One man's trash is another man's treasure! An upcycled shirt to skirt tutorial

Some people call it junking, others call it thrifting - I call it Treasure Hunting. I grew up in thrift stores and at yard sales - not because it was cool but because I grew up without a lot of money. I remember ducking down in my parents' big boat LTD with the classic red vinyl interior while my mom went into the Valley Rescue Mission Thrift Store. There were no TLC shows about it, just necessity. So, hunting is in my blood. During one of my Goodwill hunts recently, I spotted this awesome lightweight material top in white with navy blue circles and swirls. My first thought was 4th of July. So, I grabbed it. It was a 4x, so I knew I was going to have plenty of material for my daughter who is in between an 8-10 right now. This is a great project because there is NO pattern needed and you can find everything here for inexpensive or FREE! (Seriously, you would be surprised at how much you can walk away from a yard sale with when it gets close to noon). So here we go:

Tutorial:
Trash to Treasure Top to Peek a Boo Lace Slip Skirt

Materials:
An item with enough fabric to cut 2 pieces the width of your child's hips x 1.5 and the length you want it to hit minus the width of your lace (I measured waist to knee)
3/4 elastic
Another item with the same amount of fabric as your outer layer that will serve as the 'slip' under your main layer. I used some inexpensive white cotton I already had.
Lace trim (I found my entire bolt in the clearance section of Hobby Lobby for $2.00. No lie. Make friends with the clearance areas at JoAnn, Hobby Lobby and Hancock - they can be your bestest friend.) If you don't luck up on a bolt of lace, you will need an amount equal to the hem of your underlayer. Should be (Child's Hip x 1.5) x 2 + 2" (I always like to add a margin of error in case you pin the lace funky or something. I would much rather have a smidge too much lace or trim or not enough.
Matching threads.

Start by measuring your child's hips (Or widest point) multiply that by 1.5. Then measure your child from waist to where you want the skirt to hit. Cut the outer fabric shorter by the width of the lace you have. For example, if you want a 15" length skirt and you have 2" wide fabric, cut your outer layer 13. Cut the underlayer the full length you want.

Start with the underlayer. Sew one side together right sides together and finish the raw edge either with a serger, french hem, or narrow zig zag on the sewing machine. Press your hem to one side. Lay your underlayer out flat and pin your lace on lining the bottom of the lace up with the bottom of the fabric. Sew at the header of the lace (the top) using a short zig zag stitch to attach your lace to your fabric. Once attached, trim the fabric under the stitching away leaving just the lace.

Next, hem your outer layer (or cheat if you are using a shirt by using the pre-existing hem). Sew one side together right sides together and finish the seam.

Line both pieces together at the top and go ahead and press down .25" and then another 1" with an iron. Open up the ironed creases and sew each layer of the skirt with its other side making two tubes - one with the outer layer and one with the inner layer. Put the inner layer back inside the outer layer and match the pressed creases back up tucking the underlayer under the outer layer. Sew close to the edge of the 1" pressed portion leaving about an 1" unsewn.

Cut a piece of elastic 1-2" smaller than your desired waist measurement. Run the elastic through the casing you just made using a bodkin or safety pin (make sure you mark both sides of the elastic before you run it through so you can make sure you don't twist it.) Once you get back around, overlap your elastic and sew it together using a zig zag stitch. Pull your elastic into the casing and sew the 1" opening closed and Voila! You have a beautiful upcycled skirt!

I hope you have enjoyed my first tutorial. It is my first, so be gentle. I hope you will consider trying it. I love reusing things that are already out there. 1.) Its usually cheaper. Fabric is Spendy! 2.) If you buy from thrift stores you are helping your community. 3.) You are keeping old clothes out of the landfill and helping the environment! Sure, you could use this tutorial with regular fabric, too, but you don't get all of the benefits I just mentioned!! Hope you have a great 4th of July!

Somethings are just easy as pie...

Both of my kids are now on Pinterest (because, well, shouldn't we all be??) My son kept finding all of these great recipes, so I told him - if you find something you really want to make - we will go get the ingredients and you will make it from scratch. Next thing I know, I am looking at Little Chief Honeybee's blog (http://honeybeeinthecity.blogspot.com/2011/11/wedding-wednesday-chocolate-chip-cookie_30.html) and drooling along side my kids at the chocolate chip cookie dough pie she had up. So, off to the Publix we go and pie making ingredients we have in hand. So, tonight, I took my OCD hands off the wheel and stepped back and let my 11 year old make his pie. It would have been faster if I had mixed the ingredients myself, it would have been easier to measure everything out myself, but it would not have been as sweet. We have to let our kids walk on their own path. As parents, it's really easy to want to hold their hands and walk one step in front of them to keep them from tripping or from running into the bad things. But, they have to trip, they have to fall. They have to win and they have to lose. They need to come in first and they need to come in last. We can't live their lives. And sometimes, we have to let them wipe up their own pie batter when they drop it or else they will never know how. Learning makes life sweeter and sometimes letting them find their own way can be as easy as pie.

Be on the lookout for my next blog entry - an upcycled shirt tutorial! Have a happy and safe 4th of July and God Bless America!

The Imperfection of Perfection

Perfection is one of those things that has always been a blessing and a curse for me. The journey toward it has inspired me to be able to accomplish many things. However, the inattainability of it has also caused me to either not do something or to be disappointed when something I did didn't turn out to be 'perfect.' Tonight's case in point. My daughter is in a sewing camp making clothes for her American Girl this week. On Friday, they want the girls to be "twins" with their American Girl. Well, she has outfits that match that we have bought at various American Girl stores during our travels, but you know, I AM a seamstress and as a seamstress and stay at home mom and pinterest addict, I of course should MAKE matching outfits for Cate and her baby (I think she decided to take her 'My American Girl' Hailey with her). So, I had already started making Cate a skirt out of pre-ruffled fabric (thanks so kindly to the Hobby Lobby clearance for that score. 50% off per yard and all I had to gather was the waist to attach it to the waistband. I had enough fabric left to make Hailey (or Kailey or Kanani or Samantha) a skirt. Then she needed a matching shirt. All of this in two days before the twin day when in the summer, of course all I have is T-I-M-E. (Im sure the stay at home moms out there know about the overtime in the summertime). So, I found an online freebie tshirt pattern for the American Girls and basically kinda threw it together. I left the armholes and neck raw (knit doesn't fray). I was kind of disgusted with myself for being such a half butt, but when Cate saw it, she lit up. And this morning when she went to camp, she was so proud. I was worried her teacher was going to judge the poor construction of the outfit, but when I picked her up, all she could talk about is how much the other girls in her class and her teacher loved their matching outfits. Sometimes, I think, we are our worst critics. That we don't even do things that would be great because we fear failure or imperfection. We don't stop to think that other people don't judge us anywhere near as harshly as we judge ourselves. We need to lighten up on ourselves and give ourselves grace. Our fear of imperfection leads us to a standstill and causes us to avoid the perfection of the moments that happen when we do try. Cate wasn't concerned about finished armholes or ruffle fabric that didn't line up completely. She was happy her mom made her and her girl outfits and she was proud as punch to wear them. That memory was perfection.