Break me of a piece of that...Candy-Theme T-Shirt!

When I think of candy, it has to be chocolate.  Well, it's not like I'd turn down any other candy, but still, chocolate is my preference.  So when I started thinking about this week's Project Run & Play theme, Candy, my mind went immediately to those fun-size Halloween bars.  And I got a visual for my project this week--layers of wafer wrapped in chocolate, with a red wrapper.  A Kit-Kat bar!

Since my daughter got my project from last week's theme, I knew I wanted to do something for my son, who just started kindergarten this week.  And having recently assessed his drawers, I found that the hole in his wardrobe currently is long-sleeved tees.  So between one of my old brown long-sleeved tees, a knit striped romper The Boy himself wore as a baby, and a little bit of red knit from a shirt that has been snipped into lots of different projects, I was able to make a cool, functional shirt that is just sweet enough to fit the candy theme.

When I started cutting my pattern pieces, I was surprised to learn that a women's size medium fitted tee is almost exactly the same width as a size 6 boys tee, in both the body and the sleeves.  Which was nice--saved me sewing some side seams!  I used the original hem on the body as well.  I started out using the original hem on the sleeves too, but they came out a little long and a little loose, so I ended up cutting off the original hems to add the red cuff, which I really like.  They're more fitted than the sleeve, so they keep the sleeves off his hands even though they are still long to allow for growth.

The obligatory jumping shot

Speaking of the sleeves, this was where I wanted to give that "kit-kat" look by layering in some striped fabric to represent the wafer layers with chocolate around it.  I hadn't quite decided on the placement of the stripes until I had the sleeves cut--then I thought it would be fun to make them asymmetrical.

Another accidental design element is the back.  When I cut out my pattern pieces (I started with the MADE basic tee but sized it up a bit), I cut front and back together and cut both pieces with the higher "back" neckline so I could lower the front one later.  Then not 10 seconds later, I went ahead and cut BOTH down to the front neckline!  D'oh!  Oh well--I re-cut the back pattern piece just for the top of the shirt out of my "wafer layer" striped accent fabric, and I think it was a perfect place to incorporate a little more of that stripe.

Oops--got a little overexposed so you can't see the stripes, but they're there.

I also cut out four strips of the striped fabric in slightly different lengths to make the raw-edge applique on the front of the shirt.  I wanted a nod to the kit-kat bar's four pieces while still looking like a cool design for a t-shirt.  I'm happy with it!  And the final kit-kat inspiration was using the red for the bindings, since kit-kat bars come in a red wrapper.

Details

I topstitched around the neckline using a double needle to keep some stretch in there, and I love how professional that finish looks.  I even got brave and did contrast stitching (verrrrry verrrry slowly so I didn't mess it up).

Contrast topstitching

I had to go for the built-in bribery factor for photographing a candy themed shirt.  How better to get the kiddo to pose nicely for me than to bring an edible prop to the photo shoot?

 

Of course, that meant I had to bribe a certain someone else to stay OUT of most of the photos...

But she was a good sport, and I ended up snapping a few fun ones of both kids together as long as we were in front of this cool painted wall!

All in all, I'm so happy because this is an awesome fall shirt that I would never have thought of without the inspiration from Project Run & Play.  Thanks guys!  Be sure to click over to see what everyone else is linking up in the sewalong, and here to vote for this round's competitors--they are so amazing!

Scarf Madness!

I have been a Goodwill treasure hunter this year, since my to-do list included scarves and/or armwarmers for several people on the gift list this year.  I have found some real scores!  Vintage cashmere for $7, striped lambswool, and more--it's been so much fun!

These are the infinity scarves I've made so far.  I'll do another post on scarflets (probably after Christmas--that's the tricky thing about having family members who may or may not actually read your blog; they might get a glimpse of something meant for them ahead of time!)  

The pink one on the right was a custom order for a friend, made from her grandmother's lambswool/angora blend sweater.  Super soft and dense, it was GREAT for a scarf, except that her grandma was a tiny little thing, and I just barely had enough fabric to work it into a scarf! 

I ended up having to include the ribbed cuffs and waistband that I usually cut off when making these things.  I actually like the result--there were enough to distribute the ribbing evenly around the scarf, so it adds a design element that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

It can be worn wrapped loosely, as shown above, or snug up to your neck, leaving the other loop dangling long.

The navy one on the left was a cashmere Goodwill find.  I loved the cables.  I have used embellishment before to hide holes in the original sweater (a danger when upcycling), but in this case I didn't have to do that--I just put them where I liked them.  The flowers are scraps from two other sweaters that I had upcycled.  One was my favorite cashmere sweater turned scarf, and the other is from a project that can not yet be disclosed.

The embellished details

This one can also be worn with a long loop if desired:

Fun!  For a how-to, you can check out one of my previous posts on infinity scarves, and this page has a great tutorial too.

Ruffle-Yoke Appliqued T-Shirt!

This is a story about a plain brown t-shirt and a scrap of adorable fabric.  

I can't bear to leave a t-shirt unadorned.  And I had a few precious pieces of one of my favorite fabrics left, after my attempt to make the snappy top from Prudent Baby turned out too small and I had to give it away.  Ordinarily, I would use the scraps to applique some sort of critter on the t-shirt, but with this bold of a print I was having a hard time figuring out what shape to cut.  I wanted to see the print, not have the cute print distracting from whatever animal it was supposed to be.  So I came up with the yoke idea.

Loungin'

There were a few tricky steps, but overall it was simple enough to do.  Here are the steps!


First, I measured my t-shirt across the top from shoulder seam to shoulder seam.  I wanted the yoke to go almost all the way across, so I added a little bit for seam allowance.  I eyeballed how far down I wanted the yoke to go, folded my fabric in half (I paid attention to the print since I wanted it to be symmetrical, this will depend on your fabric choice), and cut the curve.  Then I laid my printed piece on top of the solid back fabric and cut out an identical shape.


For the ruffle, I cut a rectangle that was twice as long as my yoke.  For the width, decide how wide you want your ruffle to be and double that, plus a little for seam allowance.

I started by making my ruffle.  I pressed both short ends of the rectangle under, like so:

Then folded it in half lengthwise, inside out (so that the flap I ironed down were sticking OUT), and sewed a straight line down the length, backstitching at the beginning and end.

For the yoke pieces, I laid them right-sides together and stitched around the outside, leaving an opening at the top the same width as the neckline of the shirt. Then I clipped the corners and the curve.

Now I'm ready to turn and press!

 I turned both pieces right-side out and pressed them flat.  For the tube, I pressed it with the seam right in the middle, then I stitched both ends of the tube closed.

Next, I stuck the yoke piece inside the shirt so I could see where the neckline lined up.  Make sure to line it up evenly!

I traced the line of the neckline onto my fabric (with a white pencil, so it showed).  If you are worried about the line being visible on your fabric, you could do this on the back side of the yoke.  Actually, I might recommend doing that, so you can leave a little extra fabric above the line when you cut it out.

Then I cut along the line.  In retrospect, I think I should have left a little extra fabric (and maybe even serged or zig-zagged along the top), since I just sewed the raw edge directly under the t-shirt neck band.  I'm not entirely sure how this will hold up in the wash--I will let you know!

***UPDATE*** it has gone through the wash several times now and it's holding up just fine :) And the ruffle is holding its shape too--no ironing necessary!

Next, I ruffled my tube by sewing a straight line down the center of the tube using a basting stitch.  Don't backstitch at the beginning and end, then grab your bobbin thread on both ends and gently tug to gather the fabric up to the length of your yoke.

Then pin the ruffle down the center of the yoke, lining up the top and bottom edges.  Using a straight stitch, sew right down the middle of the ruffle to attach it to the yoke.

Now, this is the best time to sew your buttons on if you want them.  I forgot to do this and had to sew them on after I had already attached the yoke to the shirt--not ideal.  So if you want buttons, add them now!  I wanted four, but had to settle for three since that's all I had that matched.

Now you're ready to attach the yoke to the shirt!  Here's where you have to be a little careful.

On the front of the shirt, I carefully unpicked the bottom seam on the neckline using a seam ripper. You could unpick both to give yourself more room to tuck the yoke inside the neckband, but then you have to make sure you're getting both the back and the front of the neckband when you reattach.

 Then pin the yoke to the front of the shirt, starting with the neckline.  Make sure you have it lined up evenly by the shoulder seams, then pin your little loose edge of the neckband over the top of the raw edge of the yoke.  Take extra care by the ruffle, since you need to make sure to catch all the layers when you sew.

I started by sliding the shirt into my machine at the neckline and sewing starting with one shoulder and going across the top first (shoulder, neckline--CAREFULLY, other shoulder), backstitching at both ends.  Then I took the shirt out of the machine, made sure I was pinning the rest of the yoke down flat, then slid the shirt onto the machine from the opening at the bottom to sew the rest of the yoke.

Like I said, I wish I had added my buttons earlier.  I wanted to use brown buttons, but...

Yeah.  I had no two brown buttons that matched.  The downside of a vintage button collection.  Since I decided I didn't want the eclectic mismatched button look, I went with yellow, since I had three that were the same.

Here are my three buttons--if I had actually gone SHOPPING for buttons instead of using my stash, I would have probably chosen something bigger.  And brown, since the red/yellow combo always makes me think of McDonalds.

But I'm happy with the way it turned out!  And I like this way of dressing up a plain t-shirt.

Of course, YOU may prefer to dress up your plain t-shirt with a tutu.

Thanks, Grandma.

Poppy Applique Upcycled T-shirt Dress

Isn't this appliqued poppy dress (from modcloth, no longer available) just adorable?  I loved this idea and had to give it a try, using an old t-shirt (a few of them, actually) and elastic thread to make a dress for Little Sister.

Inspiration dress to toddler dress!

If you're interested in how I got there, I'll go through it here.  If you just want to see cute pics of Little Sister, hop on down to the bottom of the post!  Seriously, you don't want to miss these :)

I started with this shirt that I picked up for $1 at Village Merchants (the consignment store in my neighborhood that I've mentioned before).  It had kind of a weird neckline/shape, but I thought I could make it work. 

See how the neckline and hem are rolled over?

I started by ruching the sleeves using elastic thread, like in the two-minute dress tutorial by Prudent Baby.  I sewed two rows of elastic thread on each side of the sleeve seam, all the way from the neckline to the band at the end of the sleeve.  For a great, simple lesson on using elastic thread, check out Flossie Teacakes' tutorial here.

What I should have done from the beginning was cut off the neckline that kept rolling over, since t-shirt fabric doesn't fray.  The picture below shows the neckline once the "hem" was cut off.  I cut this off after sewing my elastic neckline, I recommend doing it first.  Anyway, I sewed two rows of elastic thread all the way around the neckline, making sure I was only sewing on a single layer of fabric (the elastic thread won't gather right if you're sewing through the folded-over neckline.  I wouldn't have had to worry about that if I'd cut it off in the first place.) 

 

Your shoulder/neckline area will look something like this:

(this shows the neckline before I cut the extra fabric off)

At this point, I thought the body of the shirt still looked like it had too much fabric.  For reference, I was making approximately a size 2T. 

So I just made a curved seam from the sleeve all the way to the hem.  I made the sleeve opening a little smaller, then curved it in and back out to the original width at the hemline. 

You could use a dress or shirt that fits well to approximate the width you want.  I just eyeballed it, because the elastic waist is very forgiving.  Then I trimmed the extra fabric from the sides of the dress.

Speaking of which, that elastic waist was the next step.  I was delighted to notice that the stripes were lined up at the side seams, so I just decided to follow the stripe around with my elastic.

Unfortunately, the stripe that lined up with my seam was not the same stripe I started with.  Um, oops. 

Here's where I started and where I ended up after one trip around the dress on the sewing machine.

 Sooo, I would recommend marking the distance from the hem with pins to make sure your waistband goes straight across.  Because I started at an angle, my shirring has a...let's call it "artsy" cris-crossed look in the back.  But I did end up with a waistband that's the same width all the way across (wider than I originally planned, but hey, that's the way it goes sometimes).

The finished waistband

 To make the appliqued skirt, I used scraps from dark red and black t-shirts and green rick-rack.  I went through my general process in doing applique in my last post, but I'll give an overview here too:

Looking at my inspiration dress, I drew my poppy shapes on paper and cut them out.  I used those to cut out my red t-shirt fabric and iron-on webbing.  I just eyeballed the black centers (and cut out iron-on webbing for those too).

Once I had the flowers cut out, I laid them out on the dress then cut the lengths of rick-rack I would need to reach the hem.  I tucked the rick-rack under the flower so it would get stuck down when I ironed everything in place. 

After everything was stuck together, I used black thread to sew down the centers first, then the red for around the edges of the flowers, then switched to green (sewing slowly) to attach the rick-rack.  Then I just threaded a needle to add some black dots for accent.  I would have used embroidery thread, but I didn't have black, so I just used regular thread and went over each spot twice. 

 

And that was that!  I love the way this applique turned out so much, I will probably do the same image to add some interest to a boring brown and white striped t-shirt of my own.  I might use cording instead of rick-rack for the stems, to grow it up a bit.  Or maybe I'll embroider them, like on the inspiration dress.

And then, for Little Sister's best photo shoot ever, here's my advice: 

Have a 13-year old girl stand behind you and make poses for the toddler to mimic.  Little Sister has never been so happy to pose for me!  Thanks, Brittani!

Seriously, Tyra would have been so proud.  She didn't even need her extra frames.

 

I only have one photo in my hands...