It is devastating to spend so much money on fabric, thread, zippers and anything else needed for a project, then to spend precious time and effort on making the thing, only to reach the end of the en-devour with something that looks crappy and doesn't fit right because I'm still learning how to sew. I will give an example in the form of these corduroy pants that I tried to make for Jill.
They were never finished because when I got to this point I wanted to try them on Jill so that I could hem them to the correct length. The only problem is that they were too small to get them on past her feet. I had been so excited about these pants, because I had lined the inside with soft warm flannel and I had carefully appliqued pockets onto the back. I thought they would be perfect pants for cold winter months. I had purchased the light blue flannel from the remnants bin at Jo-ann fabrics and I had found the corduroy fabric during a red tag apparel clearance sale. Even so I had probably spent 5 or 6 bucks on the fabric. I realize that doesn't seem like much, but I essentially took a five dollar bill and threw it in the trash on this project. I knew at this point that there had to be a better way for me to save some money and learn to sew in a wallet friendly manner.
The solution I found is to get fabric somewhere cheaper while I am learning to sew and save my store bought fabric for when I have more confidence that I won't just ruin everything. I started hitting up the home goods section of my local goodwill to find sheets, curtains, pillowcases and tablecloths. There is a lot of fabric to work with at a very good price. A king sized sheet is less than five bucks at my goodwill and there is a lot of fabric there to work with. Pillowcases at my local good will are a dollar. And what is fun about pillowcases is that they often have pretty trim around the opening. I then discovered that there is a good will outlet nearby where goods are sold by the pound. I let my husband watch Jill while I went and dug through random bins of stuff but I came away with a large amount of ridiculously inexpensive fabric.
While surfing on pinterest one day I came across this tutorial for little girl wide leg lounge pants. How brilliant is that!?! Turning a pillowcase into pants would be a fairly inexpensive and easy project with ridiculously cute results. I had stockpiled some pillowcases from my trips to good will, so I had the supplies. And since we are heading into summer, and hot weather I thought a pillowcase would provide coverage for Jill's little toddling legs without making her too hot. So I started making her a pair of pants every night. The first pair of pants are precious- but although they fit her, there is not much room in the rumpus for her to grow into. So I tried making another pair from a pillow sham. This next pair had a very retro bell bottom vibe with the ruffled hem, but my attempts to give her more rump room had failed. So now I am trying a third pair of pillowcase pants, and I'm determined to get them right. I will follow this post with a tutorial on how I'm making the new pillowcase pants. I do not know at this point in time if it will be successful or not, but I plan to share the experience be it good or bad.
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