From choosing the fabric to deciding the icon to put on the ends, it was a super-fun process. I was told that, after her actual birthday ended up being kind of lame (think illness and canceled plans), the banner seemed to save the day! I’m so glad it helped to brighten her day.

They will go perfectly with a little dress I am designing for Petunia. I made some pants from a striped gray and black long sleeved shirt a while back and one day recently she was playing with the rest of the shirt while I was going through my fabric/scraps stash trying desperately to part with some (it’s very hard for me to let go of fabric…). It has funny cutouts at the arm pits where I cut for the pants but she wanted to put it over her head and wear it anyway. Well, once she got it on, I realized that the excess at the sides could be pulled to the front and fastened (I think I’ll do a button/buttonhole arrangement) if a little bit of material is added on the sides between her armpits and her waist. It has a mock turtleneck and is going to look so cute! There is no time today since there is dinner to get in the slow-cooker and karate lessons to get to and chores in between but maybe tomorrow after grocery shopping…..

This is the tutorial that I started with. I love the flowers! But I thought I might like a little something different. I had looked at her wonderful ruffled t-shirt makeovers and thought a ruffle might be nice. I hated the neckline of this t-shirt:

It fits nicely but the neck was just too high. Very plain. So I cut the neck off:

Ahhh, there we go. That’s a bit better. I just cut right around the banding of the neckline so I didn’t make it that much larger but it made a big difference. Then I took one of my husband’s old t-shirts that I have been slowly but surely re-purposing into other projects and cut 1 inch strips:

I joined the ends of the strips together to make a long piece and gathered it into a ruffle. Pinned it onto the neckline, just under it, stitched it to the neckline and:

I’ve washed it since then and it ended up with a lovely smooshed appearance that I like.

Not a huge change but just enough that I’ll actually wear the shirt.

I also had a plain white tank top that I liked but, again, it was plain. And I forgot to take a picture of the “before”. Typical for me. But it’s not hard to figure out what it looked like before from the “after” pic:

I will direct you back to Tea Rose Home for the tutorial since she did such a great job showing how to do it!

So now I have two “new” shirts that are not plain. Yay for not plain!

I love how it turned out! I used all kinds of fabrics, mostly girly since, obviously, Petunia is a girl. But the possibilities are really endless in terms of what color combinations and themes you could use. Let me share with you how I did it. I cut triangles from all different kinds of material, ironed interfacing on the wrong side of all triangles, sewed the two long sides together with right sides together, turned them, ironed them, top-stitched them, appliqued the letters on the triangles, and then sewed a plain white binding onto the top with a functional but cute-looking zig-zag stitch. The most tedious part was printing the letters, and cutting them out of both paper and fabric. I looked for stencils but couldn’t find what I wanted so I just printed the letters out in a font I liked and, voila! Birthday banner. I’m thinking about adding these to the shop …

I took a basic, empire waisted and spaghetti-strap-style toddler top pattern, lengthened and narrowed the bottom, and added a large ruffle at the bottom. Voila! Dress to the toes.

And the blue version:

She wants to wear them all of the time and says “Mommy, I really like the dresses you made for me.” You can’t get any better than that!

So I started the project while The Tot was napping and, between dishes and laundry, of course, had finished most of it before she woke up. I was able to finish the rest really quick after dinner while The Tot was playing with Daddy.

I decided to make an “envelope” pillow case because it’s easy to make and easy to take off and throw in the wash. I measured my pillow side to side and up to down, added 1/2 inch (for 1/4 inch seam allowance) and cut a front square. Then I took 2/3 of the side to side measurement, added 1.5 inches for a heft rolled over seam because it makes the hem look more solid and cut two of these. I assembled everything right sides together and sewed around the edges. I sewed around the edges one more time and zig-zagged as well for durability and because, well, I’m compulsive like that. Turned it right side out, stuck the pillow in and viola! No more sad-sack, near-death Costco pillow!

Here’s some pics for you:

The pic on the top is of the front and the other two are of the “envelope”. It’s a super-easy way to add a little color to the living room or bed room and/or just change things up!