recycled dino shirt :: mini tutorial

So, I know this is not exactly the best thing I have ever made...but I thought I would share the idea of how I made it with you.

The two different fabrics are both from old t-shirts. The dino print one is a newborn sized shirt that belonged to Jude, and the green was a shirt of mine. 

 

If you are interested in making one, grab your favorite tee pattern and two old shirts, then follow along!
(If you were after a picture heavy tutorial, I apologise in advance. This is a bit of a hack job).

Cut your two shirts open down the side seams.

Place your shirt front and back pattern pieces on the larger shirt lining up the bottom of the pattern with the hem of the shirt.
This way you wont have to hem your shirt when your done (I like it , I like it!).

Then lay the sleeve pattern pieces along the bottom hem of the smaller shirt, and cut.

Sew your shirt up according to pattern direction and add some ribbing for the neckband.
The onesie tutorial will help you out if you are unsure about binding/ribbing.

Then bar tack your seams to one side (to the back looks best) on the sleeve edges, and at the bottom of the side seams on body.

So... not exactly rocket science.

But you do get a kick out of recycling two un-used shirts, and not having to bother with heming or binding edges (apart from neck).
It's amazing how much time that saves!

Enough time in fact to add a few cute patches on the front...

The dinosaurs were cut from left over fabric.

Cut a circular cardboard template to the size you want your patches (mine were 3 different sizes).

Cut your fabric 1cm wider all around than the template.

Stitch around the edge of fabric circles with a large straight stitch, then gather the circle to fit around the cardboard.
Give it a good steam iron to press into shape. Pull out your cardboard.
Add some iron on adhesive to back of patch if you like.
Something like Vliesofix, heat and bond...or equivalent.

Iron patches onto garment. Top stitch around edges to finish.

And there you have it! 

One fun recycled (or is it upcycled??) tee with super cute button patches.

skirt to dress

Here's a dress I put together last weekend, after chopping up an old skirt that belonged to my sister (Cath, remember this one?). It was so easy to do.
I cut off about a 30cm piece from the top of the skirt and turned it into the bodice. Because the skirt was lined, there was enough fabric there to line the bodice as well. I used the bodice pattern from the 'gracie' dress (how appropriate!) by Portabellopixie.

The bodice turned out pretty huge and had a serious plunge neckline going on.
And since I think little girls should be sweet and modest, I added a frill around the V neck for coverage. Looks much better!
I gathered what was left of the original skirt, and stitched it to the bodice.
And the dress was complete- easy!

Here's my pile of left over fabric, zip, tag etc...so as you can see, not much fabric went to waste.

pretty tee's

The warmer weather has brought on the need to sew for summer.
I can see with 3 little ones (and the lack of sleep they bring) that I wont have as much time to sew from scratch, so we ended up buying a few plain shirts to decorate.
The bird applique is from Ottobre 4/09.

The crochet butterfly was on an old singlet of mine, that unfortunately no longer fits.
I love the colours in it, so it was great to be able unpick it and restitch on Grace's tee.

More tee's to come...

gathered market bag

I made this bag last week for my sister in law's birthday. It was my first attempt at making the Gathered Market Bag pattern by Sandi Henderson. I love how the bag turned out! Hopefully if I get the time I might even make one of these for myself. Floral outside and inside fabric is from vintage pillowcases...thanks Claire! I was even brave enough to attempt the optional piping on the outside, and was so glad I bothered to do so. Next time I would make it slightly thicker though.

princess dresses

Some things are just so hard to photograph, my girls being two of them! These were the best of hmmm...at least 10 photos. The party we went to on the weekend had a royal theme, so here we have the Butterfly Princess and the Queen of Hearts. I cut into an old formal dress that was mine, and the other one was a dress of Aunty Kate's- thanks so much Kate! The top half of the dress is based on a top from Ottobre 1/2007, which I gathered the skirt on to. The girls love their new dresses, and they twirl beautifully!

vintage duck dress

Here's a little dress I made a few years back for Grace, which now fits Maeve. Made from a vintage cot sheet I picked up in one of my op shop travels. Maeve is quite the duck lover, so this dress is very her...apart from the fact its white.

linen and silk

Maeve has a new pair of duds, refashioned from a pair of ladies linen and silk pants. This fabric is truly amazing stuff...maybe a little too good for toddlers play pants. Pattern is Ottobre 1/08 "Candy" pants.

How do you like our out of control clover, popping up throughout the lawn? Would you believe it was only mown a week ago. Its such a pest, but look how pretty it comes up in the photos.

Nice and comfy, with plenty of cloth nappy room.

I know this is a very photo heavy post, but I was having trouble choosing which photos not to add. I love all the ones that capture the girls immersed in play. Having your sister as best friend really is such a precious thing.
And there is nothing that make them giggle more than going down the slide backwards...apparently this is very humorous!

'Come on Maeve, I'll race you to the fence!'

Then she attempts the getaway...

Maybe I should make more play clothes out of linen and silk, seems to be a winner.

recycled vintage dress

My sewing machine has been very busy of late, believe it or not. Unfortunately, my blogging is falling behind, due to computer troubles (like having our 3rd new Mac in a month...who does this happen to??). So I have been working on this old hack computer which has a mind of its own, and randomly shuts down when the going gets tough. Things are looking good though, and the newest computer is behaving, so when we set it up properly hopefully I can blog away.

Anyway, about the dress...I found this pattern at the op shop a couple of years back, and finally decided to sew it up. Cute hey! I made mine slightly longer than the original.

The dress is made out of recycled fabric's, also found at various op shops. The main fabric was a table cloth, and the trims were a place mat that someone had lovingly cross stitched. So essentially you could eat off this dress...almost like this one!

The white ric rac was also off the place mats, and even the yellow buttons came from my Grandma's sewing supplies. So the dress is made from 100% used materials, re-fashioned and given a new life! Does anyone else find this satisfying?

cute skirt

This little skirt arrived in a bag of hand-me-downs, looking rather boring (big Disney embroidery along the bottom). To freshen it up we added a wide strip of fabric and gave it a new life. I am so glad she likes this one, because it's one of my favorites!

country break

Since its been so long between posts, I think I have some explaining to do. We have been on a good break visiting both sides of the family, mums, dads, brothers, sisters...in fact we saw them all in the space of a week which is pretty amazing! For some reason I thought we would have internet where we were going, but no. Probably a good thing. I also left the sewing machine at home, so that was nice too. I finally finished off Grace's ugg boots...hmmm...winter is nearly finished too. I ended up hand sewing them which was rough on my hands, but I could not get the machine to co-operate.

Grace and I did some window art together which was so much fun! She drew the pictures and I painted them. They turned out really well. We currently have a few peacocks that need finishing too.

We stayed in a farm house with Luke's family that has a beautiful waterfall and creek. The girls had fun tadpole hunting.

Maeve drank so much creek water...and maybe some taddy's?

We had a bit of a bonfire happening, lots of marshmellows.

And fire writting from my sweet husband!

pin cushion swap

I recently took part in a pin cushion swap over at crafty mamas and here's what I made. This first one I made out a napkin ring from the op shop...I have about 8 of them left so I might do a tutorial on them later, if I get around to it. It's really quite little, but a nice size.



I ended up making a second one for my swap partener Lisa, as I thought the first one wasnt very exciting and wouldnt really hold that many pins. So I found a tutorial off the net and came up with this one. I was lazy however and sewed by machine, not hand. I used some red and navy wool that I recently dyed (some people should never touch fabric dyes, I am one of them...that is another story). I also used some of my favorite vintage floral and polka dot fabric.


And here is what I was sent from Lisa! This super cute little cushion with some felt and ric rac- I love it!


And this colourful one with a beautiful big flower and butterfly on top. Thankyou so much Lisa! I have put them straight to use. One can never have too many good pin cushions.