My New Gift

Have I told you what Bubba got me for my birthday? A serger. I'm so excited! I've been talking about wanting one for a while now. My sneaky husband told me I would have to raise the money through craft sales to get a serger on my own; so I got to work. I had just about raised the money to get one on my own, then he surprised me and got it for me. Isn't he fabulous?!
I think I've almost got the whole sweat shop feel in my craft room. This room is seriously lacking in decor and I have about 4 different shades of wood throughout, but it serves it's purpose.

I just started learning the ins and outs of my serger, so I decided to whip up a little something for myself. So many of the blogs I read talk about upcycling and refashioning, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I took a plain Hanes gray men's shirt and dressed it up. I actually had this shirt from something we did at church a few months back, so it didn't cost me a thing.
I didn't take a picture of the before, but you know what a plain mens shirt looks like. This shirt is FAR from perfect. I didn't measure or trace anything. I pretty much just started cutting and this is what I came up with. I cut off the sleeves and around the neck, then just serged those up. I really like the look of serged ends on knits with a different color.

Then I couldn't decide how I wanted to dress it up. So I took the sleeves that I had just cut off and cut strips of fabric and serged up those ends. After that I ran a line of stitching down the middle of them to create a gather...then sewed the three strips vertically down the front. Easy peasy. I really like how it turned out. This is how I wore it out...I could buy stock in cardigans I have so many, but that's what I like to wear.

I really enjoyed doing my first refashion and plan to do more in the future. It's cheap and green...two things I really like.