Ruffle Bib Tank & Parachute Pants

I am an implusive seamstress. I'd rather figure out as I sew than follow a pattern. For Littlemiss's Fall wardrobe I did just that. To make it much easier, and more affordable, I used mostly repurposed clothes as well. The hems are already finished, so it can often take a lot less sewing. I have a GINORMOUS bin overflowing with clothes I plan on repurposing. Mostly items I love the color, texture, or shape of so I've hung onto to be repurposed. Some of the first few items I made Littlemiss for her Fall fashions was a ruffle bib tank and a pair of parachute pants. Both the pants and the bib on her tank were made from an old shirt of mine.

Littlemiss has become hilarious in front of the camera and has started making funny faces at me while I shoot. I love it!!! It's so different than the pouty/fussy/mad toddler I used to have to coax into smiling at the camera.

"WOW!" face

"Mad" face

"I'm watching you" face

Sweet smile :)

Shirt before

To cut out the legs for the pants I laid a pair of her pants folded in half onto the arms of the shirt and cut an 1/2 inch away from the pants in the crotch and waist.

I serged the raw edges and then slipped one leg of the pants into the other leg so that they had right sides facing each other.

I sewed all the way around the edges, which resulted in a pair of pants completely sewn closed around the waist band....OOPS!!!

To fix this ripped the seam where the waist of the pants should go. They were a bit narrow at the waist, so I cut them down a bit because they are poofier (is that a word??) in the middle of the sleeve/leg.

I measure and sewed a waist band onto the pants, leaving a 1 inch gap to feed the elastic through before finishing. The seam around the waist wasn't as clean looking as I had hoped and seemed to be missing something...

...so I made a tie and sewed it over the seam.

To create the bib I simply cut the fabric off the original shirt in the middle and cut it down to fit Littlemiss's tank top. I first serged the edges and then ironed them under. I created a small ruffle and sewed it onto the bib. Then I sewed the bib onto the tank.