My way around stain removal

Kid's Clothes Week is always a good way for me to try to go through the pile of stuff waiting on my desk to be 'treated'. Way back during my first KCWC I challenged myself not to buy anything new, but to try to use what I have at home for my projects. Unfortunately, the pile has only grown since.

I will show you a bunch of T-shirts today, which went from useless to spotless:)

See, I am not your perfect housewife. For example, I am very bad at removing stains. VERY BAD! When P started his solids, the only way I was able to remove those carrots from his onesies was by boiling them on my stove. It is not really working for me, this stain removing business, I just can't be bothered to go through god knows how many chemicals just to remove a spot, when I can do this:

This T was fixed by mere accident. We were making a T for P and by mistake we printed a photo I had on my computer from the time I wrote this post for Budapest Moms. It is an illustration of a Cyclop by Csilla Kőszeghy. 
Although this was not the original plan, the deed was done, image was printed, iron on paper spent, we had to do something with it. Since this T-shirt was stained all the way up to the neckline (icecream) I decided to cut off this poor Cyclop's head and use it that way. I must say this proved that accidents are sometimes the best thing that can happen to you, because we received numerous questions about this T-shirt and I came out as very cool for making it. What is also very cool about it, is that iron on paper for dark fabrics (which is what this one is, because the image we wanted to print out originally was for a dark blue shirt) is thicker and more plastic, which means we could drip ice cream on this one whole summer and I was able to just wipe it off. This turned put to be a built in bib.

I had some Ts without the build in bib, which means more stains to cover up.

I cut this sign out from an old onesie all the boys from the family already used, so I didn't feel the need to keep it anymore for future generations. I also stenciled some star motifs with fabric markers to repeat the pattern from the sign.

Opening his eye-patch

Next one is also a cover-up from an old onesie, but flossed around with embroidery thread.

 

And just so you don't think P doesn't stain, he does...so we did his vest too. I met Dia (B!mba) for a coffee recently, and she surprised me with a bag of her fabric scraps.

 

I even drew some bird poo on there with 3D paint. My smart son called it bird seeds...I don't know why I didn't think of seeds instead of poo, but let's not dwell on that now.

Was this too much?
See my other T-Shirt refashions here and here or check how I made a beanie out of a onesie.

Plaid times two

It is KCWC week. Yeeeey!!! I love KCWC, two years ago I started blogging so I could participate in it. It got me back to sewing and for that I will forever be grateful. Apart from that, it is just a crazy exciting week that makes numerous women around the world turn in crazy sewing ladies. As for me, I am one of them too, I sew long into the night and sometimes make the kids try the stuff on before they leave in the morning. Hell, I had my son wear a dress just for the sake of a photo. I got to love upcycling and dropped my fear of knits.
Back when I started sewing I only wanted to do new stuff, buy a fabric, draft a pattern and sew something for my evening out. I never wanted to sew the same thing twice, I thought that was boring. AND, I hated it when my mom asked me to fix something, change a zipper or shorten some pants... and now that is all I do, clothes wise, I mostly fix or refashion stuff, and I love it. To make something from nothing is great, but to repurpose and reuse the same piece of clothing several times gives me butterflies.
My first KCWC project was a sweats upcycle for a skinny 2.5 year old. Now I have a 4.5 year old, whose pants become too short too soon, and I simplycan't make myself just buy new ones and set these aside, too easy:)

So here is out brown plaid pant getting a blue plaid (actually the same one as in that first KCWC project) cuff and some other blue accents to accompany it.

Mustard details off...

and blue on!

I added some blue accent to go with the cuff, took off the buttons and sewed them back on with blue yarn. I even coloured the embroidery with a blue fabric marker.

He's been wearing these since he was 2. When I let down the seem there was so much fabric there that I almost didn't even need a cuff, but it was so much more fun this way:)
What do you think?

I am awesome T-Shirt

As the title says, I think I am awesome! My whole life I was freaked out of sewing with knits. I started a while ago with some upcycles and it really wasn't that bad at all. But to make a T-Shirt was impossible to imagine for me. I thought I needed a serger, my machine isn't good enough and that I would fail miserably. But reading all the sewing blogs out there and seeing how people do wanders without sergers and any special equipment I though it is time to give it a go. Plus, what is the worst that can happen? T-Shirt turns out to be a disaster, I wasted a little time (not the first) and fabric (I upcycle anyway, so no biggie).

But I didn't fail:)
I am quite happy with the result. There are some things I will do differently next time, but in general, this is a perfectly wearable piece of clothes.

It is a little loose on him, but he loves it and he'll grow into it in no time anyway. I made it a bit longer than the pattern suggests. This T is made of two old T-shirts of mine. I used the old neck ribbing. Dana from MADE did a tutorial on this recently if you are not familiar with the process. I also made cuffs bigger and wider.

Pattern from Tank Engine (free, available in sizes 110, 120, 130). It is in Japanese, but there are photos if you are new to sewing, otherwise you will figure it out for yourself, it is a 3 piece pattern. The pattern lines up real nice and is very easy to work with.

What do you think?

Are you following my Free Sewing Patterns board on Pinterest yet?


Linking to The Train To Crazy

Finally one grownup refashion project

What does a girl do when her Internet is down the whole day?

Finally SOMETHING!

Her face says all 

Huge thrifted pullover

to a romantic little number.

 

I am happy with what I did, Eva is happy with what she got. Maybe Internet should die on me more often!

Linking to The Train To Crazy

Camera Day project

As a known sucker for geeky holidays, as seen here I dedicated todays naptime to make myself a cute top.
.
Not long ago I bought this super soft white top for almost nothing, but it had disproportionally huge armholes.

Since naptime is not too long at this house, I had to be quick and efficient. I just marked the size of the holes using one top that fits me well and sewn through on the outer side of the top. Like this:

 

Cut of the excess.

By now you must be asking yourselves, what the heck does this all have to do with Camera day, she is resizing a top, big deal!
But it does, because when the top was ready, I printed out a super-cute camera applique (Funkytime provided it for her fb fans a few months back) on a transfer paper and ironed it on.

Note: 1. This is not an applique originally, so the image needs to be mirorred when printed on transfer paper.
          2. The image is b&w, this sophisticated ombre look was acchieved by the toner in my printer being low.

And this is me with my top on.

And for more free printable goodness including cameras jump here or here, to honor this special day:)















Linking to 30days

KCWC Day4: T-Shirt to a Dress

As I already mentioned, I am not home. My supplies are limited, as is my time...but it makes this KCWC even more fun. This little dress was made after midnight, hence no model. It is just an easy refashion of my old T-shirt. I used original hems for the bottom, and sleeves, made the neck opening smaller and made a gentle A-line. I used P's T-shirt for sizing. Seeing my friends tomorrow morning, and this will be a present for their little girl.

Linking to:

The Train to Crazy