Upcycled Onsie into a New Dress

The other day as our family was getting dressed and ready to head out for the day, I realized that both my daughter and I were wearing the bottom half of a cashmere sweater, but upcycled in different ways. Pictured here is me wearing a cowl that is the bottom half of a cashmere sweater, and the skirt part of my daughters dress is also the bottom half of a cashmere sweater.

I just finished the dress, hat, and bottoms last week...still have to finish the booties...

Notes on the Dress: This was a really fun project to tackle, but also sat on the back burner for a while after I had started it, due to running into questions regarding the stretchability of the waistline once the basting stitch was in, and uncertainty in what stitch to use with the gathers so that the skirt and onsie together could stretch. I never did figure that out, and near as i could figure, i would have to pull out the basting stitch carefully after sewing the gathered skirt to the onsie if i wanted the whole works to stretch. also my gathers slide back and forth slightly. why is this? Is it because I am using a loose knit fabric? Perhaps a second time around, I'll experiment a little more and see what i can figure out. It turns out that my onsie was wide enough to not have to be concerned about the skirt having any stretch to it.

Notes on the bottoms: Originally I cut the bottom of the onsie with enough extra on top with what i thought would be adequate to just add elastic to the waistband, but i decided to attach a wide waistband for the comfort factor. I cut fabric from a t-shirt to make the waistband.

Notes on the hat: The hat was made utilizing the short sleeves of the cashmere sweater if i remember right, so i didn't have to hem the edge of the hat. In the photo she is wearing the hat so that the seam is down the midde of her forhead which makes it look like a peter pan pixie hat. It was made intending for the seams to go on the sides.

For the dress project, the sweater was not felted, but after cutting it up, I lightly felted some of the smaller remnants for the hat, and booties. For the cowl, the sweater was also lightly felted.

Photo story below, and showing the bottom half of the onsie.

Discovering mama's sewing drawers for the first time.

ooooh, what are all these colorful things inside?

Beginning to empty the thread drawer. (notice large stash of merino sweaters for upcycling on the side of cabinet)

I have been challenged with picking a name for this post. Here is the list i have come up with:
Upcycled Onsie Dress
Two Rectangles(this one's a little more abstract)
Extend the Life of an Old/Outgrown Onsie
Juniper's New Dress
Transform an Old Onsie into a New Dress
New Life for an Old Onsie

Leggings for Cora...

I finished a second pair of long johns or leggings for Cora the other night. for some reason the crotch area is bunched in a funny way in the photo. Leggings are upcycled from a merino wool sweater.

you can see my unique seam across the middle of the butt. i used orange thread to contrast the pink. The challenge in doing the butt, was that i wanted the ribbed collar of the original sweater to be the waistline for the leggings, but without having to cut it off and resew it back on. After folding a few different ways t achieve a good butt shape, and trying the leggings pinned up on cora, the inside of the leggings was looking like i was experimenting in origami. wished i had thought to take a photo of that. After cora wore these for a day, i noticed the vertical seam in the but was coming apart. ah ha, when i started sewing these a couple months back, i sewed using a straight stitch. i have been in the process of learning about sewing with knit fabrics, and read that there is a steep learning curve when using a sewing machine, perhaps vs. using a serger? i now know that a straight stitch is not adequate for knits, since the fabric needs to be able to stretch, and if you stretch a straight stitch in a fabric that wants to stretch, it just wants to pull those threads apart. It needs boinginess. think of it like a straight stick vs. a coily slinky. the slinky has stretch, and can be extended. if you pulled on the stick, it can't stretch. the stitch has to be able to stretch with the fabric that is also stretchy. there, i said it in a number of different ways, and hope some of that makes some sort of sense to any readers.

Ellastaria Gets A New Hat

While in the months of being pregnant with our second child, and experiencing difficulty in moving around and being on my feet due to a large belly, I found comfort in sitting down to my sewing machine and focusing my energy on making little garments for our baby to be...probably part of the nesting syndrome. Originally this was to be a little hat for our newborn, however perhaps it was my pattern copy printed too small or not remembering to allow for seams, but the hat was just looking a bit too small for the head of any baby I would have.....so Cora's doll, Ellastaria acquired a new hat. Constructed from a felted cashmere sweater. For the ties, I used the "wonderful worms" from the seams of the sweater. At the moment I cannot remember which tutorial I used, so here are links to two great pilot hats... here and here.

Paper or Plastic?

On account of not being able to locate my *pattern paper today or find my daughters tracing paper pad, I came up with this handy way to make pattern pieces. I needed something see through, and as I looked around the room for options, a plastic bag holding some cashmere sweater scraps seemed like a bright idea. It met all the requirements, see through, and flexible, not to mention one more way to recycle a plastic bag.

I am sure somewhere on the globe this has already been done. But at least for today, here in Minnesota, it was my new bright idea.

*pattern paper in my definition of the words is either wrapping tissue, or the large remnant pieces I cut away from store bought patterns and have on hand in my sewing cabinet. Occasionally a harder cardstock works well for certain patterns.

How Many Projects Can You Make From One Sweater?

Sometimes I have a hard time cutting into a sweater, because I can see more than one possiblity for the sweater. Sometimes one project might take the whole sweater leaving only a few scraps behind, and other times a project may just need a sleeves worth leaving mostly the whole sweater for some other possiblities. Here is what I made with one sweater, with only some scrap to spare...

Made from one sweater-a vest made for my six year old, baby booties, and a pair of legwarmers.

The fourth photo shows what scrap of the sweater was left in the lower right hand corner. The color is a beautiful periwinkle heather. Perhaps it will become another pair of baby booties, barrettes for the hair, or little blue bird ornaments to adorn a twig...the possibilities are endless.