T-Shirt Dress the Second

As promised, Cordelia and I are here to show you our second version of the T-shirt dress.

As you will notice, the new version has a pleated skirt instead of the gathered one in the skirt yesterday.

Which is why they call me the

Wait

For

 

It

The PLEATINATOR!!!

This dress also has an embroidered motif of the blouse.

Naturally we added a cute little ribbon belt tie too.

Happy Pleating

~Melisa & Cordelia

Cordelia's "Green-ish" Dress Numero Uno

Cordelia and I have been making a conscious decision to try out the whole green thing by using up our fabric stash and recycling fabric and garments. So, just in time for Earth Day (oh wait, Earth Day was last week? Stupid calendar tells me today is Administrative Professionals Day but it leaves off Earth Day?!?! What a rip off! I demand a refund!)

Where was I.

Oh, right.

 Earth Day is coming (or went) so we decided to make a “green” project and took this girl’s t-shirt and turned it into a girls dress.

In case you were wondering, this project is “green” because we recycled a t-shirt.

Except does it count as recycling when I run to Target to buy a shirt cause I have none on hand cause I don’t have a little girl?

Errr….

 

Ok, so in this case, this is an “Iceberg Lettuce-green” project, but if you make it at home with an actual recycled t-shirt it can be a “Romaine Lettuce-green” project. Throw in some recycled or vintage fabric, and you’ve got yourself a solid “Spinach-green” project, and, as our mothers taught us, the darker the lettuce, the better!

But I degrees.

Anywho, I took a t-shirt, chopped a bit off, slapped on some fabric, threw in a contrasting belt thingy and there you have it a “green-sih” girly dress!

If you are interested in making your very own Green T-shirt Dress, head over to HipStitch and register to take a class on Thursday May 28 from 10-2 or Thursday May 5th from 5-8:30.

I'll see ya then. 

Check back tomorrow and Cordelia will have another variation on the theme to impress you with!

Happy Recycling

~Melisa & Cordelia

This month The Cordelia Files is turning 1!

Get us some fancy shoes cause were walking now!

(And using spoons and eating solidish food—at least that’s what the Internet tells us we should be doing).

In honor of this ginormous occasion, Cordelia and I decided to share our top five favorite posts from the last year.

So, in no particular order, unless you count putting our favorites first an order, our top five posts of the year.

1.

Just Say No (to Catnip)

2.

Sexy Sewing Sunday

3.

The Cool Kids Hit the Town

4.

Brian and Jenny get Hitched

5.

Paper or Plastic?

And now, we will share the top 5 most visited posts.

5.

Sexy Sewing Sunday

Yay overlap!

4.

Fun in Atlanta

I can't imagine why this post is so popular.  Perhaps because Conni Crawford is googled about a million times a day?

3.

How to make your own wrap skirt

Well naturally, this is a great skirt!

2.

How to draft an A-line skirt

You all want to learn pattern drafting.  Cool, I'll try to get more tutorials up!

And, the number one most visited post on The Cordelia Files?

1.

Alex Gets a Civil War Great Coat.

I suspect Alex has been stuffing the ballet box!

Happy Birthday Month

~Melisa & Cordelia

Better Than Martha Stewart

Happy Easter All!

Sorry this is getting to you a little on the late side for this Easter, but Cordelia and I only just experimented with our new technique for dying Easter Eggs. Even though Easter is practically over, you should really pay close attention cause this is cool stuff people.

This year, I died my Easter eggs by wrapping them in old silk ties. What in the world is this girl thinking you may be wondering, but trust me it’s pretty nifty. I was able to get extreme detail on the eggs (on one you can even make out the weave from the fabric), and each one was a complete surprise!

I wish I could tell you wear I got the idea from, but I can’t remember. I read about it on some blog, but for the life of me I CAN’T find it again, but luckily for you, I’m going to show you how to repeat the process.

First gather the cast of supplies.

You will need:

Eggs

Scraps of silk fabric—I used old men’s ties—just make sure they are 100% silk.

Scraps of muslin fabric

String

Large cooking pot

H2O

First take the ties apart and save the interfacing for when you decide to make your own tie cause it’s practically impossible to find nice tie interfacing.

Cut a scrap of the tie fabric and wrap it, with the right side towards the egg, around the egg. Tie in place. I discovered that if you tie both ends of the fabric it turns out a little better.

After each egg is tied in silk, wrap each egg in a scrap of muslin and tie in place.

Place each egg in a pot and hard boil as usual.

After the eggs are cooked and cooled, remove them from the water and start unwrapping.

So remove the muslin layer.

Then the silk…

And TaDa!!

 A super nifty Easter Egg that is going to make all your neighbors jealous.

Try this!  It's fun,

It's easy,

It's exciting!



 

Happy Easter

~Melisa & Cordelia

Anthropologie Knock Off

The other day I was perusing the Anthropologie website and I, like usual, found a skirt I absolutely fell in love with. Well as normal, I refused to spend a bazillion and 10 bucks on a skirt I could easily make myself so I copied it a bit. And I simplified it a bit so it would make a great class project.

Incidentally, the same day I found the skirt at Anthropologie, I had been reading the blog Make it and Love it and Ashley and come up with the greatest idea to use bias tape as trim. So I borrowed the idea and added 5 rows of brown bias tape to the hem.

Finally, because I love to accentuate my waist, I made a quick fabric belt to finish the ensemble.

And there you have it, an easy cute skirt worthy of Anthropologie status.

Happy Thursday

~Melisa & Cordelia

Summer Blouse

If you are anything like me, you are itching for summer to get here. Because summer is the best season ever. Who can resist those hot days and warm nights and the clothes. Ohh the clothes.

As a treat for surviving The Brother Hart’s wedding and the planning of the Fiber Arts Fiesta, I allowed my self to take a break from work to make myself a fun little blouse.

I found this Alexander Henry fabric at JoAnns (can you believe that?) and decided to turn it into a summer blouse.

I cut some contrasting fabric on the bias to create trim for the collar. I like how it accentuates the collar a bit.

I decided a belt would complete the look so I used some of my leftover fabric to tie around my waist.

I’ve been on a mission to create the ultimate girly neck tie, so I tied the belt like a tie and was instantly inspired.

And SURPRISE!

 

The belt is reversible. Cause that’s how we roll around here at Hart Designs.

Happy Summer

~Melisa & Cordelia

Wedding Aftermath: The Flower Girl

As you may recall, The Brother Hart got hitched this weekend and I did a bunch of sewing for the wedding.

For example I made the flower girl’s dress.

 Last time we visited the dress it looked like this because I didn’t have access to the flower girl.

Well the big day came and little Lilly was too excited to put on her “princess dress”.

We let her get ready with the “Big Girls” and she was absolutely darling in her outfit.

I was quite stocked she decided to walk down the isle with me instead of with her daddy who happened to be the best man.

She was so well behaved and walked all the way up the isle and then decided she was going to stand up with me for the whole ceremony.

That is until she got tired.

So she ran and sat on The Mama Hart’s lap where she got to enjoy the remainder of the ceremony snuggled up in worm arms.

I was only slightly envious.

 

Then when it was time for me to walk back down the isle, she decided to join me again!

Did you have fun Lilly? Do you like being a Flower Girl?

I think so. She was the star after all. Sorry Lauren, I know that as the bride that should be the center of attention, but I think Lilly may have out shown you just a bit.

She had tuns of fun all night until she finally couldn’t take anymore and crashed on the table.

Now that’s a centerpiece!

Happy Wedding

~Melisa & Cordelia