Monday, October 15, 2012

When life gives you holey jeans...



  .... make them into shorts and jean skirts!!

This summer was a trying time for finding shorts to fit my skinny girls! The shorts were either too big around the waist or too stinkin short  on their legs!! Now, I'm not a total prude but come on! Our girls don't need to be wearing shorts that barely cover their little rumps! lol So, we took to the pile of jeans that seem to be growing huge holes in the knees more and more every day.... I just cut them off above the knee and rolled them up a bit and wha la! We had new shorts that actually stayed up and the girls were thrilled...

The only problem with this solution was that now I had two perfectly good "legs" from the knee down left over! And it would be a sin to throw perfectly good fabric away right? :) So into the scrap pile they went! lol  I'm not sure when it first came to mind but I've been meaning to do something with them for weeks (ok months lol) now and just finally took them off the scrap pile the other day.



My girls were gifted these dolls from their Granny Annie and they have gradually been getting more and more into them. They love doing their hair, having tea parties and of course finding the perfect outfit to dress them up in! We just got the American Girl catalog the other day and they have been pouring over it for hours ever since! lol ( I remember doing the same thing as a kid) Unfortunately, the insane prices for these outfits have hindered how well these dolls get to dress and we've had to get creative on how to cloth them but still keep it fun for the girls.

Earlier in the spring, I used a baby blanket that I'd had given to us to create four matching night gowns for their sleep over....



 And we've been lucky enough to happen on to some in thrift stores too!  J is learning to sew and is asking for patterns for these dolls ( a great find at JoAnns when their patterns go on sale!) and now they each have matching jean skirts made with those left over jean legs! All I had to do was turn down the top, sew and add elastic! It was a win win for sure! I got something out of my scrap bin and the girls got new skirts for those dolls they love so much!! Who needs a $10 out fit from Walmart when we have our creative juices flowing!? :)








homework Skip To My Lou

5 comments:

Linda said...

They look great! I need to get some dresses made for M's baby doll too... she asks me for them but she really doesn't play with her baby much. So... dunno that I want to go to the trouble to make clothing - altho' if she had more clothes maybe she'd play with it? lol.
There are some patterns out there for AG dolls - I'm sure I'll come across the link before too long {I come across it every now and then} and will pass it along in case you don't have it. There are some on You Can Make This too that have AG patterns included with the kids' version of the pattern. Carla C. patterns in particular.

Anyway, nice job!

Linda said...

Dear Hallie,
Thank you so much for offering to test knit my camel pattern, if you are still keen, you can sign up on my Ravelry group and then I will send you the pattern:)
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/mamma4earth
Kind regards
Linda

Anonymous said...

What a great idea for these American Girls! I will be making some for this Holiday gift giving for sure! New Visitor from the trendy treehouse linky party.

Ewa said...

I always say never throw an old pair of jeans , there is so many projects that you can use them for :)

sista said...

My girls are grown up and the AG dolls have been re-homed but when we had them Jo Anne fabric use to have knock off doll clothes that looked almost exactly like the ones in the catalog. Right down to bunny slippers and the glasses that came with one of the dolls. We had tons of clothes. They out lasted the doll phase and went to the next girl.