Oh, the possibilities!

 

This is a picture of my family room floor and as you can see it's covered with one of my favorite things, fabric! What is it about fabric that I love so much? The many textures, colors, prints and patterns. The possibilities are endless! You don't have to just sew things out of fabric either, nope. You can make rag wreaths, wrap it around things and glue it down. You can make curtains and blankets and clothes and accessories! I have discovered something, you see all the fabric you see in the picture above  is from the thrift store! My local store bags up what they receive through donation and sells the bags for 5 dollars a piece! I've gotten huge lengths of satin and knit fabrics (score!) in gorgeous colors and textures. I have gotten flannel and corduroy and chambray and canvas. I will be making beautiful things forever now! It's so fun to mix patterns and colors and make things that aren't just store-bought and generic, they are unique! I love it! ;0)

Here we sew again (results)

 

Remember the  little gem I featured briefly last week? It was in fact the beginnings of my daughter's Easter dress. A thrift store find, she was thrilled with the pretty purple color and I loved the fabric and the "tiered" action it had going on. The placing on the elastic? A little strange.
First things first, I took my seam ripper to the bottom tier and picked it and the elastic off. Next I took my purple polka dot material and fashioned an A-line skirt to attach underneath. I then cut the remaining bottom tier in half and pinned and sewed the bottom half to the bottom of the polka dot A- line skirt.
I didn't like the scrawny, lingerie-type straps, so I snipped them off. I made some new straps out of the purple polka dot and had my daughter try the dress on and set the straps to exactly the right length and stitched them on. I knew the she would like a little extra ruffle and so, I took a little of the top half of the bottom tier and made some ruffly capped sleeves. (So cute!)

Lastly, the dress was a little big still. I took in the side a bit and then made a long sash out of the purple polka dot, making sure the band was wider in the front for an "empire" waste. I stitched on and it ties in a big bow in the back! I also made a small flower for the front (to cover a small tear).

Four dollars, a little creative thinking, and a little more patience and what a result! I love it! ;0D

Here we sew again!

 

Just a quick update on what I've been working on the last couple of weeks! The pillow on top was made for a little boy my kids are friends with. He loves karate and this project was a snap to create! You are not going to believe me, but I only payed a buck for material for this and the rest was just time (a couple of hours all together). It's true! I actually picked up the insert (just an ugly couch pillow I took home and washed and bleached) for a buck at the thrift store and the rest of it, I had! I dug through my material stash for a while until I came up with something that wasn't girlie at all and I could coordinate with the lettering and "karate crossing sign". I love the orange tie dye and the gray border and the applique letters and sign are just left over pieces of felt. For the sign I googled karate crossing sign image and found a sign on Amazon and I just copied it. It was really simple! The pillow itself I stitched the top and attached the back to overlap like a sham for easy cleaning, using the pillow for a template. It turned out great!

At the bottom will be my daughter's Easter dress. I know it doesn't look like much now, but when I'm done I'll share it! We just picked this up at the thrift store for 4 bucks and I loved the material and the layering. It'll be dolled up with some great matching purple polka-dot material and I know she'll love it! Stay tuned! ;0)

Here we sew again!

A little applique action

A little closer up for detail

This turned out so cute, I just had to share! I made this pillow for a birthday party last week my kids went to. Money has been extremely tight (not that I'm complaining at all) and this has forced me to be a little more creative. With a 5 dollar budget for a present getting something "good" is impossible though, right? Au contraire mon ami! This stinkin' cute pillow only cost 5 bucks in material and about an hour to complete. Here's how I did it!:

I scoped the clearance section at Ross (gotta love Ross!) for an inexpensive pillow with a removable case. I found this one for 3.99. "Taite" loves sharks and was having a shark themed party, so the variegated blue and white striping was perfect for water. Next I hopped on over to Michael's and picked up 3 sheets of felt in charcoal, white, and red for 29 cents each. When I got home I drew the letters on the red felt with a Sharpie and cut them out. I knew I wanted a Jaws-like shark and drew and cut out a head (think upside-down U) and a fin (just a long triangle). I wanted the teeth to stand up and be loose. I took the red and the white and cut out a circle for the mouth (I just layered them together to be the same size). I then took the white circle and folded it in half and started cutting zigzag "teeth" in a semi-circle (being careful to not cut the entire white circle in half). Once I was done with the cutting of the felt I got to work sticking the shapes and letter down to my pillow.
Did I mention that felt is the easiest material to applique? It's so true! If you use a lighter weight fabric you have to iron on your fusible webbing (wonder under) to the material and the pillow. This prevents bunching and wrinkling of the fabric. With felt I just eliminate that step and I just tack my letters and shapes down with a little Quick Dry Tacky Glue. Felt won't bunch or wrinkle over time and as long as you stitch it down tight, it'll stay put too! Since this is a pillow for a little guy I knew it was bound to loved a little hard...I stitched it down good! ;0)
After I finished sticking the shapes and letters down (I let it dry for about an hour) I got out some matching yarn and my yarn needle that I already had. I stitched around the shark and around the mouth with a blanket stitch. I had glued down two small circles for the eyes and I knotted and stitched in "pupils". I loved the texture this provided, but it was time consuming. The case was removable, but it overlapped in the back like a sham and this made machine stitching tricky. I finally turned the case inside out and the flaps folded over the front instead. This made it so I could machine stitch the letters on. I just pushed the flaps out of the way and stitched in a little window (think like embroidering in an embroidery hoop).
Super inexpensive and not very much time to make and I guess he loved it! His Mom said he was carrying it around with him. I love it!

Sew sweet!

I know I missed posting yesterday...what can I say? I was busy having a little fun and the short 30 minute window I use daily to update my blog was used up doing something else. Eh, so be it!
If you've noticed, I have taken a bit of a hiatus from my sewing projects. I just about sewed myself to death over Christmas and my machine died because of it...poor thing. Well, a couple of weeks ago I had a project I wanted to tackle and took the time to revive my machine. It's a bit on the old a fussy side, I have to clean it out, pull it apart, swab it out with alcohol-dipped cotton swabs, and oil it and reassemble it...phew. As you can see, I talked it into being cooperative enough again! This little outfit was made for my friend C's little baby who turned a whole "1" yesterday and I made her a pretty dress for the occasion. As you can see from the first pic, the beginning wasn't very feminine. These were a pair of little overalls I picked up a ye old thrift store for a couple of bucks. They were in really good condition and I loved the chambray fabric. I already had the black floral material in my stash and thought I would maybe applique lady bugs to the front. I was hanging out with my Mommy yesterday (she took me to lunch for my birthday that's coming up) and we ducked into Michael's to find some ribbon for the hem of the dress. I had already found a little pink shirt to go underneath that would match the floral fabric (it has red and pink roses and tiny little gray-blue flowers on it too) and deiced I would have to make pink and red lady bugs to match. I found the most adorable pink ribbon with lady bugs, perfect! I removed the pockets and ran some lady bug ribbon along the tops and sewed them to the skirt. I used the ribbon along the bottom of the hem as well. Last I took a couple of fabric markers and drew a lady bug that matched the ribbon and I can't believe how cute it turned out!
My friend C loved it and decided the baby would HAVE to wear it today. You know what? Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement concerning my sewing projects, it'll be awesome! I'll let you all know when it happens, I promise! ;0)

A stitch in time...Christmas gifts sneak peak

Fancied up denim skirts for my nieces...

A sparkly, pretty dress for my daughter

Adorable!

and an itty-bitty baby beanie!

All out on the cheap for Christmas means I've been chained to my sewing machine for weeks trying to whip up homemade gifts for everyone this year. My blog posts have been short, my house isn't particularly clean, and I've been missed on facebook (silly, I know!) and I thought I'd share a sneak peak of some of things I've done so far. I'm just going to be sharing pics of the gifts to people who don't actually read the blog, just so the element of surprise isn't spoiled.
The denim skirts.
I actually had a far more complicated project in mind for my nieces (and my daughter insists she needs one too...) involving layers and frills and after picking out a sewed on backward piece one too many times, I came up with a new plan. What little girl doesn't like pretty things covered with tulle? Well, my nieces (and daughter) sure do and so I went to the thrift store and picked up 3 denim skirts for 3 dollars a piece. They were all in great condition and I took them home and cut off the bottom hems. I have blue and yellow tulle remnants that I picked up for under a dollar and plenty of girlie floral cotton blend material in my stash. I chose coordinating material for the tulle and sewed ruffled bottoms for the skirts. I then ran a length of coordinating ribbon over my seems and stitched it down as well. After a few well placed flowers (to cover up the ribbon ends) I was done! I can't believe how cute they turned out! Maybe I'll have to make for myself...hmmm...;0)
My daughter's sparkly Christmas dress.
I know the pictures don't do this dress justice, but I'm impressed with how cute it turned out! Even a Christmas dress from Wal-Mart will run you 20 bucks and as tradition the girls in the family always get a new one every year. I knew I could do it cheaper and set out to try. I first picked up some sparkly pink material that has little stars through it, in the remnant bin for 2 bucks. They also had some pink cotton for a buck and I picked that up for the lining. Now for the top...hmmm...I went to the thrift store on the off chance they had something pretty to use and I scored! I found a stretchy-velvet top with sheer sleeves covered with sequins, that looked like it belonged to a skirt or something, in my daughter's size for 3 dollars. I also picked up some black satin ribbon for the sash and a package of pretty pink rosettes for about 3 dollars as well. I made a skirt out of the sparkly material and the pink cotton for the lining. I didn't have quite enough of the pink lining material, but was lucky enough to have some extra in a shade darker and I just sewed a couple of darker panels to the front and back, you can't tell at all though! I attached the skirt to the bottom of the shirt next and went about trying to figure out the best way to attach the sash. I measured out the length of the sash and took two short pieces of ribbon and stitched them to the front to act as belt loops. I then used some iron on hemming tape and ironed the sash down and stitched the front of it too. I finished up with the rosettes and just look at how adorable it turned out!
The baby beanie.
This is a project I started as I hitched a ride to Vegas on Monday and finished up yesterday. Super fast! My friend's little baby is adorable and teeny! She is 10 months old and weighs 13 lbs and stands up at knee height, she's so little! Imagine having a 10 month old that only wears 3-6 month clothes and won't keep anything on her head unless it's tied on! Yep, that might make it difficult to find a warm little hat that fits and it has been. So, when she was here last week I took a quick measurement of her head and started planning for a little hat to fit it. I made a cute one for my daughter a few years ago and I patterned this little one after it, it's so cute!
As you can see, I'm well on my way to having a pile of wonderful homemade gifts to give out for Christmas! Now if you'll excuse me...I need to get a sewing! ;0)

A stitch in time...Christmas is a coming (the results)

Oh, Christmas tree...

My felt wreaths that took forever to complete, but are really pretty!

Spray painted pinecones strewn under the bows...

Your stockings have to match too, right?

and pretty stars in gold and teal, twinkle amongst the branches...

As promised, I provided pics for my decorating madness. Many an hour spent over the last few weeks with needle in hand and painted fingers, provided for some pretty Christmas decor!
I know I mentioned that my colors were teal and gold this year and I had every intention to stick with just those colors and a little cream too, but as I wound the lights over my tree I discovered that I did not have enough white LED lights to cover the whole tree. After an annoyed grumble, I decided that I would use a couple of strings of red lights too. Of course, that meant that I needed something in the red dept. as well. I had a stack of colored foam sheets that had several red pieces and I quickly cut out some red hearts and sprinkled them evenly over the tree. I also twisted some red and white pipe cleaners into candy cane hearts and added them as well. The result is a pretty, if perhaps patriotic-looking tree!
Do you like my  no fireplace mantle solution? Yes, I did just string my stockings through gold ribbon and secure them with our monogram pins I collected last year. I then tied the ribbon to my archway and pushed a pushpin through the middle to secure it, it's pretty I think! ;0)
Not too bad for decorating on the cheap!

A stitch in time...Christmas is a coming!

A menagerie of felt ornaments...

and fabric for homemade stockings too...

a little panted star action...

and spray painted pinecones and leaves too!

As I prepare furiously to get the last of my tree decorations finished for this weekend, I thought I'd share a glimpse of what I'm making. Each year at the end of the season when all the decorations are on sale for 75% off, I choose my Christmas color theme for the next year. Last year I was able to snag some adorable sparkly teal bead-garland for like a dollar a strand. This paired with some gorgeous gold gem ornaments, birthed my theme for this year. Now heaven forbid I was able to find matching stockings anyplace, so I got creative. I snagged some material from the remnant bin at my local Wal-Mart that was a good match along with some remnant cream felt and it set me back a whole 3 bucks! I found a stocking pattern off the net and got to work cutting out and stitching together stockings for everyone.
This fall the kids collected three large grocery bags of pinecones at our local park and I used most of them as decoration in my empty window boxes. I purposely saved a bag and spray painted them gold to match, 3 bucks for spray paint, pinecones, free!
I went to Michael's to get some felt for ornaments and came across some wooden stars for like 40 cents each and came home and painted them teal and gold to match and talked my man into drilling holes in the centers for me. A little gold yarn later and I had star ornaments!
The felt was on sale for 5 sheets for a buck and I loaded up. It took me a  little bit to decide exactly what I wanted to make out of them. At first I thought stars...but I had several of them already and I didn't want my tree to read as western in theme. I finally decided on wreaths! I folded the felt into fourths and took my trusty sharpie and a small bowl and traced circles for the wreaths. I next found a plastic cup and traced around it for the centers. After cutting out all my wreaths I decided I should do something with the centers left over. I traced stars out of the cream felt centers and glued them to the teal with a little tacky glue. I then used my gold yarn again and threaded through two points in the middle so they looked like threaded buttons and came up through the backs and tied small bows to the fronts. For the wreaths I blanket stitched the middles together and lined the insides with a strip of batting and blanket stitched the outsides shut. I wanted them to have a little more gold on them, so I wove some more gold yarn across the fronts in a triangle pattern. These are a little more time consuming, but completely adorable!
All of this good stuff will be paired with wide ribbon garland, white lights, some matching glass balls for cheap from Tai Pan Trading and of course the things I picked up last year. I'll post pictures of it all up when it's done! For now I need to hurry and complete my ornaments for Christmas is a coming! ;0)

A stitch in time...Halloween style!

There once was a plain brown pocket t...

who earned the chance to become more...

with a snip and a stitch and a patient hand...

became a Robin Hood costume at last!

This little indecisive imp...

got a costume whipped up in a flash!

I finally did it! I got the rest of the Halloween costumes to make, finished! I must say too, I am the queen of the cheap and easy and really cute costume ideas too! I hate the look of the cheap store bought costumes and better one's always cost a fortune and probably only get warn once. I love to turn ordinary things into cute costumes and save my wallet at the same time, don't you?

I had the idea to be Robin Hood this year when I got a green feathered hat from Lagoon last year, the only thing I had to make was the vest and that was pretty easy! I love the silly movie "Robin Hood Men in Tights" and decided to fashion my costume from this. After watching it again I had an idea for a fairly simple version of his vest he wears. I bought a plain brown Men's pocket T for 4 dollars and some brown suede cording for 2 dollars for the package along with some brown remnant material I picked up earlier for a 1.50, this costume was going to cheap and look great too! I started by unstitching the  pocket since I didn't need it  and then cut the shirt up the front and snipped off the collar too. I then made a pointed collar out of the remnant and pressed and stitched it to the T. Next I got to work making placket for the front, so that I could lace the suede cord through. The shirt in the movie had pointed detail work on the placket and the sleeves, but I didn't want to be piecing those on all afternoon. I opted to put detailing on the front instead with a little "castle wall" detailing to make it read as medieval in nature and stitched this to the opening of the shirt on either side. After getting it all stitched down and fixing what I inadvertently  stitched on backwards (oops!) I got to work making some button holes to thread the cord through (go ahead and make fun of them, my machine sucks in the button hole making department) and they proved functional. Voila! After pairing my new "vest" with a long white shirt I had and green tights and brown suede boots I had as well and the hat too of course, I was transformed into Robin Hood, "Men in Tights" version! ;0)

The last two pictures are of my little one, Mr. Indecisive. He wanted to be Capt. Underpants (fictional character), he wanted to be Mario, he wanted to be a skeleton, I tried to turn him into an X-ray as well. Seeing as thought the kids have a Halloween party to go to tonight and he still needed a costume, I made an executive decision..."How about a mad scientist?", I pleaded. He perked up at this suggestion and I got to work. I picked up a a white button down shirt made for a "large" woman at ye ol' Thrift Store and knew this costume would take just a manner of minutes to whip up! I cut off the bottoms of the sleeves where you would normally button then up and hemmed them to his little arms length. I was going to alter it to fit better as well, but the detailing on the back was nice and all it took was me gathering up the sides and stitching them down to be a little more fitted. I then took one of the cuffs I cut off and snipped it to pocket size and stitched it to the front of the shirt for a pocket. Lastly I took my felt tip red Sharpie and wrote "Dr. Boris Karlov, mad scientist" on the front to look like embroidery on a lab jacket. I also bought a spray bottle and cut off the top to look like a beaker and black rubber gloves and a turkey baster for his accessories all from the dollar store! So 7 bucks later, even my little one is ready for Halloween! He'll be such a cute little mad scientist too! I'll be sure to post pictures of everyone in costume and all made up as well, Have a Happy Halloween! ;0)

hALLoWeEn Is ALMoSt HeRe...

Oh yes...

we thought the costume was fitting this year!

Since Halloween is just over a week away, I guess that means that I have working on costumes...and I have! I got this one all done today for my daughter. I refused to dress her as a princess or a fairy or a ballerina this year...yes, I know I'm mean...but, there are so many other things you can be and still be girlie, right? Right! I somehow talked her into being a little she-devil this year instead and look at how cute the result is! The only prop we had to buy was the pitchfork, I was able to use or re-purpose the rest and hers will be the most expensive costume I will have to make this year and even it only cost a whopping 9 bucks and will last years.
The lowdown:
I bought 3 bucks-worth of remnant material, the flames, the plain red and the red netting. I first sewed the flame material into a skirt and then I attached the red netting to it making sure the netting hung down longer than the flame skirt and attached it all to the red top (5 bucks, thank you Wal-Mart). I then cut the red netting into points along the edge of the skirt and got to work making horns and a tail.
I cut the red material into points for the horns and sewed it together for the tail making a point at the end. After I got them sewed together I stuffed the horns with a little batting and then the tail. I stitched in some loops to slide the horns onto a headband I already had and I wired up the tail with some leftover wire I had from a different project. I took a wide elastic belt that I took off of a shirt I had that didn't fit me and stitched the tail to it. Voila! A little she-devil costume done and so cute! She has some red tights to wear as well and I promise to post pictures of everyone dressed up for Halloween.
So, what is everyone else going as this year? You'll have to wait to the rest of mine! ;0)

Over the rainbow...

Pretty rainbow dress for my niece

with a big, pretty bow in the back!

close-up of the adorable material!

As you can see, this has been the extent of my sewing for this week. While I still have 3 costumes to make and a couple of other projects, I was perfectly happy to work on such a pretty dress! My little niece Ainsley loves rainbows (click here to read about it) and I had some rainbow striped material in my stash. When I asked my sister what to get for Ainsley's upcoming birthday, she said, "How about a dress?" I know that in years past that they have had a bit of a hard time finding long-sleeved dresses for the winter (they actually have seasons where they live) so, I thought I'd make a long-sleeved one!
I bought a plain black shirt at Wal-Mart for 5 bucks and with the rainbow striped material and a coordinating I had, I got to work. I cut the shirt at empire-waste length and sewed the rainbow stripe into a skirt, taking care to match up the stripes. I then cut the coordinating material for a band at the bottom and for a sash at the top. The material itself wasn't quite long enough for a sash (with a really big bow) so, I cut another strip to fasten to the ends of the sash to lengthen it. I then attached the sash to the shirt and attached the skirt the shirt as well. I stitched up the ends of the sash and hemmed the bottom and pressed the whole thing. I also have a bit of embellishing to do the the top, but look at how cute this dress turned out!
What a perfect dress for my little niece Ainsley "Rainbow"! My daughter of course came home and announced she needed one just like it, I guess I'll just add it to the project pile! ;0)

Sew sweet!

My daughter is so pretty and a bit stubborn...

While she modeled her pretty new dress...

and I also altered a jumper for her for school...

and sewed the cutest baby ballerina dress ever!

Can you believe how cute that teeny little ballerina dress turned out?! I was commissioned by my sissy to either find a ballerina Halloween costume for my little niece or to make one. I knew I could make a pretty one easily as long as I could find and inexpensive tank top to use as the bodice. I chose this so that my sis could easily put a long sleeved body suit underneath for warmth. I was able to pick one up on clearance at Old Navy for about a buck (can't beat that!) and all the other materials, I had. So, think about it...a buck + 30 minutes of my time = cha ching! It's so stinkin' cute too! ;0)
Up at the top I had some pretty off white and pink floral fabric that was silky and soft...of course my daughter wanted something out of it and I obliged!;0) I took a 3 dollar tank top and cut off the bottom at empire-waste length and sewed a long flowy skirt to the bottom. I also made a sash out of the excess and recycled an off white flower that fell off of something (I have no idea what though) and stitched a safety pin to the back and clipped it on the strap. I turned out so pretty and my daughter was nice enough to model it as well, uh okay...as you can see she wasn't nice enough to smile though, preteens...;0P
I also took the time to alter a jumper I found at 'ye old thrift store' for 4 bucks, into a uniform appropriate frock for my daughter. It was a woman's size medium and was way too long and way too wide for her, no problem though! I had her try it on as I pinned it to fit and snipped where I needed to shorten it. There were some large pockets on the sides that I would have sewn right over, so I removed them as well. I altered it and ran it through the wash and decided what to do with the hem, ribbon! I used some sew-less hemming tape and ironed the ribbon all the way around the edge before I went back to stitch in place. I decided to jazz it up a bit at the top as well and ironed and stitched down some ribbon at the top too. The result? A uniform appropriate jumper that was less than I could buy the material for and way less than I could buy it new! ;0)

Trudging through the endless project pile...

I got started on the Halloween sewing...

and made and awesome remnant skirt...

and took care of a ridiculous-sleeved dress..

with a little snip, snip action...

and modeled them both...

uh, somewhat willingly!

Ah, I fear that my time being blissfully unemployed is coming to an end and even though this won't stop me from blogging, it may slow down my sewing efforts a bit. This is why I've been dedicating some time to getting the project pile under control!

First off I tackled a pair of overalls I purchased at ye old thrift store, that will part of my Man's Halloween costume. Uh, uh, uh...I'm not sharing what it will be a part of, you'll have to wait till Halloween like everyone else!;0) Anyway, the straps were a tad too short, so I reached into the endless remnant pile and pulled out some gingham and cut the fasteners off the too short straps and attached the gingham to lengthen them a bit. I then reattached the fasteners to the new gingham straps and cut out patches of gingham and corduroy and a micro-stripe in great Fall colors. I stitched them all over the front of the overalls with a little yarn and voila! Instant part of my Man's Halloween costume!;0)

Next I picked up a remnant of zebra stripe this week and decided...hmmm...I want a skirt! My Man suggested that an entirely zebra striped skirt might be a bit too much. Well, I showed him! I had this great peony,/bird/branches material that looked pretty good with the zebra stripes and dug a little further and found a great yellow star material as well. I thought they looked great together, my Man decided he should have kept his mouth shut! Ha! Remind me to wear this for date night this week. I pulled out some wide black elastic I had to attach the skirt to (because that is very "now" these days) and took a few minutes to even put darts in all even and everything, Mom should be proud!;0) (Hi, Mom!) I attached the skirt to the elastic and hemmed it all up and I LOVE how it turned out! Talk about unique and I'm all about unique, shazaam! ;0)

Lastly I performed a little "New Dress a Day" action on a great dress with somewhat ridiculous sleeves. I bought this dress on clearance for like 6 bucks I think and loved the styling of it and its super comfy jersey knit fabric. On the hanger it was impossible to tell that the sleeves were going to stick straight out like that and stick straight out they did! Trust me you didn't want to see a before shot, *shudder*. It would been such a waste not to get to enjoy the comfort of this dress so I snipped it up and cut those silly sleeves right off. Then I took the hem off of the discarded sleeves and fashioned little loops for the tops of them and left the sleeves raw edged (they'll just curl anyway) and presto! Instant cuteness and super comfy action as well (I'm wearing it now...ahhh, the splendor!).

I'm trudging through the pile and of course have several projects to go and I will be sure to share! I don't promise to model any better though...just a heads up! ;0)

A stitch in time (or several!)

Modeling my new dress with shoes and belt

Yes, yes... I know that I missed my daily bog post yesterday, but honestly I did get a few things accomplished! I have noticed that I had amassed quite the pile of sewing projects and since we're closing in here on Halloween (yes, it will be here before we know it! EEEK!) and I have like 4 or 5 costumes I need to work on, I decided I should clear out some of my other projects first!
First project was a shirt that I purchased and wore once and then inevitably shrunk in the wash...(good job, I know...) and I loved the styling and the fabric of the shirt and I loved the color as well. So, rather than toss it, I thought I'd do a little "New Dress a Day" action (click the link to see what I'm talking about) and revamp it instead! I cut off the bottom of the shirt to even it up and stitched together a skirt out of a $1 remnant I had that matched perfectly and attached it to the shirt. Wow! Instant dress! I also took part of the material I took off the bottom of the shirt and fashioned it into a rosette that I attached to a headband to be all matchy-matchy and voila! Just took 20 minutes to complete too!

The next project was a dress for my friend's baby girl, I had this all ready to go and it took maybe 15 minutes to put all together. I took a sleeveless little onesie and cut off the bottom at empire waste length. I then made a skirt out of some leftover gingham I had and attached a matching length of ribbon to the top. I then sewed the skirt to the top of the onsie and I intended to reattach the bottom of the onsie, but the length of the skirt was so cute with the ribbon, I decided to leave it as is. I finished it up by making a cute bow with some more ribbon and attached it to a stretchy headband! It turned out so cute! ;0)
The last project I actually completed in about an hour last night , it was a top  for my daughter . I had some left over material leftover from a project a couple of weeks ago and decided to put  it to good use  by attaching it to a t-shirt for my daughter. of course, we couldn't stop there though!  She loves  anything with netting and I had some purple netting. I started by attaching  some of the leftover material from the bottom to the netting  and attached that to the leftover bottom of the t-shirt I had cut off. I then attached that to the shirt in a diagonal way, you know eighties punk style! It turned out so cute and what a great way to dress up a t-shirt that bought off clearance for a buck! 

I've been a sewing and I have several other things to sew and I promise I'll share them with blog-land too! ;0)                                                                                                                              

Adorable baby dress for a friend!

Punky top for my daughter!

                                                                                                            

all stitched up!