Fashion

Fabric Swap Recap

Miriam, Melissa, me, Diana, Sunny
The fabric swap that Melissa and I hosted was so much fun!  We each brought massive amounts of fabric (as you can see from the picture).  We are so grateful to everyone who came and brought fabric to swap or came to stock up.  It was great to reconnect with old friends and meet some new ones!  I got rid of a lot of my extra striped fabric, so that was nice.  I’m definitely going to have to do something like this again. 

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See if you won the Phytomer giveaway here!
Fashion

Buttoned Up

top: me (pattern & fabric c/o fabric.com), pants: J.Crew Factory, shoes: Shoemint c/o (get 20% off your first pair here!), belt: J.Crew (old), necklace: T&J Designs c/o (currently sold out, but crushing on this beauty), sunglasses: Forever 21, watch: Michael Kors, bracelet: Juicy

I fell in love with this fabric the moment I saw it.  I knew it would make a perfect button-up.  The problem is, the last time I made a button-up shirt it was at 3am my sophomore year of college in the sewing lab.  I was frantically trying to finish it for my final.  It was out of this very baby girl nursery-esque print that was the best they had at Joanns and I knew I would never wear it.  Since then, I have avoided button-up tops like the plague (and you’ll find how much I like purchased patterns here).  But gosh danggit, that fabric.  So I went for it.

The pattern assumes that you know how to apply a placket.  I wasn’t even totally sure what that was, but I figured that wasn’t anything Youtube couldn’t fix.  The pattern was actually pretty straight-forward.  The directions were entertaining (“Told you you needed to mark all those stitch lines!”).  I took my time with this one and actually made a muslin first.  A muslin you guys.  I have as much patience as my 3-year-old when it comes to sewing, so sewing the shirt with practice fabric before actually sewing the shirt was a real feat for me.  But it was a smart move.  I mastered those dang plackets, and made a few adjustments to my final pattern.  I took in the sides and sleeves in a bit, and had the shirt button all the way down instead of just half-way like on the pattern.  And I am totally pleased with the result.  Now I have an altered pattern that I know fits me perfect that I plan on recreating probably more times than you want to see.  And that mint and pink check have Easter weekend written all over it.

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Fabric Swap Event!

Melissa and I have been talking about putting together a big fabric swap for months now, and we are thrilled to be hosting this fun event!  If you are in Utah County, head down to Provo this Saturday to buy/sell/or shop fabric and mingle with us!  I have way more fabric in my office than is socially acceptable and need to do a little destashing before our move to California.  
Space for the event is limited, so go sign up here to reserve your spot.  Once you are on the list we will be emailing you directions to the event and fabric tags for you to label your fabric size, contents, and price (if choosing to sell your fabric vs. swap).
You don’t need to bring fabric in order to come!  Head over if you are in the market for some great fabric.  There will be plenty to go around.  See you Saturday!
Family

quilt

One of my good friends, Whitney, is having a baby boy in June and I made her this quilt for her baby shower a few weekends ago.  I had
this great aqua minky from a trip to the LA fabric district about 2
years ago, but never had any good fabric to go with it until I
discovered this collection from Dear Stella that they graciously sent me.  The colorway matched the minky perfectly and I love these geometric prints for a little boy.  And when you find good baby boy fabric, you snatch that right up!
Family

the boy cave


The room:
The boys room really turned out exactly as I had pictured it in my head.  Bradley’s nursery was very light and calming.  But now that I have two boys, I wanted to make the room a lot more masculine.  I fell in LOVE with the Ikat print, green geo print, and of course navy and white stripes, and had to incorporate them all.  The bunting and the quilt really pull all the fabrics together since they combine them all.  I wanted to keep the aqua wall since I am still in love with the color.  I got the navy minky for the back side of the quilt from the fabric district in LA, and used the tiny piece that was left over from it to create the cover for the changing pad. 

It’s a perfect room for these two little loves…

Sources:


Fabric
All of the bedding, pillows, and curtains were sewn by me.
front bumper: Navy Diamond Ikat (by Dear Stella)
back bumper: Forever Stripe in navy (currently out of stock)
crib skirt: Robert Kauffman Metro Living Circles
green pillows: Free Spirit Honey Child (green)
ikat pillow: Amy Butler Lark Midnight Blue
duvet + sham: Premier Prints Vertical Stripe (navy)
navy pillow and curtains inspired by: Caitlin Wilson Textiles

Paint color: Sherwin Williams Waterfall rug: vintage from Garrett’s Grandma, crib: Sorelle (via Babinski’s), rocking chair: flea market, changing table: Target, knobs: Hobby Lobby,  frames/fish: Home Goods, wall map: made by me (tutorial coming!), bunting: made by me (tutorial coming!), lamp: Wal-mart (I added the navy ribbon border), stuffed animals: blabla 

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I have updated my pricing/info on my sponsor page and am currently accepting sponsors for the month of MAY.  Please email me for details.
(contactelleapparel at gmail dot com)

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Dear Stella

Jamie from Dear Stella contacted me a little while ago and graciously sent me some of their beautiful fabric from their online store.  My jaw about hit the floor when I opened up the packages and saw yards and yards of gorgeous fabric.  It was heavenly I tell you…
wouldn’t this make a gorgeous summer dress??
I can’t wait to get creating!  I have so many ideas running through my head on what I could do with these fabrics.  A few weeks ago I coincidentally ordered this fabric for Cash’s bedding from Dear Stella and have been just obsessed with it.
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Welcome Sponsor: The Fabric Fairy

I’d like to welcome The Fabric Fairy as my newest sponsor!  I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve received asking where to get some good quality knits.  It’s always tough to find them, especially if there aren’t very many fabric stores with a good selection of apparel fabrics in your city.  Well I’m happy to direct you all to The Fabric Fairy!  They have a great selection of high quality knits to choose from.  And they are very reasonably priced as well.  They carry some gorgeous cotton fabric as well, but specialize in carrying trendy knit fabric.  Here are a few options to get you drooling…. 
I don’t even know if I’ve ever seen argyle knit fabric for sale.  Wouldn’t these make some cute baby leggings?

leopard.  Can’t go wrong with leopard.
They also have a great selection of solid color knits.  Maxi skirts anyone?
some amazing Juicy knit fabric. For $4.99 per yard! Dying.
and we can’t forget about stripes…
are you seeing what I am seeing?  Navy and white striped knit.   I have scoured online fabric sites looking for this exact fabric.  Once in a blue moon I see it at the district in LA and get as much as I can.  I’d jump on this baby asap.


in love with this one too.

So I have some even better news.  Since it is Cyber Monday, The Fabric Fairy is offering FREE SHIPPING today only from 9am-5pm CST! 
And if that isn’t enough, The Fabric Fairy is offering one lucky Elle Apparel follower a $20 gift certificate!

To enter just leave a comment telling me what fabric you love from their store.
To get an extra entry, just like their facebook page and leave me a second comment saying so.
The contest will go through Thursday and I’ll announce the winner on Friday.  Can you even handle all these giveaways lately?! Best of luck everyone!
Fashion

fabric finds

So when my mom and I went down to LA’s fabric district, I had a full blown 3 page typed out list of everything I was looking for.  That’s the only way to do the district.  You need to know what you are looking for beforehand because it is easy to get overwhelmed with so many options.  I left that day with about 1/4th of what I needed, but I did get some amazing stuff.

I scored this gorgeous fabric for $2 a pound.  It is super light, so I think I got about 5 yards for only around $3
This is exactly what I was looking for.  I have something really pretty in mind with this stuff.

Coral jersey is always a necessity

It was love at first sight with this next one…
I knew I wanted some gold sequined fabric, and I am just obsessed with this. Isn’t it gorgeous?!  The skirt I have in mind for this is definitely not maternity friendly.  I have going to have a hard time not making the skirt until I’ve had the baby!

and now for the grand finale…
 umm….yeah.
I ended up getting about 60 yards of this bad boy.  Can you say cardigans?   The amazing workers at Michael Levine hauled this across the street and all the way up to our car!  Once I’m feeling a little better, and back in my own home, you might be seeing some new editions to my etsy shop.

Don’t forget that the Jameson Monroe giveaway ends tonight at midnight!

Lifestyle

off to the district…

Today I’m heading down to the fabric district with my madre with a 2 page shopping list in tow.  We are driving the SUV because I’m planning on loading that puppy up.  
Have a great 4th of July weekend!
Fashion

fabric overload

The other day I got a delivery of fabric on my doorstep, and this is what it looked like:
How much fabric is that, you ask?  Oh, only about 58 yards.  I knew I had a massive order, but I didn’t expect an entire 60″ bolt of fabric to be delivered to me!  Guess that means I need to get sewing….
Home

fabric storage

I finally got around to organizing all of my fabric.  It is crazy how fast it all accumulates!  I just finished the curtains for my sewing room last night.  Just a few more finishing touches and it will be a much more pleasant place to sew.
Sewing

Fabric District…..part deux

While I was in California, my sister-in-law and I ventured back down to the LA Fabric District.  I’m going to be totally honest and tell you that this is probably going to be a mandatory trip I will make each time we take a trip home.
I decided to take Dana’s advice and stop by the FIDM scholarship store first.
They had cheap clothes, but a lot of it is hit and miss.  Don’t go in there expecting to find great clothes, go with the frame of mind that you can get clothes to re purpose.  They do have a wall in the back with lots of great knit fabric and lace embellishments that are totally inexpensive.  
We left around 8:30 am so that we could get there early.  The FIDM store opens at 9, and the district opens at 10, so it makes sense to hit the FIDM store first thing.
This time around, I parked in a lot right off of Maple Ave, just a block away from Michael Levine.  It was only $4 for the whole day.  Parking meters scare me, so this was perfect.  (actually, driving in downtown LA scares me, so I’m so glad my SIL offered to drive!)  I knew I wanted to go to ML last, so we walked up Maple Ave and worked our way down so that we would end up at ML and right by our car at the end of the day.
I found a place with fantastic elastic
lace galore
A store that just sold buttons and a few other notions.  I got a dozen buttons for $3.
It was nice to hit up all smaller street stores first, so we could compare prices when we got to Michael Levine.  I found a store that sold elastic for much cheaper than ML, so I went there for my elastic instead.
Don’t forget to head directly across the street from Michael Levine.  Go in the building and take the scary elevator up to the 2nd floor.
This will get you to the spot where you can buy all sorts of fabric for $2 a yard!
And now for my findings….
I got the fabric for my Anthrocopy shower curtain, minky (for $6 a yard), tons of some fabulous gray linen, and striped jersey prints.  What a successful trip.
p.s. word to the wise- have a navigation system with you!  It will save you from a great big headache trying to maneuver around downtown LA.  We had one and it was a lifesaver.