Gettin' Girly, Y'all

Ruffles are all the craze in the refashioning world. I suppose I'm a little slow to jump onto this craze because I don't have a daughter and because I'm not much of a girly girl myself. The other day I was cleaning out my closet and found a couple sweaters and tops to add to my (ever growing) pile of things to refashion. When I looked around the net to find some inspiration I kept coming across tutorials for adding ruffles to stuff. Spruce up your cardigan with ruffles! Spice up your tank with ruffles! Girly up your top with some ruffles! Alright already, I'll try it.

I took this top....



(which is actually a nice shade of lavender)

that I haven't worn in over a year

and used this tutorial from Tea Rose Home

and some dark purple cotton jersey I had on hand

and made this....


Here's a slightly blurry close-up of the RUFFLES!!


This project was much more fun that I thought it would be. I like the wonky ruffles, the slight color contrast and really love that I have a "new" top, one that I'll wear more often than once every 18 months.



The chickens and dog are totally unimpressed by the ruffles. Oh well.


~Megan

I Heart N.Y.

One of my best friends just had her second baby last week. Her older son in going to be 2 next month. Now, I know a  lot of mother's choose to have their children close together for a good reason, I am not one of those mothers. I think mothers who have children this close in age, are crazy  braver then me.

 We could not wait to get our hands on the little guy. Here he is with my Green M&M. She could not get enough. Being around new babies does put me in the mood to have one, then I go home to my children (who are 5 years apart on purpose) fighting over who gets to turn off the t.v., the mood quickly goes away. So when I say women who have kids close together are braver then me, I mean it. My friend Casey has decided to prove it. She is leaving for New York on Thursday. Why ? Because both her and her husband are originally from there. Let me break this down for you.

Cesarean on Thursday

Released from the hospital on Sunday

Packing and taking care of newborn and 2yr Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Drive to New York (with 1week old, 2 yr. old , 2 dogs and a husband) on Thursday

Did I mention-We Live In Illinois!!!

See what I mean by Crazy Brave.

 I picked up a couple of t-shirts at Goodwill, and made the boys matching hats for the trip.

My friend Shannon showed me a version of these hats. I changed it up a little bit and ended up with these.

Seriously, does it get any cuter?

Now, if only they would stay like this forever.

Happy Babies!!

Rhiannon

Happy Birthday America!!!

I hope everyone had a fun and festive 4th of July. Ours was great!! We spent the day with friends eating lots of food.

I made these cookies. They were so simple and looked great.

The kids spent the day swimming, eating popsicles and playing with friends!

Of course no 4th is complete without a little red, white and blue. Unfortunately all the store bought clothing for the 4th usually has the date and year on it. I am not a fan of this, because as most of you know, I am cheap  frugal and want my kiddos to be able to wear their clothes more than one day out of the year. I found Marcus' shirt for 50 cents at a garage sale. You can't tell but it just has stripes on the front with the number 15 in navy. I made Maria's dress from old t-shirts. It has enough red, white and blue to be festive, but she will still be able to wear it all summer.

Now before you look too closely at the next pictures, I have to tell you I forgot to take photos before Maria put it on. I took these this morning and obviously before I did the laundry.  Please ignore the wrinkles and stains.

This is the same tie dress I am in love with. I made my own pattern from a dress I had, but Dana over at Made has a free pattern for her version called The Warhol Dress.

My friend Shannon has been making skirts out of t-shirts and she leaves the bottom unfinished so they roll as they get worn in. I like the look, so I left the bottom unfinished.

I did make myself something to wear for the first time. I will post that later, because it did make it into the washing machine this morning.

Happy Monday!

Rhiannon

Subtract one and add two...

..projects to my  list.

I finished one item this weekend, and gained two more. I made a baby gown for Casey. If I was smart, I would have finished something with an earlier deadline. Casey is not due until September and I have several things that I need to make before the end of July. Oh well, I was inspired by this Beetles T-shirt I found on clearance, and I had to go with the inspiration.

Casey loves the Beetles and requested some gowns for the baby. I think she will love this.

Now Casey, I am only posting this because you know I could never have saved it for September. Keeping surprises is something I am not so good at.

Here is another pic, I love the striped sleeves. I cannot wait to see this on the baby.

I will cross that off my list and add the curtains for my grandma and dress requested by my aunt (for her granddaughter). Sleep is so overrated.

The kiddos and I went to our family reunion today. Here are a few photos I had to share.

Unfortunately for the little ones, it rained. Miss Louisa (my cousin Laura's daughter) was so sweet playing in the puddles, until...

my kiddos gave her a lesson on puddle play.

I think her laughter was worth getting her new (handmade by Laura) dress all wet.

Louisa soon got the hang of it.

A little rain isn't going to ruin our party!!

Happy Splashing!

Rhiannon

I'm Back!!!

Sorry everyone, we have been too busy enjoying our summer. Doing things like...

..this!!!

I have managed to fit in a little sewing. Of course it involves another dress for Maria. I have made almost all of her summer wardrobe, and  have stuck to using recycled fabric and clothing.

I was inspired by Dana's Warhol Dress for this one. I actually drafted my own pattern from a Gap dress given to Maria by a friend. I really liked the cut of the neckline. I guess I am not the only one. Dana has also made a pattern for this.

Anyway, here is my version.

My friend Shannon got this maternity shirt at one of our local thrift stores on bag day. That is when they give you a brown paper bag and let you fill it for $1.00. So I guess you could say this dress cost Shannon about 10 cents. Hey Shannon- I owe you 10cents.

Here is the finished dress.

I love the way it fit. Maria wore it the other day, and my friends are already asking for one for their kiddos. Looks like I will be making a few more of these. 

I hope you all are enjoying the start of your summer as much as we are. Here a couple more fun pics from ours. Sorry I can't help it.

A slug found in the garden.

A turtle found at our friends lake.

And 2 cuties found in my garage.

Oh yeah, I have already picked up Poison Ivy. One of the joys of living in the country.

So...

Happy Itching!!

Rhiannon

Tank Dress Tutorial

Here goes nothing, my first official tutorial.

I made this dress for Maria from a couple of thrift store finds. (surprise, surprise)

I have one side note before you go on. I am self taught in the sewing and refashioning department, so don't be too critical of my technique. This is how I made the dress, not to be confused with the correct way to make this style of dress.

Here we go...

This is the finished dress. Pretty cute isn't it?

O.K., I started with these 2 women's shirts from the thrift store.

They both cost under $2.00 each. I feel bad spending over $2.00 on anything I am going to cut apart. So most of Maria's summer wardrobe cost me less that $5.00 a garment. Love it.

I started by putting the tank on Maria inside out so I could pin where I wanted to take in the sides and straps. You could probably use a tank you already have that fits as a guide for resizing. I was able to bribe Maria with some play money. I am not sure if this was genius or cruel, either way it worked. The hard part was getting it off without poking her with a pin.

                                                            Don't you love her  smile?

 I then pinned  all the way down each side of the shirt, to mark where I wanted to sew.

I followed my lines and sewed up the sides and...

... across the shoulders. Notice, I have not cut any of this shirt yet, not even the length.

Once I have sewn all the seams, I cut the extra fabric off the sides and the shoulders.

Once the extra fabric was cut, I serged the seams.

Next, I turned the shirt right side out and pinned where I wanted the skirt to start. I used one of Maria's  tanks as a guide.

Now I need a base for my ruffles. I had this t-shirt that was donated to me from a friend.

I liked the length of this striped dress Maria already had. I decided to use it as a guide. I put the tank on top of the pink t-shirt and then the striped dress on top of both. I  adjusted the pink t-shirt until I had it lined up with the bottom of the dress.

I removed the dress and marked where I wanted to cut the top of the pink shirt.

I cut the pink shirt at the top and on the sides.To mark where I wanted to cut the sides of my skirt, I started with the width of the tank and cut at an angle, so I would have an a-line shape when done. Making any sense at all? I hope so.

I placed my skirt fabric right sides together and stitched up one side.

I serged that seam too. I love my serger. It makes feel like a better sewer when my projects are serged on the inside. There's a beginner sewing tip for you- buy a serger. I makes you look like you know what you are doing:)

Now for the fun part, the ruffles. I cut three 2.5 inch strips. If you have more fabric, you can add more ruffles. I just made what I could with one shirt. The challenge of refashioning. After I cut the strips, I cut one side, so I had a long strip of fabric to gather.

I thought I had pictures of the gathered pieces, but I guess not. I just used a gathering stitch on my sewing machine and then placed the first ruffle at the bottom of the skirt. I had it hang over the hem about 1 inch. After sewing it on, I added the next row. I just estimated on the spacing. I made them as even as I could and left about 2 inches at the top for a waistband.

Once all the ruffles were on, I folded it in half (right sides together) and stitched  up the side.

I turned the skirt right side out and OOHED and AHHED over how cute it was. Then I cut the top band of fabric off and flipped it over onto the skirt (right sides together)

After sewing the band to the skirt, I put the tank inside the skirt, flipped the skirt over and sewed the skirt to the shirt. I doubled checked my length before I finally cut the tank.

Trim all your extra thread, and there you have it. A cute new dress for summer!

Thank goodness that's over. Tutorials are a lot of work, especially when you are not really sure what you are doing. I hope, if nothing else, this was inspiring.

Let me know what you think.

Happy Sewing!!

Rhiannon

This was posted on The Train To Crazy. Check out her Make it and Wear it post. It is full of inspiration.