That dress and sweater were too cute!

I am a quilter. I don't really do clothing, though I did sew my son a little sailor's suit for Halloween parade this year. Just the top. I found a pattern for $4, from the 50's. It was OLD.

It certainly helps that I can sew...I hemmed a few pairs of maternity pants (I'm 5'2"). I've also made pillows, duvet covers, curtains, and a window seat cover for our home.

I like the creativity I can have with sewing and embroidering. I really do not enjoy the process, but I love the end result that [i]I[i]made that! I made one of my daughter's Easter dress' and it turned out beautiful. I saw a similar one for $60. I only spent $25 for mine. I also have made jumpers, skirts and dresses for my toddler. When she was a baby I made her Christmas dress and a shopping cart cover. On top of this I also mend, alter and update clothing for my 3 girls and I. If I can't find what I want at a yardsale or thrift store I try to make it (if I can find the time). I often find patterns at my thrift store for 25-50 cents. Then, I find clearance material (often at the end of winter the spring materials like pastels go on sale and at the end of spring the dark materials like browns and blues and thicker weights like velvets and corderoys go on sale) and I will often go window shopping to find out what style is popular. Right now browns combined with teal or pink is popular and white with black flowers is also popular. Also, you can sometimes find bags of buttons, zippers, and other notions at the thrift stores. It's also a different experience when you go to a thrift store and find clothes for next to nothing and you look at the material and think of other uses for it. I recently bought the ugliest dress for 1 dollar. I took it apart and had lace for another project, ribbon for something else and the material is going to be a jumper dress with a ruffle for my toddler.

I love to sew. mostly it is mending or altering. At 5 foot it is hard to find clothing that fits right. I make halloween costumes too. I also made covers for my couch pillows with zippers. I change them out with the seasons and holidays. I made matching lamp shades too. I mostly do pillow cases, aprons, and household items. I try and get discount fabric and such at yard sales, thrift shops, and living close to downtown dallas where fashion is popular... sometimes the designers will clean out there warehouses... it is mostly partial pieces and fabric. I can get some nice fabric for 2 or 3 dollars a yard.. and almost always they throw in extra to get rid of it. I have also made a puppet curtain.. and little pillows and blankets for my sons stuffed animals. it is cheaper to buy clothing but i save lots on adding to store bought items and altering.

I buy old shirts or dresses at garage sales for maybe 50 cents, and take off $4 worth of buttons to use for other projects. New buttons are so expensive.

That dress is so cute. I wish I had the talent to sew.

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I sew all kinds of things now and then. Like Tinamarie, I don't really like the process much. My most recent project was a set of three matching T-shirt dresses for my three daughters. I used an actual T-shirt for the pattern (FREE!), then just put on a skirt that was twice the width of the T-shirt. All three turned out really cute.

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Katie--mom to ds--22, dd--18, ds--16, dd + dd--6, dd--4

It is gorgeous! I LOVE IT!

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"It's time to move from what we can do, to what we must do, to what we will do." ~Hillary Clinton

I love to sew, but it is still hard to imagine the end result of clothes from the fabric. I make lots of my own clothes, but it doesn't save me any money. It is more of a hobby than anything. However, I love to make my 2 boys blankets and pillowcases that suit their ever changing moods. (Right now, one has a Lightning McQueen pillow case ($3) and the other has helicopters ($1)--for me a small price to pay to get them to love to go to bed) I also make a ton of purses and bags that are personalized to my moods.

I love to sew but I'm still learning a bit. I make my kids pj's. They are huge sports fans and we find the team fleece at WM and I make them pajama pants. They are much cheaper than buying the licensed NFL clothes.

Other than that I make their Halloween costumes and costumes for school activities. Even though I have boys they sure seem to take pride in the uniqueness of their costumes.

Jenn