Upcycled Baby Shirt Goodness

Nesting? Yes, most definitely. Over the past 24 hours, I have made seven baby shirts for the little guy. One for every day of the week, of course.

Update! Want to make some of these yourselves? Between this baby gown tutorial over at This Mama Makes Stuff, and my tutorial for the two-tones sleeves, you can make these too!

This "I Rock" tee is the only one of the seven made from a thrifted tee. (The rest were free from the hubby! The hubby bought a few new t-shirts the other day, and you know what that means.... adding some of his older ones to my fabric stash!)



Before I knew him, my husband was really into "No Fear" apparently. He has about eight of these "No Fear" shirts. They sure do make some bad-@ss baby shirts though :)



A men's XXL shirt is big enough to make two, count them two size 3-6 month shirts. Woohoo! For the first one, I utilized the print on the front of the shirt. For the second one, I made it out of the plain back side of the shirt. That enabled me to do some decorative applique on the plain ones :)

This first applique was store bought... Joanns clearance for 99c. I figured I would use the image to create a Valentines shirt for my first son, however since he was born on Valentine's Day, that didn't really pan out. He gets cute little number shirts to wear instead, declaring how old he is :)



Excuse me while I drool over these next baby shirts. I love me some red and white polka dots. And in the shape of the best state in the nation? Just an added bonus :)



Every little boy needs a necktie shirt! No need to reinvent the wheel, so you can check out this tutorial on how to do it over at Crap I've Made


Just a side note about the appliques... Make sure that you make a mirror image of your print before you draw it onto to your fusible web. Yeah, I forgot to do that. Every time. Seriously. It's really easy- here's how I do it. I find a picture online that I would like to trace (something simple!), and then I print screen on my computer. You do this by hitting control, alt, and print screen simultaneously (at least on my laptop that's how it's done). Then I open up the program "Paint," press "control, V" which pastes your picture into the paint program. There's a feature in there to flip the image horizontally. I do that, hold my fusible web up to the laptop screen, and trace around it. Voila!

You might have noticed that all of these shirts have two-tones sleeves. This is for two reasons. One, I like the look :) Two, I utilized the sleeves from the men's tees that I was upcycling, however, as they were all short sleeve shirts, there simply wasn't enough sleeve fabric to make long baby sleeves.

I could have made the long sleeves out of a different portion of the shirt, however I really wanted to utilize the hem on the original sleeves. Luckily, I have enough t-shirt scraps lying about, that I was able to turn all these men's sleeves into baby long sleeves! (Are you sick of the word "sleeve" yet? It's one of the words that the more you say it, the weirder it sounds. Sleeve. Sleeve. Sleeve....)

So in case you are interested (is anyone still reading this??!) in making some long sleeved baby shirts, here's how I did it. First of all, visit This Mama makes stuff for her tutorial on how to make a baby gown from an adult sized tee. I simply made the baby gown shorter and didn't do the elastic bottom, and you've got yourself a 3-6m tee. I laid a long sleeve shirt on top of the pattern, added a bit of an allowance for the hem (which you don't need to do if you're using the hems from the bottom of the adult tee), and then marked on the pattern with a dotted line where to cut.

When it comes to the sleeves, I used two coordinating men's sleeves to make one long baby sleeve. The part of the sleeve that connects to the shirt itself is made from the same color as the shirt. The part that goes down to the wrist is made from a coordinating color. I utilized the hemmed part of the sleeves for both the upper and lower parts. Less work, baby.

Are you still following? I really should have taken photos along the way.

I always cut out the top portion of the sleeve first, and then lay the bottom portion on so that it overlaps the hem of the upper portion. After cutting the bottom portion out so that the total sleeve is as long as the pattern, pin the two parts together, and then slowly sew over the existing thread lines from the hem on the upper portion. This creates one long sleeve with two pretty colors! Hopefully. If you understood all that mumbo jumbo. I know pictures to look at would make it easier. So sorry! Maybe I'll make another one and take pictures of the process this time. If you want me to, let me know and I will! (That's a good excuse to make one more baby shirt, right?)

Other than that, I think using the baby gown tutorial should get you through! Good luck! Oh, and let me see if you make one too :)

Handmade Baby Shoes Minus the Interfacing

Yes, that's right. In my haste excitement, I completely forgot to add in the interfacing. I've always shied away from projects involving interfacing because I didn't have any and was too cheap to buy some. I always figured I'd find some at a thrift store when it was meant to be. A few days ago I finally found some, new in the package, for... wait for it... thirty cents, and I knew right away what I wanted to do!

Equipped with an awesome tutorial at michaelmillerfabrics.com, some elastic, fabric and interfacing, all thrifted, I set out to make these baby shoes. It wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be. Here are baby Jonas's little safari shoes :)





This is the shot of the sole. I think it's pleather.
I should totally make Joel a pleather motorcyle-ridin' jacket :)

Halloween in June

My son loves Elmo. (shocker, right?) Since my parents got Joel an Elmo costume for Christmas, I decided that being Elmo for Halloween this year would be a good choice! The other day, at two different garage sales, I found him an Elmo treat bucket (50c) and some Elmo tickle-me gloves ($2) to go along with his costume. He's all set!

For baby Jonas, who will likely be less than a month old when Halloween rolls around, I decided that dressing him in a Cookie Monster costume would go cute with Elmo. Several years ago, I thrifted a McCalls pattern for baby clothes and hats. I never did use any of the patterns on Joel, so I figured I better get some use out of it, because there's no way I'm going through pregnancy again in case this is the last time I have a baby!



I made the sleep sack out of some fabric, vintage bias tape, and a vintage zipper from my stash. (I love me some vintage, thrifted notions!) Unfortunately, when I went to make a matching hat, I discovered that the hat pattern was missing. (Darn those used patterns). Never fear! Using Prudent Baby's awesome pattern, I was able to make a matching baby bonnet. Since I was not using fleece, I needed to finish the edges, so I added more bias tape. I also left off the ruffle on the front, since Jonas is a manly man-child. The only thing left to do is find some thrifted ping pong balls and add some googly eyes to the top of the bonnet.



I decided to add a felt cookie to the front of the sleep sack. I figured attaching it with velcro so that it could be removable would be the best bet. I'm pretty sure felt shouldn't go through the washing machine. The world doesn't need another felt cookie tutorial (plus I didn't take any photos of the process), so let's just suffice it to say that I used some thrifted fusible web to make the chocolate chips and some batting sandwiched between some tan felt from my stash. I probably should have used a blanket stitch around the outsides, but instead I used a straight stitch on my machine because that was a lot quicker. You can still tell it's a cookie, so I'm okay with that :)

Upcycled Baby Gowns

Baby sewing! That's all I've done since about 9 or 10 last night. (I do believe I'm in the nesting phase right now). Following thismamamakestuff's extremely awesome tutorial, I was able to create three baby gowns for baby Jonas for free, just using old t-shirts from around the house. Even the elastic used at the bottom of each of the gowns was thrifted :)

This first one was actually a 50c thrifted tee that I bought awhile ago. I had intended to make Joel a long sleeve shirt to wear in December, but since I never got around to it, I figured I'd turn it into a baby gown.

For two out of the three gowns, I was able to utilize the bottom hem of the shirt for the cuffs of the sleeves. For the Chris Kringle: Designer Chimneywear shirt, however, I had to hem the sleeves. I made it easier on myself by hemming the sleeve before I sewed under the arm. (Once the sleeve is sewn, the cuff is so small that it's difficult to sew. Just a little pointer from me to you!)

The second one was a shirt that's been in my closet since 1996 when my family took a trip out west. It's seen better days, but it did make a pretty cute baby gown.
I got this last t-shirt in junior high. It's by far the rattiest most well loved of the three. And guess what? Ratty t-shirts make ratty baby gowns. Who would have guessed it?!

In about four months, I'll have an actual baby that I can model these gowns on, but in the meantime, these photos will have to do :)

Are you sick of Baby Thrifting? Me Neither!

I'm trying to keep my mind off of the house. This house is a wreck with boxes stacked everywhere, and we can't get into our new one yet... so how about a post chock full of thrifted baby clothes?!

I love posts where I can combine my two favorite things: photographs of my son and thrifting! Woohoo! Here we go :)

Thrifted Soccer tank top, still new with tags, and 50c khaki shorts.
Notice the pretty bush in the background :)

Thrifted brown Gap Polo with adorable plaid shorts that were a gift.
Notice the cardboard box in the background... packing is good times!

I have become addicted to thrifted baby ties.
The dress pants and dress shirt were thrifted too.

59c pants with a 45c "Beep, Beep!" shirt

A rocket onesie, because my little man is as smart as a rocket scientist!

A very thrifted outfit, right down to the shoes!
I splurged a little on this sweater ($1), and he only got to wear it twice. Bummer!

Another one of my favorites! Same black dress pants, but different thrifted tie and dress shirt.

Thrifted plaid shirt, Gap jean shorts, and Champion shoes all for under $3.
Will someone please tell my husband that those jean shorts are cute and not straight out of the 80s?! He doesn't like the faded look AT ALL.

A little polo and blue shorts

We got a lot of mileage out of these 59c pants and little polka-dotted jacket :)

Well, after LeBron James left, this jersey isn't very fashionable anymore.
We can't wear it in public for fear of getting jumped by angry mobs of ex-fans.

"One MILLION dollars!" (Doesn't he look just like that guy from Austin Powers?!)

Thrifted soccer tee with handmade t-shirt pants.

50c tee with a pair of pants that were a birthday gift.

Isn't this thrifted Gap hat the absolute ca-utest?! Still new with tags!
The blue jacket was thrifted too for 50c.

My baby's first steps!
To do so in a thrifted outfit is just an added bonus!

Celebrating our independence in a thrifted tank top,
while holding thrifted flags!

Another small splurge on this tee. I saw it at the thrift store, and even though it was a whole dollar, I bought it. My husband grew up on the south side, and this tee just spoke to me :)

A cute 45c football sweatshirt, matched with Wrangler jeans for 75c.
What I loved about those jeans was their orange trim!

Thrifted Baby Fashion Show II

I can't help it. It's been almost a month since my last thrifted baby fashion show. I had so much fun doing the first one, so you know I just had to have a sequel!

Winnie the Pooh Bowling shirt, which I love, love, love!

All tuckered out wearing his $1 garage sale PJs

Blue dress shirt and tie. I like how he chews on the gate, don't you?

You can barely see the pants, but they're thrifted too!

This is actually two different items. The long sleeves are part of a onesie that I thrifted on a separate occasion from the short sleeved basketball shirt.

And because this is my new favorite outfit, here's another shot!
This one includes some thrifted jeans too :)

Great Lakes! Yay for Lake Erie! (And my favorite pair of thrifted jeans)
My mother-in-law says he looks great in orange. Don't you agree?!

A fire truck shirt-- hubby was obsessed with fire trucks when he was little.

An Oshkosh airplane sweatshirt

One of my favorite sweatshirts. He looks like such a little man in this one :)

Thanks for drooling over my thrifting finds photos of my son with me!

Son. One. Fun. Done.

I have a son.
My son is one.
I love my little son who's one.
We had a party and had some fun.
But now the fun is over and done!


Hand-me-down dress shirt, 30c thrifted tie, and 50c thrifted black dress pants. Love it!

The shirt and tie came off, and the clearance bib went on.

Making my fish face.

I saved money by making his cake (in a little thrifted cake pan I might add!) The candle has been sitting around for ages. I actually bought it for T-1's son when he was turning one, and I do believe he's five now. We never did use it, and so I figured we'd use it for Joel. Too bad I broke the foot off and was trying to melt him back together. It worked. Kind of.

Thrifted sippy cup for 19c!

Clearance napkins :) I paid full price for the cupcake liners though (75c I think). Boo!

Clearance party hat from either Joanns or Michaels. It's made of foam, so it's the kind you keep and reuse! I originally bought it thinking it would make a cute wizard hat for the dress up bin.

A thrifted number one (19c) on a quilt I made from scraps. I do love me some scraps!

Speaking of scraps, I made that banner too. My family oohed and ahhed over it. Well, not really. They're not the crafty types. They were like, "I would have just bought one at the store."

Cupcakes with junk mail security envelope flags on a thrifted blue tablecloth.

90c thrifted mobile, new in package :)

$1 thrifted Gap 12-24 months winter hat, still new with tags!! I gave it to him as one of his birthday gifts. I think it's a little big :)

Thrifted balloons. A brand spankin' new pack of 72 balloons for 90c. I don't know how much balloons cost, so I hope this was a good deal.

Thrifted loot bags, new in package. 59c I think. I sent people home with cupcakes :)

Five hard plastic signs, all thrifted, new in package, for 90c. These are very durable and can even be used outdoors with metal sign stakes.

Happy Birthday, little stinkpot! Here's to 99 more :)