PR&P Week 3: Earth Day Challenge

The challenge for week three of Project Run and Play is an Earth Day challenge, which means the contestants and sew along participants have to create an outfit using all organic materials, recycled materials or up-cycling old clothing. I decided to create an outfit for Erin by up-cycling an old polo shirt and pair of cargo pants that were mine. I loved both of these pieces so I am so happy that they are getting a second life as new clothes for Erin!

For the polo shirt, I decided to turn it into a peasant shirt of sorts. I used this tutorial from Create Kids Couture for most of the shirt. I used the original sleeves from my polo shirt and the original hem line so I did not create new sleeves or add elastic to them. I wanted to keep a lot of the original elements from the polo shirt just give it a bit of a twist.

Peasant shirt with original sleeves and hem line

I even re-created the slit that was in the original shirt

I even used the little embroidered frog from the shirt to make a fabric covered button hair tie

For the pants, I used an old pair of cargo pants that I had and created a pair of capri pants using the capri pant pattern from the Carina Gardner Playdate Outfit. I added some of the buttons from the original pants to the bottom of the capri legs and at the waist to add a little detail. I also used the original hem line from the cargo pants so I did not need to hem the capris - bonus!!

From cargo pants to capri pants




Button detail on waistband





Button detail on side of pant leg



This sew along challenge was a lot of fun! It was cool to create a new outfit from clothes that would have otherwise been discarded. It was also the first time that I sewed with knit fabric and I was a little nervous but it was not that hard. I feel a little better about knits and will definitely sew more with them in the future. Again it was another win for me in that Erin loved her new outfit especially because it used to me mine :) She is too sweet!

Little ham!



Silly pose



Project Run and Play Season 4 Sew Along - Week 1

Woohoo! Season 4 of Project Run and Play began this week! I am so excited to see what the contestants come up with. I just love this series and love that the readers get to sew along!
During season three, I participated in week one and week three and had so much fun. For week one this season, the challenge is a remix of Dana's Circle Skirt.. This is such a cute skirt with very easy to follow directions. I see a lot of circle skirts in Erin's future ;)
To remix this pattern, I decided to make the skirt with ties that came out from the center of the waistband so that you could tie a bow around the front or back of the skirt. I thought this would be a fun little option and a cute way to dress up a simple skirt.
I used some pretty Denyse Schmidt fabric that I purchased at my local Joann's. The floral fabric is Sugar Creek Floral Meadow and the polka dots are Fairground Dots blue/green.  I cut out the skirt according to Erin's measurements, the pieces for the ties (26" long by 4" wide) and a piece to create a casing for the elastic waist band (24" long by 4" wide). For the ties, I wanted to add a little interest to the ends so I drew a diagonal line from the top of the folded in half tie to the bottom and sewed a stitch down the line to create a point. Then I clipped the extra fabric and turned the ties out.

I took the raw edges of the ties, folded them down a 1/4 inch then another 1/4 inch and sandwiched them in between the elastic before sewing the elastic together.

I then followed the rest of Dana's instructions to attach the skirt to the elastic waist band. Instead of hemming the skirt, I encased the raw edge in some lime green bias tape.

I think the skirt came out pretty cute! And Erin just loves it!! That's what counts the most =)

Perfect skirt for twirling around

and around

and around

and around!

Tada!!

All dressed in their Easter best

This year for Easter I decided to make Erin's dress and also make a matching tie for Jack. I had high hopes of making a dress for myself as well but since I was sewing Jack's tie at 11 o'clock the night before Easter that just didn't happen. I will make the dress for myself one day...hopefully ;)

Little cuties!

Up close of the skirt panels and hem

back of dress

I used the bodice pattern I created for the 60's inspired drop waist jumper - just shortened it a bit. I wish I had tapered it as well because the waist of the dress turned out to be a little big on Erin but the sash helped to cover up the fact - yay! The skirt is made up of twelve panels of three different coordinating fabrics that I purchased at Joann's. It is such a pretty line called Flutter Butterfly. I bought two yards each of the main butterfly pattern, the scrolls and the stripes back in February and had no idea what I was going to use it for! I knew it would be something for Erin because she loves purple so I am really glad I had it when I decided to make her dress.

For Jack, I wanted him to coordinate with Erin so I made him a tie using the stripe fabric and the Little Guy Tie pattern from Make It and Love It. The tie was very easy to make and came out so cute! I will definitely make Jack some more ties using this pattern in the future!

Little man and his tie :)

We had a really lovely day with our family. My brother hosted Easter dinner and made a delicious leg of lamb. He even hid eggs for the kids to find around his living room - he is such a great uncle!!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter as well!