Savannah Rose has been growing like a weed. It’s like overnight she grew 1″-2″ and the poor girl was in serious need of some new clothes. Now, it is impossible (or just not feasible) for me to hand-make all of my children’s clothes. With my etsy shop taking a lot of my sewing energy and projects for the blog, sometimes the girls get the short end of the stick………but not this Spring! I’ve taken a little time away from the etsy shop to focus more on my girls.
I was inspired by Jessica from Me Sew Crazy when she came up with a spring wardrobe for her girls. Granted, she handmade all of her collection, but it was the inspiration I needed to get sewing for Miss Savannah. I decided I wanted to give her a boutique style wardrobe, but wanted to re-use and re-purpose a lot of her old clothing that would otherwise be discarded.
So here are some of the old clothing pieces I started out with for the spring wardrobe. Most of these shirts have been so badly stained that I wouldn’t consider saving them for Matilda to wear – they were headed to the trash. Now most of these clothes are from Gymboree, which I love, and the thought of throwing them away made me really sad. Not to mention the fact that they were so cute.
As you can tell, I was obviously a naive new mom when I bought this clothing – who puts a 2-3 year old in white? I won’t be making that mistake again…..especially now that I’m expecting a boy!
So to accomplish the task of creating a semi-handmade boutique wardrobe, I did what I usually do when I have a lot of sewing to get done. I cut all of my pieces for each of the different items. That includes trim, bias tape, elastic and fabric. If I’m going to use buttons or zippers, I pull those at this time as well. I group all of the pieces that go together and fold them all in a neat pile. I stack them on top of each other and I work from the top of the pile down to the bottom.
Designing and choosing fabrics is a tedious task for me. It is my favorite part, by far, but I definitely take my time picking the right fabrics and coordinates. I find if I do all of the planning and cutting work ahead of time, then the sewing part is really a piece of cake.
So, what do you think? Have any ideas what that pile of fabric, old clothes and trim might turn into? I cannot wait to show you. So dig out some of those old shirts that have been stained or the clothing that got all funny in the wash and let’s make it into something new and fabulous.
Lindsay Wilkes is the owner and designer behind The Cottage Mama. She creates timeless, vintage inspired sewing patterns for children’s clothes. She is also a fabric designer for Riley Black Designers / Penny Rose Fabrics, author of the book ‘Sew Classic Clothes for Girls’ and can be seen teaching nationwide and online in her video series ‘Lessons with Lindsay’ sponsored by Baby Lock Sewing and Embroidery machines.
I love it! I can’t wait to see what you have come up with! I absolutely adore using the old clothes that are in our wardrobe already – I buy whites all the time too – I just cant help myself 🙂
I am dying to see what you come up with! My daughter has grown taller but is still so skinny so she has a ton of stuff that still fits but that’s a little short this year. Her spring wardrobe needs some updating.
How timely is this? I just got done going through my older daughter’s old clothes for my youngest, and so many of them look plain awful! I can’t wait to see your ideas!
I can’t wait to see what you come up with! I also have lots of stained shirts I need to deal with. My daughter seems to wear more food that she eats!
I have some clothes like that form my two girls. I love the idea about re-purposing them and incorporating them into a new semi-homemade wardrobe. I was thinking I would save the most favorite pieces and then use them someday to make a baby quilt for their first baby. I cant wait to see what you do!
I’m excited to see what you come up with, I have a few items that aren’t necessarily outgrown but badly stained, and especially the Gymbo things I cringe to toss. Even if I bought them new-but-secondhand-for-nearly-nothing! They’re generally made well, unfortunatly not scotchguarded though! 😉
I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!
I can’t wait to see what you have done with these shirts. I have the same problem with my 3 yr old. They still all fit her but are stained!!!! And I too do not want to throw them away!!
Such pretty fabrics! Excited to see what you sew up and looking for some inspiration. My little girl has grown 3″ since August, so I need to revamp her wardrobe, too! Thank you 🙂
Can’t wait to see. I have alot of gymobree and crazy 8 clothes that i hate to part with.
I too will be doing some refashioning of my own. We just recently went through all of our clothes to donate… found several pieces in my closet that I will be turning into dresses & skirts for my girls. As well as creating new items from those that dont fit them. Can’t wait to see what you make out of yours. 🙂
I can’t wait to see how you transform old clothes into new clothes!
sounds so fun lindsay! I’m going to try my best and make a bunch of stuff for my girls, that is IF I stay out of the stores. I always get sucked in by cute knits from old navy. hehehe