45 Minute Polo Skirt

"Hey, I recognize that shirt skirt."
"Mommy, you look cute!"

Ahhh, what a glorious compliment. As Squirt is getting older and more opinionated, those don't happen very much.

There is a rule in our house that no clothes can go into the donation pile until I rummage through them first. Actually, I just shove them all into the bottom two drawers of my dresser waiting until inspiration strikes. The only thing is that I am a terrible seamstress and am often petrified of attempting to refashion apparel.

Does anyone else feel this way?

It probably comes as a surprise to a few. My mom had a B.S. in Clothing and Textiles - back when that was a viable study option. She sewed all the time. Every special dress I had was made by my mother. In sixth grade she made a beautiful tea length dress with 3/4 sleeves for Easter. It was stunning. Ruffles were the style back in the day and it had a ruffled skirt edge, ruffled sleeve edges, and a square ruffled yoke at the collar. The fabric was a soft ivory with a pastel floral print (the sort of print I'd rather die than wear now) and it belted with a wide lavender satin sash. Oh, how I LOVED that dress and could not wait for her to finish it.

On each of the ruffles she added narrow lace trim. Ever the perfectionist, my mom didn't like the way the lace laid on the dress so she removed it and stitched it all on by hand in order for it to lay the way she wanted. When it was finally finished, I was able to wear my Easter dress for the first time on Mother's Day. Mom would rather take the time to do things perfect than just get them done.

I am not like that.

Nor did I learn to sew at home. Her perfectionism prevented her from teaching me how to sew as she wanted to take out my stitching and redo it so everything was just-so. As a result, clothing scares me.

But I love stripes, remember? And The Hubs put a fantastic dark navy polo with thin white stripes into the give-away-or-do-whatever-with-it pile. I want a skirt out of that fabric so badly that I'm willing to try, but it's a nice shirt (Banana Republic) and I'll feel guilty if my refashion fails miserably since it would have been nice and usable to someone if I'd have been willing to donate it. Which led me to pull a different shirt out of the pile and practice on it.

Using a skirt I already have, I measured how wide the waistband should be and how long I wanted the skirt to be.

I then drew the outline on the back of some wrapping paper to create a pattern.

I knew that I wanted the stripes to match at the side seams so I chose to cut each piece out separately. Sliding a rotary cutting mat in the middle of the shirt made it easy to pin/cut the layers individually.

Take the first cut piece and pin it so the stripes match up just right, then cut out the second pieces.

Seam the sides and try it on to be sure nothing needs adjustment. Once the seams are just right, finish them with a zig-zag stitch or serge the edges. The skirt is just the right size to fit me in the waist as it is but I don't want the fabric to get stretched out and goofy as I pull it over my pear shaped figure. So I folded the top down an inch, pressed and stitched it to create an elastic casing. I added some 3/4 inch elastic, stitched off the opening, and am totally in love with my new skirt.

The best part about using the shirts is that I used the existing hem and don't have to finish off the bottom!

I love it. It's made me feel pretty confident to tackle the other shirt I'm drooling over. Now I just can't wait for Spring to wear it!

Naval Striped Dresser Redo

I'm not necessarily a trendy person. Never have been. I'm too cheap, too concerned about comfort and how long things will be useful, and frankly just too detached from what the rest of the world is up to. I don't watch much television and haven't since my daughter was born. Seriously, once kids enter the picture who has much time for that??? I don't read fashion magazines and I spend very little time shopping. Which means that until Pinterest I had no idea what the fashionable people in the world were up to.

Except of course when my awesomely stylish friend Nichole would look amazing (which was every. single. day.). Then I'd see myself in the mirror and cry a little on the inside at my..... basic-ness. The thing about it is that I looked good - just, plain. In the sense that I pretty much always wore the same kind of basic pieces. I bet that any picture that could be found from my teenage years would see me wearing something almost identical to what is in my closet right today. 

Now, however, I am changing somewhat. Part of that I owe to the coming seasons apparent emphasis on stripes, which I happen to love. 

Perhaps it's the Navy brat in me, or the fact that I had this awesome red/white/blue sailor jumpsuit when I was a kid that I would have worn every single day if mom would have let me, but I LOVE STRIPES! And I'm seriously loving that they are "back." So when it came time to spiffy up this little bedside dresser for my girls' room, I turned to stripes. 

There really is nothing too out of the ordinary about the process here - just your basic sanding and repainting. The dresser was something the Hubs brought with him from his previous life. Someone had already painted it (either the ex-wife or the girl that almost took my spot before I came along) and I'm assuming replaced the hardware. Which meant I had the great advantage of not starting from scratch. 

First I sanded the surface of the existing paint. It was chipped in places and I wanted to get an even coat when I painted over it so this was necessary. I tell you what, this is the first time I've been grateful to have crappy industrial carpet with no padding in our apartment. I sanded right in the living room and it all vacuumed up with no problem. 

After wiping the sanded "crumbs" off with at damp cloth, I painted over the whole surface with two coats of white paint. I let this cure for a day or two and then it was time to mark the placement of the stripes. This was actually crazy easy. I started with the drawers. The drawer front has a curved/routed edge that is perfectly straight. I simply lined the edge of the painters tape up with the edge of the drawer and had perfectly even striped marked off. 

From there, I put the drawer back into the dresser and measured where the stripes met the side of the dresser. Using one of Squirt's plastic school rulers, I measured from the top of the dresser to make sure the tape remained level as I continued the stripes around the side.

Few thing ruin a project like this as quickly as paint bleed through. With the stripes all marked off, I took some of the white paint and brushed the edge of the tape. Any bleed through would then match the white and the black paint would be left with a clean edge. The black stripes took three coats of paint to have even coverage.

When I started peeling the tape, I was seriously scared. The idea of re-sanding and re-painted did not appeal to me and I was terrified that I'd goofed on measuring somewhere and would be left with a crooked stripe that would make me as crazy as Monk. Fortunately, that was not the case and I did a giddy little happy dance to see it all coming together!

Look how beautifully the stripes line up from the drawers!!! I could just scream from happiness. 

I left the inside of the dresser the same wood it was before. The first time it had been painted, it was just the visible facade that was done and I just went with that. I actually like how it looks to have the wood inside. I did add felt pads to the back of the drawer corners to help the paint not get so beat up from normal use. I mean, it's going in a kids' room. I'll be glad I took pictures because it may not look this fantastic ever again. 

When we had a non-rainy few hours (80% humidity instead of 100%) I took it all outside and sprayed 3 thin coats of polycrylic over all the painted surfaces. Let that cure some more and then put all the hardware back on. 

I'm seriously enamored with it and am looking for more things to paint. Best part? I did it all for the price of 2 sample tubs of paint from Lowe's. True dat. 

Price breakdown: 

Dresser: $0: already owned

Paint: 2 @ $2.94 = $5.88 (I used Valspar Dove White 7002-7 and Lincoln Cottage Black 4009-2 both in Satin)

Polycrylic: $0: already owned. 

Plus I have 80% of the black paint left and about 1/3 of the white. Which is good, because I have some lumber in our storage unit just screaming to be used up :)

Have you ever given something a new life with a coat of paint?