TALL AND LONG, PLEASE

-
“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.” ~Abraham Lincoln 

"You're so tall!" A comment my kids are used to hearing but not necessarily endearing (esp. to my eldest).
"Yes, I am." Standing even taller.
"You should play basketball, be a model, be this, be that."
Big sigh...

Well, I've accepted the fact that my kids will always be very tall and long (for Asians anyway, and for their age =.) We have no qualms with that.  The only problem is that they grow out of their shirts/pants faster (lengthwise) and it's difficult to find outfits that fit them just right.  It's either too short or too loose.  Plus it gets expensive.

For a quick solution (time-permitting, of course) is, you guessed it, refashioning!

For instance, TC loves her Blue Marlin shirts but the sleeves and the waist were getting too short.  To revive it, I took one of her old shirts...

Cut off the sleeves and the waistline area...
 And added onto one of her Blue Marlin shirts.
Sewed on the sleeves, embellished with buttons, left a hole on each sleeve for the thumbs (to serve as "gauntlets" on cold days). 
I completed it by sewing up the bottom part together.
Voila...a newly "refashioned" shirt that fits!
She wore this the next day for her PE's iceskating day.  It kept her hands nice and warm.  It's an easy, fun and economical project to make but you have to know exactly what you want and have all your needed materials ready to go.  Otherwise, it can be time-consuming trying to figure out what to do.

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 27, 2010 at 6:19 PM

    Oh my gosh!! You are so awesome!! How did you ever think of this? Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. christinE g. leongMarch 27, 2010 at 7:23 PM

    Kereina,
    Thanks for visiting. I've been extending my kids' clothes since they were little bec. they grow up so fast! This is the first time I took photos & posted them. I frequent craft blogs--one in particular "Ruffles & Stuff" (very time-consuming but so inspiring) which gave me the idea to share what I've been doing. It's lots of fun to make IF you don't mind the mess (which my husband does) and IF you can stay up all night.

    Come visit again. I've been unusually busy this month! It's really March Madness in our home.

    Your kids are growing up real fast! And they're so gorgeous, just like Mama & Daddy.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Timeless Calendar

-
Image
Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of.  ~Charles Richards I used to buy calendars based on its aesthetics--cover and inside pages. Now I purchase them for practical reasons. I kept most of my old calendars because I liked the design thinking it can be reused for another year. I never did. All the while, I didn't want to throw them out. They're quality-made. So, here's one solution I came up with: Use it as a photo book. Why not? It's so easy. Potpourri of photos I've received from friends over the years, insignificant but memorable pieces of paper, ie. ticket stubs, fortune from the cookie, stickers, etc., filled the pages of this 2000 Made In China desktop calendar.  I have another one, Hecho En Mexico , somewhere. Now if I can only find it. Here's a work in progress: One of the reasons I chose this calendar was because of the vintage images and it's Chinese (my kids love looking at the old stuff
Read more

SOMETHING RED...

-
Image
"Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them." ~Richard L. Evans Six years ago, we had a Red Party for my son's 2nd birthday. Everything was red.  From our invitation to our food: watermelon, lasagna, fruit punch. We had a lot of red items so it was easy to plan. For favors, we put together MY RED BOOK . I had my 2 older girls (then 7 & almost 5 years old) draw pictures of anything naturally red.  They did most of the work.  I just assembled them. They had a great time brainstorming and drawing simple images that came in red. Like a crab (when it's cook, of course.) A Robin (ever heard of the book, The Round Robin?) Photocopy on 8.5x11 white paper.  Believe it or not, I did not have any working computer at that time.  I overworked 2 iMacs but we had a copier that still works to this day. Cut in 1/4s, punch holes and assemble with brads. Add any stickers that come in red (like these ladybugs
Read more

The Adventures of Tintin

-
Image
Have you ever read any of Herge's Tintin books?  DSL is a big fan of the young Belgian reporter. He's always borrowing them from the library.   Les Aventures de Tintin  is a series of  comic strips   created by  the  Belgian   artist,  Georges Rémi  (1907–1983), who wrote under the pen name of  Hergé .   I learned of him when I did a short-term mission work in a French camp near the Alps for a whole summer.  A group of young Bostonian kids came to volunteer for a week and on their time offs, they will go to a local bookstore to buy Tintin books.  I ended up getting my own copy of  Le Lotus Bleu , in French no less. And I bought now-hubby a souvenir shirt.  After more than 20 years, the shirt is still around, somewhere.  Until I found it all tattered up.  I guess I couldn't throw it away.  It's priceless (that means it cost me a lot of Francs to buy that shirt.) The graphics are still intact.  So, I originally planned on cutting it up to apply it on one of DSL's
Read more