Do a Redo: Women's shirt into a dress for children

It's been a loooong time since  last posted anything but I want to get back on track again :))
And what would be more suitable than a very summery post about a very summery dress...ok i can think of many more suitable things to post about now that it's getting colder and we're nearing Halloween etc, but the truth is that i was supposed to post about this dress before the summer started and then...the summer started and I forgot...
So I'm posting it now and if not for anything else then at least as a reminder that the summer will return in about ...9 months ;D

But anyways let's get to the business...
So my sister in law gave me a bunch of really airy and light white blouses and at the time I was planning on wearing them during the summer...and then I cut them to pieces and made children's dresses :D




















I used a pattern from a craft magazine I had in my stash. This differs from the post I made about re-purposing a men's shirt into a girl's dress in a couple of ways. Firstly the bodice and the skirt are two separate pieces. I wanted to maintain the interesting look the fabric had originally so I cut the front piece of the bodice out of that and then I wanted the skirt part to be quite gathered and flowing so I pleated the skirt to the bodice.

I left the sleeves loose instead of shirring them like I did with the other dress.It came out pretty much exactly as i wanted it and I will definitely make her a couple of these for next summer, too :))

Hope you have a beautiful autumn day!!
Ciao-ciao!

PS. Looking at these pictures I realized HOW MUCH Tindra has actually grown during the summer :))

Do a re-do: men's shirt into a girls dress

So some weeks ago my hubby and I decided to clear out our closet. And although we donated quite a bit of the clothes that don't fit anymore or we just don't wear anymore we I ended up keeping a bunch in my "I-have-such-great-redo-ideas-I-will-definitely-make-so-I-keep-way-too-many-old-clothes-we-don't use-anymore pile".
And I have actually been trying to make stuff out of those garments in that huge pile. Now that we have a child, it's easier to redo old clothes into new ones because you can just make a smaller version of everything :D
I'm also more motivated to make clothes for my daughter because I love seeing her in cute clothes :))
Anyways let's get into the business.





I took this shirt that didn't fit my hubby anymore. I used the basic guidelines of this tutorial. But I made it a bit easier by taking one of my daughter's dresses placing it on the shirt and tracing around it. I did the same for the sleeves.

 I made the neck casing and put a rubber band inside but I didn't put a rubber band into the sleeves or the waistband. Instead I just shirred the sleeves and also the waistband, much easier in my opinion :))
The little lady is walking on the grass bare feet for the first :)) She didn't find it very enjoyable ;P


















I already have a couple of other dresses in the making, I'll keep you posted on those :))
See you soon!
Ciao-ciao!

Granny Square Dress for a Girl

Ok, so I made this pile of granny squares I showed in my previous post...

 And then I started to put them together.I didn't have any specific plan or pattern I just started to crochet the squares together with a slip stitch. I crocheted the shoulder straps and added some buttons for the fasteners.

 

I also left the back a little bit open and added three buttons there, just to make it easier to put the dress on (it would fit on without the opening also, but it's less fussy like this ;D)

It came out bulkier than I originally planned, I should have used a finer yarn and a smaller hook but then I probably wouldn't have ever finished it (I'm not good with time consuming projects :P).
Maybe I'll be up for the challenge in the future, we'll see :))

I hope everybody is having a wonderful weekend!
Ciao-ciao!

Granny Square Madness

I've been making these granny squares for a couple of weeks now (not non-stop of course but almost every day at least a couple) and I finally have the amount that I need for making a summer dress for my daughter. Or at least I hope I have enough :)

 Anyways I will start crocheting the squares together and I hope I will achieve the look I'm going for as I'm not using any instructions or a tried out pattern, I'm pretty much just flinging it.

I already know though that it will be a bit bulkier than I intended but anything looks cute on a baby, so it's gonna be ok ;))
I'll keep you updated on the progress.
Ciao-ciao!

A Summer Bonnet

I found this tutorial for making a bonnet and I knew right away that I want to make one for my daughter Tindra. And because we've had quite warm weather here in Estonia I thought it would be quite appropriate to also write about it.

I had bought this fabric from our local fabric store a while ago just because I liked it a lot and thought it was pretty. And when I found teh tutorial mentioned above I knew I would use this fabric for making it. (I only used a small part of the fabric so I still can make a dress or something else for the summer ;D )

I love the embroidery on the fabric.

There are much better instructions in the blog I referred to before but I will briefly take you through the process, too. Firstly cut out the pieces for the bonnet. The bigger crown piece is 18cm x 36cm, long side on fold. And the two smaller brim pieces are 9cm x 23cm, short side on fold. Also cut out two pieces of interfacing for both of the brim pieces. (Lets see how many times I'm able to write the word "piece" in this post ;D ;P).

After this iron the interfacing pieces on the brim pieces. Note that you will iron it on the wrong side of the fabric. I accidentally ironed it on the right side on one of the pieces, fortunately my fabric looks almost the same on both sides so it's not very noticeable.

Then sew the two brim pieces together with the right sides facing each other and leaving the long straight side open.Turn the brim right side out, cut the corners.

Fold the edge inside and press so it will be easier to attach the gathered crown piece between the brim.

Hem the crown pieces neckline (the straight shorter side of the crown piece). 

I forgot to take pictures of the last steps of making the bonnet, sorry.
Stitch the crown pieces unhemmed sides (from the neckline on one side around the curve to the neckline on the other side), pull the yarn so that it gathers the fabric. The gathered fabric should match with the pressed side of the brim. Then put the gathered fabric between the brim, attach it with pins and sew along the brim.

I attached a rubber band to the neckline (from one side of the brim to the other) because the bonnet was very big for my daughter.

Lastly I attached some ribbon so we could tie a nice bow and keep the bonnet from slipping off her head.
I really like the way it turned out, it's super cute and I can't wait for summer so she can wear it all the time :))
Also I think this will fit her at least two summers if not three, because of the gathered fabric and the rubber band at the neckline.She will definitely get a lot of use out of it :))

I secretly want to make one for myself also ;P. Too bad I'm not a cute baby who can pull it off ;P ;D

Hope you enjoyed it! Ciao-ciao!

Flower headbands

Hi everybody!

I decided to make some cute headbands for our little princess. For the band I used some stretchy lace ribbon and also some jersey fabric. I crocheted some of the decorative flowers and stitched together some fabric for the others.

I used THIS pattern to make these small pink flowers. After crocheting them I stitched them on the lace ribbon and voilà the headband is ready :))

For this crochet flower I used the instructions from HERE. I should have dip the flower to water and pin it to let it dry, then it would have stretched a bit and would look more clean and structured like the one in the instructions. I don't mind it looking a bit floppy though ;P I attached a button in the middle of the flower and stitched the whole thing to the charcoal jersey.

For these flowers I just ruffled some lace fabric, attached some white buttons and stitched them to the lace ribbon. I think this is my favorite of the four headbands I made :))

And last but not least for this flower I used some linen fabric (the leftovers from the bridesmaid dresses that I made for our wedding), ruffled it a bit, attached a button (again ;P) and stitched it to the lace ribbon. Note that she is currently eating one of the headbands ;P

I just had to include this picture in the post because she looks so adooorably chubby on this picture ;D

I hope you're having a beautiful day!

TWA - Flowergirls

I made our flowergirls tutu-skirts and decided that they could pair the skirts with some simple white t-shirts, so they could feel as comfortable as possible :))
They looked absolutely adorable!!

 And as you can see, they were feeling quite comfortable ;D

They even found some matching umbrellas

And the rain didn't stop them from running, playing and enjoying themselves :))

I also made them some hair clips. I will write about those in one of the upcoming posts.
I wish you have the loveliest day!

Toddler dress

Once again i haven't posted anything for a while but now i will and there will probably be some more posts soon because now i have my own sewing machine which was a birthday present from my parents and grandmother(thank you all so much!!). And my first project with it was making a toddler dress for my little sister. The main idea was to make something really colourful and fun and personally i think i have succeeded :))

this is my simple Singer

The materials i started with

       

 ..and a closer look

Finally the outcome from the front and..

 ...from the back

Hopefully i will return soon.

Good night.