Sewing mamas!Calling all AmityMama's who like to sew! Do you make quilts, clothes, diapers, bags? Do you love to run your fingers through fiber? Can't get enough just sewing, but want to talk about it too? Come on in!
20 minute projects are great for me, since that's about the longest stretch of time I get to sew these days. So if there is a project I can start and complete in 20 minutes, I really love it. Like the Starleight headband...I've made a bunch of those!
Anyway, on to the SNS. I recently visited our Thrift Shop and picked up a simple sheath dress for 20 cents! I liked the print and the drape, and it was in great shape... but two sizes too small for me. So I cut the bottom part off and turned it into a knee length skirt by making a casing and inserting elastic. Sorry I forgot to take a before picture, but here is the after picture:
Btw, I am wearing the famous Lands End nursing top that I dyed green (it is only available in blue). The reason I like that sheath dress in the first place is I thought the fabric might coordinate with my dyed-green top which I had nothing to wear with except for jeans or shorts.
That Lands End nursing shirt is quite nice and it's on sale for just $14! I bought three and dyed two of them (one green and one purple). Go here:
now tell me more about this shirt, i did't know lands end had nursing wear.....
hows the fit, comfort, ease of nursing and access???
AFAIK, this is the only nursing shirt that Lands End makes. But it's really cool, IMO. I first heard about it on the Nursing Mother's Sewing List (NMSL). And it was on sale ($16.50 at that time) so I went for it and bought three. The blue is the original color, and the green and purple are the ones I dyed with Procion dyes:
The shirts are very comfortable! They fit me well. They don't stretch out badly (97% cotton 3% lycra), and they wash well. The nursing access is from an underlayer that is "tuckable". You pull up the shirt and your tummy is covered by the underlayer. You access the breasts through the armholes of the underlayer. Here is a picture of the shirt inside out so you can see the underlayer (it is 100% cotton so it took the dye slightly differently...makes it easy to see):
I am so glad I bought them, not only because I like them, but also because it taught me an easy way to modify my regular shirts to nursing access. I just sew an underlayer to them. I was thinking of doing a sew along for this. It's super easy and doesn't permanently alter the shirt. After nursing, you can then remove the underlayer (very easily if you use a contrasting color thread for the stitching which you do into the shirts seam allowances).
Very creative! Did you know you were going to do the modifications when you bought that bargin dress? I'm never quick on my feet to think about something like that until maybe a day or two, takes a while before thing sink in for me. Those lands end shirts are cool, great job on the dyeing.
Did you know you were going to do the modifications when you bought that bargin dress?
Well, I could tell from the size tag it wouldn't fit me as a dress, but since it was a pretty long dress I figured I could do something with all that fabric. If a skirt for me wouldn't work, then I thought I would make a smaller dress for one of my daughters. but yeah, a skirt for me was my first thought.
Somewhere along the line (maybe here or on NMSL) I found a link to a webpage where they showed with graphics the concept of cutting apart one garment to make another. I had certainly considered re-making clothes by changing them a little, but I hadn't really thought of COMPLETELY changing it (ie, turning a man's suit into a little girl's coat). If you cut apart a garment at the seams (or seam rip it apart if you have the patience and need every square inch), then you can just lay the pattern pieces on the cut fabric and treat it as regular yardage. So now when I shop at thrift shops, I'm looking for BIG clothing with nice fabrics in good condition. I don't necessarily need a specific project in mind as long as I can tell there is enough fabric there to do something with.
I also bought another sheath dress in my size at that same sale (20 cents!) that I plan to modify for nursing access. It's in my project pile. Hope I get to it soon. I just want to recut the armholes to make them a lot bigger so I can pull them over to nurse, and make a tie-front style shirt to wear over it. Not sure if that explains it well, but I can see it in my head.
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OK so were the shirts you dyed blue originally or were they offered in white?
They were originally blue. AFAIK the shirt has only ever been offered in blue. White would make it so much easier to dye them! Be advised, the thread is obviously poly and does not take the dye. So if you plan to dye these shirts, pick colors that look ok with blue "accent" stitching!
They were originally blue. AFAIK the shirt has only ever been offered in blue. White would make it so much easier to dye them! Be advised, the thread is obviously poly and does not take the dye. So if you plan to dye these shirts, pick colors that look ok with blue "accent" stitching!
So I cut the bottom part off and turned it into a knee length skirt by making a casing and inserting elastic. Sorry I forgot to take a before picture, but here is the after picture:
Mom 2 
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