Spunky Repurposed Ruffly Baby Top...and Tutorial!...

So, apparently I have some addictions.

1. I am addicted to naps...for my children. Mama is a better Mommy when the kids take naps.

2. I am addicted to sewing. I have experienced some major sewing binges over the course of my life. I am experiencing a sewing binge currently.

3. I am addicted to cutting up t shirts and repurposing them. Guess what? Jersey does not require finished seams. COULD. IT. GET. ANY. EASIER!?

Mash them all together and you get: Mama on a mad cutting up t shirt sewing during nap time spree.

First it was the maternity shirts. And don't even think I'm through with them! I have an entire pile in my bonus room awaiting their turn at my sewing machine.

Next up was the 'donation' pile of clothes. I may never donate another article of clothing in my life.

So, I'm just going to go ahead and warn my husband that his closet may soon be raided. Any t shirt that you haven't worn for a few months may be subject to my Fiskars, sewing machine and whim. Consider yourself warned.

During today's mad cutting up t shirt sewing during nap time spree I cut up an old shirt that someone had given me. It was old, didn't fit, and screaming to be sliced up. So I obliged.

Old blah shirt:



SLICE!



After an embarrassingly long time of hemming and hawing (tee hee, pun intended!), I cut out a simple front and back dress shape using the finished bottom shirt hem as the dress hem. I sliced long lengths to use as ruffles, one arm cuff to use as a headband, and some small pieces of the bottom hem to use as shoulder straps:



I sewed front to back and tacked on the straps. Next up I basted then scrunched up the ruffles:



Then started adding them wherever I felt like it. First up, the sleeves:



Don't be stingy with pinning, folks! They are necessary to achieve a nice seam with ruffles!



(p.s. it's MUCH easier to sew on ruffles BEFORE you finish sewing them to the back.)

(p.p.s. - yes, that IS coffee I was consuming in the afternoon. Don't judge me!)

Then I got so preoccupied sewing on ruffles that I forgot to take photos. So I made a quick little tutorial for you:


Here is the finished ruffly dress/shirt and headband:



Melikey RUFFLES. Melikey sewing ruffles.

Besides, Lil Chick was starting to feel left out of the yellow invasion and needed some spunky yellow wear:



See? She's already feeling decidedly spunky:



Off to chop up some more t shirts...

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