More Loungewear?

 Lounge wear is something I have needed more in the last year than ever before. (That's Corona!) I recently made even more because I can't get enough. 

I started with a casual dress that my sister-in-law gave me. (Thanks C!) This dress was a long A-line shape. It was cute and fun and perfect for a refashion. 

The A-line shape of this dress gave me enough fabric to make shorts. I got out one of my favorite patterns and cut out the pieces. Warmer weather is coming, right?

The dress was really long on me. It was long enough to cut out the shorts and still have the top left over. 

I used my machine to put the shorts together. 

I decided to cut the shirt open in the front and use it as a little jacket over the shirt I found at a clothes swap. I loved the graphic on the front. Should I take a nap? Yes! Should I have a snack? Yes! You get the idea. You can ask this shirt anything and it will be super encouraging! 

Should I binge watch some Marvel shows? YES GIRL YES!

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

***Chickie's Year End Review-Casual lounge wear in a pandemic? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Dressy Easter

 Hello Readers. Do you celebrate Easter? I do usually but Corona ruined it last year. And who knows what 2021 has in store for us. I am not sure what the travel and meeting restrictions are where you live. You might be going out to events and you might be staying home. This post is about a dressy Easter look that would be appropriate for church on Sunday morning. 

This dress was waiting for me at an outdoor clothes swap a few months ago. It was the kind of dress I love to find. It was clearly vintage and a little out of style. OK, it was really out of style. it was a lacey, full skirted 70's southern belle dress.

When I looked closer I could see it was homemade. I treasure the effort that went into this dress. Was it for a wedding? A prom? I wanted to honor that and make this dress wearable for today.

The dress was way to long on me. And it had a lot of lace trim. So much lace y'all. I started by cutting the dress much shorter. The lace was very brittle and could not be saved. I also cut off the sheer puffy sleeves. Those sleeves were much too puffy and the lace on the sleeves was worn as well.

I put the dress on my dress form and pinned the sides to make the dress fit me better. It was all coming together.

I had to hem the under skirt and the sheer outer skirt. I decided to get a little decorative with the sheer skirt and used a scalloped stitch because, why not?!? It's Easter!

I also had to remove this very sad and tired ribbon from the back of the dress. It was really worn. It was only attached in the back of the dress. I just unpicked a few stitches and it came right off.

I was almost done. It needed a good ironing. 

I was ready for Easter morning. Happy Passover and Easter to all of you who are celebrating this weekend. 

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

***Chickie's Year End Review-I love this dress. I think it might be my favorite of the year. It was so over the top with ruffles and sleeves and I liked it so much when I was done.

Casual Easter

Hello Readers. Easter is coming and I realized that it might not be a normal Easter holiday for everyone. Plans will depend on where you live and what the travel and meeting restrictions are in your part of the world. You might be staying home and if so, you might not dress up. You might wear a t-shirt and jeans. 

  

I thought making Easter t-shirts would be a fun activity for my youngest. You can do this at home with any t-shirt and some acrylic or fabric paint. This would be a fun activity to do with your kids. The first thing I do is put newspapers inside the t-shirt so the paint does not soak through the shirt to the back. I put newspapers all around the craft area too, paint is messy.

I cut a piece of foam into an oval shape. I want to paint eggs on my shirt. You know, Easter eggs. I painted to foam and used it as a stamp. I wanted all my eggs to be the same size and shape. The foam piece helped get a uniform look. It isn't necessary. You could just paint an oval shape free hand.

I used a brush to fill in my eggs. I needed to cover the writing on my shirt. I let the off-white paint dry over night. I wanted to used bright colors and the off-white paint will allow the bright paints to really pop. You might not need to do this for your shirt.

The next day I was able to start painting my eggs. I used a variety of colors. These were all acrylic paints I had on hand. 

 

My 5 year old loved this project. He painted for a long time. He wanted to make an egg face. I just wanted to keep him busy so an egg face was fine with me. 

I let the shirts dry over night again. Acrylic paint will not wash out once it is dry. It might fade slightly in the first wash. The images on the shirts will last a long time. Remember that, what ever gets painted will not wash out. Paint in a location that won't get ruined by dripped paint.

 

I hope you have a happy blessed Easter, if you are celebrating. It doesn't have to be a typical holiday to be great. No matter what you are doing today,  I do recommend chocolate in any form. It will add some yum to your day.

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

  Child review- My 5 year old says, "This shirt is great". 

It survived climbing trees, leaf piles and various outdoor activities. 

***Chickie's Year End Review-I liked this shirt project and my son wore his as much as he could. I don't know why but it was his very favorite.

Maybe That Dress Should Be A Shirt

Hello Readers. When I am looking for a fun top sometimes the best place to look is at the dresses in my refashion stash. A fun dress can make a really fun top. This striped dress was my daughter's. She cleaned out her closet and I took the hand-me-downs to use in my refashion for free in 2021 plan. Can I go all year without buying anything but thread? (And maybe some needles too.) Sure I can.

This dress fit really close. Let's be honest it was a little tight. But I really liked the brown stripes. I had a plan about what to do with this slightly tight dress. 

 I liked this dress a lot. Check out the buttons on the shoulders. So cute!

The first thing I did was cut the dress into a length that would work as a shirt.  That's right. I just cut it. Those cute stripes made it easy to make an even level cut. 

I was not sure if this sweater would fray or not. I decided to be safe and make a hem on the bottom using a zigzag stitch. The zigzag will allow it to stretch a little. The whole sweater was stretchy, I wanted my new hem to be stretchy too. 

 

I already knew I wanted to wear this new sweater top with my black over-alls. These also came from my daughter. They had a cool elastic finish at the ankles. (On left.) It was cool but I did not like it on me. I cut the elastic off and gave the pant legs a simple hem to finish them. (On right.)

My new fitted shirt was perfect. A loose shirt would not fit well under these over-alls. The fit of this sweater made it stay put and it didn't ride or bunch up.

I went out and got a haircut for the first time in ages. A fresh haircut always feels so good. 

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

***Chickie's Year End Review-I like this striped shirt so much. I still wear it with the overalls. If it works, don't mess with it.

Black & Blue

 Hello Readers. Do you ever get a hole in your favorite t-shirt? We all do, right? It can ruin a great t-shirt. That is what happened to me recently, but I have an idea to fix that favorite t-shirt and make it more fun to wear at the same time. 

 

Here is my favorite basic black t-shirt. It was easy to wear with everything but it had a hole in the front of it. I was really bummed about it. 

I thought of a way to cover up that hole and make the shirt wearable again. I could use the trim from this skirt I refashioned a couple months ago. I always save my sewing scraps for just such a time as this.

I cut the trim off the skirt scraps. It was in perfect condition and it was black so it went with my shirt. 

I used a zigzag stitch to attach the trim to the raw cut edge of the shirt. The trim hid the cut edge and I did not need to hem the shirt. I just put the trim on top. Easy-peasy! I used a zigzag stitch because it naturally has a little stretch or give to it and works with the stretch of this knit fabric well.

 

My new shirt is ready to wear. I liked the fringe along the hemline. It was fun but I thought keeping it black made it subtle enough to wear to work. 

I paired it with these black and blue pants my daughter handed down to me. They were too long so I made them a bit shorter and made a new hem. 

 

 

 These pants were also a knit material so I used a zigzag stitch to have a little stretch in my hem. 

I was ready to go to work. It was Monday morning, that's never great but my shirt and pants certainly were. 

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

***Chickie's Year End Review-I still really like the fringe on this shirt. It's so fun but subtle.

Push Up Your Sleeves

 Hello Readers. I have a quick refashion idea for you. This is a great idea if you have short arms and find your sleeves too long or if you have long arms and find your sleeves are too short. 

 My arms are really short, like really short and my sleeves are always too long. It is annoying and I alter a lot of my sleeves to make them fit my arms better. I can't go to work or do anything with my hands covered by my jacket sleeves. This jacket needs a size adjustment.

I could just shorten the sleeves of this jacket that my daughter gave me. (Thanks H for helping me refashion for free in 2021!) I also like to push my sleeves up. It looks more casual and it keeps my sleeves out of my way. It also makes petite women look taller from what I have read. Of course, I want to look taller. First, I made a small opening in the inside of the sleeve. 

 I got a small piece of elastic leftover from an old project and threaded it through the opening. The color is fine because no one will see the green elastic. I connected the elastic so I had a circle going around my wrist. Basically, I made an elastic bracelet inside the jacket sleeve. The elastic tightened the cuffs of the jacket enough that they would stay up on my arms.

It worked like a charm! The sleeves can be pushed up so I look casual and effortless in my hand-me-down jacket. I thought this light blue color was so perfect for spring.

This was a fast and easy refashion that only took about 5 minutes. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Chickie's Year End Review-This was a great jacket to me because I love the faded denim color. It has a little stretch too. It is comfortable and easy to wear.