Earth Day Fashion

It's a recycled outfit for Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day (today) and Endeavor's upcoming birthday (soon), I created this outfit using materials I had on hand.  Want to see how these old clothes

 

became this fresh, fun, new outfit?

Here we go, then!  This outfit began with the pillowcase top.

This was the only part of the outfit that didn't make use of existing clothing.  It did make use of some fabric I had on hand.   I found this darling fabric a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't wait to turn it into something.  When I decided to make Endeavor a pillowcase top for her birthday, I knew this fabric would be perfect. 

Love the way these two fabrics coordinate!  And that pink is just the way pink should be.

Pillowcase tops are so simple to make and have endless variations.  (Remember pillowcase dresses?)  I made one for me last month, you can see it here.  Endeavor had asked me to make one for her.  

I have no pattern for my pillowcase tops.  When I made mine, I pretty much cut a hole in the top of an old pillowcase, wiggled into it to see if it fit, and based all my measurements on that using the fabric that I had chosen.  Ha ha!  I definitely have some mad sewing skilz.  Here's a great pillowcase dress tutorial, I just add my own variations like the contrasting fabric band around the bottom.  Also, I'm too lazy to trim the armholes with bias tape.  


Once I'd made the pillowcase top, I started thinking--a dangerous thing.  I thought, "This top really needs a matching pair of long shorts."  

So, I grabbed a pair of Endeavor's jeans that had a hole in the knee, and went at them with the scissors.  I cut the legs off, just above where the hole was.  I measured the circumference of the leg opening, and cut two pieces of my fabric to that width.  The two pieces were each about 5 inches high.  I folded them in half width-wise, and sewed them onto the raw edges of those jeans, like this:

This created a perfect "cuff", or trim.  I'm so glad I bought lots of this fabric.  I love it! 

But the jean shorts still needed a little somethin'- somethin'.  I cut out one of the flowers from my scraps (no pinking shears this time, I used regular scissors), and whip-stitched it onto the jeans.  (I used a little stitch-witchery tape to hold it in place while I was stitching.)  Love the frayed effect--a happy accident!

Still, the outfit was missing something.  That knowledge (and my husband's allergies) kept me up one night.  Finally, I leaped from my bed with a stroke of inspiration: this outfit needs a cardigan!  I dug through Endeavor's drawers until I found an old shirt with a stain on it.  Again, I attacked it with the scissors, cutting off a good six inches above the hem, cutting off half the sleeves, and cutting the bodice in half.  Then I made my own bias tape.

I trimmed the raw edges on the bodice and the sleeves with this bias tape.  (It's nothing more than a 2" wide strip of fabric, folded and pressed so raw edges reach the center, then folded over the raw edges of the shirt and sewn.)

 This cardigan just had to have a ruffle.  I gathered my ruffle and sewed it onto the bottom edge, like this.

I loved the look so far, but still....something was missing.  Then I thought of all those cute little fabric flowers and yoyos I've been seeing attached to sweaters, purses, headbands......that was what I needed.  I googled "fabric flowers" and found this easy to follow tutorial for yoyos.  So easy!  I whipped these three up in less than 30 minutes and hand-stitched them onto the cardigan.  

I could only find two buttons in my sorry little collection that I liked, so I added that little pom-pom to the center of the largest one.  How fun is that?  Once the yoyos were on, I felt like the outfit was finally complete!

I can't wait to see how it looks on Endeavor.  Since I saved so much money using things I had on hand, I think I'll run to Target today and pick up a pair of these for her:

P.S.  Thanks for being patient while I look for a new camera.  No, I haven't replaced mine, yet.  Today's pictures were taken with the Bionic Man's underwater camera.  (No, he's not a scuba diver.  It's a long story.)  Not bad, eh?  I just can't figure out how to get that gigantic date off of the pictures.  Oh well, I guess this post is well-documented!

I'll be linking up to the following events: