Cutting up a Purple Jersey Sheet!

I've been having fun playing with the yardage that you get when you cut up a sheet set.  So far I haven't even touched the fitted sheet or the pillowcase, and I've got lots of the flat sheet left of this lovely purple jersey from a twin sheet set.  It was free, so I feel like I can try things and not be too worried about the results because there's only the investment of time, not actual money.

I'm super happy with my first experiment, and Little Sister wants to wear it over all of her tank top dresses, so I consider it a win.  I made a flyaway cardigan with a single button closure using this great tutorial from Caila Made:

But I took the raw edge a step further.  I didn't make a binding strip to go around the neckline, front, and hem; instead, I folded the edges of my front panels and hem over to the outside of the garment, then used a decorative stitch to sew them flat.  SO easy and fast to finish it this way!

You could totally use this method on short sleeves, a shirt hem, whatever, as long as you're using t-shirt fabric that doesn't fray.  I think the detail looks best when you stay right by the raw edge of the fabric.

I used a decorative stitch, but it would be cute with a simple zig-zag too, like in the Caila-Made tutorial.

When I did the corner at the neckline, I just tucked a loop of elastic under and made sure to sew it securely. I sewed the button on the other side afterwards.  And at the corners of the bottom hem, I tried to fold my fabric into a neat mitred corner.

It's the perfect lightweight topper, and I might make one for myself too!

Happy about her cardi

Giving me a very "Church Lady" vibe

Here it is just on it's hanger, in case you like that sort of thing.

And since I had so much of the fabric, I made myself another cap-sleeve tee as well.  I was a little sloppy with the construction on this one and I'm not as happy with the results.  I thought I might like it a little looser, so the waistline was more pronounced, but I think it just looks sloppy.

I've been wearing it with a belt, which helps:

And here's how the back looks:

How about that lovely backdrop, huh?  The hubby's been tearing up the backyard and there is literally NOWHERE I can stand back there that doesn't have a huge pile of dirt or dead plants in the image. So hello there, potted tomato plant, let's be friends.

And in other news, this summer is the first in my stay-at-home mom career where both kids are at home full-time (other than a few camps here and there--and even those are only a couple of hours a day).  The last two summers The Boy had preschool 3 mornings a week, so it was just me and Little Sister, and running errands and whatnot is definitely easier with one kid than two.  My kids are pretty good about playing together these days, but if I pull out the computer to try to blog, or do some work on my MIL's website or photos, or whatever, it's like an alarm goes off that WE NEED MOM'S IMMEDIATE ATTENTION!  So while I'm looking forward to this summer for spending some relaxed fun time together, I have a feeling the blog is going to be on the back burner for a while.  My precious alone time will be spent working on the website where I actually get paid, and hopefully with MAKING stuff, and maybe at some point I'll get a chunk of time to blog a whole bunch of projects at once.  But, fall is not too far away, so don't give up on me if you don't hear from me for a while around here!