Purchase a tee and add a fun frill to create dresses for little girls. Kids and teens (and adults) love Hello Kitty and adding other fabric to create something original based on a  tee with this theme is fun and interesting.  Encourage young teens who sew to make their own in a craft class or for a home project.  Take a look at more dresses based on tees.

If you have purchased jelly rolls of fabric (pre-packed color, designer, or theme based fabric) you may find quite a number that you don't like or don't have use for.  Don't forget them however.  You can join them to create a larger piece of fabric and use them for linings of purses or other craft items.  Before you run off to purchase fabric for lining, try putting some of these strips together to form a matching color to the item you are making. 

Why is this under the section "decoration"?  Well, this is a beautiful platter to decorate a table whether it be for dinner or an event.  Great to make for others too - for a potluck or festival.  Merely by slicing block mozzarella and placing them on a plate, cutting tomato and laying them on the cheese in a design of your choice, spreading basil leaves here and there, drizzling olive oil, drizzling a little balsamic vinegar and sprinkling with pepper - and you have it. 

A great dish to give if you are someone who is nervous when you can't taste a recipe that you're giving to others.  For an article about this you can see my recipe in full.

Did you purchase a serger and never use it?  Do you just do overlock stiches on the seams and never use your machine for anything else?  This is not an unusual story.  Because an overlock machine typically is a bit of a nuisance to thread, many buyers tend to give up and not use the machine.  And it really is a fantastic tool.
Try looking at Youtube presentations to teach you all the different things you can do, sewing in zippers to gathering fabric.  If you can, attend a course at a local sewing machine shop.  What a pity to have such a great instrument and not use it.  This was my experience and I recently started doing different things on my machine - and it is just great.

The brightness of yellow fabric brings a smile.  This purse was made with quilted inside lining, pieced with yellow floral fabric, and embellished with a Pickle Pie design applique on denim.  Making bags is always fun.

This little yellow dress was made from pre-rouched fabric (Joann's) with an added frill of fabric.  I added the frill because I thought the dress would be  small for the little lady who will be receiving the dress, however, I realized that it is a nice idea anyway to mix fabrics.  Also, to those of you out there who want to lengthen a dress you have already purchased - this is a neat idea. Look at the other dresses for little girls on this site

The Floriani Heat 'N Shrink product is placed on the back of fabric (instructions are given with the package) and when heat is added by pressing the materials with an iron, shriveling takes place.  The effect is a ruffled, or a rouched-like result.

It is fun to use the fabric for purses or applique.  In this picture you can see the result when used with an Anita Goodesign animal applique project.  More pictures on this site show you the phases of the ironing process.

When I feel like sewing something, don't want to do one of my on-going projects or start a new more ambitious assignment, I love to make these little in-the-hoop USB/Lipstick purses/key ring.    This particular one is a "Pickle-Pie" design and I love it. 
I have made these for little girls (they love mini purses),  for males (in leather or more masculine fabrics) for students.  You could add some keys and sew in suitable fabrics for little boys.  Fun, fun, fun.  The bags section of the site shows many more.

If you are sewing a simple dress (either based on tees as per my previous blog, or a simple pattern, or single color ) there are embellishments that you can add to make the item special.
Here is a list:  Add special buttons, a colorful waistband or insert,  fun ruffles, a scarf attached in an interesting way, an applique, a fancy pocket, ribbon, a jewelry item that can be taken off prior to washing the dress, a headband to match part of the dress, sew a little purse with the same fabric, tassels, charms sewn on an applique, rhinestones attached in a secure way, fabric paint added to the design of the fabric, the name of the wearer - either embroidered or painted, matching dresses for mom and daughter.
Have some more ideas?  Send in your comments.

There have been a large number of hits on this blog today.  Obviously everyone wants to see and sew dresses.  Please send some comments and add some ideas for embellishments, patterns, tips and websites for girls' dresses.  Feel free to send a link to your sewing site too.

In my efforts to use  tees as a basis for sewing, I have experimented with brand new tees and some old tees cut up and combined with fabric to create girls'' dresses.

Tomorrow I will post my pictures of the dresses and you will be able to see the difference.  If you are sewing for utilitarian purposes (play clothes, dress up clothes, house clothes ) then old tees are worth cutting up.  However, if the pattern involves detailed work, or new fabrics to embellish, it may not be worth the time.  Old tees look old, and it is a pity to put in a lot of extra effort and creativity when the result looks "old or used". 
If you are merely attaching a tee top with a simple attachment seam to one bottom piece of fabric it may be nice enough, but detailed work may be wasting time best given to a "new" item.

Update!!!!!  Here are some completed tee shirt dresses.        My new project is using tee shirts as the basis for little girls' dresses.  Not meaning the use of old tees cut up to form a dress, but using a tee or tank as the top part of a dress.

The nice part about this project is that the top is complete and knowing the size of the girl will result in a dress that will probably fit.  Tee tops also means an ease of dressing and a relaxed comfortable outfit.

One can purchase tees of all types, including ready designed ones, cheap ones, those that are too short but still fit well, simple utilitarian tops that can be embellished with appliques, ribbons, pockets.  Sewing for a child who lives far away is very difficult as true measurements are hard to take, however, using the tee as basis will most likely result in a dress that will fit well even if fittings are impossible to make while sewing.

I will post my projects over the next few weeks.  Hope this idea is of interest.   

Most crafters have a number of projects going on at any given time.  Most projects are started and finished within a certain amount of time.  However, some are started and left, continued and left again, or put away in a drawer.

Here's the idea of the craft agenda book.  If a project is put aside, or if a number of projects are being done at the same time, give each project a name and date, and write down what the next step has to be when starting on the project again.  In this way, you will know exactly where to begin, and what you need to do, and the notes will be easily available so you can start the work again quickly.  This can be done for every craft project, scrapbook, or gift item that you have in line for completion. 

While I am not against notes in a computer format, I highly suggest a physical notebook kept with your supplies of craft materials so that you can easily refer to it when you get the urge to sit down to craft.

Kids love animals.  A cat purse is a winner with both little girls and boys.  This purse is an in-the-hoop project by Anita Goodesign.  This comes in a project CD along with hearts, cupcakes, a dog and several other designs.

Fun to watch as the machine does nearly the whole job, and really nice to give away to little folk.

Look for some of the other designs from this package that have worked out well.