Repurposed shirt dress

Today I'd like to share a repurposed/upcycled/recycled/(*insert preferred term of the moment here*) project.

Roughly following the tutorial from Made I used an old shirt with holes in the elbows to make a dress for Eva.


It felt like I was winging it a bit to cut the basic shape of the dress, but I think it turned out pretty well. Ahem. Who am I kidding? I am completely in love with this dress!

I changed the belt style around, added a ruffle at the hem, and set off the dark colours with a hot pink bias binding around the ruffle, to tie in with the hot pink buttons at the centre of the yoyos at the neckline.

This kind of recycling is infinitely more satisfying than collecting stinky old piles of plastic milk bottles!

Child's shoe tying aid

Sometimes the simple things in life can be unexpectedly pleasing, and for me this sweet little craft project just hits the spot.

It barely needs explanation - draw around shoe on card, cut out, poke holes and thread old shoelace through - and I even managed to complete it with my demanding 3 year old *helping*, so it must be an easy one.

Even so, there's something about the laid back colours and the shape of those cute little Converse that just makes me smile.

It has yet to actually become useful, however, as Eva refuses to participate in the shoelace tying lesson. Despite my protests that I already know how to tie my shoelaces, the only response I get from her is "Mummy, you do it". I think we'll be buying velcro fastening shoes for a while yet.

Denim wellington boot bags

In view of the delightful British weather today, my post is aptly about wellington boots, or rather the storage thereof.

Once upon a time the humble wellie was a rarely seen creature in our house, venturing out only for the odd summer festival, and again for the annual 3 inches of snow we Brits love to panic over.

Then along came the children. The wellie now enjoys its place in the spotlight, being regulation wear for puddle splashing, leaf kicking, playing in the park and garden, and somewhat more surprisingly being styled with dresses for party wear, or perhaps with just a nappy for a more casual post-bathtime ensemble (fashion decisions entirely out of my hands, I hasten to add).

To make the muddy boots a bit more portable I made wellie boot bags out of a pair of old jeans.
I cut off each jean leg below the knee (one bag is shorter than the other due to the huge tear in one knee of the jeans; then again one pair of wellies is shorter than the other due to their owner being two years younger, so it works out well for now!)

I then made simple drawstring bags, with squared off corners at the bottom to allow for the width of the boots inside, garden twine for the handles, and appliqued wellies, fixed with Bondaweb (Wonder Under) and a decorative running stitch outline.

Practical yet cheerful - just what we needed!