28 May 2013

Mum's hand-me-down.

Shopping at Kmart for some winter cloths for, both Marie and myself, I was appalled again by how inexpensive some clothing is. It always makes me feel so guilty about my sewing, since a meter of fabric often is more expensive than an already made winter jacket.
It triggered me to go trough my closet to see if there were any forgotten or dismissed items that would be suitable for my sewing projects. Of course there turned out to be quite  a few. The coming weeks I'll show there transformations here. 


The first item that had to sacrifice it self was one of my shirts. It became a sweater-shirt for Marie.


However, she won't be wearing it for long as well. I have to stop ignoring that my little girl is growing fast, and move up a size for her.


Hopefully she will be a big sister one day, and there will be an other little doll around to put it on. Wearing it to the grocery store earlier today everyone complimented me on my "cute little boy" already, so we do know that it is suitable for both sexes.




Here is a little tutorial on how to transform one of your own shirts into this sweater-shirt.

Using an upper quatre of one of your babies onesies,  draw a pattern for the bodice. 


Cut this pattern out of the lower front of your shirt. This way the front pocket of your shirt won't be an obstacle.


For the back you cut the pattern out of the higher part of the back of your shirt. This way you'll include the pretty shoulder seam.


Cut the neckline of the front of your bodice lower than the neckline of the back. (Don't look to closely at how I did this in the picture below, since at first I didn't cut them at the same width.)
You'll also need  a pattern for your sleeves and a strip of fabric to make your own bias tape. How to do both, as well as how to put all the pieces together, can be found in the tutorial for the sleeping bag.

3 comments:

  1. Marie looks so cute and happy in her shirt! Nice work! That clothing in the store is cheap because of the terrible labor practices suffered by those who make it. Still, I really like the idea of reclaiming fabric, and I have been doing it a lot more lately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I realize your absolutely right. I have to admit that I easily push that thought to the back of my head when I'm in the store. And that I'm quite good at making myself believe, that surely it can't be that bad in a world with so much regulations. Wish full thinking, though.....

      Delete
  2. Thank you Amy for your encouraging words and your guidance!
    I didn't know about Bloglovin yet, but I'm signed up now. How convenient, this will save a lot of time visiting my favorite blogs to see what's new.
    And hopefully it will make my own blog more accessible as well!

    ReplyDelete