The sweater. Dare I say that I actually found this one in the street? Lying in the road in front of the house, and extra large women's silk sweater, abandoned. So I washed it on hot and stuck it in the dryer, not knowing how it would turn out. It washed up beautifully, and shrank just a bit. So what to do?
Make a dress! I was hoping to have a picture of my daughter wearing it, since black is so difficult to photograph, but 9 year olds can be difficult to photograph, too, especially when they don't want their picture taken. To convert the sweater to a dress, I cut it apart down the center. To take up the shoulders, I ran a few rows of elastic thread near the seam. I trimmed a bit of fabric from both sides of the opening and seamed it. I used snaps for closures and added the oversize buttons for decoration. A pink cotton ruffle was sewn on for length, and the belt is made from a panel of the same cotton sewn with elastic thread. I do love the mix of the cotton and the sweater materials.

Sewing projects are bursting out of the closet and a few illustrations for a series I'm planning have made it to the sketchbook,  for the most part, I've had little time to do anything creative. We've spent two months going to different doctors and having loads of tests done on my son, and while it finally seems we have found someone who can really treat the cause and not just his symptoms, it has taken, and continues to take, much of my time. So my posts are erratic, yes, and they may continue to be for awhile, but hopefully summer will bring a little more calm and a lot more time for art.

Oh, the t-shirt. We have lots of t-shirts hanging around here, many  of them with stains, or too small, or out of fashion. Max's Disneyland shirt fell into the too small category, but never fear, we can rebuild it. All you need is a little fusible web, a clearance t-shirt, and a little machine stitching and Bam! a new t-shirt.
Sometimes my screen prints don't come out exactly right. I had a shirt where the placement was off, so a few snips and the shirt becomes a patch.
The backs of the old t-shirts become blanks for screen printing, or material for sewing projects, or even rags. The possibilities are endless!

Sadly, I have no drawings to share this week. It seems the only thing I've used a pencil for lately has been to write math problems. I'm going to take a little week or so blogging break to focus on my kids for a bit, but I do have more in store to share with you! See you in a week!

Clothes, clothes, clothes! It's been all about fashion around here lately, thanks to wardrobe refashioning and the Yudu. I have a sizable pile of clothes that have been hanging around for at least a year, waiting to be altered. AT the top of the stack were two blouses that I have never even worn. Both were not only too unstructured, but with oversized collars and full short sleeves, my shoulders looked more massive than any NFL linebacker's. What possessed me to buy them, when the proportions were so bad? I know that they were both under $10, but even so, $20 so they could sit in my closet for a year? Alas, my computer decided to dump the last two year's worth of pictures, and I had not backed up after the before shots were loaded, so you will have to imagine those purple monstrosities. The fix, however, was quite easy.

I simply removed the sleeves. The deep purple one looks great on. The floral collar shirt still has a bit of a maternity look on, but an empire waistline tie didn't help, so I'm leaving it as is, for now. I think I'll keep my eye open for a little second hand cardigan  and sew the collar onto it. I think it would look smashing on a sweater.

I also decided to face my phobia and dye some clothes. You see, I've had a bottle of Ritz for more than a year, but I could not shake the neurotic idea that my washer would hide bits of navy dye that would seep out and leave little blotches on all of my clothes for years to come. Yes, I know that sounds loony, but it's the truth. Being in possession of a great pair of cigarette pants that were an unfortunate baby poo color (I swear it said khaki online) and a sweater that was chartreuse instead of green (another online purchase), I threw cation to the wind and salt in my washer and had a go. Do you know what? The washer cleaned up just fine, my clothes are now a decidedly better gray blue, and the stained orchid  tee shirt I also tossed in is a fabulous deep purple. Again, I lost the before pictures,so you'll just have to imagine the hideous colors.

Yes, I'll definitely be dying more clothes now.

The Yudu got a little love yesterday as well. The first design is just for Madeline and her cousin. Marie and Minnie are her favorite stuffed animals, and her cousin is her best friend. They got matching shirts, of course.


The second shirt is also for family, inspired of course by that famous mouse and Bad Robot.

Whew! That's it for now! Wednesday I'll post some more LSNED pages, and hopefully some from the Sketchbook Project, if I can get my mojo flowing!

I am definitely on a summer sewing binge, even though the skies are gray and we've had showers on and off for the last two days. It's been such an odd spring for our neck of the woods. Spring here usually means kinda hot, until we hit the hot weather in June and the please don't let my air conditioner fail me sweltering days of July and August. I am hardly complaining, though. I am certainly no fan of 100 degree weather, but in preparation for it, I've been making sun dresses. This one is my favorite, so far.



The hanger just doesn't do it justice - it is so cute on! It's a combination of patterns - Made's Summer Vacation Dress and the free Leisurely dress pattern form the Sew Mama Sew blog. Last summer I got hooked on shirring (using elastic thread to create a smocking effect) and this year it's becoming an obsession. I just bought four spools of elastic thread, so no fabric here is safe! The shirring on the pockets was from Dana's pattern, and I love it!

Sadly, I'll have to put away the elastic thread for now, because Max wants some shorts, and I don't think the boy is interested in a smocked pair. What are you sewing for the summer?

Matt gave me the book, Sweater Surgery, for Christmas, and I finally worked up the courage this weekend to pull out the scissors and cut one up! I had visions of the sweater unraveling as soon as I made the first slice, and all being lost since I don't know how to knit. (I would love to learn though. Hint. Anyone? Anyone?) To my surprise, not only did the sweater stay together, it turned out to be very easy "material" to work with. My first project is still in progress - a formerly navy quarter zip sweater of Matt's from Land's End has now become a short sleeved cut away cardigan. I haven't quite found the perfect fastener for the front yet, and I'm thinking of felting a design on the back. My second creation was this one:

It is simply the sleeves of an old turtleneck sewn into the green sweater.As it was, the green sweater was nice, but a little too conservative for me. Now that it has a little rock 'n roll, I love it!

This purse was once a skirt! I loved the tube skirt, but after having two kids, it was just wrong to wear it anymore. It took maybe twenty minutes to make, since the skirt was lined. I cut off the bottom, added a pocket inside, sewed it up and used the extra for the strap. The closure is from an old necklace.

So now I am officially obsessed with altering clothing. All of these pieces came out of my give away bag, and there are still more in the works. It is so much fun to combine different garments to make new ones, and so much quicker than sewing from a pattern! Grab an old sweater and give it a try!