How to Turn a T-shirt into a Dress, Part 2

Here is part 2 of the tutorial. This is the fun part where it really starts looking like a dress. Adding a bit of bias tape to the bottom gives it a nice finishing touch.

How to Turn a T-shirt into a Dress, Part 1

I had a bunch of extra material lying around from some curtains I'd made, so I sewed them to the bottom of a T-shirt to make a child's sundress. It's a fairly quick and easy sewing project if you like to sew without doing much cutting. (And the small scraps are excellent for crazy quilts.

Farm Market Opens This Weekend!

The first week of the Canandaigua Farmers' Market opens tomorrow. It runs every Saturday from 8:30-12:30pm. June-October. I'll be there hiding behind my flowers (Yes, I'm kind of shy in large crowds). I'll also be attending the Victor Farmers' Market this year (Hiding behind my flowers there as well). It's my first year doing more than one market. The Victor Market runs every Wednesday, from 3:00-700pm. Hope to see you all there.

American Memorial Day Holiday Card

Here's a card for the Memorial Day holiday utilizing the common symbols of the American Flag and the yellow ribbon.

Lotion Jar Candles

My favorite candles to make are the kind that involve using a recycled container. I'd been collecting these tiny lotion jars all winter and last night got around to make some small soy candles. The cute little lotion jars make ideal containers. Why just recycle when upcycling is so much more fun!

My First Crazy Quilt

I'm in the midst of my spring cleaning and one thing I have a lot of is scraps of material. (It happens when you sew a lot and can't bring yourself to throw out excess pieces of awesome material no matter how small.) So I've decided to take my basket of scraps and sew them all together into a crazy quilt. A crazy quilt is aptly named because the pieces don't form a specific pattern, you just sew them all together no matter what type of material or what size or shape. The resulting effect is quite literally "crazy." It's a great quilt to start with if you've never quilted because you don'thave to worry how it looks.

The other cool thing about a crazy quilt is that it prevents waste. It's a great way to upcycle the extra material pieces instead of just throwing them out where they'd end up in a landfill. I read once that 15-20% of the fabric used to create clothing ends up in landfills because it's cheaper for clothing companies to just dump the extra scrap fabric than to recycle it. I don't want my projects to be part of that statistic, so I intend to make quilts out of the fabric scraps and keep them out of the already overcrowded landfills. No waste here!

This is my started quilt. It's going to be a combination of everything from hemp and alova to satin and pleather. Most every sewing project I do has scraps and it's time to put them to use. And when I'm finished, I'd like to see if I could give it to the Ugly Quilts organization where it could really do someone some good.

Melt and Pour Sunflower Soap Bar

I used a sunflower, but this technique can be done with any soap mold. It's just a matter of layering it in multiple colors and putting a little rubbing alcohol in between.

A "Mom" Mother's Day Card

Here's a Mother's Day card for if you want to go a little less formal, replacing the traditional "Mother" with "Mom."

Quick and Easy Mother's Day Card

Here's a simple Mother's Day card that can be made in a matter of minutes.