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2 dresses for $2 in 1 hour.


My local thrift store gets clearance items from Target. Usually they are still $5 or $6 so I take a pass. The last time I was there they had all these women's skirts for $1. I grabbed two matching green skirts sizes 14 and 16 and figured I would use them to make something for the girls. Sunday we had a St. Patrick's Day themed 1st birthday party to attend.(Hi Q-man) I had to work at noon and was going to meet up with Dan and the girls after. Around 11:00 I decided the girls needed new dresses from those skirts for the party. This is so simple I thought I would share.

Find your skirt - it should have a wide band at the top and a zipper. There are usually bunches of these at Target for a few dollars at the end of the season. Check the plus size for lots of extra fabric for a matching headband or little purse. Have the recipient step into the skirt with the zipper at the side. Pin for size leaving some extra room. Lay out the skirt and fold the zipper side over to where you pinned. Like this. Measure about an inch out from the zipper side of skirt(solid line). Follow the shape of the skirt and cut. (dotted line) I didn't measure just eyeballed it all. Maddies was a little tight, Annie's a little loose but you know, an hour. Now you only have to stitch the one open side. I used a french seam and had to fiddle a bit with the sides. So now you have a bodice with a zipper, all you need are straps. Cut 2-4"x20" strips from the leftover piece of the skirt. Fold in 1" of each side to meet in the center and press. Now fold in half and press. Fold under raw edges at top and bottom and stitch.
Yell down to the child "Come up here right now so I can finish your dress, I have to go to work" Pin the straps on with a criss-cross in the back. Carefully remove from the wiggly child and stitch the straps in place.

Cut off any loose threads and your done. Okay I hope this all makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions.

Posted by mary at 8:49 AM 6 comments Links to this post

Labels: crafting for kids, easy girls dress, sewing

ATC KIds Swap


We recently signed up to do the ATC Kids Swap. You can read about it here. The girls each created 5 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of art and mailed them off and then received five pieces of art in return. This was such a great little project. Working at such a small scale seemed to really stir the girls creativity. The best part was getting the other kids cards in the mail.

We talked about how these could be a series and Annie created the series Elephants Adventures. Here are four of her pieces. I really wish we got to keep them. I am totally in love with these. 1. Elephants Adventures: New York, 2. Elephants Adventures: Savannah, 3. Elephants Adventures: India, 4. Elephants Adventures: Great Wall of China

Maddie worked quite hard on hers, sometimes thinking of a title and then painting and sometimes naming them after. Her development in painting and drawing has really grown the past few months. As much as I love the bubble head person and scribbles of the toddler drawing I am so excited to see a bit more representation in her art. The little glimpses I get of her imagination and creativity always warm my heart. We used watercolor pencils for these and I think they are my new favorite art material. We use watercolors often around here and they are great but the pencils give the girls so much more control and lead to much less frustration.
Yesterday Annie asked what our next swap would be. I'm glad the girls are enjoying these little projects as much as I am.

Posted by mary at 9:28 AM 1 comments Links to this post

Labels: crafting with kids, kid projects, painting

Remains of the morning. DSC09268, originally uploaded by marytree.

The "making" is always much easier than the cleaning.

Posted by mary at 1:44 PM 0 comments Links to this post