Wedding dress alterations

 Love a boutique wedding gown but want it more modest than the strapless look?  Just add some sleeves.

Started out like this.

It had a long sheer 'shawl' with it that we used to create some sleeves.  Along with some drapy fabric fashioned into wide straps that were then tucked inside the double fabric 'sleeves'.  Yes this is a rectangular piece of fabric and it DID become a sleeve.  No, sleeves are not usually rectangular in shape.  In fact they never are that I know of!  But it can be done I have discovered!  A little ingenuity, a lot of draping, and a LOT of hand sewing, and there you have it!

On the hanger just does not do this justice. 

This was durring the fitting/draping process but you get the idea.

It worked!  Beautifully as the bride informed me after it was completed and I handed it off.  I didn't get to see it on her after it was all finished because it worked out better for a friend to pick it up for her.  But she said later that it was perfect and that it just made her dress!  She was happy, so I'm happy.  Success!  And it made a world of difference in the modesty department.  That is always a satisfying feeling:)

{Capris into skirts}

I recently did these for a friend.  She found the capri's at thrift stores and on a clearance rack, tore them apart for me and let me get creative and decide what fabrics and trims to use to put them back together as skirts.  Fun project!

Scrap Fabric + Orange Dye + T-shirt Alteration = Unique new outfits!

It started with this fabric.  Middle Sister has been asking me for almost a year to make her a skirt out of this fabric.  So now that my skirt like this is faded and rather everyday I finally pulled out my scraps and made, not one but two little skirts out of it.  They were a hit.  Both of my 'little' girls were excited.  Since I used orange twill trim to finish the bottom of the skirts I wanted orange shirts.  Thought I would pick some up in town sometime.  Then I saw this on Lorajean's blog.  Inspiration struck!  I wanted some ruffle t's for my girls.  I wanted them to be orange.

Enter a pack of boys t-shirts.  Plain white basic t's.  They came in a pack of 6.  I needed 3.

I am so in love with RIT dye.  Thanks to Kara for the info about all the colors you can order from them.  I used 'tangerine'.  You can also go to the RIT website and find their chart for custom colors.  The possibilites are almost endless.  More than I could ever exhaust!

Voila!  Now I had 3 ORANGE t-shirts:)  Time to alter - make them girly!

Enter scissors.

Cut off ribbing around neck.

Cut off sleeve hem.

The thread used on these t's is not cotton - therefore it does not dye.  So I removed it.

Wondering why I needed 3 shirts dyed??  The 3rd one got cut into 2 inch strips.

Just like Lorajean I used a gathering stitch on the sleeves, gathered them up, and stitched the gathers in. 

And once again, just like Lorajean, I ran a gathering stitch through the center of the long, now-sewn-together strip of orange t'shirt fabric...

...gathered up the strip and pinned it to the front of the t-shirts...

...made some tucks in the neckline at one side in the front...

...and took pictures of the finished shirts for my blog.

I added some tucks at one side in the back (opposite side from the front)  just so the shirts weren't quite so big around the neck.  Middle Sister and Little Sister arn't very big!  I also added an extra tuck in Middle Sister's after she tried it on and about 3 more in Little Sisters.

They wore their outfits this morning because they just couldn't wait.  I did make them change when they were ready to go outside.  These are some of the funnest outfits I've had for them in awhile.  The best part? VERY VERY inexpensive!!!! 

And of course, Middle Sister insisted I take a picture of them making silly faces:) 

They are now taking turns, along with Big Sister, hiding and finding plastic Easter eggs!  And I'm headed out to soak up some Vitamin D.  Sewing can be done LATER!

Recent Skirt projects

This was done for a friend out of a skirt she bought. It had an elastic waist and was too big so I used her a-line skirt pattern and cut it down, put it back together, put a zipper in it and viola!

This was a plain khaki skirt that I detailed with fabric and ribbon to dress it up.
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