Keep on Sewing

WOW! Has it really been 2 months since I posted last! Goodness. Well, I certainly did not put my sewing machine away. It did sit dormant for a few weeks due to life in general and surprises that the Lord had for us but I've sewn a few things here and there.

I've made 2 crayon wallets one for a birthday present and one as an order. The mother of the girl I gave the 1st one to wanted one to give as a birthday present for her daughter's friend. She wanted a little purse to go with it so I made a matching Origami Handbag to go with it.


Next I made a pillow case for a girlfriend's birthday. It wasn't just any old pillow case though. My friend is a flamingo fanatic! And I wanted it to be special for her as her husband is on deployment.

I had so much fun making this pillow! I had so many ideas and the design changed a million times before I finally settled on what you see here.

I was going to embellish both sides but opted to leave a side plain so that she wouldn't wake up with unsightly stitching lines on her face. lol

Then on Monday I wanted to get out and make my daughter a circle skirt out of knit fabric but after looking at the state of my garage/sewing area I decide to clean instead. I was able to unload 2 large black bags, 2 large boxes, and 1 small box full of fabric that I didn't need/like from my garage. Most had come from a buy sight unseen selection of fabric I picked up at a garage sale. There was plenty for me to keep but a lot I didn't want that was cluttering up the area.

Now that the area was decluttered the creative juices were flowing freely! I picked up my scissors and attacked repurposed a Hersheys Milk Chocolate T-shirt into a circle skirt for my daughter.


I always make things so hard on myself. Instead of a simple 1 hour to make skirt this skirt with it's bits of this and pieces of that took W-A-Y too long. But it sure is fun!

This entire skirt was made from repurposed fabric. Three t-shirts and some leftover floral fabric from an earlier project went into this skirt. There are white shorts sewn in as well to keep her modest when playing. =)

After the Hershey's Skirt was complete I whipped out this pink skirt in one hour. Oh if only I had made this one first like she wanted. lol My little girl loves all things pink and when given her choice she'd pick this skirt over the one mommy spent so much time slaving over making for her. ;)

This one also has shorts sewn in.

Now that she has 2 new skirts I may make one for myself tomorrow! They are sooooo easy to make! I've got to keep repeating to myself "Keep it simple! Keep it simple!" I tend to go overboard with the design of my little creations that I don't get done nearly what I should.

To anyone who actually read this and made it all the way to the bottom, Thank you! Thanks for sticking with it and waiting for me to finally post again.

Refashioned Tshirt Hoodie Dress

After reading the very neat blog Lil Blue Boo and all of her super cute ideas I wanted to make my very own tshirt hoodie dress. (Not for me of course for my 2y/o).

So I made a quick stop at a thrift store and found this really cute top for $1.50.



I knew that was the one! When I got it home I found a shirt with a hoodie that I knew fit my little girl and used it as my pattern for the top of the dress.



I know some people just cut out around but I like to use chalk but will probably stop doing so the more I do this.



(Insert pause for me running up and down the stairs to help with schooling)

I cut off the bottom of the shirt where my lines stopped then cut out the rest of the top, front and back. Sewed it right sides together and then moved on to the sleeves.

(Insert pause to run up the stairs and get 2 dinners started one for us and one for a family that just had twins!! They are sooo cute!)

Since it is now getting to be cooler weather I wanted long sleeves. So I found another top that had sleeves that fit her arm length. And used it to cut off the ends of sleeves off of a black long sleeved tshirt that I also found for $1.5o.



When it came time for me to attach the sleeves I had no idea what I was doing. I've never attached sleeves before. So I quickly ran upstairs to find how to attach sleeves. Thank you, Sew, Mama, Sew!

(Insert break for doing more meal prep and schooling help)

I ran back downstairs and lined up the sleeve and top right sides together, sewed, and....



WALLAH!!

A top with sleeves!



(Insert break to make some elbow macaroni here)

Now for the skirt part of the dress. I cut the bottom off of the black formerly long sleeved tshirt. It had some cute pockets already and wanted to utilize those because my little girl loves putting her hands in her pockets.

(Insert long break to finish dinner. Deliver to the said family. Get lost on the way to their house and go in a BIG circle. What should have taken 2 minutes now took 20. Ooo and Aaah over the oh so cute twin boy and girl. Come home and eat dinner with family. Then try and put together a super confusing puzzle with husband and oldest daughter until bed time. Get everyone to bed for some peace and quiet.)



I then gathered (I hate gathering never turns out like it should for me) and sewed the skirt onto the bottom of the top.



And to make the bottom not so dull I added a rose using this tutorial from Happy Together.
So easy to do and I think super cute!!



Finally it was time to make the hoodie.
I took out the top from the beginning and use it's hood as a pattern. I originally wanted the hood to be the blue striped material but didn't have enough of it for the stripes to match in direction so I went with the same black tshirt.

Sewed the back part of the hood together then made a hem for the front. And attached the hood to the dress and...



It is finished!!

(Realize it is now 2am and I need to go to bed)

And the next day...

I am a Refashionista!! (sort of)

lol I love reading all those blogs that give you such great little tutorials and show you how they amazingly re-purposed or refashioned an old article of clothing into something super cute. So awhile back while doing some laundry I came across this dress that belonged to my 6y/o:


It was a very cute dress with one problem. Stains. After multiple tries at trying to remove the stains (front and back) with no luck I usually would have just thrown this dress away. (It's not nice to give away a dress with stains on it.)

But, "AHA!", I said to myself, "I can re-purpose this into a cute skirt for my 4y/o!!"

So about 3+ months later I finally took it upon myself to finish this project and WALLAH!! the finished product:


Every piece of this outfit was re-purposed from something else. The skirt and all pink trim from the dress and the leggings were made from an old black maternity t-shirt.

I used a pair of shorts as the pattern for the leggings. I wanted them fitted so I had my 4y/o put on the shorts then pinned them so they were fitted. Then I when I cut out the pattern I cut 1/2 inch from the pin instead of the edge of the shorts.

The crotch area is a little too long but I'm not worried cause it gives her room to grow. I'll just know better next time.

This will be perfect as the weather is starting to get cooler even in sunny California.

I am still planning on adding a reverse applique pink heart to the bottom right of the skirt. Hopefully it will get done tomorrow. Too tired to finish it up right now. =)

Thank you Make It and Love It for the tutorial on making girl's pants. It gave me the idea to make the leggings instead of just shorts.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think!

Sewing in the Rough (and some Baby Shower Gifts!)

I finally blew the dust off of my machine and got to work. With a baby shower only 1 day away I needed to get cracking! My goal was to have a matching Nursing cover, 2 spit up cloths (one for each baby, she's having twins!!), and a diaper clutch ready by tonight. Well, I got 2 out of 3 done. The nursing cover and the spit up cloths. I had enough material to do the diaper clutch just not enough time.

I still didn't get my sewing area cleaned up I just worked around, on, and through it. I finally braved up and will show you a pic of what I worked through.



Everything I need an arm's length away! You just have to dig for it. lol My stash of mini-Snickers I think are the most important thing on this table. I learned this from Cassie at You Go Girl! just read her Pencil Roll Tutorial and No Snit Binding Tutorial and you'll see why. ☺

No really, I don't like working with my table like this. Usually I would have cleaned it all off before starting but there was no time.

So now to the sewing! I finished up the nursing cover in good time. I still have one more to make for a friend of mine.



She loved the colors! YAY! I always try to ask about favorite colors and since her wedding colors were red and green (in July not a Christmas wedding) I thought she would like this fabric. Carnival Bloom by Michael Miller.

This time I added pockets on the inside bottom corners of the cover. I wanted to use a knit fabric but there were no white knit remnants at the fabric store so I re-purposed a onesie that Glory had outgrown.



I then moved on to the spit up cloths. I got my inspiration from this one:



It was a gift given to my sister-in-law's sister from her Sunday School class. The snag was that the lady who made them has a machine that does embroidery, hence the lovely lettering.

I do not.

When an amateur seamstress tries to copy above artwork on her own machine, freehand you get this:



Not Pretty.

I had already sewn on the fabric onto the bottom so after wasting time doing the above work I had to pull out Mr. Seam Ripper to take off the fabric and add it to another cloth.



See all the thread still hanging onto the ruined cloth.

Then I decided to use my lettering that my machine can do but thinking I had to enter in the letters a certain way I came up with this:



Luckily, I used a scrap piece of fabric to see how it would come out instead of wasting another cloth.

After correcting my mistakes my finished product finally came to this:



I really like how they turned out and I loved how everything matched!!

I usually don't give cards at baby showers. Since I'm right there when they open it I can let them know it's from me! =) But I thought I'd use a piece of scrap fabric to make a matching card as well.



Too pretty to wrap up! This fabric is awesome!

The diaper clutch never made it even to the cutting board but since I have enough fabric for it I'll still be finishing it up and getting it to the Mommy to be.

It has been awhile since I was sewing last and I really enjoyed getting back to it. The Lord has really blessed me with a wonderful way to create lovely things for my friends and family (and for myself ☺).

Recent Acquistions and More Repurposing

Well, after getting dinner done early, packing up my machine and a project to work on, I had to miss sewing class. =( I couldn't find my notebook with the instructions for my project that I wanted to work on. I was very stressed out in not being able to find it. My husband even helped me to look for it. It wasn't until I decided not to go and I unloaded my machine from the van that I found my notebook.

Such is life.

So instead my husband took me out shopping to my favorite fabric stores (well really the only fabric stores in our area) and I had a great time!!


There were a lot of nice fabrics in the 1/2 off bin at Beverly's! They even had some Michael Miller's at 25% off but I didn't grab any of that (I may go back though! lol)

I grabbed some new needles for my machine, just universal. I need to learn more about needles and the different types and what's the best brand. If anyone has any pointers I'd be happy to learn!
I've been wanting to make myself some new hot pads and I've had this Fresh Squeezed charm pack for awhile but didn't have any coordinating fabric so I found that orange striped in the 1/2 off bin and it was perfect for it!

But even better is that I thought it would make a cute baby blanket for my little guy! I've been wanting to make one ever since My Spare Time posted her tutorial. So I got the binding, thread, and blue camo flannel for the entire project. I just need to wash the fabric now so I can start on it.

I'm not sure what I'm going to make with this piece yet but I bought 2 yards of it. It was also in the 1/2 off bin! I may make a skirt or perhaps a top for myself. Just not sure yet. But it sure is pretty!


This piece is t-shirt fabric and I've not worked with anything yet except 100% cotton. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet either but it is pretty!

Here is the last piece of fabric that I acquired. It was in the sale section at Betty's Fabrics and my youngest daughter LOVES Mickey Mouse. Not sure yet what I'll make her. Maybe I'll try a jumper and a bag. Any suggestions?

While putting away laundry today I came across this dress which belonged to my eldest. But if you can see them there are many stains on it. And it has gone through the wash many times and they have still not come out.

See them now?

Well, there are even blue stains on the back right shoulder due to laundry problems (husband was doing it) so instead of throwing it out like I normally would I'm going to repurpose it! I've started ripping out the stitching that connects the ribbed top from the plaid skirt. I'm going to use some of the unstained ribbing to make a waistband and make a skirt for my middle daughter. It should turn out really cute and I like being able to keep using it instead of just tossing it.

Well, here is the last picture. It is of the skirt I repurposed and my daughter actually wearing it. When I finish projects and take pics of them it is usually very late at night so no one gets to model them. I wanted to show that it actually fits her. lol

Until the next project!

Repurposing

Quite a few months ago I found 2 pairs of very large jeans for 99Cents each. My mind was whirling with the possibilities that these jeans could be made into. I've finally repurposed one pair into a peasant skirt for my oldest.

I love how it turned out!! I used a peasant skirt she already has to make the denim one. It should have been done a long time ago but that last layer with all the gathers looked so daunting. I buckled down to get it done tonight and it's finished!

What are some things you've repurposed?