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The rhythm of our week. Tuesday: Sewing day

By on September 27, 2011 in Rhythm, sewing

I’m feeling much better today!  I have been juicing and drinking mostly veggies and fruits and I have lots more energy today and whatever flu bug it was that was trying to get me is on its way out.

I love sewing day.  I love coming out with a final product or getting farther along on a project. Today my mending pile was falling over so I had to work on that : (  It is not as much fun but it benefits my family so there is much worth in it.

I had to repair Livie’s favorite dress and some culottes for the girls (they tear their playclothes up pretty bad).

As I was working I thought maybe I would share my sewing space with you. I used to have our loft upstairs for my sewing/creativity room but last year I gave it to the boys so my oldest daughter could have her own room. Sigh…. I have now been banished to the garage which is the only space big enough to fit all of my shelves, sewing machines, cutting tables as well as the girls sewing machines. I am hoping next year we will put in nice floors and make it feel like a real room but for now, here are the areas that are not too messy to share with you hee-hee.
my mending pile is pretty big right now.  You can also see Poppas shirt on top.  He got a little bleach stain in it and so it is waiting to be turned into a dress for Livie.
my cutting table, it is chock full of baskets of yarn and fabric underneath
more fabric.  This is an antique gun case which I put shelves into years ago and thought I would paint it white….yeah its still waiting for me to paint it.  Maybe now that I have admitted it I will get it done…
wool dryer balls and ready cut squares for a quilt.
What did my old sewing loft look like?  Check it out.

 my old sewing loft
How I miss this space but my boys need it more than I do.
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Men’s suit shirt to baby pinafore dress refashion

By on March 14, 2011 in Refashion, sewing

I found this today and realized that I never shared this refashion project with you.  I do that ALOT.  I promise to share more of my projects with you from now on.  Anyhoo…I made this dress for Livie back in the fall for her Thanksgiving outfit.  The pictures are not the best, they were taken at sundown but you get the idea.

Poppa gave me this Nautica shirt which did not fit anymore but was practically brand new and I loved the fabric (which is why I bought it for him in the first place).

 He handed it to me and said “see what you can make with this”.  Ummm…Yes Sir!  Did you just ask me to embark on a new refashion project..swoon!  The shirt is way wrinkled, sorry but its the only one I took.  I did not really expect to like the end product so…there you go.

In my stash I found some stretchy cotton velour which felt like velvet which I used to make the pinafore top. The shirt fabric reminds me of a pique weave. The body of the dress was so easy.  I just cut the shirt straight across just below the shirt pocket, ran a gathering stitch along the cut edge and attached it to the brown velour top portion.  I then serged the raw edges in the inside (if you don’t have a serger you could zigzag the raw edge on the inside).  The hem is already done for you unless you don’t like the curved bottom of the shirt.    I wanted it to be all the same level so I cut it straight and rehemmed it but if you leave it you can really see that it is made from a man’s shirt which is really cute. 
The pantaloons are made of the sleeves which were really easy to cut off and sew together to make the legs and bottom portion.  Livie has a big bottom so I needed more fabric so I cut the sleeves including some of the fabric from the shoulders as you can see in that seam there.  I made a casing and threaded some elastic thru..done.
I made another casing from the brown velour, sewed in onto where the white ruffle meets the shirt fabric and left the ends open to thread some satin brown ribbon through and tied a bow.
to finish the Autumn look I drew an acorn and embroidered the design on which I sewed to the front of the pinafore.  This was the perfect Thanksgiving outfit and so easy to make.  Next time your hubby hands you a shirt that he does not want (or you make a great find at a thrift store) get your refashion on.
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