Sew Crafty Friday

Well, I've finally gotten the projects for this month's birthdays finished. Just 7, 12, and 23 days late. Oh, boy. This is so unlike me. I'm normally hyper-prepared. I've been known to have all birthdays for the entire year purchased for, wrapped, and packaged for shipping by February. Obviously, I've slacked off. But, I took the time to finish these up this week and I can now rest easy for a few weeks.

First up is a present for my oldest niece, Carly. She turned 6 this year, and according to my 6-year-old, this is a fantastic present, so hopefully she will like it too. If you'll remember that for another niece, Zoey, I took a man's shirt and transformed it into a dress. Well, this is very similar, but instead of a dress, I changed it into a skirt. Carly is very long-legged, so a full dress was out of the question. It'd barely cover her bum. I used the button-up front of the shirt as the front of the skirt, so it, too, buttons up the front. For the back of the skirt, I used the back of the shirt. On the shirt, it has that double layer across the top. Well, I used that (about an inch of it) to contain a strip of elastic. It was a very simple transformation.

I paired the skirt with a cute little 3/4-length sleeved white button-up top. I love the final look. I hope Carly will too!

And for my sister-in-law, I made this. It was once a placemat. I loved the fabric combination for the placemat, but I really love it as a purse too. I got it at Target, by the way. Simple seams up the side & short ones to make a bottom, add some purse handles attached with ribbon, and it was done. Meagan is begging me to make another one for herself.

I had received a placemat purse several years ago from a friend, but was inspired to make this one for Don's sister after seeing another blogger's submission for a previous Sew Crafty Friday. I can't remember who it was, now, but there are some really talented ladies out there! Check out the other projects this week at Waiting for Him!