Dressember #9- No Sewing Needed

 Hello Readers. 2022 is almost over. Congratulations! If you made it it this far then it's like you won the game. I have been refashioning dresses all month in honor of Dressember. This organization works to fight human trafficking and forced labor in the U.S. and world-wide. They estimate that 1/10 children worldwide is forced into child labor. You can go to dressember.org to learn more and see how you can help. 

December is a really busy month for everyone. It is the busiest time for me at work and of course at home too. This is my last refashion for the month and it is an easy one. No sewing needed. I just needed to do some cutting. 

Before and after.

I love the tiers of this full skirt but this knit dress was too long for me. When I walked up stairs I was stepping all over the hemline and tripping. It was an accident waiting to happen It needed to be shorter. 

 

This dress was an extra-small, why was it so long? I usually wear a medium and this dress fit well in the body. It must just run big. 

 

I had a plan to make this dress shorter and safer for me to wear. I only needed to cut it down to size.

I measured the ruffle so I could make sure to get the length right. I also noticed how imperfect the original edge was. This put my mind at ease about how good my cutting would have to be. 

I cut the new ruffled edge the same length as the old one. Each tier of this dress was made with unhemmed/raw cut edges. It makes the dress very lightweight and the edges do not fray because it is a knit. 

This new dress is almost exactly the same, it's just shorter. 

I loved the fun twirly skirt and I feel like I still have that. This shorter dress is a better length for me. I can walk without tripping. Thanks for reading along and I wish you a Happy New Year!

*Year End Note From Chickie- Casual, fun, twirly... I love it all.

Dressember #8- Mother of the Bride

 Hello Readers. I got this this "mother-of-the-bride" dress as a hand-me-down and I loved the sage green color. It was so pretty. But it was very long on me and the jacket just made me look older. I decided to take the jacket away and see if I could make the dress look less matronly. 

Before and after.

This dress fit well when I tried it on, it was just way too long. Even the highest of high heels couldn't fix this. I needed to give this dress a whole new hem. That meant I could choose the length I liked best. 

I used my dress form to make sure I was cutting the skirt even all around. This dress had a lining so I actually had to cut and hem 2 skirts. I used a yard stick to make sure the skirt was the same distance from the floor all the way around the dress form. I cut the lining 2 inches shorter than the outer skirt.

The lining was easy to hem. I just cut it and used my serger on that cut edge to control fraying.

Here is actual footage of my serger at work. It's not that exciting.

 

The outer layer of the dress got a traditional hem. I turned it under twice and stitched it down. I tried to make the smallest little hem possible. This material was very slippery and it was hard to control. It turned out well overall.

A shorter length was all this dress needed to fit better, look better and it took no time at all. I could still wear the jacket if I wanted but I have a plan for that. We will get to that in 2023. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year End Note From Chickie- I think this will be simple and timeless.

Dressember #7-The Plaid Jacket

 Hello Readers. I have been talking about Dressember every December for the past few years. They do amazing work to fight human trafficking and they do it with a style challenge. I like clothes and dresses especially so, of course, I was in. Dressember estimates that in 2021 there were 50 million people trapped in human trafficking situations worldwide. This problem won't just go away and survivors need help. All my refashions this month are dresses and I am wearing a dress or tie everyday as an advocate.

I have seen so many jackets as dresses.  I thought I would try to make one of my own. I found this jacket a few years ago at a swap and it just screamed Christmas. I used the sleeves last year to make a belt. This year I want to use the jacket itself.

Before and after.

I removed the shoulder pads because they were the largest shoulder pads I had ever seen in my life. I used my seam ripper to unpick the stitches and pulled the pads out of the jacket. 

 

 I wanted to turn the edges of the armholes under so I had a sleeveless look. I turned the edges under and sewed along the edge of the armhole.

 

 I added a strip of Velcro to keep the front of the jacket closed when I walked.  Put the Velcro under the button closure.

The jacket was too low cut for me so I wore a shirt under it. It is definitely a mini dress. What do you think? Would you wear a jacket as a dress? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year End Note From Chickie- This seems like it's only going to be worn at Christmas but I like it a lot.

Dressember #6- The Velvet Cape Dress

 Hello Readers. I am refashioning dresses all month in honor of Dressember. I try to advocate for this organization every year to help raise awareness and raise money to fight human trafficking and assist survivors. 78% of the organizations in the Dressember network employ survivors. This kind of thoughtful planning gives survivors hope for the future. Go to dressember.org to learn more.

Have you ever gotten something from Amazon that you didn't order? I received this black velvet cape along with the item I actually ordered. (Amazon did not want it back so I kept it.) I wasn't sure what to do with it. It seemed very Halloween-ish.

 

Before and after. 

 

It would be perfect for a Halloween costume, what could it be now, in this month of wearing and refashioning dresses? It was too light weight for a coat or jacket.The fabric was kind of cheap quality, what could it be used for?

I grabbed this book with multiple patterns. I knew there was a dress in here that would work. Even if the fabric isn't great quality it would be great fabric to use to test out a pattern before using expensive fabric.

This is a simple one piece pattern that I could fit on this velvet piece. It's a quick and easy sew project.

 

I didn't even need to used the upper part of the cape. I can save it for another project.

 

The pattern called for bias tape as the straps and to finish the cut edges around the top of the dress.

 

I stitched the gold bias tape onto the dress with my sewing machine. 

 

I really liked how the pattern turned out. The knit fabric was a good choice but better quality fabric would make a nicer dress but this did work out well enough. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

*Year End Note From Chickie- There is more to come from this cape in January 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Fabric Ornaments

 Hello Readers. It is Christmas time and that might mean decorating a tree with ornaments. I had an idea to make ornaments using fabric and small embroidery hoops. I thought this would be a great way to save a piece of fabric or scrap from a sentimental sewing project. 

These ornaments were quick and easy to put together. They also gave me a way to use these little embroidery pieces.

 

 I got my embroidery pieces from a failed sewing project but you could use almost anything. Scraps from a wedding or christening gown. A piece of a favorite baby blanket. The character from a t-shirt your child loved but outgrew. Anything you like.

 

When you place the piece of fabric between the 2 pieces of the embroidery hoop and tighten the screw on top the fabric will be very secure and will not come out unless you loosen the screw. There will be a lot of excess fabric sticking out in the back though.
 

You can use scissors to trim that excess off. Cut as close the the embroidery hoop as you can to remove as much excess as possible. 

The back of my ornament looked OK but if you want to hide the back of your fabric you can glue on a piece of felt. Felt doesn't fray so it will be great as a backing.

Trace around the embroidery hoop so you can cut out a circle that is exactly the right size for your hoop. .

Grab some fabric or craft glue to attach your felt circle.

Put glue on the back, all the way around the hoop. 

Press the felt in place so it really gets adhered to the hoop. I let my ornaments dry over night.

The felt gives the ornament a very clean look in the back but you can skip this step if you don't think it is necessary for your ornament. 

When I bought my little wooden hoops I saw this brightly colored plastic hoop. 

I thought this would be a fun kid project. I let my son put an ornament together using basically the same method. He liked this Santa fabric scrap. He was able to put the fabric in and cut off the excess. I made sure the screw was tightened and would keep the fabric in place for him before he started cutting.

This ornament turned out cute and he was very happy with it. 

I hope you can make an ornament using this idea and I wish you very Happy Holidays.

*Year End Note From Chickie- These are still on the tree and I will pack them away after the holiday season is over.

Dressember #4- Plaid Overload

 Hello Readers. This is the fourth dress I am refashioning this month in honor of Dressember. Dressember is a style challenge and a fund raiser all in one. We were dresses or ties all month to raise awareness and money to fight human trafficking and assist survivors. Dressember estimated that 50 million people were living in human trafficking situations in 2021. Go to dressember.org to learn more about how you can help. 

Let's talk about this dress. This flannel was really overwhelming. It was soft and cozy but the bright plaid was too much. 

 

Before and after.

This dress was not doing anything good for me. I think the tie in the back was to improve the shape of the dress and make it more flattering but even that tie couldn't fix this dress for me. 

I put the dress on my dress form inside out and pinned the sides to make the dress fit better. I cut the bottom of the dress shorter too. It really did not need to be floor length. 

 

I used my serger on the new side seams because you can see how the fabric was fraying.
 

I thought short sleeves would be easier on the eyes I wasn't sure about this look. But then I found something else.

I thought the dress had shoulder pads and I wanted to remove them. But they weren't actually shoulder pads. They were these little fabric pieces and the fabric was pleated and looked like a little ruffle. That gave me an idea. 

 

I cut the sleeves off and left about 1/4 of an inch in place. I turned it under and stitched it down to make a sleeveless dress. 

 

I pinned the little ruffles to the shoulders so they peeked out from under the dress. They were such a great detail and they were more interesting than the simple short sleeves were. 

 

This is such a big improvement over the beginning look. The green plaid with small lines of red is perfect for the Christmas season. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

*Year End Note From Chickie- I love the plaid and the extra fabric from the skirt became a scarf.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making a Snack Center for Your Delivery Drivers

 It is the holiday season and one thing I like to do this time of year is make a snack center to say thank you for all my mail and package delivery people. I get a lot of mail and packages all year so this is a way to give a little treat to people who help me all year. It's really easy to set up. 

This table is on my front porch and all my packages are dropped off here. It is easy to see and easy to grab a snack and/or a drink when someone come by. 

My first step was to clean up the front porch a little. This is a very small porch but it can get dusty and leaves tend to collect in the corner. I swept it clean. 

I wiped the table down too. I wanted it nice and neat before I put out snacks. 

I also made a sign so that everyone would know what the snacks were sitting there for and feel welcome to take some things for themselves. 

I got this bin from Target. I choose it because it is plastic and won't get hurt if the weather is wet. Any bin or box is fine, use whatever you like. 

I bought a variety of snacks and drinks. I picked things that were nonperishable and already in packages so they would stay safe outside. I made sure there was some sweet stuff like candy and chocolate cookies in case someone wants a treat. I also picked some things like cheese and crackers and jerky in case someone doesn't want sweets. When these snacks are gone I will replace them with others... granola bars, dried fruit, chips and trail mix would all be great. I kept the drinks simple and put out water, tea and sports drinks.

I added a Christmas tea towel to make it festive but this isn't really necessary. I tried to set up the bin so it would be easy to see everything. I used a small box to hold the small snacks and keep them neat. 

 

I lined up all the drinks so they were visible. The candy canes wouldn't stand up so I put them in a little container of their own. A coffee mug or cup would work for this too.

I shifted things around until the other snacks fit in the big bin with the drinks.

 

I don't think the specific snacks or drinks matter very much use whatever you want to share with people. I just wanted it to be a thank you to for all my many packages through the year so I didn't worry too much about it. I bring the whole bin inside every evening so the drinks do not freeze solid and explode. I put it back on the porch in the morning. I hope your holidays are happy and wish you all best snacks and treats.
 *Year End Note From Chickie- Based on how fast the snacks and drinks are disappearing, this was a great idea.