Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s already 2015. It’s been a good 3 months since I blogged last, so I’m excited to be back. New year, new projects! Being a pretty optimistic person,  I love the feeling the new year brings. New opportunities, new goals to reach, and the excitement of what’ll be in store for the year!

To start the year off right, I’m sharing a new outfit I made, a T-shirt dress that I paired with a faux fur vest. Can’t go wrong with that combo. What a fun outfit it was to make. Very simple silhouettes, with bold fabric choices. One my favorite ways to make clothes.

For the dress, I used a gorgeous chevron-ish ombré knit fabric, it’s pretty light weight and slinky. Not too hard to work with. That ombré though, it gets me every time! I lengthened the Lunch Box Tee by Oliver + S to achieve the look, which was super simple. All I did was extend the pattern pieces to the desired length, didn’t a-line it at all. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Though, I was a little scared it’d read “sack of potatoes,” the drape of the fabric really makes it work.

For the vest, I drafted the pattern myself! I used a peach colored faux fur that has short layers cut into it. I think it really brings some nice texture to the look.The fit was pretty spot on too, but it probably won’t last past this season. This girl grows like a weed!! I lined it in a graphic black and white cotton print. You can see it peeking out in some of the pictures, it makes me so happy!

We completed the look with a rose gold hair pin from Ban.do that says “Love” and some black patent Dr. Martens. I’m pretty obsessed with all her accessories, pulls everything right together pretty nicely. Here’s to an amazing, successful, and prosperous year. Let us push ourselves to grow and reach new heights everyday! Happy 2015 everyone, talk to you soon!

Xoxo,
Meagan

I’m back to share my sew-a-long look for week three of Project Run and Play. What a cute season it’s been so far. This week the theme is “denim.” I loved the idea, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull off a full on denim look for my four year old girl.

I’ve been so intrigued by fabric manipulation lately so I started brainstorming ideas on how I could incorporate it into my denim look. I remembered how blank of a pallet the Hide and Seek tunic was for showcasing fabric, so I decided that would be my starting point.

I found some really cool iridescent purple-ish blue-ish stretch denim, I’m a sucker for anything iridescent, so it really caught my eye. I wanted a light denim to compliment it, and wasn’t really finding anything I liked until I looked at the wrong side of a nearly black denim…bingo! It was great, the perfect shade of light denim.

I used the iridescent fabric to add some texture to my look. I layered the light denim, and two layers of the iridescent fabric to create the front yoke. I used the sew and slash technique to create a pretty much a faux chenille. It was so fun! I love the way it turned out, especially because the purple fabric’s wrong side is pink! It brought a whole new element to the look.

For the pants, I used a denim lace knit fabric to create some leggings. It’s such a cute print, the fabric is pretty substantial so they’ll be warm for winter. I topped it all off by making a floral crown out of the leftover denim. It was a fun change of pace!

I cant wait to share my signature style for week four, see you then!

Hey guys, I’m back today to share my week two sew a long look for Project Run and Play. This week the challenge is “Hand-Me-Downs.” Basically, take an existing item of clothing and up-cycle it into something cute for your kiddo. I decided to do something simple this week. It’s still on average around 100 degrees here, but I have this cute metallic sweater from Forever 21 from like 3 years ago that I haven’t worn in forever. I used it to make a slouchy dolman sleeve sweater dress. I paired it with these awesome booties, wish i had them in my size. Perfect for when it starts to get chilly around here, which lets face it for Phoenix that feels like never! lol I felt pretty crazy putting her in it for pictures. We made our shoot snappy so she wouldn’t melt. But anyway, It was actually pretty simple to make. The most challenging part was getting the neckline the perfect size and she still has some room to grow, which is perfect. I actually had a few other ideas for some other old clothes I had, let’s just say up-cycling was pretty much done by trial and error for me. A few pieces didn’t make it through the process! ha Learning experience for sure. That’s pretty much it this week. Definitely check back in next week to hear about my “Denim” look for week three! eek! 🙂

My goodness…it’s been a while. Not sure where the time has gone. Summers been a little crazy for us. I wouldn’t want it any other way, though. While I didn’t have much time to share what I’ve been sewing over the summer, I did create some fun stuff. I also finally made an instagram for the blog, follow me here at avaslookbook. I’m happy to finally have the time to share some stuff with you guys.

I was excited to see another round of Project Run and Play was starting up. A perfect excuse for me to get it together and sew some fun stuff along with the contestants of the competition. The theme is really cute for the first week, 80’s cartoon inspired. While i do consider myself an 80’s baby,  I was born in October of 1989,  so I probabaly shouldn’t.  I really didn’t get to see too much of it, therefore meaning, I had to turn to my trusty pal Google. When i was trying to decide which cartoon I should base my look off of, I came across She-ra, Princess of Power. The name alone was amazing, but her outfit really sealed the deal for me.

The competition rules state that the look has to be inspired by the cartoon and NOT a costume. So, i took all my favorite elements of She-ra’s look and created a fun modern everyday outfit for Ava.

Let’s start with the dress. She-ra has a certain goddess like quality to her. I loved the idea of a white dress with just hints of gold. So what i did was draft a simple white sleeves shift dress. I’m pretty proud of myself for drafting this baby on my own, too. I used a white embroidered eyelet cotton and I created a bit of a yoke insert underlined in a gold tissue lame fabric, just to give it that subtle gold shimmer. I wanted to add a little extra glam to the look so I sewed some seed beads and pearls on the yoke as well. I like that it has a 60’s mod vibe to it.

To go with the dress I found THE most perfect shoes at Old Navy, I mean really, it was like serendipity.

She-ra has a gorgeous red cape, and while I love a good cape, I decided to whip up a quick zippered pouch in a red faux suede, with a cool gold shimmery zipper. I came across THE most amazing patches by P.S. I Made This (she’s amazing, slightly obssessed), and knew they’d be perfect for her pouch. “XO” is perfect for the girl born on Valentines day, am I right?! So i was pretty excited about that.

To finish off the look I found metallic leather string and braided the strands into two braids for a headband, a modern, wearable nod to she-ra’s insane head piece. Creating this look was so much fun. I’m so excited to get back in the swing of things on the blog, see you soon! 🙂

I got so excited when I read that Oliver + S released a new free pattern, who doesn’t love free? The Sunny Day shorts pattern is straight forward and extremely customizable. I paired them with a store-bought shirt, but you could totally achieve the same look with an all black badminton top. 

I chose to add a crochet trim to the side seam, like a tuxedo stripe, fun right?! I used a plain chambray for the body so it wouldn’t compete too much with the loud trim. Shorts like these will see a ton of use this summer. We love a good basic. The options are endless with these shorts, they’d be perfect for a boy as well. I’ve already seen a bunch of really cool versions floating around the internet. I have sooo many more things I want to make this summer. Lets pray for some stellar time management on my part so I can get them all done, and still manage to get some sleep at night. I’ll be back soon to share my next project…until next time!