Oh What Do You in the Summertime?

We've been very busy at Casa Dominguez this week.  Here's a sampler of our deeds (I'm leaving out Keira's sewing adventures - she'll be doing a post on that soon):

Do you use an oil-based paint pen to turn black and PINK soccer cleats into black and BROWN soccer cleats?  

Do you clean out your sister's pantry? 

Do you make darling mini donuts? 

Did you paint a picture for Marcy's birthday?

Did you make and gather stuff for seminary?

Did you create a fairy village and name it "Pixie Hollow"? Laura did.

Did you make up-cycle a dress for a 5 year old from a woman's shirt?

Yup. We were busy.  What did you do this week?

Pattern Review - Simplicity 4206

I only made the top from this pattern (so far). It is a very easy top - and very easy to adjust.  I added a band to the end of the sleeves for a little interest and a band to the bottom of the bodice to make it a little more modest.

Upcycled skirt

Goodwill is SUCH a fun place to shop!  I'm wondering if I can talk Keira into one more trip this week (it's practically on the way back to her house after we drop off the teen cousins at EFY).

I forgot to take a before picture - the original skirt looked much like the one I made - only it was twice as long and twice as wide. 

Someone else went to the trouble to make all these horizontal pleats...all I did was sew one seam up the back, turn the top down (twice) and stitch an elastic casing.  I'm not quite done with the skirt - I'll have to take it back up to Washington and try it on Miriam so I can adjust the elastic length.

Upcycled dress

I found this humonguos little beauty at Goodwill.  It looked like it had  possibilities. I like the dip-dyed effect on the skirt.


I had Miriam try it on, then I pinned it about where I wanted the width of the bodice to be.



I then cut armholes and neckline (I think I used a pattern for a guide for the armholes.



I cut sleeves from the leftover fabric, using a puffy sleeve pattern piece.



The color is great on her, but I'm not thrilled with the neckline - it could have used a little something more (more than white bias tape).



For a bit of fanciness, I braided some leftover skirt material and then coiled it into a circle and stitched it together.





All Boy (Simplicity 2319)

What? You don't believe me? I promise, this post is all about boys. Really.

Girly pattern? No problem.

Simplicity 2377 - Review and revision.

I was looking for a simple top pattern for a little girl...go ahead, look through the pattern books...I'll wait.

Yeah, they are few and far between.  Most of the tops in the pattern books seem to be store-bought tee's.  I was looking for something a little different...after making the dress pattern found in Simplicity 2377, I said to myself, "Self, you could easily make a top out of this."  I opted for just lengthening the bodice front and back pieces about 10-ish inches ( I also made it go straight down from the armhole seam instead of tapering in).  I also used the shorter neckline elastic like I did for the dress. That's it. Easy Peasy.



I lengthened the sleeves on this top about an inch.



We went from fabulous to awesome possum by adding the matching top to this cute skirt. I wish I was young enough to pull this off.



Simplicity 2377 - Review

I am so in love with this pattern...we're practically going steady.  I've made three items from this one pattern - all a little different.  This pattern seems to run pretty true to size. Let's start with the first thing I made.