Another Belly Band Tutorial

I have this massive, old t-shirt that's been floating around my drawers for years. It was a "door gift" at a work meeting held in the CONVENTION CENTER to announce that yes: Cingular was Purchasing our Company. 

And as your prize, here's a t-shirt smashed into the shape of a 5" football and shrink wrapped.
(We thought it was weird too.)

The t-shirt came in handy when I left work shortly thereafter for (permanent) maternity leave. By virtue of being the largest item of clothing in our house, it became the only thing I could wear to bed.

(In my first pregnancy, I was carrying a swimming pool for Ernie: double amniotic fluid. My legs would keep finger-induced indents for a full five minutes. I went from a curvy 140 pounds to a human-water balloon 210 by the time I waddled into that hospital for the last time. Sufficeth to stay, once I got out of my chair and developed a forward momentum...people generally got out of my way, and NEVER EVER got between me and my next milkshake. ahem.)


ANYWAYS! I was dead tired of looking at this shirt, which has oddly stayed in the bottom of my pajama drawer through two moves now.

Slice off the bottom.

Cut the width down to size (I used my under-bust measurement, divided by two since this is a tube. But I'm sure you could have figured that out. It worked out to 16". Looking back, the t-shirt isn't that stretchy- it's tight on my hips, but hey: it stays put REAL GOOD.

Serge up the open edge.

VOILA! My size XXL t-shirt, parting gift from a wacky corporate "team building"/"we're going to eat your company for breakfast" meeting...can now be worn around my hips, to block unsightly views when I bend/clean/pick up children/live. Crazy good!

Easter Skirt for the Babe

My Dad chuckled when he saw this- "Whose doll is this for?"

Mine of course! One skirt down, three to go. We are going to look sharp on Easter!
This is based on the "Swing Your Partner" tiered skirt in the fabulous and often blogged-about "Sew What! Skirts" book, although in a MUCH smaller form *grin*

This is my first serging project, and I'm loving it. I received a Brother 1034D as a Christmas gift from my (very kind) parents, and it's taken me until now to break it out. I'm glad I spent a week reading the manual, researching online, and watching the two DVD's that came with the machine. I know it sounds like overkill, but I like to know ALL the rules before I start a game, and there are a lot of rules to serging! At least, there are a multitude of things the serger can do, and I wanted to know about a good chunk of them before I started.

The serger came with a gathering foot, which I love. I was able to put one layer under the foot, feed another through a slot in the foot itself, and gather the bottom layer while serging it to the upper straight layer AT THE SAME TIME. The mind reels. All the layers and seams are serged, and the elastic is sewn to the waist using a sewing machine elastic/zig zag stitch. (Speaking of which, WHY did I never notice in the manual that there is a special zig zag stitch for elastic? It works so much better than the regular zig zag!)

I have all the pieces cut out for two more Easter skirts, for my daughter and niece, and then need to sew up something cute for my nephew and find measurements for my other niece...and we'll all match, which is fun considering we're in three different states!