Operation Project $0: day 7, upcycling the Tee Times 3 by Blank Slate Patterns

Welcome back Operation Project $0 fans - today I am continuing to build my kiddo's fall wardrobes for $0!!!  If there is one thing that I feel my children always need more of in their wardrobes it is T shirts.  I can always use a few more easy to wear basics that are super comfy for them to play in.  And the great thing is that you can pretty much always make a new T out of an old one ;o)

I was lucky enough to test the Tee times 3 for Blank Slate Patterns this summer (testing= free pattern!).  Let's just start by saying what a VERSATILE pattern this is.  You start with a basic ringer Tee... you then have the option of short or long sleeves, then you have an optional hood, THEN you have the girly version with the Peter Pan collar and key hole back.  All of this in one pattern.  It is perfect for boys, it is perfect for girls, it is made of knit and will quickly become a staple in your child's life!

As you can see I kept it cool and classic with a plain red with grey lined hood for my son, A - for this I used an XL long sleeve men's T (that hubs had never liked, or worn ;op)... which is the only reason I could get long sleeves and a hood out of one shirt - hoods take a large chunk of fabric.  The grey lining of the hood was a super soft work out T of mine that was just too short.

For baby girl, I grabbed an old Shirt of mine - I swear post three babies all of my old tops are just too short on me now ;op  So sorry ladies, that purple knit is indeed an upcycle!  For both shirts I was able to re-use the original hems which equals a professional finish and a super quick sew!  The collar and bindings are made form left over scraps of her pants.  Her pants are made from an old pair of yoga pants that were donated to my stash - so I whipped up the Lily Giggle Petunia Petal Pants to make a complete outfit.  And that perfect purple button - well, it came from my Amish button jar... so I guess technically we could say the button cost $0.01 ;op

Yep - these are the SAME pattern - and here is the funny thing, they are also the same size!  I wanted the shirt to be a little bit big on baby girl and long enough to wear with leggings (anyone else find that ALL girl tops from the stores are cut about 2-4 inches short, or super skinny... even in the toddler sizes ;op).  So you can see that the top hits her at the hip and has plenty of growing room in the shoulders... she is such a big girl.  I did cut the sleeve length to her size so that they wouldn't be too long.  A is my skinny man, he has a couple inches on his little sister...but I'm thinking he might weigh less - tall and skinny this one is ;o)

And look at these smiling faces - yeah these are two kids that LOVE their new clothes.  And yours will too!

What have you been sewing up for $0?!?!?  Make sure to upload your images to the Flickr group so that I can feature you next week!!!

Operation Project $0: Day 6 with Sutures and Sandpaper

Did you all (or 'all y'all' for those of you'ins South of the Maxon Dixon line) miss the awesomsauce  that is Operation Project $0 over the weekend???  Well I missed you, but I have also been getting to preview our amazing guest posts for this week - squeee... and LOVE them all!!!  Well, today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Kerry of Sutures and Sandpaper.  Kerry and I have only just 'met', but when I saw her up-cycle flip of the Rollerskate Dress HERE, I knew instantly that she was the type of girl that I wanted involved in this series!  In browsing through her blog, I have come to quickly appreciate that Kerry not only has some serious sewing chops, she also has a great sense of style.... this outfit is no exception, AND she uses my favorite color in the whole world!!!  So give a big round of hugs in welcoming Kerry - and make sure to take a few moments to check out her blog!

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A huge thank you to Suzanne for inviting me to participate in this fun series. I'm a little star struck to be included in this line up with some of my blogging idols!! My name is Kerry and I am very new to the blogging world. I blog with my sister Linda over at Sutures and Sandpaper. I am a mum to three little buttons, wife to a very understanding husband and work part time as a doctor. 

Project $0 has been a real eye opener for me. This is one of my favourite outfits that I have made in ages and it cost me $0!! I think I will be doing a lot more up-cycling. It is obviously cheaper but it also made me feel good to take something old and unused and give it new life.

I was given a lot of clothes by friends and family when I mentioned I was doing this project. It took me the longest time to sort through and decide on the colour palate. These are the items I chose...

A short sleeved men's shirt, a pair of women's slacks and a long sleeved knit top.

 And... here is what I came up with...

Ruffle Peplum

From the men's button up shirt and some white poplin I had left over from another project I made this ruffle peplum. I used the bodice from the Tinny Pattern and added two layers of ruffles to the bottom. I had recently used the Tinny for my entry in the August Flip This Pattern on Frances Suzanne and I knew it was a perfect fit for Eloise. Next time I will lengthen the bodice or ruffles a little as it is only JUST long enough. I will also add another button just above the ruffles as I found it opened up a bit when she was wearing it.

3/4 Shorts

I used the women's pants and a small amount of the men's shirt (for the inside waist band and pocket linings) and some red bias binding I had leftover from a jacket I made. I used the free Small Fry Skinny Jeans pattern from the sew along on Craftstorming. I made my first pair a couple of weeks ago and fell in love. I chose to shorten them to make 3/4 shorts. They came out a bit long (I made them late one night when Eloise was asleep) but they also have an adjustable waist so they will grow with her for quite a while yet.

Cardigan

I used the knit T-shirt and a basic T-shirt pattern and drafted my own pattern for this little cardigan. Then I made a long tie out of the remnants. I will do a up a tutorial for this on my blog very soon.

Street Kred Cap

I was selected to test the Street Kred Cap from Apple + Fig Patterns (nothing like a last minute addition to the outfit, right?) and had JUST enough of the pants and shirt left with the addition of some red quilting cotton, I had already, to make it up. I used part of the pants pocket/waist band on one of the hat pieces as a feature. I had about 10cm of piping left after I made this so I think it was meant to be :)  Keep an eye out for this cool pattern release in the next week. I will be blogging about my pattern test this week.

I will do up some tutorials for the top and the cardigan and a pattern test review on the hat as soon as I can.

And for good measure some unashamed photo bombing of my little Eloise in her new outfit...

She has definitely got some "street Kred" in this ensemble

Eloise showcasing her range of "serious" modelling poses ;)

Thanks again Suzanne, for inviting me, I had so much fun and now Eloise has four new garments for spring :)

Kerry xx

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Thank YOU so much Kerry for joining me in this endeavor!!!  I think my favorite part of this outfit is the red piping and stitching on the pants - sooooooo my style!  I can't wait for the Cardi tutorial on your blog, I have a few t'shirts that I'll just have to set aside for that!!!  And I want the shoes!!!  I also love how friends and family came out of the woodwork to give you things.  When I started, I only had my own closet to pull from... now I get donations from family and friends all the time!!!

Keep uploading those images of your own Operation Project $0 creations to the Flickr Group!

Operation Project $0:Day Five with House of Estrela

Welcome back, I hope everyone has been enjoying the first week of Operation Project $0, 2013!!!  I am loving each thing that my lovely guest posters are bringing to the table, and today is no different.  Today, I have Magda of House of Estrela here to share.  Magda and I share a heart for upcycling and making full wardrobes for our children without breaking the bank.  Magda did a whole series on refashioning during the month of July that was awesome - and I shared my Crumbcatcher dress.  This is also the same awesome lady who designed the adorable blazer I posted earlier in the week - I hope you heard that we all want it in WOMEN's sizes girl!  If you haven't already, you really should check out the House of Estrela blog and see all the cool happenings!

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Hello Winter Wonderings Wanderings and Whatnot readers. My name is Magda E. from House of Estrela, where I blog about my sewing adventures, from Portugal. As I mentioned in my inspiration boards post, Suzanne's series might be just my favorite, because it has me, me, me written all over it. So, I loved the challenge, and am excited to be a guest today. 

I've been doing Operation Project 0$ basically since September 2012, when I made a commitment with myself of not buying anymore clothes for my daughter (or myself). I succeeded and in January I made the commitment of buying the least I could for my sewing too. For that, I decided I would only sew from my already (never ending) existing stash, or refashioning clothes that we already had or that have been given to us.

The idea of taking this line of thought and create a Fall/Winter wardrobe for my daughter was already dancing in my mind when I was invited by Suzanne to be part of this, so it was just the kick I needed to follow my idea. But, when I started to go through what she already had and what she could probably need, I realized this girl already had everything she could possible wear in one season.

One of my points of spending 0$ (or as close to it as possible) is not wasting time... who hasn't heard the saying Time is money!? Well I know I have and believe to be true. So, in order of putting all of it together, I chose to sew the one garment she really needed in her wardrobe, and that was, a robe.

All the way back to February 2012 I had a brilliant idea. I made her first robe out of a small (travelling) fleece blanket. It turned out so cute and warmth and it lasted! But, kids grow, and although she looked adorable in the pink and purple one, it was time to get a new one. I went with red this time. Her first robe matches the decorations from her nursery, but I plan to re-decorate it one of these days and use reds, and that's the reason why I used a red blanked this time. 

I didn't have it in my stash. I bought it for 3,5€, but since I have behaved so well (only bought about 3 pieces of fabric this entire year and have used them right away) and refashioning as much as possible, I could go with the 3,5€ for a robe. 

I honestly like the first one better. For this one I used a pattern I recently won: The Little Lady Jacket by Seamingly Smitten.  - FREE pattern, see?! - Yes, it is a jacket pattern, but it was really close to what I had in mine. I didn't make the lining though, so I finished my seams with bias tape, and used 5 small front buttons instead of 3. The buttons and the polka dot fabric in the bias were already in my stash. 

I had tried to use the B buttons several times, but never got around to it. I thought this was the time though. My daughter's name is Gabriela, but I often call her just Biela... see?! Starts with a B. Perfect. But I only had 4 of this and needed at least one more. What to do? Well, use another button that was in my stash forever, a bear's head. I think it's a nice detail snapping in the middle of the B's.

I didn't like the collar though, it's slightly ruffled but I think it looks weird. I'm starting to think I am picky with collars. really. I think I liked the first robe self drafted pattern better when it comes to the collar and details, but I really wanted to do one with these sleeves this time. I only added polka dotted band in the left side of the robe's front piece, and simple finished the right one with a zigzag stitch.

I tried to get pictures taken to my little miss wearing her robe. It's been quite hot to wear anything fleece these days, but that wasn't really a problem for her. She wore it happily, actually she was so happy that these were the best photos I got from her:

Then I got silly and tried my 6 year old niece to try it on... ahahah... it was too small and tight for her, but at least she was a more cooperative model, so you can have an idea of how the collar looks on.

And that's it, I hope you all liked it. If you'd like to see some more of my refashions click here.

I'd like to thank Suzanne for having me and for being such an adorable person. It's great that we can do things that are sustainable, save some money and pushing our imagination while we have fun in the process. 

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Thank you so much for being here Magda, I love the robe... and that it is RED!  What a perfect addition to your daughter's fall wardrobe.

I hope you are getting inspired to sew!  Remember to add your own creations to the Flickr Group, and have a Great weekend - I'll see you back here on Monday!

Operation Project $0: Day Four with Feather's Flights

Today I am so happy to introduce the sweet and talented Heather of Feather's Flights.  She has a passion for upcycling (just like me) and loves designing for and dressing her adorable son Henry.  This summer I got to join in on her Playtime Pants Blog Tour - and I absolutely love those pants. 

you can read my post about them HERE

If you haven't checked out Heather's Blog, you totally should, it is filled with fun tutorials for children and mamas... she also has a weekly sewing round up called 'You Flew Tuesdays' where you can link up all your sewing goodies.  Anyways, I am so happy to get to share Heather  and her $0 project with you today!!! ----------------------- 

I am so excited to be here today! I love the idea of Project $0 and have tried to keep the goal of $0 for my son's wardrobe this whole year. I've been successful so far! When Suzanne asked me to be apart of this series, I couldn't think of anything to make for Henry. I am planning on making him a Fall/Winter collection, but it hasn't gotten even remotely cold yet here. I could think of lots of things that I needed, so I decided to make something for myself. Recently, one of my friends gave me about ten of her husband's button up shirts that they didn't want anymore. I used two to create a fantastic dress for myself.

I cut two shirts up and sewed them together at the waist to make a dress. I kept as many button-up shirt details as possible like the pockets, collar, and front button plackets.

 I've decided this is the perfect dress for women. It's super comfy and "chasing kids" worthy, it can grow with pregnancy or shrink with post-partem, it has nursing access, it has pockets, and it's just cute and fun.

It started raining right at the end of my photoshoot. Luckily, the camera was under a covering, but I wasn't!

Henry snuck in this picture wearing leather work gloves. Don't mind his naked legs!

Thanks for having me Suzanne! Thanks for the $0 inspiration; I can't wait to get started on Henry's Fall/Winter collection!

Operation Project $0 day three: Curtains turned trendy Blazer

Well since I talked about curtains yesterday, I figured I would continue the theme today with another $0 creation using drapes.  And I'll reference a second movie where the curtains are cut up by the female heroine... Enchanted, I love Enchanted, such a great movie... inspiring girls everywhere to destroy the household curtains and create gorgeous dresses and eventually become entrepreneurs (no, I am not recommending you cut the curtains that are STILL hanging from the rod... that results in this face...)*sorry for the ad at the begining of the clip ;o(

Seriously love that movie!

Ok, but back to my curtains and kickin blazer.  These curtains were another donation from a friend who had long since changed their design aesthetic in their home.  As soon as I saw the floral pattern and weight of the fabric, I KNEW it was destined to be a jacket... and so it has been waiting ofr over a year.  Then Magda of House of Estrela contacted me about testing her new one size blazer pattern that she will soon be offering for FREE!  Now part of Project $0 is not spending money - so that means not spending money on patterns either.  I have built the majority of my pattern collection through testing patterns for designers, finding free patterns on line, and creating my own patterns.  Having a ready made pattern is certainly less time consuming than making one from scratch!!!

I love this little blazer, the little bit of gather in the sleeve, the button tab closure, the curved piecing that keeps it from being too boxy.  This pattern is a size 2, which means it has just the right amount of growing room for baby girl to last through fall and winter - and maybe into next Spring.    The floral lining was a fat quarter sent to me by my amazing Aunt who was de-stashing some of her fabric.  And that gorgeous button came form my button jar (I did purchase the button jar 2 years ago form the Amish for $2... but seeing as the jar contained well over 200 buttons, we'll say I spent 1 cent ;op)

The only sad things about this pattern are that  a) it is only in one size.... come on Magda, I'm giving you a year to make me some bigger sizes so I can keep making these for baby girl!!!  And b) you have to add seam allowances.  Now adding seam allowances isn't the biggest deal in the world and is actually the norm in Europe and Japan - it is just one extra prep step, and since the pattern is FREE, you wont find me really complaining ;o)

So what do you think about my second curtain cast of creation????  This was the inspiration form my inspiration board.  Seeing that similar blazers run over $98, I think I did pretty good at $0.01

Source

Make sure to come back tomorrow to see what Heather of Feather's Flights has in store for us...and upload your own creations to our Flickr Group!!!

Operation Project $0: Day two... Sheets and Curtains!

Welcome back dear readers...  today is Day 2 in our awesome journey of Operation: Project $0.

Today I am going to share an outfit that makes me want to sing.... 'When the dogs bite, when the bees sting, when I'm feeling sad... I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't FEEEEEELLLLLLL so bad!'  Ah the Sound of Music, a musical tribute to the art and glory of upcylcing - wait?  That wasn't the purpose of that movie?!?!?!?  Oh well... I still love that a set of drapes becomes awesome play clothes for 7 children plus Maria.

Today, I am transforming a plain sheet and an outdated Valance into a thing of beauty - at least I think it is beautiful!!!

This is the Bubblegum Swing Dress by Candy Castle Patterns.  The Basic Bublegum dress is much more appropriate as play wear, but I completely fell in love with the extra full skirt in this version and HAD to make it.  The sheets were just a little stiff which is what creates the petticoat effect with NO petticoat underneath.  This is a great pattern if you have been wanting a wrap dress to add to your collection.  The Swing Dress add on was for a Sew Along in Candy Castle's FB group... but I have heard that when she re-opens her shop it will be available there to the general public.

(these leggings are an upcylce as well, but I'll do a whole day on leggings!!!)

I'm really loving how the dated curtain becomes new again by color blocking it with the solid navy.  And it feels current since it fits in the color range of the fall 2013 Patone colors

One of the great things about this pattern is that there no buttons or zippers - which just leaves fabric, thread and a little bit of elastic in this garment (you could omit the elastic on the sleeves).   The elastic was scraps I had left over from another project and the materials were both donated to me by a friend who no longer wanted/needed them.  So there you have it, a grand total of $0 to make this beautiful dress that is perfect for fall!

Today, I hope you can all remember your favorite things... 

And don't forget to add images of your $0 creations in the flickr group!!!

Kicking Off Operation Project $0 with CathGrace

OMG - I am doing my very first series on my blog!!!!  Well, I mean this is technically the 2nd year, but last year I think I had 5 followers, and no amazing guest posts to share, and I was really just making it all up as I went along.  This year is going to be SOOOOOOOO much cooler!  And to kick things off in style, I have my dear blogging friend Catherine of CathGrace here to share her Project $0 outfit.  
I have been following CathGrace since very early in my discovery of 'sewing blogs' about a year and a half ago.  I was then humbled to get to compete along side her in Project Run and Play's Season 6... and somehow I found myself with her in the final three.  Catherine has the most impeccable sewing skills I have ever seen, her attention to detail is sublime, and somehow she achieves the best fit in children/tween clothing.  She honestly is one of those people who I can say has inspired me to become a better seamstress!
Over the next month I will be sharing my creations and all the amazing stylings of this line up of ladies:

CathGrace

Feather's Flights

House of Estrella

Sutures and Sandpaper

Shaffer Sisters

Simple Simon &Co

Chasing Mermaids

Hideous Dreadful Stinky

Stitched by Crystal

Sewing Mama Raeanna

Welcome to the Mouse House

Alida Makes

Max California

Frances Suzanne

If you are new to the blog and want to know more about Operation Project $0, You can check out the Origins HERE and the intro to OPO 2013 HERE.

And here is Catherine to share both her beautiful creation and model with us today....

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I am so excited to be here today for Operation $0, thank you so much Suzanne for inviting me!!! About 99% of the time, I sew out of my stash rather than buying anything new for a project, since I tend to buy fabric as I find it on sale, rather than waiting to have something specific in mind (my stash pretty much rivals most fabric stores, some people may say I have a problem.......) so this series was right up my alley! My daughter Emmie has been asking for a new dress for a little while, in an Anthropologie "style" (since she is a tween and has gotten all opinionated :) ) and I decided that this series was a great way to kill two birds with one stone! Here's the dress she settled on for inspiration,

and here's my Operation $0 offering, Emmie's Anthro-ish Dress,

I used 2 yards of navy and cream striped, cotton fabric for the outer body of the dress, and 2 yards of a plain cream, cotton fabric for the lining.  The cream was originally intended for a quilt from a couple of years ago that I still haven't gotten around to, and the navy and cream stripe was just an "I like it and will find a use for it purchase" from a quilt shop. The main reason I stash sew here in Korea, is because I am about 1.5 hours from a fabric store, so I keep 20-30 zips on hand, a huge box of buttons, etc. because if I need something to finish a project, I can't just run out and get it at Joann's. 

I begin every project just looking through all my fabric, then finding what I have that will all work together from findings to trim, and that's what I can make right then. It's pretty impossible to buy for a single project here from beginning to end, the fabric markets aren't set up like that, you will never find the same fabric again later if you don't buy it as you see it, so you just buy usable yardages of things as you like it, with the hopes that you will find something to do with it later! 

 The bodice is made from my own block that I made for Emmie off of her measurements, and then refined in a fitting, with 2 darts in the front, and 2 darts in the back. I changed from the original Anthropologie dresses shape here, since I wanted to make it more child friendly; I widened the straps, and raised the neckline. Emmie is also not super into sashes, as in she REALLY doesn't like them at all, so we went with a leather belt instead.

 There is a cream hidden zipper in the side, that was a 22" zip from my stash, I just cut it down to length.

I tried to line up all of my stripes through all of my seams and darts, and I even tried to gather the skirt blue stripe to blue stripe, so that the pattern stayed visually uninterrupted. 

 Emmie always feels fancy when I sew a label into her handmade clothes; I guess they feel more real to her then! I sewed the label to her lining before sewing it to the dress, so that the stitching didn't show through the back of the dress. As a side note, I try to always mark my clothes for size so that I don't have to try to remember later what fits, and I can pass things on to others more easily (when I am custom making something, I tend to mark it with the size I know she is in store bought clothes, Emmie is a 12-14 right now, so I just put 13 as an estimate)

The whole dress is lined in the cream cotton, I loose lined the skirt so that it acts as a petticoat, and the fully lined bodice makes the cream stripe more opaque! The lining skirt is about an inch and a quarter shorted than the outer fabric skirt, so that it never peeks out the bottom of her dress.

I'm pretty sure Emmie felt fancy in her new dress, she was determined to borrow a red belt and a pair of red heels from me (since we wear the same shoe size) but I was able to get her to settle on something more child appropriate :)

 The belt was mine from 100 years ago at Target, and I just had my husband punch an extra hole in it so that it fit her! There's a hook and eye at the top of the zip to take the tension off the zip (and I have the zip starting about an inch below the armhole, Emmie was worried about zipping her underarm skin into the zip, and that alleviated her concerns!)

 Emmie pretty much felt like a movie star, with the addition of her new prescription sunglasses, I think we are going to struggle to get her to dress in jeans and a t-shirt again after this! (getting *fancy* water on your photo-shoot break is a CLEAR sign she's a movie star right?)

 Emmie loves dresses as everyday wear, and I think that although this dress looks more dressy, the cotton fabric will make it easily washable, and she won't have to think twice about romping about in it!

 (And of course in a dress this posh, we had to do a country club photo shoot right? I just want you to know we were chased off the golf course shortly after this picture was taken :) )

Thanks again Suzanne for having me, it was fun to get a dress that looked this expensive for no money out of my pocket!

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Didn't I tell you!!! Amazing - look at those stripes all matching and the DARTS.... squee.  I'm now thinking baby girl needs a dress like this... I think I just realized that all of these guest posts are going to seriously lengthen my 'to sew' list ;op  Thank you again Catherine for joining in on this Operation.  And I hope all of the rest of you will be back tomorrow to see some of my own creations!

Don't forget to add your images to the Flickr Group 

so that I can see what you can do with $0!!!