A Dress with SPF

 Hello Readers. It is summer but the sun is not my friend. I try to wear sunscreen everyday. I try to stay in the shade. I try to avoid the sun as much as I can. But I can't avoid it forever. I had this wrap with SPF in the fabric. It was great but maybe it could be more useful to be a dress? 

 Before and after.  

This was such a pretty pink and it had 50 SPF.  

It was a great wrap skirt but I thought it would make a fabulous beach dress. 

I folded the wrap into quarters. That will let me cut the neckline and sides and it would be symmetrical when I was done. 

 

You can see the cuts I made while the wrap was folded. I made a loose boxy shape. I cut an angles shape on the sides to make the skirt shape. And I saved those scrap pieces for later. 

 

I sewed the sides together with right sides facing each other. This made a very simple dress shape. That will work to throw on over a bathing suit.  

You can see the cut edge of the neckline here. I wanted to finish that neckline, that is what those scraps are for. 

 

I had 4 scraps left from when I cut out the dress shape. 

 

I used a yard stick as a straight edge. I marked along the fabric with a pencil. I wanted a 1/2 inch strip of this pink fabric. I wanted the hemmed edge as my neck binding. 

 

I cut out my strips and followed the pencil marks. 

 

I sewed this strip of fabric to the neck opening. I sewed with the right sides together. 

 

After the neck band was sewn in place, I went back over the neck binding and top stitched it so it would lay flat. 

 

This dress is loose and great in the heat at the beach or pool. I love the pink color and this dress is easier to wear for me than the wrap was. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Applique Tank-Top

 Hello Readers. I made a shirt around this applique piece I found at a thrift store. It was super simple and I didn't use a pattern. I made it up as I went along. That is how I do most things and this time, it turned out great. 

Before and after. 

I like to go thrifting and one day I found some pretty pieces of needle point. Someone with an old fashioned name (Eunice, Evelyn...) spent a lot of time on this piece and the one peeking out from under it. These were really beautiful, complicated works of art. And they were being sold for 33 cents each????? (The disrespect!) There was no way I was leaving these behind. I didn't know I was going to make a shirt when I bought them but I took them home. 

 

I thought this orange fabric really highlighted the orange flowers and the blue stitches around the edges told me what color thread to use to sew around the outside of the piece when I sewed it to the shirt fabric. 

  

I made a wide rectangle, almost twice my size when I measured around my body. (It does not need to be exact. But I wanted it to be roomy and comfortable. I was basically making a tube with straps. I sewed the needle point piece in the center of the rectangle. That would be the front of my shirt. 

 

I made 2 straps for the shoulders. I didn't have a ton of fabric so that is why this shirt was a tank-top. 

 

I turned the edges under and sewed them down and then I added elastic to the inside of the shirt around the waist. That would give the shirt shape and make it fit well. 

 

I added elastic to the top edge as well and then attached the straps. 

 

I loved the blue stitching I did around the piece to attach it to the shirt. It's a great summer top. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shorten a Jumpsuit

 Hello Readers. I love a jumpsuit and I love green so of course I liked this piece from COSTCO! That's right. It's from the same place you can get delicious baked goods and get new tires for your car. (I love Costco, they are the best. They also treat their workers really well.) The fit was OK but it was just a bit too long on me. Should I shorten the pant legs or cut the legs off and make a romper? You can probably guess what I did. It is hotter than an oven outside, I made the romper. 

Before and after.  

This jumpsuit was made of that quick drying fabric that outdoorsey people wear because it dries fast. I have to be honest, I am not very outdoorsey. I do like fast drying clothes though. And let's give a round of applause to that drawstring! It is really doing a lot of work to make this jumpsuit fit. 

 

I cut the legs off and made sure to leave a 3 1/2 inch inseam. When I hem the edges, I will have a 3 inch inseam and that will work well for me. 

 

I used my serger on the cut edges. That will prevent any fraying. I also turned the edge under and sewed it down with my sewing machine. That will make a nice neat hem on each leg. 

 

And believe it or not... I went outside. It was morning and nice enough to go for a walk. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

Give Blinds a Custom Look

   Hello Readers. Today's NO-SEW project is roller blind I made for my little guys room. This was easy and fast to make. It gave a "custom" look to the window without spending a lot of money.

 You can create the blinds you want for very little money. 

 

  I started with a cheap, readily available, easy to install plastic roller blind from WalMart. It's cheap (Yea!) but really unattractive (Boo!). It isn't hard to make it a lot cuter. They are easy to install and come with directions inside so I wont cover that part of the project.
    I choose the nautical fabric from the stash in my closet because it matched the room best. Any light-weight woven fabric will work, knits and heavy weight fabric are not a good idea for this project.

  I spread the blind out on the floor and measured to see how much fabric I would need to cover it. I didn't want to see the blind showing, just my fabric. My window was 68" tall so I wanted my fabric a bit taller/longer. My fabric was 70" long/tall.

I used this iron-on adhesive, Heat n Bond to finish the fabric edges and bottom hem. 

 

I simply folded the fabric under and ironed it in place. This stuff is pretty strong and will hold up well since this is not being used on something worn, it's just hanging out on my blind. It made a clean neat edge that looks great. (And there is no sewing required!) When all the edges of your piece of fabric are finished nicely you are ready to attach the fabric to the blind. 

 

Next comes the duct tape. That's right, you're taping this fabric to the blind. You need good quality duct tape. The cheap tape from the dollar store isn't the same. I used several strips of duct tape to secure the fabric to the blind. Be careful to line the fabric up straight so it will hang even and balanced without being lower on one side.

 Only the tape across the top of the fabric will hold it to the blind, so tape it well. It should hang freely on the sides and across the bottom. 

You can see the fabric and blind here. The sides and bottom edges all hang free. My fabric was a bit more narrow than the blind. That's OK, I can fix that.

 

These plastic blinds can be cut to size so if you need to trim the sides of your blind to fit the window. You can do this before you attach the fabric but you can also adjust the width of the plastic blind at anytime in the process if you need to. I made my fabric the right size from the beginning but didn't cut my plastic blind until the end. Every window is different, you can make the blind fit your sized window. 

 

To pull the blind up and down you should grab the blind itself not the fabric. You can't pull on the fabric itself, and you don't need to. The blind works as if the fabric wasn't even there.

Here is the finished window with curtains on top of the blind. It turned out pretty snazzy if I say so myself. These blinds come in light filtering and black-out weight plastic. They are great for a bedroom to block the sunlight at nap time. Thanks for reading along!

2 Striped Shirts

 Hello Readers. I had 2 striped button-up shirts. I was surprised at how well they matched. I knew that they could make something fun if I put them together. But what should I make?

Before and after. 

I had 2 shirts. I like the one I am wearing in this picture. I wear it often. The shirt on the hanger was from a clothes swap. I didn't realize how much they matched until I brought it home. How should I put them together? I thought about making a skirt so that it would look like a dress when I wore them both together. 

 

But then I thought matching shorts would be better. It would make a cute 2 piece set. And I could continue to wear the shirt alone if I wanted to. I cut out my shorts from the body of the shirt. 

 

I just had to put these 2 pieces together. What an easy project, right? Well, it was about to get messy. 

 

I decided to add the shirt pocket to the back of the shorts. That would be useful and the pocket was already put together. I wanted to use it. 

 

I put them together and I thought everything would be fine but I was wrong. 

  

I attached the pocket and I thought I was almost done. I added an elastic waistband and then... I realized that the shorts were a little tight. I didn't want tight shorts. I wanted a looser fit to match the fit of the over-sized shirt. 

 

All I had left were the sleeves. Let's try to enlarge these shorts. 

 

The only fix I could think of with the fabric I had available was to add panels to the sides. The stripes on the sides would have to be horizontal but I liked that so I got to work. 

 

I cut the shorts open on the sides. It was a straight cut and straight new seams to sew in the extra fabric. 

 

I added the side panels and hoped for the best.
 

Here are my new shorts. They would be looser now and I thought they would work. 

 

I liked this new 2 piece set. The loose fit is comfortable and casual. Life is too short and too difficult for uncomfortable clothes. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. And if it doesn't work out at first keep going, keep trying, you'll get there.