Zig-Zagged Sunshine

My family just moved to a new state and I've been picking my way through the thrift stores trying to find my favorites. So far, I've had some success at Goodwill.

The other day I ran in with my two girls looking for something to do for my 3-turning-four year old girl. I saw this yellow dress.

The bodice was a knit and the skirt was a lovely, lightweight cotton that made me wish for a warm, sunshiny spring day. I loved the dress and knew what I wanted to try to do with it. Most of my sewing is self-taught via exploration and experimentation. I don't have a lot of experience with knit so I thought I'd give it a try.

So, back to Goodwill and my plan: I had a vision for an entire outfit and all I needed was a little gray sweater, which I found on the next aisle over. It was the right size for my project--4T. What a lucky day--I never find all the parts to a project in one trip. As we were checking out, these ugly flowers were just lying on the counter. I grabbed them for forty-five cents. Again, lucky day!!!

So, I took it all home, washed and dried the clothes and set to work.

I removed the top two buttons (didn't want them getting in my way) and then I cut the top of the bodice off, just below the arm hole.

See, like this:

Then, with my super sloppy zig-zagging skills, I zigged and zagged all around the top.

I measured my daughter's waist, making sure to add an inch for overlap, and measured and cut some 1-inch wide elastic.

Again, I called upon the zig-zagger and stitched the two ends together, making a loop with the elastic.

Then I pinned the elastic to the inside of the skirt (and stuck a piece of gray grosgrain ribbon in for a tag).

I don't know if you can tell in the picture below, but I tucked the bottom of the elastic down under the original manufacturer's finished edge of the skirt and then, from the front to the back, folded over the knit top and zig-zagged. Ignore the "dishpan hands." I always do....

Next was some more zig-zagging on the bottom part of the elastic.

Now, to be honest, my sewing job was gosh darn ugly. I hoped for something nicer, but, like I said, I don't have much experience. I will say that I'm pretty sure I learned a few things along the way (next time, I might try a fold over yoga-pant type top instead of the elastic and use a bobbin that actually fits my machine, which would save me a little heartache and unpicking).

On to a little crafting (something with which I have a lot more experience). No pictures because the sun went down on me, I had to make dinner and get the kids bathed and ready for bed, so at my normal crafting time (after 10:00 pm) I was tired and just plain too lazy to fuss with the camera. I took the flowers and pulled apart two separate flowers, removing the plastic pieces. I pieced the layers for each flower back together and sewed them by hand. I found a beautiful vintage button and sewed in into the center of one of the flowers and then hot glued it all to a hair clip. The other flower I sewed together including a button and attached a safety pin to the back which I pinned to the gray sweater.

Here is the birthday girl, the next day, in her "new" birthday outfit.

My first linky-link is also Crafty Cousin's first linky party. Check it out: http://crafting-cousins.blogspot.com/