Little bit of a creation...

So. 

Thinking about what to wear for family pictures for our Christmas Card.  Decided on the color scheme.. black, kelley green and white.  I have mine, Darin's and Adie's outfits picked out but Joya's was a bit bland.  Picked up a simple black cardigan for her at Old Navy the other day for a whooping $1.74. (I KNOW!!!)  But it's kinda boring.  Picked up another cutsie tank for myself and got a little inspired.. I LOVE ruffles right now and my tank had ruffles...

This small busted mama loves a good ruffle to give the girls some umph!  Strongly recommended to all those other small chested mama's out there!!

Anywho, pretty sure Joya's cardigan needs some ruffles too!  

Examined my tank and realized that I could totally make ruffles for Joya's outfit.  So I did that.  And decided to take pictures along the way so that you too can modify some of those bland shirts in your own closet. And disclaimer, I did not get the teaching gene in this family, Darin did.  Instructions are in Darcy-language so I'm really sorry about that.  I will totally understand if you have no clue what I'm talking about!  Just look at the pictures, k?

Ready?

1. Find 2 shirts (or a shirt and a cardigan) like I did.  See the originals below. 

Sidenote:  Take a look at the dust under my hutch!  That is disgusting!  HA!  So I guess I don't see this angle very often!  Don't judge!  Teaching AND cleaning are not in my genes! 


2. Cut four 3/4" strips of fabric from the t-shirt.  (T-shirt material doesn't Frey so that's why we can't use just any old fabric.)

3. Ripple/fold imperfect pleats in the strip of t-shirt and pin super-d-duper close to the edge of the cardigan. 

4. Do both sides, yo.

5. It's just bonus if you have a doggie to add some hair to your project.  Not tacky or gross at all.  Lovely.
6. Sew in the middle of the t-shirt strip making sure to go over the pleats in your fabric. This is gunna make our ruffles. 

7. I added two layers of ruffles to make it super ruffly.  (I know.. my vocabulary sucks!  But for some reason you are still reading because you want a ruffly shirt too.. =)
8. Fold over 1st layer of ruffles and pin.  We want them to be out of the way.

9. Repeat the ruffle/pleat and pinning as you did for the first row of ruffles.  You'll want the middle of the strip of t-shirt to be as close to the seam of your 1st ruffle layer as possible. This is what it will look like with your 1st layer pinned over and your 2nd pleated layer pinned down.

10.  Sew in the middle of the 2nd layer of t-shirt strip super, super close to the first layer.  This is a little bit tricky because your sewing machine may not like the huge hump of the 1st layer of ruffles. Just keep pushing it thru.  If your machine breaks, please don't blame me. =)

And drum-roll with the results, pleas....

A ruffley cardigan suitable for a Christmas Card.  =)

I showed Darin and he said, "That is cool! You aren't making me one, are you?"

Silly boy.  

But I may make a fun headband with flowers for Adie with the rest of the fabric!  I'm out of control!!!!