Refashion Licensed Apparel

My husband has several favorite sports teams he loves.  He usually makes sure our grandchildren have licensed apparel from these teams.  His favorite team though is the San Francisco Giants. He is a die hard fan! I love that he wants our grandchildren to learn to love his teams! Well, as you're probably aware, purchasing licensed apparel can be costly.  Months ago, I was given a child's San Francisco Giants sweatshirt. Sadly, the zipper on this sweatshirt was broken. What good is a sweatshirt you can't zip? Replacing the zipper would have been tricky on this particular jacket, so instead I decided to cut off all the team logos, because they were in perfect shape. 

I then purchased a fleece-lined black sweatshirt for $11.00 from Walmart.  I took those MLB logos, pinned them onto the new sweatshirt and using a close zig zag stitch (see the image above to show you the size and width of the stitch), I machine embroidered the logos in place.  I recommend using the same color of thread as the jacket.

In less than 30 minutes, I had a new Giants sweatshirt for my youngest grandson.

When I showed the newly decorated sweatshirt to my husband, he actually approved. Out of curiosity, I looked to see what a new SF Giants sweatshirt with a zipper down the front would cost, they were at least $40.  

This simple refashion resulted in a nice savings, a happy resourceful grandmother and a darling, warm grandson in his new San Francisco Giants sweatshirt.

Happy refashioning licensed apparel!  xoxo Grandma  

Refashioned Lace Dress

 

I love lace clothing.  Nothing looks classier than a girl of any age in pretty lace! This lace creation started out as an adult women's dress.   Right before my oldest daughter got married, she purchased a beautiful lace dress direct from China that looked like this (it was a Kate Middleton copy-cat dress):

Sadly, the dress didn't fit my tall daughter.  She also has long legs and the dress was definitely designed for a short person.  This dress has been hanging in a closet for years and has never been worn. The fabric is golden layers of classic beautiful lace.

 I pulled the dress out of the closet and decided that this was the year to refashion it into a wearable article of clothing for my granddaughter.

To start the refashion, I used Simplicity pattern #1476A, view A but added long sleeves since this was going to be a winter/Christmas dress. 

I cut the skirt and the bodice apart.  The original dress had pretty lace around the skirt and I left that intact. 

To give you an idea as to how short the dress was originally, I only needed to cut 2" off the original skirt to make it fit this almost 3 year old.

   

I carefully unpicked the zipper and reused.  The sleeves were simply cut down to scale.  I reused the gold lace that edged the original dress to edge the neck and the bottom of the sleeves.  To finish the dress, I made a simple 3" gold sash which I permanently attached at the waistline.

I loved that the lace was so easy to sew.  This is now a wearable holiday dress for my granddaughter.  The nice thing is, my daughter can finally enjoy this dress but on her daughter instead of herself.  xoxo Grandma

The Witch & Her Witch Hat

If you've waited until the last minute to make a costume, keep reading because this is an easy, one hour witch costume that will be a crowd pleaser.

This granddaughter, pictured above, inherited the The Very Hungry Caterpillar costume from her cousin.  The costume wasn't what she wanted because while she was visiting me a few weeks ago, she would look at me and say, "Dama, do you know what a witch says?"  Then she'd say, "Look at me, look at me," and I'd look at her and she'd say, "He he he heeee....Dama, I want to be a witch!" 

How could I deny this darling girl, who can not pronounce her "G's," from having a witch costume? The next day, this little helper became my "pin" girl and handed me pins and more pins as we refashioned this old black lace dress of mine into her new witch costume:

To make this costume, you'll need:

• An old black dress or skirt
• A long sleeve black knit top
• A dollar store witch hat

To make this costume, here's what I did:

• Cut off the lace skirt from the dress. 
• Cut off 3" from the bottom of the black shirt.  
• Baste over the top of the skirt black, glittery tulle. 
• Add gathering stitches all around the skirt.
• Pull the gathering stitches until the skirt is the same size as the bottom of the knit shirt. 
• Pin the skirt to the shirt.
• Sew the shirt to the skirt.

The witch dress is complete. Wasn't that easy? 

To glamorize a dollar store hat:

• From the inside of the hat, tack in place leftover tulle.
• Tack or hot glue bright orange ribbon and stripes of black glitter tulle to the side of the hat.
• Tie the ribbon and then the tulle into a knot.

 

I'm not sure why the umbrella is in the above photo but I do know she loves her "zoo" umbrella and who knows, she just may need an umbrella on Halloween night.  I know, I used one quite often when I was a child but I grew up in the rainy part of Oregon and my costumes were never this much fun!  Year after year, I usually dressed as a hobo.  Yup, pretty boring costume. So, this little witch is much cuter. 

In an hour, this witch costume was ready for this happy little witch whom I'm positive will enjoy this costume and laugh her cute little witch laugh whenever she wears it.  Happy Halloween everyone...he he heeee!  xoxo Grandma

Wedding Dress Costume From a Tablecloth

While I was ironing a white tablecloth to get ready for a party at my house, I remembered why I hated using it.  It was an extra long tablecloth and every time I used it, I had to iron it!  Anyone else hate ironing as much as I do?  I swear it's the worst task on earth. Well, as luck would have it, my granddaughter had recently requested I make her a wedding dress for Halloween. When I saw this white tablecloth, I knew that ironing it must come to an end... it's fate was to be a wedding dress. 

The pattern I used to make the dress is Simplicity 0631. Yes, it is from the Wizard of Oz, but Glenda the Good Witch's dress turned into a lovely wedding dress.  I added sequins to the bodice and a lot of tulle under the skirt. The great part about using a tablecloth was that the hem was already sewn!

When my granddaughter tried her costume on for the first time, this four year old proudly exclaimed, "All my wishes came true!"  May you have fun making wishes come true for all your little ones too.  xoxo Grandma

Linked to:  Nap Time Creations, Project Run and Play

Easy Breezy Summer Dress

While this adorable two year old was visiting a few weeks ago, I found the shirt shown in the photo below.  That's my oldest daughter wearing the teal shirt when she was pregnant with this little munchkin, pictured above. The shoulders hung on her so poorly, even when she was pregnant, that she never liked wearing it, so she donated it to my refashion efforts. Good thing too, because it makes a much cuter sundress than it ever did a shirt! 

After a little consulting with my daughter, this easy breezy summer dress was created.  The shirt transformed into a comfortable light and airy dress perfect for a 100 degree day, pockets included. Any dress that has pockets gets some serious bonus points. 

When it's 100 degrees, an ice cream cone is the perfect prop for a two year old. At least it was the only thing that kept her interest for longer than two minutes while her mom snapped a few photos. 

As you can see, I kept the original shirt's pockets in this gauzy dress.  I think you'll agree that pockets are perfect for little hands.  For this dress, I used one of my favorite patterns from Shwin and Shwin called Black Bird Tunic.  Instead of a tunic, I lengthened the pattern's skirt by about 10 inches to turn it into a dress. And see that cute button closure on the shoulder? It makes it so easy to slip on and off. You know how toddlers like approximately 10 costume changes throughout the day? This one is no exception. 

Last summer, I used the same pattern to create the Toddler Cascading Ruffle Dress for this same granddaughter. And if the shirt style looked familiar, it's because it happened to be the exact same style shirt in a different color. Occasionally, my girls and I have the same taste in clothing. Well, the fit never worked quite right for me either. I guess that's what happens when you order shirts online. And while we both liked the shirt, we both LOVED this dress. 

I love how this dress looks so comfortable and cool making it a perfect summer dress.  xoxo Grandma

Swimsuits for Dolls

Summer is officially here and even though this doll doesn't swim, she still needs to look stylish in a new swimsuit ...

Or two. Or three. You can't have enough swimsuits, right?

If you'd like to turn a child's swimsuit into a doll size one too, go to this post.

All of these swimsuits were reclaimed from swimsuits my children were throwing away.  You know how an old swimsuit is after a wearing it for a summer filled with water activities. By the time the summer is over, those swimsuits are worn out and snagged.  

So, if you want to make a swimsuit for your doll, forget about purchasing that expensive Lycra fabric. Just use the fabric from old swimsuits to make a swim wardrobe for a doll. You can even work around those worn out areas.
  
Your doll will love her fashionable swimsuit and I'm positive a child will have fun with this necessary summer wear for their doll.  xoxo Grandma

Green Floral Romper - a Refashion

Time to bring on Spring fashion! The dress on the left met up with my seam ripper because it's time to show you another refashion. For this refashion, I used the free pattern from Elephants and Elegance called the pleated playsuit.  From the original dress, I kept the smocked waistline and the pretty ruffled front.  And let me tell you, I had barely enough fabric from this dress to make a toddler playsuit or as my daughter calls these little outfits, "rompers".

For the shoulder ties, I used the green sashes and a little more of this fabric was used to fill in the low front...can't having a toddle revealing her chunky chest! Then I took off the pearlized buttons and re-positioned them evenly back onto the front.

When I first made this sunsuit, the legs were a bit long but now they fit her perfectly.

Everywhere this little red head goes in a sea of black hair, she's usually surrounded by people wanting to take her picture.  I've wondered what her life will be like when she comes back to the states.  She's just a cute little red head that tans.  xoxo Grandma

If you like rompers, see these additional posts:

Beaded Sunsuit

Dress Into a Romper in 30 Minutes or Less

Shared with:  Threading My Way

Make Easter Bunny Ears for Your Doll

You might think it's too early to think about Easter but this year it happens to fall on March 27th which is exactly two months from today. This is another easy project that even someone with a broken arm (like me) can do. 

First, purchase a bunny headband designed to fit a child. I found mine at Target on sale last year for 25 cents each.  They actually fit adults but the only time this adult put them on was to be silly with my grandchildren.  Then, after a little destructive action, turn it into Easter bunny ears for you doll. Here we go...

1. Open up the seams of your bunny headband and remove the bunny ears from the headband.  Throw away the headband, unless you think you'll use it for something else.  Rewrap the wires to form a doll sized headband.  You may need to use an additional wire for this step. 
2. Wrap the fur around the new wire, pinning as you go.  Cut off the excess bunny fur from both ends.
3. Wrap the fur ends up toward the bottom wires.
4. Pin any additional places and with a needle and coordinating thread, sew the fur back together (I must mention, that with a broken arm this step took twice as long as it normally would have taken).

Here's a close-up photo of step number 4 - sewing the headband back together.

Pretty simple, right? And oh so cute!  Happy Easter preparation everyone! xoxo Grandma

Make a Christmas Fairy Cottage

It's time for another fun project, but this time with a Christmas twist. I've joined with bloggers around the world to bring you a few weeks worth of Christmas fairy projects (see the complete list at the end of this post).  

Today, I'm sharing with you how to make a Christmas fairy cottage.  This makes a cute decoration or toy or it can easily be turned into a night light by adding an LED light.

Do you want to join in the fun?  To begin this project, download this free Christmas fairy cottage pattern here. You'll also want to go to this post for additional free patterns and instruction to make this and other snugly fairy abodes.

Supplies needed:

• 4) .875" (2.22 cm) bells
• Embroidery floss:  green (several shades), brown, white
• Felt scraps, green(s) and white
• Pipe cleaners, any color
• Scissors
• Needle
• 1 wool sweater or felt
• Scrap of netting or tulle
• Batting
• Heavy pellon interfacing
• Empty salt container

If you're using an old sweater, you'll need to shrink it in hot water and then dry it using a hot dryer setting. A wool sweater work best. Now, cut off one of the sleeves.  I cut my sleeve down to 17 inches long.  This sleeve will be the basis for your Christmas fairy house. If you're using felt, cut a rectangle the width of your container and the height of your container plus 8 inches to wrap all the way around the container. 

Cut out 2 pieces of your felt scraps and one of interfacing to make a door.  Sandwich the interfacing between the felt and sew using a blanket stitch, either by hand or with a machine, all around the door.  Stitch by hand around felt leaves (I used 7 leaves) and cover the door by slip stitching these leaves in place.

Cut out two windows and sew some tulle onto the wrong side of the openings.  To hide the stitching, hand embroider around the windows using a blanket stitch.

Embroider around the door frame using a blanket stitch.  Now pin the door in place.  Sew the leaf door to the door frame.  Add a bead door knob and a latch because a fairy needs to keep the cold out of their house in the winter.

Decorate your cottage with additional felt and embroidered leaves, snowflakes and at least one felt Christmas stocking.

At the top of the sleeve, cut four even stripes 8 inches long by around two inches wide. Sew pipe cleaners into the top stripes making a tube.  The pipe cleaners allow the top pieces to curl and take shape.

Take your empty salt container and with the tip of a seam ripper or large needle, poke holes around the Windows and door opening.  Using an exacto knife, cut out the openings.

Slide the decorated sleeve/felt onto the prepared salt container matching up the openings and glue or stitch these two items together.

For the base, layer one piece of heavy pellon between two layers of batting.  Sew around the edges using white thread.  Now, sew the cottage to the base, tucking the raw edges of the sweater (or felt) under the salt container.

Fairy cottages are just so much fun to make because there's no right or wrong way to do it.  If you make one, make sure you leave the door open at night so a fairy can have a warm place to spend a winter's night.  

Please plan to visit all our Fairy Merry Chistmas Participants!   xoxo Grandma 

Nov 16: Millie @ 2 Crochet Hooks  "Kids and Fairy Doors"
Nov 17: Maria @ Sew Travel Inspired 
Nov 19: Joanita @ Creative Crochet Workshop
Nov 20: Alayna @ Alayna’s Creations
Nov 23: Laura @ My Husband has too many Hobbies
Nov 24: Sarah @ Sarah Celebrates
Nov 25: Stella @ Purfylle
Nov 27: Beverly @ Across the Blvd
Nov 30: T’onna @ USS Crafty
Dec 1: Joanita @ Creative Crochet Workshop
Dec 2: Keri @ One Mama’s Daily Drama
Dec 3: Darlene @ Let it Shine
Dec 4: Donna @ Two Chicks and a Mom
Dec 8: Sarah @ Sarah Celebrates
Dec 9: Stella @ Purfylle
Dec 10: Pili @ Sweet Things
Dec 11: Millie @ 2 Crochet Hooks