I am Laura

I am coming up for air after the holidays. We packed our apartment at The Jordan a couple of weeks ago, moved all of our stuff into the garage of our new home, and moved into a hotel until the house is done. Our Lake House. Rogers House by the Lake. Laura's Dungeon. C&L Mansion. Joey's Playground... Rosie's Humble Abode... Castle von Archibald... Yes, we will give the house a name eventually, but it doesn't matter what it is going to be. What matters the most is that I finally feel like buying every cookbook out there. Ina Garten, Meghan Markle, all books rated best by WP, you name it! Right now in my Amazon cart, I have about $300 worth of cookbooks. Can you really blame me when you see my new kitchen?! It will be finished in a few days. Will cooking be enjoyable again? It might be!! Until then - I am cooking my regular meal prep stuff in a mini pressure cooker in an extended stay hotel :) And you know what? It ALREADY feels great! Being closer to the ...

People often ask how much it cost me to make my own clothes. Often it is assumed that the total cost for fabric+thread+zipper is all it takes. If you score fabric for $10 and you spend $3 for thread and zipper, you'd think that the cost of a dress is $13, right? Well, think again! :) I took inventory of all necessary tools, equipment, etc., that I use to make a good quality custom-fit everyday dress, and I'm sharing my list with you. Buckle up! Even before buying fabric, we are talking four digits here. Education: online sewing courses = $1,089 over the course of 1.5 years. This total includes cost of 1 roll of tracing paper and 30 yards of muslin fabric. I wouldn't be where I am in my sewing skills today if it weren't for WW School courses (soon available in English!) Equipment: sewing machine + serger = $2,147. Serger was $200, you do the math))) (if you are bad at math, the price list is below.) There are of course cheaper sewing machines, and I had a $...

Quilting is hard, let me tell ya!! haha))) It took me two hours to just understand the cutting instructions. I cut out what seemed like a billion of little triangles, stitched them together, that stitched those blocks together with other blocks.. Wrestling the quilt through my adorable bernina was no picnic either! And not because of the machine (of course!! get yourself a bernina and you will know what I mean), but because I didn't have the right tools and skipped a few steps haha)) even my Apple watch told me to take a minute to breathe.. Yikes!!  Who would have thought that creating a flat blanket is so difficult? It is not, really, it just takes a second to train your brain follow a new process. It was actually enjoyable for the most part, and the result is right in front of me, getting ready to be mailed to Chicago for my beautiful friend Rachel, who is expecting a baby boy any day now. Anywho, first one done, one more to go! I learned how to quilt via courses on Blup...

Grey skirt is awesome, right?! Well, what do you think about this golden dress?! I cut it out on Saturday, and sewed the whole thing in one go on Sunday. Then it took 5 weeks until I took these pictures :) The fabric is stretchy enough that I don't need a zipper in the back, BUT I am totally opening the back seam and adding the zipper. It's like PBJ sammich - no fun without J!! Well, this dress IS fun, but the zipper will make it easier to get into it, plus will make the design extra special. I wanted this detail to be contrasting, to show the construction of the top of the dress. I decided to put the knit interfacing on the right side of the fabric, and it turned out amazing! I still have the shimmer, but the contrast shows the intricate design of the dress. You can see here that this is a layer of interfacing on the outside of the garment! Breaking rules, achieving great results!! :)