Top for boyo...

This started its life as a man's top...but the man who owned it, did not wear it...

So, using a top of Adam's as a template and some help from Dana

It has a new life :)

Baby dress from Tee shirt

Pretty baby...

The dress started out as a tee shirt which belonged to my friend's little girl, however after one wash is leached the colour out from the applique :(

She kindly donated it to me....:)

I dyed it!

I re-sized the top using one of Sophie's dresses as a template and followed Dana's tute to put the top together.

and...look how pretty she is. I could buy sack cloths for this baby and she would still look lovely

I feel like a cheater posting this...

This is a very pretty onesie, which was a gift for Sophie when she was born. I love it, it is the cutest thing.
This is how small she was when she last wore it...Awww iddy biddy! Look how sweet they are xoxo

This is Sophie this morning, with the same onesie.

I chopped off the arms and the press studs at the bottom. Did a rolled hem around the sleeves and bottom and hey presto - CHEATER CHEATER DOG POO EATER!!! Sorry, toilet humour is rife in my house.

Too easy and too cute. She would not sit still for these pics. I literally took about 25 photos and got two barely usable shots.

Refashion and re-colour

I posted ages ago that I was going to re-fashion this, which I did, but I wasn't 100% happy with the outcome as the black and white stripey top was black and yucky grey...so I thought I'd colour it. I found a lovely 'tulip red' which I thought looked lovely on the packet.

It also said that there was enough to do approximately one large shirt, so I thought I'd add these maternity pants which I intend to make into a skirt sometime soon.
Then I thought, hey while I'm on I will add some of these too. They were in the 'to change colour' pile. Some have stains on them, and some are just faded and need a freshen up.

So, I added my stuff, some salt and poked at it with a spoon (an old one which is now a funny pinky colour). The spoon didn't last long as I couldn't keep my hands off them... I pulled at them, squeezed them and have VERY pink hands now. I know...I should wear gloves, and I did try. For all of thirty seconds :S

Then I rinsed them in the washer.

Sophie wanted to see what I was so excited about too. She's such a funny baby bird. I love that she HAS to see what is going on. She often scoots off and can be found watching the washing machine...bless her. But she loved sitting with me and watching it together. It's like she was thinking 'see Mum, I told you this was fun'. Maybe I should let her watch TV :)

This is the first thing that went into the bucket and is what the rest should look like, but obviously I tried to make the dye go too far.

This is everything I put through on the first batch. I'm pretty happy with most of them. There is a bit of a tie dye element to some of them but I am a hippy at heart so I don't really mind.

This is the back of the top I refashioned. It's an old onside and an old maternity tee, made into a dress. The idea comes from Made.

This is the front. I used the same ruffle technique as here

I wish the colour came out better on my phone camera. It actually looks like a pretty pink, and not nearly as washed out as this pic looks. I like it, it's one of DH's favourites :)

Refashioned dress for my lovely friend

My friend had this dress is a bag ready to go to the charity shop. I asked her why she didn't want it and she said that it's just too dressy to wear every day and that she wished it was a skirt...well duh!!! I obviously jumped at the chance to hone my skills...or rather, swear, shout and throw a proper toddler tantrum. I thought this would be so easy, but little did I know I would meet my arch enemy - the concealed zip!!!

Now I am NOT a fan of zips, I find them annoying and fiddly so I tend to stay away from them, however once I unpicked this dress I though (stupidly) 'it'll be fine. I'll just move it down to the start of the skirt and sew it back in. Which is exactly what I did and if I showed you in photos (not that I have any) it would look serene and lovely, but if you were in my house at the time, you would agree with my hubby and call me an 'angry seamstress'...actually that should be the name of my blog. I haven't been so frustrated with what should have been a simple project since I started knitting and dropped a stitch about 20 rows down and had to take it to the bottom of the garden so that I could swear at it without my family thinking I was mental.

Well, I finished it, and it is SUPER!!! The photo does not do it justice as my friend and I are different sizes but I know that it will look lovely on her. My little fella didn't want to be left out. I apologise sincerely for the picture, but this was the best of about 20 pics - Note to self 'my five year old takes better pictures than my Mum', bless her, she couldn't keep it still and press the button - and no she's not old and frail, she's young and this is well within her capabilities...she just got out witted by my iphone :) I hope she reads this :P

The blue one...in a little more detail :)

One of my lovely new friends (frugalceo) wanted a little more detail on how this top was made so I thought I'd bite the bullet and do the blue one as well. I managed to convince DH to take both babies to the park so that I could get it done :)

Ok, firstly, rip open the seams with a seam ripper. I'm so sorry if I state the obvious in any way. It's not that long ago that I didn't even know what one of these things was, and I always like things in simple terms...not that I'm simple, well actually, that depends who you ask. Anywhoo...

This is the poor thing with its arms chopped off...

Now it has had it's arms cut open too...

And sliced into strips of a length and width of your liking...the best thing about this top is that nothing has to be exact.

You then lie the strips vertically against the collar ( I like to fold the end under, but it's up to you). Pin in place and sew along the edge of the collar and the top of each strip.

This picture doesn't really show it very well but what I'm doing is gathering the ruffle and sewing straight over the top while shoving the fabric all scrunched up, under the foot. Just remember to backstitch at the beginning and the end.

This is the last strip :)

I have no idea what this face is supposed to represent, but with the whole family watching, I can not take this seriously.

Thanks if you made it to the end of this highly technical explanation.

OOpppss!!! Must say that I got the inspiration for this from here, Lex does some amazing stuff, she's refined and delicate...much like myself :] erm, ok maybe not!

Something for me

I have so many things in my wardrobe that I don't wear for one reason or another... I don't wear this top as it is a little snug around the tummy after bubba #2. Also, I'm not a big fan of long sleeves. So I had a think about why I didn't like it and decided that I would chop off the arms and try to add some pretty details somehow. Once I'd chopped off the arms I cut them into thin strips and made them all roughly the same length. I then pinned them along the neck line so they were all dangling down - a picture of this might have been helpful ( I will do better next time) I then sewed and gathered at the same time. It was super easy and fun. I have had heaps of compliments on it. My non-sewing friends think it looks like it was very tricky!! Ha ha!

Apologies for my face in this picture. I can not take a serious photo!!

More re-fashions

What to make, what to make??? I saw a tute where they made onesies into outfits for little ones and making them new. I will find where I got the inspiration from and when they're done I will post them on here.

I know they're going to look adorable when they're done and have a new lease of life

Happy days.

Oooo I'm so much more productive now that my eldest is at school and I have a napping baby :)

Refashion

An old shirt into a new dress for my little princess. The shirt was headed to the op shop, as it's an old one of my Mums, but using vegbees tute I made this little dress. The dimensions are slightly different as my Mum is slim so there wasn't a huge amount of fabric, but I love this dress and because I used the buttons for the back of the dress it is so easy to get on and off my daughters head - she hates getting changed :) Win win all round I would say