DIY Frat Collection T-Shirts

I love the look of The Frat Collection t-shirts, but the price is not to my likings. I understand that they give some of the proceeds to charity, but still its just a t-shirt. I had some friends over a while back and we decided to make these. My friend Laura had already made one so she was the mastermind behind them. Thanks, Laura! I've seen a few posts about how people have done these, but they used fusible backing to just put a piece of fabric on an already existing pocket. This method just looked sloppy and unfinished, so I prefer my way of doing it.

Materials:

Plain solid color t-shirt

Scrap fabric or fabric quarter

Thread

Straight pins

Shears

Ruler

Sewing machine

Iron

Step 1:

Cut out a 6" by 7" rectangle of fabric (adjust size based on how big you want your pocket)

Step 2:

Fold one of the shorter ends of the rectangle down about an inch and press it (this will be the top of the pocket)

Step 3:

Fold both of the longer sides in a half an inch and press

Step 4:

Sew a straight stitch at the top of the pocket

I sewed about a quarter of an inch away from the fold to make the pocket look like a pocket

Step 5:

Fold and press the bottom corners of the fabric up to create the point. You may have to cut some of the fabric off of the bottom to get it to look right. Also, I would recommend using another pocket shirt as a guide for how to point should look.

Step 6:

Next, try on the shirt and pin the pocket where you would like it to go. Then pin all around the edge of the pocket.

Step 7:

Using a straight stitch, sew all around the pocket. Make sure you don't sew over the top of the pocket, so that it remains a functional pocket. 

I decided to make another one and monogram it. I think this one looks much better than the first. I guess I learned from my mistakes. 

Link Ups:
http://chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com/2012/08/flaunt-it-friday-113.html
http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/2012/08/frugal-friday.html
http://what-about.co/show-friday-15-august-3-2012/
My Repurposed Life
Whipperberry
http://www.mysimplehomelife.com/2012/08/features-simply-creations-link-party-68.html
http://www.504main.com/2012/08/tickled-pink-no-109.html
http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/2012/08/inspire-me-fridays-70-anything-goes.html
http://tatertotsandjello.com/2012/08/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-borsa-bella-design-co-giveaway.html#more-38180
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/08/pink-saturday-august-4-2012.html
http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2012/08/sns-146-diy-link-party.html
http://www.bedifferentactnormal.com/2012/08/show-and-tell-saturday-080412.html
http://www.iamonly1woman.blogspot.com/2012/08/check-me-out-saturday.html
http://snips-and-spice.blogspot.com/2012/08/sunday-slice-its-party-6.html
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/sundae-scoop-link-party-37/
http://www.raisingmemories.com/2012/08/2012-summer-sharing-time-giveaways.html
http://itssoverycheri.com/2012/08/05/its-party-time-8-5-2012/
http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/diy-project-parade/
http://www.serendipityandspice.com/2012/08/manic-monday-linky-party-29.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SerendipityAndSpice+%28Serendipity+and+Spice%29
http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/2012/08/craftomaniac-monday.html
http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2012/08/mop-it-up-mondays-28.html
http://www.sumossweetstuff.com/2012/08/market-yourself-monday.html
http://www.sewcando.com/2012/08/crafttastic-monday-link-party.html
http://www.marvelouslymessy.com/2012/08/a-marvelous-mess-74-and-features.html

San Diego Outfits

I love vacation because I have all of my outfits planned out way ahead of time, so I actually look cute and put together no matter what.

Zoo Day

White Shirt: Forever 21

Neon Orange Shorts: Express

Platinum Sandals: Jack Rogers

Purse: Coach Poppy

Monogram Necklace: Received as gift

Texas Necklace: James Avery

Grey Watch: Kohl's

Charm Bracelet: James Avery

Shopping Day

Pink Tank Top: Boutique at Carolina Beach

White Shorts: Forever 21

Black Sandals: Jack Rogers

Texas Necklace: James Avery

Pearl Necklace: Belk

Pearl Bracelet: Forever 21

Charm Bracelet: James Avery

Trolley Day

Brown and Black Spotted Shirt: Forever 21

Khaki Shorts: Forever 21

Platinum Sandals: Jack Rogers

Texas Necklace: James Avery

Chain Necklace: Forever 21

Gold Cuff Bracelet: Forever 21

Charm Bracelet: James Avery

Purse: Longchamp

Beach Day

Dress: Express

Bathing Suit: Victoria's Secret

White Sandals: Sahara

Texas Necklace: James Avery

Bag: Scout Weekender

Travel Day

Tank Top: American Eagle

Denim Shorts: American Eagle

Black Sandals: Jack Rogers

Texas Necklace: James Avery

Charm Bracelet: James Avery

Grey Watch: Kohl's

San Diego Food

One of the best parts of traveling is all of the yummy food you get to eat. I went to a ton of cool restaurants. 

The first night we went to Fred's Mexican Cafe. I got a chicken breast ranchero enchilada, and it was good. The queso and salsa we got was different then the TexMex I am used to. 

One morning for breakfast we went to the Pacific Beach Ale House. I got the Creme Brûlée French Toast. I didn't really understand what the creme brûlée part meant, but when I got it it had a hard candy like coating on it. And the strawberries were so good! I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

What's a trip to the west if you don't go to In-N-Out Burger. I mean the burger was better than any other fast food burger, but it was still just a burger.

There was a cupcake shop in Seaport Village called Frosted Robbin Cupcakes. I ordered a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cupcake. It was pretty good, but something that I could easily recreate and the icing was too sweet for me.

In Coronado beach, we went to Leroy's Kitchen and Lounge. I ordered the Truffled Grilled Cheese with Tomato Gazpacho. It was delicious, but the gazpacho wasn't very good alone. I liked it more with dipping the grilled cheese into it.

We went to a really nice dinner at the Top of the Market restaurant. I got grilled salmon with crab on top of it and snap peas under it. I don't remember the actual name of it, but it was really good. I enjoyed the crab a lot more than the tuna. 

For desert at Top of the Market, my brother chose the s'mores pie. I can't even describe how good this was. There was a graham cracker crust with a chocolate mousse type filling and homemade marshmallow on top. YUMMMMM

We tried to go to The Mission multiple times, but the wait was always forever long. We went on our last full day there just to try to get in and the wait was only fifteen minutes, so we stuck it out. And man am I glad we did. I started things off with a hot chocolate; it was by far one of the best (and prettiest) cups of chocolate caliente I have ever had. It was chocolately without being too rich, and somehow they have discovered the perfect temperature to serve it at. AMAZING!

For my meal at The Mission, I ordered the granola strawberry pancakes. Me, being a person who eats at IHOP more than one should, was expecting the strawberries and granola to just be toppings on the pancakes, but no they were baked in. And if y'all are smart you would order one stack on pancakes and split them because these things are huge. The are super fluffy and I couldn't even make a dent in them. 

Our last night in Cali, we decided to have a low key dinner and ended up eating at Hodad's which was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. They are famous for some incredibly huge burgers as seen above with the one my brother ordered.

I chose to go with a slightly lighter and smaller meal and ordered the grilled cheese. It was good grilled cheese, but it was just grilled cheese. 

Where I was really impressed was the onion rings. We ordered a half sized because we didn't want to spoil are dinner. I could have sworn when they brought them out that they had made a mistake and given us a full order, but then a waiter passed with a full order and it was about triple the amount that we had. They were awesome onion rings. They had big fat onions, and when you bit into them the onion didn't just all pull out in the first bite. So good!

My Kinda Party 2012

Luke Bryan is God's gift to women everywhere, and I've been lucky enough to see him live TWICE! The most recent time was just last night. He is the opening act for Jason Aldean on his My Kinda Party 2012 tour. I've seen both Luke and Jason before last year, so this was going to be a good comparison.

Unfortunately, the weather did not hold up for this concert. I only got to hear about eight of Luke Bryan's songs because it was raining so hard and we had to escape to the bathroom to save our phones. Even though we missed a few songs he was still amazing. And his butt looks good in whatever he wears. Some guy after the concert asked me if I though Luke Bryan was a Sir Humpsalot based on his dancing, and that cracked me up because of how true it is.

Escaped to the bathroom after being soaked by the thunderstorm. I've never seen so many panicked women in my life. Only in North Carolina can you arrive somewhere hot and drenched in sweat, but leave freezing and drenched in rain.

I wish I could have gotten more pictures of Jason, but the rain was still coming and I didn't want to risk my camera. He was also amazing, but I would have enjoyed it more if I weren't freezing and wet. He played his newest single from the album he is releasing in October, and the song was great!

What I Wore:

Chevron Print Dress: The Foreign Exchange

Belt: Target

Boots: Aldo

Cowboy Boot Necklace: Received as gift

San Diego Zoo

While on my trip to San Diego I got to go to the San Diego Zoo. It was by far the best zoo I have ever been too, and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I thought I would share some pictures and stories with you.

These monkeys were really cool. They just hang around and their arms are so freakishly long!

This chimp just decided to sit on top of a stick and have a snack while the rest of them were napping. It was pretty funny.

I wish I could have gotten a picture of this animals butt; you would swear that it was a zebra.

I loved the baby hippo!!!

Otter?

I think we decided to go to the zoo during all of the animals nap times.

We got to see an elephant getting groomed. If we had stayed a little longer we could have seen a different elephant getting a pedicure. I can't imagine the tools needed for an elephant pedicure.

The gorillas were my favorite and they were hilarious. I'm sure that there were probably people inside those gorillas because they were so humanlike. There was a four year old gorilla in there that was terrorizing the big alpha male. It was hilarious. The adult gorilla was trying to sneak past the little guy, but he wasn't sneaky enough. The little gorilla popped out and chased the big one around the pin. All of the girls were just sitting their watching it happen. One of them was even picking at its nails like it had a hang nail or something. We spent a lot of tine just watching them interact. They were awesome!