Friday ReMix: Striped Shirt to Skirt

 I love our neighborhood for many reasons but one cool thing is that many of the families pass on outgrown children's clothing to other families in the neighborhood.  We were the recent recipients of one such swap.  Our bag of goodies for my daughter included one floral dress, a tangerine colored bolero, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and one striped shirt.  First up on the refashion list was the striped shirt.  For some reason I thought this would make the cutest little skirt and I was right.  This was a super easy and oh so fast refashion.  Just like I like em. There was nothing wrong with the top - I just wanted to change it up a bit.

I snipped off the the top portion right at the armhole opening.  It was the right amount of fabric to create a nice size waist casing.  I used 5/8" elastic.  I love that a button remained after the top chop (just wanted to say that). 

I serged the top edge and then used a small zig-zag to stitch the casing (machine setting of .5mm wide & 2.5mm long). 

My daughter rocked it to school this week.  I love the combo of the this t-shirt with this skirt.  It's a little short so leggings are required but all in all it's a keeper. 

Peace!

REform/REfashion Friday - Old T-shirts to New Ruffle T-shirt

I know it is not Friday so let's just say it's the Saturday edition. I've been seeing so many cute ruffled t-shirt refashions and I decided it was time for me to make one of my own. I had a black t-shirt that was pretty faded with a hem that was coming undone. I also had a berry colored shirt with holes and it was pretty baggy and saggy. Both were sitting in the my storage bin of clothes that have potential for refashioning - ie not suitable for Goodwill but can't seem to throw it away. After I laid out what I wanted to do I spotted some gray scraps of material (leggings that my daughter put holes in) laying on my sewing table and thought it would be fun to add them to the mix. The black and the berry combination was a little too sweet but the gray made it a little more mismatched and interesting!

What I did:

• Cut the sleeves off the berry colored shirt and cut 1.75" strips
• Cut 1.75" strips from the leggings
• Measured the length of the front neck opening and doubled this length to determine how long my ruffled neckband needed to be
• Attached strips together with serger
• Sewed gathering stitch down the middle of the strip and pulled to gather
  
• Pinned strip to neckband and adjusted gathers
• Stitched down with sewing machine
• Folded the ends under and stitched them at the shoulder seam
  
• Cut ~5.5" piece (through both layers) from the berry shirt to create a ~2.5" band
• Resized the piece based on my how I wanted to fit across my hips by serging a new side seam
• Folded piece in half and basted together (optional)
• Divided into 4 pieces (side seams, front, and back)
• Attached band to the shirt with pins (matching side seams, front, and back)
• Serged band to shirt

REform/REfashion Friday - Old T's to Boys Muscle Shirt

This week's REform/REfashion took parts of old t-shirts and turned them into a tank top well muscle shirt.
This started out as a tank for my daughter to be worn with this skirt and my intentions were to girl it out with ruffles and crocheted accents. Then it became a muscle shirt for my son due to a few errors. I used the free Ottobre pattern found here (of course I made a few modifications--see below) but it needs a little something extra because I kind of goofed up. In order to fix my mistake I added the purple band which is in an odd position (it should start right under the armpit). Well, if the LA Lakers win the championship my son will be able to represent. What type of applique should I add? I need to find some fun ideas - I may go back to my mini Boden catalog for a little inspiration. This shirt is pretty long since I cut it originally for my daughter who is 2 years older.


He is not happy to be modeling this - it was pretty early in the morning. I couldn't get him to stand up hence the wrinkles. This is the actual color of the top - the pic in the beginning is a little washed out.

Modifications to the pattern:

• I used the original neck band just resized it.
  
• I did not use ribbing for the armbands - just serged them and then flipped & stitched.
• I kept the original hem from the t-shirt.

Once I add the detail - I'll be sure to show you.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge - Gift #1 Apron

One of my goals is to start making handmade birthday gifts. I swear we attend a gazillion birthdays well not a gazillion but seriously between the 2 kids we've been attended 10 birthdays already this year. Sometimes I think to myself I could make something way better than what I just bought and the kid would like it too. There are so many cool ideas of handmade gifts for children on the net that there is no reason for me not to give this a go. Not everyone will get some handmade goodness - I'm not going that die-hard but quite a few will receive gifts made by me. I will definitely involve the kids when I can so it can be a family affair. They already make handmade cards.
I came across this cute apron tutorial by Skip to My Lou and knew I had to try it. This will be given to one of my son's 4 year old friends. She uses a flower for embellishment but I think I will add some bows made from ribbon. The pics are not that fab - I had a get together at my home yesterday for my baby sister so I snapped pics quickly and got back to food and house prep. We celebrated my her graduation from Clark Atlanta University- she received her master's degree in computer science. You go chica! Back to the apron.



Oh and I think I am going to continue with the Kids Clothes Week Challenge for a few more days.

REform/REfashion Friday - Old T-shirts to Girl's Skirt

My first garment for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge and a refashion as well. I wanted to make my daughter a skirt in her school colors of purple and gold so she could show a little school spirit, but the fabrics colors I had were a little to much when I put them together. I decided to go with white and purple and applique a gold and purple flower which was inspired by the mini-Boden catalog. There are some really cool kid's clothes in the catalog. There's no way I'm paying those prices! I will be making more mini-Boden inspired items. The purple of the waistband and skirt do not match exactly but the photo is not capturing either purple properly.

I used a waist band from an old pair of pants that were worn out and the skirt was made from old T-shirts. This was super fast since I didn't have to do a waistband casing or hem (used original hem from T-shirt). I still need to sew the flower to the skirt. Right now it is attached with heat n bond -I bought the wrong color thread. You will see more of that gold knit fabric because I have 5 or 6 gold t-shirts that were left over from when my husband coached a youth soccer program at our church. A tank or fitted T-shirt to match the skirt is coming soon.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

Meg over at elsie marley has kicked off a challenge of sewing kids clothing this week. I just found it yesterday while cruising through blogs. The timing is perfect because I was making my mental list of things I needed to sew for the kids but had not got into the specific planning stage yet (patterns, material etc.) The only rule is to sew at least an hour daily. There are no prizes but she has set up a flickr pool. Check it out for inspiration as well as her blog where she has collected tons of tutorials and patterns to get you fired up!


Here's my list:
PJ’s for upcoming fake sleepover -daughter
2 skirts - daughter
1 dress - daughter
1 pair of pants – son
2 pair of undies – son
2 aprons – gifts

I will not get this all done but I will pick a few items from this list to complete. Alright, game on!

Stylin Eye Patch

My daughter needs to wear an eye patch for a few hours a day and the Dr. prescribed the adhesive kind. From what I hear these can be pretty irritating, peel off when the kid gets hot and sweaty, and not to mention expensive if you buy the pretty ones - the ones they will actually wear. So a crafty mother thinks to herself I'm sure I can make something... Initially I made a pirate style one but she kept snapping the band and the material I selected was uncomfortable. Plan B, jump on-line and see what's out there. Lo and behind another crafty mama has already created a tutorial to make a fabric eye patch. Amanda Adams at LucyKate Crafts designed a eye patch for her daughter and has shared the love. She has an in-depth tutorial that is super easy to follow. I already had everything on hand to make one. More of these to come in lighter natural materials. This one is felt.

If you have to wear an eye patch you might as well have a stylin one, right?

It just hooks on the stem of the glasses and has a pocket that the lens slides into

Project A Week 2

This should have been posted like last week, but I was a slacker. Here is my second project a week. It was intended to be made in the blue tie dye material with a pink heart on the front. When I was attaching the heart, the blue material was getting destroyed. I was using the wrong size needle. Disgusted, I walked away and came back a day later. I decided to cut the area out where the material had holes and substitute it with the pink intended for the heart. I can live with it and she is happy so it's all good. I used my serger and did a rolled hem for the sleeves and the bottom hem. I used NL 6639 and it is a little big. I wanted it to be long (added 2 inches) because when she wears jeans and bends over - we get a little surprise. Next time I'll cut a smaller size and only add 1 inch. I also used this pattern to make the top for my daughter Halloween Costume when she went as Word Girl in 08.


Project a week 3 is a matching skirt - I ran out of thread at the end so I will post later this week.

Halloween 2008

My little ones were very excited about getting dressed up and getting treats. Our neighborhood goes all out too, so they had a ball.

First up is my daughter. She was WordGirl, which is a great PBS show for the younger set. WordGirl fights villains with her super extensive vocabulary. Unfortunately there are no WordGirl costumes out there so mommy had to make it.

My little guy was a giraffe, which was borrowed from a neighbor. There was a lot of propaganda going on to get him in this outfit but it worked. There was no way I was going to make him an outfit too.
They have way too much candy and we have a ton left over. I have to think of a way to get rid of it because I certainly don't need it!

Flower Power Scrappy Style

I made my daughter a new little outfit. It was super simple but the top took awhile since I did a patchwork style. The pants are an old Butterick pattern (which I modified the shape for a more modern fit) and the top is modification of M5419. I only had a yard of material and that was chewed up with the pants. I had some pieces left over and I knew I wanted a matching top. I thought of buying a white T and and making an applique from the leftover scraps of material. Then I got a creative thought. I was about to throw out this shirt. I spilled something on it. I had a pair of her old pants that were too worn to give away and I also had pieces from a pair of jeans I cut up last year to make her a skirt. Here is the final result. I thought it came out real cute. I am really proud of it!

Sewing Projects

Trying to knock out some summer sewing projects while the kids are gone. What's in progress:

Black matte jersey pants - Butterick 5101
Red Knit Scoop Neck Tee - Simplicity 4076
Cotton Print Ruffle Neck Sleeveless Shirt - Simplicity 2892

I hope to have some final pics sometime soon.