Recon-athon: #2

A womans v-neck sweater into a toddler sweater dress

Before:




After:

Recon-athon: #1

A womans velvety sleeveless turtleneck into kids luxe yoga pants

Before:


After:

I'm having a recon-athon!

I have a heap of clothes to tear apart and reconstruct today! Check back for lost of posts today showing what i've finished!

Todays mission

Turn this X-Large womans snap-down shirt


into a cotton yoga skirt (shown with the RTW skirt I used as a template)


and cotton gouchos



using only the shirt, new thread, and repurposed elastic (ripped from an old pair of maternity pants)

Silas Diaper

I made a set of cloth diapers for a friend of mine. She donated the last 2 I needed to make her towards my 3day Fund-raising on Etsy. Here is one that was finished, posted, and sold yesterday.

Nike+

At nights and on weekends, my favorite thing to do is lace up my sneakers and go for a run. I wasn't a "born runner" like some people. I have to work up to it, and that can be difficult with asthma, and arthritis in my knee.
To track my runs, etc, I use the Nike+ system, which i LOVE. You should check it out. It's cheap and sooo easy to use.
You have to either buy ($$$) Specially made Nike+ shoes for your sensor, or buy a pouch to wear it on your laces. But the pouches I found were ugly and I don't like ugly. lol
So i made a pouch for myself

Last weeks recon

That I totally forgot to post *duh*
I took this t-shirt that I used to wear a lot and hacked it up into a layered look T for Lily.



and after:

Nursing top into a toddler dress

I had this nursing top from Motherhood that I loved when Lily was a newborn. The material is nice b/c it's SUPER stretchy. But obviously I have no need for it now that she's been weaned a while.
So I chopped her up and made Miss Lily a new dress from it :)

more soakers for charity

I added a new soaker to my etsy site today!


Go here to purchase it!
ETSY LISTING

I have to tell you something about my husband

being that he is a jeans/tshirt/baseball cap kinda guy, it takes a LOT for him to part with some of his old t-shirts. And today he did just that.... for his little boy.
JR went through his closet for some old unwearable tshirts (one was too large, one had a paint stain) and I got to work downsizing them for Brendan.

Here is the before


and here are the afters (don't mind the cheesy "I'm a 3.5 year old, and i love being in pictures" smile)

The boy recon! (tutorial)

How to make a man's t-shirt into a boy's t-shirt.
This will also work on woman's shirts into girl's shirts, just fyi.

I decided it was about time for a boy Recon :)

I found this (size Large) shirt at the CCA (thrift shop)

This is the original t-shirt


Cut the sleeves off as close to the seam as possible


Cut along side seams and shoulder seams as close to the seam as possible.


Take a RTW shirt in the size that fits your child, flip it inside out while leaving the sleeves tucked in. Line up the top neckline with the neckline of the FRONT PANEL of the large shirt


cut out the front panel around the RTW shirt, to make the front panel of your child's shirt.


Line up the neckline of it with the neckline of the back panel of the large shirt. Cut out the same shape using the front panel of the small shirt as a template.


Flip your RTW shirt right side out and line up the cuff of the sleeve with the cuff of the Large-Shirt sleeve that you set aside. You are going to use the RTW shirt as a template to trim the large sleeve down to size.


Line the sleeve up underneath the new shirt panels. You want to be sure the sleeve length/drop is appropriate for the style of the shirt.


Trim the shoulder part of the sleeve to the same shape as the armhole of the shirt.


Flip your sleeves and shirt panels all so they are right-sides-together. Serge up the underside of the sleeves, the shoulder seam of the shirt panels and the side seams of the shirt panels.


serge sleeves onto bodice of shirt


flip right side out, hem bottom, and it's read to wear! :)

Tutorial: A womans shirt into a toddler dress

Hey everyone! Here is a tutorial I did this morning for how to quickly and easily reconstruct a womans t-shirt into a dress for a toddler. This was very simple.

I started with a dress the style I wanted to use and that fits Lily, and an old t-shirt of mine that was too short in the body


I got all my tools handy for starting the project


and I took some measurements on the rtw dress. These measurements are for a 12-18m dress. You can swipe them if you want

Now you won't actually be able to use ALL of these measurements, b/c if you want to make it out of JUST a t-shirt, you won't have a long enough piece of fabric to make the ruffle band that long to start with. But it's a good starting point to know how different your final product will end up depending on the difference in measurements.

I flipped my rtw dress inside out, leaving the sleeves tucked in. Then I lined up the neckline of the shirt with the dress neckline. I traced outside of the edges of the body (not including the ruffle length) leaving a seam allowance


Cut it out


Line up the neckline with the back neckline (be sure you make it so the neck opening will fit whatever age child you are sewing for)


Cut it out


Then I took the bottom of the shirt which is still intact, and I drew a line about 3 3/4" up from the hem. This is because (as shown in the photo above)that is the length of the ruffle on the rtw dress.


cut it out


this is what you have


now take the shirt sleeves and measure up about 3.5 inches (the length of the sleeve from cuff to shoulder on the rtw dress) and cut two of them (one from each sleeve)


Then (i forgot to take a pic for this part) using the side of the little sleeve that has the seam, measure up about 1.25" from the cuff. Mark a line. Then cut on an angle from that marker to the top of the cut you made before on the opposite side of the sleeve. This is b/c that seam is going to be in the armpit of the sleeve, and the underneath of the sleeve needs to be shorter than the top part.

this is what you have now



And on to the sewing!!!

Flip body pieces rights sides together, serge along shoulder seams and down side seams. It'll basically look like a rough tank top.


sew a machine stitch over the "shoulder" of the sleeves (at the higher point). It should run about 2-3 inches long, and no knots at the ends. leave the threads long, don't cut them close.


grab one side of the long thread, and pull. it'll make the fabric ruffle up.


sew the sleeve on, lining up the seam with the side seam of the shirt. be sure the top ruffles are laying flat



once both sleeves are sewing on, serge over them


this is what you should have


arrange the please in your ruffle piece the same distance apart and pin. occasionally measure it up to the dress to be sure the width is approx the same. if it's too big, it'll stretch the "shirt" part, if it's too small, it'll pucker.
once it's correct, sew over the pleats to secure them.


serge the ruffle to the dress and you're all done


and here are some action shots