Living with Punks

Knit Fabric Heaven

At this point, you must’ve heard of the fabulous knit fabric shop, Girl Charlee. I’ve purchased knit from them for a while now and they just recently became a sponsor of LWP!

Fabric from Girl Charlee 10% off at LWP

What does that mean for you? Well, first, you get to see all these fabulous, inspirational photos of scrumptious knit fabric, straight from Girl Charlee!

This is their Anchors Away line. I’ve been completely into the nautical look this season, so these fabrics fit right in!

I am in love with this recent purchase! The color is so vibrant and right on cue for the green trend this summer. I can’t wait to cut into it! See it HERE

Of course, stripes are so popular right now, I had to get some. I love this graffiti look stripe and will be great for a summer dress for the little punk. See it HERE

Second, you get a 10% off discount code to use once you load up your cart with their already FANTASTICLY PRICED FABRIC. Seriously, when I made my first purchase from them, I was a bit apprehensive because of how cheap the price was. I thought for sure I would be shipped some thin, faded, overstretched fabric that I wouldn’t even be able to sew with. Boy, was I wrong! The fabric is super soft and easy to work with. The color saturation is top notch too! I seriously cannot tell a difference from the knit I’ve paid $15.00/yard from the knits I get from Girl Charlee.

My most recent garment made from knit from Girl Charlee was this dress. I’ve washed it several times and the fabric still looks the same as when I first sewed it up. I blogged it HERE

I also made this adorable Carousel Top (pattern from GoTo Patterns) with Girl Charlee knit, but never blogged about it (maybe soon?) By the way, if you are in need of patterns to use with knit fabrics, Girl Charlee now sells patterns! See the entire selection HERE. GoTo Patterns has a fabulous selection too! You can see them HERE.

I also made this dress from a great waffle weave fabric from Girl Charlee. You can get this fabric HERE for $4.40/yard (but with your discount it will be $3.96/yard!) WOW!

A few tips I’ve learned about the Girl Charlee site:

1. If you just need a half yard of fabric for a skirt or other small garment, check out their Half Yard Cuts for crazy deals!

2. Use their Swatch Wall. This is a great place to put all the fabrics together you are interested in and make sure they jive the way you want them to. From the swatch wall, you can easily add them to your cart

3. Create an account. Why? If you are logged in to your account and put fabric in your cart, they save it. I didn’t realize this at first and my cart would empty after a day because I wasn’t logged in,and I would be sad! I would have to go back in and fill up my cart again and then I would have to go wipe someone’s butt, or actually fix dinner and it would be gone… again. But, once I created an account and made sure I was logged in when I was loading my cart, it stays in there forever! Unless of course, if something gets sold out as you are twiddling your thumbs, then of course you are out of luck. So, don’t be like me and lose out on fabric! Especially with that 10% off!!!!

OK, so the 10% off code is: PUNKSTEN

The code is good until July 15!

Happy shopping!!!!!

Fronting the Fourth of July

I found THIS super cute wreath on Pinterest and just knew that was the right wreath for me. I don’t do a lot of frilly, flowery wreaths. Plus, it was pretty frugal because for some reason, you can still get clothespins for cheap! It’s like one of the only things that hasn’t ballooned in price recently!

I really spent too much time trying to find stars and I’m so glad I didn’t find them! I ended up using stick on crystal rhinestones from Joann’s and I love the effect. The rhinestones shimmer and dance in the sunlight.

Here are a few more Fourth of July tutorials from the archives:

Sprayed Tie Dye Shirt

Dish Towel Apron

Fruity Stripe Floor Cushion

Another FLOOR CUSHION for a little girly! This one is for my sweet friend’s daughter. She turned one almost 9 months ago, and I promised a floor cushion at the birthday party! I have a problem with procrastination and deadlines. I’m good with deadlines and they actually motivate me to get things done, but without a deadline, procrastination sets in like a dead weight. I can think of one thousand other things to do, and maybe one more, before I will get something done that’s not pressing.

I was recently reminded of my promise through this tweet about my latest post. I knew I needed a deadline, so I tweeted back that I would have it to her by the weekend!

And it worked….

It’s such a fun combo of colors and materials. I posted a picture of my cut pieces on Instagram and ashleybmorgan commented it looked like the fruit stripe gum, so hence the name! Remember that gum? I can totally taste it now….

The handle is a bit wider than I've previously made, but I love it. The more to grab on to, the better. I cut it on the diagonal to create a little more visual interest to the cushion, along with some fun pom pom trim I found at Joann’s that matched perfectly.

It never gets old making these FLOOR CUSHIONS. I can make them pretty quick now and I always like to change it up a bit. You can see previous versions here, here, and here

I think the best feature everyone loves about these is the ease of how you can carry it around from room to room. I’ve heard them being used as pet beds, foot stools, pillow fight weapons…you name it!

Have you made one yet? It only takes ONE YARD of home dec fabric! It’s a fun and functional gift for a toddler that will sure to get tons of use! Make one bigger for the teenagers to flop on. You can see that version HERE.

You can check out some floor cushions that LWP readers have made by checking out the FLIKR POOL and don’t forget to add ours if you make one!

Get the simple tutorial to make a floor cushion HERE

Magazine Features!

Just a little drop-in to let you know you can see a few of my projects in some current magazines! It’s kind of surreal to see your name and photos in a magazine that people actually buy. Gah!

Here’s a quick glance at the articles in Sew-It… The Mondo Pom Pillow!

You can access that tutorial for the Pom Pom Pillow right HERE on my blog

Another featured article in Sew-It was the Quilted Silhouette:

You can access the tutorial for the Quilted Silhouette right HERE on my blog

Ack! That’s me!

The news article in the inaugural Made In Paper magazine is just a small blurb about my butterfly wall that I created in little punk’s room. That room makeover has gotten a lot of run all over the place! A lot of people ask me if it still looks the same and it does! I have a few other projects in my mind to finish up the room and will post about it when it’s completed…

That’s it! Just a little horn blowing :) You can see a previous magazine feature HERE

Thanks for reading!

Chevron Cinch

Here’s another version of the Relay Dress that I just had to sew up in this adorable chevron print from Girl Charlee. For the record, I am obsessed with that fabric site! I have a cart full of knits right now with a grand total of about $100…you know so I can get the free shipping ;) I can’t say enough about this pattern either…if you have a girl about a size 5, you have scored. Get the free pattern here….and if you don’t have a size 5 girl yet, just pin for later use!

I added a few inches in length on the skirt, and I’m glad I did. No need to worry about using leggings or knit shorts with this one. It’s so cool and comfortable for summer that I plan on making a few more before the season is over.

You can see my earlier version HERE where I just used knit binding around the arms and neckline, but I am in love with the ease and comfort of this fold over elastic I bought HERE. Great prices and you can get a TON of it. It works with knits and regular cotton, so I will be utilizing it in the near future for quick skirts and simple necklines.

For some reason I am stuck on the nautical look this season. Good thing little punk has changed her fave color from pink to blue recently, otherwise I’d be in for it…. you can see more nautical outfits I have made for her HERE and HERE.

Thanks for reading and until next time…

Kwik Sew 3935

With the advent of all the independent pattern makers that we all know and love, it’s rare that I find a commercial pattern that I feel compelled to sew up anymore. But as soon as I saw this pattern from Kwik Sew 3935, I pinned it. And then, that voice got started in my head about how much fabric I had laying around that would be perfect for this dress, so within a few hours, I bought it. Although, the voices didn’t stop….I ended up buying even more fabric online with this pattern in mind! But I digress….

This particular fabric is Lou Lout Thi by Anna Maria Horner and I kind of got obsessed with it. I think I probably have 6 or 7 yards of the stuff in different color ways around here somewhere. It’s such a wonderful mix of modern and retro. The super cute pocket is kind of hard to see though! I thought I’d get cute and center that blue flower in the center of the pocket, but it kind of gets lost! I think the next version, I sew up will either get a coordinating pocket or even a solid dress with a patterned pocket.

The dress can be worn with leggings too which makes it the perfect dress for school starting in the Fall. I realize school isn’t even out yet, and I am thinking of Back-to-School, but I can’t help myself! Little punk starts Kindergarten in August, and I’m already excited. And sad. And apprehensive. And jealous of her teacher because she gets to spend time with my girly.

These are easily worn with a pair of knit shorts underneath too!

The pattern was easy to cut and easy to sew up. But I will warn you, have your elastic ready! As you can see all that cute gathering… it’s accomplished with lots o’ elastic. I love the look it gives…very feminine. Oh, another wonderful feature of this dress is that it is easily sewn in knit! I have a ton of that laying a round from a recent purchase too, now I just need to pick one ;)

Even that cute pocket has elastic sewn into the side casing. It was super easy to sew in and to get the rest of the pocket stitched on. When I saw that part of the instructions, I was a little worried it would be a difficult task, but it was a breeze. I bought my pattern HERE, but I wouldn’t recommend it. They don’t allow you to download the pattern to your own computer. It stays on their site under your account, so anytime you want to view or print the pattern pieces, you have to login in…not a fan of that! If I buy a pattern, I want it on my computer. End of story.

You can purchase the paper pattern, or you may be able to find it digitally somewhere else! Let me know if you do!