The Imaginative Seamstress

Last Summer, my sister gave me a woman's shirt size Medium. No one wanted to wear the shirt, but I loved the print! As with any t-shirt I'm given. I look for the possibilities. If its super stretchy and keeps it's shape, I keep it for making panties. (its fun, you should try it!) If its a rib knit type shirt, I keep it for neck, arm, and leg bands. But this one was just pretty, and it was neither stretchy, nor a rib knit.. I wanted to repurpose for my youngest. There's usually enough fabric in a woman's shirt to make a size 2 or 3T shirt. This one was kind of short and I had a difficult time getting all I needed for it. I even had to use a pretty elastic for the neck finish, because I had no decent length of fabric for a neckband. One thing I love about cutting a shirt down in size is that you can keep the original hems! Keep the hem at the bottom of the shirt, and keep the sleeve hems! Taking a shirt from her wardrobe, I used it as a pattern. (I should take photos...

Supposedly we were going to get snow, but its rained all day instead. And I'm just blogging for no reason in particular, other than maybe I felt like it :-) Thought I'd show what I'm up to. I'm usually up to something, but I don't always take the time to post. Not that there's a whole lot going on right now... I do need to start on some custom orders, maybe I'll get some of them cut out this evening. I want to be pattern designing, but I've working on a few personal projects and baby shower gifts. The baby shower gifts are burp cloths and blankets, my usual. I don't have photos of them yet though.. I do have a picture or two of the pajamas though. I cut these out before Christmas and wanted to have them finished by then. But guess what? That didn't quite happen... I started matching PJ's for my girls, and then cut a duplicate pair of 4's for a friend. Said friend has no idea about them, but her sister does :-)   I'm making some...

Random post about a little alteration I did. I found this shirt, that was a woman's small petite. And as I keep an eye out for clothes for my little sister in law, I snag things when I find them. Even if its something that needs a little altering. This one came from a local clothing swap. I thought it was cute and just right for my purpose :-) Its fun to up-cycle clothes!  I took another shirt I found at the clothing swap (which said it was a women's small..but I didn't believe that. It looks like a girl's large to me) and used it as a cutting guide. I left it long and just took it in a bit. My sister in law is a tall, but tiny little thing, who wears a size 14 slim. The dress form that the shirt is on, is a girl's size 12.  I used the serger to sew the side seam and folded the seam over at the hem, (just like you see many times with store bought items) and sewed it down with the sewing machine. I took the outdoor photos at my parent's farm, and that'...

Tuesday got off to a late start for me. I had company at noon, and didn't start my list of sewing things until late afternoon. But once I got going...I just didn't stop! I knew I would need coffee to accomplish my sewing tasks, so I took on 2 before I got into things... and had a 3rd before the night was through! I think this was the first thing I did. Cut out knit outfits for my girlies. No pattern, just free handed, going by existing garments. Like my Mama taught me! :-) From there I went to my mending/alterations pile and knocked out quite a few. Mostly my daughter's things. Pants need darts in the waist. A buttonhole on the shirt had come undone. Threads had popped in one place on the polka dotted panties. She took a pair of scissors to the hem of the pink shorts, so I had to cut and re-hem them. Now they're good for wearing under dresses I suppose. And in he bottom corner is a skirt for me (hopefully) I'll have to find a steel blue top to go ...

Earlier this morning I posted about shrinking a favorite dress.. I had also posted in a sewing group on Facebook. Its called 'Sewing It Up - Sewing for Beginners'. I'm not a beginner by any means. I had applied to this group while I was waiting to be approved to some other group...and they were taking a while. I didn't expect to stay in the group, I was simply curious and wanted to take a look around. I haven't spent a lot of time there really.. But I tell you that I didn't expect to learn things from a group that was labeled "for Beginners" Its truly not just for beginners. Everyone helps each other out and its fun learning from each other! I know sometimes FB groups can take up time but lately they've saved me so much work its incredible. A guy in one group told me how to get the dumb pop ups off my computer, and I had a add-free computer in 20 minutes! Totally awesome!  Back to posting in the 'Sewing It Up' group... This was the turn ou...

Sad news... Last night I washed my barn dance dress and I guess it was the first time I had done that. When I pulled it out of the dryer I could tell it had shrunk! That was stupid. I should have either washed the fabric before I made the dress or air dried it last night. It had been 2 years since I made it and I guess I just didn't remember if I'd washed it or not :-( Now I'll have to make another before next year :-( I loved that fabric! Maybe I could find a similar one? I did get to wear it to 2 barn dances, and one thanksgiving, so at least I hadn't *just* made it. That would really stink. So now I'm in *what to do* mode.   2012 I wouldn't mind a teal blue/turquoise with brown dress.. but that probably wouldn't go well with whatever Josh is wearing..unless its like a solid brown? Or maybe it'd be fine. Or maybe I shouldn't worry about it and go with whatever I think would make a cute dress?   2012  2014  I've had thi...

Upcycling clothes is fun! I put together this outfit for Miriam's 8 month photos..  keep scrolling to see more pictures and what this looked like before I put it together..

 On Tuesday evening I made the mistake of drinking coffee... and not going to bed. I could have gone to bed, I could have made myself lay down and go to sleep. But then, I could stay up too... so I stayed up and worked on orders. When I was finished working on orders I grabbed the new, black, knit fabric which was laying in a heap on the floor. I pulled out a pattern I'd bought months ago, and made the top I've been dreaming about making. When I finished the knit top, I rummaged through my to do bag. (which is always hanging on the back of my sewing chair) (I should take a picture of this bag, my sister made it and I adore it!) In the bag I found a partly taken apart t-shirt, which my Mother-in-Love had given me back in the Spring, I believe. And I finally went through with making a skirt out of it. The turn out was marvelous! So why stop there?? I grabbed more fabric from another heaping pile on the floor and made a second skirt! Somewhere along the sewing path, the sun came u...

Who doesn't have an old pair of jeans with holes in the knees? Well, in this case the jeans did not have holes in the knees, they were just too short :-( I had this pair of jeans that I LOVED but they were always too short. So recently I decided to turn them into shorts! Why not? I did, after all, need a pair of denim shorts :-) They also had a stain on them, so I decided to put some applique flowers over that. Okay, I'm lying.. I was going to put the flowers on there no matter if there was a stain or not lol! Its a fun and easy project! I am feeling most brilliant at the moment :-) I have a pair of shorts now! Yay!!!  Not the easiest thing to do to take a picture of yourself modeling clothes :-)