I'm Still Here...

Hello? Is anyone still there?

Wow, it has been a while. Too long! It has been a busy month for the Torrances. I had the privilege to stay with my niece and nephew while their parents took some neighborhood kids to Kids Across America. I had a blast with kiddos! Here are the outfits from this post. This is the twirly skirt that I love making. I need to get busy and make some more!

And the tie applique I made for her big bro:

Then there was lots of bubble baths. This child loves him some bubbles! He asked two or three times before lunch if he could have a bubble bath!

I love those kiddos. I can't wait to see them again!

Then I went to Atlanta to spend some time with my sister while Michael was on a motorcycle trip. And a week ago we were here:

Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica! We had a blast. We went with our old neighbors from Statesboro.

It was great hanging out with them and catching up. They are so sweet and so much fun. We spent a lot of time here with our feet in the sand...

And looking out at the amazingly clear blue water. It was so beautiful! And when we were not on the beach or eating, we could be found here...

This is the main pool. There is another one we spent more time at. It was a little smaller and about 20 feet from our room. I love the lounge chairs that sit in the water. So nice. I miss me some meat patties though!

These are just a few photos. There are photographers everywhere ready and willing to take your picture. We had mini-photo shoots just about every day!

And this was our dreaded last walk on the beach =( It was really hard to get back in the swing of things, but that's life. We can't make a living in paradise!

This was a very nice and much needed vacation for the two of us. I am thankful that we were able to share it with such good friends.

I hope to start posting more in the days and weeks to come. I hope that you will hang in there and wait for more to come! Hope you all are having a safe and fun summer!

Just Something I Whipped Up...

I picked up a few T's for my niece at the store. I didn't know what I wanted to do with them, but I definitely wanted to use up some scrapes! I had a pink long-sleeve shirt that had some small holes towards the bottom. So I cut off the sleeves to make it short sleeve. With the part cut off I made some ruffles and sewed it around the neckline. The bottom ruffle was a little off center and it was driving me crazy! I had two choices: remove the bottom ruffle and try sewing it on again, or adding another design to cover up the mistake. I opted to create something to cover up the mistake. I didn't want to chance re-sewing the ruffle because my luck the same thing would happen again! I created this cute flower out of the same fabric and attached it. I hope it holds up in the wash!!!

Here's a close up.

And another ruffled collar. This is left over from another project. I sewed two stripes together on three sides, leaving one short side open to turn. I slip-stitch the end closed and sewed down the middle with a long straight stitch to create the ruffles. Then sewed it on the shirt. I think it will be adorable on the little princess.

Here's another Twirly Skirt I made from two fat quarters. Wal-Mart sells these fat quarters for a $1 and they have some cute designs. The shirt I bought and appliqued the circles on.

Then I made a shirt for the little guy so he can match his 'lil sis. There were some scraps left over, believe it or not so I used it for the tie. I love how this tie turned out! I think it is so cute!

And here is the matching duo:

Have a great day!

Flirty Skirt

I have been holding on to this post for a while. I don't know why I have not posted it sooner because I absolutely love it. I finished it a while ago and I don't remember step-by-step what I did, but I will try to give my best description. It's pretty easy and pretty basic. This project actually started out for my oldest niece, but I messed up so I made it for the little one.

Before you start cutting, make sure you measure the little one. Unfortunately, my niece's and nephew live about 2 hours away, so I went to Wal-Mart and bought a skirt for the appropriate size; in this case 12 months. I measured the length and waist band. I wanted the top section longer than the bottom. I guess the top section is about 2/3 bigger than the bottom. Be sure to add about a 1/4" for seam allowance and add extra length for the elastic. I added about 6" to the width to make it scrunchy. First, sew the side seam of the top band together. Then sew the tube for the elastic. Make sure you leave about a 2" gap to insert the elastic. For your bottom band, you can pretty much make it as long as you want; depending on how ruffled you want it. To make the ruffles, adjust your stitch length to the highest possible. Sew about a 1/4" from the edge. Do not backstitch and make sure to leave some extra thread on the ends. Pull the thread so the ruffles begin to form. Sew the raw edges together. Pin it to the top band with the right sides together working the ruffles so that they are consistent all the way around and sew. Double fold, iron, and pin the unfinished edge of the bottom band and sew to make the seam. At this point, it should look like this:


I apologize that I don't have pictures of the previous steps. I got a little frazzled when I realized I messed up and stopped taking them! As you can see, once I figured out it would work out for the little one I started taking pics again.

Thread the elastic through the tube. Before I finish the seam, I like to pull the overlapping ends of the elastic out far enough to sew them together. Then finish the tube and your done! Step back and visualize how cute the little one will be!

This skirt wouldn't be complete without a cute matchy shirt! So I created three yo-yo flowers and sewed them on the shirt. (Oh my gosh, I can't get enough of those chubby arms!)

Here's the little model! She is so happy because I have finally given in and let her play with my phone! She is busy trying to figure it out!

Still trying to figure it out!


And the fabric petal flower I made here matches perfectly. I am so glad they are finally staying in her hair!

I bought some fat quarters at Wal-Mart the other day. I am going to try to make some more of these fun skirts out of those. Hope it works!!! And I hope you enjoy!



Sarah

T-shirt refashion into girls skirt

This is super easy to make and super cute! I can't wait to see this on my niece (I know I always say that, but I really can't wait). My mom gave me a trash bag full (seriously, a full trash bag!) of t-shirts. So I have a lot of refashioning to do!

I love working with t-shirts because it doesn't fray; makes my life so much easier.

Start out measuring the little princess, waist and length from waist to knee. Add an inch to the length (my elastic was 3/4" and I added 1/4" for seam allowance), and measure from the bottom of the shirt up. This way you can use the original hem for the bottom of the skirt. Cut straight across the shirt.

Turn the shirt inside out. Fold and pin the cut edge an inch, don't worry about the cut edge, it won't fray. Sew around the skirt leaving a two inch gap for threading elastic through. Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic and thread it through. Make sure the other end does not get pulled into the tube!

Overlap the elastic about an inch and pin it in place. Stitch the opening closed and sew from top to bottom of elastic to hold it in place. I also sewed from top to bottom on each side so the elastic won't twist.

That's it! Your done! I told you it was easy!

Now it's time for the fun part. You can leave the skirt as is or you can embellish it. Embellishing is always fun! I cut out another strip from the t-shirt, about 1 3/4" wide and 8" long.

This was my biggest flower. I cut the other two flowers smaller because I didn't want them all to be the same size. Now, adjust your sewing machine stitch length to the longest possible. Fold the strip in half and sew along the raw edges, do not back stitch. When you reach the end, make sure you leave some extra thread. Starting at one end, pull on one thread until the fabric starts to gather. Form the strip into a flower shape and attach to the skirt.

How cute is that!?!

You can also do frilly strips of fabric instead of flowers. The possibilities are endless! Now I have to go make some more!

My First Re-fashion!!!

After looking at other re-fashion projects, I started looking through my closet. I found this skirt that I probably only wore once, and that was the Thursday before my wedding to our wedding kickoff party/surprise birthday party for my parents. I am proud to say that it still fits (or did before the re-fashion!). So I saw this in my closet:

And immediately thought of the super cute Kirstin skirts. Like this one found here. And by the way, I can't wait to make one of these too.

So with that inspiration I created this:

Too bad my adorable neice isn't here to model. It is not very different from the original and is not as bunchy as the Kirstin skirt, but I think it will be adorable on her. I removed the zipper from the back and sewed it back up. I added button holes (my first time doing those and I was pretty impressed!) and made a hem for the ribbon to go through. I can't wait to see it on her. Kris, its coming your way soon! I want to see pics!