Reuse Re-purpose = Receive adorable smiles!

My sweetie pie granddaughter & my recycled T (click for a close-up)

Close up of the tank top (click to enlarge)

I have a few friends who are avid thrifty shoppers.  One in particular is Debbie.  We met up at a local watering hole after work one day, and had an icy cold one while we caught up.  Afterwards, she giggled and said... lets go to the thrift store next door and get you some things!  OMG  I am not a shopper (somehow I am lacking that gene) and certainly not with a slight buzz on.

Well... I landed up with a trash bag sized bag of finds for $30.  Not to mention another trash bag of clothes Debbie had for me in her car trunk too!  Great haul.  And Debbie has great taste.  Just that some of the items were more her than me.  One in particular was this sparkly tee with twill tape down the button placket that I didn't particular like.  I was going to donate it, and took another look.  Hmmm... maybe I should try and recycle it?

So I did.  I got a tank top of my granddaughter's to use as a pattern, and I cut away at the body of the tee, utilizing as much of the sparkles (actually I think they are tiny little metal studs) and made the tee.  But there was still a bit more t-shirt fabric left and long sleeves.  Ahh!  I decided to make leggings out of them to match.  It wasn't hard, and again I borrowed a pair of leggings for a size reference.  I just put one of the legs inside the other, used that as my pattern to cut the sleeves in the shape of the legging (leaving plenty for the elastic waist band casing), sewed the crotch seam, folded and stitched the casing with the elastic inside, and I was done.  I kept the seams of the sleeves, didn't have to hem the bottoms of the leggings, and used the ready-made finishes as much as possible so I didn't have to drag my over-lock machine out and wrestle with threading it!  With my experience sewing active-wear, these were a breeze.  And viola!  Here is a recycled, re-purposed really cute outfit for my granddaughter!

This was last summer, and I didn't think to take pictures of the process.  But I may do the same thing with another T before she (or my other beautiful granddaughter) grows too big! :D