Repurposing Fool

I have turned into a repurposing fool this week!  I had so many things I wanted to do for projects and it turned into too many to just post one a day.  I wish I had enough time to finish and post things every day like this but it has been a struggle just to get a post up everyday for the last week and a half.  Fun, but a struggle.

I took a shirt that I got for free from a church rummage sale ( seriously I SCORED at that rummage sale! )  I LOVED the color and print but the shirt itself fit weird.  Especially on me who is not skinny any more.  Here is the shirt

Notice the band along the bottom?  Not flattery to someone with a belly.  I would wear it around the house but I would usually end up taking if off because it looked awful.  Finally I decided it was too cute to just be sitting around.  I wanted to make something for my daughter Kayla.  I grabbed one of her shirts the other day and laid it on top of this shirt to get an idea of where to cut.

I cut my shirt up to the arm pits.  Then I cut along the top.  This is striped so it was easy to cut straight.  I wanted to shire the top of this.  If you have not heard of this or have any clue what I am talking about it is cool.  YOu buy elastic thread and wind it around your bobbin.  Then you put regular thread up top and bump the tension on your machine as high as it goes.  Then you start sewing.  Again it was easy because I just followed the pattern of the shirt.   I read some where to leave really big strings after and before each line.  Then you go through and tie knots after you are done and this prevents it from coming apart.  I have a dress from Walmart that has shirring on the top and the dumb thing is coming all apart.  Apparently it wasn't made very well.  What do you except from walmart though right?!

Any ways.  I got a couple of rows done, tie it all down and then you spray it with water and apply steam from your iron.  Watch it shrink up even more.  It's kinda fun!  Oh and I forgot to tell you, I sewed the sides together BEFORE I shirred the dress/top.  I took some extra fabric to make straps and a little bow.  Check out how cute it looks.

And here it is in action...

I am debating on making two changes.  What do y'all think?

1.) I am thinking about taking the bow off of the front and putting it on the back where the straps come together

OR

2.) I am thinking about taking the straps off completely and making sleeves. I have my sleeves left over still and I can easily make them into her size and sew them on the shirt.

Not sure yet but I will most likely do one or the other.  Right now the bow kinda gets lost in her arm pit. Let me tell you how much she loved this though.  It is so sad to me when I make her something and she won't wear it or tries to rip it off. This she was all excited about and even let me put a hair clip in her hair and left it in all day.  She was HAPPY and that makes me HAPPY.  This project cost nothing unless you include the elastic thread that I already had.  And THAT makes me ecstatic!

Can't wait to show you what I have for tomorrow.  Come back and check it out.

Adding to some parties check them out