A Weekend of Stash-Busting

Tara over at Scoutie Girl has been declared April to be Stash-Busting Month - and she's been linking to some great tutorials. We've been doing our own stash-busting here at Gratz Industries - making a bunch of new clothes for me and Jo without buying anything (except some elastic). I already showed off Jo's new butterfly skirt (made with a sheet I bought at Goodwill several months ago) - this weekend I went sew crazy and churned out everything you see in that pile above.

I started off with some jammie pants. This is what I wear all the time and every pair I own is threadbare and sad. I used the pattern in Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing book and tweaked it to fit me a little better - now I have new comfy pants and a perfectly-fitted pattern to make a bunch more.

I got together with a few friends last week to spend a day sewing skirts. I ended up making a bunch for Jo - but this weekend I drafted a new pattern for myself and got cracking. This is such great fabric that I simply sewed it up with no embellishment. The fabric has been in my stash for YEARS.

This one is made from a pretty lavender sheet. I embroidered a couple of Queen Anne's Lace blooms (one of my favorite flowers) and I got a start on doing a little scalloped crochet on the hem. I've never done that before - I'm eager to see how it turns out.

This is the biggie. More fabric I've had in my stash for years - I don't even remember what I bought this for. I'm appliqueing a bird on it and I have some very elaborate embroidery planned. I may be finishing this on the flight to Japan - we'll see.

Making things for myself was kind of a nice novelty - but Jo was't completely left out. A while ago I made this A-line dress for her from one of Alan's old denim shirts (it's featured in my book). She finally grew into it - but decided it was "a little plain" and asked for an embroidered orange cat. So there it is. If you want to make one yourself you can download a PDF of the pattern here.

And this isn't stash-busting, but I love how it turned out so I'm going to show it here anyway. I've been on the lookout for a used denim jacket for Jo, but I've been striking out so I finally bought her a new one. The price made me cringe, so I bought it a size too big, with the plan to turn the cuffs up until she grows into it some more. Jo was ok with that, but she thought the plain tan lining on the cuffs was - you guessed it - "a little plain." I thought about embroidering a design, but I think it would wear out really quickly on cuffs - so I just drew on it with Sharpies. Jo loves it.

The jacket also got some button love. Is it sad that my 7-year-old daughter dresses cooler than I do?