Hello Readers. I really went wild for the color orange and made a top to go with my orange pants. I found this orange fabric at a thrift store months ago and it looked so fun and summery. Let's make a orange top.  You can't have too much orange, right? I hope not because I had a good amount of this fabric. I wanted a simple shirt and this pattern was perfect. The orange fabric is the star of the show here. I chose the pink top on the front of the pattern. This is Very Easy, Very Vogue 8062. (Spoiler- It was very easy.) I cut out all my pieces and adjusted the length of the top ..read more

 Hello Readers. I went all in on the color orange this week. I really like this color and I realized I had several orange pieces on my refashion rack and it was time to get them finished. Nothing was wearable so, I needed to get cutting and sewing. I think if you are going to wear brights, you have to commit 100 % to it. I tried to go all in.   I found these wide leg orange slacks at a thrift store. They were new with tags, so were the matching sandals. I loved the wide leg style but the length was no good.    I gave them a big cut in length and a new hem.    ..read more

Hello Readers. Today's project is a play mat for my little guy. He was 5 months old when I made this and he needed a soft place to play. It started with this mauve Christmas tree skirt. I was not a big fan of the mauve, and I already had a tree skirt we used every year. This circle shape was great and the material was in wonderful condition. Christmas Tree Skirt to Play Mat I was going to cover the mauve material with this cute blue and green flannel.  (Similar flannel fabric here.) It was super soft and would be nice for my Sweet Pea while he learned to roll over and crawl. I want ..read more

 Hello Readers. Spring is here and I am so happy it is warm enough to wear dresses without freezing or wearing heavy tights. But some dresses are just too sheer. Or so light weight the blow around in the breeze and expose all your bits and pieces to the world. This happened to me once. #HauntedByTheMemories   Two is better than one? In this case yes!   These dresses fit well and I love navy. I also love stripes so both of these dresses were perfect for me. But I don't trust white clothes. They always feel see through to me. What if it rains? It's like an accidental wet t-shirt ..read more

 Hello Readers. I am loving the warmer weather and the lighter weight clothes of spring. It is so nice to wear less layers. But some of the spring/summer clothes I have in my sewing room are a little too light weight. This skirt was a hand-me-down (Thanks M.D.!) and I wanted to make it work.   A skirt on top of a dress? Why not?!?!   The white dress was a little too sheer by itself. The animal print skirt also seemed too sheer. I don't trust white clothes. A surprise spring rain and your clothes are see-through. This happened to my white shirt at a church picnic a long time ago ..read more

 Hello Readers. It is spring and that means it is getting warmer and we don't need to bundle up like we live in the arctic. This blue plaid fabric just says spring. Let's make some light weight spring pajamas. Grandmom's house dress to fun pajamas. (This is not really my Grandmom's dress. I wish it was.) I used a pattern for boxer style pajama shorts. I cut the shorts out from the bottom of the dress. The hem of the dress will be the hem of the shorts. That will save me a lot of time.  I sewed the 2 pieces of the shorts together.  I folded the waist down and made a casing ..read more

 Hello Readers. Someone asked me to make them a bag for their yoga mat, to make it easy to carry it to exercise class. They asked for a few pockets for water and their phone. I was inspired and I got to work.  This project was guided by what I saw on Sewspire. You can find them on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The videos on YouTube are very informative. I found this fabric in my sewing stash. It seemed sturdy enough for a bag. It was cute too. These 2 pieces would be the outer and inner layers of the bag.  I would need straps, this ribbon seemed like a good choice and it ..read more

 Hello Readers. I like thrifting but sometimes the clothes I like don't fit. I started sewing about 30 years ago so I could alter my own clothes and make them fit. This post is an example of an easy alteration that anyone could do. Before and after. I found this sweater and this shirt at different thrift stores but they went together so well. Pink is perfect for spring, and the sweater is perfect for a chilly spring day. The problem is that the shirt was so big, it made lumps under the sweater. I wanted to wear the shirt under the sweater so I would need to alter the shirt.  I u ..read more

 Hello readers. When I saw this colorful shirt I thought it was so fun. The colors seemed to complement this striped dress so well. I love pattern mixing, I wanted to wear them together. But the plaid shirt was so big, it really needed a little help. Before and after.  I saw this long flowy shirt and loved the look of this piece.   I knew I needed to draw the shirt in at the waist and give it a little shape. I needed elastic. I used 1/4 inch elastic.    I added the elastic to the inside of the shirt. It makes a huge difference in the shape of the shirt/jacket. I ..read more

 Hello Readers. I sew often and that means I need to iron quite a bit. My ironing board was in terrible shape but it wasn't difficult to make a new cover.Read on and I will show you. A fresh new cover might make ironing less of a chore. This poor sad ironing board. I love to sew but I am clumsy and forgetful. I have burned and scorched my ironing board so many times. It looks awful. Let's make a new prettier cover. I found a piece of cotton fabric that was strong and sturdy and that was a little bigger than my ironing board. I removed the burnt fabric cover from my ironing board and u ..read more