Yellow Roses

Hi All! Wanted to share this skirt I made from refashioned material. The lining is made from a t-shirt I scored at a thrift store for $2, and the lace is from a curtain lining I picked up at the same time for $4. I've blown the picture up a bit so hopefully you can make out the design on the lace of yellow roses.

Whatch'all think?

Romper for my niece

My youngest niece celebrated her second birthday june 17th and since I had just made my own daughter a jumpsuit from old curtains, which was a hit around here, I thought it'd be a good idea to make one for the little one too. 

I used a maxi skirt and a top to make it. I haven't got a full skirt picture because it was in my stash for many years and I had cut into it already. The top had just been given to me but it was too damaged. I could only use very selected bits of it, just enough to make the lining on the romper. 

I think it turned out adorable though. 

you can read all about it HERE. 

Girl's Underwear from T-Shirts

I already wrote once here on Refashion Co-op about the underwear I made for my son from t-shirts. I needed new undies for my daughter so thought that I'd draft up a new pattern for her (the only size pattern of girl's underwear I'd drafted before was for size 2T, which you can download here.) but of course I never got around to it. Luckily I was then able to test the Big Girl Briefs pattern for Irene of Serger Pepper, which is similar in concept to the boy version I'd done before in that they can be made completely from upcycled t-shirts and that they have leg and waist bands instead of elastic.

This pattern is really great because it comes in 12 sizes, has a high or low waist option (see how the two versions compare in the photo above?), has a fantastic way of sewing together the crotch so that there are no exposed fabric edges and also has a cute little stripe detail to each side.

Something I love about sewing kid underwear from t-shirts is that you can use up all sorts of random scraps. The two blue pairs were made the sleeves and tiny neck scraps of the t-shirt I used for this other Serger Pepper tutorial I recently did, making pajamas from t-shirts.

I also took advantage of a lizard-shaped sequin detail on one of the stretchy t-shirts I used for leg and waist bands by appliquéing it onto the front of one pair of undies.

Both the high and low waist options of these undies fit my 7-year-old girl just perfectly! And she loves them because they're really comfortable and colorful. I highly recommend this pattern and you can even get a 20% discount on it until tomorrow, July 2. For more details on my versions and my review of the pattern, see my blog. For more details on the pattern itself and the discount, go to Serger Pepper!

Preparatory Patriotism

With Independence Day coming up this Friday in the USA, I felt like going a little patriotic with some red, white, and blue. I grabbed this navy and white polka dotted skirt at the thrift store last month for $2 because, you know, polka dots.

I removed the waistband and zipper and pressed all the pleats flat. From the huge skirt-tube, I cut out a tank top shape with an extra wide front panel. I sewed the shoulder seams and created new pleats on the front. I opened up slits in the bottom of the side seams, added some bust darts, took in the sides, and used bias strips from the remnants to add a facing to the neck and armholes.

To complete the red, white, and blue color scheme, I paired my new top with some red earrings, my red glasses, and a pair of red strappy wedges I picked up at Goodwill this weekend for $5. The shorts (also a $5 thrift find) are really a very pale khaki, though they look almost white in these pics.

Visit me at CarissaKnits for details on the whole process.

Re -Refashioned Dress To Top

Original dress - these are widely available at my local Goodwill

Originally refashioned a few years ago to this summer dress that I probably wore a few times

I recently refashioned the dress again,  to this top with new pleating and belt loops

Back view - I messed up here - so I replaced the print fabric from a scrap that had leftover from another project

Belt loop detail