!), or maybe because it reminds me of the famous Scottish kilts' fabrics (actually called tartan). I like most color combinations on this type of fabric, and I own a considerable amount of plaid clothing pieces in different colors. 

Scarves, dresses, shoes, shirts and skirts have been my outfit choices for these fabrics, which I have in a set of different colors: red, dark blue, dark green, yellow, pink, and orange. In the pictures I am wearing a black and orange plaid pleated skirt, which I made using only a meter of Abercrombie cotton. This was the first pleated skirt that I ever made.

If you've already mastered how to make a gathered skirt, making a pleated skirt is just going to take one different step. Instead of gathering the border of the skirt in order to sew it to the waistband, you have to calculate how many pleats you want or how wide you want them to be. Based on that, divide the length of the complete skirt rectangle into the number of pleats wanted. That will give you an average number of the width for each pleat. (Take into consideration that one pleat has three layers, since it is made in a zig-zag overlay. The width must be for the complete pleat. Ex: 9cm: 3cm - 3cm - 3cm). All that's left to do is create the pleats, adjust them, and sew them onto the waistband.

The color mix of this skirt might look a bit Halloween-ish, which it's perfect because I adore Halloween and its color combos. Speaking about Halloween... October is so close by! That means costume-planning time is right around the corner, and I will definitely be making a post about it. 

 Stay tuned for more fashion posts! 

Ssssstripe two!

As I said on my first outfit post, stripes are a recurring theme in my clothes. I simply cannot get enough of them.

In this case I'm wearing a scarlet red and green striped dress. When I made this dress I had already been sewing for a few months, so the project felt easier to complete. My aunt gave me the fabric, which she had bought many years ago to make a beach outfit for herself. I think the fabric gives a sensation of gypsy inspiration, due to its bright color mix and pattern choice.

I paired it with green heels with small bows (by Zabumba) and a rectangle-shaped stone necklace. The halter straps were made exactly to fit the width of the green stripes, and the complete ensemble was carefully matched to remain symmetrical. Here are some quick snaps back from when I sewed the dress.

 Stick around for more fashion posts and fun findings! 

Lighten up your day with Disney's "As told by Emoji"

As a Disney lover, I am a faithful reader of their weekly newsletters. Within a couple of them, I have recently spotted a relatively new set of short videos called "As told by Disney Emoji"... and they're truly a must-see for any Disney fans.

It's no secret that Disney animated movies (naming classics like Pocahontas, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, and so many others) are memorable, loveable and fantastic masterpieces, but these synthesized emoji stories are really capturing the attention of millions of YouTube viewers that slowly grow in number and hunger for more Disney emoji stories.

The video series focuses in reimagining scenes, characters, props and any other important elements from several Walt Disney Pictures movies following the style of smartphone chats, and showcasing them as a short film. The clever use of emoji-looking characters and icons, which also interact with some of the smartphone's apps and functionalities (ex: contacts and maps), are the perfect combination to develop a trendy short version of the Disney classics.

You can find the "As told by Emoji" playlist within Disney's YouTube channel, currently including 10 emoji animations about the following movies: Aladdin, Frozen, Frozen Fever, Tangled, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Zootopia, Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, Cinderella, and their latest addition, Beauty and the Beast.

The first installment was launched on February 2015, with more of them making their way until now. The Lion King and Winnie the Pooh are the next ones in line to be launched by Disney Interactive Studios, who produces these incredible videos.

If you love this series as much as I do, you can jump right into the emoji fun by downloading the Disney Emoji Blitz! game from either app store, or from their webpage. 

We're not in Kansas anymore (Dorothy's dress)

Whenever you think about "The Wizard of Oz" many key elements might come to your mind... Emerald City, the yellow brick road, "I'm melting, I'm melting!", the red slippers, flying monkeys, and of course Dorothy's iconic blue gingham pinafore dress.

Here's a short story: when I was a little girl my mother made me a Dorothy costume to dress up like her for Halloween, and she made my brother a Tin Man costume to match. I adored that dress, but eventually outgrew it. Many, many years later, as my interest for sewing was developing, the first big sewing project that I planned for myself was replicating Dorothy's dress for myself. I remember going to a fabric store and buying 2 or 3 meters of blue gingham/vichy. That was the first time I ever bought fabric for me to sew.

Back then I was on vacations, so I went a few days a week to my grandmother's house, who was teaching me how to trace, edit and cut patterns, as well as helping me out to make my dress possible. Sadly I have no pictures of the process, which took a lot of patience, work and my grandmother sewing the zipper because I was no good at it. However, I have the beautiful outcome to remember those wonderful moments.

                 

This is not a replica of Dorothy's dress. I designed it to look more modern, but keeping the essence of her original dress. Here I am pairing it with blue bracelets, blue-and-white earrings, a heart-shaped cookie cutter necklace (from the book The Queen of Hearts), and yellow and khaki wedge sandals (by Naturale'z).

 Get ready for more fashion posts! 

Restoring a pair of heels - an unnecessary oddisey

A long time ago I bought some really unexpensive purple heels from a shoe store. I really loved the velvety fringe on the back of the shoes, and I most certainly needed a pair of purple heels.

A couple of months went by without me wearing the shoes. One day, as I took them out of the box, I realized they were peeling and had some stains on them  -and they were still brand new!    I was horrified about this and failed to plan what to do with them. I thought about covering them with purple fabric, but it didn't seem as such a good idea. Meanwhile, the pair rested on its box waiting for me to find a solution.

Some time later I came across a small business that sold glitter heels and sandals. That gave me the idea of covering the peeled parts of my shoes with purple glitter, saving them in a brilliant -pun intended- way. In the meantime, I peeled everything off and gave them a skimpy coat of purple paint.

My search for packs of purple glitter began, only to find out that apparently every craft shop, stationary store and other school supply businesses in town had ran out of purple glitter. Perfect. Just perfect. I kept looking for purple glitter occasionally, failing to succeed in my quest. I eventually found one or two places that had purple glitter, but frankly it was a hideous shade of color.

About one month ago I finally found the cherished packs of purple glitter. I went ahead and bought four of them just to make sure I would have enough to cover the whole pair. When I got home I decided to give a paint job to the heels first. I proceeded to prepare a mix using one part of shiny magenta fabric paint, one part of metallic blue acrylic paint, and a bit of black fabric paint.

I could not believe the amazing purple color that now rested on the cup after blending in all the colors. It was so dreamy, reminiscent of galaxy shades of purple. I started painting the shoes with a small brush and immediately fell in love with how they looked. I was even feeling the need of not coating them with glitter after they had dried. So I finished painting them and left them to dry for a whole day.

The heels looked so fabulous that I finally decided to skip the glitter. I gave them two coats of hairspray and left them outside to dry. That day, it rained. I got really sad because I thought all my work was probably damaged, only to discover that the shoes had survived epically and the paint remained as good as ever.

So if you have a pair of peeling or worn-off pleather shoes, I would definitely recommend taking off all the damaged material and finding a nice paint blend to restore them. You can also DIY them with glitter, but make sure to paint them with a base coat before covering them completely in sparkles.

 More posts will be coming up next week! 

Crazy about stripes

There are few times when I can resist striped clothing items. I have a clear weakness for them, and you will see that recurringly in my wardrobe. Since some time ago I've thought that I must have been a zebra in my past life, because I'm crazy about stripes.

This is a white and violet striped tee that I purchased at a very small shop near my home. I remember I'd been eyeing it for a couple of weeks, until one day it was gone from the display window. About a month later I was running some errands nearby and remembered about the shirt. I decided to pass by the shop and try my luck with the tee. Bingo!  They still had it; so I quickly tried it on and fell more in love with it. I obviously got it on the spot!

In the pictures I am pairing the tee (it is brandless -only says "made in Peru"-) with a black gathered skirt made by yours truly, black sunglasses, a heart-shaped necklace and black sandal wedges (by Vic Matie). The skirt is made of black stretch gabardine. Later on I will post a tutorial on how to make one like this.

 Stay tuned for more fashion posts! 

Tiki Oasis 2016 will bring a party to Monster Island

The 16th anniversary of Tiki Oasis is right around the corner, so put on your best Hawaiian outfit, sip on an ice-cold Mai Tai and relax to the beat of Polynesian Pop!

Did you know Tiki Oasis was originally conceived as a fundraiser to help out on the refurbishment of Palm Springs "Caliente Tropics Motel"? The main idea was to conduct an extreme makeover on the already Hawaiian-themed hotel in order to attract hundreds of Tiki lovers as a great vacation site.

Year by year, Tiki Oasis has been adding more features, booths, acts and performances, accommodating more guests and growing in popularity. For each event, Tiki Oasis features guest bartenders, artists, musicians, DJ's and other personalities to entertain the audience, who also have the chance to enjoy wonderful meals and appetizers at tiki restaurants, or delight themselves with eye-catching cocktails straight from the bars of experienced mixologists.

Be prepared to receive all the 86 special guests that will be coming this year to Tiki Oasis 2016. The planned musical lineup includes King Kukulele, The Sonics, Sid Presley, Jimmy Psycho Experiment, The Wogglers, Jason Lee & Riptides, Howie Pyro and Cali Kid. The event will also introduce a roundup of over 20 burlesque shows, and 29 educators will bring exhibits and presentations, including Vaudeville Vixens, El Vez, Mike Skinner and Kelly Patterson. 

Other important shows at Tiki Oasis include car showcases, educational seminars and merchandise stalls who display their stands around the magically decorated hotel following a chosen party theme. Previous editions of Tiki Oasis have included Tiki Surf City, Hulabilly, Exotic Espionage & Polynesian Pulp, Hawaii-a-Go-Go, and many other well-thought ideas. This year's theme is "Party on Monster Island". 

Tiki Oasis has become the largest and longest-running festival worldwide to celebrate island and tropical lifestyles, and to gather tiki lovers from around the globe. Get ready to experience four days of Hawaiian splendor every day from Thursday, August 18 through Sunday, August 21 at San Diego, California.

Don't forget to get your tickets and book your reservations on the event's official webpage:

http://www.tikioasis.com/