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.

RePurpose

Now that our move is over, I've been trying to get back to a more "green" attitude (that was actually lost sometime last spring). I have a larger home than I did before, and I've found myself buying a lot more to go in it, but I decided that maybe I should "shop" what I already have for inspiration. Which is how I got this:

I was dying to get something on the window in my kitchen for aesthetic and acoustic reasons (it is SO echoey in there!). I used some linen napkins that I have never in 6 1/2 years of marriage used at my table. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it, but I'm glad I tried at least!
Scott was also in the repurposing mood. He made a bird house out of our old bread keeper:

Now I have a new mission. I have a multitude of glass jars. Salsa jars, jelly jars, baby food jars, etc. I always put them in the recycle bin, but I dream of more! I am always thinking I can dress them up with some ribbons and put cute things in them. But I can't figure out what those cute things could be. Any ideas?