Recycled t-shirt pajamas

As promised, here is the basic tutorial for how I turned a pile of my husband's t-shirts into p.j.'s for my four year old. It is super easy. Kelby really needed Summer pajamas and Casey just cleaned out his shirt drawer. Most of the ones he was giving away, he barely wore, so I repurposed them for Kelby.

The Dunder Mifflin shorts are definitely my fave, even if they make me a bit sad that The Office has ended for good ;) We will keep the Dundy spirit alive through sewing, haha!

First, obviously, you need some t-shirts. Casey generally wears a size L. The bigger your shirt, the bigger child you can make these for. This will probably be the last year I can squeeze Kelby shorts of the Large shirts, but I can always buy bigger tees from the thrift store. He wears a size 5 currently, if that gives you a frame of reference for what size shirts to use for what size kids. If you have a toddler still, you could probably make pants this way! 

 First up, the shorts. You'll need a basic pajama bottoms pattern for this, or one from the Internet, which shouldn't be hard to find, or expensive to buy. This is the one I use:

 I've traced this in a bunch of sizes over the years. I do lower the waistband on these and shorten them quite a bit. I don't know what kind of long-legged kids they designed this pattern for, but they're way too long for us ;) It's not necessary that your pattern be designed for knits only. This pattern is for wovens and I use it with knits also.

Next, pin your shorts front and back piece onto your t-shirt any way that it fits. I put mine on a bit of a diagonal and I actually really like how the logo twists around from the front to the toosh. You can see in the bottom right corner that the top of my pattern piece goes onto the sleeve seam a little, but no matter, those lines will disappear into the seams and casing.

Next, just follow your directions for putting the shorts together. I use 1" elastic in mine and I used yellow thread for a cute contrast. 

I like to put a tag in the back of my kids' pants, shorts and skirts, just so they know which way is the right way. I just put a folded piece of ribbon into the casing before I sew up my elastic hole. 

 Next up, the shirt. Just as easy and no pattern required :)

First,  cut off the sleeves and cut the side seams and shoulder seams open, so you have the front and back as two pieces. We need to make the neckline kid-sized, but still make use of the original ribbed neck.

 Then, reposition the shirt front onto the shirt back, but putting the shoulders of the front higher than the back shoulders, thus making the neckline smaller. Just use a sleeveless shirt that fits your son to compare.

 Once you have that neckline lined up, just trim around the tank top, adding seam allowances to the sides and shoulders and a 1" hem at the bottom. No need to add seam allowances to the arm holes unless you plan on hemming them, which I did not.

 So it should look like this (I know, there are stains on this tank top, he's a busy boy :)

 Put your pieces right sides together and sew or serge the side and shoulder seams. If you don't have a serger, just use two rows of straight stitching close together and trim. I sewed knits that way for years and never once popped a seam.

 Hem your shirt and if you want to, hem the arm holes. For this red shirt, I just added a zig zag stitch around the arm holes and zig zagged the hem too, just for interest.

And you're done! 

For this next pair, the yellow t-shirt actually had ribbing around the sleeve hems, so I cut that off (leaving about 1/2" of the t-shirt part for a seam allowance) and reapplied it to the arm holes and top stitched it. 

 Now he has two new pairs of Summer p.j.'s that cost me nothin'!

 Wouldn't these be cute with appliques on the shirts?? If you use this tutorial, I'd love to see your results so leave me a link in the comments! Also, if you're new to sewing knits, my #1 tip is to use a ball-point needle, which is made for stretch knits and will make a HUGE difference in preventing skipped stitches and rescue you from frustration. Oh, and to use a walking foot if you have one.

Happy sewing :)

Jenn's coming!!!

I have this friend and her name is Jenn and she and her family are on their way here to Colorado RIGHT NOW!! I know I've mentioned Jenn before, but I'll recap: we met in Georgia when I was a 19 year old new bride, just before both our husbands deployed to Iraq. We spent that summer sewing together--her learning to sew and me recovering her couches, haha! Oh, and watching Disney Channel movies :)

Fast forward 12 years and six kids later and we try to see each other every year of two. I got to fly out for her birthday in January as a surprise, thanks to her husband, and now her family is coming to visit for the week, yay!!!

So Jenn and I are still sewing buddies. We have been working on a quilt together for over a year. We finished making and exchanging all the blocks and I actually have my top put together! It just needs batting and backing and I can finish it!

We also constantly text photos of things we are working on. Okay, maybe I text more photos than she does, but it's so much fun to have someone who shares your love for sewing to show things to! My mom is my other sewing buddy, we are often showing-and-telling sewing related things.

When I plugged my iPhone in to update this morning, there were so many of these types of pics on there that I had texted to show Jenn. So I thought it would be fun to share here too :)

So this is the past few months of my friendship with Jenn in iPhone photos:

 My shorts making kick. This is my basement sewing room (below). Pretty, huh? ;) But hey, I can spread out and make a big mess down there!

 This is a jacket I made and love! I have yet to blog it because I have yet to wear it because it has yet to be cool enough for a jacket. That'll teach me to make jackets in Summer!

 I found this sewing series from the 70's in a used bookstore. Casey found me trying to choose one or two and then he grabbed the whole chunk off the wall and bought it for me. He gets me :)

 Each cover is a different fabric from the 70's. So cool.

 My bodice. It was pretty.

 More shorts!

 And p.j. shorts. Jenn actually gave me this fabric. We have fabric swaps almost annually, it seems :)

 A project I was working on for my girls! I'll blog this soon.

 I let Natalie decorate a p.j. shirt with fabric markers. She drew her favorite Lego Friend. She's talented.

 This her logo. It's on everything she draws :)

 The fabric for Kelby's new curtains from Hobby Lobby. Jenn doesn't have Hobby Lobby in Reno. Or Chick fil a! How sad.

 The cute pockets inside my pants that I showed you yesterday.

 Annnd the pants.

 My girls want to be this for Halloween. It's part of the new McCall's pattern line.

 I was making Kelby some pajamas out of Casey's pile of giveaway t-shirts. A full post on this is forthcoming. And again, my pretty basement :)

 And LOL, this did not get sent to Jenn, but one of the kids must have taken this while we were holed up down there during a tornado warning on Sunday. So that's what I look like when I sew ;) So much for proper posture, I have one leg under me!

 Ooh, and the dress I was making in above picture! More on this one soon.

That's it (ha!). I am super excited she is visiting with her lovely family. We don't have a lot of plans outside of Denver Fabrics, the big JoAnn's sale and learning to make a full bust adjustment so she can have greater garment sewing success. Exciting stuff for us!! :)

I'm off to wash sheets and clean bathrooms!

Me made on Sunday

I realized in the Spring that I sort of lack transitional clothes. I have plenty of great Summer things and some great Winter things, but the seasons in between, when it's not quite the time for sundresses or too warm for jeans, yet not warm enough for shorts, I find a lack of options in my wardrobe. Or, to get really specific for you, when it's really hot outside, but mychurch is ice-cold ;)

So, I have set out to remedy this. I wanted some summer church pants and since I had great luck with the Fashion Star shorts pattern, I gave the capri pants pattern of the same line a try. When I finished those, I made a top next and, wouldn't ya know it, the two go great together :)

 These pants are McCall's 6707. I took the inner leg seams in quite a bit to get more of a cigarette pants look. The cut of the legs was just too wide for me so I grabbed a pair of semi-skinny jeans in my closet and traced that line onto my pants.

 The pattern has a really cute stripe down the legs. Since I wasn't using a contrast, I cut that stripe on the bias so it would stand out a little bit. I think it will be super cute in a black fabric with a black satin stripe. Or pink denim with a stripe! That's it, I need pink pants ;)

I'm very happy with these and my fabric is lightweight enough to be super comfortable in Summer, but keep me from freezing my patooty off in church ;)

I'm really digging this top too!! You might recognize this print as the same as my recent halter dress. Yes, there was that much of this thrifted silk blend, I had enough leftover to make a top! This is Simplicity 1886 and it does have a couple bad reviews on patternreview.com. Despite their problems, though, I still thought those tops were super cute so I gave it a try anyway. I can see where they ran into trouble with the instructions, but I got through it and really, really, love this top!! I will be making more in time, but it's not a crank-out-in-one-sitting pattern, so it might be awhile before I want to tackle this one again :) 

I got a lot of compliments on my outfit at church yesterday. I was super comfortable and I think I did added to my transitional wardrobe with both these pieces. With skinny jeans and a cardigan, this top will move right into Fall and Winter and the pants will be great in Spring and Fall too.

I made a dress yesterday that I'll share soon. I made it with short sleeves, in keeping with my goal to make more seasonally versatile clothes. It's out of another thrifted silk blend fabric!

BTW, have you read about Sew Mama Sew's Super Online Sewing Bee??? Are you entering? Should I???

A no-wind dress

A few weeks ago I made up McCall's 6745, in the halter dress view. I don't usually make halter styles, not because of the open back (although those can be hard to fit), but because usually they are too cleavagey in front. This one didn't look too low on the envelope, though, so I gave it a try.

I am very happy with the results!

 I got this print at a really yucky ARC thrift store on Colfax (those of you live in Denver, the phrase "East Colfax" says it all).  It was half off day and I got this fabric for $2. There was about 8 yards of it!! AND, it's vintage SILK!! At least it has silk in it. By the way, you can tell a fabric is vintage when it comes in a 35" width. Modern fabrics come in 45" or 55" or 60". This pattern requires a crazy amount of fabric (5 yards if you self-line the bodice) so I pulled this fabric for it because it's the only chunk I had enough of. Most of that yardage is in this super full pleated skirt! No wearing this on windy days!! ;)

 The fit is perfect for me right out of the package, which is good, because I wasn't in the mood to make a muslin. I'm lucky it worked out because I would have been bummed to waste this fabric.

Here is a close up of the piping and the print:

I went to two stores for matching piping. JoAnn's actually had this color--could it BE more perfect (extra points if you read that in Chandler's voice :) but it was clearanced out and they only had one package. I needed two! So I grabbed the matching bias tape and a couple yards of cording and made my own to supplement. I do have some tricks for applying piping. Probably nothing that's not out there on the Internet already, but I would be happy to put together a post on that if anyone expresses interest in the comments. I think piping adds so much, I'd like to experiment more with it.

I think this will make a great July 4th dress!! And maybe I'll wear it on our anniversary date too. Hopefully, I'll have a few more occasions to wear this before Summer is over :)

Speaking of being in no mood for muslins, I began this pattern last night without one. I lucked out again, because I think the fit is working out. Whew! It's the same Fashion Star line that I just made the black lace shorts out of, so I was pretty confident it would be a similar fit. Maybe I'm naive, haha.

What a weekend

We were so busy in the best of ways this past weekend. On Saturday, we celebrated Casey's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary and most of the family was there. Here they are with most of their great grandchildren. What a legacy, huh!?

The venue was so beautiful, I had a photographer cousin snap this photo of Casey and I because the view was just perfect...

 I think Layla was born to live in the mountains somewhere, she played on those grounds until I was worn out just watching her.

 Father's Day was lovely too! We gave Casey this Darth Vader #1 Dad shirt and also The Avengers on Blu-Ray. The kids made him cards and pictures and I made him his favorite cookies in the world that afternoon--with gluten and shortening and sugar and everything! ;) And then my mom babysat so we could go see the new Superman movie, which is as good as they say.

Casey's mom and dad stayed in town and came to church with us on Sunday, so it was special for these two to be together on Father's Day:

And this is the most awesome pic I have ever seen:

In other news, I have been tackling a house chore that I've been avoiding and dreading for three years of living here. When we moved in, we took up all the carpet in the house to reveal the oak floors, which were in great shape, considering. However, the carpet glue and years of paint layers left the molding in pretty terrible shape. I kept going back and forth on whether or not I could tackle this job (there are a LOT of moldings!) or if I should wait til our stuff is moved out and hire it done. Last week, I just decided to see how far I could get and I started with the stairs, which were in the worst shape by far. They all looked like this:

 And three days later, they are absolutely beautiful!! I repainted the risers white too, so they look so clean and pretty.

I'm glad I did it and I wish I would have done it a long time ago, but I literally painted every single wall in this big house in that first year and I was not in any hurry to paint any more! Now I'm motivated to continue, though. I might not be able to do them all, but I'll see where I get. I'm half done with the upstairs hallway! For such a minor part of a house, nice looking moldings sure do make a big difference.

more shorts

I am really happy with this next pair of shorts. It's no secret that lace is really "in" this season, but being 31 and not 21, I try to be careful about which laces I can pull off. Granny chic is not a good look for me ;) But, I snatched up an edgier black lace fabric at Denver Fabrics a few trips ago, thinking it would make a nice skirt for Christmastime. I had so much of it, though, that I decided to replicate some of the cute lace shorts I'm seeing around right now and I'll still have enough for a black skirt at Christmas!

I used McCall's 6756, a brand new Fashion Star pattern and exactly what I was looking for.

I inserted a perfect front fly too! Yay, me. Here's a pic of the lace fabric and what it looks like:

I like how the scallops hang over the hem, these shorts feel classy and feminine and I have several tops to wear with them, which I try to think about when making basics like shorts. I used solid black cotton for the underlining. I think it would be pretty to use a color for my Christmas skirt later. Or silver! That would be pretty too. What do you think?