Cadee Bug Duds - Clothing ReMake

My niece, Cadence (Cadee or Cadee Bug for short) is outgrowing her clothing. Because I live near such an awesome Goodwill, her mom asked me to look around for clothes in her size. I found a few things, but one of the pairs of shorts were gender neutral, and rather plain. I picked up a shirt with the sole purpose of using it to make appliques out of it.

Well, when I went to cut it apart this morning, I couldn't do it. The shirt was cute by itself, but it was a long sleeve, thermal underwear type shirt- too warm for summer! So, I just started snipping away here and there, and I love what I came up with!

Clothing Remake-

You'll Need:
1 Long Sleeve Shirt
1 pair of shorts
Sewing Machine
Needle & thread for hand sewing
Buttons

(Ignore the messy looking floor...)

1. Cut the sleeves off- I did this as tight to the seams as possible, while leaving the seam attached to the shirt.
2. Split the sleeves up the seam, to open it up to a larger bit of fabric. Again, stick close to the seam. To do this, I put the sleeve around my hand, so my fingers could stretch the fabric while I cut.
3. Stare at the shirt for 20 minutes deciding what you want to do with it. Or, decide that ahead of time, and skip this step. 
4. Using one of the sleeves, cut long strips of fabric. Serge or zig zag one side to stop fraying.
5. At this point, I decided the shirt was pretty long (it's a size larger than Cadee needs anyway), so I cut the bottom half inch off, and reused that fabric.
6. Now, with two matching length strips of fabric from the shirt, I found the middle, pinned it upside down to the outside of the sleeve opening, then pinned it around. I tucked the ends inward before pinning. I sewed these on, which created a slight shoulder ruffle, so the shirt has a bit of femininity to the shape.
7. Straight stitch one side of 2 more of the fabric strips, then gather them, and sew the two ends together to create a flower shape. I attached 1 larger one to the right side of the shorts, and the smaller one to the left shoulder of the shirt.
8. Cut a heart shape from the remaining sleeve fabric. Applique to the rear of the shorts.
9. Hand sew buttons into the centers of the "flowers", to finish the look. Make sure to get them nice and tight with strong thread!

Voila!

All in all, I love how it turned out, especially for me having NO idea in mind for the shirt (heck, there wasn't even going to BE a shirt till I started!). I wanted to do a ruffle butt, but opted against it. I also considered doing ruffles around the leg openings, but again, opted against it.

Total cost (for me) was $.98. The clothing pieces were $.49 each. The buttons were in my huge button jar.

This could easily be done with all on-hand items, though, reusing clothing that is stained, or old, or out of season.

This post is linked up to the awesome parties found here!