recycled disney clothes

Did you think we were done talking about Disney? NOPE! I made these outfits for this girls out of fabric scraps and old clothes. They wanted to wear "Minnie Mouse clothes" and this is what I came up with. I knew they couldn't wear an itchy costume all day and I couldn't bear the thought of them wearing a plain old t-shirt and shorts... so here we have a happy medium.

The red polka dot fabric was left over from a Christmas project a few years back. The black and yellow jersey knit are old shrunken t-shirts. Everything else was found deep in the corners of my sewing closet and pieced together. Millie's pants were old leggings with a little ruffle added around the bottom. I made Stella's pants using my one and only ruffle pants pattern. The tennis shoes take about 37 cool points away from the cuteness, but that's really the only shoe option for walking in the Magic Kingdom.  I sort of gagged every time I looked at their feet that whole day, but they didn't seem to mind.

The highlight of the whole Disney trip for me was when Cinderella (that's right... CINDERELLA!) asked them if someone made their outfits for them. They said "our mom made them" and Cinderella said to me, "Why, these are the fairest clothes I've ever seen! Sleeping Beauty and I were discussing how delightful they looked when we saw them standing in line." I smiled and said thank you and refrained from curtseying. That was a HUGE compliment considering how many thousand outfits she must see every day. I also made Hal's Mickey Mouse suit from old T-Shirts...

Happy Recycling!

recycled bunny clothes

It's time for bunny clothes! Lord knows I love repurposing some old crib sheets. With a grey dotted crib sheet and an old white curtain liner, I made a swing top and a jumper for this springy time of year. I like them very much.

Stella Belle is wearing the swing top. I did not use a pattern for this so there was lots of trying on and ripping out and doing over. The white fabric once lined a curtain. The polka dot ruffle and trim were an old crib sheet. I hand painted (freehand, no stencil) the bunny with fabric paint. If you care about things being perfect you could probably find a similar pattern to make this. Her pants are the same ones she wore for Thanksgiving (found HERE).

Millie is wearing a jumper. It once lived the unglamorous life of a crib sheet. I used my one and only ruffle pants pattern leaving extra fabric at the top and taking away the ruffles at the bottom. The bunny is hand painted with fabric paint. The elastic around the legs are from a pair of worn out leggings that were headed to the trash can.

We will be wearing these around town all spring. Total cost of this project... ZERO dollars! Yay for free clothes!

recycled thanksgiving: striped shirt

I made a shirt for Millie G. out of an old striped tank top. I used a long sleeve T in her size to measure, then cut a shirt-ish shape out of the striped tank...

After cutting it out, I turned right sides together and sewed up both sides and across the tops of the arms, leaving arm holes and neck hole open. Then I added orange dyed scraps to the sleeves, waistband and neck. Super easy!

She loves it and so do I. The brown and white striped tank was in my closet and orange dyed scraps were from a previous project. Recycled Thanksgiving project number three cost ZERO dollars. Yay for free!

recycled thanksgiving: ruffle pants

I made these lightweight ruffle pants with recycled cotton jersey. I (sort of) used a simple pant pattern that I learned a few years back. These started out as adult size pajama bottoms. I cut the pattern from each leg then used old shirts for the ruffles...

I dyed them with a few drops of black RIT dye. I wanted them to be a gray-ish color, so I didn't use very much dye. A little goes a long way when it comes to black dye.

After dying, washing, and drying, I added two crooked pockets from an old shirt and used elastic from a pair of Charlie's boxers that were headed to the trash can. Yes, cutting elastic out of my husband's underwear is a million times easier than going to the fabric store with four children to buy it. I also made another pair of pants from a white bathrobe. I love that they are light and ruffled and gray and recycled. I had black RIT dye on hand so recycled thanksgiving project number two was FREE! Raise your hand if you like free pants.

recycled thanksgiving: glue designs

I try to make the girls something new to wear to Thanksgiving feast at my parent's house every year. Sometimes I get a very specific picture in my head of how things should look and I cannot sleep until it all comes together. I couldn't find fabric to buy that looked like the fabric in my head, so I decided to declare RECYCLED THANKSGIVING! No cotton jersey fabric is safe. I've cut up t shirts, bathrobes, pajama bottoms, maternity tanks, skirts, and socks... anything white and stretchy.

For Stella Belle's shirt I wanted orange with big polka dots. Lord knows I love a polka dot. Luckily, she had a plain white shirt with a few stains on it. I took some Elmer's washable school glue and freehanded circles all over the shirt (with a magazine inside the shirt to prevent sticking together). You could possibly use a stencil or measure the circles if you are classy, but I'm not so I just went for it.

Let the dots dry for a LONG time. Like overnight or maybe longer. I actually did the front first and then did the back the next day. After the dots were all dry, I dyed the shirt using orange RIT dye. The glue washes off in the washing machine after dying is complete.

I also dotted and dyed the sleeves of a men's t-shirt and a few scraps of a ribbed tank. You'll see them reappear in the near future.

Recycled Thanksgiving project number one cost: $2 (for RIT dye). Stay tuned!

little feather heads

The girls had a costume party at ballet this week. I was in a sewing mood and decided to make two little indian outfits. This was my shopping list...

1 yard Brown polka dot jersey fabric
1 yard Tan jersey fabric
2 pairs of white knee socks
Scrap pink sparkly fabric
1 yard sparkly elastic
Feathers

The headpieces are made with sparkly elastic. Hot glue feathers on the side and hot glue ends together. Easy.

For the shirts I measured a rectangular piece of the polka dot fabric around each girl. Sew with right sides together and done. Then I sewed a long strip or two of the tan fabric across the top and cut slits to look "fringy." I added a scrap piece of sparkly pink to the front and tied it in a bow behind the neck. Easy.

The leg warmers are made from white knee socks. I cut the feet off at the ankle and sewed long strips of tan jersey all the way around the sock, then cut strips for "fringe." At the top of the sock I added a ruffle with extra polka dot jersey. Easy.

The girls were so excited and they've worn these costumes every day since the party. Sometimes it's the easiest, cheapest projects that make them the happiest. Make something today!

turtle power

Happy fall celebrating! Dressing up is the most fun with four kids. These candy loving, apple bobbing, super hero cuties made our weekend very exciting. Hope you are enjoying every single second of the last few days of October. PS... three month old babies to not like wearing ninja turtle masks. Now you know.

birthday bag for millie g.

I made a little purse for Millie G. Her birthday is Thursday and this will be one of her gifts. I used scrap fabric to make the purse and lined it with a fabric bird calendar from my MeeMaw's house (there's a little bit of MeeMaw in almost everything I make).

I am filling the purse with everything that a six year old could ever need (from the dollar spot at Target). The only thing I paid more than one dollar for is the fish wallet. It's from Wake Up Coffee (a local coffee shop here that sells handmade goods from all over the world) and she picks it up and shows it to me every time we go in.

The purse has plenty of pockets and is durable enough for six year old adventures. I won't go into details about how it is "rigged" together. I never sew with a pattern so it's crooked and not measured properly and well... just don't look at the corners ok? just don't. Lots more birthday blogging coming this week. Have a nice day!

monogram schmonogram

Sometimes we get beautiful hand-me-down clothes from our delightful friends and family members. I love a good treasure from a hand-me-down bag. I pulled this green dress out and knew it would be perfect for Millie g. The only problem was that the white collar was monogramed with someone else's initials. So I ripped the monogrammed thread out and replaced it with this new (and slightly funkier) homemade monogram...

I cut a circle of brown dotted fabric, cut a pink "M" out of felt and sewed it all together. It still needed a little something so added pink rick rack around the edge. Millie g. was happy and so was I.

Holla for hand-me-downs! And keep em comin!

owl clothes

Take a little peek at what I've been working on for a few weeks now...

Thanksgiving clothes for the kids! I like sewing clothes for them, aaaaand I like when they look snazzy at Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. Baby Stella Belle has a dress with an owl pocket (pants to match will be finished as soon as I'm done typing this blog post). Millie g. has a skirt with a big owl (she's slightly bitter that her owl is for decoration only and not a pocket. sad.) Little Dean might get a homemade owl t-shirt if time doesn't run out.

O.K. more sewing and cleaning to do! Make something with an owl on it today... just for fun.

whoever puts their toys away gets an eye patch

The kids needed a little motivation to put away the scattered babies, dinosaurs, puzzle pieces and books that were starting to take over the floor. I set the timer for fifteen minutes, gave them the promise of handmade eye patches, ran to the sewing closet and got busy. I finished all three before the timer was finished. EASY project... and it cost zero dollars.

P.S. Millie g.'s eye patch has a ruffle. How are you spending Wednesday afternoon?