It's about darn time!

I have taken an extended break from crafting, not because I wanted to, but because I'm too afraid of making mistakes! But making mistakes is the only way to learn sometimes. :) That, and sometimes it's just too darn much trouble taking everything out just to put it away again. I guess I've gotten kind of lazy, but I'm feeling the itch to be creative again.

As you all know, I'm still pretty new at sewing, but today I decided it was time to take out the machine again and put it to some good use. I've had these three XL men's polo shirts that somebody gave my husband months ago. Besides the fact that they are too big for him, they are in colors that he would never, ever in a million years wear. Bright pink, lavender, and bright yellow. So I put them with the rest of my fabric hoping that I could use them for something or refashion them somehow. (The colors in the photos are not true, just imagine bright pink and lavender).

Today I took the plunge and cut up the pink and lavender ones.

I took one of Zoe's dresses that fits her pretty well now, and laid it out on top of the giant polo shirt, then leaving about a 1/2 inch of space (for the seams), I cut around the shape. When I got to the sleeve area, I didn't cut around the sleeves but rather tried to eye where the seam between the shoulder and sleeve would be, and cut that.

I won't go through all the details, but I'm happy to report that figuring out which way to sew the sleeves on took much less time than in the past! lol. I did a gathered waist with the purple polo shirt, and I used the hem of the pink shirt to put around the neckline. You can see in the picture below that I have some issues with sewing in a straight line, lol. I wish I had pink thread so that all of my little imperfections would not show up so much. I took the two buttons off the polo shirt and re-sewed them on in the proper place (upside down so the brand wouldn't show).

Also, after I had the dress on Zoe, I could see that I probably didn't cut the neck hole evenly because the buttons seemed a bit off center. Hmmm. Oh well. Zoe's young enough that she doesn't care, and hopefully by the time she is old enough, I'll be a much better seamstress!

There are a couple more things I want to do with the dress. I thought about cutting the purple skirt a couple inches shorter and adding a pink ruffle to the bottom, but I'm not so sure I want to do that. Thoughts? I also for sure want to add a couple of pink pockets to the skirt, a la the market skirt. Also, the top of the polo shirt has an annoying brand image on it that I couldn't get off, so I was thinking of making some lavender cloth rosettes or flowers or something from the leftover fabric to cover it up. 

Before I put my machine away, I decided to try and make a wrist pin cushion. I decided to use left over scraps from the Christmas jammies I made for my girls. I gathered a bunch of the long skinny scraps and rolled them into a ball, and then covered it with a larger scrap. I gathered the bottom and hand sewed it onto a little band that I made. I added velcro to the ends of the band so that I could strap it on. Very rudimentary, but for now, it works! This will be much handier, I think. (ha ha, no pun intended.)

Next on my list, I really want to try making this kind of gathered pillow cover. I think it adds just the right amount of something extra without being overdone! (photo courtesy of Make it and Love it) I would love to have some super cute fabric like this to do it with, but I'll have to look through my small stash and see what I have, or else make a trek out to the fabric market. Wish me luck!