Another French Bulletin Board

I have been sitting on posting this project for a bit, because I was waiting until it arrived at my best friend’s place. It was a birthday gift. Her birthday was in January, but better late than never, you know? You can see my other French bulletin board here.

I bought an ugly old French bulletin board at Salvation Army. Then I recovered it with this awesome Suzani print that I bought online at fabric.com. Have you been to that website? It has SO many different awesome patterns at very reasonable prices. (*They are not paying me to say this, I just really like their website.*)

Once recovered, I added some ribbon. A super easy project that makes a lovely present.

Seriously – how freaking awesome is this suzani print? With the adorable little seahorses? The yellow and brown and pink? I am freaking obsessed with this fabric.

That’s all I got for today, folks. I will try to be more on top of blogging, but like, only if I feel like it. Because I am not going to let blogging become another obligation on my time. I just want it to be funny happy time.

For the love of seahorses!

Rachel

Tangerine Silk Dress

When I was in India two summers ago for my brother’s wedding, I bought a bunch of gorgeous raw silk for about $7/yard. This particular silk looks orange in one light and pink in others. The fabrics in India are AMAZING!

That summer, I was living in Vienna, and decided to sew this dress: (ignore crazy face I am making. This is the only decent photo I have of me wearing this dress that shows the whole thing):

The red-eye fix makes me look a little weird in this pic, but the real point is so you can see this dress.

I didn’t have a pattern, so I sort of made one up, based on some free patterns I found online. BTW, Burdastyle.com is a great online sewing resource. I also did not have a sewing machine, therefore every stitch in this dress is done by hand. This dress even has an INVISIBLE ZIPPER! Excuse me for a moment while I pat myself on the back some more.

OK. So clearly I need to take more BETTER pictures of this dress, but you get the idea. I am amazing and hand-sewed this gorgeous raw silk dress without a pattern and have actually worn it to two different events.

Have you ever sewn a dress?

Love,

Rachel

Partyin’! Partyin’! Yeah! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!

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Type A Decorating

Giggles, Glitz and Glam

My Uncommon Slice of Surburbia

Sassy Sites!

Singing Three Little Birds

DIY by Design

Faded Charm Cottage

Savvy Southern Style

Happy Hour Projects

Bacon Time

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Shabby Creek Cottage

Beyond the Picket Fence

Steel Magnolias Clutch

I made this clutch two summers ago, before I started blogging. Thus, I don’t have any pictures of the process. But I love how this thing turned out. It was a birthday present for my old roommate.

It’s all hand-sewn, as are most of my sewing projects, because I didn’t have a sewing machine that summer. Also, for small, intricate projects like this, I prefer hand-sewing because I feel more in control. I may or may not be a little scared of sewing machines.

Pretty purple liner.

I bought the fabric from the remnant section of a great fabric store in Vienna, on Mariahilfestrasse. I recently discovered I will be going back to Vienna this summer. I cannot wait to go antiquing in Vienna. I mean, Vienna practically invented the antique.  But I digress.

The two types of flowers I think make this bag really special. I used the yo-yo flower for this picture frame. The other flower was from my own pattern. Maybe someday I will get my act together enough to teach you how I made the flowers. And how I made the whole clutch.  It wasn’t hard, but is was time-consuming because I had to sew each flower petal separately.

Hope you enjoy!

Love,

Rachel

In India last summer, I bought some gorgeous silk to make clothing with. However, since I hadn’t sewn in a while, I was a little scared to practice on the fancy silk, so I made this dress from some cheap bolt-ends. I didn’t use a pattern, or a sewing machine, and I think it came out pretty well.

If I had realized I was going to start the blog, I would have kept better notes of how I made this dress.  What I can say, making dresses is a lot of trial and error. I probably tried this dress on over 100 times while I was in the process of making it.