The Punky Brewster Dress Tutorial {aka an upcycled scrappy dress} & the Earring Giveaway Winners!

I loved Punky Brewster when I was little. That girl had some major style! 

Who could resist the charm of her mismatched misfit self? So, while the girl didn't wear anything like this dress, somehow it reminded me of her. 

So, the story behind this dress....I wanted to make my Zoe a fun back to school dress. I wanted it to be fun and bright and comfortable (and not cost a fortune in fabric!). So, thrifted knits were the way to go. I love upcycling thrifted clothes. Also, I'm a huge fan of the scrappy clothes this chickadee from the Netherlands makes for her shop Dress Me. Ack! They are so cute and fun and quirky that I might just curl up and die from Cuteness Overload. 

Ok....anyway, I didn't quite get around to this dress until the second week of school. Better late than never, right? I'm still getting used to having a newborn in the house. Things get pretty tricky around here and I'm not able to do half the things I could a few months ago (actually more like a tenth the things I could!) 

So, late at night (when I should probably be sleeping!) after I got all the kids tucked nicely in bed, I got out the fabric Zoe had approved and the pink top I planned to cut up. All of this fabric, plus the shirt, was thrifted. I think it cost me about $5. Huzzah!

First I cut the bottom and the sleeves off the shirt. 

Then I laid the different shirts under it to look it over, make sure I thought it would all look together before I started cutting. 

Then I got busy. I cut the tshirt knits about a length and a half for each tier. The last ruffle I made a bit longer since I wanted it to be a bit poofier. Then I cut out cuffs for the sleeve. 

I decided I wanted another color on the sleeves, so I cut a band of green to add in, too. Then I sewed it all together! I ruffled the tiers and sewed them on, sewed the added bits to the sleeves and then whipped up some cute pockets for the front. 

To make the pockets really easy I cut them out upside down with the top along the hem of the bottom of a shirt. Does that make sense? That way I didn't have to fold down the top of the pocket and sew it. It was already done with the original hem! Great, right? 

I added strips of the green and white stripe to the front of the pockets and some cute buttons. 

And then...Voila! You end up with a fun and bright and scrappy dress which channels your inner Punky Brewster!

I think this dress would look best with leggings, but Zoe's classroom has been a bit warm so she's been sporting it with these stripey bike shorts underneath {for cartwheeling[knicker-covering} instead.

This was such a fun and fast project! And best of all? Zoe adores it. Mission accomplished!

***

Now it's time to announce the winners of the Hazel and Company Earring Giveaway! 

Bum-puh-duh-dum!

We have my lovely little assistant, Molly, helping us today...

{drumroll please}

And the winners are...

Brandyn

Mellissa

and Veronica!

You chickadees can head over to my Etsy shop Hazel and Company and pick out some earrings! Email me at erin shakespear at bresnan dot net (without any spaces) with your choice and address (unless you're local...I think I can track you down :)

Thanks to everyone for participating in my earrings giveaway! And for helping get the word out about the reopening of my shop. You guys are awesome. 

Linking up to these fun parties...

Craft-OManiac
Skip to my Lou
Sew Can Do
Sugar Bee Crafts
The Blackberry Vine
Sew Much Ado

Savvy Southern Style

Live, Laugh, Rowe

Redhead Can Decorate

5 Things Friday: New Scarf, Something Red and Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

#1: I made an infinity scarf last weekend. I was originally going to use a really pretty spring green fabric, but decided it was too thick to really work. Luckily, I'd also picked up a fun turquoise gauzy fabric from Walmart. Here's an instagram shot of me wearing it...

Granted. This is not the most flattering shot of me (nor the best shot of the scarf!). It was one of those instagram tags, share five things about yourself and...well, I was being silly. Pretty normal for me. 

Anyway, I'm really happy with how it turned out! Although it seems a bit bulky when I wear it. Maybe I just need to get used to it? Or maybe...everyone else is thinking, "Hey, that scarf sure is bulky." :)

#2: My son finished the little owl stuffie he was making for his sister. He whipped it up so fast! He was so excited to give it to her.

I tried to snap a good picture of her hugging him in thanks, but...well....it was hard to get...

You can tell she's pretty darn happy though!

And Sam was quite proud of his handiwork (although Molly had decided to stop smiling!)

Emmett decided he wanted to get in on the sewing action. And since the boy loves dinos, we found a really great free printable template and instructions for this fun dinosaur stuffie at The Green Dragonfly...

I'm so proud of my boys for doing these almost entirely by themselves! They each have their own sewing kits and they know where fabric, needles, thread, etc. is so, basically, all I did was print the pattern out for Emmett, help Sam a bit with his (told him how to add the seam allowance and to make the ears bigger) and they did the rest! Emmett needed a little bit of instruction with the construction of his, but overall they just went to town and I'm so pleased with that! 

And it was fun to see how pleased they were with themselves, too. It's so great for kids to acquire new skills! 

#3: I started this blog January 1st of this month. And I can't believe what a great response from others I've already gotten. I just wanted to say thanks to all those who were actually interested enough to follow the blog and also to those who have left such kind comments. Thank you so much! It's fun to blog, but it's even better if it seems as if people are (lo and behold!) reading it.

#4: We started a new chore system this week. So far, so good. I've read about this idea before in one of the Eyre books. I think it's Teaching Children Responsibility. And we've even tried it when the boys were younger. But we didn't stick with it. I think they were too young at the time for it to really work.

But I read about it again on the blog 71 Toes recently and decided to give it another shot. I like that she uses charts instead of the peg boards. The peg boards are fun and all but these seem more doable...

Sam is up before me getting his stuff done! And he even starts on his stuff the night before. Yeah, he's quite excited about it. 

See, the kids have the ability to earn their age in cold hard cash every week! Yep. That sure caught their attention. But, of course there is a catch (there's always a catch, right?) If they miss filling out one square, their payment goes down to half. Miss two squares and they get zip, zilch, nada. 

UNLESS, they memorize a poem or scripture, then they can make back one square. I'm really hoping this will help our kids learn some major motivation. Oh, and if you're surprised we might be paying our 13 year old $13 a week....he's going to need it! He's going to be in charge of buying half his clothes and paying for all extra items (ski trip for PE class? He's responsible for it. Trip to the movies with friends? Better hope he has money!) 

Also, they won't be able to keep all that money. A portion of it will go to tithing, some to savings and then the rest of it is theirs to spend however they want. 

Of course, we've just started this, so some tinkering will need to occur. Maybe I'll do a blog post in the future about how it's working for us. 

#5: Now we've come to that moment you've all been waiting for. I know you've been holding your breath in anticipation, counting down the days until the news was revealed. Or not. :)

{Drum roll please} 

It's time to announce the winner of Hazel & Company's very first, but certainly not last, giveaway.  

And the winner, chosen by random (a.k.a. the names in a bowl and my daughter picking one) is...

MARA! 

Send me your address and I'll get this popped into the mail for you soon!

P.S. Be sure to come back Monday to see a fun project I finally finished last night. Here's a sneak peek...