Upcycled Skirt and Pants

My mother-in-law brought over some garage sale finds and a few things that she lost the receipt and could not return.  I kept looking at this shirt and thought it would make a nice skirt for my khaki loving 5 year old.  I thought with a quick hem and some elastic it would be realized in no time.  

 I started by folding the bottom of the shirt up to just below the armpits.

 I used the bottom end as a guide to cut.

 I folded over the cut edge just over an inch so after it was sewn it would fit the elastic piece.

 I then sewed the waist hem, leaving a small opening for the elastic.  Using a large safety pin I threaded the elastic (cut to be slightly smaller than her waist). After threaded, I sewed both ends of the elastic together and then completed the last inch of the waist hem.  In about 5 minutes, it went from shirt to skirt.

 She liked it so much she insisted on wearing it the rest of the day. Comfy, cute and will last a few years.

With the leftover material, I attempted to make pants too.  They did not turn out quite as well as the skirt, but with either a longer shirt or just as cruddy pants they will do the trick.

First, I cut off the collar.

 Then, I folded the shirt in half to find the middle and cut along the fold.

I trimmed the excess to make the sleeve it a pant leg. After cutting one, I used it as a template to cut the other so they would be even. 

I pinned the right sides together and stitched along the edges.

 The waist of these could be done with elastic the same way as the skirt above, but I was out of elastic and decided to do these drawstring.  I ripped the stitches from part of the seam I just made (just over an inch from the edge of the fabric) which will be the opening for the drawstring.  I top stitched the outside of the seem so that it would stay.   

 Next, I turned down the waist about an inch and stitched around the whole waist.

 I used a large safety pin to thread the drawstring through the waist.

 THe finished pants.
You can see there is a puff at the shoulder of the shirt.  

But with a shirt over them, you cannot even tell.  For maybe a fifteen minute project, not too bad. 

One adult large women's shirt + less than 30 minutes = a new skirt and a new pair of pants.

ONE

I still cannot believe a whole year has passed.

Her birthday celebration on Monday was similar to the celebration of her birth.  There were so many things going on that it was just at the end of it all.  The oldest three were born in the morning.  We knew (or at least thought) they were coming the night before, so we had a lot of time mentally prepping for their arrival.  With my ignoring of the contractions with Nellie, I have always felt her birth seemed like an afterthought for the day.  Busy, busy, busy, oh yeah and a baby too.  Monday, we had things to do during the day and a meeting right after dinner (the second Daddy walked in).  After the meeting, we quickly sang Happy Birthday with a cookie cake and were off to bed.  She had her first chocolate chip cookie an LOVED it. We will have Nellie's party in July where she will have a smash cake we will do it up for her a little more.

We go to the doctor on Friday for her official stats, but she is about 23 pounds. She is still quite chubby, but compared to where she was around 2-3 months she has trimmed out quite a bit.  No one believes me that her legs are thinner, but the extra roll in her thigh is now in two smaller, more defined rolls instead of just one huge one.  Her eyes have changed from  blue to a combination of blue and green more like mine, Caleb's and Lucy's.  Her hair is not long, but is getting thicker.  The thicker it becomes the more red it looks, just like Toby. She is not officially walking yet, but can take three steps.  She can stand very sturdily for however long she wants, but she was more adventurous in taking steps six weeks ago.  Her sturdiness makes me think when she finally gives into walking she will be able to do it well.

I am afraid to write this in case of a jinx, but she always has been a good sleeper.  She goes to bed at 7 but had been waking up at 5:30 to eat, but has finally decided she can sleep until 6 or 7.  She has 8 teeth and loves her food.  If I don't cut up her food before putting it on her tray, she swats my hand away to get at it.

She loves her siblings and is always trying to be a part of their games.  She and Toby have a similar bond as Caleb and Lucy have.  She lights up when she sees him.  He lets her give him drooly kisses and hit him on the head when she hugs him.

She loves to go for walks and practically leaps into the stroller when are getting ready to go.  She loves the swings and slides at the park and on our swing set.  Her favorite outside toy is the cozy coupe.  If she sees it, she does not stop squealing until she gets a ride.  She even lifts her feet up so people can push her around without her getting stuck. 

We have a pool pass this summer and she loves the water.  As long as she has a toy to hold and is in the water at least to her waist she is happy.  She does "baby laps" in the baby pool.  It is a zero depth circle and she will crawl around the entire circumference (at about 1 in deep). She scrapes her knees and feet doing this but gets angry if I try to stop her.  She loves the fountains too.  She tries to grab the water and will crawl right through them too. (I don't have any pictures of her IN the pool yet)

We are so lucky to have you in our family.  Thanks for being born. 


We have always taken a picture of each baby with Daddy's dress shoe when the come home from the hospital and again when they turn one.  

  

Definitions

The definitions of words can be very important.  After we spent the afternoon cleaning the basement, Caleb read us a book about Abraham Lincoln.  It talked about how Lincoln was against slavery and Douglas said each state could decide.  Lucy decided she wanted to have slaves (so they could clean up the basement).  After a little talk, she now just wants a maid and I told her I was game for one of those too.

Happy Father's Day

We have nominated him the craziest person in the family.  

(Anytime anyone calls anyone else crazy, we stop and say, but who is the craziest, and we all agree, DAD!)

 He can sometimes be serious though.

He somehow manages to balance work, school and family.

And is definitely the fun one around here. 

He is out golfing today, but we spent a busy day yesterday keeping him going from dawn until dusk. When he is at work and we do or see something fun, the kids always ask me to take a picture and text it to Dad (I just got into the texting world in November so it is a new and fun thing).  

When the door opens in the afternoon, there is always a cry of "Dad!" from somewhere in the house.  If it is just me taking our recycling or something they are severely disappointed.  I would say his arrival home is the highlight of all of our days.

Caleb's favorite thing about Dad is that he goes on bike rides with him. They went on a long ride all over Mundelein, just the two of them, at 8 am yesterday.

Lucy's favorite thing about Dad is that he wrestles with her.  She loves getting all tangled up in his arms and trying to escape.

Toby's favorite thing about Dad is playing catch with him, Dad does most of the catching, but he is teaching Toby.  

Nellie loves when everyone gets excited about Dad.  She always wants to get in the middle of it no matter what they are doing.  

My favorite thing about Andy as a Dad is just watching him interact with the kids.  I have always had a soft spot for him playing with kids. Ever since I forced him to hold my brother John Paul as an infant, so I could see him play the part, I knew he would make a great father.  He revealed later that he was scared to death of that experience.  He and John Paul were buddies when we were dating.  John Paul would get as excited as our own kids when he knew Andy was coming for a visit. 

Thank you Andy for being the best Dad in the world and for all you do for our family.  We love you!

A lost art

Apparently the art of holding a mirror up awkwardly to see the back of you hair is lost on this new generation.  Everytime I try to teach Lucy when we do a new hairdo, she gives up and asks me to just take a picture.