Bookworm Style -- DIY Poe Shirt

I've been slow to get on the graphic tee bandwagon . . . but I'm more than willing to climb aboard nowadays, especially for a nerdily bookish graphic tee like this one.

I made this Poe-inspired shirt for myself this week. I mean, the kids have all sorts of cheesy Halloween stuff to wear over the next month. I want something spooky, too. And Poe . . . Poe is spooky. If you don't believe me, go listen to it read by James Earl Jones. *shivers*

Hop over to Delicious Reads for the full tutorial, and get the cut file freeeeeeeee to make this for yourself if you're lucky enough to have that crafting tool that puts all other crafting tools to shame: the Silhouette.

DIY Curious George Shirt (Be a Good Little Monkey!)

My kids are hardcore Curious George groupies. And that's totally fine with me. I think it's such a cute show. Let's be honest, there are some kids' shows that are just awful to watch, or even to hear in the background while you're busy doing other stuff. (Don't even get me started on Sid the Science Kid.) But I think Curious George is as sweet and adorable as they come.

Forrest was the original George fan in our house, and now Darcy is crazy about, too. I love seeing them sitting side by side to watch George together. And it's not uncommon at all to hear Forrest telling Darcy to 'be a good little monkey!' (If you don't watch the show, that's what the man in the yellow hat says to George in nearly every episode.)

So I figured Curious George inspired shirts were in order for my little monkeys.

I'd like you to know that Darcy ate 2 and a half bananas in the 5 minutes it took to get these pictures. Girlfriend is insatiable. They were meant to be props, not snacks! She is indeed part monkey.

Making an important call on his banana phone, I guess? I don't even know.

These cute tanks were really simple to make with my Silhouette Portrait and some heat transfer vinyl.

I started with store bought shirts--I picked these up from the toddler boys' section at Walmart. Then I downloaded a font that was as close to the Curious George font as I could find. It's called 'Wrexham,' and it is free at Urban Fonts.

Step 1: Lay out your design in Silhouette Studio. Make sure to measure your shirt so you know how large to make the words. I made my first line of words just shy of 6", and the second line between 7-8" to fit Darcy's shirt (18 months). For Forrest's (4T), I stretched the text box about 1" bigger. Remember to mirror image the design so that it cuts in reverse!

Load the heat transfer vinyl into the Silhouette and start cutting. Weed out the excess vinyl after cutting is complete, and you'll be left with just the design, cut backwards, on the transfer paper, as shown in picture 1 below.

Step 2: Lay out the design on your tank. The plastic backing is slightly tacky, which is awesome since you can play with the positioning and just press it down when you're ready so it won't slip as you iron. (And you can't see it in my picture there, but the plastic backing is, in fact, still there.)

 Step 3: Cover the shirt with a thin cloth and iron over it (follow the vinyl package instructions). I ironed it a little longer than called for, just to be safe.

Step 4: Slowly peel off the glossy backing to reveal your awesome completed shirt.

Forrest was really excited about his shirt, and eagerly put it on before the fabric had even cooled down from being ironed. And I expected Darcy to put up a major stink about having her clothes changed (because in her world, a wardrobe change is only a baby step away from child abuse), but as soon as she realized that her little shirt matched her brother's, she was frantically clawing at the outfit she was wearing so I could take it off and put this on her. I think she might like matching him. Much tears, many sad at the end of the day when the monkey shirt had to come off so the jammies could go on.

Yes, that picture's blurry and as such is probably not blog-worthy . . . but it was one of my favorites anyway.

Do you have any Curious George fans at your house, too?

DIY(ish) Distressed Boyfriend Jeans + Aztec

I mentioned the other day that I have avoided the distressed jeans trend. I always worried it would look sloppy on me, and between two kids and a stay-at-home/work-from-home life, I can do sloppy all on my own, thank you very much. But I started noticing outfits with distressed jeans that looked classy and nice—as long as the rest of the outfit is a little dressier, I figured I could give it a shot and hopefully still look pulled together. I really didn’t want to spend much money on a trendy piece I wasn’t sure I’d love on myself, so I sort of kind of DIYed them.

Also, that groan you are hearing right now? That’s the sound of my dad wondering why anyone would ruin a perfectly good pair of jeans. The sacrifices we make for fashion!

I feel a little dumb even calling this a DIY. It’s as mild as DIY can get. But hey, I did something, even if it wasn’t much, to make them look this way, so I’ll tell you what I did and if you are also a teensy bit shy about distressed denim/boyfriend jeans, maybe this can help you ease into it without committing much time or money. I love how they turned out, and am surprising myself with how frequently I’m wearing them!

I started out with a pair of bootcut jeans that fit me well through the butt and thigh (my rather limited sewing skills don’t allow for that level of alteration). These ones came from a clothing swap my church puts on every year (and if you’re wondering, heck yes I liiiiive for that clothing swap . . . I think 80% of my kids’ wardrobes comes from the swap each year). I was pregnant during this last one, so I grabbed this pair of jeans thinking maybe they looked like something that would fit me post-baby. Luckily, they worked out! Moral of the story: find a clothing swap. Other moral: don’t buy new jeans to do this to—dig an older pair out of your closet or hit up a thrift store.

I took the lower legs in to make them more of a straight-legged ‘boyfriend’ fit using my own older tutorial, which you can find HERE. In that post, I turned a pair of bootcut jeans into skinny jeans. This time, since I wanted a looser, straighter fit in the lower leg, I simply continued stitching down from the leg in a straight line instead of tapering in to the ankle (when folded up, the width at the ankle seam more or less matches the width at the knee).

On to the distressing. I’m not sure this needs much explanation, but what is blogging for if not sharing unnecessary tutorials of simple projects? Don’t worry, I’ve got this.

My weapon of choice to attack my jeans? Whatever this little doodad is. I have no idea what it’s called. I got it at Sally’s Beauty Supply a few years ago in the nails section. . . it’s basically a grater for your feet. A micro-zester of sorts for cracked crusty heels. Shhhh, don’t think about the colony of dead heel cells I planted in my jeans by using this tool for this purpose.

It worked great (grate? puns!!!) for adding some wear to my jeans. I just chose a few areas where I wanted them to look worn, and went to town with the little grater thingie, rubbing it back and forth horizontally until they reached the level of wear I was going for. Proceed with caution—once you get to roughly the point pictured above, they’ll break down QUICKLY, so unless you want them totally threadbare, just go slowly once you reach a point near what you are going for. And fair warning, you will have denim fuzz eeeeeverywhere by the time you’re done. Also, doing this while wearing my jeans? Probably not my brightest idea. But hey, it worked.

Cuff those bad boys and you’re good to go! (One last word of warning: be careful when putting your jeans on! It’s terribly easy to catch your toe in the distressed areas and tear them open more than you had intended.)

Top: c/o Kiki La’Rue // Jeans: thrifted + altered // Shoes: c/o LuLu*s // Bag: c/o Lily Jade

Adding Long Sleeves to Short Sleeve Shirts

I feel like I should always add a disclaimer to my sewing posts: I’m a lazy seamstress. I have no doubt whatsoever that there are nicer, neater, more professional ways of getting this done. I love sewing, but I enjoy the finished products more than the process, so I generally hurry through and cut corners and take the easy way out instead of doing things ‘right.’ So, now that you know I’m something of a cheater and there are definitely more professional-looking ways to get this same job done, let’s move along.

I like the long-sleeves-under-a-short-sleeve-shirt look, and I like that adding a long sleeve gets you more bang for your buck by carrying a summer top into fall and winter. So when I was offered some tops from T-shirts.com, I snatched up these adorable short-sleeve shirts for Forrest, as well as a plain adult tee to use for sleeve material. Here’s how I used a plain t-shirt to add a long sleeve to a short sleeve tee.

I started by using a long-sleeve shirt that fits Forrest well as a pattern piece. I lined up the outer edge of the sleeve along the side seam of the large adult shirt, with the end of the sleeve hitting about 1/2” away from the bottom hem of the shirt (by using the side seam and hem, you won’t have to do much sewing/hemming on your long sleeve—score!). I left that extra 1/2” at the bottom hem to allow for growth in the coming months. I laid the new short-sleeved shirt on top of the long-sleeved one with the shoulder seams aligned so I would know how far ‘up’ to cut the new sleeve.

Then I just cut through both layers of the gray t-shirt at once, staying about 1/2” away from the long-sleeve pattern piece. I stopped cutting about 1/2” past the hem of the short sleeve, then moved the two top shirts out of the way and continued in a straight line out to the shirt’s side seam.

Turn that piece inside out and pin the long cut edge closed, then sew it shut with a straight stitch. You’ll end up with a tube.

Time to attach the new sleeve to the existing one. Leaving the long sleeve inside out, slip it inside the existing sleeve (the shirt should be right side out) with the raw edge lining up with the existing sleeve’s hem. I took this picture so you cold see how the sleeve should be placed . . . but obviously, inside the shirt. Make sure the side seams of the sleeve are lined up with the existing sleeve’s seam (should be in the armpit), and pin it around.

Then, slowly and carefully, sew around the sleeve, staying close to the existing hem’s stitch line. It’ll be a little tricky to navigate around the little sleeve opening, but you can do it. Just work slowly and make sure to keep the opposite side of the sleeve out of the way so you don’t sew through it by mistake.

Backstitch at the start and end, trim your threads, and pull the sleeve right side out. Tada! Long sleeved! If you’d like, go back in and trim the excess fabric away at the new seam around the sleeve so you don’t have any extra bulk. I’ve seen some tutorials where you sew in the new sleeve at the shoulder so you don’t have to worry about ever seeing any extra fabric around the seam. That is probably a better idea, but I don’t know . . . this just seemed much faster and simpler to me, so I did it this way. Like I said, I’m a lazy seamstress.

True to the shirt’s name, my little grumposaur had a very hard time modeling this one for me. These pictures were, unfortunately, the best we could get. At least we tried.

(Let’s pretend that’s a coy pose and not a shoveling of bribery chocolate chips into his gullet.)

I love how it turned out! Now he’s got a cute new winter shirt and, if I want to, I can always just pull that seam out and remove the long sleeves in the spring. This was very quick and easy to do, and a great way to extend the life of his seasonal wardrobe.

(I was not compensated for this post, but I did receive the shirts free from T-shirts.com. The ideas/opinions/writing/everything-but-the-t-shirts-themselves are mine.)

I’m sharing this project at Craft-o-Maniac, The Girl Creative, Sew Can Do, Mommy by Day Crafter by Night, Sugar Bee Crafts, and Tip Junkie.

30 Minute Baby Lounge Pants (from an old t-shirt)

I’ve re-fallen in love with sewing lately. It was hard, for a while, to get excited to sew when that meant lugging out a clunky sewing machine that was so tired and sick and senile it could hardly get through 2 or 3 inches of stitches before getting stuck or tangled or just slipping quietly into a coma. But the new machine I got for Christmas was sent straight from heaven, and I’ve been having such a great time starting projects I’ve put off for months and rediscovering a favorite hobby that had almost been ruined by an uncooperative machine.

One quickie project I’d wanted to try for months (but wasn’t willing to sacrifice to the old demonic sewing machine) was refashioning an old long-sleeved thermal top into baby pajama pants. My sister (who graciously gives me all her old thrift-store-bound clothes so I don’t have to go buy them back from the thrift store) gave me this old shirt, thinking maybe I could use it for a project. It looked to me like it would make the perfect pair of comfy-cozy baby lounge pants. And 30 minutes later, it was a pair of comfy-cozy baby lounge pants!

If you’ve seen many of my sewing projects, you know that my favorites are the super-fast, super-simple, low-fuss ones. Sure, it’s fun now and then to sew something a little more fancy and intricate, but my very favorite things to sew are almost always the simple, quick projects that don’t require much time or skill. I sure love instant gratification. Part of the reason I put this project off for so many months is because I kept trying to make it more complicated than it needed to be—first I thought I’d use the sleeves as legs, then use the body of the shirt to make a matching pajama top . . . and after months of setting it aside, I finally said to myself, “Self, cut it out. Just make it a simple project and be done with it.” I can be so wise sometimes.

Here’s what you’ll need to make a pair of cute and quick baby lounge pants:

- an old t-shirt or thermal top

- a pair of pants that fits your kid to use as a pattern piece

- elastic

- sewing machine, matching thread, etc.

1. Start by turning the top inside out and laying the pants on it, lining up the bottom of the legs with the shirt’s bottom hem (make sure the front and back layers of the shirt are even and flat). These Spongebob pants were getting a little short on Forrest, so I left a little space between the pant legs and the shirt hem to make a longer pair. (I took this picture before I realized the shirt should be inside out, so ignore that—make sure the top is turned inside out!)

2. Cut around the shape of the pants, through both layers of the shirt, about 1/2” away from the pants along the legs. Cut further away from the waistband on top (about 1 to 2”) to leave room to make a casing for an elastic waistband. Don’t cut the bottom hem of the shirt off—by leaving it intact, it works as the leg hem so you won’t have to do that part yourself. Yay! (If you want wider, yoga-style pant legs, just cut further away from the pants. I was going for tight-fitting, legging-style pajama pants, so I cut the fabric pretty close to the pants.)

 

3. Pin the two shirt layers together along the outer and inner legs. Don’t pin along the waistband or the foot opening at the bottom.

4. Sew the layers together along the outer leg and inner legs, using a 1/2” seam allowance. Don’t sew along the waistband or the bottom of the legs.

5. Now we’ll make a casing for an elastic waistband. Fold the waist of the pants down about 1/2”, like so, and press: (the pants should still be inside-out, so you’re folding toward the wrong side of the fabric, or what will be the inside of the pants)

. . . then fold it over again so it’s a tad bigger than the width of your elastic:

And pin it in place.

6. Sew along the bottom edge of the fold:

 

. . . and stop sewing before you get back to where you started, so you’ll have an opening of about 2 inches that you can use to insert your elastic:

7. Cut a piece of elastic so it’s about an inch smaller than your child’s waist size, and insert it through the waistband opening:

And sew the two ends of the elastic together:

8. Now just sew down that last inch or two of waistband that you left open, and you’re finished!

You’ve got yourself a really fast, really simple pair of cute baby lounge pants.

You can’t put a man in lounge pants and expect him not to lounge. Forrest watched The Cat in the Hat in total comfort, thank you very much.

We take our relaxing seriously around here. Brother was completely uninterested in this photo business.

But I think he looks awfully cute and snuggly in his little lounge pants.

Turning Bootcut Jeans into Skinny Jeans

You know what I'd really love? One pair of great-fitting skinny jeans. But with a closet full of jeans I've already owned for years, I have a hard time justifying a new pair in what may turn out to be a trendy fit.

One pair of jeans in my closet has been sitting around, unworn and unloved, for years. They fit me great, but there's one problem: they have really big, goofy flare legs.

Bootcut jeans are one thing (I love a bootcut), but these were in a league of their own. Even though I’ve owned these jeans for at least 3 or 4 years and really love the way they fit, I’ve only worn them a few times.

I decided since I don't wear them much anyway, I'd take a chance on them and see if I could turn those unloved jeans into a pair I might really enjoy wearing. I read a lot of tutorials and instructions on how to transform my jeans into skinnies before I got started, and all of the instructions I read were so different that I was left more than a little confused about what to do.

After some thought and trial and error, I thought it might be helpful for others who have thought about McGuyvering their jeans to hear what I did and how it turned out.

(The finished product!)

I started by putting my jeans on inside out and pinning the fabric along the outer seam, starting about mid-thigh and working down toward the ankle. I knew I couldn’t replicate the look of the heavy topstitching on the inner seam, so I didn’t dare touch it, and only altered the outer seam.

I just worked my way down the leg, holding the outer seam as flat as possible and pinning where I wanted the new seam to go. I took the jeans off and used a pen and ruler to mark a gradual line along the pins, and started sewing along that line (make sure to use a heavy-duty needle!).

I started at the bottom of the leg and worked my way up. I think the most important point to take away from the many tutorials out there is to make sure your stitch line is smooth and gradual, and to blend it as smoothly and seamlessly as possible into the original stitch line when you reach the point along the thigh where you began pinning.
This is what my pants looked like with one leg skinnified. (And yes, I’m standing on a bucket in my bathroom.) You can see, about mid-thigh, where I didn’t do a very good job of blending the new seam line into the old seam line—there’s some awkward puckering and bulging along the outer seam a few inches above my knee. I went back and sewed it again, making a longer, more gradual stitch line that blended less noticeably into the original seam, and it looks much more natural now.

Here’s what the stitch line looked like from the inside.

Try the jeans on after sewing before you cut off the extra fabric to make sure you like the fit and can easily get your foot in and out. It'll be a tight squeeze to get them on since you'll have all that extra fabric inside, but do the best you can.

If something doesn’t look or fit right, adjust. If you like it, cut off the extra material  and zig-zag stitch over the raw edges to prevent fraying. Instead of fitting and pinning for the second leg, I just folded the first leg over the second one and used it as a guide.
I had never realized before just how long these jeans are! I used Sew Much Ado’s hemming tutorial (which uses the original hem for a more natural look) to take them up so they hit just below the ankles—a good length for flats and heels.


You can see the new, altered seam pretty well in that last picture above—the old seam at the top of the leg looks more “original,” and my new seam line comes in just above the knee.

Overall, here are my thoughts on skinnifying bootcut jeans:

- I definitely recommend Sew Much Ado’s method for hemming jeans. Fast, straightforward, and leaves the hemline looking very natural and unaltered.

- Although I can tell that these jeans look altered now, I’m very happy with how they came out, especially considering how little time and effort I spent on them.

- I would definitely do this project again (and, as an update, have since 'skinnified' many pairs of bootcut jeans!). It turned a pair of jeans that had been neglected and ignored for the past few years into my new favorite pair.

Have you ever turned bootcuts into skinny jeans?

Monster Hoodie Refashion Tutorial

(This post was shared on My Own Road a few weeks ago--I forgot that I hadn't posted the tutorial here until this morning when I was folding laundry and came across this hoodie! I made it right before Halloween but have been really happy with the only semi-Halloweenie look; he's been wearing it since then and still gets compliments on it.)

Now, right off the bat, I'm going to warn you: I'm not one of those ladies. You know the kind, with their houses all decked out weeks in advance of every holiday, thoughtful handmade gifts to give, and clean, well-behaved children wearing home-sewn clothes (probably sewn from home-spun fabric, too). 

So I'm going to lay it all out right now: this is the only semi-Halloween-ish item in my home right now. And it's one of the only clothing items I've ever made for my little boy. And I purposely didn't make it too Halloween-ish, because I didn't want it to be limited to wear for the next week or so, so it hardly even counts as a holiday item. And, to top it off, it's dirty in the pictures (which, of course, are fuzzy). Gimme a break--he's a real boy and his clothes stay clean for all of about 20 seconds. If you're still interested and not completely turned off by my lack of mothering superpowers, maybe you'll enjoy this sneaky peeky monster hoodie refashion I pulled together for my little fella:

I have to admit, I think it's pretty cute! I bought him that hoodie on clearance recently, but he already has a few plain hoodies and I thought maybe he could use one with more character. I reverse appliqued these cute little monster heads onto it, and wild guess here, but I think he might like it!

Here's how I refashioned his little hoodie with some peekaboo monster fun!

You'll just need:

- a hoodie

- knit/jersey fabric scraps (I used squares from old polo shirts)

- sewing machine

- hot glue/fabritac

- googly eyes

- felt

I started by sketching and cutting out the monster heads on white paper. I thought it would be cute to have them "peekabooing," if I can make up that word right now, into the sweatshirt, so I drew one popping up out of the pocket and another poking out from the zipper.

Make sure your fabric scraps are a bit larger than the designs you sketched, and pin everything together. The layering, from top to bottom, should be paper, hoodie, fabric scrap.

Now sew around the shape of the pattern sketches--you're not sewing onto the paper, but using it as a shape/guide to sew around. Make sure you're sewing through both the hoodie and the fabric scrap behind it. Try not to stretch the fabric as you sew, and if you get to points or curves that are hard to navigate, just stop sewing while the needle is down in the fabric, lift up the presser foot, and swivel your fabric, then lower the foot and keep sewing. When you're finished, remove the pins and you should have a nice stitched outline of your sketch:

Here's what it'll look like from the back:

I sewed straight over a fabric fold by accident . . . whoops! No biggie--it's in the back, so I just left it. (Perfectionist? Not even a little. I can thank my mother for that--we've jokingly nicknamed her Kathleen "Goodenough" LastName.)

Now trim away the excess fabric from the back, being very careful not to accidentally cut the hoodie fabric.

This is the part that made my heart race. It's a little scary, so be cautious. Carefully, carefully, cut out the inner monster shape from the hoodie fabric. Make sure you're staying inside the stitching lines, and be very careful not to cut the scrap fabric from the back! It's easiest, I find, to pull the two fabrics apart as much as you can, and use small sharp scissors to start with a little snip in the center of the design:

Then work from there to cut the rest of the fabric away, without getting too close to your stitch line.

Add some googly eyes and teeth cut from a bit of felt, and you're all done! (I used hot glue to attach the googly eyes and felt, and time will tell if that was a poor decision or not. I'm sure something like Fabritac would hold up better in the washer and dryer, so it's possible that my son's hoodie is going to lose its facial features after the first wash. **Update! It's now been washed multiple times, and everything has held up just fine--the eyes and mouth are still firmly in place. Woohoo!**)

Such an appropriate look for him. He is seriously an adorable monster. Sometimes the emphasis is more on one of those words than the other . . . you guess which.