The Red Romper

Hello Readers. I really like red. I think it is bright and cheerful. (Two things I want to be.) I saw this red knit "dress" at a clothes swap and thought it was a basic mini-dress. Or maybe a tunic. I took it home (Washed it.) and it hung on my clothes rack for a few months. I finally got to it and planned on finding a way to make sure it was long enough to wear as a dress. But I got a surprise.

It was soft but felt really bulky and heavy at the bottom. I realized there was more to this dress than I first thought. It was a skort-dress. I have never seen a skort dress before. I have seen skorts. (You know, a skirt with attached shorts under it.) 

I didn't like the double layer around my hips. It added size and shapelessness. Something had to be done.

All this fabric is like butt insulation. Not good for summer.

I do not own a romper so I decided to make one. I was just flying by the seat of my pants (Er, romper.) as I played with the fabric on this refashion. I decided to remove the skirt. There was a seam around the middle where the skirt was attached so I just used it as a guide to cut the skirt off. It is a knit so there was no fraying. That was easy but it was very loose and shapeless and needed more help.

I attached elastic inside at the waist. I used the seam as my guide and machine sewed the elastic to the romper. I wanted some shape and elastic seemed like the way to go.

This is the skirt piece. I decided to cut off the finished bottom edge to use as a belt.

Here is a photo of that cutting process. It wasn't really a process. It was just snip-snip-snip.

The belt seemed like a nice touch but isn't required since I had put in the elastic around the waist. And really, once I had the belt ready, I could have skipped the elastic.

  But the belt is handy to have. Actually you will see it again in my next post.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

Simple Summer Shorts

Hello Readers. It is hot and humid here. We are in the middle of a heat wave. It is a great time to make some shorts. So, that's what I did. I messed up pretty badly when I was making them and had to come up with a repair/correction plan. 

I started with these jeans. They were a little baggy. That was actually great because I didn't want tight shorts. I wanted a little bit of a looser fit. I cut them off and planned on making a rolled cuff. But I cut them way to short in the back of one leg. They were REALLY way too short. I would never be able to bend down or move freely without revealing more in the back than I would ever want to. I needed more coverage in back. What could I do to fix it?

I decided to add some trim to add length. I used a wide ribbon to add as much length to that one leg as I could. I couldn't just attach the trim on the hem of the shorts. The shorts were uneven so I had to measure as I pinned the ribbon to make sure it was evenly added to the leg openings.

I just made sure each side was exactly the same by comparing each side as I pinned the ribbon on.

I also added some ribbon to the back pockets to match the legs. 

Here is what was cut off from the jeans. You can see how the cut was really uneven in this photo. The picture on the right shows my cutting mistake. Oops!

The navy blue trim looks nice with the dark denim. It coordinates rather than stand out.

I have tried to make shorts before and I have messed up many times Now when I lay the jeans out to cut I keep the back of the waistband higher than the front. This leaves more fabric to cover your backside. Humans of all sizes (Me included.) are bigger in the back than they are in the front. There has to be more fabric back there.

I also try to make the outer legs higher/shorter than the inner legs. This allows enough fabric to fully cover the crotch area. It will all look straight and even when actually worn.

Here are the shorts in the sunshine. Yes, I am as pale as I look in this pictures. You don't need to adjust the screen, it's shocking but it's real. I just don't get tan. It's just not going to happen. Every summer requires gallons of sunblock.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

The Goonies Shirt

Hello Readers. This red Goonies shirt came my way recently.  Do you remember "The Goonies"? I was a kid in the 80's and I saw this movie in the theater. (That was the only place to see movies back then.) I couldn't remember the entire movie but I knew I liked it. The rag-tag group of kids were loud and obnoxious and they save the day in the end. I couldn't recall all the details but they went to find a treasure and had an exciting adventure on the way. Every kid likes movies like that, right?

The shirt was big on me. I guess I could have saved it as a night shirt but I wanted to wear it during the day as a shirt. It would need to be altered. I was feeling some nostalgia for the 80's and I didn't want to hide the shirt away. I wanted to wear it in public.

I used a shirt I liked as a guide and marked the arms and sides. I liked the loose fit of the white shirt and I liked the rounded hem at the bottom. I could copy it with this red shirt. I used my sewing machine and made a smaller shirt with the shape I wanted. I just traced the white shirt and cut it out. I connected the sides and arms and I was done.

I wore this shirt for one of my favorite activities. It was to pick up some Chinese take-out for dinner. My favorite food? Take-out. I have no strength to resist the fried rice. I am weak.

I came home and put in the DVD I had stashed away in the cabinet. It's dinner and a movie without any cooking for me this night. 

The shirt is loose and flowy which is nice in the heat. The neck and shoulders fit well so it doesn't look like a night shirt anymore.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

And remember, Goonies never say die.

The Watermelon Skirt

Hello Readers. I created a skirt recently that looks like a slice of watermelon. Why did I do this? I wanted to try it and it seemed like such a fun look for the hot weather. 

I had this pink dress in my refashion stash. It was too small on top for me to wear. I also had this green skirt. The skirt is a refashion from last June. I wasn't wearing it very often so I used part of it for the watermelon skirt.

I started by painting black ovals along the bottom of the skirt. I used a sponge to make the ovals. I also added a 2 inch band of green fabric to the bottom of the pink skirt. (I just cut the bottom of the green skirt off and attached it to the pink skirt.) I attached white rick-rack to the skirt right between the pink and the green to make it look like watermelon rind. 

You can see where I cut the skirt off the dress. I cut right above the elastic so I could use it as the waistband of my new skirt. This saved a lot of time and made this an easy refashion.

Here is my finished skirt. It is really cute and sweet. I thought wearing a black top would help keep it from getting too cute or too sweet. It is a lot of fun to wear.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

Shorter Flowers

Hello Readers. How are you today? I did a simple dress refashion recently. I found this great floral dress at a clothes swap. It fit perfectly and I liked the little cap sleeves. There was no problem except for the length. It was SO long on me. Going shorter seemed like the way to go.

I made a big cut across the bottom of the dress. I was trying to pick a spot that would look good with the buttons down the front of the dress. I wanted it to look balanced and I wanted to leave a little plain fabric at the bottom of the dress beneath the buttons. 

I decided to make a lettuce leaf hem at the bottom. It is basically a zig-zag at the very edge of the fabric. You pull the fabric gently from both sides and you get a nice little ruffled edge when you're done.

Here is my ruffled edge. It has a nice look. You don't need to fold the fabric under so you don't lose any of the length.

I wore this to church but I also wore it in the backyard. You can see I was photobombed by a cute little guy. I also played in our deluxe backyard pool.(Just kidding, it's pretty low budget.) But this dress is very versatile.

Is my child playing outside in his pj's? Yes, he is.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.

Cow Appreciation Day

Hello Readers. How are you? Today is a fun day at my house. It's Cow Appreciation Day. It is not a big deal to everyone but it is to me. One day a year ChickFilA gives away free food to anyone who shows up in a cow costume. I have been doing this for many years, ever since my older kids were little. They liked dressing up as a cow when they were kids, and they liked going out to eat, and they liked waffle fries.

(ChickFilA didn't pay me for this post. They don't even know me. I just like chicken.)

I had a cow costume so, I was ready. My little guy needs something to wear. My daughter gave me this commemorative shirt for this years Cow Appreciation Day. I decided to use it for my little guys costume.

I tried to trace his body onto the shirt. I bribed him with M&Ms to get him to hold still. This plan backfired, the candy made him silly and full of manic energy. He was unable to hold still.

I tried a second idea. I used some clothes as a pattern. This is a costume to wear for fun so I am not worried about a perfect fit. I just need a basic costume for a 2 year old.

Here is his suit. It looks a lot like pajamas. That is OK, he is 2. As long as he gets to eat french fries, he will be happy. I stitched this suit together on my machine. It was very simple and quick. Now that I sewed it closed, how am I going to get him in and out of it? I had an idea for that.

I cut a 5 inch slit down the back of the suit. It made the head hole open up so I can get my toddler in his suit. I turned the edges under and that pulled the sides closer when I buttoned it. Pulling the sides together made the top a little smaller and helped the fit.

Here is the finished suit. It is perfect for the occasion. You are wondering why I didn't show it on my son right?

Well, here is a quick view of my attempt at a photo shoot with my active 2 year old son. He just wasn't having it. It didn't seem worth fighting about.

My costume is made of cotton sweat pants and a hooded sweatshirt. I cut up a men's undershirt for the white spots. I used pink felt for the udders. 

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself. 

The T-shirt Dress

Hello Readers. I love getting new refashion ideas from anywhere I can. I saw a video on Facebook recently that had some quick refashion ideas. You can see it here. (Thanks for posting the video Liz.) One of the ideas was to take a big short sleeve T-shirt and make it into a strapless dress. It sounded fun so, I decided to try it.

I started with a big short sleeve T-shirt with a round neck.  Any T-shirt will do, I "borrowed" this one from my husband. I would lounge in my husbands shirt but it isn't fun or flattering. 

 The short sleeves get tucked in and become large pockets. I really liked that part of the dress. 

(Stitch the sleeves closed and the pockets can hold all your belongings.)

The neck becomes the top of the strapless dress. A belt makes the dress fit much better.

I didn't like the fit at the top of the dress, as you can see from the picture below. I felt a little overexposed, the dress was a tight, and had a revealing fit at the top.

I thought adding the vest made it a little more wearable. I just wasn't very comfortable with the tight fit of the chest. It could be that this dress just didn't work for me, you can easily try this idea at home and see how it fits you.

Thanks for reading, now go make something fun for yourself.