Fourth of July Shirt

Hey, it's the 4th of July (well almost) let's make a shirt!

So in full disclosure, I did not go in to making this shirt with the intentions of it being a Fourth of July shirt, but it happened that way, so we're going with it.

 

(I apologize in advance for the blueness of all these pics, wasn't paying attention to the fact that the carpet is also blue in the sewing room)

What You Need:

1) A Shirt (One that is a little big on you will work best)

2) Ruler

3) Chalk

4) Scissors/Exacto knife

5) Studs (I actually am using star shaped brads)

 

First, using a ruler draw a straight line with the chalk across the front of the shirt. I made mine right where the V on the neckline exists.

 

Then, also using a ruler, draw vertical lines from the shoulder seam, down to the horizontal line you drew. I made 10 lines. I wanted 8 strips, so 10 lines.

Cut down all of the vertical lines you just drew. DO NOT yet cut the horizontal line. I used an Exacto for this as it is easier, for me personally, to do that than cut in with scissors. But that is up to you. If you do use an Exacto, make sure to have a cutting mat below, and PLEASE BE CAREFUL. I have seen (and experienced) too many Exacto accidents to not stress that.

Use the Brads, or studs, to connect every other strip you just made. Once you can see which strips you will actually be using, cut out the ones you don't. This part is a little hard to explain, but basically in the end you will only keep every other strip.

 

Use as many Brads as you like, and connect the strips in whatever pattern you feel like.

 

Finally cut a slit in the bottom of the shirt along the side. And tie the slit on the side.

 

That's it! I may pair this with a red tank underneath just to make it extra patriotic.

~Jessica

 

 

 

 

Lace Shorts

It's summer! Yay! Hence a lot of not posting here on the blog. Oh well, you should be outside enjoying the weather anyway.

But since it's summer (or tomorrow is, but let's not get picky), that means it's shorts season. I actually am not a huge fan of shorts and tend to lean more towards the skirt/dress option. But if I do decide to wear them, I dont want them riding up and pinching my legs and being super uncomfortable. So one solution I recently found to fix shorts that are a little too snug in the thigh region, is to add a bit of lace to them.

 

Here's what you need:

A pair of shorts (mine are actually cutoffs as well, but any pair of shorts is fine)

Scissors

Lace (2 pieces, about 6 inches wide and 8 inches long)

Pins
A sewing machine (you could hand sew this if you do not have a sewing machine, but the machine is easier)

 

First, cut a triangular piece of fabric off the outside part of your shorts. Do for both legs.

Then measure out how much lace you need to fill the gap in your shorts with the lace.

 

Place the lace on the inside of the shorts and pin in place. Then simply sew the lace in place. When you are done you can trim any excess lace from the inside or hanging off the bottom.

 

That's it! Pretty easy and pretty cute, better fitting shorts in the end.

~Jessica

 

 

 

Photobooth Fun

DIY project for the summer:

Grab some friends, go have fun :)

 

Love,

The Michigan Made Girls

Blueberry Muffins

I need things that are quick and easy to take for breakfast, as I get up before I am even hungry. So I am usually either eating in the car or eating my breakfast at my desk. But I get sick of meal bars and what have you, so I tend to need to switch things up and therefore thought I would bake some muffins, freeze them and then I can just grab them on my way out the door in the morning.

Here's What You Need:

• Muffin/Cupcake liners
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup oats–quick or regular oats, plain
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces honey nonfat Greek yogurt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Then line your cupcake tin with the liners (the recipe I followed said that this would make about 12 muffins depending on how much you filled the tins, but I was actually about to make 24. I dunno, I could have filled them more I guess, but still 12 seems like too few for the amount of batter you end up with.).

Next combine flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

 

Then combine yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla in a second bowl. I should note here, for whatever reason it is hard to find the honey Greek yogurt by me..drives me crazy. BUT if this is the case for you as well, you can just mix in honey with the yogurt before mixing with the rest of the ingredients.

ALSO if you are like me and rushing to get these done on a Monday night and therefore have to at the last second melt the butter, make sure to temper the mixture with the hot butter first before just dumping it in with the eggs (otherwise your eggs will scramble, which you dont want). This simply means add a little bit of the hot butter to the mixture, mix it in well, then slowly add the rest of the butter.

Fold yogurt mixture into dry mixture; stir to combine completely.

Gently fold in the blueberries.

 

 

Spoon the muffins into the tins. As I mentioned earlier this will yield anywhere from 12 to 24 muffins, depending on how much you fill your tins. I stuck with about 3/4 full and got 24 muffins.

 

Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden.

 

I think I baked mine for slightly too long as they are a little dry in my opinion, but my Dad didn't have the same complaint, so might just be me. Overall good though and great for taking with me in the morning.

~Jessica

Lightened Up Mac N Cheese

I have had a crazy craving for mac n cheese lately. Like the good, super cheesy, baked kind (not that boxed stuff). So I went on a hunt for a "healthier" version of a mac n cheese recipe, and found one on Eat Yourself Skinny. I was super excited about it and decided to make it for the fam last night.

 

Here's What You Need:

1 (14.5 oz) box Ronzoni Smart Taste elbow macaroni
1/2 head cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
4 Tbsp reduced-fat grated Parmesan cheese
8 oz. grated sharp cheddar
4 oz. fat-free cream cheese
1/2 cup fat-free half-and-half
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 Tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped

First preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a boil...while you wait you can mix your dry ingredients:  In a small bowl, combine Italian breadcrumbs, 1 tablespoon of the Parmesan cheese and the chopped parsley together and set aside. 

Now if things go for you the way they always seem to go for me, and your water takes FOREVER to boil, you can take this time to measure out all of your ingredients. I was actually able to do all of my chopping and measuring while I waited. And if your water still hasn't boiled, do like me and crack open a beer and enjoy while you wait. 

Once your water is boiling, add macaroni and cauliflower. Cook until macaroni is done, then drain, but RESERVE half a cup of the water from the pasta.

Place cheddar, cream cheese, 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, half-and-half, salt and pepper in the already heated pot you just used and mix in the macaroni and cauliflower. Stir until pasta is well coated, then add the water you reserved from the pasta.

Pour the mixture into a greased 9x13 pan. 

 

Then top with your dry mixture. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

 

Now I'm going to say here that I was not actually all too thrilled with the end result. It wasn't bad, just kind of plain. The parent's claimed to like it, but it's possible they were just being nice. If I make this again I will definitely be adding more herbs and spices to it to ramp up the flavor a bit. But maybe it's just me.

~Jess

 

Designer Arsenal: Reference Books

Books are great. I love books. I especially love having reference/inspiration books handy. So I thought I would share some books that I have collected over the years.

 

One book that simply covers the basics of design is Idea Index: Graphic Effects and Typographic Treatments by Jim Krause. It's a fun pocket sized book that makes for easy travel if you are in school and covers simple type treatments.

 

A book that I was assigned in school was Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon Mackenzie. It is a great little book that can help you get out of creative funks. It kind of helps you remember to think outside the box and not get weighed down by your projects. 

Some other books that I was assigned in school were type specific. And boy do I need help in that area, to this day. Any designer knows that type is extremely important to any design and it is not something to glaze over. So far as I am concerned the more you can learn about it, the better. A couple of books for type are: Thinking With Type by Ellen Upton and Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara.

In the realm of type, but more along the lines of inspiration rather than instruction are Just My Type by Simon Garfield and Typography Sketchbook by Steven Heller. The latter I actually just got for the BF and it is AWESOME. I had half a mind to keep it for myself, but it has some really awesome images for inspiration.

In terms of general inspiration a great one that was given to me was Everything That Can Happen in a Day by David Horvitz. This one is not so much solely graphic design inspiration, but general creative/think about things in a new way kind of inspiration. It's an all around a fun book, so definitely recommend picking that one up.

 

I also subscribe to Graphic Design USA, which is a nice way to keep up on trends and things happening in the industry. Plus a bonus is, if you are in the industry, they send you a subscription for free, so can't beat that.

~Jess

Eggies

It's almost Easter, and I thought I'd share some Easter egg pictures. These are actually from last year, as we have not yet dyed Easter Eggs this year. But fun nonetheless.

My family has always done Easter eggs with food coloring, rather than the Paas tablets. Well maybe we did them with Paas when I was little, but I dont really remember those days. I definitely prefer using food coloring. The colors are SO much more vibrant and you can make some pretty sweet designs if you play around with it...dip, drip, splotch, smudge, spread it. Just have fun with it, no matter what you'll end up with some cool looking eggs.

I don't recommend using food coloring if you have small children though. If you do, expect for not only the eggs to be dyed, but also the kids, your table and probably yourself. It's messy and that shit stains, so BE CAREFUL. I always wear gloves and lay down a drop cloth of some sort. 

Added fun fact of doing eggs this way: when you crack them, the egg whites will (most of the time) be dyed too. We always had some really fun egg salad sandwiches after Easter in my house.

Happy egg dying!

~Jessica

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

With the winter dragging on, I find more and more that I simply want to look forward and prepare for summer. Which, for better or for worse, means getting back to the summer beauty regimen and doing things like shaving my legs everyday again (yes, I neglect this habit during the winter, get over it). But that of course means dealing with razor burn and dry skin, but I'm cheap and don't want to spend a whole lot on beauty products either. So I started looking for at home remedies to combat these problems that I could make on the cheap.

Enter the brown sugar body scrub. It's super easy to make and works wonders. I use it before shaving to exfoliate and moisturize, plus it smells really good and will leave you smelling sweet.

Here's what you need:

 

1-1/2 cups Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/8 cup raw Honey
1/4 teaspoon of desired scent options: Pure Vanilla Extract, Lemon Juice, Lavender essential oil, Fresh ground coffee, Cinnamon or Clove (I used cinnamon in mine, but I might do vanilla next time)

Combine all ingredients and mix until it forms a paste. Store in a sealed container in your bathroom, and no worries about refrigerating, it is not necessary.

 

To use simply scoop up a handful and rub it in. Enjoy!

~Jess

Snowtime Funtime

I am more than ready for winter to just be over. I'm sick of being cold, and sick of really shitty driving conditions. For reals. But with that being said I'm REALLY trying to stay positive these days and not let the winter doldrums get me down. So when we got hit yet again with a bunch of snow last night I decided to try and make the best of it.

So what do you do when you are snowed into your driveway and have to wait to go to work in the morning? Go outside and play in the snow with your puppy (who absolutely adores the snow) that's what. Here's a look at Lola and my snowy good time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thats all I have for now, til next week!

~Jessica

Nail Prints

I know it's an old trend, but I hadn't tried it yet, so I thought I would. Newsprint nails, that is. I think they look really cute, and loving typography the way I do, why not put it on my nails?

So here's what ya do:

1. Using a light nail polish, paint your nails as usual. Most people use a white, off-white or light grey type color, but I like to be different so I went with a light green. Sally Hansen's Mint Sorbet to be exact.

You will want to make sure your base coat has dried completely before you do the news print part. And if you need to do more than one coat of base coat, make sure each coat is completely dry before applying the next. Otherwise you will smudge the polish when you apply the newsprint. A great way to test if your polish is totally dry is to tap them together. If there is a slight pull when you do this, they have not dried all the way.

2. Cut out small squares of newspaper. Use areas they have a lot of text and try to avoid any breaks in the paragraphs.

One at a time, dip your nails in rubbing alcohol. Then place the newspaper on top. Dip a cotton ball in the rubbing alcohol and press on top of the newspaper and hold for roughly 20-25 seconds. This process reminded me of applying a temporary tattoo, and is definitely similar in the fact that you do not want to remove the newspaper too soon. After about 20 seconds simply peel back the newspaper.

3. Apply a clear topcoat. And that's it!

 

Mine didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, but I think I was getting impatient and not holding the newspaper on long enough. But overall cute, and more interesting than just a plan color.

~Jessica

Closet Cleanout

It's time for some good ole fashioned spring cleaning! Granted it's not spring, but a girl can dream, right? Basically I have as of late become really annoyed with my closet...it's too jammed packed and I don't even wear half of what is in it.

Case in point:

 

Therefore this weekend I decided everything must go! And by everything I mean the things I do not wear anymore. So I thought I would share this adventure with you. This is not so much a "how-to" (I'm not going to tell you how to run your life) as a "this is what I did this weekend." And by this weekend I mean for like an hour after I got sick of waiting for the power to come back on at the stadium during the Superbowl...ain't nobody got time for that!

Aaaanyway, upon starting this endeavor I decided that I would stop being so damn sentimental and get rid of these things I've been hanging on to for years. For instance, do I really need three, yes THREE pairs of floral patterned flats? One of which never really fit to begin with and I would only wear when I could handle the pain of the skin on my ankle being slowly torn off. No, clearly not necessary.

 

I'm sure I also do not need 15 pairs of jeans, when I only wear about 5 of them.

 

But cleaning out the closet also allowed me to rediscover clothes I had forgotten about. One big tip I would give about this sort of thing is to try everything on! You may be surprised by some of the gems you had forgotten were in the back of your closet.

 

My technique overall became to make three piles. 

1. Donations

2. Items to upcycle into either new clothes or some other craft project

3. Items to just throw away

I like to donate as much as I can, but sometimes old clothes can be reused to make something totally cool and awesome. I usually keep clothes that have a pattern I really like and I will figure out something I can make with them. Like this dress that I bought a couple years ago, that I'm pretty sure I only wore once because it never really fit right. But I kept it because it was super cute. I have finally come to the realization that it just will never fit correctly, but the pattern is adorbs, so I will find something to turn it into.

 

Now I know I mention throwing things away, which sounds awful. But there are certain things you really should not donate, like undergarments. Don't do it. It's gross. No one wants used undergarments. I mean it. Throw that shit out. Okay, end of rant.

Overall I ended up with a good sized bag of clothes to donate and a couple of items to hang onto for crafts. I feel mildly better about my closet situation. I'd show an after picture, but to be honest it doesn't really look that much better. So just imagine a really organized, pretty closet and pretend it's mine. Maybe that will be a project for another time, but that's a BIG endeavor.

~Jessica

Designer Arsenal: What's in the Bag?

On this edition of Designer Arsenal, I will be simply talking about supplies. There are a few supplies that I like to keep on hand at all times just because they seem to be the supplies I need the most.

 

First off, I always have rubber cement around and double stick tape. These two work on most items, and as long as you are not using the permanent kind of double stick tape, these two do not have to be permanent adhesives, which if you are mocking things up or just playing around with something that can come in handy.

 

An Exacto knife is a designer's best friend. They are excellent for cutting out just about anything. But I implore you to be very careful with them, they are extremely sharp and I have seen some intense Exacto injuries. So make sure those fingers are out of the way.

 

When you are using an Exacto you will need a cutting mat and most likely a ruler (for cutting straight lines). Both things are good to have on hand regardless. I actually have two cutting mats, one large and one small. I think I only got the small one when I was in school for traveling purposes, so it's not really necessary to have multiple. 

 

I like to make boxes for mockups so I keep a bone folder on hand. It's not a totally necessary tool, but it sure does make things easier. I know I talked about them before, but they are basically for scoring edges so that you can fold materials easier.

 

I also like to cut out more complicated shapes (for some reason) but am no good at cutting circles with an Exacto (sidenote: I went to school with a girl who had a natural talent for cutting circles, so she was great to have around but you can only ask someone to do your cutting for you so much). So I keep a circle cutter on hand. The one I have is a little cheaper and a bit hard to use, but if you spring for a fancier one they work quite well and you no longer have to worry about cutting out perfect circles.

I also for some reason only make things with rounded corners. I dont know, I just like how they look better, so if I have the choice, I make my corners rounded. Therefore I also keep a rounded corner cutter (probably not the official name, but thats what it does) on hand.

 

There are other supplies I keep on hand such as a variety of pencils and pencils in various weights, acrylic paint, charcoal pencils, colored pencils, various paint brushes and erasers. I will probably post about that stuff later on, but it's a little more specific to me personally and my interests rather than general supplies.

~Jessica