Bassinet Sheets to Pajamas

 Hello Readers. I was given a big pile of the cutest bassinet sheets. They were soft cotton knit, like t-shirt material.  I don't have a bassinet or a baby so I could do something else with these sheets. I decided to make pajamas.

 Who needed new pajamas? Me!

A sweet wonderful on-line sewing friend @brightpracticalfabricart sent me a collection of cotton knit bassinet sheets made by Poppi & Max

These are a soft knit cotton, like a t-shirt. I first noticed the giraffe and it really caught my eye. (My mom loved giraffes and they make me think of her.) This is a really pretty giraffe. I cut the elastic from the outer edge of each bassinet sheet and then I thought about what to make. 

 

I realized I needed summer pajamas and since I am a hot sleeper, tank tops would be great. And they don't use a large amount of fabric. I had smallish pieces of fabric to work with here so this seemed like a good plan. I used the Luna Pattern by Helen's Closet Patterns. You can download it online and it is such an easy sewing pattern to use.

 

  I extended the length of the body as far as I could with the length of the bassinet sheets. I wanted a longish shirt.

 

 I could get one tank top from 2 sheets. One sheet for the front of the shirt and one for the back. 

 

I made matching shorts to go with each shirt. 

 

 I used other shorts as a pattern. And I kind of made it up as I went along. That wasn't  perfect because the fabric was different in stretch.

 

I added a center piece to make the shorts wider. That worked really well. The next pair I cut bigger and wider so I did not need to do this.

 

I used elastic for the waistband that I had it on hand. I wanted to use items I had. I used blue thread in my serger for the edges of the shirt and legs of the shorts. I liked the contrast of colors.

I made 4 sets of pajamas, but these giraffes are definitely my favorite. I used pink elastic and white thread for this set. The giraffe is the star of the show. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind the Door Storage From a Pallet

 Hello Readers. We all seem to need more organization and storage options. I made some extra storage behind the door using a small wooden pallet. It is now a handy and adjustable hanging rack. Let me show you. 

This was easy to make and the hooks can be changed as needed. 

 

Thee space behind the door is perfect for hanging items. Let's utilize it.
 

I got this little pallet from a neighbor. It looks like a small shipping pallet. (Similar here.) I cleaned it off because I wanted to paint it. 

I used some flat white spray paint that I had on hand. It was a spray on enamel that said it was good for wood projects. 

I worked outside for plenty of fresh air. I made sure I was not near any cars, children, pets, homes or anything else so the over spray would not bother anyone. I let this dry over night. 

We hung this behind the door like this. But we couldn't hang the pallet directly to the wall. We came up with a solution. I am showing you the after picture because it will make the process easier to understand. 

 

To begin, we found the stud in the wall. We want the weight of this to be hung on the stud and not the drywall, for strength.We needed to find the stud in the wall

 

We got longest screws we could find (About 3-4 inches.) and used a drill bit that was slightly smaller that the screws for this project. 

 

We used a piece of wood to hold the pallet. This piece of wood was about 10 inches long, not as wide as the pallet itself. We made sure it was level and drilled 2 holes into the piece, one hole above the other.

We drilled 2 screws through the piece of wood and into the stud in the wall. We made sure to keep it level.

 

The piece of wood was cut so that it had a place to hang the pallet.

 

We used a router to make that cut in the wood. That little cut-out will keep the pallet in place securely. 

 

You can see the cross beam of the pallet fits down into the groove we cut in the wood. This could be painted to match the wall or the pallet but it will kind of disappear behind the pallet when we are done. 

I used some simple S-hooks because I want to be able to change the location of the hooks whenever I want. 

This is great storage in a kids room or a mud room. It's perfect for hats, jackets, sunglasses or keys. And you can change the hook placement in just seconds when you need to hang something else. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun and organized for yourself.

***Year End Update***- This shelf is still on the wall and it holds so much stuff. It's almost like a small closet.

 

 

 

 

 

Poofy Dress Week #3-Adding Sleeves

 Hello Readers. I am into the loose poofy dresses that are popular right now. They are fun and so  comfortable because there is no tight waistband! I love it. Today's post is poofy dress 2 and I found it at a thrift store. The color reminded me of Barbie, who I love. But I didn't love the straps, I kind of wanted sleeves. Big sleeves.

Before and after.

This dress was great but it was too long for me. Or I was too short for it. Either way, we need to fix this. I couldn't make that lower tier shorter. It would look weird if the bottom tier was half the length of the others. It had to be fully removed. That was fine because I had an idea about what to do with that extra fabric. 

I removed so may stitches. My seam ripper got a work out. This took a while but I wanted the edges intact. I couldn't cut it off, that would mess up the length of the tier above it.

I was working on this for quite a while. I had second thoughts but I kept going. When I make a decision, I follow through. Even if it is much more tedious than I thought it would be. I don't know if this is a strength, it is just what I do. 

 

I did cut the straps off the back of the dress. 

 

I pulled the straps from the front over the shoulders and sewed them in place in the back where the back straps used to be. These are the beginnings of my sleeves.

 

I cut the tier in half and used one half for one sleeve and one half for the other. I draped the fabric over the shoulder strap. I pinned it to the strap. The fabric had a pretty ruffled edge that I used at the shoulder. It matches the little ruffled edge at the neckline and looks great.

 

I pinned the sleeve all around the strap and then to the dress, under the arm. I had more fabric than I needed so I cut off some of the extra fabric. Everyone's arm size is different, so the measurement around the arm and over the shoulder will differ. The sleeve is still nice and poofy.

 

I sewed the sleeve to the strap and connected the sleeve together under the arm. 

 

It looked kind of like this. I liked the square neckline but I thought the sleeves needed a little more something.

 

I decided to add narrow elastic around the sleeves, about 2-3 inches from the ends of the sleeves to make a nice puffy sleeve. 

 

Sleeve close-up! 

 

 I was loving these sleeves and I was ready for a Barbie Re-watch party. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

***Year End Update***- This dress is so fun. I wore it a lot until cold weather hit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poofy Dress Week #2

 Do you like big poofy dresses? They are all over my Instagram feed and I love them. This yellow dress was such a pretty eyelet lace, I loved the cotton fabric and it had a cotton lining. No nylon anywhere?? Thank goodness. I hate nylon. But these little spaghetti straps were not  great for me. 

Before and after.

I loved almost everything about this dress, except the straps. How do people where a bra with these little straps. My bra straps are not narrow like this. And strapless bras are not always comfortable. But I had an idea. Let's add sleeves. 

I removed the bottom tier off and saved it for sleeves. Stay with me though, I am going to put it back on the dress later.

I pinned the fabric from the bottom of the dress to the shoulder sleeves to make sleeves. But I didn't use all the fabric, only about 1/2. I sewed the sleeves to the straps so my shoulders and bra straps would be covered. 

The sleeve is attached on the strap on top of my shoulder and on the dress under my arm. 

If you look closely, you can see how much less full/gathered the lowest tier of the dress is after I took  off the lowest tier to make sleeves, and put what was left back on the dress. I don't mind it being less gathered. It still looks full and I love having sleeves. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update***- I really liked this dress more with sleeves. I wore it often in summer.

Poofy Dress Week #1 (Filling in a Low Neckline)

 Hello Readers. I am in a poofy dress frenzy. I wanted to refashion and wear all of the poofy dresses so the dresses on my refashion rack are all getting worked on this week. This green dress is a wonderful cotton eyelet with a cotton lining. I hate nylon linings so I was loving this dress already.

Before and after.

I found this dress at a clothes swap and I love green so I liked it right away. It was a bit long on me, I felt a little lost in there. I look a little like a Hobbit. And it was a little low cut on me as well. If I lean over, all my bits and pieces are visible. I didn't like that.

It was new with tags at the clothes swap! That is always a fun bonus. 

 

I cut about 8-10 inches off the length of the outer layer with my sharpest scissors. It was really long on me and it will look better on me in a shorter length. (I saved this fabric for later.)

 

And the inner layer. The inner layer should be an inch or so shorter than the outer layer so that it doesn't hang out anywhere along the hemline. 

 

I hemmed the outer layer with matching thread. I just turned the cut edge under twice and sewed it down.

 

I hemmed the inner layer the same way.

 

I wasn't quite done. I wanted to fill in the V-neck that was so low on me. I had all the fabric I had cut off the dress earlier. I needed that fabric now. I used the excess fabric to fill in the V-neck a little. 

 

I cut a triangular shape from the extra fabric. I wanted to sew it into the dress and fill in the neckline. The long side of the triangle is actually the original hem of the dress. That saved time because it already had a hem on that edge.

 

I put the triangle inside the dress with the right side facing out and sewed on top of the stitching that was already made up the neckline of the dress. I held the fabric in place snugly. (You could use pins if you want. I usually stab myself so if I can hold the fabric in my hand, that is what I do.) Sewing over that stitching with matching thread will make it look like it was always there. 

 

My new dress was done. The new neckline looks nice and neat and it makes me feel more secure and the new length looks great too. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 ***Year End Update***- I am still into this dress. I love the full skirt.