game day dress

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my dress. Several of you wanted to know how I did it. You all know I'm not very good at tutorials. I even took a couple of pictures thinking I would show you all how I did it, but then the dress wasn't turning out quite how I thought, so I stopped snapping pics. I did find a couple of sites that will make them for you. I will list several sites at the bottom of this post.

Here's what I did:

I bought a small and medium t-shirt (the same shirt). I cut the top off the small and pinned the dress together where I had cut the top and sleeves off.

I recommend using elastic thread to sew the top and right under the bust. Here are a couple of links where I learned about sewing with elastic thread, here and here.
Although you might want to use regular elastic for the top. I ended up sewing mine tight enough to where I didn't really even need elastic at the top.

Then I cut the bottom of the medium shirt and attached it to the bottom of the small top. I would recommend just buying two shirts of the same size. I had to resize the med. bottom to fit the small top. Make sense?

Mine did NOT turn out perfect by any means. I honestly had no idea what I was doing and used my seam ripper more than I care to rememer.

Visit the Polka Dot Alley if you want to have one custom made for you. They are constantly adding new pictures of the custom dresses that they have made. They also sell a ton of other cute gift items including a great customizable melamine tray that I really want!

You can also visit Ketch the Spirit. This company was started by a girl that graduated from my alma mater. She only makes dresses for a few university. Check her out to see if she makes one for your school of choice.

Adorable Apron

My bff, Chesley and I have been working on this project for a long time. She wanted to make an apron for her neice. She is turning 2 in a week and loves playing in her play kitchen. It is the perfect gift! We bought the fabric in September and cut everything out that weekend. This weekend we finally started sewing and put the pieces together.

Nuts is supervising us.

Sewing is all about trial and error!

Got it right!

Sewing is so much easier when you have someone to do the cutting and ironing. (My least favorite parts of sewing!) Chesley did a great job with these tasks! I did teach her something--how to sew on a button. She brought over her coat for me to fix. I hadn't sewn in so long. It took me awhile to get back into the groove of things. I used the seam ripper a LOT! I think Chesley was scared of me at one point.

Very cute, but still needs something else....

Ruffles!!

The toile fabric came from Hancock's Fabric. I love it! It is adorable and perfect for a little girl. The polka dot fabric came from HobLob. I can't wait to see pictures of it on little Julia.