Tee for two and two for tees

For our September challenge in the Upcyclers Team on Etsy we were asked to make something with tee shirts.  Since my daughter is a skinny little thing that grows out of her tee shirts vertically quicker than anything, I decided to take her old shirts and make her a "new" dress. It was very simple. 

I had two shirts that were the same width. I cut both the shirts into strips horizontally, then using the cutest top and sleeves sewed alternate pieces of the tees around the bottom of each next strip until I got to a length I liked. I didn't hide the seams. I sewed these strips one over the other because I like the rolled edge of the jersey showing. 

I added a swath of thrifted fabric from an old sheet and got an (almost) instant dress for summer or anytime of year.

This is an easy (and free!) project you can try at home with your own (or your kids) old tee shirts, a great use for tees with a small permanent stain. Just cut around the stain. 

Have a blast creating your own "new" summer dress that is easy to wear, easy to wash , and super cute!

I had a customer ask me to make some bird wings. These ones: http://llevoelinvierno.blogspot.com/2011/03/make-alitas.html

I love the look of these but as I am a free spirit and hate patterns, well, I had to do them my way. I have a large stash of thrift store fabrics, maybe bordering on hoarding but that's another blog altogether. Anyway, I cut a half circle that was 44" wide and cut it again in half to have two triangles, just like the instructions on the other blog only a little larger. I free hand cut the feathers from scraps of fabric about 2-3" wide, the only difference from the instructions was I used pinking shears to give it a more textured edge. After I was finished with the wings, instead of adding bias strips for the neck, I made fabric strips wide enough to fit the velcro strips I had and then added the velcro to the ends sewing it all together to make a simple collar and cuffs. I then added 3 buttons to the middle of the collar and one to each cuff. After that, I added rayon cording loops at the neck and arm of each wing so that the cuffs and collar can be buttoned at different points on the wings as the child grows. It turned out great and my customer really loved it. Here's some pictures of the finished product. 

collar and cuffs are easy release velcro

I can do it by myself!

wings overlap while the child is small

buttons on the collar make the wings adjustable

Display ideas for craft fairs

I thought I would show the results of my display search. Here it is. Lots of junk repurposed into jewelry displays along with some store bought ones I had already from previous years of selling. We were under some trees so some of the pictures had less than ideal lighting, but you get the idea. Happy hunting!

I used old crates and boxes to add height and
scarves for color

Me and Miss Priscilla ready to sell

We are ready for our closeup!

Close up of my stacked boxes

Shutters held earring cards, I hung a mirror from the canopy

an old printer drawer makes a great pendant box

an old stand up mirror and some scarves thrown on the canopy for color

I found the clear step display (right) at the Goodwill

My father in law helped me build the ring tray from an old board
the crates helped the necklace boards from blowing away in the wind,
a problem I had at the last show