Ruffle Tee Shirt Pillow

A few weeks go, I finished a Ruffle Flower Pillow using a kit from Etsy. I loved it, but the felt was scratchy and made my face sweat. In other words, it was not couch nap-worthy.

I have a lot of old tee shirts hanging around that I always mean to use for projects. I thought one of them would make the perfect pillow. I was right!

The fabric is from my Maker Faire NYC volunteer tee shirt. It's a size XXL, so I had plenty of fabric to work with! The white logo made for some interesting bits of color in the ruffle.

I modeled the pattern after the Ruffle Flower Pillow except that instead of sewing one long ruffle and winding it into a flower, I made little strips of ruffles. I was inspired by a pillow that Tricia from Oh So Crafty made out of an old tee shirt and a men's dress shirt.

It only took about 2 hours to make, and that's with me sewing the pillow together on the wrong side, ripping it out, and doing it over. (Oops.)

I must admit, it looks pretty good on the couch with my Ruffle Flower Pillow! Nap time!

Reconstructed Skirt

New York is possibly the worst city in the world in which to wear a long skirt. I picture myself tripping over it on the subway stairs, city rats clinging to it as I run from them. I could get caught in a subway door. A homeless man could throw up on it.

Lately I've had a lot of revelations concerning my wardrobe. Due to budget restrictions and general concern about consumer waste, I'm avoiding shopping. I also notice clothes in my closet that I still like, but one or two little things are keeping me from wearing it.

Take this lovely skirt, for example. I must say that I am particularly fond of this skirt because even though it came from Pittsburgh's H&M circa 2005, it took me months to save the money to afford it because I was working for AmeriCorps.

Cue the seam ripper!

I ripped off that bottom ruffle and just redid the hem. Because I didn't want to be a sewing hermit, I took it to the park. Check out my early summer pale leg under there.

Have you ever used one of these blind hem sewing machine feet? I didn't do a blind hem but this little baby came in very handy for keeping my hem edge straight!

Ta da! Skirt one of two:

So now I have this really long ruffle (folded over double here to fit the photo). I'm trying to decide whether to make another skirt out of it, or use it for something else. Ideas?