sewing up some cuteness

I have had such a fun this week sewing, sewing, sewing. I have got some Christmas gifts made, my new Etsy items in shop, fall/thanksgiving outfits made for the girls and outfits made for both of them for Santa pictures! Oh, I love to be ahead of the game :) See, I told you I have been stitching away! OK, now for the fun part...the tutorial.

I have a little stash of old clothing items that are either too big, out of date or that I'm just tired of. Why do I have them? Well, I reuse them to make new things with, upcycle if you will. The other day I was in a rare mood to do something/make something a little different. I grabbed an old jean skirt that I had in my stash...too big and too long for me.

You see that picture up there, the capelet? That's right, it was made from that skirt. See, my stash is worth keeping - LOL

OK, so I've never posted a tutorial, so here goes, bare with me :)

*NOTE - this skirt did not have a vent/split in the back*

I took the jean skirt and measured about 14 inches from the bottom and cut all the way across the skirt. I sat the top portion of the skirt to the side. You won't need it for making the capelet.

Then, using the 14 inch section of the skirt that I cut off, I cut the skirt from the bottom hem to the top, straight up the middle (making an opening for the capelet). Once that was done, I serged the unfinished edges to keep them from fraying.

Once I had serged the edges, I folded the front edges under 1/4 of an inch, pressed and then folded them again 1/4 of an inch and pressed, then stitched.

Next, I used 7/8" grosgrain ribbon to gather my top edge. Take the serged top edge and fold it over, allowing room for your ribbon to pass through the opening. I folded mine over 1/2 of an inch. I then pressed the entire top serged edge over 1/2 of an inch, making a casting for the ribbon. I then stitched down the top edge along the serged stitches. Be sure that you do not stitch the sides of the casting. Leave it open to feed your ribbon through.

You should now have sewn edges around the top and front openings of your capelet. Now, you can feed your ribbon through the casting that you made at the top. Use the ribbon to gather the capelet at the top until the two front openings are almost touching (maybe an inch a part).

Put your capelet around your shoulders/neck to make adjustments. Once you have a good comfortable fit, pin the ribbon in place at the opening of the casting.
Then, you will need to stitch the ribbon in place to make it secure. Sew the ribbon in place by stitching over top of the stitch line that is already there. This will allow for a clean appearance of your stitches.

Your capelet is DONE!!! Now, you can embellish it with trim, buttons...you name it.

Have fun and enjoy!