Repurpose: Girl's Ruffled Neck T Tutorial

Look at this adorable little T I made for my little girl yesterday.

It started with this men's shirt I bought for 30 cents last summer.

For a great tutorial on creating your own pattern from a shirt you already own, check out this from Ashley at Make It and Love It.

Once you get the pattern cut, sew the shoulder seams together. Then, carefully pin the sleeve peices on. It will look like this.

Sew the sleeves on, then iron the seam. It will look like this. (See how I was super clever and used the existing hem from the shirt for the hem on the sleeve? I did this on the bottom of the shirt as well. Just a way to make life easier.)

Flip it inside out again and sew. Start at the edge of the sleeve, then follow down the side of the shirt.

For the ruffled collar, I cut two strips across the length of the old T shirt. One was 1.5 inches, the other 1 inch. I did a gather stitch on each one, then layered the smaller peice on top of the larger peice and pinned.

Then I pinned this to the neckline of the new T. It's awesome because it covers up the unfinished edge of the shirt.

I wrapped and pinned all the way around the neck, then snipped off the extra. I sewed it to the shirt using a regular straight stitch and it was good to go.

Love that adorable little ruffle!

Getting ready for spring with some short sleeves. Can't wait for warm weather!

Ruffled Scarf Tutorial (from an old T shirt)

I bought a new dress a few weeks ago; I love it because it makes me feel like Rapunzel on Tangled. Which is fun, but not especially winter-ish. So, inspired by Dana at MADE (when am I not inspired by Dana at MADE), I whipped up a cute little ruffle scarf from my husband's old white T shirt. You know the kind that they wear underneath other shirts? That's the one. It was SO easy, took less than an hour. You can do it too!

First, cut off the arms and the bottom hem of the shirt. Then cut 3 strips from the remaining shirt. Mine were 6 inches wide.

Don't forget to cut a straight edge on the strip that curves from the arm holes.


When you're finished, you'll end up with 4 strips of fabric.

Pin the edges together and sew into one long strip.

Now, to create the ruffles. It's so easy, especially with the knit T shirt fabric. (Incidentally, I loved that I didn't have to hem the edges because I was working with knit.) Just adjust your tension and your stitch length on your machine to the largest number possible.
Starting at the top of the strip, sew a straight line down the center. It will naturally gather as it goes.

Then, sew another ruffle stitch down the center, about 1/4 inch from the first. No stress if your line isn't perfectly straight.

(Yes, those are my 4 year old's fingernails. She's such a helper!)

Finally, adjust your tension and your stitch length back to normal and sew a straight line on each side of your ruffle stitches. So, it will go Straight Stitch--Ruffle Stitch--Ruffle Stitch--Straight Stitch. Make sense?

Trim your threads and you're good to go! Ruffly goodness to wrap around your neck.

Re: Use for baby wipes container

Hello, everyone. I'm happy to report that I now own a personal computation device which can connect to the WORLD WIDE WEB (ever heard of it?). Seriously, the last few weeks without a computer have left me feeling like I live in the dark ages. Cheers for being back in business!
Something about the fall gets me into a cleaning bug. I guess it's because I have a minute to take a breath and realize all that I let go during the fun days of summer. One example was my pathetic spice cabinet.

I had half used packets of taco seasoning and gravy that had been tossed in there and basically forgotten. The little buggers were migrating past my peanut butter, so I knew it was time to do something!
Enter one of the most useful tools of all time: the baby wipes container. It's the perfect size to line them up and keeps them from slipping all over the cupboard. Plus, I had about 5 of them sitting in the back of my baby's closet waiting for a higher purpose. Perfect!

That particular cupboard is looking much better. There's only 20 more to go.