Recycled T-shirts party

This post was 2 months in the making - she has been 11 for a while!

Being a child of the 70's and a sewist (there's a reason we don't call ourselves "sewers"), I have always loved recycling denim.  But these days the hottest recycled clothing trend has got to be recycling and up-cycling T-shirts. 

This year for Earthgirl's 11th birthday party, we jumped into the fun with a T-shirt recycling party.  She grabbed the idea from the September/October 2011 issue of American Girls magazine.  You can find recycled T-shirt ideas from all over the internet.  Take a look here and here,  for example.  I found bunches and bunches of ideas for the future - for example, I'd love to make one (or 15!) of these recycled T necklace/scarves.

Now if one is inviting 14 girls over, and 2 of your projects take a T-shirt apiece, you gotta have lots of Ts!  Our big crafts, requiring a T-shirt apiece per girl, were the fringed scarf and the big T-shirt bag. We invited the girls to bring Ts with them, but knew we wanted to provide plenty.

For several weeks ahead, Earthgirl and I hit a couple of local thrift stores, one which exists to support a local church's international missions; the other to support Hospice.  We like spending our $$ where they do some good works, too!   We snapped up Ts at an average price of about 40 cents.  We looked for colors we liked, designs we thought would look good on a bag, and the right sizes to make bags and scarves (bags can be any size, but a XXL makes a humongous bag, whereas a sturdy size small or child-size makes a nice bag, and our scarves worked best with child-sized, soft, lightweight Ts).

Recycled T-shirt Scarves:
For our scarves, the girls cut off the hem and cut across under the sleeves, leaving a wide tube of fabric.  They fringe-cut both sides, then pulled on the fringes to make them curl up. 

The best-looking scarves had really skinny fringe - but the trick is to cut it skinny enough, but not so skinny that it tears when you stretch it.  This red scarf had the prettiest fringing of all the scarves.

 

The result is a fringy cowl-type scarf.  If you use a T as big or bigger than your own size, the cowl can be doubled.  If you use a little preschooler-size T, you get a once-around-your-neck scarf.

And then, of course, you cannot resist playing with the leftovers.  Lots of braided headbands, bracelets, anklets appeared!

 

The scarves also double as hula skirts.

Recycled T-shirt Bags:
Our big T-bags were made simply - cut out the sleeves and along the neckline, leaving something that looks like a tank top.  Check to see that it fits over your shoulder.  Good.  Now, if you want a plain-bottom bag, turn the T inside out, and sew up the bottom.  The cutest bags were sewn with a curve.  If you want a fringe-bottom bag, cut off the T's hem, and sew up the bottom, leaving a 2-3" seam.  Trim the seam in to a fringe. Pull the fringes to make them curl, and you're done! 

In all the excitement, I did not snap 1 picture of any girl with a bag.  This one is taken weeks later.

 

Sew Helpful

Amended to add:  Cynthia's invisible zipper tutorial looks great - I think I will try this method next time.  Thanks to Jennifer from Sewplicity for recommending it!

Sew4Home has a great post:  You Asked For It  -  a long list of detailed sewing basics.  I'll look at their invisible zipper tutorial later this evening before I attempt my second-ever invisible zipper installation.  I have never thought of using an invisible zipper on a pillow, but what a cool idea.

And look at this post about sewing an invisible zipper with a facing from Colette Patterns!  How cool is that?  I plan to line my skirt, and may try to make this technique work to attach the lining, skirt, and zipper all in one scary step.

Here is the skirt I am working on:

Batty

The lack of ability to comment on many blogs is making me batty.  I wonder if maybe blog friends have tried to comment to me and been rebuffed.   I feel like a big ol' wet blanket had been tossed over the party.

So here is another peaceful beach picture to make things better - not that I expect any comments on it.  My expectations are lowered considerably.

Originally I planned to attach the straps on the ruffly skirt dress to the back, too, since it would hold the back up better.  We decided to leave it halter tied for this wedding, then do the tedious adjustments to get the straps just right after we came home.  but now I like the flowy scarf look of the chiffon hanging down her back, so I think we will leave then as is.

And I loved her cousin's dress  - almost a 50's look, don't you think?

Ruffly-skirt dress at a beach wedding

Sew far...

I could spend all day reading Meggiecat's links.

...but I am NOT reading her entire blog right now because I am sewing!!!  I am working with ruffled fabric for the very first time.

Pretty cool, huh?  This fabric did not come from the website above, but from a store in the Orlando area. We love the colors.

 I wanted to do Earthgirl a dress kind of like this one, only big girl size.  But she wanted something more along the lines of a ruffle-skirted sundress like her friend's dressy cream-colored sundress.  So we borrowed the dressy sundress (actually, we borrowed her little sister's almost-identical dress) and I am creating something similar from looking at that dress and one of our favorite patterns. 

...but first, before I cut into the not-so-inexpensive chifffon-y stuff we got for the bodice, I am making a muslin out of some cotton - it will be a sundress top. 

...and there is shirring involved in the back. 

I am sew crazy.

Recreating history

I am awash in a sea of brown fleece today, making a cape for a Spanish serving girl.

Our young friend goes to St. Augustine to take part in recreating history.  I'm embarrassed to admit that though we live less than 2 hours away from this historical city, we have yet to really do a history fieldtrip to St. Augustine.  

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She'll have the cape at bottom right, but calf-length.

Our friend goes to St. Augustine every year to carry a lantern and be a part of history.  Her brother, a re-enactor since age 6, even gets to fire a musket! Since I did a little dress-up-and-play-history when I was young, I think it is really cool.  Because of the time I spent being an 1850's girl, I feel very confident about that period of history in south Georgia, at least, the everyday history of the doctor, the lady who spun cotton and wove it, the quilter, the potter, the syrup-maker, the shoemaker - I spent time in all their houses, showing them to visitors.  From age 9 until I was grown, I always had a long 1850's dress or skirt. 

We lit real candles on the tree in this stagecoach inn at Christmastime.  Over the years, we drank wassail, hung the greens, ate the yulelog cake (I never was the one who found the good luck pea), and in spring, danced around the Maypole.  I did not chase the greased pig on July 4th, though. 

Thinking about what I learned through my involvement there and how it enriched my life makes me wonder where and how I can help my daughter have some of this kind of experience. 

I hope to post a picture of the Spanish serving girl (a well-dressed serving girl), and maybe her brother the soldier in a few weeks.

All Wrapped Up - the results

I'm happy with my wrap skirt results.  The skirt turned out a bit dressier than I envisioned.  Next I think I will do a simple A-line reversible wrap that will be the skirt equivalent to a pair of khaki capris.

 The brown side has just a little strip of contrast fabric showing

 The tan side has a whole edging of brown, partially to make it longer.  I think the tan fabric may have been 44" wide, while the brown fabric was 45" wide.  I like the way the tan fabric has 5 different blues/greens/blue-greens, since I have about half a dozen blue-green summer shirts, and maybe 3 winter ones, too.

A few things I learned along the way:


When you lay out  a half-circle wrap skirt, you are limited in length because of accommodating the larger wrap-over waist.  I'd like the skirt to be about 2 inches longer, though it is OK.  I tend to prefer really long skirts - several inches below my knees, or about an inch below the scar on my left shin.

The skirt could have been longer if I had used less overwrap at the waistline.  Since the skirt is half-circular, you have much more overlap at the bottom than the top.  Mine laps over 12" at top, which translates to 28" at the bottom. I could have cut for a 10-inch overlap and still been OK.

I had a crisis of confidence in my interpretation of the directions, so I whipped up a little skirt for Samantha as a "muslin."  It really helped me figure out what I needed to do without cutting into a big piece of fabric.  Of course, now Earthgirl wants one, too.

I must say I am happy with how it turned out.  Samantha is stylish.

I had to use really long ties to wrap the skirt either way, then tie on the side. (If you wrapped it to the back, then tied in middle front this would not be an issue.)  When I do an A-line, I think I will use 2 buttons to close the skirt.

Why a reversible?  Why a wrap?  I wanted something cool and easy for summer, easy to toss on and modest.  I did not want to need a slip, therefore, 2 layers of fabric.  And as long as I was lining the skirt, why not take it a step further and make the lining a whole 'nother skirt?

I'd like to give credit where credit is due, but don't recall where I saw this flower idea.  A fabric flower brooch is not really my style, but it is a nice cover-up for a Reebok logo.  It took a strip of scrap fabric, 3 buttons,  and about 7 minutes to whip together.  I pinned it on with a big safety pin. 

All wrapped up

I am all wrapped up in trying to figure out a reversible wrap skirt.  I'm using instructions for a half-circle wrap skirt from Sew What! Skirts book, but am making it a reversible skirt. Lots to think through...I've got it pretty well completed except for a binding at the bottom to attach the 2 skirts together.  I plan to cut bias strips of fabric 1, that will fit over both fabric 1 and fabric 2.  Maybe I won't start chopping the remainder of my fabric after 10 p.m.

Quick note on errata for the Sew What! Skirts book:  If you have or borrow this book, and the instructions for the 1/2-circle wrap say to divide the waist measurement by 6, it is wrong - you divide by 3 (approximating pi).  Later versions of the book correct this, I understand.  I found the corrections from helpful on-line sewists. 

Hey!  I just realized why many persons who sew refer to themselves as "sewists" rather than "sewers."


I also just realized that this skirt, laid out on the carpet, looks a lot like my Christmas tree skirt, only in blue/green/brown calico.

Other DIY wrap skirt patterns and tutorials:

Whatshedidtoday

The Versatile Wrap from Make it Perfect

Graceful Elements

Happy Hearts at Home

--and this seemingly (seamingly?) impossible one:

The Domesticated Skirt from Sew a Straight Line


And now just for fun, go to this 2008 post from Posy Gets Cozy and read all the way, including the comments.  You'll laugh!  Her  next newer post after this one had wrap skirts, and I found it helpful.  It tells me I need to let my skirt hang overnight before joining the 2 halves at the hemline.  Don't know if I can stand to wait.

Trying things on

Last week's visit to the nice home decor store (one of my SIL and Mama's favorites) held an extra bonus for me - their clearance table had remnants of some lovely fabric that cost almost nothing.  Ummm hmmm, that is yummy to me.

When I have a piece of fabric bought without a particular project in mind, I have to try it on a few places.  Do you try things on?

This brown print, uneven raw edges and all, was our tablecloth for 2 meals.

This scrap with tropical print, along with this small length of fringe, may find themselves in a pillow, maybe 10" x 22" with fringe on the ends?

And this is my favorite - a soft green/ gray-blue/ cream piece that may work well as a runner on my buffet.  When the Sm'Arties came over, there it was, selvedges hanging out shamelessly.  The flora and fauna are very Florida-looking, don't you think?

See the ferns and butterfly?

How about this shy lizard?

Can you spot the grasshopper?

One Pattern; Three Dresses (so far)

Last year, Earthgirl wanted a short dress she could wear over leggings.  We found Simplicity 3546, and made this dress. 

March 2009

I learned a few lessons about the pattern from the first version.  Earthgirl is slender, so I cut the pattern about a size 8-10 length with size 6-7 width.  Even so, the dress is plenty wide, and the neckline is too low and wide.  She must always wear a little cami under the mini-dress.  Nevertheless, we love it.  In fact, some of this fabric made it's way into her lapquilt stack. 

Then we made a sleeveless version for Easter/Piano Recital.  (It looks even better ironed. )

April 2009

This time we pulled the dress in even a little slimmer, and cut the neck higher. I also decided to line the whole dress, preventing a whole year of sighs and whines about wearing a slip.   One problem I encountered was that making the neckline that small, with no opening, makes for a tight fit pulling the dress over her head.  If I make this neckline again, I'll make a little slit in back to be fastened with a loop and button. 

The other tricky part of using this fabric is placing the flowers nicely.  The dress just looks better with a centered flower on front bodice.  The back bodice does not look as nice.  I'm glad I had cut it out first and noticed that fact.  A year later, this dress still fits. 

This year, I made the slit-neck version for Cousin's wedding/Easter/Piano Recital/maybe other Cousin's wedding, too (we are experiencing a rash of Earthgirl's grown-up cousins getting married.  We love it!)

Easter 2010

If Earthgirl had a hat like her friend, she wouldn't squint :)

Earthgirl wanted non-gathered cap sleeves for this one, so I folded up the long-sleeve pattern piece.  After fiddling with last year's big flowers, I did not want that kind of situation again, but it turned out this fabric presented the same problem - there are some big flowers on it that can look kind of funny if placed badly on the front bodice.  I fiddled and wiggled pattern pieces to get the top bodice pieces to have mostly the smaller motifs.

I still want to make the version with longer ruffle-edge sleeves, maybe in winter colors next fall.  This has been a fun pattern.  It really gets the creative juices flowing for us.  We are not the only ones - check out what Creative Chicks did with this pattern.

We are...

...Furiously happily(!) sewing.

We hope by tomorrow Earthgirl will have a new dress to wear to a wedding, Easter, and all summer.  Inspired by my creative frenzy, Earthgirl is drafting an spron pattern for Samantha and Nellie. 

Sewing Seeds

In the past, Randi of i have to say has invited me (along with all of Blogdom) to join her in Sewing Seeds.  I have wanted to, but it just did not work out before.  but this time, I was able to jump in and sew a couple of skirts for little girls in Haiti.  What a blessing to send these skirts with prayers for the little girls who will wear them.  I think there will be future projects for Sewing Seeds, and hope others will participate.

The skirts are lying atop my quilt backing.  The little lapquilt project took a backseat to this deadline.

I made the ruffled skirt using a tutorial from Sew Mama Sew, with slight modification to the waistband, and  made the pink bunny skirt sort of without a pattern - or maybe with several patterns/tutorials in my head?)

The fabrics come from the stash of quilter's fabric I bought at an estate sale. The lady who had owned these fabrics before was active in a local quilters' group that makes and gives quilts to needy families.  I think she would be happy that some of her fabric is going out to bless.

Cute little pin cushion

 Don't Look Now has a cute little finger pin cushion how-to.  Here's mine.

 Hmmm...looks like I could use some hand lotion

It matches my quilt (since I only needed 1 little 3 1/2" square, and I had an extra), and only took about 10 minutes to put together.  I could have done it more quickly if I had not straightened up my sewing area last weekend and hidden my needle.

Lapquilt progress

I am at Week 3, though Randi is working on Week 5. 

6 strips down; 14 to go...

All the strips are done, and the top two strips are sewn together.

This is really a nice, easy quilt pattern.  Earthgirl asked me, "Mama, how many quilts have you made before?", and I had to admit I have never made a whole quilt.  I've made a little quilt hanging, which later became a chair back.  I've made quilt-top pillows, and I've worked on portions of quilts with my Mama, including a little hand-quilting with ladies from the community, but I have never made a whole quilt.  This is just a lapquilt, approximately 50" x 60", but is is a real quilt.  Very exciting for a crafty geek.

Quilting Along

We're going to do it! We're quilting along with Randi.

      Her stack                                                                            

      My stack









Earthgirl wanted to make her own little quilt.  No, she does not want to work with me on one quilt.  No, she does not want to make a dolly bed-sized quilt.  She wants to do the real thing.  This will be a real learning experience. I am so looking forward to going through this with my little girl!

For the Boys

Nope, I don't have any boys.  Just that one little girlie girl.  And she has lots of little girlie girlfriends.

But she also has friends who are boys.  And I have friends who have boys, nephews (pretty much grown up now), and future boys will be coming along.

I just found these 2 blogs celebrating BOYS this month.  Made By Rae and Made are celebrating boys with their crafts all month.  So far, they and their guest bloggers lean more toward goodies more appropriate for preschool boys, but there is still a lot of month to go!

Now, why didn't I find all these cool craft-and-sewing blogs back when my husband and I were part of the young couples' Sunday School class, and I was going to baby showers every month?

Skirting the Issue

I have not sent out a single card.  I hope to get at least a few out, but a few minutes ago I decided that it would be a good idea to drop by Tuesday Morning, Dollar Tree, or somewhere and purchase cards.  I am reining myself in before I start trying to make Christmas cards.  I am shutting that idea down right now.

When Pluto Boy and I were engaged, 25 years ago, I was deciding about a wedding dress right at Christmastime, so I ran my plans past Mama over the Christmas break.   We tried her dress, a white satin-and-lace that  had warmed to a champagne color over the 26 years since their wedding.  She had made it herself, ballet length, with a satin underdress and a full lace overdress, and a fairly simple style.  It went right to the floor on me, and the style suited, too.  Unfortunately, the lace dress did not do so well in cleaning.  So my next idea was a romantic notion of making my own dress, just like she did.

Mama spoke to me, and told me that she understood that I wanted to make my own dress; that it would be a nice idea, but (and here she spoke more emphatically), she said, "Don't make your own dress!"  She encouraged me to not take on that burden, while working fulltime, while living in a different state from the wedding.   It was good advice!  I think she foresaw me arriving 6 days before the wedding with a half-made dress (that is EXACTLY what would have happened!).  I took her advice, went to a couple of shops, landing at Laura Ashley to buy the perfect dress for me - the kind I would have made - all cotton, no lace, three-quarter-length sleeves.

All that is introduction, so you know the type of seamstress I am - and am not. This is actually a Christmastime post, after all.

(A quick note on the type of blogger I am and am not.  This post would be much more fun if I were to grab out wedding pictures and scan in Mama's dress and my dress, but it's just not happening tonight. But here is a picture from an earlier post.)

Years and years ago, I made a reversible tree skirt.

It took yards and yards of fabric.  I sewed and sewed.

And then, I ironed on little pieces of fabric to make poinsettias.

I ironed and ironed.  I ironed on 18 little pieces per gore.  10 gores.  (Actually there are 12, but only 10 have poinsettias.  I rebelled against ironing on the last 36 pieces. That's the kind of crafter I am, and am not.)

 I learned (in case I had any doubts) that I am just not into doing much attaching of little pieces of fabric over the top of other little pieces of fabric.  I like to sew, but my patience for applique or applique-type things is limited.  So now when I see something I like, like this argyle ornament, I really think about whether I want to do it.  (The answer is no - I'm going to just enjoy seeing it on my screen.)   It occurred to me at the time that this skirt would look beautiful if I sewed down the pieces I had painstakingly ironed on, but I have never looked back.  I'm glad I did it, but IF I were to ever make another treeskirt, I would simply pick 2 VERY BIG pieces of beautiful Christmas cloth and not add any embellishment, like this one.

Here's a giveaway

Randi is giving away some of her stash! Aren't these pretty? I can imagine bunches of uses for them.

Art/Craft Resources

Have you seen the bumper stickers or T-shirts that read, "Homeschoolers Don't Stay At Home"? So true! I've heard that there are some Homeschooling parents who keep their children at home for the purpose of isolating their families from EVERYBODY, but I don't know anyone like that. The HS famlies I know are vibrantly involved with each other and the community. We meet, learn, and have fun with each other in classes, Co-ops, and clubs; we interact in the community in helping projects; we often see our non-HS friends in after-school events, classes and clubs..."Socialization?" -- we almost have too much socialization!

This school year, Earthgirl and I plan to meet regularly with a few HS friends for some schooldays together. I am loving gathering up project ideas to use during the art/craft/cooking segments. I pledge these children will NEVER receive from me any cut-outs of craft foam to glue together!

Here are just a few of the websites from whence I take inspiration. Each site has links to other sites equally idea-laden. They whet my appetite and make my fingers itch to get busy:

Not just kiddie crafts:

Art Projects for Kids

Deep Space Sparkle

Wonder How To

Dollar Store Crafts

Sewing School

Oodles of Art

Skip to My Lou

A Spoonful of Sugar

Do you know of some cool website not listed here that would inspire more real art and good crafts for our students (7-12 years)?

Scrap Happy

If you sew, you have scraps. Those nice little pieces of fabric, too small to make a top; too big to toss - and there are so many creative minds out there sharing what to do with my scraps!

This is a favorite project - Scrappy Loyalty Card Wallets. The tutorial for these can be found on the sidebar over at A Spoonful of Sugar.

You can't make just one! Maybe they should be called Potato Chip Scrappy Wallets.


Earthgirl needed one for her Homeschool ID and Build-A-Bear card.

When I made one for a friend, Earthgirl so wanted ones for her friends, too. And she even sewed just a little on them. We love the variegated ric rac.