About a year ago one of my friends sent me an image of a mom in the hospital, wearing a super slouchy t-shirt dress. She was close to expecting baby #2 and asked if I knew where she could find a similar one. I pointed her to a few different places, but I'm not sure she ever found one. Anyway, I've kept this slouchy tee dress in the back of my mind for all this time, and decided a few weeks ago that I should make myself one for my impending hospital stay. It's perfectly slouchy and soft, easy to pull down to nurse (since it has a wide neckline), and basically feels like pajamas but makes you look a little more pulled together. Also, we took these photos when S was only 24 hours old (obviously when I was still in the hospital) and I'm already missing how tiny and new he was! photos by rad and happyWith right sides of the fabric together, line up the shoulders. Sew across them with a straight stitch. Trim and serge (or zigzag) the seam allowances.Measure how wide you want the arm holes (mine are about 9"), and mark that far down from the shoulder seam.

Sew up the sides of your dress up to these marks.Open up the seam allowance on the side seams, and then continue up around the arm hole, folding the edges equally under. Sew around the arm hole with a straight, wide stitch. When you reach the bottom of the arm hole, sew a straight line across to connect the two sides of stitches.Now for the neckline.Hem the dress to your desired length using your double needle, and you're done! Bella Ladies "The Favorite" T-Shirt Bella Ladies Flowy Raglan T-Shirt Bella Ladies Triblend Deep V-Neck T-ShirtCrop tops have been one of my favorite trends for a while now. They’re fun to wear and they’re so versatile – and, contrary to some beliefs, anyone can rock a crop top. But these tiny pieces of fabric can get pretty pricey, especially if you’re more focused on having a good summer than working your butt off to make money to go shopping. So why not take the old clothes you don’t wear anymore and turn them into a crop top?

It’s much easier than you’d think! While most of the below tutorials are no-sew, a few are a little bit more complicated (for the more experienced DIY-er). Want to show off a new top without spending much money? Here are 20 DIY crop tops tutorials made from old clothes you need to try: 1. Turn an old tank top into a really cute wrap crop top. 2. Not sure what to do with an old bandana? Make it into a cute crop top!Hot Tub Pump Seal Kit 3. Got a pair of old jeans you don’t wear anymore? Puppies For Sale Hot Springs ArInstead of throwing them out, make them into a denim crop top.Soft King Duvet Covers 4. Make a boring tank top into a fun, fringed crop top. 5. Even a sweater can be transformed into a crop top… this is great for fall too since the material is heavier.

6. Make a boring t-shirt into a cute crop top with some weaving and knotting. 7. An oversize denim shirt makes the cutest denim corset top. 8. This is a super simple, no-sew way to turn a shirt into a crop top: 9. Take a guy’s shirt and turn it into a really cute button-down crop top. 10. If you want to keep it super simple, this tutorial is for you: 11. Turn one shirt into three different crop tops: 12. Don’t throw away an old bikini top – make it into a crop top! 13. Turn a long-sleeved shirt into a cute, short sleeve crop top. 14. Here’s another easy tutorial for turning tees into crops: 15. A big scarf makes a really cute wrap crop top. 16. Make a loose crop top with an old tee: 17. Or you can tie it at the bottom: 18. This tutorial is a little more complicated, but if you’ve got time, it’s worth it! 19. Make a sequin graphic crop top for something fun. 20. You can even turn leggings into a really cute long-sleeved crop top.

Which of these tutorials is your favorite? Which one are you going to try? Tell me in the comments! You can follow the author, Jessica Booth, on Twitter or Instagram 20 DIY tutorials on how to update old sandals/watch?v=CvLUC4_lTBY was not found on this server.I don’t know why it took me so long to make this pattern – it’s a fantastic pattern, as I would expect from Grainline. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t often wear sleeveless tops/dresses? Although, this dress may be the one that breaks that habit. This’ll be a short and sweet post. Not much to say about this dress other than praise. It’s not very fitted at the waist so I like the scooped side hem. The shorter length in the front and sides helps balance out the looseness, I think. The pattern is Grainline’s Alder dress and I made no significant changes to fit or design other than slightly adjusting the pocket placement. Jen at Grainline is a genius when it comes to armholes – she drafts them perfect every time.

No gaping, no pulling, not too low or too high. And the armscye works for everyone – even if you need to do an FBA/SBA on her patterns, you don’t have to mess with those armholes. It’s like the Goldilocks armhole. This cute print is from Stitch Lab here in Austin. It’s a quilting cotton but it works well for this pattern. The little round kitties on this print are so much fun – it’s like wearing Neko Atsume on your body. The simple plastic buttons are from my stash. I always get compliments on it when I wear it because of the print. This whole costume turned out much better than I anticipated so be ready for an abundance of photos in this post. If you want to see more pics, check out my Flickr album. I also promise to keep this post as spoiler free as possible. So, why Game of Thrones? Well, the costumes on that show are fantastic. And GoT has no shortage of fabulous lady characters of all types but I like Margaery’s character for several reasons.

As a young queen she’s clever and ambitious. Tenacious, self-serving but at times truly kind. She’s loyal to her family but is always looking out for #1. She knows how to play the game and she does it with flair. And she is played superbly by the lovely Natalie Dormer whom I first watched on The Tudors many years ago (her signature smirk is difficult to mimic, I tried my best). But in the end, I thought I could figure out how to design one of her iconic costumes without needing to use a pattern. Let’s talk about the dress. After assessing pictures of the real costume, I used the highly accurate method of “Let’s See if This Works” to design my version.  I did a combo of flat pattern manipulation, draping, and excessive pinning until I got a bodice shape that worked. From the production stills, it looks like a wrap front gown with skirt gores. So I designed a cross-over front with hooks and eyes for closure. As for the skirt, I measured my waist, divided it by six, added seam allowances and cut 7 gores (one for overlapping in the front) that widened at the hem.

I lined the skirt and the bodice with white muslin. The shoulder bits wrap over from front and attach at the back sides. There’s actually a trapezoidal shaped piece under the neck connecting the two shoulder pieces in the real version but for mine, I decided to simply make the shoulder parts wider to meet in the middle. The main bodice fabric is some poly brocade from Joann, a lucky find as I struggled for months to find a suitable design with the correct colors. The only problem – it frays and snags easily. The shoulders are a stretch velvet, also from Joann, stiffened with some deco-bond-like Pellon interfacing for handbags, and are attached by hand tack stitches in a few spots along the bodice. The skirt used voile from Fabric Wholesale Direct. It was cheap, wide, and the perfect color. I lined the skirt and the bodice with white muslin. What to do with my hair kept me from taking photos for so long. I hate wigs, usually, but I had to admit, my natural hair wasn’t going to cut it.

So I bought Arda Wigs’ Grace Classic in Light Brown. I still don’t enjoy having an itchy, sweaty scalp but for less than $40 it was the perfect hair for this costume and I’m glad used it.Margaery hails from Highgarden so flowers play a major part in her costume motif. Her house motto is “Growing Strong.” I purchased my resin rose belt from this Etsy seller (highly recommended, but it looks like she’s no longer making it. You could always send her a message and ask). The belt is attached with skinny ties on either side sewn into the waist seam. I’ll try wearing this cosplay to the local Comic Con in the fall. I had better wear it while I can, the final season of the show comes out next year! Yep, I’m on a roll and perhaps even a little obsessed. Most of my sewing the past couple months has been geared toward some type of sports, exercise or outdoorsy-ness. This is my first Patterns for Pirates make and it’s pretty successful. These are the Peg Legs – a simple leggings pattern with no side seams (yay!) and no waistband elastic (double yay!).

(gotta maximize that shipping!). It’s a fancy UnderArmor HeatGear poly/elastane knit with SPF 50+ and wicking ability and all that cool stuff. I made a size medium, capri length but this fabric is so stretchy the legs could easily stretch to my ankles. My only struggle with this pattern wasn’t with the design itself but the assembly. P4P uses “no trim” printing pages. You just line up the edges. At first I thought this was cool, no cutting! But my printer doesn’t print less than ~3/4″ from the edge in any direction. That means lots of edges got cut off including most of the page numbers. For example – is this a B or a D? I’m pretty sure it’s a 4?? In the top corners, printed numbers 1, 4 and 7 get so truncated that I can’t tell them apart. A page number printed in the center of the page (like a watermark) would have helped. There wasn’t even a full page layout image included in the instructions to which I could compare my printed sheets!! Ugh, that annoyed me.

Luckily there weren’t many sheets as this pattern is only one piece (you cut the legs shorter for the four length options and the waistband is just a rectangle you cut out separately) and the pattern tells you not to print a couple pages if you’re below a certain size. If I were to make these again I would even out the rise between the front and the back. The back waist is a little high for me and the front waist is a little low. Since these leggings have no pockets for keys they’ll probably be relegated to yoga/exercise rather than running. These were a fun pair to whip together in an afternoon – few pieces and even fewer seams! But they’re a little plain. Next time I want to try the Sewaholic Pacific Leggings as they have more decorative seaming and a back zip pocket at the waistband, better for running. The photos of this dress were taken at the launch party for my friend Melissa’s brand new sewing book, Sundressing. Check it out – the book features designs for both women and girls and shows you how to alter a simple bodice block into all sorts of fun summery dress designs.

I finished this dress at the last minute, the day of the party. The details can be difficult to see with this fabrc so here’s the line drawing: This rayon came from… I’m actually not sure where but I’ve had it for years. I at one time cut out some sleeves from it. I don’t know where the rest of the shirt/dress those sleeves were to be attached to are now however… The pattern is McCall’s 7381 version C. I liked the front ties and back elastic waist. I sewed a size 12 but I think this pattern has too much ease. I’ll go down a size next time. I helped combat the ease by tightening that elastic in back but the dress is still a tag big in the shoulders and bust. The only bit I messed up: I gathered the sleeves. I misinterpreted the “ease-between-dots” dots as “gather-between-dots” dots. But since the cap gathered so well it makes me wonder just how much extra ease was built into that sleeve cap? It doesn’t really affect the dress at all. Maybe it’s the rayon or the stitched down pleats at the skirt and shoulders, but this dress has a vaguely 1940s vibe.