Another Quick and Easy Fix - t-shirt pillowcase dresses or tunics

My daughters love their dad. A lot. Borderline hero worship. So when he gives them his old t-shirts, they treasure those things. Tato's old shirts are their favorite night gowns, lazy day dresses, snuggling on the couch after a bath gear, etc. They are a bit lacking in style, though. Here is a super quick, super easy fix to the style problem.

First grab an old t-shirt. My husband has tons, but only actually wears a few. Finding some to cut up is never hard here. If you don't want to cut up one of your own, thrift stores always have a lot to choose from. Bigger ones make longer dresses or tunics (my excuse for not cutting up my own).

Then just cut off the sides and top. You can cut it in a slight A line shape if you want. Be careful to cut straight, parallel lines or the finished product looks a bit wonky, but don't stress too much about it. The t-shirt fabric stretches and warps itself anyway covering mild imperfections.

To make cute little decorative flowers, cut circles out of the sleeves. About 2 inches diameter is a good size. You can cut any shape, but circles are the easiest.

Grab one more t-shirt in a coordinating color and cut off the bottom then a 1-2 inch strip just above that. Cut the ends to make the two drawstrings for the collar/shoulders of the dress. You can also cut some 1 inch diameter circles to be the centers of the decorative flowers.

Now the sewing starts. Sew up the sides stopping about 8 inches from the top. Fold over the top (wrong sides together) 1 inch and stitch 1/4 inch from the raw edge to make a tunnel for the drawstring.

The most time consuming part of the project is stitching on the flowers. A simple X in the middle holds them in place and allows them to flop and ruffle. Arrange them any way you like.

Attach a safety pin to one end of one of the drawstrings and thread it through one tunnel. Repeat with the other one.

That's it. An ugly old t-shirt is now an adorable pillowcase dress. On my older daughter, these are tunics which look great with leggings or capri jeans. On me, they are cute little tank tops. All in all, the whole project takes less than an hour making it another quick and easy fix for sure.

Quick and Easy Fix

Shoe tying is a big milestone.  It is one of the big boxes to check off on the kindergarten "to learn" list.  But then, meh, it kinda just slows us down.  My older daughter is always on the go, rushing out the door to get to school, church, hockey, or just to play outside.  She rarely bothers untying her shoes so she can just skip the retying part.  The problem is cramming her foot back into a gym shoe with tied laces.  It's kind of funny watching her hop and skip out the door trying to get her heel all the way in, but there is an easier way.  Just turn her gym shoes into slip ons.

The easiest way to get around the shoe laces is to turn them into elastic.  The elastic stretches to allow the foot to slide in, then retracts to keep the shoe snug on the foot.  It is a quick and easy fix requiring just a package of 1/4 inch elastic and a pair of scissors (oh, and shoes).

Start near the toe and thread a bit of the elastic down through the grommet.  Tie a knot to lock it in place.  Then go down through the opposite grommet, up through the one above, down through the opposite, and so on (ladder lacing).  When you get to the top and come down through the last grommet, pull the elastic a bit tight and tie another knot (you need to pull it tight so you have the space to work with for the knot tying . . . it should be relaxed but not lose once the knot is against the grommet).  Then slip the shoes on to test for fit.  If they are too lose or too tight simply adjust your final knot then trim the excess.  See how easy?