Upcycled T Shirt, Done pretty!

I made a black cardi/shrug from an old black t-shirt. Not a new idea, but this was my take on it. I went back to the same post on CraftStylish for the basic instructions and ran with it on my own from there. Looks very cute and perfect for my summer dresses.

I think the sleeves make it really feminine, considering it was a plain black t-shirt before.

Instead of ruffles on the front, I put pleated ruffles on the collar.

 Anyhow, it's fun to make a new wardrobe out of old stuff, cluttering my closet. Our weather here in Calgary is somewhat warm, but not always warm enough for strappy summer dresses, so this will help. I can wear them and throw this over top, so the chill doesn't get me!! Hope you like!






Cheers and happy St. Patrick's Day!!
Viviana

Spring Blossom for a Winter Day

It is -24 today with a windchill that makes it -33...so in order to get through this with no mental damages, I have decided to keep busy with my sewing and creating for my spring clothes, if spring ever comes that is!!
I must tell you, that I have been checking out tons of sewing blogs, trolling for new ideas. And of course, it helped that this weekend I got a great deal on a few t-shirts (bargain prices!!) that I can play with without feeling guilty. I also got a new shipment from Stampin' Up, which included a new blossom die which is (no pun intended) to DIE FOR!!

So here is a sneak at my new die,  yummers, no??

Sneak a peek!!

The new die has these beautiful flowers, oh my they definitely look wonderful and are a good size, none of these puny baby size blossoms here! Well, maybe a couple....

So the shirts I used for this particular project were 40% off the lowest price.

Notice I got 2 shirts in 3XL (I am a XL, but wanted the extra fabric for what you'll see.

I took the pink one, cut off the sleeves and removed about 5 inches off the bottom. I also took it in quite a bit under the arms, and left it fuller at the hips. I have a wider bottom so I don't like my tops to fit tight along there, usually they are too big for me at the shoulders, so I normally take them it at the arm pits anyhow.

I then took the sleeves and cut as many flowers as I could out of them, both in the small and large.

I layered them (3 large petaled and one small for the big ones) and hand sewed them together, then pinned them onto the top using my wonderful dummy body.

 Lucky for me, I have this really great plus size body form (size 14, just my size!!) So I can try things on it and make sure they will fit me properly. Though I am a little shorter, this form works well because it allows me to pin and tuck where I need it most. I got it from a store for plus sized ladies (it was not easy finding one though, took a couple weeks), and covered it with vintage dictionary pages to hide the logo!

This is how they looked once I sewed them onto the blouse.

I think it was so easy to just use my die cutter, the whole thing took me about 1 hour to make!

So there you have it, my own blossom blouse....very much like the one seen here for a lot more...

I quite like mine, for $3 plus time, worth it for sure!

Cheers and enjoy crafting,
Viviana