Colourful Threads

Every year we receive a few bags of outgrown clothing from friends and neighbours. Sometimes item are more mature than my girl can comfortably wear.

This shirt is an adult small, but it fits my 11 year old daughter well, except that the neckline is a little more plunging than she felt comfortable with.

My children are not very fond of wearing undershirts so instead, I hemmed the three sides of a triangle and then hand sewed it onto the neckline.

It looks great and my daughter loves her “new” shirt.

Related posts:

1. Sewing Saturday #3 – Nightshirt

This is a small craft I finished this week for a neighbour based on an idea at All Things Heart and Home which I found via One Pretty Thing.

First I made a template of the bird on cardboard, traced it onto the back of some pretty patterned paper, and cut it out. Then I made a slightly larger template, traced it onto some contrasting solid coloured cardstock, and cut it out.

I glued the patterned paper onto the solid coloured paper using a glue stick and then added a thought-filled sticker to each one.

I opened up some coloured paperclips and hot glued them onto the back of the cardstock and then attached some adhesive magnetic tape.

And now there are some pretty birds for my neigbour’s fridge!

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1. Christmas Greetings
2. Christmas Creating
3. Christmas Cheer Board
4. A Christmas Reminder for Next Year

Our clothing budget is very small because of the generosity of friends and family. People are always gifting us with their no-longer needed clothing. Often, however, those clothes are not the right size, or season, or are from a now faded fashion craze.

No need to worry. Environmentally-conscious super sewing mama will wield her magic colourful thread and re-form those unwanted items into something that will save the day.

Problem – Not enough winter pants for the Littlest One.
Solution – Re-form a pair of summer denim Capri pants.

I added an extended hem in bright pink with little white polka dots (from my stash). This matched some embroidered flowers on the back pocket.

No the Littlest One has some lovely “new” pants for the winter season.

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I needed a new nightshirt to go to family camp with me. The ones I owned are so threadbare that they are not all that family friendly anymore. I had some lovely knit material that someone passed onto me. The colour was not anything I really liked, but I thought it would work well for a simple warm nightshirt and it was late and I needed to get it done.

So I dug out a pattern for a large comfy shirt, modified it so it would be longer in the body and sewed it up.

Did I say it was late? Did I say I thought the pattern was a 10-12-14 and I sewed the largest size, because nightshirts should be a little big? Did I say it was late? Did I say I probably shouldn’t have assumed any such thing about the size because now I have a size 16 nightshirt in a lovely knit that is a colour that makes me look a little seasick? Did I say it was late?

Ah well, extra roomy nightshirt done. It turned out to be really warm though, which I liked!

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1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, RE-FORM
2. Sewing Saturday #2 – Manly Slippers
3. Sewing Saturday #1 – Fairy Princess Dress Up Costume
4. A Christmas Reminder for Next Year

We pass clothes on in our house – child to child and family to family. We’ve gotten some great quality clothing this way, and very, very rarely have had to buy, even used clothing, let alone new.

Recently a pair of slippers was passed from LittlePage2 to LittlePage3. Normally this would not be cause for a blog post, but the slippers, which were liked by both parties were pink and LittlePage3 is of the masculine persuasion. His vivacious practical personality didn’t care – warm comfortable slippers were warm comfortable slippers. His mother, however, cringed every time she saw them.

So for this week’s sewing project, I slip covered the pink slippers!

And now the slippers are, for better or worse, more manly in my eyes!

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1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, RE-FORM
2. Sewing Saturday #3 – Nightshirt
3. Sewing Saturday #1 – Fairy Princess Dress Up Costume
4. Simultaneously Overheard at my House

For my niece’s second birthday, we decided to get her a fairy princess costume, which was on her list. I was shocked at the price and quality of what was available in the stores and so set out to see what I could sew.

I found a great plan for a tutu skirt at Make Stuff for Baby, based on this original plan at Plumtickled. Make Stuff for Baby also had a plan for fairy wings, but I was short on time and did not have any coat hangers, so I sewed some material together and then slid in some flexible electrical wire to provide some support.

Here’s the layers of material going together. I used poly batting inside, then some yellow material, then some netting to match the tutu, and finally edged the whole thing in lace:

Here’s the front and back of the fairy wings:

Here’s the Littlest Page modeling the finished product

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2. Sewing Saturday #3 – Nightshirt
3. Sewing Saturday #2 – Manly Slippers
4. The Tale of Despereaux

My mother-in-law requested a spa towel wrap for Christmas. I was unable to find one, (why do I wait until the 23rd of December to do my Christmas shopping?) so I dug out my sewing disaster room and let my dormant creativity surface.

This is the result:

Here’s a quick, very rough tutorial.

I folded the towel as shown in my very lame quick sketch.

First I attached a 4 inch length of 3/4″ wide velcro hooks onto the left hand side of the towel, about 1/4 inch down from the edge. Then I attached a 10 inch length of 3/4″ wide loops (the soft fuzzy part) on the right hand side about 1.25 inches down from the edge.

Next I folded down the top edge of the towel about 1 1/4 inches to make a casing. Fold the towel so that the side without velcro is inside the casing. The shorter piece of Velcro (the hooks) should be on the outer side of the casing facing one side of the towel. The longer piece of Velcro (the soft loops) should be on the outside of the casing on the other side of the towel. (So when you wrap the towel around yourself, the hooks will overlap the loops.) Sew about 1 1/8 inch from the fold. You have now completed the casing and velcro closure.

Now, if possible, measure the chest of the intended wearer, under the arms and above the bust. (Since this was a gift, I had to estimate this measurement.) Cut a length of 1″ wide elastic that is about 8 inches less than the chest measurement you just took. So if my chest measurement under the arms and above the bust is 32″, I would cut the elastic 24″ long.

Thread the elastic through the casing by attaching a safety pin to one end or using a special threader designed for that purpose called a bodkin, and working the elastic through the casing. (Make sure not to pull the other end of the elastic inside the casing and lose it! Sometimes I pin the other end to the outside of the casing so this doesn’t happen.) Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this and apologize, but here is a quick elastic casing tutorial.

Now secure the end of the elastic to the end of the casing by sewing through the casing perpendicularly, catching the elastic. Repeat on the other end of the casing.

This is the closure:

And this is the back:

For decoration, I ironed on and then hand sewed an applique flower near the top closure. I also embroidered a monogram on the lower edge of the towel, since it was to be used at a local gym.

If you have any questions, please let me know. If you try this sewing tutorial, I would love to see your finished product. If you have suggestions for how to make it better, please let me know that as well.

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Our Going Green activity for this week was an afternoon of recycling our Christmas cards.

We cut and glued and cut and glued and cut and glued. Did I mention that we cut and glued?

The results are a house of Thank-You and Thinking of You cards for up-coming occasions!

We didn’t do anything fancy and I was surprised by the beauty and simplicity of these cards!

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Today we made our annual gingerbread houses.

We have the quaint little cottage of the LittlestPage nestled beside Page2’s ocean lighthouse.

And Page1’s peaceful Swiss chalet sitting neutrally between the rival castles of Page 3 and 4.

Tomorrow the wholesale massacre begins!

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I have always been a granola-crunching, paper-recycling, environmental-worrying, semi-activist. Though there are seven of us in our home, we put out less than one can of garbage each week. (It should go down even more when I start composting in the spring.) We also put out five or six blue bins of recycling. We shop second hand, only replace items that we can’t fix, and generally try to live simple lives.

Yet I am constantly being challenged and inspired by those who are doing so much more. MrPages has already mentioned No Impact Man. I also follow the stories of Beth at Fake Plastic Fish who is trying to eliminate her plastic consumption, and the Dervaes Family at Path to Freedom, who are living off the grid in the middle of Pasadena, California!

With such heroes from which to gleen insight, I present my first, I hope, of many “Steps to Green” (MrPages says I should trademark it!)

Anyway.

Reclaimed, Reusable, Multipurpose Gift Wrap:

A friend gave me a bag of fabric scraps. I found a bunch of squares that might have been meant for a quilt. Beth’s post about Christmas wrap, and her link to Furoshiki got my creative juices flowing. The result is a smallish kerchief-like section of cloth that can be used to wrap our Christmas gifts. I used the Furoshiki fold for flat objects and then just to be sure it stayed wrapped en route I secured it with some yarn (which is also reclaimed.)

I’m dreaming of a green Christmas!

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