Bridesmaid dress restructured

My friend Emily is in a wedding this month, but she also happens to be seven months pregnant, and the only maternity dress made by the company the bride chose for the dresses was a bit unsuitable and quite immodest.

Here is the before.  Em is much smaller than I am, so it doesn't zip on my dressform, but the back really does come down in a vee all the way to the midriff band.  The dress that the other girls are wearing is knee length and don't have the train/scarf thing in back, so there was quite a bit of fabric to scavenge.

And here is the finished product!  I took the length up to her knees, so that she'll at least match the other bridesmaids in that regard.  I was a bit worried about setting a sleeve into a sleeveless armscye and still having room for Emily to move.  Fortunately, she is quite petite, so I had to remove about a 1/2 inch from the armscye at the shoulder, which did a nice job tightening up the scye as well, so she can raise her arms without the dress coming up with it.  It helps that she wanted a cap sleeve.

In back, I added a panel to cover the open vee.  It is cut on the bias to allow for movement there as well.

So that Emily will be able to get in and out of the dress, only one side of the panel is sewn in.  The other side attaches with tiny snaps along the edge.
This was a pretty interesting project and taxed my ingenuity at quite a few points!  It was fun, but I'm glad to get back to patterns!  Up next will be the bridal bolero, then I'll  need to get busy with Easter sewing.  Where has this month gone?

Refashion: Men's cords to boy's (Ottobre 01/2009-23)

Logan has shredded two pairs of pants in as many weeks, so I needed a quick way to replace them.  Enter an old pair of Mitch's cords and the pattern I made for him last week (already traced!).

The pattern is a quick and dirty elastic waist pant.  Of course, Ottobre gives you tons of fun pocket and detail options, but for these, I didn't use any of them.

The front pockets came from the original pants and I didn't add any back pockets.  That made these crazy quick to make.  Good thing, since corduroy isn't all that sturdy and these are on their second life already.

I neglected to take a before picture, but here is how I laid them out for cutting.  First I slashed the inseam and the front crotch, then laid them flat right sides together.  I lined up the side seams as best I could, then placed the pattern pieces to incorporate the front pockets on the front pant piece and an unembellished section of the back leg became the new back pants.  As you can see, I'm not going to get away with this for too much longer - Logan is getting too big!

McCall's 5560

Since my fabric closet is currently overflowing, I have a pile of refashionables sitting on the floor of the sewing room, one of which was a Tinkerbelle scrub top given to me by a friend.  Every time Myra comes in, she brings me the top, as a reminder that it still isn't a dress for her...

So now it is.

Here is the scrub top "before".  In order to get the dress out of this top, I did have to unpick the pockets and the hem.  This left a slight fade line, but I just used the front of the scrubs for the back of the dress, and it really isn't noticeable in the finished article.

Here is the dress.  I used McCall's 5560, which is a "Stitch 'n save" pattern.  I didn't have very high expectations for the quality of the instructions, but considering the simplicity of the dress, I didn't think it would matter much.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they did include the little things like trimming seams and understitching the facing.  I've noticed that the "easy" patterns tend to skip things like that, even though I think they are pretty essential.  My only objection was the hand sewn hem.  Kidding, right?  This is a play dress...

I didn't have enough Tinkerbelle to do the facings, so I just used a scrap from my stash.  Other than the 2 bucks for the pattern, which I hadn't used before, I bought nothing for this dress.  Not bad!

I think Myra likes it.  She spent all morning saying, ""Belle, pretty!".  I'm not sure why she is carting around that binky today.  She found it in a box of baby toys, but never took one before.  Whatever.  She's a weird child.

Repurposed shorts

Finally! The last of the birthday sewing! Whew! These are the shorts that I made from the tee shirt that also gave me Logan's Ducky shirt. It was a really big tee shirt...
It was originally a shirt from a local middle school's Field Day, and I thought that their mascot was pretty cute, so I incorporated the screen print into the front of the shorts. The shorts are (again) New Look 6641.

Once I was a Whirl-Away

Yes, you've met this dress before. I really love the IDEA of this dress. It is cute and easy to make. I added nursing openings and they worked great. Unfortunately, even after much tweaking and adjusting, I just couldn't get the shoulders and upper chest to fit. The armholes were too wide and sagged. The underskirt was too short and the overskirt too long. All in all, it wasn't wearable. It has been sitting on the floor of my sewing closet for months making me grumpy.

But I was inspired by clevergirl's awesome remake of her 4790. So, now it is a fun wrap skirt!! I took off 4 inches from the top, which lengthened the waistline to the point that it wraps around me twice. I added a waistband per the instructions in Sew What! Skirts. The waistband fabric was salvaged from the too short underskirt. There was just enough to match plaids and go around me thrice. Perfect!

An added bonus - this fabric was too sheer to wear without a slip (I hate slips!!), but now that it is double layered, it is fine.

Between projects...

I found myself in a very unusual situation yesterday. There was nothing to sew! I usually have several projects cut out ahead of time, since I find it much easier to cut something out (on the dining room table) while the kids are awake. It is almost impossible to sit down to my sewing machine when they are both up. Yesterday, they both napped for a marathon amount of time and I finished a project but didn't have the next one cut out!! What's a sewist to do?? So, I decided to make a skirt for Myra and a tutorial for you.How cute is that!? The idea came from my friend Hayley. She had a yard sale a few weeks ago and I bought her out of cute stuff to repurpose. She had this sweet little boys button up that I hadn't seen and she suggested that I turn it into a skirt for Myra. Sweet idea!
Here is the shirt. It is a boys size small. Here is how it becomes a skirt!!

1. Measure your kid and decide how long you want the skirt to end up. Be sure to add an allowance for the elastic casing at the top. I like to use the width of my elastic, plus 1/2 inch to turn under and sew. So, for my 3/4 inch elastic, I added 1 1/2 inches to my measurement. Since I am using the existing hem at the bottom of the shirt, I didn't add an allowance for the hem, but if you need to, do so.

2. Using the measurement in step one, measure up from the bottom edge. Since this shirt had a curved hem, I measured from the highest point to make sure that the skirt was long enough at the end. Cut off the top of the shirt at your measurement.

3. Stitch down the placket so that the skirt doesn't gap. I thought it would be cute to leave a few inches below the lowest button open, sort of as a slit, but you can stitch it all the way down if you choose.
4. Make a casing at the top edge by folding under your total hem allowance, then tucking under 1/4 inch to clean finish the edge. You may have to remove a button from the area of your casing. Just snip it off. Edgestitch the casing down, leaving an inch open at one of the seamlines to insert your elastic. 5. Cut a piece of elastic about 1 inch less than the waist measurement of your girlie. Insert your elastic into the casing. I use a safety pin on the end I am pushing through and a straight pin on the other end to keep it from pulling all the way in.6. Stitch your elastic together with a wide zigzag and edgestitch closed your casing. Add girlie trim and wear!
This method can be used to make a skirt out of pretty much anything and for pretty much anyone. I generally prefer a more shaped skirt for a grown up, since the elastic waist tends to add bulk at the waist, hip and butt - not places I want added bulk - but it can be done. Here is a skirt I made out of two pillowcases for me. I only put elastic in the back half to reduce waist bulk. It worked out OK, since the fabric was quite thin.

This skirt was also made this way, but with the fabric cut along the selvage edge on the crossgrain. Since the selvage became the bottom edge, I didn't have to hem. For the width I measured Myra's hips (with diaper on!) and roughly double it, so that there would be plenty of room for movement. For a slimmer skirt, you could use less width, but be sure that it measures at least 3 inches greater than your widest part, or you won't be able to get it on!

This is a fun and easy way to make a quick skirt in less than an hour. Go ahead! Give it a try!

June the last

I told myself at the beginning of this month that I was going to post every day in June, and here it is the 30th, and I have! Yay! Now we'll just see if I can keep it up...

I have recently (courtesy of my fabric diet) found myself very interested in repurposing clothing. I have found some great clothes both in our own closets and at yard sales that I can't wait to cut up and make new. I have done a few things (tees for Logan, polo to dress and shirtdress for Myra). This is the first thing I have done for me. I know it isn't very creative. Jeans to skirt has been done to death. But I like it; it fits, and I didn't toss a perfectly well fitting pair of jeans into the trash, so I'm happy with the result.
I actually wear it quite often; more than I expected to, since I hadn't been much of a skirt person. With the unbelievable heat in Texas this summer I have found the comfort and cool of a skirt to be life saving, so I've been making and wearing them quite a lot.
I think more of my jeans will be going this route...

Shorts and great plans

Well, after forcing the shorts off his sleeping body (I think he likes them!), I was able to get a few pictures last night. Here is the back.And a close up of the pocket. I think they're a bit wild, but that's OK when you're not quite three, and Logan loves them.
I also went to a yard sale yesterday morning. I'm putting myself on a fabric diet, at least until I can use up some of what I already have. That means yard sale tee-shirts aren't off limits, right? Anyway, I cruised the house for loose change and went. There is always a yardsale somewhere in my neighborhood, and we were not disappointed.
I got two shirts and a skirt (and two rattling balls for the kids) for a buck fifty! Sweet! The skirt is too small, but only by a little and it is long and an a-line, so I am going to chop off the top half to make it knee length and add a drawstring and have myself a comfy linen skirt. One of the shirts is a XXXL size yellow tee shirt that I bet I can get both shirt and shorts for Logan out of. Tons of fabric. The other shirt is a way too small for me button down shirt with row of pintucking and lace insertion on the bodice. I think it will make a very lovely dress for Myra. And all for a dollar fifty! I have to start hitting more yard sales!