I want to paint..but I keep having to come to terms that at this stage in my life, there are lots of things going on every day that are not painting or photography, but I do my best to keep creativity alive. Take "Western Wear Day" for example... the school sprung this theme-day on us for next week. I don't have a stitch of anything western in the house..and the kids are not allowed to wear hats.....

I also know she would be miserable in a button down shirt and jeans..so I rigged up a San Diego Western ensemble.. White T Shirt, suede vest, jeans, bandana. Done.

I found a lot of cheap adult vests on ebay...but the kids vests were out of my price range. I picked up a yard of this fabric for $8...and when I passed neon ric-rac on the shelf, I had to grab that too... and the star was pinned to the board behind the cutting table...so I grabbed that too. I was out the door for about $11.

Since I am not a strong apparel sewer, I have been reading sewing blogs and something interesting stuck in my brain: I'm seeing favorite clothing items being traced onto new fabric and then slightly altered to make new pieces... seems pretty project runway...and something I could manage...so I grabbed my daughter's puffer vest and started tracing.

Pictured is the first and only mistake... tracing the vest this way did not yield a symmetrical garment. I folded the vest...and matched the fold with the fold in the fabric and got an even cut.

I eye-balled the arm holes and had my daughter try the vest on a few times each cut...

It's a quick costume... no hems... nothing fancy.. PERFECT for a school theme day and especially a vest. I sewed the ric arc along the bottom of the vest and eyeballed the cuts for the fringe. A little decorative stitching around the edges to make things a little more substantial.. all in all this took about an hour.

The best part? I know she loves if because she wouldn't take it off... Such a great feeling.

Yee haw :)

Special shout out to Yardage Town in Escondido...... I love you...I love your assortment. Don't ever change.

No Sew Kids Vest.... And Neon Ric Rac