49-Cent Friday Refashion: Turning a Shirt Into Leggings Tutorial

As you might remember from my recent Swants refashion, or my (not-so-recent) pajama pants refashion, turning shirts into pants is a lot easier than you might think.

So easy in fact, that when my daughter needed a pair of brown leggings to go with a few tunics and dresses that she has, rather than buy her a brand new pair, I decided a refashion was the way to go!

I found this long-sleeved, brown t-shirt for 49-cents at Mel Trotter and thought it would be a great top for myself.

However, when I got home and tried it on, it was WAY too tight.

So tight in fact, that I wasn’t about to show you a picture of me in it for the “before pic”
(That would just be indecent).

My daughter kindly modeled it for me instead.

Hmm, a bit too long and baggy for her.

As you can see, it would make a great dress for her (with just a few alterations), but she needed brown leggings (for all of her other shirts and dresses) much more than she needed ANOTHER dress!

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49-Cent Friday: American Girl Doll Dress Refashion Tutorial

When I saw this cute little sweater-vest for only 49-cents at Mel Trotter (my favorite local thrift store), I knew I couldn’t pass it up.

What a cute little sweater-vest.

This sweater-vest is a toddler size 18 months (although it’s shrunken up to more of a 12 months), and my kids are nowhere near that small. Still, I figured I’d discover a use for it, so I went ahead and brought it home.

When my daughter saw it, she informed me that it would make an adorable sweater-dress for her American Girl doll.

49-Cent Friday Refashion: Lumberjack Swants (Sweater Pants)

By now I’m sure a lot of you have heard about “Swants”.

Not familiar? Maybe this will help…

And of course there’s the Swants Dance:

When I saw this crazy video, and grasped the concept of Swants for the first time, I couldn’t wait to make myself a pair.

And I had the perfect thing in mind to create them from:

Do I look like a lumberjack?

Notice the huge stack of banana boxes behind me? They’re what’s left of all my wool sweaters (although a lot of them are now sweater pieces).
After scouring through my sweater stash, I found this awesome lumberjack-looking sweater coat and thought it would make a fetching pair of Swants.

Blogiversary and Giveaway!

One year ago today I published the very first post on this little blog…I can hardly believe it!

I’m so thankful for all of you who read and follow Diary of a MadMama.

Every time someone comments on, likes, refers, pins, and shares one of my posts; it completely makes my day.

I’m especially grateful for those who decide to feature my blog on their websites. For example, being invited to be one of the competitors on the first season of the Refashion Runway Competition was definitely a huge highlight of the first year…thanks Beth!

But most of all, It has been amazing to meet, connect and share encouragement with readers and fellow bloggers who, although I’ve not met them in person, feel like close friends.

To give you a recap of this past year, here are highlights from some of the most popular posts each month, followed by a celebratory giveaway:

JANUARY 2013:

How To Make an Infinity Scarf in Less Than 30 Minutes

49-Cent Friday Refashion: Scrap Busting Owl iPhone Case

Any of you who follow me on Pinterest might already know how much I love owls.

Just take a look at my Felt board to see how much.

I liked the Leather Owl Purse that I made for my daughter so much, I decided to make some more fun owl accessories.

The great thing about this refashion is that it uses up scraps from all of my felted sweaters.

Remember this mess?

Dress To Skirt Refashion

Happy New Year!

It seems like forever since I’ve last posted.

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas.

Mine was good (other than breaking down on the side of the road Christmas evening. Our vehicle is still at the shop. 😦 Ugh!)

The best part of the holiday, was being able to spend time with friends and family, including my best friend Jessica (whom I don’t get to see often enough) and her significant other.

Jess always brings me a bunch of clothing that she no longer wants when we get together. It’s like Christmas every time she visits! (And this time it really was Christmas! Ha!)

One of the treasures she brought was a dress that she wore one of the times I went to visit her in the summer. We walked to the beach and had our pictures taken together. (That’s how I remember the dress.)

Isn’t she cute?

Here’s a closeup:

Pretty fabric ‘eh?

She was very fond of this dress, but it was a bit short for her current liking, so I decided to refashion it for her.