A quick simple gift for a young girl....

We all have those times when we need a last minute gift, right?

Well, yesterday was one of those times for me, it was a tough week after just having been sick, so I have been playing catch up. Last night we had a birthday party for a good friend of my daughters and being low on funds, I needed to come up with something good from what I had on hand. My daughter got busy and made her a beautiful personalized necklace from our bead stash. Then I got busy on the sewing machine. I know that she likes Barbies and that her favorite color is purple, so I went digging in my special fabric stash.

I have a box of material that is scraps of formals and dressy dresses, here I go with recycling again. A lot of glitter and a lot of shimmer makes for wonderful Barbie clothes. I also have a stash of decorative ribbons and embellishments in gold and silver. I have a pattern from Simplicity that I use for some of the dresses I make, I have found a few free patterns online, and I have made a few of my own which I will blog about at a later time.

So, in just a short time I made these....

The one she is wearing is a wrap shirt with an elastic waist skirt. The wrap shirt is a slight variation of one that I saw online. I used the pattern piece for the back of the coat from the Simplicity pattern #M6232 which I will have to narrow down a slight amount for the next shirt I make to get a better fit. The front is adapted from the pattern piece for the front of the coat, I just angled it out farther so that the two sides would overlap and attached small velcro pieces to keep it closed. You could also use a button or snap, whichever you prefer. I like the velcro because it is simple for little hands, so I suggest having some on hand before making Barbie clothes.

The skirt is from the Simplicity pattern and very simple. I also recommend having plenty of lightweight, narrow elastic on hand.

The dress is also from the Simplicity pattern. When making this type of dress, you want to make sure that it has plenty of stretch as it is a form fitting style that just slides on and must make it over Barbie's curves.

This ended up being a great gift, she needed some new Barbie clothes and was very happy with the purple. She loved the necklace from my daughter and put it on right away. So, if you know a little girl who loves Barbie and have a few shimmery scraps available, this can be a terrific last-minute gift. Another option would be to make up a handful of outfits when you have a few minutes so you can just pick, wrap and go.

Until next time,

Lucy from the Peanuts' Gang

Love those last minute costumes?

Part of this was on me, I was sick with a sinus infection over the last week and didn't get anything done last weekend. My oldest daughter is the President of her student council at her elementary school and they had the honor of walking in the high school homecoming parade. They decided on a Peanut's Gang theme and my daughter decided she would like to be Lucy. 

So, on Thursday (with homecoming being on Friday), we headed to the thrift store to see what we could find. We found the perfect dress, in shape and style, but way off in color. Then we found a shirt in the women's clothes in the perfect color and my brain kicked into gear!

It started out as a long sleeve, open placket, v-neck top and became a quite passable "Lucy" dress, if I do say so myself. I cut the sleeves from long to short and then used the cuffs to help puff them up. I used a couple pieces of scrap navy blue to make the little bands across the front. Then I used the bottom band opened up to make a small "ruffle" on the bottom. Here it is......

Now, bear in mind, she has a couple layers under it since we live in Michigan and we were at a whopping 50 degrees last night with a light rain falling. Great night for a parade :-) She also had a pocket full of candy for throwing, so the "ruffle" is a little difficult to see. 

She had a great time in the parade and lots of fun throwing the candy, although only about one-tenth of the way down the route, she said "Mom, I'm out of candy!" 

Well, I'm off to work on a birthday gift, we have a party for one of their schoolmates tonight.

Come visit again and see what I come up with!

Where to start?!?

Well, here it is, my first post to my brand new blog. I blogged a little way back when Yahoo 360 existed.

This time I plan on trying to share some of the many things I have learned since then.

Do you like sewing?

Do you like crochet?

Do you like knitting?

I love sewing and have sewn many things for my daughters, friends, dolls. There are just sew many things you can make, I never have enough time to make all the things I want to make, but I'm trying :-)

My Grandma tried to teach me crochet many years ago, but I just didn't get it. A couple years ago I decided I would like to try again and have learned to enjoy it quite a bit. I have found that it is a great craft for taking along almost anywhere. 

Now knitting, that's a work in progress. I really want to learn because I like the feel of knitted items of clothing much better than crocheted. I would welcome any tips on learning this craft, but I'm going to keep trying.  

Along the way I plan to throw in tips and tricks that I have learned for our homes, our kids, and our crafts. I hope you will enjoy this journey with me.

Come visit again, the next post will be on sewing, I haven't decided what yet, so you'll have to come back to find out.

Thanks,

Linda