repurpose.remake.reuse.reclaim

“Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm.” ~Earl Nightingale Here's a real flouncy addition using wild scraps from my daughter's 2 year-old (now 11) Jungle Party.  This pair is a hit at her school.  She wears it practically every other day. The fabric scraps from the pillow covers (see behind pants) and to cover another sofa did just fine for this pair of jeans. My eldest daughter embroidered this when she was 10 years old, but she outgrew the jeans.  Solution: cut it off and sew it in as an extension to another pair.  Works great! I'll post more later.   For now, have fun extending your creativity...

“Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.” ~Dag Hammarskjold These are scraps from one of my son's old camouflage pants.   Sewed them altogether to make a long piece... Then gather them up. I cut off the hem of the pair of jeans, pinned the extension piece, and used the zigzag stitch. You have to do it nice and slow, otherwise, gathered piece will crunch up in one area. Here's the final product, or so I thought! I have yet to patch up the holes on the knees.  That wasn't too hard. I used the left-over camouflage scraps and sewed them in. But FOR THE LIFE OF ME! the jeans were still short!  How could this be?  Did she grow in a week? I was desperate and I was tired.  I did not want to waste this old pair so I just quickly added another piece to each leg.  Not as flouncy or ruffly but it will do.  For now OR never!  Oh well.  She's just happy her pants are long enough. Lesson le...

“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 ...