Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Signature Look by Ruffles and Stuff



This week our guest judge is someone we all know and love....the fabulous Disney from Ruffles and Stuff.  She is one of the first sewing blogs I latched on to and I have admired her style and signature looks for so long.  She is such an amazingly, talented woman! From her upcycling and refashioning ideas, to her eye behind the camera, she is one of the best of the best.

Welcome Disney!  We are so thrilled to have you here with us this week....
 

Hello, everyone!!

Let me first say how much fun this event has been so far. I am so impressed by all these designers! And the adorable little models sure aren't hard too look at. ;o)

Speaking of those little models!
Kids can be so tough on the clothing budget. It seems like the younger the kids are, the less time their clothes last! A couple of years ago I did two posts about making your girls' clothes last a little longer after they've been stained or outgrown; It was so fun to come up with all the ideas!

The first post was on refashioning her tops.
Because of stains: 


Getting too short:


Fitting at the wrong time:


 Etc. :O)


Then I did one on pants and skirt.
Turning dresses into skirts:


Making overalls fit longer:

And one of the ideas was turning a simple pair of knit shorts into a skort. 'Cause little girls need to be able to play sometimes without worrying about the rules of ladylikeness. Paige wears bike shorts under her skirt a lot, but I love to skip steps, so the skort is my friend. :O)


For our tutorial today I decided to make her a midi-length skort. I love midi skirts and dresses! It's such a flattering (and modest) length.








All you need is a pair of simple shorts and a little fabric.


The original skort was made with cotton, which is just fine, but this time I chose knit because, well...it's easier. :o) This knit is from rufflefabric.com, which I cannot say enough good things about. Best fabric ever. But any t-shirt type fabric would work just as well!


  • First measure your waistband and double it. (i.e. 18" waistband, 36" fabric width) The length of your fabric is totally up to you. Paige's was about 12" long, about a 4T-5T.


  • Fold your fabric in half width-wise with right sides facing and pin the edges together. Sew with a strait stitch.



  • Gather the skirt until it is the same size as your waist band and pin it on with right sides facing, skirt facing upward (as pictured).
(To gather: Sew along the top of the skirt with a straight stitch on the longest stitch length. Then pull your top thread as you gently scoot your fabric down with your other hand.)


  • Shorten your stitch length back to normal (or a little shorter) and sew the skirt to your shorts with a zigzag stitch.  (Pull the basting/gathering stitches out if you like, or not, I never do). :O) 


All done! Let the cartwheels begin!


If you haven't mastered the cartwheel, you can just jump up and down. :o)



I hope you enjoy! And good luck making those clothes last. :o)

Thanks so much for having me, Elizabeth and Liz!

Love,




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6 comments :

  1. Cute ideas! They do grow so fast. It is a great idea to save their clothing and make the pieces last a little longer.

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  2. Thank you so much for the kind words! It was a pleasure to be a guest today!

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  3. Disney... Such good ideas!! Just when I thought there were no new ideas in sewing. So so clever.

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  4. Love it!! I love skorts like this! And I hate how, at so many stores these days, they have "skorts" that still make it look like my nine-year-old (or four-year-old, etc.) is wearing a mini-skirt. So not what I'm going for! The "midi" length is so cute!!

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  5. So darling! I love it. Thanks Disney!!

    Genevieve

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  6. Because of you and your marvelous ideas, I've collected and refashioned a lot of my little girls clothe to make it last. Thanks. Now I'm off to check out that fabric shop you mentioned!

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