Necessity blah blah or whatever works

I had an idea but thought it was crazy then I saw someone else pin about a skirt made out of a sheet with a pretty pattern and decided okay maybe I was not that crazy. Fabric can be expensive especially if you are sewing something that is really only meant to last a few months or can be damaged easily. Such as my sisters bed dresses, (see prior post) or around the house shifts for me and my sister. So I looked at the sheets and found Walmart had a sale on Twin flat sheets for 4.00. I decided that white was too boring and decided to twist the fabric then soak in a large pan of dye. I took it out of the dye still twisted then loosened it up dip it back in then tossed in the washer, the picture is not the best but you can see streaking the dye did nice marbling effect.

 Then I laid out the pattern which fit very well is little left over. Since the dress is not too fitted the twin size worked best. 

Now that I know it works I working on one with stripes and plan to get more in different florals. The dress takes about 1/2 a day to make including dying and the material cost was 4.00 for the sheet and 1.50 for a 1/2 bottle of dye. You cannot beat that with a stick. 

Dressing a plus size patient

Our sister is physically disabled and at this time cannot get out of bed, as she weighs over 300 lbs. you can imagine how hard it is to get her dressed. For a time we used hospital gowns but they are boring, ugly, and too short and do nothing for morale. This is especially true during special events like birthdays, holidays or anytime the family gathers round.

Around one holiday I decided to make something to wear. The way I saw it why did it have to go around her? She was not getting out of bed so why try to force her into something traditional. Therefore, I grabbed a pattern and modified to make a basic empire waist short sleeve dress. However, I did not close the back up. Instead once her arms were through then the sides were tucked in. there was a tape at the neck line to tie shut if needed and the skirt went down to her feet. She was completely covered and looked completely dressed.

This one is in her favorite lepord print but I did not preshrink the material and it shrunk badly. My bad :(

Then I took some of her older clothes including her favorite t-shirt cut them up the back, attached the skirt and made her several outfits. I think they look good on her and she feels more normal.