Thursday, April 29, 2010

more shirring goodness - shirred summer dress

I had this almost-perfectly rectangular piece of remnant from a yard of fabric I bought long ago to embellish burp cloths, and I thought it would be perfect for trying out a shirred dress from scratch. Boo is in need of summery clothes, and dresses are great for our potty learning experience right now, so I whipped this dress up soooo fast. I also did my first blind hem on my machine, and it worked out great, too! It's a little big on her yet, but it works, AND it means it will likely fit her next summer too. Overall, I love the colors on her, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

twirly - tee shirt and adult skirt to girls dress

This is a dress I made for Sweet a few weeks ago out of a stretched-out, too-short, hand-me-down tee + the stripes from some worn-out, hand-me-down Adidas pants + a second-hand skirt I never wore. Sweet LOVES it because it's 'twirly'. This is the dress she begs to wear every day, even though I don't think it was my best effort. It's difficult to predict these things!


Monday, April 19, 2010

in love with elastic thread - adult tee shirt to girls summer dress

After being intimidated by it for some time, and after a frustrating first-go, I've conquered, and consequently fallen in love with, elastic thread. Once I figured out that my machine has a unique stitch for shirring, I was all set.

I've been waiting for warmer weather to make this colorful tie-dye tee into a dress for Sweet (my almost-4-year-old), a la made. Genius idea for which I cannot take credit, but I love the result.

It did take me a few days to convince Sweet to wear said dress. She was sure it was "tickly," in spite of the fact that she hadn't tried it on. But, finally, one day, when it was her idea, she wore it. Phew!


Sunday, April 18, 2010

what happened here??

So, I've decided to dedicate this blogspace to my crafting. You'll find the rest of our family news and fun at our new address, here. Sorry if I confused you!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Easter dresses

I've missed out on posting a lot of fun stuff on here, but I wanted to at least make a point to post the dresses I made for the girls to wear on Easter Sunday. I actually went to JoAnn fabric store and BOUGHT brand new fabric for these. I intended to also buy patterns, thinking perhaps I could learn something if I tried to follow a pattern. However, patterns that involve anything complex are ridiculously expensive, and I just couldn't do it. So, after perusing my favorite blogs and googling everything I could think of, I made these dresses, using several brand new techniques...and, hey, I did learn a few things (or a LOT) by the end!




tutorials that inspired me: