t-shirt refurb: mom shirt to Violet shirt (dress?)

after coming to terms with the reality of my never being able to fit into a shirt I got at urban outfitters several years ago, I finally took the scissors to it and made something useful out of it. looking at the scraps on the table at the end, I decided they would make cute flowers, so I hand sewed them together and put them on the back.   

this project sparked off another epic battle between me and my (sometimes) loathsome machine. it has something against knits; a sentiment I don't share. there was also a recurrence of this weird thread tension issue that happens sometimes. no matter what I do or what I adjust, it just comes out all wonky and puckered, and it was even gathering my fabric, which was not something that pleased me as I was trying to work with a stretchy material.

I'm not sure if this is a shirt or a dress since I added a little butt flap with the hem of the original shirt to add length.  I'm pretty sure this will actually fit Clover as a shirt if I try it on her.

spunk!!!

 

pizzazz!!! I loved the snap front too much not to use it

 

how wonderful is ruching? it adds such a cute little detail with minimal effort. here begins my ruching phase.

family video

sweet little video of our girls

thrift refurb: linen shirt to clover dress shirt

I'm digging linen lately, so I grabbed some unfashionable garments at the salvation army. using a tutorial found on MADE, I managed to piece together a little shirt dress for clover. the sleeves are leftovers from making robes. it would have been longer, but because of the shape of the shirt, I couldn't use the upper half. so, it is a shirt dress.

the tie I put in after the whole thing was done because it was too fluttery around her midsection. in my laziness I just hacked the cuffs off the end of the original shirt's sleeves and sewed them into the seam, which I ripped out and sewed shut again.

I am going to cut the top part of the body differently when I do this again, to make it fit better. but she looks really cute.

made: puffy polka skirt for clover

using leftover bias tape from making robes, some extras from the polka dot quilted play mat (I wouldn't have had as many leftovers had the first yard from joanns not been horribly crooked) and some tulle that has been hiding at the bottom of my fabric stash for ages, I threw together this skirt last night

it inspires bouncing with its puffiness

it was a weird creative process that I would do differently if I did it again. but when you are figuring things out as you go, you make discoveries! originally I was going to have the layer of tulle on the bottom and one layer of cotton over it, but decided it would be too scratchy next to her legs. so then I thought the tulle would go on top and just be fluffy. it wasn't as fluffy as I hoped, and I didn't feel like sewing more on - so next came the second layer of polka dot fabric. normally I would have pinned all the layers together and formed the waistband after that, but I didn't think far enough ahead.

in the end the construction went like this:

*made the bottom layer first and formed a waist band

*added the tulle on top of it by pleating it as I sewed

*added elastic to the waist

*didn't like how it looked so considered removing the tulle altogether

*didn't feel like doing that, so cut out a shorter skirt piece and added bias tape to the top and bottom

*seam ripped part of the waist band open to get the elastic back out

*sewed the bias taped edge over the raw edge of tulle (if there can really be a raw edge?)

*put the elastic back in after seam ripping again because sewing on the top skirt shut the hole I had waiting for the elastic

there is something especially delightful about a little girl in a puffy skirt

despite the convoluted way I got it together I really like this skirt! bias tape is fast becoming my friend.

summer cut for thing one

couldn't stand the rat nest mess on Clover's head anymore, so I ordered her into the high chair this morning, gave her a snack, turned on sesame street for her, and worked as fast as possible

miss messy head herself a few days ago:

 ................

and now: 

of course, while I worked, thing 2 was busy raising hell on the green chair - her favorite new stomping (literally) ground

 

her hair hadn't dried yet, and I am especially enjoying it now that it has dried and fluffed up. but it looks cute here too. so does the sweet girl under the hair cut. *sigh*

 

she does some deep thinking and hard feeling in that little 2 year old head of hers

 

quick and dirty afternoon project - little chalk handbag

little chalk handbag

we got clover a little container of sidewalk chalk at target today, and I decided she needed something to tote the chalk around in, while getting some random pieces of fabric out of my remnant bags. obsessively keeping every leftover piece of fabric means having stuffed ziplock bags of opportunities for small projects

without a clear plan I began cutting out fabric and this is what I came up with

it cinches up if you pull on the handles. originally I was going to sew the pieces for running the handles through on the inside but decided that I liked the look of them on the outside

 

the handles are made from the awful bias tape experiment of a few days ago

ready to haul that chalk around the kitchen or down the stairs and to the sidewalk. all in all it took about a half hour to complete since I didn't bother to pin or measure anything. just cut it out by sight and flung it through the machine. ironing and topstitching always makes everything look better than it really is. never skimp on the pressing! 

thrift score

 on a whim, after stopping to pick something up from the library, I headed over to the kid’s thrift store that I never go to. somehow every time I think I want to go there, I end up flaking out. must be the thought of taking both kids through there. by myself.

we are on a quest to collect Dr. Seuss, and magically the first thing I saw on their shelf was Marvin K Mooney. score! there was no other Dr. Seuss, but I did pick up a few other things. all these books plus three items of kid clothes came out to $3.15.

the artwork in Will It Rain? just spoke to me. I'll have to take some shots of the pages since there doesn't seem to be much info on it on the internet.

haven’t decided whether I am going to keep the clothes as is or scrap them to make sewing patterns. 

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the mister and I have had some discussions in the past on those little stickers people put on their cars that represent the family. some are stick figures or little people, or fish, or flip flops. we have had lengthy chats on what we would or wouldn't put on the car, unique takes on it, what would best represent us....etc. 

after getting our new iMac and tim's iPhone arriving yesterday, Tim was putting a few more apple stickers with our collection from various devices we have gotten in the past - laptop, iPods. I looked at the stickers, which all happened to be different sizes and it struck me that they would make cute little family rep stickers. here we are - the little apple cult family. the one on the far left has been there since we bought the car and is a little worse for the wear.

ron paul got relocated without much fuss. assuming he was doomed, tim promised me a new 2012 sticker. we will see how the old one fares. i also finally got our Rogue Beer sticker put on the car. we bought it last december.

pool robe version 2 - Violet

my little super cutie in her new pool robe

 

this one went a little faster having done clover's already. i matched the color of clover's bias tape trim to the pink in this robe to have them coordinate. violet's trim is dove gray and i love the shade. goes like a dream with pink.

 

 

  

this sweet blossom fabric is so adorable. after piling fabric upon fabric on top of my towels before nailing down a plan, i finally decided on this one and i am so pleased! 

 i love that you can see the "foot book" by seuss in the background....and that it matches the hood lining! haha

baby fingers are so sweet. i love how carefully and thoughtfully they investigate things

 

 since it's nearly impossible to get a 2 year old and 10 month old to get together to have their picture taken, i posed the robes instead. imagine their sweet little faces inside those hoods

 

this project was so fun! i have been imagining other things to do with it in different fabrics. you could totally make dress up heaven if you let your imagination run wild. of course tim immediately jumped to jedi robes! 

next project....hopefully a cute hooded cape for clover - if the dirtbag who swooped in and took the book i talked the library into purchasing  ever decides to return it!