Shiny Teal Dress

Here's a dress I made back in August 2021 using a mid-weight, stretch knit I found in the Walmart bargain bin. Its hard to tell in the pictures, but the fabric also has a slight sheen to it. I used a mash-up of several patterns for the bodice and sleeves, but mostly it was my own design. And Eesa helped a little, too! The waistline uses elastic to cinch the waist. I wanted a little something extra so I added a couple of ruffles to the bust. When Eesa tried it on, something didn't look right to me. I decided to add another row of ruffles. That extra ruffle sure improved the overall look of the dress! A cute dress for a cute girl. She wore this dress fairly often at first, but lately she hasn't. 

Before

After!

Freezer Paper Transfer Tree Frog

Here's a quick an easy project I did in August 2021, in honor of my son's tree frog that passed away a few months before this. I bought a shirt at Walmart for a couple of bucks and printed out a tree frog illustration. Same process for all my freezer paper transfer projects: Print, tape to paper, cute with x-acto knife, place, iron, and paint. I think the shirt turned out cute, and he wears it just like any other shirt. The fabric paint as faded quite a bit since I first made it!

Some Random Tops From Years Past

I made these in probably 2017, I forgot to post them so here they are. Some cute shirt I made for Eesa when she was 5 or 6, using the Maisie pattern from Violette Field Threads. 

A cute purple shirt, using fabric from the thrift store and some fun lace trim. I don't remember her wearing this very often, even though it looks super cute. I don't even know what happened to it.

This looks like a dress, but it's a shirt. I wish I would have either bought enough fabric to make it a dress, or not gathered it so much. Either way, she never wore it and I think I just donated it to Goodwill.

Boy's Pajamas

I made these pj's for my oldest boy, just because it's not very often that I get to sew for him. And well, frankly it's hard to find pjs for teens that are in sets and that are cotton and not plastic polyester. For the teal pjs, I used some cotton flannel-type fabric that was given to me. The black/Christmas Cactus pjs were made from flannel I found on clearance at JoAnn's. I bought all the rest that they had. If they had more, I would have bought it in order make more jammies for my other kids because I love that print! Thanks be to the sewing gods because I had just barely, barely exactly within-a-centimeter, enough for these pajamas. Yikes!

I used the Violette Field Thread's Grace Pajama pattern, but I altered it to make it into boy's pj's. I wish I would have altered the bottoms even more. They could have used a couple more inches in length, and the inseam needed more length as well. Well, good to know for next time, even if it did take me two times to realize that. Anyway, he wears these pj's still, and is outgrowing them so they will be handed to little brother soon.

For future reference or anyone who wishes to make boy's pjs (they are designed for girls!) out of the Violette Field Thread's Grace Pajama pattern, here ya go and you're welcome: 

 

Top: 

-straight line for side seams (the pattern curves in)

-buttons on other side

-widen the shoulders by about 1/4"

-short Sleeve lengthened by 1/2"-1"

-reduce sleeve gather using your preferred method (I just redrafted my own sleeve using the pattern as a guide)

Bottoms:

-lengthen inseam (at top) by 1"

-lengthen hemline by 2"

These measurements are approximate of course, and for a size 12. You'll probably want more or less depending on size. 

 

Christmas cactus!  

Bonus! 

I made this other cutie some pj's out of some ribbed knit white cotton I found in the Walmart bargain bin. I don't recall what pattern I used though. I asked him if he wanted them tie-dyed or a design on them, but he said he just wanted them white, haha silly kid. He still likes to wear them, a year later!

Princess Dress

Here's a dress I made in May 2021 for a friend's daughter that was turning 3. I used the dress pattern "Josephine" from FooFoo Threads. The Josephine was a pattern I used to sew with a lot when Eesa was younger, so it was fun to pull it out again and make this cute dress. A friend down the street gave me a huge bag of fabric, and there were a couple of Disney princess prints in there. Eesa's much to old, but I still hang on to that fabric for occasions such as this! Her mom sent me this picture. The back uses shirring and I added a sash/tie. I still have lots of Disney print fabric left, I'm sure it will get used up eventually, for projects such as this:

 

Light Pink Tank Top

Here's a tank top shirt I made in May 2021 for Eesa. I used a combo of some Ellie & Mac patterns, but it turned out a bit too big...better too big than too small though! The under arms gaped, so I sewed in an extra piece of white fabric to make it more wearable. She wore it a few times and has kind of grown into it, but I think in 2023 it will fit her better! I used some really thin, pale pink knit fabric from the Walmart bargain bin, and I had to double the fabric, in order for it to be not see-through:

Mommy/Daughter Matching Shirts

Here's a matching set of shirts I made for myself and girly in May of 2021. I was inspired by this shirt I saw an amazon:

I didn't have any cheetah print fabric, but I had something similar, even though it was fabric for things like leotards or swimsuits. It was just a small strip, so it didn't matter a great deal. The black fabric was a soft knit I found in the Walmart bargain bin. I did have to draft my own pattern, from a dolman top I already had (Ellie & Mac's). It wasn't super hard to draft my own pattern, and like the way these shirts turned out. But....if I had to do them all over again, I would have made the sleeves a little wider/looser, and the length of my shirt a bit longer on mine.

A very bad pic of both of us, but the only one I have of both of us together in the shirts.

Tie-Dye Fun

In May of 2021, I bought a tie-dye kit and kinda went crazy with it! I bought some plain white shirts along with the kit. I looked on youtube for videos on how to tie-dye certain designs and decided to try out the spiral and the heart technique.

 
The shirts were fun to do, although they were a lot trickier to prepare than it looked in the videos! I let the kids choose their colors for their shirts. I think they turned out great! Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the dye faded quite a bit after washing and wearing. The kids wear their shirts and pjs quite often, thought sadly, the shirts and pjs are getting to be too small.

My hand looked like it had been smashed! Yes, I used gloves, but the dye got inside anyway so I just gave up. The dye didn't stay on my hands for too long anyway.

This one probably turned out the best. 

A nice blue spiral.

The heart turned out good, but not great.

The shirt in action. You can see it had faded already. Still cute though.

I also had sewn up some pajama sets for Eesa and Ian, using a white, slightly stretchy, and super soft fabric I found in the Walmart value fabric bin. I've been looking for that specific fabric ever since, but I haven't been able to find it. I used VFT's Gracie pajama pattern. I altered the pattern slightly for the boy (no curve at the waist, and buttons on other side). I've used that pattern often, so I'm super glad I bought it. They turned out super cute. I just wish I would have sewn down the back facing by the nape of the neck.

I used the tie-dye crumple technique for the pajamas

I didn't like the white spots on Ian's pj bottoms, so I re-dyed those spots.

So adorable! Nice jammies, too.

The pjs in action! So soft and comfy.

Patriotic Outfits

May 2021

You know, call me an extremist, but I kinda consider it an abomination to purchase patriotic clothing from China. It just seems counter-intuitive. After scrolling Amazon for shirt and shirt made in China, I gave up and just made my own. I used a dolman top pattern and my own creativity for the design. I used a star punch, but it was trickier than I thought to employ it in the freezer paper transfer, but I muddled through. I like the way it turned out, and I do wear it occasionally, even when it's not the 4th!

I made Ian a patriotic shirt in addition to mine since he had outgrown his from the year before. It was hard to do. I had to double the white fabric, and then and somehow keep track of all those stripes, but I did it, even if they did take a long time. I thought the sewing of stripes together would never end! In any case, like how it turned out. The shirt was large on him when I first made it. As of this date, he's worn it for two 4ths of July already, and we might get a third year out of it. He wears it fairly often outside of any patriotic holidays as it is. 

****************************************************************************

I made this simple dress for a friend's daughter who was turning 3, using VFT's Piper pattern with flutter sleeves. I also found a fun silver button in my button stash that went so perfectly with the dress! The fabric was given to me by a friend down the street. Free fabric is the best!

Danger Noodle Tank aka A Waste of My Time

In May of 2021, per request of Eesa, I made this here shirt. Exactly as she asked. She liked snakes and wanted me to make her a snake shirt. I reconfirmed with her several times of the design and if "danger noodle" was the saying she really wanted (she was also think about "nope rope"). She said yes, yes, yes! Ok, so I went ahead and made her this tank top. I used fabric paint via freezer paper transfer method for the design. Well, she wore it to school once and said she would never wear it again, because one of her classmates made and improper comment about it. So, into the giveaway pile it went. Sigh.  

Yellow Top

Oops. I almost forgot about this one. Much time has elapsed since I made this shirt, yeesh probably 5 years! But better late than never huh? And I do actually remember most of the specifics. I made this using the VFT Pepper pattern (top version) using some really cute yellow eyelet fabric I found at the thrift store (I'm pretty sure it was Savers). I had to line it with a light white cotton since there were eyelets (aka holes) all over the fabric. I added flutter sleeves as well to make it extra cute! I love the bright yellow. Just so cute on a little girl. I didn't get a picture, but the back enclosure had daisy buttons that matched perfectly! I also made a head band and sewed on some more of the same daisy buttons, sorry, also no picture. I made this in probably late 2017 or early 2018.

Thank goodness for school pictures, or this shirt would have never been photographed! A perfect shirt for pictures! 

Color Blocked shirts

Here are a bunch of pictures of the Color Block shirts I made using Ellie and Mac's pattern. I love that it's a uni-sex pattern. I can sew for my boys, finally! I may have gone a bit crazy with making the kids stuff from this pattern, haha. 

March 2021

I believe this was my first shirt I made using the pattern. Eesa likes snakes (why?) and I happened to have this snakeskin stretchy fabric that also happened to match perfectly with the purple knit fabric I had in my stash. The pattern comes with an optional tie, which I used for this shirt for added interest. Girly liked it and she still wears it to this day (1.5 years later).

March 2021

A few days later, I made Ian a shirt using the same pattern, sans tie. Unfortunately, it was way too small. He wore it once before I gave it away. I made him another one a month or so later, exactly the same expect a bigger size!  

April 2021

I made the boys matching shirts! Again, the shirts turned out too small and were only wearable once or twice. After making these shirts I figured I needed to use a bigger size. I'm not sure if there was an issue with the pattern itself, or the way I printed the pattern, or maybe the fabric shrunk a ton (unlikely since I almost always pre-wash my fabrics). Luckily It wasn't too much of a loss, I just gave the big guy's shirt to the little guy and gave the little guy's shirt to an even littler guy! I don't think the orange fabric I used was stretchy enough for this pattern, notice how the neckline bunches up!

May 2021

I no longer trusted the size I had printed out, but I was able to draft a larger size from it. I made this shirt for Gabe, who was happy enough with the shirt to actually wear it! 

An orange color-blocked shirt for girlie, no tie this time. She doesn't have a lot of the color orange in her wardrobe, so this was nice for a change. I love the shiny, shimmery fabric. Alas, it has started to rub off, so she doesn't wear it much, yet she doesn't want to give it away quite yet.

They both wore their color block shirts on the same day!

Here's the replacement color block shirt for the one that was too small. I stupidly cut two fronts instead of one front and one back, but it wasn't that big of a deal, it just made me feel stupid. As a bonus, Eesa is wearing a tank top I made from altering the color block pattern into a tank.

Shiny Purple Dress

March 5 2021
I made this pretty dress out of some random, super-shiny purple fabric I found at Goodwill. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it may have been a curtain at one point. Unfortunately, the fabric was incredibly low quality, but so very pretty. It was thin, slippery, and warp prone. I'm surprised I was able to make a dress at all, but the sewing gods were with me I guess, and this dress turned out surprisingly well. I created it using a mash-up of VFT patterns, the Harlow with the Sutton cold-shoulder sleeves. I think the sleeves add and air of elegance to the dress.

Eesa liked to wear it fairly often to church. Alas, the skirt fabric ripped from the bodice in the front after maybe 3-4 wears. Did I mention this was cheap fabric? I wasn't my sewing job; it was the fabric that tore from itself. Sigh. I would have tossed the dress, but Elisa really liked it, so I hand-stitched the skirt to the bodice, and the repairs aren't too noticeable, thankfully.
Girly still wears this dress (a year and a half after its production). I've been using the largest size that VFT patterns go up to (at least for the girls) which is size 9/10. She's so skinny that I'm still using this size, 1.5 years later. Of course, this dress was a bit big when I first made it, but she's grown into it, so we've gotten lots of use out of it. Oh, if only the fabric weren't so sucky. I supposed its better than ugly fabric, right? Here she is in her shiny purple dress. So cute!! 

Pay no mind to my messy craftroom.

I love low-cut back on VFT's Harlow pattern.

I think she's just the cutest little girl that there ever was! The dress is pretty cute, too.

Tribal Print Outfits

April 2021

Another Walmart bargain bin score! It was nice to find a knit with a print for a change! Most of the bargain fabrics are solid colors. The fabric I found is soft, stretchy, but it tends to catch on hangnails or anything, really! I think it must have some nylon in it...? The problem with the Walmart bargain fabrics is that there isn't a label as to exactly what the fabric is. 

The first thing I did was make myself a dress. I used my dolman top pattern that I drafted myself. I intended to have an elasticized waist, but it turned out that I didn't need to--the bodice was tapered enough. In all, the dress turned out nicely. I wear it occasionally. I did have a scare before I sewed on the skirt part with the pattern being placed in a just the wrong (or right, depending on who you're talking to) place! Thankfully, I had put it on backward, on accident (duh!). No way I'd be able to wear it in public otherwise haha. 

I had just enough fabric left over to make Eesa a top, using the Twist it Up pattern from Ellie & Mac. It's a cute and comfy shirt that she wears plenty.

Oho no way!

Phew. Had the dress on backwards!

Cutie wearing her new shirt.

I also made a pair of beaded earrings that happened to match pretty well with the dress. Unfortunately, I lost one in the grocery store and have yet to make a replacement.