My "Things"...Ha!

Awhile back, my sister-in-law's sister-in-law (say that 3 times fast!), gave us some of her twin boys' old clothes. Included in this stash were 2 "Thing" onesies (you know, Thing 1 & Thing 2 from Cat in the Hat?). Anyways, I almost got rid of both since I don't have twins but then figured that I could do something for the kids with them.

Obviously, I did not have to do anything with Ryan's since he can fit in the onesie. But for Ava, I used the Sienna Dress pattern from Lil Blue Boo (that I have used before and LOVE) to upcycle some old shirts into a dress. I then appliqued the "Thing" onto it. Needless to say, she was very excited and told me all day how she & Ryan were twins. And everyone else that would listen (her teachers, classmates, daddy, etc.)

So here they are, my "Things". Ava is "Thing 1" and Ryan is "Thing 2."

I have such nice, cute "Things" don't I?

Wearing the Onesie

Finally got around to snapping some photos of Ryan in his onesie.  Almost waited too late to put him in this (I forgot I used a Gerber onesie to make the pattern and they run small).  He probably will only get to wear it a handful of times before he grows out of it.  Oh well. 

And then I made Darren put on his new grey shirt with black & white stripes and pose with Ryan in his matching shirt (no, they won't ever do this in public nor would I expect them to).

And btw, I used a 60's filter on these in case you were wondering why the photos looked different.  Just changing it up a bit.

Another Onesie

I finally got around to making another onesie from one of Darren's shirts.  I said when I made the first one, that I would make more so here the second one.  This time I switched it up a bit and added the button panel and used some rib knit on the color and near the snaps.

 I actually made this a few months back but forgot to post about it and at any rate, Ryan was too small for it since I made it based on a Gerber 6 month onesie size.  He actually may be able to fit into now...will have to try it out this weekend to see.

Here is Darren back when he used to wear this shirt.  He actually bought another shirt that is very similar to this one (same color scheme but stripes are slightly different) so maybe I can get the boys to wear them and match?  Ha ha ha!  Not sure if D would go for that or not.

More Upcycling

Awhile back my sister gave me this cute sun dress since she was not wearing it anymore.

 I had borrowed this dress several years ago when I went to Mexico as evidenced here.

 I decided to try to wear it the other day, and really just wasn't feeling it.  Not sure if it's because I just had a baby or if it's because I'm super pale but it just was no longer flattering on me.  Not to mention that the lining on this dress only came down so far (the last 2 ruffles did not have lining and you could see that) -- it always bothered me.  So I was going to try to turn it into a top for me.  BUT when I tried that on, it too did not look flattering.

So what's a girl to do? Answer: turn it into a dress for their 4 year old daughter.  I just took in the seams in the top (I did not even mess with the skirt part...it actually looked good full) and adjusted the straps.  She of course loves it since she only wants to wear dresses every day.  Nice free way to give her a new one.

A Busy Week

After awhile of not really doing anything creative, I whipped out 3 new dresses this week...crazy!  That never happens.  But I once again bought an amazing pattern from Little Blue Boo.  This time the pattern was for me--yeah!  It is called the pieced tunic dress and here is my first attempt.

Front:

Back: 

This was made using all old shirts of mine (4 total, the red Cross Canadian Ragweed shirt, a striped Old Navy shirt, a purple shirt, and a brown shirt).  I love the funkiness of it and think it turned out really cute.  I did modify the pattern slightly with the waistband part to try to lengthen the dress a bit but it still ended up a little short so I think this is more of a tunic or I might use it as a beach cover up.  I also made the size medium (which I normally am) but since I am only 2 months post partum, I probably should have gone up a size as my chest is a bit bigger than normal.  Also the red shirt I used was probably not as stretchy as it should have been (it was a bit stiff due to the print on it) and that did not help.  But I modified the chest part before I sewed it by adding a few scraps to it.

Would love to show you a photo of me in it, but since it is kind of short and I am super pale right now, it wouldn't be pretty. :)

Dress #2 was for Ava using some of my old shirts.  It's a bit crazy as I don't have too many coordinating shirts on hand but I still like the overall look and since this was the first time to make this LBB pattern (the Sienna dress), I figured I should use what I had rather than possibly mess up stuff I buy.

This used my old Hula Hut/Keep Austin Weird shirt, a shirt we got from the Duck, NC fire department 2 or 3 years ago and a black shirt of Darren's.

Front:

 Back:

 And then I made another dress like this one. Loved that one last year and wanted to do another one.  Ava actually fits in the one I made last year since I ended up adding a white layer at the bottom to lengthen it.  Here is her new one (I think she likes it!).  This one was just 2 shirts (one of them being the rest of the purple one I used in my tunic).

 The 4T size on this one is a little big in the chest part for her but that just means she can wear it next year too.  Besides if you tie it higher (which I did) it fits just fine.  That or I can end up adding the loops on the back like last time.

So excited about these and want to make more...just need more cool shirts.  I'll be on the lookout!

Little Man's Onesie

Remember this post?  The one about me making a onesie out of Darren's old shirt?  Well here is said onesie in action:

Little man gets lots of love and kisses from his sister.  Times like this make my heart melt.

For My Boy

Well the nesting period has definitely begun and I have been busy working on some projects for my soon-to-be born son.

First up, a onesie made from an old shirt of my husbands (wish I had taken a before photo but since I cut this shirt up a few months back, it was out of the question - basically this was a men's polo shirt with collar).  I used an old gerber onesie that I cut up for pattern pieces and then just cut out my pieces and sewed it up!  I think it is pretty cute and super cool that it used to be Darren's.   And then I made a pee pee teepee to match (no photo of that though).

 Then, I decided to make a nursing cover since I gave my old one away to my friend who had her baby in January. I was thinking I would not need one this time around but then realized it would be nice to have one around just in case.  I didn't want to ask for mine back (that would be rude!) so I used this super easy tutorial from Freshly Picked's blog.  Easy peasy and a good excuse to use a yard of fabric from my overly full sewing drawer.

2 items down and a few more to go!

A Little Upcycling

I've probably mentioned it before but Ava has been outgrowing a lot of shirts lately.  They basically still fit except that they are too short.  So instead of throwing them out, I have been upcycling them in various ways. 

This time, I used a tank top that I had appliqued for her last year and added some fabric I shirred and voila!  A new tank dress.  Thankfully I still had the matching fabric to make the skirt.  (Quick side note: If you have not shirred fabric before, it is pretty easy once you figure out how your machine needs to handle the elastic thread.  There are various tutorials online about it if you want to google it, but like I said you have to play around on your sewing machine to see what the correct tension, etc. is.  I highly recommend it.  Btw, I plan on making myself a few tank dresses this way once I'm not in maternity clothes and have the time).

 She was pretty excited about her new dress and insisted on going outside in the 55 degree weather to take a few photos for me.  She asked me "Is this for Spring?"  Guess she'll be excited when I make her a few more of these (which I plan to do...I have 10 weeks before baby gets here to do it).

 And speaking of the baby, I took one of Ava's old tshirts (it actually was a boy shirt but since Darren is in construction I sometimes buy her things with dozers and other equipment on them) and cut it up to applique a onesie for our little boy to be.  The onesie was kind of a grey color (hard to tell in the photos below but you get the idea) and for some reason I thought it would be cute/funny to applique the word dirt on my baby boy's bottom.  I like it...but maybe I'm weird.

Reworking Old Shirts

Ava has a couple of short sleeved t-shirts that are starting to get short and more fitted.  She can still wear them now, but come spring, they will probably need to be retired.  She also has some long sleeved shirts that are WAY too short and she can not wear them.  So I decided to combine the two and make her short sleeved shirts into long sleeved ones and get a little more use out of them since we are now in colder weather.

Here is her Hello Kitty shirt with the new sleeves & extra length.  I love when I buy long sleeved shirts for her and they look like layered shirts so this was a great project.

 And here is her Sleeping Beauty shirt updated.

I also did a third shirt (Minnie Mouse with white and silver striped sleeves) but she was kind of done with the clothing changes and photo shoots by this point.  Great way to get a little more use out of her clothes and very simple!

Rosemary's Baby Gifts

This past weekend I headed down to Houston to throw my best friend Rosemary what I like to call a "non-shower" baby shower.  Basically, me & another friend of hers took her to lunch and spent a day shopping and having fun instead of having an actual shower.  We did bring gifts and I did want it to feel kind of like a  real baby shower so I made a diaper cake in addition to putting together a little gift basket.

 Close up of her gift basket which includes blankets, towels, washcloths, stuffed lamb, handmade onesies & burp cloths and a handmade dress.

My version of Dana's Warhol dress.  Since Rosemary is from Lewiston, ID, I decided to make her daughter a special little Idaho dress out of some old t-shirts we had saved.

And a close up of the diaper cake.  My friend Michelle made an awesome diaper cake for one of her friends and passed along this online tutorial to show me how it was done.  It really was SUPER easy and I highly recommend making one this way as opposed to the ones I've seen that use rubberbands.  It took around 15 minutes!

I was going to post all these photos last week since everything was done but thought that Rosemary might check out my blog and see them.  Sure enough she told me this weekend she was looking at my blog to see what I might have made her...sneaky girl!

I Can't Stop!

Yep, you guessed it. I made yet another tank dress today. This time I chopped off the skirt part of this dress...

and attached it to a black tank top. I really did not wear this dress much before because I always found the top to be a bit awkward. Maybe because I wore it right after I had Ava and filled it out more. Or maybe because it was low cut and not good for everyday wear especially around my 3 year old. So since I bought it 3 years ago for my HS reunion, I decided it was worth it to cut it up and recyle it into my favorite style of dress.

Here is the after photos...I am dork. Did not like any of the photos I took (although I never really do) so thought I would give you all 4 dorky self portraits of me in the after version.

Still think I prefer the ones where you don't see my face. Ha!

Tank Dress

Once again, I decided to recycle some of my clothes. This time an Old Navy tank top that was WAY too long and kind of boxy and an ill fitting strapless dress from Target. I loved the dress last year but after wearing it a few times the chest part got stretched on one side and was a bit off.

So, I cut off the top of the dress (but kept a few rows of the shirring) and cut off most of the shirt to make this cute little empire waisted tank dress. I love it! These are my favorite pieces of clothing this year (if you can't tell) and I am so glad it is so easy to make them...especially when you are using 2 old pieces of clothing. Very little sewing my friends!

I also think next time I make a dress and have to make the skirt part myself, I will opt to do rows of shirring at the top as it looks better than elastic, is more comfortable and gives it just the right amount of stretch there. The only way this dress could be better is if I had taken the time to take the skirt apart and put pockets in. But I did not want to bother with that since it was already sewn. I'm lazy, what can I say. But I do love me some pockets.

PS. Sorry for the lame photos but no one is around to take my photo so my bedroom mirror & bad lighting will have to do!

Something for Me...Again!!

So I decided to try another project out for me...shocking I know! I have this old v-neck shirt that I bought this past fall for $4 and I really liked the fit of it. I wore it ALL the time.

Problem was, all that wear, made it get these little holes at the bottom...ugly!

I was going to throw it in the trash but then decided to save it to try to make a cute t-shirt dress out of it. I bought about 5 or 6 of this style dress this season (sleeveless instead of short sleeves). So I knew that I would like this style. With a bit of one of my favorite fabrics (from Patty Young's Mezzanine line -- I got the end of bolt at my fabric store for 30% off!), I whipped up this little dress this afternoon. No real pattern, just kind of figured it out. I even added pockets which is my favorite part! In my opinion, dresses with pockets are just all kinds of awesome. What do you think?

And I love how Ava just had to snuggle up to me (in her princess dress of course) for the photo! I think that next time I make this, I can do it more easily and probably even better. Just goes to show you, if you like a tank top or t-shirt and it gets those tiny holes in it, you can save it and make something really cute out of it.

My Old Shirt = Toddler Tunic

So I've been rummaging through my bag of clothes to donate and came across one of my favorite shirts. I really did not want to part with it. If it had not gradually started to shrink little by little with each wash, I would for sure have kept it since 1) it is super soft 2) it has an owl on it (I LOVE owls - I'm a bit obsessed these days) and 3) it's just a really adorable shirt. So rather than say goodbye I decided to turn it into a little tunic for Ava....during her naptime today.

I simply modified my pattern I use for the Griffin picnic dress and voila! An adorable toddler shirt. In less than 1.5 hours. Woo hoo!

Before (a year and a half ago before it shrunk so much that my stomach showed):

After:

I think it turned out super cute. And Ava, upon seeing it for the first time, said, "My favorite dress! I want to put it on." I think that means she likes it. :)