The $1 skirt

So, I found this mens XL long-sleeve tee/sweatshirt at Walmart yesterday for $1! I had to get it - especially after being so inspired by all the t-shirt-to-skirt tutorials I've seen around lately! Well, this one didn't turn out how I expected, and it's not 100% me, but it's so comfy I'm sure I'll wear it often! Here's how I did it (more or less - knit has the wonderful quality of "fudginess" - fudge it, and it'll probably work without too much trouble.)

Step 1:

Cut the neck and sleeves off just below behind the seams.

Step 2:

Take the sleeve seam out and lay them out flat.

Step 3:

I was envisioning a wide waistband. Since I'm really small (as in 25" waist), I could do this; I didn't have a whole lot extra. If you're thinking wider waistband as well, try that first; it's not that hard to go back and cut them in half for a narrower, but longer, waistband.

Step 4:

Sew the front and back waistband pieces together.

Steps 5 &6:

With right sides together, sew the waistband into the neck opening, easing as necessary. Then sew up the side seams. Depending on the shirt you're working with, you may or may not want to do as I did - sew to/from the bottom all the way. When I thought about just going to the existing side seams, it seemed like it was going to hand awkwardly.

Step 7:

The potential last step! Fold the waistband down with the skirt and side seams inside. Make sure the waistband is down over the skirt seam, and then stitch-in-the-ditch: top stitch as close to the skirt seam as possible. Check to make sure you caught it all the way around, and go back over what somehow escaped. There you have it! I really like this version, like, really. It was almost exactly what I had envisioned! The only issue? It was quite tight around the rear end... Yeah, not exactly something I wanted. So, back to the drawing board - sorta.

Finished!

I didn't get pictures of this process since I wasn't really sure what I was doing. There was not enough fabric left for a long godet, so I had to piece my own (thanks, Olivia, for the idea!). I added a pocket (a very narrow pocket...) with an extra piece of fabric on top of the second section from the top, and I pleated the bottom section. Oh, I bound the pocket opening with a random piece of satin ribbon we had laying around; probably not the best material, but hey, I just wanted to get it done! Trust me, there was NOTHING hard about this (except when I tried to to chevron strips for the bottom section; THAT failed...). I just cut the skirt roughly 6" from the left side seam right through the waist band and hem. In hindsight (which is never around when you need it...), I would do it rather closer. Then I flare the opening and started laying random pieces across it, cutting them to size. And that's what I ended up with, folks! I may do a little last-minute/after project top-stitching, but then again, I may not.

I very much hope to be doing more sewing in the near future; I need to! So hopefully it won't be too long before I'm back here agin. 'til then! :)

Dress to Skirt

So, I bought a dress the other day. $15 for a plus size, brown knit, tube dress (I guess - no sleeves anyway). When I got home I was pretty sure I was crazy, but I had a vision for it. The trick there is to get it done before the vision escapes you, or else you are crazy. So it got washed and dried, and I set to work on it at the earliest possible moment. But I am getting ahead of myself. Here is the original item:

I'm only guessing it was supposed to be a dress. It's really long on me as a skirt, and I don't have short legs.

My first order of business was to see how long I actually wanted it. I was hoping I could just cut off that top part, fold over the top of the skirt, and insert some elastic, but it was going to be a little shorter than my vision then. So, I took out the tack-down stitches from the top part (it was about 6-8 inches wide once not folded over), cut off about 2 inches of that, and folded the rest down, roughly in half:

In this picture you can sort of see the piece of thin elastic that's been stitched over in two rows. Well, I stitched my folded over piece along the top row of that stitching - if that makes sense. I made a casing, leaving about 3 inches open.

Through those 3 inches, I threaded some wide elastic (the length of my waist) all the way through the casing. Then I stitched the ends of the elastic together, being careful to make sure the elastic wasn't twisted inside the casing. At this point, it's a good idea to make sure you measured the elastic correctly; try on the skirt. If you like the way it fits, sew up the 3 inch opening. If you don't like how it fits, adjust as necessary. I ended up adjusting mine after I sewed up the opening (it was late. I was exhausted. I didn't want to try it on when I should have. It did fit... etc. etc. etc. It fits much better now.). I also added a line of stitching from the center back seam straight up to the top of the waist band as well. My casing was really a little too big for my elastic, so it was laying weird. Thankfully the line of stitching seems to have helped that.

The finished product! It's floor length on me, but that was my vision. Anybody who's been following me on Pinterest lately knows that I've been slightly obsessed with knit maxi skirts. I'm definitely happy to add one to my wardrobe for $15 and maybe an hour of work (probably not even that).

2 more down!

Woohoo! 2 more sweater alterations out of the way! Again, not too creatively, but done nonetheless, and I'm happy with them. :)

6 Shirts

4 Skirts

Tally Update

Until today, I hadn't sewn at all since Wednesday. Sorta lose motivation, you know? Well, that and the fact that Thanksgiving lasted through the weekend, the Lord's Day was full, and yesterday and Monday were busy with other things, including getting over a cold. I'm going to try really hard now to stick to my 2-a-day goal. I went a long way in accomplishing that today since I successfully, if not overly creatively, conquered 2 sweaters! Which brings us to the tally:

4 Shirts

4 Skirts

Alteration/Repair Count

I worked a good bit of the day Wednesday on that stack of stuff next to the sewing machine. I knocked out 1 shirt and 4 skirts, and I'm sorta-kinda in the middle of another shirt (although I'm pretty close to just calling that one a failure...).

Just thought I'd pop by while I had a minute and create a tally! I think the total (of successful alterations or repairs is something like this:

2 Shirts
4 Skirts

My goal is kind of a 2-a-day thing on normal days, which, obviously, wasn't yesterday, and isn't today, seeing as how we're about to leave for another day with family! Gotta go!

Show time!

I don't have a before picture, but imagine this in a men's medium size, mock-turtleneck, hugeness. Yep, I wore it anyway, but, nonetheless, it landed in my ginormous pile of things to alter. So, I decided to change it up a bit today. And, boy, change it up I did!

I actually had enough material after cutting the original shirt all to pieces to do Vogue 8536. Well, more or less anyway. I based this off of it, and I like how it turned out! :)

I've done that pattern before, but I did a different view. Last time it worked, per se, but my fabric wasn't as stretchy as it's supposed to be. This time it worked a lot better - despite the fabric still not being quite as stretchy as it's supposed to be, I think. I'm assuming it's not as stretchy anyway; I didn't check it. The neck facing/binding piece was not able to stretch as long as it needed to to cover the neck opening. That wasn't a problem though; I just gathered about two inches of the neck opening on either side of the "V." It added a nice touch, I think.

Tomboy Toddlers' Denim Jumper

Yesterday I was doing some minor repair/adjusting work on a few of my clothes. I didn't take long, so after I finished, I was dealing with some old overalls that Mama was getting rid of. I'd already taken the hardware off of them, so pretty much all that was left was the denim. I don't know about y'all, but I really can't stand getting rid of perfectly good fabric, especially if it's denim. So then I had this crazy idea: Why not make a little girls' gored skirt? I set about doing just that (terrible timing on my part; we had far too much going on for me to start an unnecessary project!). Once I'd sewn several gores together, I realized that, for the length, it was going to be pretty heavy for a little thing to keep on with only elastic. I didn't want to get into buttonholes, and all the zippers we had on hand were too long. So, I turned it into a jumper!

I was thinking of myself as a young(er) girl. I was usually tomboy, through and through. I figure I wasn't the only one out there. This jumper is for those little tomboys, and for their mothers who have to wash all their clothes. ;) It's cute in an attempt to cultivate the girl in the tomboy, but at the same time it's comfortable and hardy so as not to restrict that vigorous energy she exudes every healthy, waking moment!

Boys' Western Shirt

For this shirt I used Simplicity 5366. I did view B, size medium for the boys. This is a birthday present for my soon-to-be-8 year old brother, so SHHHH!!! ;)

I pretty much just followed the pattern. I can't really think of any changes! Shocking, I know. I did consistently put the buttonholes off-center, but our buttonholer is such a pain to use, I wasn't about to redo them! I've had it cut out for a couple of days now, but I didn't get a chance to sew until today. It was a full day of sewing, but I did finish it in one day!

By the way, the khaki that I used in the yoke was an old skirt my sister was getting rid of. I love it when I can re-purpose things into something entirely new, and completely unrecognizable from the original!

Winnie the Pooh Tiered Skirt

I just love how fast these skirts are! I was able to use some of the scrap fabric from THIS outfit to create this adorable little tiered skirt.

I didn't have a pattern, and, to tell the truth, I didn't even measure anything. I just cut according to what seemed to make sense. Of course, I didn't do the elastic casing to what would make sense, but I was having a brainless moment when I did that. It works though, so all's good.

Thrifty style!

This is probably my favorite kind of style: the kind I can create inexpensively and quickly!

Yeah... I don't have a good picture of this, but I thought a post with a picture of a creation was a lot better than no post at all! This jumper was SO easy! I found the denim vest at Goodwill for somewhere around $2. The skirt fabric I had on hand from a trip to my all-time favorite fabric store, Sir's! I just cut out a couple of rectangular panels, and gathered them onto the vest. I put the two seams in front and back, so I left about 4" unsewn on the front seam. That I hemmed and put 3 snaps down. It was probably unnecessary, but it does make getting it on and off easier.

Here's the step-by-step version:

• Buy a cheap vest. Make sure you love the fit!

• Buy some fabric. I probably used 2.5 yds on my jumper, but yardage will vary depending on the desired length.

• WASH/PRE-SHRINK YOUR FABRIC!!! Always an important step. Oh, and you may want to wash your vest too!

• Cut 2-4 rectangular panels out of your fabric. (If I had this jumper to do over again, I would do 4 panels and add in-seam, side pockets!)

• Sew up all your seams EXCEPT for 4-6" on your front seam. Iron the seams open.

• Narrow hem the 4-6" you left unsewn.

• Gather your skirt to the same width of where you want to place it on your vest, and pin the skirt to the vest. COOL TIP! Zig-Zag stitch over a long piece of embroidery thread, and pull the embroidery thread for easy gathering!

• Sew your gathered skirt onto your vest. You're almost done!!!

• Try it on for size, and hem up the bottom of the skirt.

• Enjoy your thrifty, stylish, new jumper!