Making Store-Bought Clothes...CUTER

Good Wednesday morning! I can hear the wind howling just on the other side of the wall to my right, and it sounds brutal and terrifying. I think it's safe to say that the majority of us are freakishly kind of anxious for Spring this year! Oh, and if you've popped over from the post on my family blog, so glad to have you...welcome!

So onto the heart of this post: clothes. Specifically, making your average, store-bought items cuter.

These ideas are certainly nothing original to me; in fact, I'm a better copy-cat than an actual thinker-upper of creative ideas. That said, I haven't actually ever seen the embellished glove before, so I'm pretty darn proud of that one.  =)

Oh the gloves.

They were literally pleading with me to pretty them up. I started out with all these complicated ideas and designs, and in the end, these simple little hearts won me over. Mittens and gloves never look cute for long around here because they get absolutely trashed, so I didn't want to invest a ton of time of effort. They've held up much better than I thought they would have, but I know Isabelle Kate takes extra special care of them because she likes them so much more now. Win win!

Just a plain fabric heart stitched in place with embroidery floss, and a sparkly button for kicks. This has also been a WONDERFUL way to keep track of her gloves because everyone knows who they belong too.

I don't have a before picture of the t-shirts, but I think you can tell- they were basic, plain tops, and now...
they're really cute!
Of course, because of this year's perpetual Arctic conditions, girly girl wasn't terribly willing to keep them on long enough for a photo shoot. I'll spare you the sad, sad drama.  ;)

The one with the double ruffle was ridiculously easy- I didn't even trim off the hem! I was going to add the bows to the shoulders, but then, obviously, didn't.  =)  The other shirt required a teensy bit more effort, mainly due to keeping the ruffle straight around the shirt. I made a chalk line and followed that. Then I stitched the ribbon in place to cover up the raw edges, as shown in this tutorial. There's also some ruching on each side down by the hem, and the ginormous flower because I thought just a little something more. It's super cute!

This works really well if you're looking to add a little length to a too-short sleeve when the rest of the shirt still fits fine.

I cut the rectangles for the ruffles, folded and ironed them in half, and gathered and stitched to the sleeve hem as I went- I didn't cut the hem off these either.

She kept holding her hands out like she was about to be arrested every time I tried to get a decent shot of the ruffles, ha!

I know that working with knits can be intimidating,, but you should try it! These are easy projects, and they don't have to be perfect to look pretty and cute. =)

ps- As for sewing needles, I used a stretch needle when I remembered, but then not when I didn't. That makes total sense, right? It all worked out just fine.

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