sweater refashion

I am the oldest of my siblings, which means I didn't get many hand-me-downs.  Last month, however, my mom went through her closet and passed on this sweater.

Cute, right?  I think so.

But I was in the mood to refashion, and wanted a cardigan instead.  So, I chopped and sewed and this is what I came up with.

I cut the band off the bottom, shortened the bodice by 3 inches, and put the band back on the bottom. 

I then used the fabric I cut out to make a binding for where the front pieces meet each other in the middle.

I finished it all off with a button and a loop.

I'm not sure which way I like it better, but if for nothing else, this was a good project to get me sewing again.

Linked to:

coming home from the hospital - boy

This is the first baby that we haven't known the gender, and this is also the first baby that I've been bold enough to trust my own two hands to make the little bundle an outfit to come home in . . . or 4.

"Why four?" you ask?

Well, because we didn't know the gender, and each of our babies has gotten bigger than its previous sibling, with our youngest weighing in at 9 lbs 2 ozs (which is why I also opted for my first epidural, people.)  So, I took with me to the hospital two outfits for a boy, and two outfits for a girl (one each in newborn size and 0-3 month size.)

I finished up the boy outfits and was completely in love with them!
 

From the get-go, I wanted to applique a tie onto a white shirt, which I was able to whip out quickly. 


The pants were a little trickier for me to settle on a design I liked.  Finally, I decided to use (Simplicity 5534 - out of print), except that I wanted a flat front.


I wasn't exactly sure how much to take out of the front pieces, so imagine my relief when Dana at Made posted a tutorial for flat front pants during her Celebrate the Boy!!  I still used (Simplicity 5534), but I altered the front pieces the same way Dana altered hers for the flat look.

So, the pants for my baby boy are brown corduroy with a flat front . . .

and an elastic back!

cold weather fix

Rora was given two cute Warhol Dresses for her birthday by Vivian from Craft with Confidence.

Unfortunately, when it's 20 degrees outside, and this time of year,:

this just isn't going to fly:

because it's a little chilly:

So, how do you fix that?  With a 90 Minute Shirt (and a pair of jeans or tights!):

Suddenly, we're dressed for anything!

Thanks Dana and Vivian for outfitting my little girl!

men's shirt . . . uh, shirt

I mentioned making Rora several tops for her birthday.  I loved the shirt dresses I made for her, and she practically spent her whole summer in them, but they're too small now, they're not great for fall/winter fashion, and Rora's getting a little too tall to be able to make new ones from a men's shirt because I can't make them long enough.

So here's my compromise:

I used the pattern I had made from Dana's Men's Shirt Dresses, except I narrowed the bottom, and made it shorter so that it was a long top instead of a dress.

I eliminated the contrasting waistband and instead used two loops and a thin tie for the middle.


**Tip:  If I've learned anything from making Dana's Shirt Dresses and these new Men's Shirt Tops, it's that you want to pick out shirts with some kind of pattern or texture.  Plain, one-colored shirts look pretty flat when compared to a shirt with plaids, stripes, or some kind of texture (like a red-on-red pin stripe.)  Remember that you are making this for a little girl, not your husband, so sometimes the most ridiculous looking men's dress shirts make the cutest little girl tops/dresses.**

Disclaimer:  It was windy the day we took the pictures of this shirt, so please excuse the weird faces,

the flyaway hair,

and the apparent frustration!

dana's 90 minute shirt

Besides sewing along with Jill, I have several projects in the works.

Rora's birthday is this Saturday, and she is in desperate need of some new clothes!  She outgrew all of her 3T clothes about a month ago, and I've been trying to stretch her out until her birthday.  My sister, Vivian is contributing to the new wardrobe, and I've been sewing like crazy with more projects on the way!

Yesterday, I made one of Dana's 90 Minute Shirts.  This being my very first one, it took me about 2 hours to complete (not including making the pattern.)

I loved how it turned out, but I think it might need some embellishing.

Now, back to my stack of sewing projects to outfit my little girl!

attractively bunchy (mccall's 6034)

My friend, Sarah of Sew Saucy turned me onto leggings last year, and I have fallen hard for them. For the Disneyland trip, I wanted to look cute, so I decided to attempt sewing something for myself again. I picked out this pattern, but decided it needed a few alterations, so here's what I did:



I wanted the main body for view A:

except with the collar/sleeve line from view B:

with the band on the bottom of view C (I have a thing about having my bum covered while wearing leggings:)

I've got to be honest. The alterations were not easy, and I don't even know how I would go about a tutorial for them, or even duplicating them, but I love the end result!

**One word of warning for view A . . . there are pleats in the back which tend to accentuate a girl's rear end. I wasn't that worried about it since I have kind of a flat rear end, but it would definitely be something to be aware of should you decide to make that top.**

shapelessly cute (simplicity 3790)

I thought this shirt was so cute, and it looked like something that would be super comfy in a stretch knit fabric, so I was excited to make it.

Unfortunately, I have this problem making clothing for myself . . . I never look as good in it as I think I'm going to, and it ends up being discarded. Well, this time I'm happy to say that I ended up liking this shirt, and I've worn it a few times since I finished it, but that wasn't without some opposition. The story is fairly entertaining, so if you scroll down past the picture, I've related it there!


I made one major alteration to the pattern. This pattern calls for you to make the insert and attach it to the shirt, but I wanted the freedom of being able to wear several different colors/styles of shirt underneath, so I opted to simply not make that part. Without that piece, this shirt was 5 pieces, and a breeze to make!

Enjoy!

(Admittedly, I need a new belt, so please don't hold that "design flaw" against Simplicity.)

After I finished making this shirt, I took it into the bathroom to try it on. I couldn't decide whether or not I like it, and my husband wasn't around to ask what he thought, so I decided to ask my kids, who are 6, 4, and 2 years old.

"What do you think?" I asked.

Without even looking up from his toys, or turning to face me, Samuel (6) said, "Looks good."

Rora (2) and Xavier (4) then followed his lead (despite the fact that he still had not looked at me,) "Yeah, looks good!" they said.

"You didn't even look at me!" I accused.

Samuel then turned and looked at me, "Oh." (Long pause,) "Is it for Dad?"

"No," I said defensively, "it's not."

"Is it done?" he asked.

I guess men learn these honest, yet tactless responses early!!