Minne Mouse in the House!

Update:  Serger arrived.  I pulled the machine out of the box.  I read both accompanying manuals.  I memorized all the parts' names.  Then I became intimidated and put the machine in the cupboard and pulled out the old broken sewing machine to make this sweatshirt refashion:
 

 

I am a whimp (that's wimp with an 'h' to emphasize wimpiness).  The good news is that Momo is coming this week to help me overcome my serger drama.  Thank you, Momo!!! 

My old machine's thread broke a few times during this project, but it was imperative that I have this sweatshirt for our Disney trip just around the corner.  It started life as two Kohls-Cash specials:

My eldest Dear Daughter thought the plaid top looked like a onesy for a lumberjack.  I thought it looked like a skirt for my Minnie Mouse upcycle. 

No gathering this time - the broken sewing machine would not stand for it.  Instead, I just sliced off the bottom of the plaid tee and serged it under the sweatshirt band (sans serger).  It's a little more puckered than I was hoping for, so I tried to draw attention away from that by making the three-dimensional bows.  Here's the one in the back:

I'm sensing a theme inspired by the Arial tee-redo.  Can't wait to see what Mickey thinks of it... 

Arial tee refashion...with ruffles, of course.

My new machine arrived!!!  I am a little intimidated because I've never used a serger before, but while I'm working up my courage, here's a tee-refashion that I got done BEFORE my sewing machine died.

So, I had this tee-shirt with The Little Mermaid on it...

But there was a hole.

No, really, it's there if you look closely enough.  How could I wear a tee-shirt with a hole to Disney World???  The scandal!  The shame! 

And there was this scarf...

But it had this loose-weave-kinda-hole thing happening:

...which I think gathering into ruffles would hide and maybe even strengthen pretty well.

So I cut each of the patterned stripes into long strips to make my ruffles.  The scarf is VERY thin.

 I tried the same trick that I use for making your own bias tape for these, to make the ruffles more substantial:  fold the strip in half and press; open the pressed strip and fold each side up to the center and press.  Then you have a "tape" with no unfinished edges to ruffle into place. 

I had some scarf left over, so waste-not/want-not... Now I have fluttery sleeves that no self-respecting woman-over-thirty (ahem) would wear in Disney.  But who said I'm self-respecting... I'm DISNEY-respecting here.  Anyway, making the sleeves was intriguing, because they were cuffed and provided a very nice way to hide the stitches. 

Here is the finished upcycled shirt:

I will wear this to request Arial's autograph.  OK.  A little creepy.  Perhaps I will just give Arial a little wave from afar -- you know, princess-to-princess.

I like the bow in the back best.