Reclaiming mens shirts

As much as our little girl loves the pillowcase dresses I make her, sometimes a little girl needs a skirt not a dress. So after going though hubby's clothes and setting aside all the shirts that don't fit anymore. I found this post about the the 10 minute skirt and wanted to give it a go. Instead of using a ladies t-shirt I wanted to use one of hubby shirts, same things apply. No need to hem the bottom, all you have to do is make a casing for elastic.

So here is the shirt before. I loved this shirt so much it has a lot of memories, which is why we have keep it so long (hasn't been worn since 2006)

 

All I did was cut off the bottom half of the shirt (right under the sleeves) This is for our big girl little Miss 3, I measured around her waist and from her waist to the floor (just to make sure I didn't need to shorten the shirt) The length of the shirt was the length of little Miss's legs and I was happy with making a long skirt so left it as is. If you wanted a shorter skirt just take off however much you want from the top (make sure you leave 1.5 inchs for the casing) I also ran the raw edge though the overlocker to stop any fraying. 

 

Now all that is needed is fold and press with a hot iron the top down 1.5 inches and stitch down, leaving about a 2 inch opening (to thread the elastic though.) Cut the elastic the same length as her waist, threaded the elastic through and then stitch closed the opening and your done.

 

 

She loves it, and loves that fact that it was once daddy's shirt. And I loved making it so much that I made her another skirt that was once one of my tops that I loved but no longer fitted me 

 

  

Another winner!!!

Op Shop finds

So along with my two t-shirts I found at the op shop the other day to make singlets for the boys I also had a look around for some skirts. After reading this brilliant blog, it gave me some tips about what skirts to look for when buying from op shops, from the size of the skirt to weather it has to many seams this lady is wonderful. She has also done some blogs on what to look for when buying shirts from op shops. But the really great thing I found was she walked you through how to deconstruct the items once you have got them home. So thank you refabulous you have given me the confidence to start reclaiming clothes for myself.

Reclaiming clothes not only gives life to clothing no longer worn but also an inexpensive way for having beautiful one of a kind fabric for your projects. You also get that wonderful feeling that you have use an item of clothing and turned it into something else, It's the best feeling. Also your children see that if something is not used for it's initial purpose any more you can turn it into something else (great life skill)

When looking for a skirt to reclaim I come across this one and think it ticks most boxes. It's long, (30 inches) not to many seams, has the added bonus of having lace trim and I love the fabric.

With the tips from refabulous, I took my time with the seam ripper it may have taken longer but it was well worth it

 

And this is what I came out with. Great haul, I have 2 large main pieces and 4 smaller pieces PLUS over 5 meters of ribbon and lining. All this for $5.

The only thing I will say is that the fabric has elastic in it so not great for every project, but I'm still over the moon with it. I know it will be just right the fabric for something. I will let you all know what I use it for. I have just gone through hubby's wardrobe and pulled out all the shirts that no longer fit him and I have big plans for them.

New Years Resolution

I'm not one to normal set New Years Resolutions and I have set this one for myself a few years ago and only got a few months into the year before it failed, but lets try again shell we! It's not anything like loss weight, eat better, exercise more or get a new job. My resolutions is that every gift I give will be handmade or homemade, with the exception of a few things for the kids I'll explain those later. So wish me luck, I hope I can get further than March this year. There will be a lot of hunting on pinterest and maybe sometimes thinking outside the square.

I'm thinking of making things like, dresses for little girls, aprons or quilts/wall hangings for ladies, printing on t-shirts for boys or roads for match box cars, bibs or taggies for babies (need to thing of things for men). In the next few days I will get a list together of all the birthdays and babies that are on the way, and start thinking of what I can make them

I will also put together a list I things I could make easily for people for unexpected things, like engagements, house warming and anything else I may have forgotten. I'll keep you all up-to-date with what I make. The first birthday I need to make something for is on the 3rd of Jan so no rest for the wicked.

reclaiming clothes

I want to start reclaiming clothes weather it be ones that no longer fit me or hubby, or ones I found at the op shop. To get the ball rolling I thought I'd start on something easy. The boys don't have a lot of singlet tops and with this hot weather we are having I thought now was a good time to do something about it. I'm not a big fan of buying licensed clothes, but if there from an op shop and only a few dollars then I'm happy to.

These two tops only cost $1 each and Mr 5 loves Angry Birds so that's his and I love the 'Jammin' dude so Mr 7 can have that, now both of these are far to big for my boys so I turned them into tank tops for them

And here they are.
 

This was very simple as I kept the original neck line for both. On the Angry Birds I kept the same side seams and just shorten the hem and with 'Jammin' I shorten the hem and took in the side seams. All in all I'm very happy with how they turned out and they both fit! stay turned for more to come

Pillowcase dress

I was very luck and got my hands on a pile of pillowcases and since Miss 3 loves dresses and will wear one every day of the week if I let her, it seems like the best idea to make some dresses out of them. Now I know there are a lot of tutorials out there for pillowcase dresses, but I wanted to show you how to use part of the case to make the binding for the arm hole (so no need to have any other fabric on hand) and it will always be in coordinating fabric. So if you new to sewing this is a very easy and simple project to do.

What you will need.
A pillowcase
ribbon
scissors
pins
ruler
measuring tape
iron
sewing machine
overlocker (optional)

Lay out your pillowcase and cut all the way across the opposite end to where the opening is (this will end up being the top of the dress). At the top you need to cut an arm hole on both sides, once this is done you can run the top seam through your overlocker or if you don't have one set your machine to zig zag stitch and stitch across the top to stop the fabric from fraying.

 

Now turn your pillow case inside out and cut away the small section that would tuck over the end of the pillow, this will be turned into the binding for the arm holes. The trickiest party of this project is making the binding which need to be cut on the bias but it's not that hard and when you do it once you be fine doing it again and again (because you'll want to make lots of these).

To cut on the bias means to cut on a 45 degree angle to the grain of the fabric, when you cut the fabric this way there is 'give' and makes it easier to fit around the curve of the arm hole. Lay out your section of fabric length ways and grab your ruler and cut 2 inch strips at a 45 degree angle (you should get 5 strips).

Attach all the strips in one big long line and press the seams open.

Now it's all a big long strip, you'll need to fold and press it so no raw edges are showing. To do that fold and press with a hot iron one side of the strip into the centre (watch your fingers with the hot iron) and then do the other side.

 

Fold it in half so that the raw edges are facing inward and give a final press. Cut the strip into half and you will be using one strip of each arm hole.

Pin each of your strips over the raw edge of the arm holes and stitch down, go slowly and take care sewing around the curve

 then trim off the excess of the bias strip. 

All that is left to do now is to make the casing for the tie around the top of the dress. With your hot iron and measuring tape press down 1.5 inches along the top on both sides, when that's done sew it down along the overlocked/zig-zag stitch. And you have finished! (and it only took me about 45mins give or take, I needed to break up the kids fighting)

 

I've seen patterns that make their own tie but I find it easier to use ribbon, you'll just need to attached a safety pin (or I use a bobby pin) to the end and feed it though the casing on both sides. I take my ribbon out before washing and just leave them in the laundry and feed it back though after washed and dry.

 

 

Here is Miss 3 with it on. I'm happy with it this long and it will still fit her for years to come, I will just put a pair of legging underneath.

TMNT Masks

As Christmas drew closer I was going through all the gifts I had put aside, and I had brought a book each for my nephew and niece. I wanted to put a little something else with them, for my niece it was easy I made her a pillowcase dress but for my nephew that was a little more difficult. He is older than our boys and is in that next age group so I asked my wonderful mother-in-law what he is interested and she came up with teenage mutant ninja turtles.

After some pinerest hunting I deiced on making him some TMNT masks. I went to my local fabric shop and brought felt in green, red, blue, orange and purple, and plain cotton fabric in red, blue, orange and purple. I drew a free hand pattern of half a mask on folded paper and cut it out (by drawing half the mask on folded paper you get a mirror image for the other side), then I got one of my handy helpers (AKA Mr 5) and held in up to their face and made any adjustments where needed. I also made a pattern for the coloured insert section in the same way as the main mask.


I cut out 8 of the mask patterns from the green felt (2 for each mask), and one insert from each colour.

                              (note red insert not pictured)

 
Then cut two 1.5 x 20 inch strips from each of the cotton fabrics for the ties. Once everything was cut out I then began to sew. I folded the 1.5x20inch strips in half width wise so it is now .75x20inches and sewed along one end and down the the sided and turn right side out. Place the opened ended part of the tie between the one of the green of the masks and the insert, pin and sew the insert to the green masks (so the tie is no longer showing) around the edge of the insert and the eyes. Now the tie will not have any raw edges showing.

lastly take the second green mask and sewed it onto the back just around the green section to cover up the sewing of the coloured insert. Sewing on the second green mask adds stability to the mask and adds and bit of depth to it.

 

Come Christmas day and my nephew (aged 8) loved it. I was so sew happy, as soon as the gift was opened my nephew and my 3 older children were all running around with them on (Miss 3 included) I loved that I made the ties nice and long, it make for easy tiring on wiggling kids.  

Thank you for stopping by, this is my first tutorial so I hope it makes sense and you can follow it. and have fun making them for your little turtles. 

Little Artist's Easel

After having two boys who never really did a lot of painting/drawing before kinder and even when they went to kinder they didn't do very much and preferred to play with building blocks or make something on the construction table. I have a little girl that would sit and paint, draw and colour all day long. So I wanted to make a free standing easel so she can paint to her hearts content.

It's very simple to make, you only need -
A lager piece of cardboard (I used and old box no longer needed)
scissors
packing tape

you can cut your cardboard any size you like but I have cut mine 30cm by 100cm the sides are both 40cm long and the base is 20cm, now all you need to do is fold the sides up and tape it altogether at the top and there you have it and quick and homemade easel. I just use pages to hold the paper on (I find this the best way as the kids can take them on and off themselves)