Sewing with Sheets - New Valentines Outfit

I had so much fun making my daughter an outfit for Valentines Day this week.  Surprisingly she was very willing to model it for some pictures too.

I didn't purchase anything to make the outfit.  I used embellishments, a stained shirt, and two bed sheets! 

We recently upgraded my daughter's bed and were left with a pantry full of cute toddler sheets.  Last week I came across the sheets and knew I could turn them into something fun.

I picked two sheets to use for the skirt and ruffled heart on the shirt.

The sheets were fitted so I started by cutting off the elastic.

I didn't have a pattern but cut pieces for a very simply (very very simple) skirt.  The dotted fabric made perfect little pockets on the front of the skirt.

I sewed the two skirt pieces together, hemmed the bottom, and sewed in elastic.

The pockets were dressed up by a couple of hearts.

The shirt was really easy to make.  Instead of using a new shirt or making my own I used my daughter's stained owl shirt.  She has outgrown the sleeves but the length of the shirt is still okay.  The cotton made it easy to alter the sleeves - just cut them off!  No hemming was necessary.

I made a heart template that would fit over the owl and stain.  I traced the heart directly onto the shirt and cut it out.

Next I cut strips of fabric from the sheets and changed the tension on my sewing machine to make ruffles.  If anyone is interested, my birthday is at the end of the month and I really really want a ruffler foot for my Singer sewing machine!

Adding the ruffled heart to the shirt was time consuming, but not difficult.  First I cut a heart out of white cotton fabric to serve as a base.  Next I pinned the ruffles directly onto the heart, sewed around the heart edges, stitched directly down the center of each ruffle, and then trimmed the edges.

Finally, sew your heart in the shirt.  Stitch around the edges of the heart opening on the shirt with the ruffled heart behind it.

I added a few embellishments to the shirt when I was finished.

My daughter had so much fun wearing her new skirt and shirt yesterday!

This project cost nothing and I still have plenty of sheets for more sewing fun!

I'm linking this post here.

 

Turkey Ribbon Shirt

Do you have any ribbon scraps lying around? You know the end of the spool that just isn't long enough for anything else? Well here is a festive solution to this problem.

Turkey ribbon shirts. You can use any ribbon you have to make these shirts. All you need is a t-shirt, some brown fabric (felt, corduroy, minky, etc), wonder under, buttons, and ribbon scraps.

Start by cutting our your turkey body shape from the fabric and wonder under. Apply the wonder under to the fabric then iron on the fabric to the shirt but only the bottom half of the turkey body. Then cut your ribbons to make loops (mine where about 4 inches long). Place your loops around the turkey head and iron the remainder of the turkey body down. Then add your buttons for eyes.
* I like to zig zag around the entire body just to hold it in place.

I made one for my daughter last year and another one this year because this shirt will never go out of style.

Scrappy tutu-Wowzer Wednesday

If you are like me you have tons of scrap fabric. LOADS of them. I have an entire bind full of just scraps. Why do I keep them? Because I think I'll use them for something and honestly a part of me just can't throw them out. There are a lot of crafts out there that use your extra scraps but I never seem to make any of them because lets face it there are SOO many crafts and projects I want to do.

Then I got a great idea (again on Pinterest). Scrap tutu. Instead of tulle use your scraps. EXCELLENT! It took me about 3o min from start to finish and I love it. Elizabeth received so many compliments today on her fun skirt.

Okay here is how I made it. I cut my scraps 3 inch wide and 22 inch long. Now most of my scraps were not this long so I tied two strips together which makes a cute knot at the waist. Then I made a circle out of some thick elastic (at least 1 inch) that measured my daughter's waist. Finally I just looped the strips around the elastic pulling it tight underneath the elastic. I added a few ribbons just for fun and a bow to the front. I finished it off by trimming the scrap pieces to the length I liked on her and cut some of them at diagonals or points.








My only complaint is that the scraps get a little stringy with no hemming. I just trim them up when the fabric frays too much. I think you could fix this problem by using pinking shears which would make the scraps look super cute. Easy no sew project that your daughter will love.

"When Pigs Fly..." party shirt

I was really excited when Jessica asked me to make Elizabeth's pig party shirt last week.  The pig theme sounded like so much fun and I couldn't wait to paint a flying pig on the shirt!  I'm really happy with how it turned out and from Jessica's post yesterday, it looks like Elizabeth loved it too.

I started with foam stamps, fabric paint, and white cotton fabric to create the wording.

I carefully stamped the letters onto the fabric.

While the letters were drying I started working on my flying pig.  I had a hard time creating an image myself.  I borrowed something from an Etsy page that I can't find again.  I made the shirt really late and I thought I had saved the link.  I feel horrible for not linking back to the artist.  If you know the source to this cute piggie, please email me! 

I printed the image and then used a black marker to trace the lines.

I put the paper directly under the fabric and traced the pig with a fabric marker.

I used fabric markers to make the lines darker and then added some rosy cheeks.  Then I ironed both fabric pieces onto fusible backing and attached them to the shirt.

I stitched around the patches, added some rhinestones, and went to the post office with Elizabeth's birthday package the next day.  Such a cute little party girl in her new shirt!

 

Country Chic Cottage

Have you seen The Beach Bash going on at Country Chic Cottage yet? If you haven't please go and see all the great beach related posts from now through July 20th.

OH YEAH and it just so happens that my post for the Bash is today! YAY!

I will do a tutorial on this next week but please go check it out now.

Cleaning out the closet...Toddler Dress Refashion

Early last week I cleaned out my daughter's closet. We had a lot of really cute tops that were just a few inches too short. I also found quite a few dresses that could still be worn with a couple of inches added to the length. I cut and altered all of the salvageable items and turned them into dresses for my daughter.

This dress was about six inches shorter than I preferred. Remember that my daughter is finishing up with potty training and does really well wearing dresses. I am weird about her wearing dresses that show her bottom so I always have her in longer styles. She is tall and skinny so most things in her size need to be altered. This dress would probably still be okay with leggings but I decided to turn it into a different dress.

I used a bright pink tank that was also too short for the top of the new dress.
I thought it looked mismatched so I added a rosette from the leftover dress fabric. Perfect....

...except that it was still a few inches shorter than I preferred. I added a ruffle to the bottom using leftover fabric from the tank.

My daughter loved it but it took a lot to get any pictures of her wearing it. She was too busy stringing herself a beaded necklace.

 

Toddler Twirly Dress Fail and Redemption

We are finishing up with potty training our two year old daughter. We are very very close to being completely done. The problem I've ran into is that she has accidents when wearing pants or leggings but has yet to have a public accident while wearing a skirt or dress. Obviously as a result she has been wearing skirts and dresses everywhere. I recently purchased this dress from Lil Blue Boo. I made the mistake of telling my daughter it was her "big girl dress" and she had to wear panties with it when we ripped open the package the minute it arrived (can you tell I was SUPER excited for it to arrive?). I waited to buy our first Lil Blue Boo dress until I thought my daughter would really appreciate and love it. Good news - my daughter is now the biggest Lil Blue Boo fan! Unfortunately she now refers to this dress as her "big girl dress" and pretty much refuses to get dressed unless she can wear it (or is offered a major award for picking out something else from her closet). When the dress gets dirty, she marches it to the laundry room and demands I put it in the washing machine. Clearly this is a problem. Deep down I'm absolutely thrilled she has a Lil Blue Boo crush like her mommy (me) but seriously, this could get expensive! Yesterday I decided I could make a twirly dress and tell my daughter it was just like her "big girl dress." That little plan didn't work out so well.

I started with an old shirt that clearly does not fit. It needed to get out of my closet before I convinced myself I could wear a huge shirt with a belt and look fashionable.


Yikes, that shirt was terrible. Along with an old green t-shirt, I cut out my dress pieces.


I sewed everything together and ended up with this:



That picture doesn't show the true terribleness (just looked it up, that is a word) of the dress. I didn't want to bother with hemming sleeves so I used the sleeve from the t-shirt. Obviously that wasn't a good option for this project. The sleeves didn't work, the neck was too big, and the length was too long.

I showed it to my daughter and told she had a new "big girl dress." My sassy little girl quickly responded, "that not my big girl dress!" I wrestled her down and forced it on..there may have been some candy bribes throughout that fun process. She hated it and it looked awful. Unfortunately she knew we were supposed to be going to the Ostrich Festival after we were ready so she refused to take off the hidious dress. I finally got the dress back and quickly sewed it to a tank she had hanging in her closet.


Did we end up with a new "big girl dress?" No. It wasn't what I had envisioned but ultimately we ended up with a little twirly dress that my daughter actually agreed to wear. She put it on and we were off to the Ostrich Festival for some fun.


I should add that I recently purchased some patterns from Lil Blue Boo and I can't wait to sew something!!