Friday, August 26, 2011

car seat covers / tents / blankets ...

These are the car seat covers I've started making...the below three were actually for CLIENTS--which I acquired by word of mouth only! Quite fun...I have had a few requests this summer and have made a little bit of cash! It feels good to contribute some to the household income, especially since sewing is so FUN. So...let me know if I can make one of these for you or a friend!





Thursday, June 2, 2011

from bedskirt to pretty skirt

I love love love the bedding in the girls' room (bear with me, here...I promise I have a point). First of all, it was it EXTREMELY inexpensive (~$7 on final clearance at Bed Bath & Beyond for the whole set: comforter, sham, and bedskirt). The colors are perfect, and the print is so fab.

Because it was so inexpensive, I bought three sets. The comforter has this mesh overlay that I knew would tear easily (I was right), so I thought it prudent to have an extra. However, that left me with and extra bedskirt...hmm...

And here you have the resulting skirt with matching applique tee for Rachel.

Carly got a sweet little shirred dress. the jumbo ric rac is the perfect accent, methinks. (thanks Jarrad for the ric rac idea...10 bonus daddy points to you.)

ready to wear..

It's fun to match!


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

i love stripes - birthday shirt and a refashion

For our 5-year-old friend, Noah:


For Sweet...the pink stripey shirt was from a thrift store. It was one of those too-short and too-wide size 5T deals, so I added the navy stripes, cut from an old maternity shirt. I cut it in a circle, added a rolled hem, and then did a double stitch to attach it to the hem of the shirt. I then used the donut hole to add interest to the top. I LOVE how this one turned out!


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Easterwear


I realized that I hadn't made anything for the kiddos from a flat piece of fabric in a long time (I think it was last Easter, actually). Last year, I mishmashed lots (and lots) of tutorials read over the course of a couple of weeks to create the pattern for each of the girls' dresses. I liked that their dresses were the same fabric, but different patterns, so they were matchy matchy without looking uniform. This year, however, I did not spend that kind of time trying to do everything truly from scratch. While I did make my own pattern, I followed an amazing tutorial/sew-along, and I made both dresses identical, enabling a bit of an assembly line approach (much needed, being that my time and my brainspace both feel significantly more limited these days). I was intensely careful and detailed with my work this time, too, and I am happy to say that I am as proud of the inside of these dresses as I am of the outside. I finished all my seams with my awesome serger, and I picked out every seam that didn't come out looking [nearly] perfect. I loved doing a puffy sleeve for the first time, AND making/using bias tape for the first time. At the end, I decided to add the bows (which I safety pinned on so I can remove for washing). All in all, I was a proud mommy seeing my girls march along in their matching dresses (which they LOVED). Oh, and did I mention that a friend of mine GAVE me this fabric?!? Yeah, she did, and it is oh-so-perfectly Easter.


Once I finished the dresses, it was on to my little man. No pink for him. I could not even think of using either of the fabrics to make even a tie. So I went shopping, and found the perfect onesie in the perfect shade of green, and I had a most-perfect accent fabric in my closet, from which I created a tie applique. I wanted linen pants, but didn't have enough linen in the closet to work it (just one small shirt to use), so I used an old dress of mine that was linen-like, and I cut and sewed his pants out of that. (Please forgive the crummy phone picture.)

He was thrilled (haha)...


Monday, April 11, 2011

45-minute Sunday sweater

Sweet has been wanting to wear this one particular dress in her closet, but it is always too cold on Sunday morning for her to wear without a sweater. Unfortunately, the colors in the dress don't match anything she has to wear over it, and I kind of like her to match, at least when she's dressed pretty. I feel like she looks not-well-cared-for when her clothes don't match. Anyway, I felt badly about having to always say "no" to that dress, which was a gift from a friend, who is dying to see her in it and who never has, because, well...see above. So Saturday night, after saying "no" again, I decided to try my hand at remaking a hand-me-down sweater in my upcycle closet.

It started as an adult ladies turtleneck sweater. I used one of her jackets for sizing and cut the bodice, keeping the side seams intact. Then I cut up the middle of the front so that the sweater would open like a jacket. I cut the sleeves down to fit her 5T arms and then sewed them right into the new armholes. I looked at it and thought it was awfully boring, so I proceeded to shape it bolero-style by cutting up from the bottom front corners, up and around the back (hoping for it to fall right under her shoulder blades). It's kind of hard to describe, but you can see in the picture. I think it ended up a little higher in the back than would have been best, but I still like it. Anyway, because it is a true sweater (albeit a little tighter knit than some sweaters), it was a little ravely and frayish on the edges (I like to make up words), so I used a finishing stitch on my regular sewing machine all the way around, stretching it as I went to create a sort of lettuce effect. I love the intentionally-unfinished look. Finally, I added a pearl snap at the top for closure (why did I wait so long to buy a snap applicator??) and to make it fit right, but I waited until she was awake to do that so I could try it on her.

I didn't get a picture when she was wearing the dress, but here's the sweater. I'm so happy with how it turned out and definitely will be repeating this one. The best part is that it only took about 45 minutes!




Saturday, April 9, 2011

baby shower gift: leg warmers, appliqued onesie, & hair poof

I have been so busy sewing Easter dresses that I barely managed to squeeze in time for a baby shower gift before the party last Saturday. But I made it! The "C" onesie...I still had 2 plain white onesies left from some I had prewashed a few months ago. The purple fabric came from a [terribly hideous] gradient-dyed, pilled, stretched, cheapcheapcheap Juniors t-shirt. I cut the "C" from the weird puffy design around the neckline. When my [wonderful] mom brought me this thrifted shirt, I seriously considered tossing it altogether because I could not imagine how I could possibly use it. But use it I did, and I think it turned out pretty cute! In fact, it kind of bailed me out. Anyway, I also bought these two pairs of knee socks at Walmart for $2 each, and used this tutorial (sort of) to make leg warmers, switching the cuffs to spice it up a bit. Then I made a little poof out of a skinny strip of tulle by gathering it around and hand-sewing it to a piece of elastic. I did end up hot-glueing a piece of felt on the back side, just to finish it off a little better and to make sure it would be comfy for baby Claire. I was very pleased, in the end!


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Valentine's Day fun

I have been looking forward to Sweet getting to an age where she has friends with whom to exchange valentines. She's finally in preschool, so each of her eight special classmates received a handmade, hand decorated valentine from my girl. She put a lot of thought into which button to give to each of her friends, and which colors to use for their names. We had a blast working on it one afternoon, and she was excited to distribute them during her party at school.




I also love hearts, for some reason. So I've been excited to make some cute Valentine duds for the girls. Here's what I cranked out this week!

Sweet's shirt is just a hand-me-down plain pink shirt, to which I appliqued a heart cut from a pair of thrifted heart-printed shorts. (Imagine my dismay when she put it on and it's ALMOST TOO SMALL. Stop growing, child.)

Kaboom's dress started with a thrifted size 3T (a little big, but anyway) striped turtleneck. I added the gathered skirty part from a different pair of thrifted heart shorts (why are those so popular?). The garment looked incomplete, so I opted to add the faux waistband, which is the hem from another small thrifted (and stained) turtleneck, which I cut off and sewed onto the dress. I like the crochet detail on the hem of the striped shirt, so I didn't want to cover that. I really loved the result!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

new clothes for Sweet

I made these two outfits a few weeks ago because Sweet suddenly grew out of everything (and I mean EVERYthing). So I went into my stash of clothes-I-want-to-use-for-something and found this pair of pants I used to wear when I was a working (pre-babies). I love the somewhat sophisticated print, and the fact that they are polyester means they are indestructible--perfect for an active 4-year-old. I easily cut them down and created a pair of pants for Sweet, and then used some of the leftover to embellish one of her plain hand-me-down shirts. Easy. Quick.

This outfit was made entirely out of donations from my mom, who is the thrift queen (no joke). She brings me loads of really fun clothes ready for upcycling. This pair of pants came from an adult-sized pair of velour track pants (really?? yes...) and the shirt was originally just an adult-sized shirt of oh-so-plain styling. i swapped the neck with some of the velour and added the velour heart to tie the pieces together, and I could not be happier with the result (and Sweet loves LOVES this outfit). It must be fun to be 4 years old and be able to get away with such outrageous combinations of prints, eh??