Feelin' Crafty!

I found myself with a week out of school between summer sessions, summer vacation & fall semester. I have had a few things on my "to-do" list for a few months now, and decided to tackle them all last week!!

First off, I bought a pattern about 6 months ago for pillowcase dresses to make for Kaylee. My Mom had offered to make some for her, but I knew I had wanted to try to make some myself. I found a fabric store that was going out of business last week and bought some cute fabric for half price, headed home & started sewing! I ended up making SIX of these pillowcase dresses in one night -- they're quick, easy and super cute on! This is my favorite...

I made Kaylee 3 dresses, our niece a dress, Emma & Summer matching dresses, and have about 3 more in mind....

I also have had a project in mind for myself for a few months & I finally tackled it. I have seen pictures for the past few years of people who convert their old t-shirts into cute dresses. I went through my closet, pulled out a few old tees, bought some new fabric at Jo-Anns & got busy. The Arkansas dress was my first & the Texas Tech was my second. I didn't have a pattern, so I was blindly cutting, sewing & hemming. I think they turned out pretty well without patterns or directions!!

I posted these dress pics on Facebook & had many friends ask me to make them one. So, I'm throwing around the idea right now. E-mail me if you're interested. You'll need to supply the t-shirt & specifications of what you want the bottom fabric like. Since I don't have a pattern, I'm hoping that I can just work easily with different body shapes, heights, etc...

Next on my list was painting this old chest for Kaylee's "big girl" bedroom. I had found this chest of drawers at a garage sale in my neighborhood for $5 a few months ago, and Justin gave me such grief for bringing it home. He kept saying, "So, you paid $5 for firewood, right?" ... and he was being totally serious! Also, our neighbor, Aaron, chimed in & also told me how he didn't think it could be converted into anything that would be decent looking.

Take a look at the before & after pics & let me know what you think:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I think it turned out pretty well! I painted it white, sanded down the edges for the "distressed" look I wanted, and then antiqued it with a kit that I had bought years ago at Wal-Mart. I'm so anxious to show my neighbor how great it turned out. (And Justin did agree that I did a good job on it! Whoo-hoo!)