Refashioning: How to Make a Dickie from a Collared Shirt and Instantly Elevate Your Wardrobe

Sometimes, you buy a shirt when you only actually like the collar. You may hate the rest of it (as I do for the shirt below!)

So, today, we are going to make a dickie!

Dickies are a great way to elevate a regular no-collar shirt or sweater. In the 90s, dickies were mostly just the top part of a turtleneck made to wear under V-neck sweaters without having the added bulk and heat-trapping layers of a full turtleneck.

However, while they were supposed to make life easier, they usually ended up creeping up around the decollate area and making weird wrinkles underneath said sweaters.

Today, dickies are made much more thoughtfully as they have elastic under the armpits to keep them down. (Innovative!!) Also, they aren't just turtlenecks anymore. See the cute one below? I bought it because (1) the dickie was much cheaper than buying the whole shirt, (2) I can mix and match it with not just fall/winter attire, but also spring/summer shirts, (3) I wanted one to study to figure how to make my own!

Using the pre-made dickie as a template, I laid my shirt down underneath it and cut around. If you don't have a pre-made dickie, you can cut from around the seam at the top of the shoulder down to about the top of the chest area--usually down to about the fifth or sixth button. Really, this measurement is up to you and how deep the necklines are of the items under which you will be putting the dickie, so you should probably get your deepest necklined shirt/sweater out and use that as your reference. Wherever that neckline falls, give yourself another inch or two to make sure the dickie doesn't pop out!

For mine, I used binding lace to finish the edges. If you don't have binding you can just leave about 5/8" seam allowance around the extremity when you are cutting your dickie out, then fold the edge in about 1/4" and press, and then fold it in again about 1/4" and press. That was too much work for me, so I bound instead! (Also. . .you really don't HAVE to finish the edges as they will never be seen, so you can skip to the next step if raw edges don't bother you. However, bear in mind that finished edges keep things from falling apart over time. So. . .do as the Spirit leads.)

Here are the edges all finished.

Next, you need to measure about 6-ish inches of elastic for under the arms. Fold the edge of the elastic under about 1/4" and pin it to the wrong side of either side of the dickie to create arm holes.

Then, zig-zag stitch them in place.

The finished arm hole from the right side.

The finished dickie.

Much cuter than the original shirt!

The End!

Sunday School Craft - Feeding the 5000. . .Five Loaves and Two Fish

So the little kids are going to learn about "The Feeding of the 5000" in a week or so. I searched Pinterest and Google for theme-worthy crafts. Most of them just showed five loaves and two fish with a pertinent Bible verse. . .which is fine. . .but I wanted to show the multiplication aspect of the miracle!

You need: cardstock, regular paper, glue, and scissors.

So if you scroll to the bottom, you will find my templates I created from Google graphics. You need to print out the same number of each page.

Then, you need to cut out the loaves and fish into vertical strips like this. (If you use a paper cutter like I have in the picture below, it works better if you cut the pages upside down as the fish column is wider than the loaf column, and won't get stuck under the cutting guard--yellow part.)

It helps if you print the basket page out on cardstock, but regular paper will work too. I only used the colored cardstock you see below because we have a ton of colored cardstock and I'm trying to get rid of it!

Next, you need to fold each fish/loaf column EXACTLY like the picture below: With the fish/loaf facing OUT. Don't start by folding the fish/loaf inward or your craft won't make any sense.

Then, make the next fold like this:

And the next like this (keep folding until the whole column is folded up):

The folded columns.

Then, glue the "bottom" fish/loaf of each column and stick them on the page.

*NOTE* The effect is more dramatic if you glue them in such a way that they will jump out from the center of the page. This will make more sense in the next pictures:

Here, I have lightly taped the sides of each folded column down, so you can see the five loaves and fish.

And here they are unfolded and "multiplied"!

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this to Facebook, my friend, Lisa, printed the craft out for her son, Jaren.

He loved it!

Templates:

The End!

Refashioning: Short-Sleeved Moto Jacket out of a Huge 80s Jacket

I love moto jackets, but I live in the South and cold weather is so short-lived. I feel like I only get my jackets out and it's time to pack them back up. I wanted a short-sleeved version.

Enter the coat below and a refashion!

See that smudge on the back? Don't worry. I'll fix it. This coat had all kinds of problems, including both sleeves had what looked like bleach stains on them.

It had a zip-in thermal layer. I took it out.

I cut it apart. 

I put it on my dress form to start sizing it.

I cut the back so it was shorter than the front.

At first, I thought maybe I could keep the pockets, so that's why they are sticking out like that.

I clipped up the side seams.

And sewed them up.

Using a French curve, I drew the curved bottom hem. (You could just eyeball it, but the curve makes things more precise.)

I topstitched around the bottom.

Then I clipped the sleeves how I wanted them. Because I'd removed the shoulder pads, there was a big hump on each of the shoulders. This actually allowed me to make cap sleeves quite easily as they were already shaped for me. (Use what you got!)

The finished jacket.

Oh. One more thing. I needed to cover up that smudge. I had a big iron on eye patch (much like the one I used for my Kenzo inspired refashion). I put a cloth over it and hit it with the iron just enough so it just barely stuck on in place.

Then, I sewed it on.

The actually finished jacket.

The End!