Repurpose a pilly tee

Do you have one of these shirts? The ones you buy at Target and just love because they are soft and comfy and only $8. I have a bunch. They are a staple in my mommy wardrobe. But when you wear and wash an $8 tee, it starts to get pilly after awhile. Which is to be expected because what do you expect for $8, but still a little discouraging all the same.

I hate throwing things out. Well, actually I love throwing things out since I hate clutter, but I hate throwing out something if it can be useful. Especially my old favorite tee. It's like a good friend that has seen me through many a mommy catastrophe. And I just love the gray and white stripes! I decided to repurpose it somehow.

I peaked inside the tee. See that fabric in there? It's perfectly pill free! Who knew?

I cut the shirt into two pieces so that I could use it to cut out a tunic for Gracie girl. I just turned the fabric over, so that what used to be the inside of the shirt was now the outside of the tunic.

And then I cut out my pattern and sewed up the tunic. 

I used some light pink knit from my stash, because I am just loving gray and pink as a color combo right now. But this woman's size small tee was plenty big enough to make a complete size 2T shirt.

If you want a great tutorial for making a raglan shirt, I used this tutorial from Craftiness is not Optional. It's a great one!
I just lengthened it a bit so it would fit more like a tunic and last a little longer for little miss perpetual growth spurt.

I added a bow at the collar. It hides the seam where I sewed the neckline together, and looks cute to boot. :)

Now Gracie has a soft and comfy new tunic, which actually looks new! 

And it was free.
Free is good!

A Victorian Valentine's

This weeks theme for the Project Run & Play's Sew Along Challenge is a Valentine's outfit. And when I thought about what my outfit would be, I kept drifting towards the Victorian era...fancy dresses, lots of lace, fur coats, cupids on doily hearts.

When I spotted a roll of light pink stretch lace in the remnant bin at Joann, it was a done deal. So I made a modern and more playful take on a Victorian inspired outfit....

First let's talk about the dress! I sewed up a City Dress, using a pattern by Too Sweets Etsy shop. This is one of my absolute favorite dresses. The drop waist is just darling on little girls with a too cute belly like my little girl's. It's a cute and comfy dress made with stretchy knit, so it has a t shirt feel, but with much more style and cuteness factor. I highly recommend you pop over to Too Sweets and snag a pattern up for yourself!

To get the lace overlay look, I cut out 2 of each pattern piece, one with the lace, one with the plain pink knit. And then I just sewed the dress as though the two pieces were really one piece. It took a little bit of extra time to ensure that all the pieces lined up, but overall it was fairly simple.

The collar and sleeves are finished with knit bias and I used a zig-zag stitch around them both to add a little detail. {I learned this tip from another blogger I found through PR&P, but now can't find my link to them. :( Let me know if it's you!}

And to ensure the dress kept a youthful feel, I added this handmade polka dot fabric bow to the drop waistline. It may be my favorite part!

Or maybe my favorite part is the faux fur capelette? 

I mean really, who doesn't love a ridiculously cute but ridiculously impractical piece of children's clothing? I actually had this "faux fur" fabric in my sewing room from who knows what project. But there it was so I couldn't resist. 

I drew up the pattern myself using the dress as a guide for the neckline and length. I lined it with the pink polka dot, and added pink bias tape ties to the top.

And last but not least, I made some lace trimmed leggings to complete the outfit.

I just made white knit leggings and added a band of the stretchy lace to the bottom. And you can see that I tried to complete the outfit with a pair of sparkly mary janes. Because clearly nothing says Victorian more than glitter.

Apparently Gracie disagreed, because she wouldn't keep the shoes on.

But I think the rest of the outfit was a win...

Because a cute AND comfy fancy Valentine's dress? That's right up this busy little girls alley!

Now if you'll excuse her, she's going to go figure out what's inside that box...

Don't forget to check out this weeks link party!

Friday Firsts

Tonight will be Gracie's first night with a babysitter. Cue the "hallelujah" chorus behind me!

I love this little girl, but I love her daddy as well. And I am pretty excited for a dinner out with just him.

So to ease the blow for her, I made her a new shirt.

I don't think she sees this as a fair exchange. 

But I just love this heart print knit. I bought it to make infinity scarves for my shop, which sold out faster than I could sew them, so I guess others must have loved the print too! I had enough of a scrap left, which was destined to be a comfy new tee for my little miss. The cuffs and the collar I cut from an old ribbed tank.

I'm not sure what it is about a chunky toddler in a soft and cozy tee. But its pretty irresistible!

Maybe its the big belly? The chubby little baby hands? Mmmm. Just makes me want to snuggle her up.

Which I think I will get back to, because she will probably appreciate that more than a new shirt. ;)

Have a great weekend all! 
And don't forget to enter my "Share the Love" giveaway! You can find that post here!

Sew Along Challenge, Week 1

Week 1 of the Project Run & Play challenge is here! If you are following me on Facebook, you know that I have decided to join in the 6 week Sew Along challenge. (You can read all about the challenge here!) This weeks challenge was to "remix" or remake a garment using this Party Dress pattern from the Cottage Home.

So I have to say that I absolutely adore this style of dress. Big ol' sashes and bows on little girls are my weakness. How much cuter does it get? But when the word "remix" came into play, I decided to step outside of my oh so comfortable and cozy box. I don't do this very often. But I figured that since this was a challenge, I would challenge myself! 

I was walking through a kids clothing store the other day, and found the most adorable little bright pink trench coat. But the price was not so adorable nor little. So I passed. But when I started thinking about how I could remix the party dress, the adorable little bright pink trench coat came back to my mind. It was a eureka moment, if I ever have anything remotely close to those.

And so this little "trench-inspired" coat was born from a little remixing of the Party Dress pattern.

I was a little nervous to start this project. For the following reasons: 1, I am a pretty good pattern follower, but NOT a very good pattern maker, and in order to do a coat I would have to add sleeves myself. Eeek! and 2, if my attempts at reason #1 went astray, I would waste this darling Sarah Jane Anchor fabric. Double eek! 

But as you can see, it kind of worked out. 

 The outer fabric is from Sarah Jane's Out to Sea line, which I bought a few months ago and have been hanging onto because I just adore it and couldn't decide what to make out of it! I was happy to finally pull these little anchors off the shelf and bring them to life. Since it's still chilly here in PA, I lined the coat with navy blue fleece.

Other than the anchors, the colors (which were my wedding colors!), I think the little bow I added to the back may be my favorite part. 

I basically constructed the coat the same as the original dress pattern, but I made it backwards, so the opening was in the front. I used top stitching along the way because I think it made the coat look more professional. And of course I added sleeves. Which wasn't as tricky as I originally thought. 

I also added a few details to make it look more like a coat and less like a dress, like the fleece mock collar and these little cuff loops. I think I might have just made that term up. Anyone know what to call these? White buttons add details to the cuffs as well as keep the coat closed.

I think she likes it! I think I do too! Thanks for sharing this project with me!  

Looking forward to next week...Stripes and Polka dots. Two of my favorite prints! 

I already have my dress for next week made...but you'll have to wait til next week to see :)

Sweater & pattern refashions

Even though we are approaching spring here in PA, it's still chilly enough for cozy sweaters. Gracie needed a few warmer clothes to get her through till the warm weather shows up, since she of course basically outgrew everything in her closet over night. So I whipped her up this little cutie:

I love a good refashion. I mean, who doesn't? It's free. I like free. So I went "shopping" in my own closet and found a turtleneck sweater that I never wore anymore. It never really fit all that great to begin with so I was happy to chop it up!

Using my "lil blue boo sienna dress" pattern, I took that worn out sweater and turned it into this little sweater.

I think it's sometimes overlooked that you can take a pattern and alter it just slightly to fit what you desire. Here I shortened the dress pattern and cut the sides straight down instead of angled out. It was a super simple adjustment and I didn't have to buy a whole new pattern. I guess you could call it refashioning a pattern to refashion a sweater? A confusing way to say, use whatcha got!

I used the bottom hem of the sweater and sleeves when cutting out the pattern, and used a portion of the neck from the original sweater. This saves so much time and keeps your refashioned sweater looking much more professional.

And to avoid hearing "Oh, how old is your little boy" one more time in the grocery store, I added a little bow with a strip of sweater. 

Since I have used the sienna dress pattern so many times, I was able to whip up this little sweater during Gracie's nap time AND have time leftover to waste with a diet coke and Pinterest. Win! 

Have a great day everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

May you give & receive as much love today as the other 364 days of the year...

I'll be covering my little Valentine with lots of extra hugs & kisses today!

Hope everyone has a lovely day! :)

And they wonder where I get it from...

Packages on your door step are one of life's great little pleasures.

Especially when they are wrapped in pretty red paper and tied with a sparkly bow.

And you get to tear open the paper..

But the best part about pretty red packages arriving on your door step is when it is made by your Grammie!

The next best part is probably the crinkly tissue paper inside.

mmmmm...YUM.

But back to those new Valentine's outfits that Grammie made...

Can it get any cuter than a hot pink leopard & zebra dress? Maybe if you add a matching bib!

Or if you put that hot pink outfit on this little girl. She sure ups the cuteness factor! (But I'm a little biased...)

She also got a heart long sleeved tee.

Comfy & cozy. Perfect for playing with our newfound love...toes!

We sure did  love our pretty red Valentine's package! But come on, hot pink, zebra, leopard, hearts...what's not to love?!

 Kind of makes a girl want to shout out loud. "Thanks, Grammie!"

(Mama sure loved it too. Thanks Mom!)