Retro Toddler Crochet Dress

I'm so excited to share this. It took me about a month to finish (I really took my time to be honest). I had the idea in my head for a while and decided to go for it. I free styled the dress completely and used this pattern to make the headband. I did modify the flower to achieve this look. The yarn I used was Vanna's Choice Baby in Aqua and Vanna's Choice in Scarlet (all purchased at Michael's). I used one skein of the red and a little over three of the aqua.I made a simple tulle skirt to go underneath. I absolutely adore this on my daughter! I have never crocheted a dress before, so I was so happy it came out this way.

I have a bizillion more pictures on my flickr if you would like to see them.
Hope you are having a great weekend!

Refashion for my daughter

When we moved, I went through my clothes and made a pile of clothes to refashion. Two days ago I had an urge to do a refashion for my daughter. I decided to use this green shirt of mine.

I first cut out material to make pants (great tutorial here).

Then I cut the rest to make the top.

I had fun playing around and trying to translate what I pictured in my mind to this shirt. This is the first top I made.

This is the second top. I made rosettes from the extra fabric and put them on a tank top. The top was too big, so I tied the straps together in the back with some extra material. It came out so cute! I want to make one for me now.


I just love refashioning things!!!!!

The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!

The Lunch Date Blouse GIVEAWAY!!!!

No Sew Poncho Tutorial

A tutorial for you....

I love to make clothes. I really want to make more for myself, but it's so much easier, faster, and cheaper (because you don't use as much fabric) to make clothes for my daughter. So, I wanted to come up with something that was easy, fast, and thrifty to share to make. That is where the No Sew Poncho comes in. It literally took me fifteen minutes!

What you will need:

-Knit fabric (why knit? because it doesn't fray; you need enough to cover yourself, so take some measurements. I bought a yard and had plenty left over; any type of knit will work, although I prefer the not so stretchy kind for this project -examples: jersey and single knit fabric. I think it helps it stay in place better.)

-Scissors

-A shirt that you like the fit of and wear

1. Fold your fabric in half height wise. Then fold it again width wise. Fold your shirt in place and place on top of fabric, matching the center fold. The top of the shirt should be on the top fold and the bottom fabric will be edges as will the side with the arms.

2. Cut a basic silouhette of your shirt on the fabric.

3. Use the neck of the shirt as a guideline as to how wide to cut the neck. Cut an opening that goes as far down as the back of the neckline of your shirt (unless you want both sides to go far down. It's up to you.)

4. Open up shirt and cut the front neck a little farther down.

5. Turn one side of the shirt in.

6. Clip down the shirt with scissors. Make sure you start to clip past where the armhole will be. Leave about an inch or two inbetween clips. It's your preference though, so you could do a lot of clips or less.

7. Open and see making sure everything looks okay.

8. Use leftover fabrics, ribbon, etc. to tie the sides together. I used a tie in every single slit, but you could also do a really long piece and weave it in and out to hold it together.

All done! Now through it over a cute tank top or shirt and off you go :) Happy Crafting!

The Tied Maternity Top Tutorial

I had the pleasure of sharing a little maternity Refashion over at DIY Maternity. I'm currently preggers and have been having so much fun creating maternity wear. Living in an area where there isn't much to begin with (as far as maternity clothing), really spurred me on to be a little creative this pregnancy with my clothing. In this post, I'm going to show you how I created this top from a thrift store dress.

Here is a picture of the before of the dress. I really wanted one that had a border, so when I saw this I grabbed it (especially since my 3 yr old had had enough shopping for the day ;). You could also do this with a long skirt or plain old fabric. When looking for a clothing item to use, make sure the area you will cut from is bigger than your belly by a bit so it will fit.

I cut four main pieces from the dress. The two smaller ones are the two that will be the top part. I made sure that it was long enough to provide the coverage I desired up top plus seam allowance. If I had gotten a bigger dress, I would have extended it even more on those top pieces (see white lines in pic below). Unfortunately, the dress I used didn't quite have enough material for that. The bottom two pieces are the ones that cover the belly and all. I made them as long as I wanted and kept the width the same as the top. Make sure that this width is bigger than your belly. You will bring it in with elastic thread later.
*Tip: Cut the bottom two pieces so the actual bottom is the hemmed part of the clothing already so you can skip that step later.

Then for the front, take one top piece and one bottom piece. Place them right sides facing and sew together. This creates one big rectangle. Repeat for the back two pieces.

Now place the front and back together, right sides facing, and sew together only along the bottom portion.

**I forgot a picture of the shirring, but now is the time to do it. I just shirred three rows, about 1/4" apart, right underneath the top part. Make sure to do this on the actual bottom piece and not the seam, because if you catch the seam it won't come in as much due to the thickness of the fabric. Here is a good shirring tutorial.

Create a binding from the material from the clothing item or something else to go around both top side edges. You do this by measuring how long you need it to be (I always add 2 or 3 inches extra just to make sure I have enough). Then make the width about 2 inches wide.

Fold the piece in half, wrong sides facing, and iron. (Ignore interfacing in the below pics. I'm using pictures from another project, but same concept).

Open up and fold the long side edges to the middle crease you just made and iron.

Fold back in half and iron. No raw edges on the long sides any more.

Now place fabric inside the binding, pin, and sew in place. Trim any extra length off.

Then along the very top of the front and back piece, fold down the front 1/4" (toward the inside) and iron. Then fold it down 1/4" inch again (toward the inside) and iron. Pin in place and sew. Now there are no raw edges on the top.

If the bottom isn't already hemmed from using a pre-existing item of clothing, hem the bottom by folding up 1/4" and ironing. Then fold u 1/4" again and iron. Pin in place and sew.

Now it's time to create straps. I created 8 straps for making 4 tied spots. You can make them the same way as the binding except fold in the end that will be exposed and sew down the long open edge. Make them as long you desire them to be. Just make sure they are long enough to tie.

Strategically place the shoulder straps where you would like them and pin in place. Make sure the bottom is on the inside of the clothing so you don't see the open ends). Sew them on. You can cover the raw edges of the strap end that is inside with a zig zag stitch if you like (or use a serger if you have one).

The next four straps will be used at the very edge of the sleeves. Pin in place and sew on. Again, pick a place that is comfortable for you. If you made the sleeves longer, you might need to do more straps.

Now it's all done and you have a fun little refashioned top.

Thank you very much for having me Megan!

While Waiting

Here are a few more things I did at Christmas for gifts. Some new things in the works and some new listings coming up, but right now my little family is getting the majority of my time. They are priority and this change is very challenging and exciting for all of us.

Dick and Jane Purse

Doll Pillows and Quilt (idea from here and here).

A Kit to make your own t-shirts with freezer paper stencils. (this was for my 10 yr old nephew. I figured he would have more fun doing this and picking out what he wanted to stencil than me doing making it).

Kitchen Decoration

I made this a while ago, but in our apartment I had absolutely no where to put it.

Now, in a house, I have lots of room to put up lots of things!!! I love it! I'm slowly working on making more things, but my lovely little daughter makes it quite hard for me. The biggest thing I miss is having someone to babysit her.... I need to hurry up and find some here so I can get some breaks!

Back in Business

It has been a while, blog world. We are finally mostly settled in our new home in Florida. It's an adjustment for sure. I lived my whole life in Virginia, so now I am in a complete strange place and know no one. I have a found a play group that I want to try out and we have church hunting on high priority. So, hopefully I will find some friends here soon. I haven't been able to work on anything new yet, although that will be changing soon. Until then, I still have plenty of things I made for Christmas presents to share. Here are some cute bows I made:

I thought I used a pattern from here, but I can't find it there any more. There are still a lot of other hair bow tutorials though if you want to check it out. I cannot wait until my daughter has hair and I can make some bows for her. (Well, I could stick them on a headband, but she usually pulls it off anyways *sigh*).

These are some dolls I made for my neices. They wanted ballerina dolls.