The Revealing!

 The Problem:  Tight financial situation. . . too many places our money needs to go!

The Challenge:  To not spend any money on school clothes for the girls. . . Use fabric that I already have, clothes I already have, etc.

The Result: A *LOT* of fun!  The girls loved being able to be a part of the designing and making process.  I had fun knowing that I've hardly spent anything, yet the girls have a few fun new outfits for school!  

Total Spent:  Less than $15.  This includes the new t-shirts with a couple of the skirts I made, a cute piece of fabric I have yet to use, and some elastic!  Everything else came from our own house!

Vivien's First Outfit:  

Her skirt is made from an old pair of blue cords that ALL four girls wore.  Vivs wore them last winter, and they were going in the goodwill box until I saw an idea online to make old jeans into skirts. . . this is what I came up with.  The material I bought when I was pregnant with Lillian!!  It was planned to be a nighty. . .

There was a pretty good sized stain on this super cute shirt that was Lillian's, then Ella's. . . I hated to toss it, and thought I could cover it with something. . . I saw a cute flower online and tried to recreate it - it's a little big, but it covers the stain!  The ric-rac stem covers the rest!!

The leggings are made from the sleeves of an old shirt of mine.  I've kept the top of it - not sure what I'll do with it yet, but I'm not ready to toss it quite yet!

My Favorite Projects:  Milo's Dress Shirts into Dresses for the Girls!

I saw several tutorials online on how to create a dress from a man's shirt.  Here are my attempts:

An old sweater vest of Milo's became a cute school-girl dress for Lillian!

With the remnants of the vest that I'd cut off, I made cute and warm leggings for Vivien:

A Play Dress for Ella

When Steve & Barry's was going out of business last year, I'd purchased this adult 3/4 sleeve long shirt for $1.  I wanted Ella to wear it as a dress.  She did. Once.  It gaped at the neck and was quite baggy around her body.  I knew it needed to be altered. . .

The first thing I did was add a little bit of lace at the top - not the most wonderful solution, but very easy and she loved the girly-ness of it! I still struggled with how baggy it was around her tummy.  I tried to pull the threads where it's gathered, to gather it more - when I later looked at it, it had loosened & I must have broken threads as it was starting to come apart.  I added a line of elastic along the front, and it looked HORRIBLE - very uneven and 'curly'.  So that was ripped out. . . I finally thought to do this:

I used elastic thread and "shirred" the back.  It's kind of like smocking.  It turned out SUPER cute and now fits quite well!

The girls got a Loft Bed last year - so I was about to donate their bedskirt - until I started thinking about how much fabric that was at my fingertips!!  I still have skirts on the go that I'll finish soon, but I thought of a cute dress for Madison.  As I got going, a shirt to pair with jeans sounded more her style.  If you look down at the girls' feet here (Madison with her best friend, Lindsay from a couple of years ago) you can see a glimpse of the bedskirt.  Green, white and pink stripes. 

Here is what I came up with:

Madison was given a very cute long sleeved shirt.  It was way too big for her, so I had put it away for later, until I'd made those leggings for Vivien out of my shirt.  I dug this one out and decided I'd make some for Ella.  Here's how they turned out. . . 

Here she's wearing a skirt that both Madison and Lillian have worn, and a back to school shirt of her own from last year.  It all looks new again when paired with these cute leggings!

After cutting the sleeves off, I had a vision for Madison.  A little more shirring, some work on the neck & sleeves, and this is what I came up with:

Some twirly skirts. . .

When we first started going through fabric, Lillian fell in love with some remnants of orange fabric.  I'd made a car seat cover with this being the contrast fabric a few years ago and this is what was left.  I added a tie with some wooden beads and Lillian was in heaven!  I found this t-shirt on a great sale, and then made the flower out of scraps & a few more wooden beads.  The outfit was complete!

My friend, Skye makes a tonne of SUPER cute things.  When I saw a purse that she made with the most adorable flower on it, I knew I wanted to make one to go with Ella's skirt.  This was my first attempt at the flower - it definitely needs work, but Ella couldn't be happier, so I'll be leaving it for now!!

She loves how twirly this skirt is!  The material from this skirt came from a maternity dress of mine!!  So much fabric in such obscure places. . . 

Here's Madison's version of the twirly skirt.  Hers is more a-line than Ella's because I didn't want it to look so 'little girl-ish'. 

The girls loved their photo shoot!!  Now they're ready to wear their school clothes for REAL!

I have several more projects either on the go or planned.  I'll post pics when I have another batch to share. . .