Inspired Spotlight -

It's time for my Inspired Spotlight Thursday!  Welcome Ashley from Ashley's Crafts.

Hi, I'm Ashley and I was so flattered when Beth asked me if I'd be a part of her Inspired Spotlight Thursdays! I'm excited to be here with you all today. My husband and I have been together for just over 5 years (married just over 4). He goes to school and works, while I stay at home with our beautiful, opinionated, almost 3 year old daughter.

Just like many other mommy bloggers out there, crafting is a release for me. It helps keep me sane. I like to consider myself a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. So you'll find a little bit of everything on my blog, from cards and sewing (including refashions), to recipes and some holiday decor.

Beth asked me to share why I started blogging. This is actually a story I haven't shared. When I created my blog it was called "Ashley's Stamps". I was a new demonstrator for a rubber stamp company and needed somewhere to showcase current promos and cards I had created. Well I failed miserably at being a sales(wo)man. So when my family blog became bombarded with all of my crafty creations (I'm great at making stuff, just not selling it) I decided to switch my stamp blog over to a craft blog and I love it. Blogging is my little guilty pleasure..well, that and chocolate.

I thought I would share with you all a little tutorial. I haven't written many tutorials, so bare with me! Let's talk bridesmaid dresses. Most of us have at least one (or 5) hanging in the closet. I only have 1 dress that was casual enough that I would wear it again (and I have) but I have several that just sit there taking up space. Which is unfortunate given how much they can cost. So I decided to use up some of that nice expensive fabric!

Here is what the dress looked like originally (it went all the way down to the floor).

First, I found a skirt that I liked the fit of and pinned the fabric around it. If you don't have a skirt that you can use as a template, you can measure around the widest part of your hips and cut the whole thing that width.

You'll want to decide how long you want it and add about 6 inches. Here it is cut out, make sure you leave enough room for a seam allowance. Now sew along the pins. At this point, I would try it on and see if you need to take it in or let it out at all.

I don't have pictures for this next part, but it is pretty straight forward. Make a casing at the top for the elastic waistband. I like to serge the top edge so that I only have to fold the fabric over once, but you could do a traditional casing (fold over about 1/4 inch and then another 1/2-1 inch depending on the width of your elastic). Insert the elastic.

Now you'll need to cut 6 pieces of narrow elastic to the length that you want the finished skirt to be (for me that was 20 inches). Find the half way point on the length of your skirt (for me - around 12 inches) along with the half way point of your elastic.

Pin together along the side seams.

Starting right above the bottom hem (I used the existing hem) sew the elastic to the skirt with just a few stitches.

Since your elastic is much shorter than your skirt fabric, you'll need to stretch the elastic as you sew. Just pull it until it lays even with the fabric.

Before pulling the elastic.

While pulling the elastic.

Now you should have two pieces of elastic sewn to your skirt. Next you'll add two more pieces to the front and two to the back. Just measure the distance between your side seams (18 inches) and divide by three (6 inches) so you know how far apart to space the other two pieces of elastic. I know I took pictures of this process, but they have somehow disappeared.

That's it! You should now have a skirt that looks something like this.

And if you have enough scraps left over, you can even make a matching one for a small person in your life.

Thanks, Beth, for having me here today!
---------------
Thank you for being with me today, Ashley!
Make sure you stop by her blog HERE and say "hi".