You remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe teaches Joey how to play the guitar? “Now, I don’t know the actual names of the chords, but I made up names for the way my hand looks while I’m doing them. So this is, ‘Bear Claw’ and this is ‘Old Lady.’

Over the holidays I spent quite a bit of time crafting. My sis in law had mentioned that she wanted to learn how to sew. Me being the self-taught, learn as you go type decided I could teach her. Much like Phoebe’s method, I made it up as we went along and this was the end result. Pants: Rich & Skinny, Blouse: Stacy & Mom!, Necklace: Kate Spade, Shoes: Tahari, Purse: HoBo

Unfortunately, my Mom, who is extremely talented with the sewing machine had to listen in and save the day a few times when the project started spinning out of control. She took it upon herself to teach me how to use a pattern the very next day and this blue blouse with red details was the result!

In short I love it! It has sleeves (that’s a Fashionably MADE first) and when I wore it, a total stranger went nuts over it. I’m talking, complements up the wazoo! Lesson learned: USE A PATTERN (touché Mom! You were so right!)