Not the curtains!

Growing up my Mom desperately tried to teach me how to sew on her 1970's olive green Singer. I remember how frustrated I would get as the bobbin thread would constantly bunch up on me, so, I gave up and never tried again. Not until February when my in-laws were visiting and I begged my Mother in law to mend some curtains with my inherited Janome machine. My step mother passed away almost 2 years ago and it was given to me, up to this point collecting dust. As my Mother in law sewed away on it, I decided it was time I relearned. And now I'm hooked. Of course, I learned real quick how expensive this new hobby could become. One night, while surfing the web for some sewing ideas I stumbled upon this concept of refashioning and absolutely LOVE it. I'm a huge fan of thrift stores and a frequent buyer at our neighborhood salvation army. Therefore, a lot of my friends give me their discarded clothes that they were about to donate or throw away.

One shirt in particular has been sitting on my own discard pile up until this new sewing venture.

I liked the color of the shirt but found that by itself it was quite boring.

I then found this awesome curtain panel at Salvation Army. Beautiful ribbon detail and perfect match to the rose in the shirt.

I realized that the shirt arms were to short for my 4 year old so I cut them off and hemmed the sleeves to make it a tank style shirt. Cut off the top of the valance, did a running stitch, pulled it, then attached to the shirt and there you have it, a pretty new dress!