High-Waisted Foldover Skirt

I scored some cool vintage poly/cotton at the thrift store over the weekend.  Thanks to my new serger, I whipped up this cute skirt in about 10 minutes.

It's basically a tube, with a long waistband attached with the wrong side out.  In order for the waistband to fit well when it was folded over, I stitched an hourglass waist into it.

I purposely didn't hem it at the top or the bottom, and the edges kind of curl up.

I'm so inspired by this book!  I picked it up at the library, but I may have to buy it for my sewing library. It has tons of great ideas.

I also crocheted a circle scarf with some red wool that I had left over from hat making.

Ready for Valentine's Day!

T Shirt to Dress Refashion

I couldn't sleep last night.  I was up from 1am to 5am.  Middle age, worrying too much, whatever... Luckily it's Sunday, and I could sleep in.  I did get a lovely uninterrupted sewing block out of the deal.

I started with a plain cotton t shirt, cut it off under the arms and added a gathered skirt and a ruffle.  My favorite tip for making gathers and ruffles is to increase the tension on your machine when you baste the fabric.  If you do it right, the machine does all of the work for you - no pulling threads!

This beautiful fabric is from Good Folks from Anna Maria Horner.  Could this line be discontinued?  I can't find it in my usual online sources.  I used the width of the fabric for the skirt, about 1 1/2 times the width of the t shirt; and I doubled that for the ruffle.

I added a fabric-covered button pony-tail holder.

Even though it's a departure from her usual pink, she likes it, and I have a feeling that it will be worn since it's comfortable and easy to get on.

    

The remainder to the t-shirt got cut into round 3" strips for hairbands.

No hemming!

Sewn Mailing Envelopes

My favorite kind of project is one that's useful, unique and FREE. A few weeks ago, I opened on ETSY store and I wanted some pretty mailing envelopes. I was delighted to open a drawer in my office to find these huge maps from the 2000 census. I used to teach fourth and fifth grade and Scholastic mailed these to teachers. I kept mine because I loved the graphics on it, and it's made of something that feels like Tyvek.

I decided that I could just cut them long and stitch up the sides. It took me a few tries to get the stitching right.

First of all, I learned that you need to adjust the tension - I used the 3 on my Singer. I also had to increase my stitch length to 4mm. To finish the seam, I pulled the bobbin thread so that both threads were on the same side, and I tied them off (no backstitching).

I made lots of different sizes of envelopes and saved the scraps for tags.

What's that?

Why thank you! I think that they're pretty too.

Start scrounging through your drawers, 'cause these are really fun to make!

Mommy and Daughter Shrugs

I love these shrugs. I've never worn one before, but now I see the point. They're just enough to keep the arms warm without being bulky.

How many more years do I have for her stop wanting to dress like me? One day, in the mall, we were wearing matching skirts for our Christmas picture and a lady came up to me and said, "I used to make my daughter wear matching outfits with me and she HATED it."

"Well, she likes it," was my haughty reply.

Mine has crocheted flowers. Hers has butterflies that were rescued off of an outgrown dress.

I LOVE my custom made tag from Jennifer on Etsy.

The directions are from the awesome Sew What! Fleece book. I have the Sew What! skirt book and I just love that the authors walk you through the steps of drafting your own patterns. Great for Mommy and Daughter projects.

It's Raining Granny Squares

That pile of granny squares on my banner has been sitting in my crochet bag for months. I kept thinking that if I made a few more, then I could have a really cute summer throw. I finally admitted to myself that that was NOT going to happen. Plus, I'm sick of making little squares that require changing yarn color every few minutes.

So here's my scarf. In my imagining where I'll wear it to, I have this picture of someone from one of those makeover shows approach me in the mall and say, "Oh dear! Granny squares are a no and no, and how old are you anyway to be wearing such a thing?" And I would reply, take your commercially produced designer crap and stick it where the sun doesn't shine!

I now have far too many scarves, but you never know when the day calls for granny squares, now do you?

Once a T Shirt.... Now A Crocheted Circle Scarf

Here's my wardrobe refashion for the week. I wear scarves every day, and I really wanted a circle scarf - no ends to come unwound!

Please excuse expression (hurray up and take the dang picture!) I cut up T Shirt that I wasn't wearing into 1/2 strips. For my scarf, I used two shirts. This gave me two rows of double crochet, long enough to loop around me neck three times (about 70 inches in all).

The process is pretty self explanatory, but I did watch a You Tube video to get the details. It was a super fun project, but one thing that surprised me is that the finished product is not as soft as you would think it would be. I think that the way the fibers are cut changes the feel of the yarn, and everything is a little stiff. Still I love how the bits of the graphics have created flecks of color in the scarf.

Modern Flapper Hat

My grandma, Katie, was an original re-fashionista. She used to go buy sweaters at garage sales and unravel them for their yarn. She also bought bags of cast-off clothing to make quilts (I have one made of funky polyester scraps from the 1960s). Sadly, I didn't appreciate her talents when I was young, and we often made fun of her eccentricities.

Katie's been gone a number of years, and lately I've been missing her. I don't think I got to know her well because I was the youngest of a slew of grandchildren. My renewed interest in re-using and re-fashioning has got me thinking - this stylish concept of re-fashioning used to be what people from the depression years just did, there was no pretense about it.

Katie taught me how to crochet (granny squares). I find the process of crocheting so calming, and after the holidays this was just the project for me.

This cute hat flapper hat was not made from an old sweater, but a ball of wool yarn I had in my stash. The pattern is from Yarncat's Modern Flapper series. This particular style is called "Florence".

My model has deemed it too itchy, but can you blame her? Wouldn't this be sweet in a creamy white yarn?

My Inner Old Lady is on Crafting A Green World

I'm just tickled to have a little spot on Crafting A Green World.

This is a new blog to me, and it looks like some great stuff. Becky has another site, Glue and Glitter.Com (I've placed a button on the right side of this page).

Make It Today! A Patchy Belt from Repurposed Denim and Scraps

This belt was made from the legs of some cut off jeans and scraps of decorator weight fabric.

One thing I've done that's really helpful was to spend an evening with my scrap bin, cutting rectangles that were either 6" x 8" or 5" x 7". I've stacked them in my sewing cabinet, and they've been a great source of pieces for grab-and-sew projects, like this one.

To make your belt, cut pieces of fabric to four times the width of your belt, and whatever length you want. In my case, I have a 1 1/2 inch D-ring, so I cut the fabric 6 " wide (which is what I already had in my sewing cabinet). For the length, I measured where I wanted the belt to sit on my waist, plus 1 " for the D-ring casing, plus about 5-6" extra.

Stitch the pieces together, and trim the seam allowances with pinking shears.

Fold your short edges inside 1/2" and press so that you don't have a raw edge on your belt (obviously I've forgotten to do this in this picture and had to go back and correct myself). Fold the fabric you've stitched in half lengthwise and press. Then fold each edge to the middle and press those in. Finally, fold the entire piece again in half, your belt should be four layers thick now. Edge stitch around the entire piece.

Put both D-rings through one end and fold over. Stitch two rows to make a casing - one at the end of your fabric (as shown) and another close to the D-rings.

Cute and easy! I've made belts like this out of quilter's weight cotton too. If you use the lighter weight fabrics, iron a layer of fusible interfacing to the inside of your belt to give the fabric some body.