Men's Shirt to Dress

So I got a bunch of men's button down shirts at the good will outlet and I wanted to make some clothing for Jill with them.  Here is my first attempt:

*for a more detailed and complete tutorial on my second shirt-dress go here*

There are many many flaws and improvisations, but I still can't help being in love with the results.

I failed to take pictures of the process, but I can give a general description of what I did, and I will hopefully eventually make another where I can chart my progress more accurately. First I cut the button down shirt straight across the bottom just under the arm holes.  Then I ran a basting stitch all the way around and gathered it.  I cut a basic yoke shape out of the remaining material and then attached it to the gathered 'skirt'.  I bound all of my raw edges with brown bias tape (I actually got this brown bias off of re-purposed crib bumper ties).  I then bought a snap kit at the fabric store and attached snap bases to the back of the 'skirt'  and two sets of snap tops to the bias ties coming up out of the shoulder straps.  This allows me to either cross the ties in the back or snap them straight back and tie a bow.  You'll see what I mean in the two different back pictures above and below.   

 All in all I think that this is precious and I can't wait to learn from my mistakes and try another.

Pillowcase Pants Explanation

I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on fabric.  Before I started sewing I always thought that if you could sew your own clothing you would be able to save incredible amounts of money.  I guess that's true if you usually buy designer clothes, but I don't.  I'm a clearance/coupon/cheapest thing that I can find that looks decent on my body kind of shopper.  I am uncomfortable spending more than $15 on a shirt or $30 on a pair of jeans.  So when I started sewing, and buying fabric by the yard for my projects I was shocked to discover that I was usually spending more money on the clothes I make than the clothes I buy.

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.

I started sewing just after Jill was born.  My mother had given me a sewing machine for Christmas and I found time to sew throughout the day as Jill took naps.  Making crib sheets and warm winter swaddles was both entertaining and rewarding.  A friend of mine commented that as a stay at home mom it is really nice to take some time to create something permanent that you can point to as real evidence of your effort.  Dishes, laundry and dirty diapers are all cyclical.  You do the dishes only to find more in the sink a few hours later.  There is a real pride that comes from sitting down at my machine and creating somehting for my daughter. Just over a year later Jill doesn't sleep quite as much; and I find it is much harder to get to the sewing machine.  Be that as it may, my enjoyment of this hobby will not allow me to stop.

I am extremely lucky in that I have an entire room dedicated to sewing right now.  Whenever my husband and I decide to add to our family I'm going to have to figure out a new situation, but for now I get to go crazy.  It's great because I can make a huge mess in there and store all of my fabric, then close the door on the mayhem.  I have stockpiled a large store of supplies having gone nuts at several red tag apparel clearance sales at Jo-ann fabrics and then trips to the local Good Will.  I am constantly needing to organize that space just to remember what I have in there.  It was very easy for me to purchase supplies for various projects but now I have to actually carry through.  I would suggest to other beginners to pace yourself.  No matter how good the deal is for sewing supplies don't buy more than you can handle.  I think having up to five projects ready to go is great.  By the time you are finished with those projects there will almost definitely be another great sale going on.  You can see in the pics that I have too much fabric.  

As I've delved deeper and deeper into the world of sewing I've learned many many tricks that I wish I had known earlier.  Money has been spent and projects have failed for no reason other than I'm a nit of a clueless bubblehead.  I am finally starting to get the knack for it (or at least I hope I am).  Pinterest has provided a wealth of ideas and tutorials which I've been learning from.  My only problem is that I think the best teacher for a beginner sometimes is another beginner.  Other sewers make assumptions that you already know certain things about sewing.   I am definitely still a beginner, but I am planning to write this blog from that perspective openly.  I believe that my experiences as a beginner will be helpful.  So please forgive the fact that I haven't taken any formal training, and that my methods are probably not the best way of doing things (or in many cases my methods might be flat out wrong).  I will be learning as I go, and the challenges I face will be plentiful, but mayhaps that will be entertaining for others if not enlightening.