Refashioned Long Sleeved Blue Maternity Shirt

BEFORE...

Here is my lovely blue striped maternity shirt. 

The drawback?...I was pregnant in the summer with lots of long sleeved shirts to wear! 

Can you say  HOT!!!
AFTER!


So here is the process I went through to refashion this long sleeved shirt into a cool summer time maternity shirt.

I began refashioning this shirt by laying another maternity shirt on top as a template. 

After cutting off the sleeves and trimming the sides a bit the shirt had a nicely fitted maternity look.

After sewing the sides together, I ironed the sleeves under and sewed a straight hem for a finished look. 

FINISHED Product! Awe....cool for the Summer!

Red & Black Refashioned Maternity Blouse

Long Sleeved Maternity Blouse BEFORE & AFTER.

I was in need of summer shirts, so I went to my closet and thought hum...which one of these beauties needs a bit of refashioning? 

You guessed it...this baby! Out came this scissors and the sewing machine.

I placed a shirt on top of the blouse to be refashioned as my guide for the sleeve cut. Then I cut an inch below that line to insure adequate material for the hem on the sleeve. The first cut is always the hardest. ONCE that is over...the fun begins!

I ironed the sleeves under a couple times and then sewed a nice straight hem stitch.

All ready to go!

Now, a usable summer blouse for those not so cold days!

Love Shirt Refashioned

 BEFORE...

 I had this darling shirt for my little girl and I wanted to remove the peace sign.

After unpicking the peace sign I was ready to attach a fabric flower in its place.

 Using a needle and thread, I hand sewed the lacy flower onto the shirt. To make the flower, I layered circles of silk on top of each other and burned the edges with a candle flame. The flame singes the circular edges and makes a beautiful ruffle edged flower.

AFTER!

 My daughter loves this sweet shirt and the frilly flower.

Refashioned Long Sleeved Black Dress

I was on the search for a Black sleeveless dress to go under my new blouse I bought for a wedding. I couldn't find one that I wanted to pay for, so I looked in my closet and found this dress hanging there, calling my name. I have only worn it a couple times because the sleeves are too long and it looks like I am going to a funeral. So.....the idea popped into my head...cut the sleeves off! Dress it up a bit! So I did.

The dress was too bulky when combined with the blouse I picked, so I got out my handy fabric tool and unpicked the both sleeves.

 Below is how it looked after I took the sleeves off. Not too bad!

After folding over the edges of the sleeve hole, I used a decorative stitch on my sewing machine and sewed around the opening. I don't wear sleeveless clothing by itself, but I do like to wear them under blouses, shirts, and sweaters.

Here is the finished product. I think it turned out nice and it fit well during the wedding. 

This dress looks good with just about anything over the top!

Adding Elastic Waistband to Shorts

 Soooo...my son won't wear shorts that are loose. Delema...he has a pair of shorts given to him by his Aunt that are darling but..... that are 3-4 inches too loose in the waist. I began tackling this project head on. I got some elastic from another pair of pants that I was throwing away and cut it into 2 pieces. Then I cut a slit in the inside wasteband area of the shorts.

 I hand sewed a button hole looking slit. not too professional but who is going to look there right?

 Then I hand sewed a button next to the hole. Pretty tricky considering I didn't want to sew through the other side of the shorts.

 I inserted the elastic band about 3-4 inches and sewed it in place. I sewed underneath a belt loop so that no one would know that we changed the inside of the shorts.

 I slipped the button onto the elastic and VOILA! Shorts that fit! 

My son now wears these shorts a couple times a week.

Yellow Toddler Shirt Button Cover-Up

 Darling Yellow stripped toddler shirt with Peace heart. My friend gave me this cute shirt for my daughter and I loved it, but wanted to change it up a bit. 

I am not a huge fan of peace signs on my little girl so I unpicked the center of the heart and attached a simple White button for decoration.

BEFORE...

AFTER! 

Simply Perfect

Refashioned Green Paisley Dress

BEFORE & AFTERS

Green Paisley Dress BEFORE....

Cute skirt AFTER!

 Yes, I couldn't let this dress go to the DI. I had to refashion it into a beautiful skirt. My niece gave it to me and I loved the print. It did not fit her or I but I knew the fabric was in great condition and I wanted to experiment with my sewing skills. I took the dress apart and began sewing...

 I unpicked the elastic inside the waistline of the fabric. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! This was a project that I did not spend a penny on. That is the kid of craft I like!  

 Here is a picture of the elastic after I unpicked it. It came out beautifully. I folded the top of the skirt over and  sewed it. Inserting the elastic with a pin on the end was a cinch. I sewed the two ends of the elastic together and then sewed the opening. HERE is the finished skirt. Now.....What do I wear with it?

 I took in the top by slimming down the arms and sides. I don't know if I will actually wear this shirt, but I had fun making it smaller and practicing my sewing skills. I took this outfit from a size 22 and trimmed it down quite a bit.

Refashioned Toddler Dress to Shirt

I received this cute dress from a friend and decided to refashion it because it had a black stain on the front. I refashioned it into a cute shirt for my daughter. Here are the steps it took to transform this Pink dress into a dressy shirt.

Here is the finished project. This was a nice DYI project that was free and fun to do.

Here are some pictures of the process it took to make this dress into a cute toddler shirt.

I cut the bottom half of the dress off where the stain was. 

I cut the lining off underneath the top layer too.

I measured the length of the dress on my daughter and cut off the fabric near her waist line. After it was cut it looked more like a cute shirt.

I folded the fabric twice on the bottom of the newly refashioned shirt and pressed it with an iron.

Then I hemmed the bottom of the shirt as well as the lining.

The refashioned shirt looked great once it was finished, but there were still some minor stains on the front so I used some of the leftover dress fabric and created 3 fabric flowers.

I found some old buttons and covered them with with the same dress fabric and adhered them to the flowers. 

Fabric Flower completed to match shirt.

Here is the finished refashioned dress to shirt project. It was fun to cut apart clothing that I did not pay for. It made the 'cutting apart' easier. I think it turned out better than I expected. I would have positioned the flowers higher on the dress, but given the location of the stains...it wasn't an option.

Book of Mormon Outfit

My goal with this project was to make a Book of Mormon outfit for Moroni's Quest Youth Conference. I wanted to make it without spending a penny! I did it! My husband was very happy.

My mom gave me a couple of really nice White/Cream sheets and I cut them apart to 45inches wide. I measured my husband and myself to get the measurement of the length. My goal was to make 2 Tunics out of the sheets I was given.

Here they are after I sewed the sides up 2/3 of the way and added fabric decoration around the collars. I used fabric scraps to make the collars. I sewed part of an old red curtain to make the sash on my outfit. My husbands sash was made from my brother-in-laws work shirt. I love to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

I would have chosen a different color for the outfits but I only had white sheets. The white did keep us much cooler than most in the mountains. I know...I wore it for 3 days strait!

Here is the finished project. The sleeves were a bit long so I slimmed the outfit down quite a bit and sewed strings on each shoulder. Tying a bow on top with a string of fabric finished the outfit. Not perfect, but I completed the task!

Here is my husbands Tunic. After I was done his outfit looked more like an angel so I added some zipper circle embellishments to the collar. I think it was the perfect touch.

For the zipper embellishments I took 3 old zippers from pants and cut them off. Using a thread and needle, I threaded string through each spiral of zipper and coiled it in a circle as I stitched the zipper together. It was a bit time consuming, but it turned out good. I used this same technique on the zipper hair bow for my daughter.