DIY T-Shirt to Little Girl's Nightgown Refashion

My kids have become big hockey fans and we've gone to a few of our local minor league games recently.  At the last game we went to, my daughter caught one of the pink t-shirts that the cheerleaders were tossing into the crowd.  She was very excited, but she is five years old, and the shirt was a Womens Large size.  I wear an XS and was never going to wear it, so I wanted to find a way for her to enjoy it.  I decided to make it into a nightgown for her to sleep in.

 My plan was very basic, and there was nothing exact about it. If you are someone who needs precise measurements, you should probably just stop reading at this point. :)  I started by laying the t-shirt flat on my cutting mat and placing one of her nightgowns on top of it.  Next, I eyeballed 1/2" or so around it and put a few pins in the shirt around the shape of her nightgown.  

Next, I sewed the new seams starting at the bottom and ending at the cuff of the sleeve.  I just sewed a line and pulled the pins out as I went.  I had Little Miss try it on really quick, was happy with the fit, and then moved on.  I could have just cut off the extra fabric and left it alone because knit won't unravel, but I decided to just cut it by running down the seams with my serger.  Quick, easy, and even though it is just a nightgown, I like having the seams finished.

This project was super quick, easy, and now my little hockey fan can enjoy her prize from the last game.  

My Etsy Shop - Star Creek Creations

I've talked about my Etsy shop, Star Creek Creations before, but I have some holiday specific onesies available that I wanted to talk about.  

When I started my shop, I mostly made things that people asked for.  I would get a request, draw it up, make the custom order, and then add it to my shop if it was a design I really liked.  Some of my most popular designs started because of a custom request.  If I had spare time, I'd think of new things I wanted to add, make a one or two to add to my In Stock section and then see how they did.  One of the things that always seems to do well are holiday specific items.  They make an easy baby gift and are fun to do.  

Here are the "spring" holiday onesies I have available in my shop right now.  I have some that are in stock in certain sizes, but they can be custom ordered in whatever size you'd like as well.

Here are a couple "summer" styles.

 And, here are the "fall" onesies.  

Closet Shelf Organization

I have a tall set of shelves in my walk in closet that I've tried many, many times to organize.  Here's how things typically go...shelves are a mess, I straighten them but don't love the result, gradually they become less and less organized, and then I repeat the steps.  This time I wanted to make them organized in a way that made sense to me, and in a way that would be easy to maintain.

 I have always kept handbags, shoes, and swim suits/cover ups on these particular shelves, although they really aren't set up to store that type of thing.  I'm they type of OCD person who wants things perfect, but if I can't get them that way, I just pretend it doesn't exist until I can't take it anymore.  The shelves in my closet are pretty deep from front to back and I hadn't ever figured out an ideal way to do things, therefore I always end up with this after a few months...

Completely horrifying, I know.  Fact of the matter is, when I open my closet door and walk in, the door blocks these shelves, so it is pretty easy for me to ignore the problem.  Until the shoes start falling off the shelves, and block the door from opening anyway. :)

I set off to the Dollar Tree store and to Target the other day (with my kids in tow, which turned out to not be my best decision of the day) on a mission to find a new solution to the shoe and swim suit problem in my closet.  The Dollar Tree was a great choice.  They had tons of fun, bright colored storage bins, and of course you can't beat the "Everything's $1" price tags.  $3 later I had the perfect bins for my closet.  Next, we went to Target to find small, white, tension rods.  I bought 28"-48" rods for $2.98 (on sale...a whopping 5% discount folks!!), and ended up grabbing eight of them because I wasn't sure how many I'd need.

After I got home, I threw all the shoes on the floor and went to work.  The top shelf I only used one rod, I put it up high and to the very back, and I hung all of my heels from it.  In front of there I just lined up all my boots and wedges that were either too tall to hang or didn't have heels to hang from.  

On the next shelf, I had to get a little more creative.  I used two tension rods about four inches apart up towards the back, and then another set several inches below the top set.  On these, I put my flats.  There as enough space below the second set to put another row of shoes directly under, and almost enough to put another in front of that.  My shoes aren't small, I wear a size 10, so they take up a lot of space.  I added a tension rod at the same level as the shelf, but about three inches in front of it, and rested the toes of another row of shoes on that.  

Next I divided all of my swim suits, cover ups, and flip flops and put them each in their own storage bin.  I used another tension rod to extend my shelf a bit so that I could fit all three bins together.  I stuck my running shoes on there as well, since I didn't have room for them up above. 

Below the bottom shelf is where I keep all of my tall boots.  I cut up a pool noodle (thanks Pinterest!) and used the pieces to hold the boots up straight.

 This project was a pretty simple one, but I think will make a huge difference for me.  I feel like I finally have a set up that will be easy to maintain and where everything is easy to access and find.  Now maybe my husband will stop saying things like "I feel like there has to be a better use for that shelf area back there." :)

Before/After