Trip to Goodwill, and a "Me and my tools" dress!

Yesterday, the weather was glorious. That is no exaggeration. The kids and I slapped on our shoes, took Nate to work (sorry honey!), and headed to the park. The girls climbed up the giant slide, learned about friction, discussed Newton's first law of motion, walked the balance beam and generally had a great time.

Then, after a hearty unanimous vote, Eva was taken home for a much-needed nap (the older girls built a lean-to in the backyard) before we went grocery shopping. So, long day.

Because I'm sometimes lacking in sense, we stopped at the thrift store on the way to pick Nathan up. (It was 75% off clothing day.) Everyone was fine all the way through until just before checkout. Eva threw the queen

mother of ALL 2 year old hysterical fits, and was flapping and flailing, and I was trying to calm her while corraling every toward the door. Some kind looking man sporting the "Oh, I'll be nice and talk to your kids while you check out" look struck up a conversation with my 4yo. Poor fool.

"I have CATS!" said my 4yo. "Oh, really! That's nice. I do, too, and a parrot. I hope your kitties are fixed. That's the responsible thing to do. " said the unsuspecting man. "YES! We took our cat to the vet yesterday, and they cut off his TESTICLES! He's all chopped up!" said Naomi, grinning broadly. "Oh. my. OH!" said the unsuspecting man. He muttered something polite looking and inaudible, and puttered back over to the cargo pant rack.

At that moment, my 6yo dropped my purse's contents all over the floor of Goodwill, quickly said "Oops, I'll clean it", and proceeded to comment rather loudly about all the contents as she replaced them one by one." What's THIS?!" Some items were more interesting than others. (And here I'd thought extreme preparedness was a *good* idea.) Meanwhile, Eva continued to do her best drunken shrieking monkey impression while I grabbed my deodorant, keys and lip balm off from the ugly carpet and shoved them into my handbag. The cashier had a look on her face that told me she was making a mental note to utilize one of the items in my handbag more often.

That'll teach me to thrift with children past 3pm. However, I snagged a few

fun little pieces for .50 a piece, and they resulted in a new little playdress for Eves. :o)

It's an "I love my tools" dress, because, well, she does. Take THAT, manufacturers that only put "I Heart Shopping" logos on little girl's clothing. Clearly, as evidenced by yesterday's fiasco, not all girls heart shopping. ;OP

All I did was: took a children's pajama top and cut off the sleeves to the length I wanted (leaving seam allowance), and then double hemmed the raw edges under. (If I'd used a walking foot, it would have looked even better...live and learn.)

Then, I cut the shirt several inches below where I wanted the waistline-again, leaving an inch or two for seam allowance. Then, I took a girl's size 12 tiered swing top, trimmed off the top, and sewed around the circumference of the cut line with the widest possible stitch. Then, I pulled on the threads (the fabric bunches along the sewed thread as you pull!) until the circumference matched that of the shirt. Now, you have a bunched skirt line! :O)

I sewed the wrong sides of the shirt top and bunched bottom together (since they're both knitted materials and won't fray much, I didn't bother to encase the inner seam this time), and, viola! A dress. :D I added a pocket, as well, which Eva promptly and gleefully stuffed with pretzels.