T-Shirt to Skirt...A Recycle Project

My daughter left for camp today! A whole week 4 hours from home...I won't know what to do with all the silence. And since the girl went away to camp, I decided to let the boy go to theater camp for the week. Monster Madness is the theme! Perfect for a boy!
This is a Christian camp and the dress code is fairly modest. The girls are expected to wear a skirt to chapel every day but they suggested only sending one or two because these are just 10 year olds. Well, I took my friend's advice and hit Goodwill for a few pieces of clothing that I didn't mind if it didn't come back, or if it came back less than clean and joyful smelling. I only found one skirt because my dear 10 year old has been going through a 3 year growth spurt and I have hard time finding things that fit her...that she will wear. At the last minute I was feeling a bit concerned that she only had one skirt so I decided yesterday to try to upcycle her one from items here at the house. My first idea was to cut down one of two dresses I had cleaned from my closet. Both dresses had zippers down the back, however, and I just didn't feel like dealing with that.

What I ended up making is a tshirt skirt. Please excuse my lack of pictures as I didn't think of posting it until the last minute! I initially used an XL tshirt (she is equivalent to an adult small,... maybe a little smaller). I cut it off right under the arm holes.

Next I took a wide piece of elastic (3/4"-1") and measured around her waist making it sure it fit snugly but not tight. I sewed it together at the end to make a waistband. Next I attached the cut end (the top) of the tshirt to the elastic. This is a bit tricky without pictures so let me see if I can explain how I did it.
The fabric is going to be almost double the size of the elastic so you are going to need to do some finagling. This is how I handled it.
1. Press the elastic and set a pin in each of the two ends. This finds the halfway marks. Now open the circle again and press it where the pins line up. Set a pin in each of the two new ends. You have now marked the four quarters of the circle. Do the same with the tshirt.
2. Place the elastic on the inside of the cut part of the tshirt and line up your pins. Pin the fabric to the elastic. You are still going to have an excess of fabric.
****One thing I did not do but could be done to make it look neater is to leave about a 1/4 inch of fabric over the top of the elastic to be tucked over. This will neaten it up and won't leave frayed edges, but this is tshirt fabric so I wasn't too worried about fraying.
3. I created little pleats here and there between the pins to use up some of the fabric. You still want there to be a bit of gapping between the fabric and the elastic. I'll explain why in a minute.

Now I set my machine for stretch material but you don't necessarily have to. I just wanted it sewn together well. While sewing the fabric to the elastic I held it from both sides (front and back of sewing machine) and gave stretched the elastic. I kept the elastic stretched and taut because I wanted to make sure she could she could have plenty of stretching room in the waist if needed.

I know my hand is held differently in the picture but I didn't think about it being wrong until I had finished and looked at the pictures.
After you sew all around the waistline, fold the elastic and fabric down toward the inside of the skirt once. When sewn, this will be your actual waistband.

Prior to this is when I figured out the skirt would not be long enough, so I cut a second tshirt similar to the first. I knew I didn't need it to be as long as the first one so I salvaged 12 inches off the second one.

I flipped this tube inside out and slipped it over the skirt so the newly cut end of the second skirt lined up with the bottom end of the first shirt. Pin and sew the two pieces together. I used a 1/2" seam allowance since I knew I had plenty of fabric.
I wanted to make sure the seam didn't pucker (since I left the bottom of the original shirt uncut, the original finished seam was still there) so I tucked both 1/2" allowances over to the navy side on the back and top stitched them down.

The seam you see on the gray side is just from the original bottom seam of the tshirt. I just didn't sew far enough down.

Not too bad for a quick and easy skirt for camp that will be very comfortable to wear. This would be a great project for colorful or printed tshirts. Or you could add lace, ric-rac, etc. My girl is going through NON girly girl stage so I was not allowed to girl it up.

WiP Wednesday: the One I Forgot...

Okay, so yes, I forgot it was Wednesday so this is going to be a quick one! Gotta go finish my Granny Square quilt!
Number 1: My SMS Giveaway is here if you are interested!

Number 2: My secret project this past week was a Hello Luscious lap quilt I did for a former student dealing with leukemia who just had a bone marrow transplant. More pics and the story here.

Number 3: Yesterday I posted a quick tutorial for making a wrist pincushion using some of those trendy interchangeable open faced watchbands. Interested? Check here.

Number 4: I am almost done with my Granny Square baby/child quilt but I am having computer issues. I am on our home computer right now because for some reason blogger is not working correctly for posting on my laptop. Right in the middle of entering giveaways the other day, it said there was a RealPlayer update so I have no idea if it was the update that did it or something from the giveaways, but it now says, "Your browser is no longer supported by Blogger. Some parts of Blogger will not work and youmay experience problems. If you are having problems, try Google Chrome/Dismiss."
I have the searched the net for fixes but nothing has worked. I also tried to download Google Chrome and it won't let me. Basically I can't post from my laptop. I can put pictures in the block but it won't let me type. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I may be going to visit the Geek Squad again. Sigh...

Wrist Pin Cushion Tutorial

Don't forget to check out my giveaway for SMS Giveaway day here. You have until 5/25/12 to enter!

Back in November I bought my daughter this cool watch set. It had one watch face and 4 different colored slap bracelet bands that went with it. Yes, I said slap bracelet. There I go, showing my age again..., anyway! How many times do you think I have seen her wearing said watch since then? Dare  I say it, one time. There you go. Buy them something cool and they just don't care. So I decided I would just scrounge it up and wear it myself. Only problem: I can't find the watch face. I found the bands under her bed. I'm still looking but, in the meantime, I had an idea. I had been watching reruns of Project Runway and saw one of the designers wearing a wrist pin cushion. Eureka! And my brain started running with it.

How do you do it, you say? Well, I'm glad you asked!

You will need:

• an open faced watch band/ a Nano wrist carrier will also work (I have a Minnie Mouse one I'm going to use to make another one of these)
• scrap of fabric at least 4 times the size of the watch face hole
• scissors
• thread
• needle
• cardboard
• pin/pencil

Pick the band you want to use and some fabric for the pincushion.

The circular part of my watch band was removable. Trace the circle onto cardboard. It is best to trace the smallest outside circle.

You will need to trim it down until you can pop it into the watch face and have it lay flat on the back.

Trace a circle on the fabric that is no ~4 times larger than your cardboard circle. My cardboard circle was about an inch, so my fabric circle was about 4 inches wide.

Sew around the edge like you would for a yoyo. Don't know how to make a yoyo? DIYDish has a great little video on it right here. I tend to make mine with a finished edge just because that's how I learned to make them but it does not matter for this project.

Stuff your yoyo with polyfil or whatever filling you prefer. Make sure it is stuffed pretty well (I had to pull mine open and stuff more). Place your cardboard circle in the bottom to close.

Pull your yoyo tight keeping the cardboard in place. It will keep the polyfil from moving around and coming out. Tie off your thread end a couple of times and trim. This part does not have tobe pretty because you aren't going to see it.

Manipulate the pincushion into the watch face hole of the band. The cardboard needs to be pushed all the way into the hole and pressed against the back.

And here is the finished project! I thought it turned out pretty stinkin' cute for a refurbish. And when the watch face shows up in my daughter's room, I can pull it out and use it as a watch again...or I could just use one of the other bands!  I hope you like!

How to Add Random Generator Results to Your Blog

Many people have figured this out already but I thought I'd throw this little tutorial out there for those of us who took a little longer to figure it out!
Random Generator is a great little device for posting results of your giveaways, but for a long time I didn't understand how people were copying that cute little button with the results listed in it. Well, here is how I did it.

1. Under your Programs and Files, locate and open Accessories. Under Accessories you should find the Paint program. Open it.

2. Go to the Random Generator website to determine your winning number. Plug in your beginning and ending numbers in the min/max range. For our example, we are using the numbers from my recent Fugly Fabric Party drawing. I had 41 entries so my numbers run from 1 to 41. Hit 'generate' and the generator will give you a winning number.

3. Look along the top of your keyboard and hit the "Print Screen" button. Nothing will happen so don't freak out if you were expecting anything.

4. Go back to your Paint program and click "paste". This will paste the entire page from Random.org into your program.

5. You Select button is highlighted so go over to the RG results block and capture the block with your mouse (point the mouse at the upper left hand corner, click and hold your mouse, drag over and down to the lower right hand corner. Let go of the mouse).

6. Once you have what you want, click "Crop" in the upper bar. You will end up with the block you wanted.

7. Save this into your pictures so you can pull it into your blog as a picture insert. You are done!

I know. It seems so easy now that I see it but it took forever for me to figure it out. Hope this helps someone else who was lost like me!

Project Bag Tutorial

Sorry this took so long to post. I sure wish blogger could pull in pictures faster! And this tute is definitely picture heavy1
So this is the project I have been working on intermittently over the past week or so. The last time we had a quilting guild meeting, a guest did show and tell with a project bag and I just loved it. She had made hers as one long piece (not as a bag) that folded up, sort of like a firewood carrier. She used old jeans as her pockets on the inside which I absolutely loved. When I got home I had every intention of doing something similar. Then I remembered that I had a Daisy chain Amy Butler bundle I picked up way back in March. Perfect! I will say that I used the project bag from Joann's as a starting point, but I changed all the dimensions, added pockets and made some other modifications. There were also loads of complaints about the instructions for it so I thought I would try to do a little better. I love this bag. It is large; lest I say, huge. How huge? See this bag? That's my daughter holding the handle.

What's inside it, you say? Uh, well, ...

that would be my 5 year old son! Yeah, to do it over again, I'm not sure I would  make it quite so big, but I really wanted my cutting board to fit in it and I don't have a small cutting board.

I will provide large and small cutting directions, but you could really do it any size you want. You just need to make sure you do the following:

• all side pieces (outer and liner) are exactly the same size
• the gusset piece should be at least as long as the sum of the side and bottom measurements of your side pieces (ex. if you choose to cut your sides 26.5" x 20", the length or your gusset piece needs to be no less than 26.5 + 20 + 20 which would be 66.5")
• your outside pieces will receive fusible interfacing; I used medium weight interfacing because mine is larger and it makes it easier to fold and store, but I may use a bit heavier on a smaller sized bag to give it more structure, maybe what they call craftbond)
• your pocket pieces just need to fit the dimensions of your bag (no need in cutting a 26.5" wide pocket if your bag is only 20" wide)

What you will need:

• fabric: I used a 1 yd bundle for my large bag so that I would have different fabrics to choose from, and I had about a yard total left over. You could probably get away with 4 yards for the large bag; if you are using different fabrics from one line, remember you will need some larger pieces (at least 3/4 yard of two) to cut your two inner pieces and your two outer pieces. If not, you could do some piecing of scraps or smaller pieces to get them up to the right side. I think this would make a fabulous scrap project; in fact that may be how I do my smaller version!
• fusible interfacing: you will need at least medium weight for this project. You might want a heavier weight for a smaller bag to help it keep it's shape.
• scissors, cutting mat, rotary cutter, sewing machine, pins (the usual suspects)

1. For a large bag (and I do mean large!), cut the following:
Two outer fabric and two liner fabric: 26.5" wide by 20" tall
One gusset for outer and one gusset for inner: 6.5" wide by 66.5" long (I like to make it a few inches longer just in case)

For a smaller bag, cut the following:
Two outer fabric and two liner fabric: 20.5" wide by 15.5" tall
One gusset for outer and one gusset for inner: 5" wide by 52" long (I like to make it a few inches longer just in case)

No matter what size bag you make, you will need the following:
Cut one piece of fusible interfacing the size of the gusset, and two pieces the size of the outer fabric. These will ironed onto the outer pieces.

My outer fabric on top has a strip of different fabric across the top because my fabric was too short.

For the gusset pieces, I cut two strips the WOF and sewed them together at the end instead of cutting one long piece along the length of the selvage.  I folded each piece in half at that seam and cut my excess of the other ends. I used the excess pieces to create pockets for my bag. I ended up having two pieces with interfacing and two without, so I mixed them for the extra durability on each pocket.

2. You are now going to start sewing the gusset to one side of the front piece. I line it up by folding each piece in half and lining up the centers. I start pinning in the center, then moving out toward each side. If you have never sewn around corners like this, I'll warn you it's tricky.

3. Once you get it all pinned, you will start sewing. Here is how it looks pinned.

4. I used a 3/8" seam allowance. I do the corners sort of how I do binding on a quilt. Start on one side and sew all the way to the bottom.  Stop sewing and anchor about 3/8" from the end.  As the back fabric starts to curve, I remove some of the pins off the bottom so I can straighten it as much as possible.

I cut it, reposition it, then start sewing again. You might have a better method. Just be careful going around the corner.

5. Once you finish one side, line up the other side and sew it as well. Be sure everything lines up as you go, especially the corners. Mine was wonky and I had to rip it and resew it.  When you get finished, you will have the outer piece done.

6. Before sewing together your liner, you will want to sew on any pockets you want. I used one large pocket on one side for my cutting board & rulers, and smaller pockets on the other side for notions. For the large pocket, cut a piece of coordinating fabric about 36" tall by the width of the liner fabric (in my case, 26.5"). Fold the fabric in half going down and iron; it will be 18" tall by 26.5" wide. Run an edge stitch along the top. 

When you have finished stitching, line up the pocket piece to one of the liner sides. I placed mine about 2 inches down from the top. There will be a little overhang at the bottom that will be trimmed.

Sew a basting stitch down both sides and the bottom of the pocket through all 3 layers to hold it in place.

Another option for making this pocket (if you do not want to use so much fabric) is to cut a piece about the same size as your side piece. Fold about one inch down at the top going toward the back and iron. Do this one more time. Iron. Now sew an edge stitch at the top edge all the way across, and another one across the bottom of the inch you folded. Baste it to the side piece the same way I explained above. Your pocket will just be thinner; one layer of fabric instead of two.
7. If you would like some smaller pockets on the other side of the liner, now is the time to add these. I used the two pockets I created from the remainder of my gusset pieces. I placed these pieces front to front and sewed around the edge using 1/4" seam, leaving a 2-3" hole for turning. Just from my own experience, I never leave the hole near a corner. I leave it in the center of one of the sides. It is much easier to sew up a straight hole than one that rounds a corner or runs into a corner. Snip the corners off without cutting through the sewn part. This will make it easier to push your corners out.
Now turn your piece and use something to poke your corners out (I tend to use my scissors which is not a good idea; one day that is going to end badly!). Once it is square,  fold in the opening from the turning hole to match the edges around it. Iron it down.
I made another long pocket just like out large pocket on the other side but only did it about 8-9" high. You will cut a piece the same width of your side piece, and the height of it will be double the size you want the pocket to be. For example, I wanted my pocket to be about 8" high so I cut my piece 16" high and 26.5" wide. I then followed the same instructions for constructing a pocket that are given on step 6.

Place your pockets approximately where you think they will work well for you and pin along each side and the bottom. The long pocket works best on the bottom because the sides and bottom will get sewn into the seam. When placing the small pockets, remember to make sure the opening from the turning hole is placed downward or on one of the sides. This will insure that it gets sewn closed when you stitch your pocket down.

I originally wanted the bottom long pocket to be for my rulers but it kept hanging open so I chose to make it into several pockets by sewing from the top lip of the pocket, down to the bottom in intervals of several inches. This gives me several extra pockets. You can make these pockets whatever size you need.

8. You are now going to sew your lining the same exact way you sewed your outer pieces in steps 2-5. If you are looking at the Joann.com project bag, they tell you to leave a turning hole in the lining. I do not do it this way and I think my way is easier (just my own two cents!).

9. You should now have a completed outer shell and a completed inner shell. This next part is going to sound weird, but stay with me. Turn the shells out to exactly how they will look when they are sewn together (the outer shell will have the fabric showing outward while the lining will have the fabric showing inward). Take your outer shell and place it INSIDE the lining shell. Yes, I said that right. If you look down inside the bag, you should see fusible interfacing. If you look at the outside of the bag, you should see the wrong side of the lining. You can see this better in the picture below.

Starting at your corners, line up and pin all the way around. I pin all 4 corners first because they HAVE to meet correctly. Sew a 3/8" seam all the way around the top except for a 4-5" hole on one of the long sides for turning.

10. Turn your bag inside out.

11. Once it is completely pulled out, push the liner down inside the outer fabric. Press all around the top edges and press the turning hole in. You are going to sew an edge stitch all around the edge of the top of the bag.

12. This step is optional. When I got to this point and looked inside the bag, I noticed that the weight of the pockets seemed to pull the liner away from the outer fabric some and it was hard to get a good shot of the inside of the bag.

(Pay no attention to the bottom long pocket; I added my pocket divisions after the fact when I figured out that it wasn't going to work the way I had it.)
Because I wanted there to be more unity between the inner and outer shells, I actually stitched them together along the gusset.

I know it's hard to see my pins, sorry! I put my hand inside the bag and used it along with my other hand to line up the inner and outer gussets as much as possible. Then I pinned both gussets together from one end of the bag to the other. I then stitched from the top of the bag down as close as I could to the bottom (about an inch from the bottom) about 1/4" in from either side of the gusset. I am not a professional so I did not figure out how to go around the corner. Here's a close-up of one corner of the gusset (I know there is a little pucker but it's mine and I don't care!)...

and here's another close-up of the side view.

I just wanted to do to help stabilize everything but it is definitely not required.

13. Straps! I always decide on my straps last because I have to figure out exactly how the bag is going to fall against my body and how much length I am going to need. For this project, I cut four straps 2.5" by 35". Two pieces will receive interfacing and two will not. I forgot to mention it when we were using interfacing before, but there is nothing wrong with piecing interfacing. I just make sure that there is a little bit of overlap. Not much. You don't want a piece to bend funny at one place because you butted up two pieces of interfacing but they didn't meet properly.

Line up one fused and one unfused strap right side to right side and pin. Leaving a 2-3" hole for turning, sew a 1/4" seam all the way around the edge of the strap.

Before turning, clip the corners.

Sew your second strap the same way and turn both inside out. Iron flat and iron opening closed.

Sew an edge stitch all around each strap.

Now, your straps are going to be on the bag about 4" down (the way they are attached on the Joann's bag). I pinned each strap end 4" from the bottom.

I then lined up the pin with the top of the bag and the outside of the strap about 4 inches from the side of the bag.

Pin in place. Follow this for all strap ends. When attaching the straps, sew through all layers of fabric. WARNING!!! Be careful of any pockets you have near the strap placement. I wasn't paying attention and sewed right through my pocket.

I had to pull out the bottom of this and restitch it while holding the pocket out of the way. I didn't do it again, believe me!
I stitched all around the existing edge stitch and then across the top. You could then stitch a big X across the center of your rectangle, but I chose to stitch down an inch and stitch across, stitch down an inch and stitch across.

 You're done! My original plan was for this to be the outside, but I figured out that it is reversible. I 'm going to make a smaller bag to actually be a project bag for taking on travel. This one will be for transportation of quilts, larger projects, etc.