Hemming and Hawing

Well, I've hemmed and hawed a long time over what to do with this dress.

It's orange.  It's happy.  It's too long.

I wore it a few years ago to a wedding, and while I love the color, I didn't love the length.  It hit mid calf, which for ladies, is one of the worst lengths for dresses.  It makes your calves look wide, and your legs look short.  Every woman's dream, right?  I've tried it on several times before going to a dressy event, and always put it back in my closet.  It just wasn't right.

Today, instead of continuing to hem and haw over the dress, I decided to just suck it up and HEM IT.  I don't know why such seemingly simple fixes sometimes take so long to get done.  Once you do it, you're really ticked you didn't do it sooner.

If you have any sewing skills at all (and the time!), hemming is one of the simplest things you can do yourself.  From start to finish, this job took me about 1.5 hours, since I already had all of the supplies I needed.  

You're going to need more than this to shorten a hemline, but I had to prove that I was ready to go with my supplies, right?

This dress had a lining to it, so I actually had to sew two hems- no biggie.  Just make sure the lining is at least an inch or two shorter than your outer hem.  The original hemline of the dress was sewn with an invisible stitch over a piece of ribbon to hide any raw fabric edge without creating a bulky, double folded seam.  I decided to reuse the ribbon and copy the original.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Original hems.

After measuring and cutting my fabric (I cut it a half inch longer than I wanted the full hem length to be), I used a seam ripper to rip the ribbon hem off so that I could reuse it.  I then sewed the ribbon onto the raw end of the dress, and folded it over, ironing as I went to create a sharp line.  

Chalk it up to good measuring skills...heh heh heh.  Good joke.

Double fold the lining to sew a neat seam.

Sewing the ribbon to the dress.

Fold the new edge over and PRESS the hell out of it.

I then used matching orange thread to sew an invisible hem onto the new length of the dress.  PRESTO..dress fixed.  

An invisible stitch should mean that you can't see it from the outside of the garment.  But what good does it do to take a picture of something you can't see?  EXACTLY.

I'm really not here to give you a full blown tutorial on how to create an invisible hem, but it is the most important part of making a dress like this look good.  You could machine sew your hem, but if you don't like the look of seeing a hemline on the outside of your garment, an invisible stitch is the way to go.   If you really want to know how to do it, or want some practice, check out Youtube.  I'm not a teacher anymore, yo.

Now hits an inch above the knee- the CLASSY length for ladies over thirty.   Feel free to bolster my self image and reaffirm my descriptive word choices.

In related news, please don't stick your sewing needle into the couch cushion in an attempt to not lose it when you jump off the couch.  You'll really regret it when you sit back down in a slightly different spot than you got up from.  OUCH.

PS- If you just scoffed at everything I wrote and took pictures of, go take your clothes to a tailor.  Somebody's gotta put bread on their tables:)

PinTWIST

Ha!  See what I did there?  Not Pinterest, but a TWIST on Pinterest.  Clever, I know.  Let me explain:  During one of my Pinterest browsings, I came across a pin that discussed how one lady has made an album of all of the weird, funny faced, horrible pictures of her family from vacations and holidays.  How mean, right?  And GENIUS.  

While I'm really not into going back through the files to create an entire album of horrible outtakes, I did think of something I could do that would incorporate the lighter side of this idea.  My twist:  googly faced and funny pictures of my loved ones to adorn my guest room. What better way to show friends and family you love them than decorate your walls with embarrassing pictures of them, no?

Several months ago, I did an overhaul on my guest room, painting walls and putting up wallpaper.  I filled some picture frames with pictures I already had printed off, just to get a head start on filling empty walls, which drive me NUTS.  I think it's a reaction to my mom always being afraid to hang things on the walls, But we'll have to make a HOLE in the wall to hang it!!  Sorry mom, I still love you, despite your weird phobia.  If you know you have rooms to decorate, and pick up cheap frames when you find them, it's always a good idea to have some of your favorite pictures already printed off and on hand so you can have a frame filler ready to go. When I print off pictures at Costco, I usually print off a handful more than I need of various pictures in different sizes, and then keep the stash on hand for fillers/changeouts so I'm ready to go.  Nothing kills the frame hanging mood more than getting it home, realizing you don't have a picture to put in it, and letting it sit on the floor for months while you constantly forget about finding a picture to fill it with.

Back to my guest room- let me fill your eyes and brains with some of the lovely pictures of my family that currently fill the walls.  I do plan on changing these out at least once or twice a year to spice it up, depending on which guests come to visit.  Some college pictures will be making an appearance sometime soon- I have no shortage of silly pictures from that bygone era to make me laugh.  I will also be on the hunt to get some funny pictures of more family members during my next visits with family....I'm looking at you, GRAM. 

A small vignette next to the bed. 

 Don't discount buying frames just because they are the wrong color- that's what spray paint is for!!  The oval frame came in a package of two and was black.  I attempted to use gold and green on these frames before getting irritated- they ended up white.  At some point, I might try to go back and gold leaf them just for fun- I feel like there's too much white, and I need a bit of variety on the wall.

Daddio circa 1983...what a gem.  And Mom in her blue dress behind him...ooh la la look at that shapely leg!

Family making faces.  Love.

What you can't see from this picture is the memory of my brother tying a helium balloon to the back of the kid's pants while the photo is being taken.  Oh memories.

This little lovely was a ROCK STAR when up close and personal with the animals!

We got some strange looks from people at the museum while taking several versions of this picture.  Priceless.

Love my ladies!

Funny faces at the park.

And in case you forget whose house you're in...you lovely hosts are here to remind you it's time to make love to the donuts.  There's no sense in making fun of others if I'm not going to make fun of myself, too!

And on that note, I'm out.  It's Labor Day Weekend, and it's time for a drink.  Cheers to weekend happiness!