Scrappy Skirt (for kids) - In About an Hour

My 5 year old niece asked me to make her a skirt. I had a good amount of fabric to choose from, but she went for this which was really not much more than a scrap:

Not quite enough for a skirt -- even for a 5 year old.

But, it had kitties on it so she was not changing her mind.

I reached for my trusty white sheet (which has served me well providing practice material for a skirt with a zipper, and as a pattern for my rounded collar shirt.)

I decided to do a paneled look skirt with a draw-string waist. To start, I cut the kitty fabric in half and cut the same sized pieces from the white sheet. Then, with right sides facing, I sewed the kitty fabric to the white fabric to create one long piece.

Right sides facing.

Now we have enough to make a skirt. I trimmed that bottom so it was all even.

I folded the top over twice and stitched it down to create a tube for my drawstring.

This drawstring requires 2 pulls -- one on each side. Here's the tutorial I based this on -- I've made these drawstring bags several times now and I love them. If you follow the tutorial above, you won't need my instructions below -- I did it her way and it was good, but I redid it because I wanted to move my drawstrings and need to improvise.

Once it's sewn, find the middle of the side -- this is where your drawstrings will come out. Snip a little hole in the fabric to thread your drawstring through. I used a satin ribbon and a large safety pin to thread it. Once that's done, snip a hole on the other side and do the same thing.

Thread the ribbon through the casing.

In one side, out the other. Repeat.

Now, you don't want those ribbons to get pulled back into the skirt, so you should tie the ends off. I added a large wooden bead 'cause I happen to have them in my draw o' stuff. So, the skirt is now adjustable in size around the waist -- just pull the ribbons and there you go.

Oh yeah -- I hemmed the bottom and gave it a good press all around and here's my cute scrappy skirt for my niece -- I'll try to get a pic of her actually wearing it next week:

It's Kitty Cute!

Rick-Rack Paddy Wack

There's not much to say about this one -- it was too easy. It's your basic skirt to dress refashion, but in this case, the waist of the skirt wasn't elastic, so I had to open it up a bit to make it fit around my chest.

Here's the skirt as purchased:

$6.99 -- not too bad, it's a good quality Talbots skirt.

One side has a zipper, so I left that partially unzipped, and on this side, I opened the seam to match. This gave me the breathing room I needed.

I tucked in the sides a bit at a angle, otherwise, the top would go straight across -- that would be weird. The only matching material I had for straps was this rick rack so it would have to do for now. Not my favorite, but I wanted to wear this dress right away.

I sewed up those hems around what are now the arm holes and was all set.

I couldn't find my camera so had to settle for an iPod photo. I'll do better next time.

Before and After - easy-peasy.

Fun with shoes! Yep, refashioned shoes.

I'm not a big shoe girl. I stick with the basics, black heels, brown heels and none of these deviate too far from the penny loafer style I grew up wearing.

Last year, I saw that someone posted about painting old shoes to make them new again. So I gave it a shot. I started with these fine, but typical for me, shoes.

Not bad, but how many pairs of black heeled-loafers do I need?

 I didn't go in with a plan, but I had some pale pink spray paint that I could use. I covered the heels and the buckle with newspaper to keep them black.

Taped and papered.

  And I sprayed pained them. This is how they looked:

 Not bad, but I went back and pained the heels and the buckle too.

Painted and ready to go.

However...I wore them once and it was a disaster. The paint got all crackly where the shoes bend as I walk -- across the top part, highly visible.

Not the look I'm going for.

So, back to the refashion drawing board - I decided to decoupage with fabric. I mean, they couldn't get worse, right? I used newspaper to make a pattern for each section of my shoe -- one for each side, plus the top. I used the paper pattern to cut out the fabric and I used Mod Podge to glue the fabric to my shoe.

Newspaper pattern.

Mod Podge and a foam brush.

There's a seam in the back, it's hardly visible.

I left the heels pink just for fun, but I used nail polish to color the buckle, 'cause the pink didn't really work. Now I have a new pair of non-black/non-brown shoes. I have worn these twice with no problems -- no fraying, no cracking, etc. I will definitely do this again.

When a Refashion Fails

Not every refashion is a win. The bummer of it is, sometimes you don't even realize until the very end, after you've spent nearly 3 hours in your un-air-conditioned sewing room where it's 87 degrees and all along you think you've got a winner on your dress form. Here's the story:

At a glance, you might think this was a win...it's not.

I bought this plan blue dress several months ago and set it aside after taking a few inches off the bottom. It has a matching belt, but I'm not sure where I put it.

Meh. I dig the neckline though.

Because it's so hot, I figured those sleeves had to go. I also wanted to do something interesting with the back, maybe a conservative racer-back, just slightly cut-in, so I chopped away and then turned the dress inside out on my dress form. That's when I saw this:

What's this I see around the neckline? Something I can use as a round collar, I think.

I dig that look of dress or tops with a round collar. So I decided that's what I'd do with this piece of materials. I started to take it off using a seam ripper but that was taking too long so I just yanked it off.

Don't worry, this will be on the inside.

Next, I cleaned up those frayed edged by rehemming all along my new collar. Then, I pinned it on the wrong side of the dress, around the neck line. That way, when flipped to the correct side, those seams would be invisible. (See...even with a fail, I learn or practice a new trick.)

Then, I just sewed that in place and turned the dress right-side out and back on the dress form. My technique of ripping left some frayed edges visible, so I pinned the collar in such a way so that my top-stitching would hide that.

Unsightly frayed edges.

Top-stitched and back on the form.

Nearly finished...or so I thought.

Now, when I see it in pictures, it's totally obvious that the arm holes are too big. And the dress needs to be taken in on the sides. Why I didn't see this from the get-go, I'm not sure. See, when I cut off the sleeves I was a bit too ambitious. This left the sides of the dress gaping. You can see that in the picture above. I didn't see, and I thought, "This dress is adorable!" So I put it on. There are no pictures of this because I was a sweaty mess.  But I pinned where the dress needed to be taken in and tried to tighten up the sleeve hole.

ALSO, while the neckline looks cute on the dress form, it didn't work in reality. The "straps" were too wide. The collar should extend past the sleeve part. So, back to the machine, I narrowed the sleeve area so the collar went past the edge.

Narrower arms so the collar extends past.

The arm holes are still such that I think I run the risk of -- side-boob!! EWWWW.

No one wants to see side-boob. Well, I don't.

I also don't like the way it hangs on me. So that's that. I didn't throw it out though. I'm not 100% giving up on this, but I don't think it will serve it's final days as a dress. Maybe a casual top. We'll see.

Old Shirt to New Shirt - A New Favorite

So, still reeling from my unsuccessful shopping trip, I hit Pinterest for refashioning inspiration. I came across one for refashioning a collared-button down into a cute summer top. Love it! So easy, required very little sewing and hardly any precision (thank goodness).

Charles had just added some stuff to our Goodwill donation bag, but I wasn't feeling the brown checkers that his shirts afforded me. So, off to my own closet, where I knew I had a shirt that I hadn't worn in years, but for some reason never got rid of.  Here's the before and after since I didn't take too many pics of the process.

Before: I haven't worn this in years.

Ready to wear again!

I cut off the sleeves first.  Then the collar. With it pinned to my dress form, I cut straight across the front and back. I then pinned over about a inch to make a casing for the ribbon. Below, you can see that I've already sewn the casing and put it back on my dress form.

I reached into my ribbon stash and found just enough cream satin ribbon to complete this refashion. You can use a safety pin to thread the ribbon through the casing, but because for some reason I had one handy in my sewing room, I used a large bobby pin.

So it goes in one side, starting at the front, through the button area, around the back and back to where you started. Here, tie it into a bow, or whatever fashion you prefer.

Tada! That's it. Shirt done. I tried to not bother Charles, who was working, so I took my own pictures.

Uhm, I can't really do a selfie.

But then I bothered him for a normal picture.

This would be cuter if I fixed myself up or something.

Yes, This Time I'm Wearing a Sheet

I went shopping yesterday -- with no success. Gift cards in hand, I hit The Loft, The Gap, and Banana Republic (they are all in a row, I didn't go out of my way.) I spent the most time -- 15 minutes -- in The Loft, bypassing the front of the store and heading right to the sale racks. Even on sale, there was nothing I wanted to spend my money (uh, gift cards) on. Worse luck in the other two stores, I headed home and hit my sewing room.

I pulled out this sheet I got at a thrift store last year. $2.99

I wanted to make a circle-neck halter -- I have been wanting to make one for a year now. I only wish I had a pattern, or a shirt to copy, but I didn't and I just dove in.

First, the collar:

Eh, good enough.

Then, I cut out to rectangles of fabric -- no pictures of this. I short of used a t-shirt as a size guide. I angled the sides of the front one for the arm area. Then, I pinned to them to my dress form and pinned in some pleats on the front. 

I added a casing to the back and added elastic to allow me to have some "give" when putting it on and off. It also helps hold it up. 

Here's where it goes downhill and is a lesson in planning in advance.

Mistake 1: I wish I had thought ahead about how I wanted the back of the halter collar to look. I thought I could make another half-circle, but then I realized I wouldn't get it over my head. I grabbed an old necklace -- white beads -- to see if I could use it somehow. Nah.

So, I added straps down the back, because I really wanted to keep that neckline in the front.

The other problem -- when I took it off the dress form and tried it on, the back was way too low -- side-boob may work for Miley Cyrus, but not on me. I had to rip out the seams on each side and redo them to bring up the back.

Lots of extra fabric -- the problem with not measuring.

This shirt is full of flaws. The neckline is crooked, the fit isn't great. But hey - it was a $2.99 sheet; I still have lots left to make something else. And I'd probably wear this to Farmer's Market, or around the house on a weekend. Not too bad. Oh - I think I'll add 2 little pockets to the bottom front. That might be cute.

Sunglasses inside 'cause I look like crappy-crap.