|day 16| Refashion Month Guest: RaeAnna from Sewing Mama RaeAnna

Today's guest is RaeAnna from Sewing Mama RaeAnna, and if you don't know her yet go, run, check her blog, I'm sure you'll adore it! I love her style, and her incredible ideas. It was an honour for me to compete against her in The Sew Off sewing contest, and I really thought she would win, I was actually hoping she would. 

Hello House of Estrela readers!!!!
Magda and I competed together in the first Sew-Off competition hosted by Amy of Naptime Crafters earlier this year but I've been a fan of Magda's style for a while!!!  I love everything she has sewn in Project Run and Play sew-alongs and I was so honored that she would ask me to participate in her July Refashion Month series!!!

When I thought about a project I would want to refashion I automatically thought t-shirt!  It's such a huge staple in a kid's wardrobe!  And I loooove adding appliques and embroidery to t-shirts so it was a win-win for this guest post!



What you'll need:
Old t-shirt (bigger size than what you'll work with)
Child t-shirt pattern (I used Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop "Classic Ringer Tee" - affiliate link but you could also use a free pattern like at MADE or draft your own!)
Ballpoint needle for your sewing machine
Optional - serger
(no double needle is needed if you are refashioning!  If you make the pattern from scratch you may want to get a double needle for the hems of the sleeve and bottom.)



So I started out with a plain ol' t-shirt from my stash!  This is a women's size large

Taking my pattern, I lined up the bottom of the pattern with the hem of my t-shirt.  This is so that when I put it all together, I won't need to hem my shirt!!!  If you are a stickler for proportions you may want to cut your pattern piece and inch or so shorter than the pattern.  I like longer t-shirts so I didn't bother with doing any math with seam allowances on the bottom hem.



Do the same thing when cutting your sleeve piece! (I did cut the sleeve a little shorter this time - I didn't want the sleeve length to be too long.)



Just follow all the directions in your pattern for constructing your t-shirt!  I highly recommend the Peek-a-Boo Ringer Tee pattern!!!  In fact, I've sewn it up three times now!  Version 2 was for my Feather's Flights pattern tour and version 3 was for a tutorial on how to make your Classic Ringer Tee into a girly version with a scallop neck binding!

I love a classic t-shirt because you can embellish it and make it unique and one-of-a-kind!  There are some really stellar applique tutorials if you don't have an embroidery machine!
I was blown away by Melissa of Sew Like My Mom and her applique tutorial!  If you don't have an embroidery machine and you want to applique, you HAVE to check out her blog!

If you're curious about what I use, I have the Singer Futura XL-400!
(Anchor design and "Arizona font" embroidery is from Embroitique.com
Shorts are Peek-a-Boo Sailor Shorts)

I was bummed that I didn't get too many good shots of Eva Mae wearing her new nautical play clothes but you can see in this pic she is on a mission to take back her toy that she just noticed that brother has!!!  (By the way, the shorts are from Peek-a-Boo too!  They are the Sailor Shorts)
 

Thank you, Magda for encouraging us to refashion something old into something new and fabulous!  I can't wait to see what the rest of your guests come up with!

And as a bonus, I JUST finished these jean shorts for my son's birthday!

I took a ratty old pair of my jeans and refashioned them into some shorts for my son (they were literally "whipped" up so I didn't take any tutorial pictures!)

They are simple elastic waist shorts and I added some side pockets with some airplane fabric pocket flaps to go with his paper airplane theme party!

Thank you so much for allowing me to join in the refashion fun this month, Magda!!!  I've loved seeing all the great ideas from all the creative bloggers!