T- Shirt Transformation

I got this t-shirt last Saturday at a garage sale for $3. Typically I wouldn't pay that much for a t-shirt at a garage sale, but I couldn't resist the bird. The only downfall was that it was a men's XXL. It had a Modern Amusement label in it, which I hadn't heard of, but assumed it was good. (The rest of the clothes at this sale were all VERY nice.) So of course I googled it and found I had just purchased what once was a $40 t-shirt. I was feeling better about my $3 investment!

So, here's what I did to make it fit a little better.

First I laid it out on the floor...

Then pulled my favorite t-shirt out of the dirty clothes pile (just being honest here people!!) and laid it on top. I pinned up the arm and down the side on each side of the shirt and sewed along the pin line. (If this is your first time, just do one side at a time so you can try it on half way through. Then fold the shirt in half and mark the opposite side seam.) After that I trekked over to my sister's and serged the bottom. Commercial t-shirt hems are hard to copy, so I decided not to even try.

Here's the finished product!

We are headed off for a long weekend. First to a bridal shower then to a funeral. A total of 7 hours in the car, but with lots of breaks. Not fun with an almost 2 year old, but we will survive. Anyway, I guess we will have a little blog break around here until mid-week sometime. I am very anxious to show you what I made for the shower gift. I even have a little tutorial almost done. Hope you all have an excellent weekend!

Hot Summer Days...

It's been hot around here...really hot. We can do cold up here, but we get a little wimpy with hot, especially humid hot. So, we've been spending a lot of time at the "beach".

The beach is actually a swimming area at a state park close to us. The water is taken from a river and filtered and pumped into here. Much more fun than the pool, especially with small kids. We've been there twice this week already!

I've been crafting too actually, but not much I can show you yet! All surprises for a certain Queen's birthday. I did work on this last night, but am pretty disappointed with the outcome. I made a little v-neck shirt for Sydney with some of my .50 yard fabric. I realized when I got done that there was a flaw in the fabric right on the front of the shirt. On a whim last night I thought I would do a freezer paper stencil on the front to distract the eye from the flaw. Not so good... I really like f.p. stenciling, but I just don't seem to ever have good results. Remember this?


P.S. Thanks for all your kind comments on my thread organizer! I love how it still catches my eye when I walk into the craft room.

Functional Sewing Art

In over-packed rooms like my craft room I've realized things need to work double-duty for the room to function at all. So I pulled this old type set drawer out of the garage and hosed it off. I bought it several years ago at a garage sale and hadn't come up with a purpose for it yet. My previous thread organizing system was failing miserably and taking up precious counter space. So, I thought I would give this a try. It adds fun color and function to my favorite room. The spools are a little wobbly in some places - the little ledges are just a bit too small, but they work! We screwed the thing directly into the studs, so it's not going anywhere! Hopefully that will cut down on stuff falling off. Special thanks to Mary Ann for helping me fill in all the little spaces! The small spools of thread are from our yard-sale swap.

Pay It Forward...

From Ann-Margaret to MaryAnn and now to me...

“PAY IT FORWARD. The first three people who leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three others on their blogs will receive a handmade gift from me within one year (July 20, 2008) of this posting. I will read your blog and get the essence of who you are to come up with an idea.”

Have a great weekend!

Summer Clothes

Are you getting sick of seeing my summer wardrobe yet? Can you handle one more top?

This is from Vogue (V8392). Yep, a pattern! I used a pattern this time. Well, for the most part anyway. This was supposed to have a 2" wide collar piece around the neckline but I couldn't figure out what the pattern was talking about so I made bias tape instead. When that worked well I decided to scrap the sleeves the pattern called for and trim the armholes in bias tape too! I think I like it better than it was supposed to look anyway. The back has a hook and eye closure which is much less intimidating than a zipper, but really doesn't stay as good. The lighting in the picture isn't great, so here's a close-up of my fabric. $2.40 per yard at Wal-mart. Very nice surprise! Now, I just need to whip up some navy blue pants to match. You might have to wait a while for those!!

Kid-Sized Purse

Last week Sydney and I were checking out the Sew Mama Sew flickr group for Bag Month. She loved all the little girl's with their purses and insisted on her own! She picked out the grey fabric and I chose the accents. This was the first time I've tried this style of bag. I glanced at a tutorial before I started, but I guess I should have paid a little more attention! Lots of problems here, but it all worked out okay in the end and most importantly Sydney loves it.



We were out of town for the weekend and still seem to be recovering around here. The laundry pile is slowly dwindling and our schedule is finally back on track. We visited Storybook Land in Aberdeen, SD. Lots of fun for the kids, and best of all it's completely free! They have everthing from the houses of the three little pigs to Bambi to a huge Wizard of Oz display and all kid-friendly. Definitely a great kid destination if you live in the area. (Above: Sydney peaking out the window of 1st little pig's straw house)

Nelly, Nelly, Nelly

It's all about Nelly again today! I'm loving this shirt. I used this pattern again, only made some modifications this time. The pattern says to use one long length of fabric and have one seam up the back. Instead I used two pieces with seams on each side and was then able to give the shirt a little more shape. It is so comfortable and much less maternity than the last one I made. I pinned it back on Nelly so you can see what it actually looks like on me. It's really long, but I wear it kind of bunched up. Works great with all those stupid low rise pants that are out there these days. Can we start a revolt against those things or what???

Anyway, I really like the little gathered accent on this one. Last time I had gathers all the way around. It seemed a little much to me. This took me no time to make and thanks to my new favorite stretch stitch, it turned out pretty well!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Giveaway #2

After looking over the paper stash again, I decided everyone from yesterday needs to be a winner! I'll be in touch to get your addresses!

Now up in the giveaway box are some purse patterns and zippers.

We'll do three winners again, this time the first three to comment win. Please let me know which pattern you prefer and what color zippers you would like (I have every color of the rainbow, only a few are pictured).

Times Up!

Remember this? Nope, I didn't forget. I didn't cave and spill the beans either. He really hasn't noticed!! I told you a few weeks ago that he actually set something on top of it and STILL didn't notice. So, while I think its kind of sad my husband's surroundings are that oblivious to him, I am happy that this pretty much gives me free reign on what enters or leaves my home. He'll regret this one soon enough!

So, I went back through the comments and I am calling Breanna's vote of "never" as the official winner! Congratulations Breanna - I'll be in touch!

Now, for the rest of you...
I've decided I can no longer live in the clutter of my home and so I am getting rid of stuff. It's hard though because it is just such good stuff you know? So, to ease the blow on myself we are going to have some giveaways so my treasures can find good homes.

First up in the giveaway box is a great assortment of cards and notepads. I think I've mentioned Gopher - the amazingly strange outlet for discontinued mara-mi and Roobee paper products. Anyway, my collection is getting out of control - not to mention the fact that I have been receiving amazing cards from generous bloggers (aka Mary Ann) that I would much rather use anyway! And, I've kind of been enjoying making my own lately too. Not to mention that I will no doubt go back to Gopher one day to find new stuff! Sad, I know. It's a disease. So, leave a comment! I have enough stuff for 3 winners (seriously there's a lot!). I'll announce the winners tomorrow and hopefully will have more stuff to get rid of then!

WARNING: To Sara and my mother and everyone else out there that cringes when I have no regard for the rules of sewing, patterns and the like - this may be more than you can handle on a Monday morning. Please read the rest with caution!!

Check out Nelly!! I made this shirt last week out of fabric I got at Mill End for 50 cents a yard! FIFTY CENTS, I swear!! They were clearing out their 99 cent bin and their 1.29 section and I found lots of great stuff! I decided on Thursday night I needed a shirt like this (I saw a chick on HGTV wearing a really cool shirt similar to this one) but no pattern was to be had at that hour. Plus, I couldn't justify paying more for a pattern than for the fabric, so I winged it! I got out one of my favorite shirts that fits the absolute best and traced around it. A little cutting, a little sewing, and LOTS of adjusting and here she is! I used my sis' serger to finish off the edges with a rolled hem. So easy! I will definitely be doing that again! Thanks to Vallen, I opened the book that came with my sewing machine and found I have a stitch made just for knits and stretchy things! Therefore, much less rippling with this project. It makes Nelly look a little boxy, but trust me I have a few more curves than Nelly and I fill it out quite nicely. Don't zoom in too close - it's one of those shirts that looks better from a distance! Since I did the shirt on the diagonal I used more yardage than I would have had to, so I figure this little number cost me about 75 cents!

If all goes as planned, you'll be seeing Nelly some more this week. Who would have ever thought I would enjoy sewing clothes?

Black and white and GREEN all over!

I've been spending a lot of time this week looking at this...

But managed to find some time to make this...

Hope summer is treating you well!

Happy Independence Day!

In honor of the red, white and blue I whipped up this little number for Sydney using this tutorial (well, sort of. That's where I got the idea anyway.) I used one of her shirts to get the shape right, but unfortunately it's a little snug. Maybe I will rip it apart after today and make it fit a little better.

Cute kid alert...Sydney says hello and had to show off her pretty fingernails, painted especially for the 4th of July!

So, regardless of your political what-have yous, I hope you can take some time today to remember all we have to be thankful for living in the United States. And say a prayer for those fighting to keep our freedoms. God bless America.

Kid-Sized Apron Gift

I've been a little apron crazy lately. Probably just because they are so fun and easy to make! This cute little number was for a little girl's birthday. (That's why it looks a little small on Nelly). I made her two of them so she could play with a friend. I've had this cute striped fabric for a while but could never come up with the perfect use for it. I think it turned out great as an apron. I especially love the rick-rack detail!

Mail Goodies

Seems like I've been slacking as a blogger lately. Sorry. I haven't been slacking as a crafter though, so I promise I have a lot to show you this week! First things first though...some special packages arrived in my mailbox!

The first is from Breanna at Graceful Designs. I won a contest on her blog and these are the awesome prizes she sent me. LOVE them all! I had the seamstress necklace on before I even got out of the car after picking up the mail. She does amazing solder work - seriously Breanna you do!! And Sydney loves her I Spy game! Thanks again Breanna!!

It was Raesha's birthday recently. I received this great package of paper goodies as a party favor! Doesn't blogland rock? Thanks Raesha! Hope you had a great birthday! This stuff will all come in handy for my class in August.

Hope to see you back here again soon!