Dress A Girl Around the World {Sewing for Charity}

A few months ago, I guess I had a lot of time on my hands, because I started researching organizations that accept sewing for charity. I was in the middle of a peasant-girl-dress-phase for Kiki, so the Dress A Girl Around the World charity really jumped out at me.

Dress a Girl Around the World is run by Hope 4 Women International and delivers homemade dresses to needy girls all over the world. All you do is sew them and mail them in! Doesn't every girl deserve a lovely dress?

Their website provides instructions for a basic pillowcase dress, but since I love my peasant dress pattern, that's what I made (oh, yeah, and I've never made a pillowcase dress). I thought this pattern would work well for many sizes since it uses elastic thread to make the middle and sleeves all stretchy.

Anyway, if you sew, I hope you'll check out this organization. Hopefully I can get on the ball and make more dresses!

I'll be linking up here.

Upcycled Christmas Dress

I made another upcycled t-shirt dress for Kiki (inspired by I Am Momma Here Me Roar). I found some neat prints for this one. Kiki proudly modeled it for me (she's getting really good at smiling on cue):

And a matching hair rosette to boot!

I Roared!

One of my favorite blogs is I Am Momma Hear Me Roar! Cheri has so many great ideas. I saw her posts for an upcycled hat and upcycled dress and, once again, I knew I was destined to make them.

Here's Kiki in her adorable new Princess hat:

And her new dress! I love the scrappy look of it. I wanted to use some cool graphic shirts, but I really only had plain ones. I plan on adding some stamps with fabric paint (a la IAMHMR), but that would require me actually taking a shower, getting dressed, getting the kids dressed and then moving my butt up to Walmart to get the paint--something I don't plan on doing for a few more hours.

I made one for Finn as well, and he loved it UNTIL he realized I cut up one of his old shirts to make it. Then he was just really really pissed and tried to throw it away. It wasn't even a shirt that he liked to wear AND it was too small for him now anyway. Dear Boy: I love you, but you have some major control issues. Unfortunately, I know where you get that trait.

Here I am wearing it instead:

Pretty Flower Dress Repurpose

McKinley has this great dress that a friend of mine gave her. Unfortunately, it's been looking a little short on her lately (she is in the 88th percentile for height). It's got such an amazing pattern that I knew I wasn't ready to give it up just yet. So, I decided to give it new life! I bought a cheap little pink onesie and found a super cute felt flower in my scrapbooking stash: Close-up of the cutie-pie flower:

I started by cutting off the top of the dress and sewing it at waist height on the onesie. However, working with the cotton jersey knits that usually make up t-shirts and onesies is hard. There was quite a bit of bunching:

But that is what they make ruffles for! Ruffles are the perfect boo-boo cover for girl's clothes. I hand-stiched a little hot pink ruffle over that bunchy stitch line and fixed it right up. When my grandmother passed away ten years ago, I inherited 6 boxes of embroidery floss from her. I can't tell you how great it is to have such a vast array of colors on hand when I need them. Thanks Mamow!

Have I completely forgotten about my son while I complete all these girly projects I've been working on, you ask? Well, he's getting crafty himself! I let him paint a birdhouse to hang out back. It kept him busy:

Finally, the finished product! I blanket-stitched the little flower on the front (It's actually a scrapbook embellishment, which means it has a sticky back. Kinda gross to sew with, really. I think in the future I will try to peel the icky stick off first). Now Kiki just needs to wake up so I can see it on her!

Repurposing

I absolutely hate it when I know that my trash can be reused, I just don't know HOW. I've been collecting old coffee cans and baby food containers for months know, but I usually end up throwing them out when I realize I have no good ideas. Enter my friend Wendy, who introduced me to Modge Podge. Now I can make my little food containers into something cute like this:
Also, I've seen numerous tutorials on the web about turning men's button-up shirts into toddler skirts. I thought it was a little masculine, but I was bored so I tried it anyway (kinda reminds me of boxer shorts). Here they are next to some clearance fabric I bought this week (look for it to be turned into a skirt soon!):

Last is my piece de resistance. Not really, but I am pretty proud of myself. I turned one of my old button-up shirts into a little dress for Kiki. The best part is that I just did it! No pattern, no tutorial (although I have seen some for doing this). I trusted my machine and my ruler, and it didn't turn out half bad. AND, there are probably a million button-up shirts at Goodwill for next to nothing that I can make into little dresses like this!

Note that probably 75% of the sewing and finishing is already done for you if you cut up the shirt carefully.

I Made It!

I've got the sewing bug, so I decided to make Kiki a dress. It didn't turn out half bad!
I think she liked it.

Remember when you used to dress up your dolls?

This is so much cooler!:

And here is Kinley in her first REAL cloth diaper. We'll have to do pre-folds for now since she has some growing to do before she'll fit in the pockets!: