Creativity happens anywhere. The thought for this shirt came in the middle of the table coverings isle at Savers. I found this amazing embroidered table runner and new it needed a new life as something else. The size was about perfect to be a "yoke" of a shirt as I held it up in the mirror. I was too excited to wait so I searched the store for something that could be the bottom part of this shirt and found a mustard color scarf that I thought would work. Can you imagine the other customers as I am holding up a table runner and scarf to my body in the mirror with a stupid kid-like grin on my face?! Haha! 

All done! Now looking at the shirt...it is almost long enough to wear as a dress, maybe with a dress slip underneath? If you use a scarf that is non-transparent and made it a tad longer it would make a cute dress! 

I like to call this a mash-up creation, not sure if I invented that term or not. What next for a mash up.... tea towels and hot pads?! 

This vintage dress has been waiting to be updated since I wore it as "baby hands" for SNL dress up day at the YMCA. Yes, we workout in ridiculous outfits....I am proud to say that I kept my baby hands for the entire 60 minutes! I did like the dress in its' original form, but the collar was a bit annoying and it was a tad too long. The dress also was not lined so I thought it would make more sense to turn it into something more like a swimsuit cover up.  Plus, the color/pattern was screaming 4th of July. 

I did a lot of guessing with this refashion, and learned what to do next time, (story of most of my crafting endeavors). Here is what I learned:

1. Cut the top part of the dress more "straight across" rather than an arch. 
2. Attempt to seam rip the part of the dress with the buttons up by the neckline. This ends up being stiff and won't gather well. I was too lazy ;-)
3. Do not make a casing for elastic at the top. I tried this first and it looked super janky and like a kids' sewing project. I searched the internet, aka Pinterest, and discovered "sport elastic". Which, by some miracle, I actually had some in my drawer! Most likely it was part of some shoe box of sewing supplies from an estate sale find. That is were I pick up most of my sewing notions. This stuff is nice and soft, so it works as a waistband up against the skin. You sew 4 lines, which helps keep the fabric nice and flat and not as bubbly as a casing. Love this stuff!! 
4. I probably did not need to "ruffle" the top piece before sewing it onto the bodice. I think I could have pinned it all together at the top and stitched it all together with the elastic? That might have worked, not quite sure. 
5. I used my new serger to serge the bottom hem. However, I still have random colored thread in the machine so the hem is pretty dark.  I will either fold it under and stitch on my regular machine....or just leave it because it's just a cover up. ;-) 

Here are some pictures of my process. I am not going to make a full tutorial as I would change most of what I did the first time anyway ;-). 

Learned a lot from this project, that is actually a good feeling. My brain is starting to get a little squishy from summer break, so this was a nice challenge! ;-) 

Anyone else out there totally replace elastic casings with sport elastic?! Or is it super expensive if you don't buy it in a dusty shoe box at an estate sale? Why haven't I heard more about this stuff?! 

This refashion project was inspired by a Pinterest image, but the top was made from a jean jacket. I have been searching Goodwill for the perfect jean jacket to give that a try, but haven't landed one yet. I still wanted to attempt this look, so I pulled out an ancient white sleeveless button-up from my "save for projects" boxes (yes "boxes" is plural...). Because it was already sleeveless I didn't do much to the top other than cut the bottom off, leaving the button section in the front. 

For the bottom part of this shirt I wanted to be quick, aka, lazy, so I headed to Goodwill and found a large chiffon dress. This way, it was already hemmed for me! This dress was only $4, had a lining underneath, and I have a lot of fabric still left! 

This is not a tutorial, but perhaps I will make a tutorial if I find that perfect jean jacket and attempt this again! 

If I get enough comments below, maybe I will make a tutorial for y'all ;-) 

Here is quick and easy way to turn a scarf into a beach cover-up.  I have so many scarves and wanted a new swim suit cover-up for our Mexico trip (that can not come any faster...it was sleeting rain this morning....ugh)!! I also got some great advise from a coworker/friend about the actual way to use bias tape and it worked beautifully!!! Thanks Carole!!! 

Here is how I made my cover-up:

In the above picture, I forgot to label that the scarf is folded in half, with the fold at the top (where I cut out the triangle for the neck opening).

The next pictures are how I used the single fold bias tape to hem my neckline. The sleeves were already hemmed because they were the sides of the scarf, and I left the bottom with the fringes. 

Sew along the fold crease closest to the raw edge.

Flip garment inside out and fold the bias tape onto the wrong side. Keep folds tucked under. 

Sew along the folded edge of the bias tape that is furthest from top edge of neckline.

Yay for bias tape! To try and fold, press and pin that messy raw edge twice would have been a nightmare!! 

Side note, this cover-up really looks more appealing on a model, but considering my legs have been covered up for 7 months I am NOT going there right now! So, perhaps I will update with a live photo after our vacation! ;-)

So, here is another project from "refashion weekend" as it turned out to be. All this sewing was spurred on by the random 9.9 inches of snow we got on Thursday evening causing a snow day on Friday followed by a weekend of horrifically cold weather & state of emergency road conditions. I also think this hit at a perfect time for me. I haven't done much sewing after Christmas present season, I usually need a break after that big creative push, but this weekend the creative juice was back baby! 

A while ago I came across the picture below on Pinterest and knew it was my next "men's dress shirt refashion". I love how simple and crisp it looks, and adore the way the bow girlies it up a bit! 

Yesterday I decided to give it a try and I am thrilled with the results. I did not take step by step pictures, needed to just flow through the process with this one, but it was not tricky at all. Basically I traced shapes from a tank I already own and put the pieces together! The striped shirt was a thrift store find about 3 years ago that I used the cuffs for a project. The white top pieces were actually from a different men's dress shirt I had laying around. :) Yay for free!

The bow is made from a long strip and then I hot glued the middle piece around. Not sure if this will hold up in the washer/dryer so I will probably use a delicate cycle. The bow is hand-stitched to the bodice. 

The most time consuming part of this project was hemming the collar/arm holes. Anyone have a better way than pressing & turning twice? Ug, not my favorite! How about sneaking into my mom's house late at night with a ski mask and stealing her Serger?!! ;)

Hope you are inspired!! Have any great Pinspiration for me?! I'd love to see ideas!!

It's ANOTHER snow day here in MN!! What a winter! Now, I am not complaining about still being in my PJs at 11:00am, but I sure hope that I am not still going to school in the middle of June while my husband is out on the boat!!! To avoid thinking about that I have been sewing away in my craft room this morning and turned out this beauty. 

I did not take a before picture of the sweatshirt (sorry), but you can probably imagine it. I added the navy polka dot fabric and that's it. The sweatshirt is a lucky find from JoAnn Fabrics actually. I just looked online and it looks like they do not carry this type of sweatshirt at the moment, but maybe after this post goes viral they will read this and bring it back?. ;-)  I really love the giant collar, and if I can remember correctly, the price after my 50% off coupon was amazing.

Here is what I did to jazz up my sweatshirt:

1. Cut a piece of fabric for the bottom ruffle. My fabric was a light weight chiffon. To get the measurement, measure around the waist of your sweatshirt and double it. (I think my piece was actually only 69 inches long and was made by piecing two strips together and it turned out just fine.) I made my strip 3.5 inches tall. 

2. Cut a piece of fabric to line the collar piece.  I simply laid my fabric over my sweatshirt collar and cut about 1 inch wider than each edge. 

3. Fold under each edge of both the ruffle and the collar piece and press with a really hot iron. The fabric did not iron the best but it still helped when I was pinning. So fold under about 1/4 inch and press....then fold under another 1/4 inch and press again. This way no raw edges are exposed.  This is the longest part of the process but helped so much when pinning & sewing the pieces to the sweatshirt. 

4. Hem the sides and bottom edges of the ruffle. The top edge will still be pressed, but will get sewn when you sew it to the sweatshirt. 

5. Divide the ruffle piece into equal parts (I think I did 8) and mark with pins. Then divide the sweatshirt bottom into the same number of parts and also mark with pins. Now match up the pins and pin the ruffle to the sweatshirt. The ruffle will be loopy because it is longer than the sweatshirt. 

6. Stretch the sweatshirt as you sew on the ruffle. I had to really pull to get it to match up at each pin. Sew with a straight stitch. Make sure your thread is the same color as your sweatshirt material. 

7. Pin and sew the pressed lining onto the inside of the collar piece. I left mine a tiny bit from the edge. 

All done! Now time to go shovel 9.9 inches of snow with the hubby. Luckily, it started as freezing rain so the snow blower won't work ;-). April Mexico trip can not come fast enough!!!

OK, so here is a quick tutorial on how I made this little catch-all bag from canvas and vinyl placemats! I followed a tutorial on Spool & Spoon blog but changed a few things. This lovely little number was made for a very special cousin, love ya girl....and next time you come for a visit I'd better see you using it!!! ;-) Kidding, kind of. 

Pretty simple! I have been busy at work with some Christmas gifts as well that I can't post about yet because we still have about 14 more Christmas celebrations left... ;-) But here are some teasers: artful scissors, katniss Everdeen, and beer consumption. Muhahaha!! 

OK, so the dress wasn't that "easy", but I wanted to play on words for the title. :) My last weekend hurrah before school starts, and of course the depressing thoughts pop into my head, "Serena, what did you do with all of your time off this summer?!" As a teacher, I know I can't complain about summer off, but I know other teachers might agree that we get more things done during the school year somehow. How does that work?! I do work part time in the summer, but 80% of the sewing/crafting/house projects I had envisioned remain uncompleted. :( So Labor day weekend, for me, usually is jam-packed with projects to make myself feel better.  So far I have cleaned, cooked, got things ready for a sale, painted and stained 2 dressers and sewed a dress...and I still have 11 hours left today! 

In my rushed state, hopefully this will be a short post. Here is quick tutorial for my Labor Day Dress:

I started with a stretch lace tank top ($5 from Heartbreaker) that I had already cut the bottom off for another project (Courtney!!). I cut two pieces to make a "bandeau" top for underneath the lace tank. The pieces were doubled up (with the fold at the top) for coverage ;-). 

For the skirt, I traced a jersey knit maxi dress I already own. I made the waist a little wider since I was going to be shirring the waistline, bringing it in. Make sure the stretch goes horizontal. 

For more details about shirring, check out my February Maxi Dress Tutorial.

After the top is pinned to the bottom, then sew with a zig zag stitch all along the raw edges. You will probably have to pull the skirt layer a little bit to match up with the top layers. Then that is it! I didn't even hem the bottom, I don't think it will fray. 

Any teachers out there agree that you get more done during the school year!? Anyone else have Labor Day projects they are working on? 

Here is a quick t-shirt refashion I did last night. Hope you enjoy!

Materials:
t-shirt (wish mine had been longer)
fun cotton material (about 1/2 a yard?)
scissors
sewing machine & matching thread

#1. Cut up along both side seams and across the back of the t-shirt.

2. Cut a rectangular piece out of your fun cotton fabric to make the new back. it should be just as wide and just as long as the back piece you just cut off. I made mine a little bit wider and a little longer to give it a scoop look on the bottom. Pin the top right sides together and sew.

Below is what it should look like after sewn:

#3: Here is where you should add a pocket if you want. I waited till the end and that was tricky. So, cut out a pocket shape and hem the top edge down 1/4 inch.

#4: Fold the edges of the pocket under as you sew the sides & bottom of the pocket to the front of your shirt. 

#5: Turn the shirt right sides together and sew up the side seams. Then hem the back piece and you are done!!

In honor of my first Summer Sunday Night (you  know how awesome those are as a teacher!!) I thought I would whip up a quick photo tutorial! This skirt turned out pretty cute, nice for a comfy summer night...if we ever get a dry night with temps above 55.... Grrrr. The back kinda does this bubble butt thing, not sure if a dart would help, or if its just my skater booty.... but it's nothing major, I will still wear it. 

So here is the tutorial, enjoy!!

And it's done, wrinkly, but done! Pair with a cute tucked in boyfriend T, and some sneaks!!