Because of the successful sweater refashion, Petunia and I stopped by our local thrift establishment after karate class yesterday, specifically to find “stripey sweaters”. Petunia requested more “sweater clothes” and wanted them to be striped. Of course, when I enter with one thing in mind, of course other things jump right out at me, fighting for my attention much like Petunia does any time I’m on the phone (Mommy’s on the Phone Syndrome). So, as Petunia and I both got sidetracked from the stripey sweaters, we found an adorable straw purse for her and a glittery green, light-up-when-you-walk pair of Tinkerbell wedge-heeled sandals. I barely fought off the urge to go through their extensive section of patterns, only able to because we were short on time. We did also, however, find three fantastic options for “sweater clothes”! Two of them aren’t technically sweaters but they are still great candidates for leggings and skirts for the Little One.

Just finished this custom order for a baby blanket. The parents-to-be are Dallas Cowboys fans so this is an interpretation of such fan-hood! The blocks are star print cotton material and white flannel. The appliqued stars are made from blue fleece, terry cloth, and up-cycled white tee shirt jersey (husband’s tee shirt…he didn’t want it anymore, I promise!). It is backed with blue fleece and bound with star print cotton. The binding is machine sewn to the front and hand sewn in the back.

It was fun to see this one come together…

As promised, here are the leggings I made in a jiffy for Petunia yesterday. I followed this tutorial over at crafting a green world . She did such a great job with this tutorial, I have nothing to add! So I have pointed you to her site if you would like to try this. Do it! It’s so easy…

Here are a few pics of the progress of the project:

My computer apparently doesn’t like the photo of the step where you turn one leg (sleeve) inside out, put the other leg right side out into the inside out leg and sew the crotch seam. It won’t upload it from my camera. But that’s what would go here!

Then you put your elastic in the waist, attaching a safety pin to thread it through the opening you have left in the waistband. Sew the elastic together, sew the opening shut and voila!

Last night I was perusing some tutorials about how to turn an adult sweater into items for Petunia and woke up this morning ready to go! I was so motivated that I started before I had even drank my coffee. That’s unheard of for me. Generally sewing before coffee is a complete no-no for me. Too many instances of early-morning seam-ripping have been experienced. But not today. And it was so easy. Seriously. You can find the other tutorials that I used here .

I was starting with an old, tired gray hoodie sweater that had a zipper. First: cut off zipper.

Second: cut off under the arms so that you have a “sweater rectangle”.

Third: put cut edges together with right sides together, ready to be sewn into a tube. Sew them together using a zig-zag stitch.

Fourth: fold over cut edge (the one you cut right under the arms) with a thin hem and sew with a zig-zag stitch, stretching it as you go. This makes a ruffled effect. This looks best if your thread matches your sweater really well. The dark gray sweater I used was very forgiving. I forgot to take a picture of this step…sorry!

Fifth: fold over the finished bottom edge of your original sweater to make the waistband. I folded it over around 1 inch but you can eyeball it and use whatever measurement you’re comfortable with. Sew with a straight or zigzag stitch, leaving an opening to insert your elastic.

Sixth: attach small safety pin to elastic and thread through waistband. I used my daughter’s waist measurement minus an inch because every time I use her waist measurement, things fall off. Not sure what’s going on there, just telling you what works for me! Sew the ends of the elastic together and sew the opening of the waistband shut.

And there you have it! Petunia is wearing the sweater-skirt with the leggings that I made from the sleeves of the same sweater. I’m posting that very, very easy tutorial tomorrow because, in all honesty, it took more time to edit pics and write this post than it did to make both the skirt and leggings!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the leggings…so fun and easy! Petunia says “Mommy, they’re from your sleeves!”. This really tickles her…

Okay, so Katherine over at sevidesigns.com is always posting tutorials on her site and, silly me, I go and read the blogs that she references. This ends up with me having a much too long list of things that I want to sew, craft or otherwise fiddle with in my “spare time”. (When is that “spare time” anyway???). Well, I didn’t need her help this time. I was thinking about a tee shirt refashion I wanted to do that was inspired by tearosehome and it came to me! I have an ill-fitting sweater that I have meant to get rid of for about a year. For some reason, it’s still in my closet. I don’t wear it. I’m not sure what I expected, that it would get up and march itself into the donation bin? Anywhoo, I thought it would make the cutest sweater-skirt for Petunia. Then I got to thinking (always dangerous): maybe there’s a tutorial out there for this. Oh yeah, Baby! There were several, which I will share with you in a minute. On TOP of that, I happened upon a tutorial for making leggings out of the sleeves of the sweater, which I had thought about anyway but now I see that it is definitely do-able. Seeing the different types of sweaters used in the tutorials inspired me but, as my own closet is pretty bare bones these days, I will either have to raid The Daddy’s side (probably not a good idea) or head to my local thrift establishment (always a good idea!) to see what they’ve got for me. Ooooh, this is gonna be fun!

Here is whipup.net’s take on the sweater-skirt

I love, love, LOVE the ruffley-ness on the bottom!

Crafting a Green World has this take on the sweater-skirt.

Again with the wavy ruffles…love them! And the vibrant colors in her picture gives me all kinds of fun ideas…

The tutorial for the kiddo leggings by way of adult sweater is here .

Well, I’ve done it again…I’m up past my bed time contemplating, writing about, and doing crafty stuff. Going to go get some sleep so as to have the energy to keep up with Petunia as we troll the thrift store for sweaters tomorrow! Happy crafting!:)

Remember the other day when I mentioned that I have a problem? Well, here is the result of said problem:

Just in time to be put in Petunia’s stocking by “Santa”. Along with Christmas Bunny, of course.

Now I just need to finish binding that quilt before Thursday…

The title of this post is not something I would ever have thought I would utter in my lifetime but, today I did. I finished Petunia’s stuffed duckie’s matching Christmas pajamas today and here they are:

Our pajama tops are just gray thermal tops but I used gray jersey knit for the duck’s instead because that’s what I had in my stash. When cutting out the pajama pants from the remnants left over from my and Petunia’s pj’s, I realized that there was this long triangle shape at one end. It looked like it might fit as a night cap for the duck so I cut another one and voila! Night cap a la ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas! She is so excited that he has pajamas that match ours and I’m so grateful that I can create memories like this for her.

Petunia comes home from preschool today after participating in a “ginger bread man hunt” in her class and says “I wish I had a gingerbread man doll”. This mama thinks “Hmm…the Christmas Bunny pattern without the ears and a little bit more pudgy would look just like a gingerbread man…”. I have a problem knowing when to stop.

Leave it to me during the busiest time of the year to come up with more and more (and more) ideas of things to sew in time for Christmas. My latest (after matching pj’s for Petunia and me and before matching pj’s for her stuffed duck) is a friend for Pink Bunny, which I made for her for Easter this year. His/Her/It’s name shall be Christmas Bunny and here he/she/it is:

That’s all. All I have time for. All I have to say. As Ludwig Bemelmens says at the end of “Madeline”: “That’s all there is. There isn’t any more.”

This year I decided to make Petunia and I matching Christmas pj bottoms to wear on Christmas Eve and, as time permits, I’ve been sewing a seam here and there. As they are still in progress, I’ll just show you the cute flannel I picked but, rest assured that I’ll take a pic of the matching pair when they’re finished!

The Daddy politely declined my offer to make him a pair.