the Hawaiian Mu'umu'u Challenge

What's a girl to do with her fun Hawaiian Mu'umu'us once she no longer wears them? They are too sentimental to sell or give away but it is too cold here to wear them most of the time and there is no enjoyment to be had if they are stored away in a box or in the back of a closet. They eventually become out of sight out of mind and then easily forgotten. Well, my sister had a similar dilemma and came up with a creative solution. 

She asked me if I might be able to repurpose her Mu'umu'us and turn them into Pillowcases. What a brilliant idea! Repurpose them into something useful and enjoyable. It was perfect. I love a challenge so I said yes as soon as she asked. Then she gave me her two mu'umu'us and I got to work.

I started the project by taking out the seams and hems and then figured out how to use the odd shaped pieces so that they would work. It required a little piecing on the back panel however the tropical prints hide the seams fairly well. 

Since there was barely enough fabric for the body of the pillowcases I used some fabric from my stash for the trim and cuff. 

To make the inside really nice I finished all the seams with french and flat felled seams. That way there are no raw edges where I had to piece it together to make it the right size. I love my serger however I prefer these seams for this project.

Here is a better look at a couple of the seams on the inside of one of the pillowcases.

The dresses were made of different fabric. One was rayon and the other cotton. While I was taking them apart I decided the tags and labels would come in handy so I saved them. The instruction tags I sewed to the inside of the pillowcases for reference when washing. 

I am happy to report that leftover scraps of fabric did not go to waste. I was able to use most of them for fun Face Masks.

And, I had just enough for a cute Little Wallet. 

And, matching face masks.

As for the wonderful labels, I could not let them go to waste. I sewed one on the fitted face mask.

The other one I stitched inside the Hawaiian Little Wallet. 

All the projects were so much fun to make. 

As I folded the pillowcases and prepared everything to give back to my sister I decided it would be fun to tie it all up with some of the serged edges of fabric I had cut off and saved. It made a sweet little matching ribbon. 

To finished it off I made a tag to tie on top and a card to slip into the Little Wallet.

I do have one nice sized piece of Hawaiian fabric left which I am holding onto because I have another project in mind that I am hoping it will be perfect for. If all goes as planned I will be back to share. 

Aloha!