Pants That Want To Be Skirts

A few months ago, a very sweet friend of mine gave my like 7 pairs of pants and a few other things. I was SO excited and couldn't wait for Caleb to be born so I could wear all my new clothes! Everything was the right size and fit fine, but not everything fit the way I would have picked out. So I thought I would try with the pair that I liked the least (in case I totally messed up :o) ) to make a skirt out of them. I had never made a skirt like this before and was guessing that it couldn't be to hard. It turned out to be really easy, and only took about 1 hour (I'm estimating, because I usually do things in two parts). I get it all ready at nap time and then sew once everyone's in bed at night. The longest part was ripping out the seam. There's not much actual sewing to be done, so it was FAST! And I always need fast.

Here they are before. They look a little sad, I think. They want to be made pretty.

I should have tried it on to see where to make my cut, but I didn't, and it still worked out perfect. Yay :o)

I used the bottom of one pant leg to add a piece in the front and back of the skirt.

It took some time fiddling to get everything in the right spot.

Just pin well and sew very slowly.

The back took a little longer to pin in the right place. I had to try it on 4 or 5 times to make sure there were no puckering parts :o) I sewed a double line to match what was there already, and it turned out really nice!

Here's the inside front.

After sewing, I just trimmed the extra away, really close to the seam.

And the inside back.

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will be able to see how good the seam turned out.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to hem it or leave it to fray a little, so I washed and dried it to see what would happen. It looked to unfinished, so I did hem it and I love wearing it! There's nothing better once warm weather comes then a closet full of skirts!!!  :o) 

It was very worth 1 hour of my time!

Here are a few pictures of the finished product and a shirt that I made after seeing THIS at Ruffles and Stuff.

I'm really happy with the way they both turned out!

I love my new outfit :o)

I titled this Pants That Want To Be Skirts because I had two pair of pants to transform, but so far only one has been done, and if I wait until I do the other pair, who knows when this would get posted :o)  Whenever I do get to the other pair maybe I'll add a picture. 

My Present To Me

Well, here's my skirt.

It's nothing special, but I think simple is usually better anyway.

There's just a little top-stitching detail around the edges.

Here's the zipper that was giving me so much trouble.

I'm still not completely happy with it, but I gave up :o)

The next one will be better I'm sure.

I think some pockets would be cute!

Mothers Day Gifts

This was a great Mothers Day!!!

It was probably the best one I've had! The whole day was so relaxed and very special. Tim really went out of his way the whole weekend to make it a special one. I was totally pampered and I appreciate it all! (Thank you, I love you!) He even cleaned the house, did dishes and laundry, and put the boys to bed while I took a 2 hour nap. That was wonderful! 

I made THESE family tree pins and a variation of THIS bracelet that turned out really well, I just forgot to take pictures before they were given :o) oops. Maybe I can get some and post them later.

I tried to make myself a skirt to wear to church - the only problem was that I was making the pattern up as I went and I started at 10pm Saturday night. I was so close, but at 12am I made a tired and stupid mistake while putting the last touch on the zipper and ended up with no skirt to wear :o( I was sad but it turned out to be a little chilly that morning, so I was happy enough to be wearing pants and a new shirt that Tim sent me to buy a few weeks ago. It was even my favorite color, purple :o)
My skirt is all fixed now, so I'll wear it next week, and the pattern I was working on is now how I want it, and ready for me to make more, so with the next one I'll do a tutorial.

 Happy late Mothers Day to Everyone !!!

Shirt Remake

My friend Stephanie came over the other night to craft with me while I was starting on my rug project. We didn't have any plans as to what we would be making, but she was going to bring a bag of clothes that were headed for goodwill, so I figured we could find something to do. We found a pretty blue shirt that didn't have anything wrong with it other than she was tired of wearing it. I noticed that it had a double layer of fabric in the front, which was perfect for cutting apart and adding some frills with! We went looking for some ideas at Tea Rose Home, and took THIS and THIS and put them together to make...

This

So pretty!!

And better yet, it was free :o)

Thanks for coming over Stephanie, I had a great time!

A Rug In The Making

Well, this one is going to be quite a PROJECT!

So far I've cut, braided, and sewed by hand for about 4 hours straight and all I have to show, after all that, is the very little this,

 I'm sad, :o( and my fingers have blisters. But I LOVE the look so far! 

My hope is that I can come up with enough scrap fabric to make a rug big enough to put under my bed that will stick out maybe 2 feet all the way around. That is my hope, but I'm not sure how far that will get me :o)  I may make it a bit gradually as my fingers let me. 

I've had all these t-shirts that I've been saving for so long, knowing that there would be something amazing to make one day. And now I am so glad that I did! I always feel guilty for all the piles of good stuff, but still stuff that I sometimes have laying around for days, or months :o) just knowing that I will use it one day. The guilt is only there until I finally start whatever project that will come of all those loose pieces, and then there is this wonderful feeling of accomplishment and pride that I did it. I did make something from pieces of nothing. It would never have been done if I hadn't saved that one little scrap for the last 3 years. Ok maybe not. But I do love using up all my leftovers and then getting to make things for free! 

Back to the rug. 

I've been saving all these clothes and scraps that people have given me, knowing that I wanted to do this when I had enough. I wanted to stay kinda in the same colors. Pink, blue, brown, white and purple. Not so much in the yellows and reds. So once I had a good bit to start with, I cut all my strips and started braiding. At first I tied the pieces together and tried to braid, but everything was getting tangled faster than I could braid it. So I cut a small slit at the end of each strip to loop the next piece through so I could add as I went. Then I saw on youtube (sorry, I don't know where now) how you can just fold the two pieces together as you're braiding and that's secure enough. So I started doing that, and once I had a very long braid, I started sewing the rug together and was very surprised that it was taking me FOREVER to make any progress! Then I saw on youtube how to sort of weave the thread or twine or whatever you're using through the space between the braid with a very big and blunt needle and not have to push a needle through sometimes-very-tough fabric and kill your fingers. Before I started doing this, I had switched to using pliers to pull the needle through because of my blisters :o(  I should have taken pictures of them to show off. Anyway, I'm sure things will start moving much faster now, and I'm sure I will have a few more updates before the rug is  finished.
Here I am still braiding while a friend is over to craft with me.

I was sewing so you wouldn't see any stitches from the front.

4 hours in :o(

But soft and cushy already :o)

Here I switched to Pliers.

I'll show next time how I go through the loop part of the braid and how far that takes me. 

Until next time... :o)

Last minute outfit

So we have a wedding to go to tomorrow, and I was trying to think of something for the boys to wear. I cut up these pants a few weeks ago, but never got around to sewing them. And I had also been thinking of taking some of the boys' sweaters and turning them into vests for summer. So I pulled everything out and thought I would just see how far I could get before bed and then, surprise! 15 minutes later I had a new outfit!!!! 

I started with this sweater that I always liked but the sleeves were a little long, so I would always end up rolling them up and then it looked sloppy to me.

So I cut it up.

Then turned the sweater inside out, and with right sides together, pinned the cuff to the armhole and sewed with a zig-zag stitch.

Done!

5 minutes!!

I had already cut the legs off these pants and used the leftovers to make the little tabs.

I sewed around and clipped the points.

Then top-stitched.

I pinned everything in place, and sewed the tabs to the pants as I hemmed at the same time.

I added a button and the shorts were done.

10 minutes!!

I can't believe that's all it was. So easy! I love it :o)

I'll try to get a picture of my cute little guy in it at the wedding tomorrow.