No question why this Reebok shirt was heading to Goodwill but I thought I could at least try something before this t-shirt was doomed. So I did.
I took the t-shirt and then made a 4x4 template out of an old card. I then started cutting out squares.
I made about 60 squares out of the t-shirt.
Then I placed them all diagonally and pinned the top in the center of the one underneath it. I only pinned the first 5 or so, then I just fed them into the machine individually. The jersey likes to wrinkle up on the edges so I would have to sometimes stop, pick up the presser foot and make sure it was down before stitching again.
Raid your husbands closet and find an old shirt. The bigger the better. I will be keeping my eye out this summer at garage sales for some XL castoffs. 
Cut the bottom hem off and save for the drawstring. Then cut three 4 inch strips all the way across the shirt and then open them at one seam so you have long strips of fabric. Cut about 7-10 inches on the top around where the sleeves are depending on length. Cut the sleeves off leaving yourself with a rectangle of fabric that will become the underside of your skirt that the ruffles are sewn to. Sew the two pieces together to make one long piece. Fold over about an inch of the top part of that piece to make a casing for the drawstring.
Make gathers on your three strips of fabric and then lay the first layer on the bottom of the long 7-10 inch piece. Then sew about 1 inch up placing the next ruffle on making sure it's the same length as the base layer. Do that with the third layer. My third layer was on the same sewing line as the casing line.
So I am sure I will regret using my 4 year old son as a skirt model later, but he is what was at home at the time. My daughter (who is nearly 8) is the same size as he is and I wanted to check on the length as well as the fit. For the record, I will be happy to pay the therapy bill later.
Once upon a time, there was a little black shirt. The little black shirt met another black shirt and a new super fun black shirt was made.
Here's the shirt that was sacrificed. I liked the detail on the top, so I cut just below it. I think I see a dress in it's future.
Here's one idea that I thought of. I cut the sacrificial shirt into 3 inch long pieces and gathered both sides. I placed it down the middle and thought that I would sew it on this way. But instead a happy accident happened and the strip got messed up and became this...
A funky little wave of a shirt! I just placed it on in a sort of zig zag pattern, pinned it down and sewed it on the front of the shirt. What do you think? 
And here's the list:
Normally I bring my own bags with me to reuse (you get 5 cents off your order for each bag you use at Target so it's totally worth it for me), but this time, I had SO many items that I ended up just getting them in plastic. Plus I had seen this cool tutorial so I had a crafty motive behind it. Here's the tutorial from MADE
Essentially, you take plastic bags, use some wax paper and fuse the layers together to make a new fabric. I really like her use of only the white side of the bag, but I got a little excited with the project and just wanted to do it rather than wait to collect more bags (we are talking like 25 more bags) and I didn't have any more major shopping to do at Target. So the first thing I did was lay the bags out flat and cut the tops and bottoms off of them. I saved all the extra that I cut off and used it to make the sides and bottom of the bag.
I had some red canvas material left over from when I hemmed Aidan's IKEA curtains 5 years ago and used that to make the lettering and handles. And of course, I got to try out my new serger that I picked up at a garage sale this summer for $50! LOVE IT!
Copy and paste some fun trivia facts from the Internet. It really shouldn't take too long to find a list of things that would be interesting to your kids. Just use your old friend google and have at it! I saved them into a word file and then printed off two copies. I wanted each kid to have the same set of trivia facts, but put them on different paper. As much as my older son things I try to do whatever I can to embarrass him, I wouldn't send a note on flower paper in his lunchbox!
Take the facts and use your paper cutter to trim them down. I then sorted the facts into small (some were only a few words long) and large. The smaller facts could be put two to a page, the bigger ones would fill up most of the page. Then I took scrapbook paper that I had laying around at home and cut it to 3x4. Use double sided tape to adhere it and viola, lunchbox notes for your school bound kiddos!
I used toothpicks to insert the gummy candy into the styrofoam. The whole toothpick was too long, so I channeled my inner hulk and started breaking them in half. I found it easier to insert in deep into the styrofoam first, and the push the candy on top and position it that way.
I doubled up on candy to make it look a bit fuller and not show the white. After three bags of candy and $4 total on the project (probably more if you want to count the gas for the extra trip I had to make there today) I wasn't buying another bag just to fill in the bottom. I'm not a perfectionist, so it doesn't really bother me. I am cheap though so I prefer more bang for my buck!
Here is a picture of the two topiaries I did yesterday and today. I like them, but someone who would be bothered by seeing the white from the styrofoam would have major issues with this one! 
I made around 200 3 inch circles using this handy container as my guide. I drew them onto the felt with a brown marker and then used at least 3 layers of felt at a time to cut through to make it go a little faster.
Here are the supplies: About 1/2 yard of felt (buy it in bulk, it's cheaper than the small squares), a box of 250 stick pins and a styrofoam heart (I had a coupon for 50% off at Joann's so it was $2). Total for the project: Around $4.50
I had a hard time figuring out how to position the circles on the wreath. I found that if I put them in all in the same direction, it looked better.
And here are the finished Valentine's day decorations in my front entry. I never realized how bare it looks until I photographed it.
I made a stop at the dollar store and found some fun supplies that inspired me to make some valentine's day topiaries for that blank spot in my entry way. One bag of gummy hearts and another of conversation hearts and two Styrofoam cones and I was out the door with my $4 total. 
I set to work on my conversation heart topiary. I started with my low temp glue gun, but really needed to upgrade to my industrial high temp glue gun instead. It seemed to adhere to the styrofoam better. I tried to make a pattern with the colors, but after about halfway through I found that my bag of conversation hearts had a disproportionate amount of green hearts so then my mission was to get those spread out without clumping them together. Hearts are an awkward shape and it leaves gaps that I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with. I thought about glueing more hearts in the gaps overlapping hearts, but I didn't like the random dimension of it. Maybe if I did it completely to cover the cone again? For now, not being a perfectionist who cares, this is what I am left with, and for $2 and twenty minutes, I am happy with it...for now!
More to come on the red heart topiary. Not sure if it was a happy accident that I ran out of gummy hearts and only did half of it, or if I just need to head back and get another bag to finish the rest. Hmmmm...what do you think?
