Thrifting for Kid Clothes: Spring/Summer Edition

Last time we had the Christmas Edition...
now I bring to you, the Spring/Summer Edition!

A thrifted St. Patty's day tee (50c) and hat

50c long sleeve shirt and thrifted khakis

50c long sleeve shirt and thrifted jeans

I love, love, love his Easter outfit!
The tie was my husband's when he was little.

The shirt, khakis, and coat were all thrifted. The coat was $1.50

And here's Jonas's thrifted Easter outfit!
Somewhere along the way, he lost his orange tie.

Having fun at the zoo in a thrifted outfit!

A 50c Rawlings tank top, thrifted jean shorts,

and a thrifted Mickey sleeper for the baby

40c polo onesie

My son loves John Deere, so I bought this for $1.

On a different thrifting trip, I found these green shorts to match!

Cousins! Both the boys are wearing Joel's thrifted swim suits.

The one on the left was still new with tags! Both pairs were $1.50

This iguana tank top was a quarter;

I made the shorts with fabric that was given to me :)

$2 swimming trunks-- a splurge but I love them!

Lightning McQueen swimming trunks, new with tags

A 50c dune buggy tee with thrifted shorts.

The baby is wearing a clearance outfit from Kohls.

Gerber Training Underwear Refashion

It's potty training time in our household!!! Can I get a Hallelujah! (And on a side note, anyone want to share how you washed poopy underwear?)

Anyway, awhile back, I had thrifted two pairs of new Gerber training underwear (they're they ones with the plastic outside, which by the way, do not stop pee from coming out and soaking the carpet). The tag says "tumble dry low." Just FYI, the dryer completely melted the plastic exterior in multiple places. *Sigh*

But never fear, I have a fabric stash a mile high which came to the rescue :)

I ripped off the old plastic coating, got out a thrifted jersey sheet (that's t-shirt material in case you don't know that term), and traced around the underwear leaving an inch or so all the way around for hemming and for a little extra give.

Cut two pieces out (one for the front, and one for the back). You can make the back piece a little larger if you want. With right sides together, I sewed the crotch and sides first.



At this point, the Gerber interior and the new fabric exterior are still two separate pieces. Then I started attaching the two parts together by stretching out the elastic waistband as I sewed. I sewed the top of the exterior as close to the elastic waistband as possible.







If you have a favorite underwear pattern or idea, I'd love to to hear about it!

Linking to Delightful Order's Thursday linky Party!

Sock Monkey Kids' Travel Pillow

Have you seen these seat belt pillows from Super Jenn? After seeing how comfy her kids looked, I knew I should totally make one for the car ride down to the Outer Banks for my three year old. And on a side note, with the HORRIBLE traffic we hit about just before we crossed over onto the islands, it took us 14 hours to get there. It was supposed to take us 11 hours. Sitting in three hour traffic for the last 15 miles was NOT FUN. Anyway...

This travel pillow was a completely free project! I almost forget about the miserable car ride when I think of the word free.

I already had the sock monkey fabric on hand. I had thrifted two sock monkey pillowcases awhile back and had a little fabric left after making a handmade swaddler for the baby.


Aww... Isn't he cute? He's a month old in this photo.
Now he's nine months old!

I followed Super Jenn's awesome tutorial, but I think I would have made the fabric flaps that go around the seat belt a little larger. I never did put velcro on mine because I don't think my flaps are large enough to get around the seat belt. That's okay though, because I could see my three year old throwing a tantrum on the interstate when he didn't want the pillow on his lap anymore. The way I did it, the pillow just rested on him so he could use it or not. He was free to remove it from his lap and throw it on his baby brother when he was done with it. Not adding the velcro also addressed the safety concern that some people had... although really, I don't think the thin flap of fabric that would have been under the seat belt would cause a safety issue. That flap is thinner than a sweatshirt or jacket!

To fill the pillow, I used a combination of thrifted polyfil and t-shirt scraps. I'd say the pillow was a huge success, and in a year or so, I'm going to have to make another one so that boy #2 has one too!

Mock Necktie Tutorial

For Halloween, I thought it would be cute to dress up the baby almost-toddler as a monkey, and my preschooler will be the man in the yellow hat. My son loooooooooves Curious George, but the main reason I made the decision is that I found a 18 month monkey costume on clearance for $5 after Halloween :)

(And by the way, I do realize it's not even Independence Day yet!) Anyway...

I plan on taking one of his dress shirts, a pair of white pants, and a tie, and dying them all yellow with RIT dye. That way, all the yellows match. Aren't I smart? :)

I'm going to make him a pair of pants out of a white linen skirt that my sister-in-law didn't fit anymore. For the tie, I thrifted a white t-shirt with large black polka dots for $1. When I saw the fabric, I knew it was just right!!!

Since this fabric is t-shirt material, I thought I'd just make a mock tie. (You know, a tie that's not really a tie at all). T-shirt material is just way too wonky for the real deal. I must warn you: there's hot glue involved. It just needs to last one day. This is the quick and dirty way to get the tie look without all the time it takes to make one the right way.

I took a few pictures as I went, but they're not the best. So sorry. It's hotter than @*#%^&$#, and I just didn't feel like going outside to get better lighting.

I drew and cut out a tie on a piece of newspaper for a pattern, held it up to my son, figured the size was just about perfect, and got to cutting the fabric. With right sides together, I cut two ties out and sewed them together. I sewed all the way around except for the top - I used the top hole to turn it right side out. Iron flat if you're perfectionist. If not, that's cool too. I sure didn't. You can topstitch the opening closed once the tie is right side out. I didn't, but it would look a little nicer from the back if you do. It won't really matter because the back is not going to show, so either way is fine.



Now it's time to start the faux knot. You will need a hot glue gun, some polyfill, a little more matching fabric, and something thin and plastic that you can cut... like a butter lid or something like that. I used a lid from a plastic Gerber baby food container.

Freehand a knot onto your plastic lid and cut it out. Hold it up to your tie to make sure it's the right size. Take your fabric scrap, wrap it around your knot, and begin hot gluing it down on the back. Hot glue down all the sides except for the top of the knot.



Before you glue down the last side of the knot, stuff in a little poly fill until you're satisfied with the look of the knot. Then go ahead and glue the last side down. Make sure you remove all the hot glue stringy things. You can see I forgot to do that before I photographed it.



Then I hot glued the knot to the top of the tie, added some stick-on velcro to both the back of the tie and the shirt, and voila, you're done!

Nightstand turned Kiddy Play Sink

At a garage sale years ago, I bought two nightstands for $5. Each nightstand had 4 drawers, but between the two of them, there was only six good drawers. I put four operational drawers in the one nightstand, modpodged it with sheet music, and took it to work for my office (I'm a music teacher).

And then junior high kid wrote the F-word on it. *Sigh*

The other nightstand just sat around in my basement for awhile until I got the ingenious idea to turn it into a play sink for my son.

At a garage sale, I scored a metal bread pan and a chrome soap dispenser. The bread pan is the sink. I envisioned the soap dispenser becoming a fully functional spigot. The water goes in the bottom part that would normally hold soap. There used to be a chrome outer sleeve to cover up the ugly white part, but I tossed that since I didn't need it. After I got rid of it, I had the idea that I could have used it as a pencil holder or something. Oh well!

I got out my trusty little jig saw and cut out the openings for the bread pan and the soap dispenser. And then it sat. For two years.

At the moment, we're getting our basement refinished (yay!), and when we were cleaning out the basement, I found the half-finished kiddy sink from way back when.

My. Son. Loved. It. It's a car wash! It's a rock wash! And so much more!

He had so much fun playing with it that now I have to finish it. I decided to just make shelves instead of trying to fix the two broken drawers, so I used luan plywood that I had lying around in the garage (free from a construction site a few years ago-- just make sure to ask first!) Don't look too close at the luan shelves- I'm not the best jig-sawer.

I envisioned a sink apron to cover up the ugly make-shift shelving. I used a cup hook on each side connected with a dowel rod (all of which I already had on hand) to create a curtain rod, and a piece of $1 kitchen-y printed fabric (that I thrifted eons ago) to make the sink apron.

Nightstand + Bread Pan + Soap Dispenser + Luan + Cup Hooks + Dowel Rod + Fabric + Paint = One Happy Boy :)

A Father's Day Envelope Shirt

Here's the little one wearing a shirt that I made especially for Father's Day :) I thrifted it awhile back (it was originally for an adult male, and the embroidery was already on it!), and then I sewed it down so that it would be about 9-12 months.

I used this tutorial over at This Mama Makes Stuff, but I just made it t-shirt length rather than baby gown length :)




I'm outta here!

Thrifting a Third Birthday

I cannot believe Joel is almost three. Wow, how time flies. He has turned into this little person with his own wants and likes and dislikes! One of the things he really likes is construction equipment. (I have an old thrifted "Bob the Builder" VHS tape that he loves to watch for hours on end on occasion because of course we don't let him watch that much tv. Oh okay, you got me).

I was actually going to go with a John Deere party because that's his other love, but I hit the thrifting jackpot with construction party stuff, so construction it is. I found 50c construction cups, bulldozer thank you notes, and 90c Bob the Builder favor bags all still new in the package... I already had yellow streamers and napkins leftover from last year's Curious George party... coupled with some awesome cakes I saw on pinterest, I can do this!

I'm trying to decide what to do as favors. I like the idea of yellow/black M&M cookie mixes in a mason jar, but black M&Ms are super expensive since they're not one of the normal colors. Can you think of anything to substitue that would be black, or do you think the brown ones would be okay to use? I also like the idea of these little frames, painted yellow and black:

Source: kellehampton.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Source: parenting.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Source: fredellicious.blogspot.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Awesome Things to Hang on the Wall

I love this. I made three, one for my hubby for Valentine's Day, one for my sister-in-law for her birthday, and one for my friend for Christmas! I used Bighugelabs.com to make the mosaic, and this Flickr group for the photos (Totally awesome!) I wanted mine to be in black and white; that's an easy fix using pretty much any photo software. I use Digital Image Pro 9. Now all I have to do is find some square thrift store frames, paint them white or black, and voila :) Yesterday I actually did find a small silver square frame (opening is 5x5) while out thrifting, still new in the box and bubble wrap, for only 90c. Score!

Of course, I can't take credit for this idea. I saw it on pinterest, of course! Here are the ones I found on pinterest for your viewing pleasure:

Source: shanty-2-chic.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Source: bystephanielynn.com via Jodie on Pinterest

And here are two more that I made.

Thrifted Candlesticks on the Mantel

I'm addicted to pinterest, people. It's like inspiration central on that website. When I decided to decorate my mantel for the holidays, pinterest is the first place I visited for ideas. (Actually it was the only place I visited)! This one from Pottery Barn is one of my favs. I love all the candlesticks of varied heights.

Source: potterybarn.com via Jodie on Pinterest