No 'Poo Experience after 2 months

As planned, I have an update about my experience of using homemade shampoo! I do have to apologize in advance with this post as there will not be any pictures until a later time. My macbook decided to stop taking a charge, on top of Cuddle Bug stepping on it and breaking a 1/3 of liquid screen. :-/

This month, I did a little experimenting with the baking soda cleaner I mentioned in my last no 'poo post. I had stopped using my herbal shampoo because my hair would be in knots the second morning after washing and on top of that my hair was feeling brittle even with using the ACV rinse, so I went straight to using the baking soda cleaner and the ACV rinse for about 3 weeks.

I could last about 3 days before my hair started feeling dirty and my scalp would start to itch. One week, I washing my hair with the BS cleaner and the ACV rinse and the next time I needed a shower, I just did the BS cleaner. I had a horrible experience doing this! Even though I scrubbed my head really well, my hair was crusty after it completely dried! I wont be doing that again! I have not tried solely doing the ACV rinse yet, that will be my next experience for the following month.

After the past 3 weeks of using the BS and ACV combination, my hair was not having that volume effect that it did at the beginning or how the herbal shampoo did, so I used the herbal shampoo a few nights ago and my hair felt light and fluffy! Again, my hair only lasts about 2 days with the herbal shampoo, but it felt so nice to have the volume for a change!

I am still experimenting to find the perfect shampoo, but I definitely love the ACV rinse. I also have some distilled vinegar that has been infused with lavender petals as something to try once the ACV is all used up. I've read that distilled vinegar works just the same, if not even better then ACV.

Until next update!

Happy Shampooing!

Dress Refashion

I have been doing a little spring cleaning in my closet lately and trying to consign and donate most of my clothes I don't wear anymore, along with the clothes Jelly bean is now out growing. I have also been pinteresting (I don't think that is even a word, but it is now! :P) like crazy to see if maybe I can refashion some of the long sleeve shirts I bought only a year ago. They can still have some use for them, right? In my digging, I found a tank top maxi dress I had bought for Jelly Bean's baptism (almost two years ago) that I only wore once! It was a nice dress, but I wasn't too fond of the maxi length. 

So what's a girl to do?

Like I said above, I have been searching the inter webs of pinterest like crazy to see what is out there and I finally found a few tutorials that was quick and easy!

I followed the guidelines for this tutorial to make the dress a little shorter. I wanted the dress to end right above my knee since the material is spandex, so it would be perfect for the summer months here in the desert. 

I also wanted the dress to be a little more form fitting at the top, so I took another dress that I liked and used it as a guide to pin up the sides.

Sorry about the shadow at the top. My dachshund wanted to help -_-

I sewed along the pins, cut the some of the excess material, then used a zigzag stitch to serge it since I don't have a serger....yet! :P

I tried on the dress to make sure I liked the way it fitted on me at the top, then I used my measuring tape to measure the length of where I wanted to cut the skirt. I measured to about 27" from the shoulders to about my mid thigh.

This was about 27"

Next I used my rotary cutter and hit a straight line. I know, I know! I probably should have pinned all the way across to make a curve, but I was being lazy and just cut straight across! It worked out in the end. :-D

After I cut the excess, I tried the dress back on and measured from the edge of the new dress to where I wanted the new length to be. I think it was about 5-7 inches. I wanted to use the original dress hem so I wouldn't need to make a new hem on the new raw edge (why I measured the first length at mid thigh), so I measured the length with the on the piece I cut off, pinned it to the raw edge of the dress, and sewed all the way around.

As you can see, I am pinning the piece that has the original hem.

The reason for the two pieces was to make the bottom of the dress have a sort of ruffle to it! Here is the new dress!

The floral print doesn't really match at the bottom, but that's ok, I like it anyways. :) 

Now, I wasn't too fond of the no sleeves, so I used the extra fabric I had from the part I cut off and made some sleeves. I wanted to make some butterfly/flutter sleeves, by the time I got it all figured out and sewn on using this tutorial, it didn't turn out the way I had it in my head. Plus, it felt like they were pulling my shoulders down.

To fix that problem, I just used my seam ripper and detached the part that was sewn to the side of the dress. Now they look like kimono sleeves, hehe!

Now detached

Kimono sleeves!

Side view

I am happy about the outcome of the dress and can't wait to wear it to church.

I hope today's post has inspired you to dig through your closet and find those dresses you haven't worn too often! Now onward to refashion some shirts! 

Happy sewing :)