Stones and a Pebble: Sew Addicted

It's no secret that I'm broke this summer. (Maternity leave ate up my summer pay checks this school year.) However, I feel like we here at the Stone home have done a pretty good job of living within our means, and making the most of the down time we currently have. For me, that has entailed taking on several new sewing projects... sometimes to the neglect of housework! All that to say, my favorite latest project has been making baby dresses from old t-shirts. I used this pattern/tutorial. Some tutorials on blogs are poorly written, and I find myself re-reading them several times to get past the poor grammar and awkwardly phrased sentences. However, this one is really great and easy to understand/follow.

I've learned several things that make sewing t-shirt material a bit easier. First, STARCH. Especially when a narrow strip of material is required, starch the heck out of the material BEFORE you cut it. It makes life so much easier. Then you can cut, fold, iron,and/or sew the material without the edges curling up. Speaking of which, you can make your own starch. Just use one heaping tablespoon full of corn starch mixed with one pint (two cups) of water, mix well, and put into a spray bottle. You will need to shake the bottle a bit between uses, as the corn starch does settle to the bottom. The second thing that helps when sewing t-shirt material (also known as jersey knit) is to make use of the stretch stitch patterns on your sewing machine, especially around arm holes and other areas that will receive a lot of stress. Even the straight stitch on the stretch setting (there's some alliteration for you!) makes a big difference.

Here are some pictures:

This is the first attempt. I left the arm holes and hem raw, as the jersey knit won't unravel anyway.

This is how you prep the "yoke" for the top of the dress. 2.25" strip, folded in half, ironed, opened up, and then folded in on each edge, ironing as you go. This is the part where the pre-starching really, REALLY helps.

This is the second dress, prior to adding the yoke. (I finished the arm holes on this one.)

...and here's the yoke added.

And here's the finished product. I decided to add a band at the bottom of this one.

I really like the way these have turned out. There's another t-shirt dress pattern that I want to try out next, but that will probably have to wait until after the birthday bash (which, by the way, is coming up very soon!)

Here are some other recent projects:


This one is a button-down shirt turned baby dress.

And this is baby girl's birthday present! I'm really happy with the way these turned out!

Baby shoes. I got the pattern from this blog, but it looks like she has changed some things around, so I can't seem to find the same one any more. (Lucky for me, I have it on paper.)