Thrift Store Hack: Frumpy Frock into Gathered Waist Sundress

Let me start by saying that this hack was both a success and a failure. Obviously, maybe this is a bit presumptuous of me, the sundress after version looks much better than the before; however, this was a bit of a hack job on my part and I made a ton of simple sewing errors. If I'm being really honest the majority of the errors were made because I was rushing, and that's when most of the mistakes I make when sewing happen. The center gather channel that the tied waist band sits in is crooked (guess who didn't draw a straight line to follow!) and all of the hems are rippled. I have all of these great (at least to me) ideas in my head and not enough time so I sew faster than I should, then get angry with the mistakes, then get more angry fixing my mistakes and the time it's taking. The end result: i'm just a mess of pins, a whirring sewing machine, and usually a piece that's ruined beyond repair or not wearable outside. This happens to me over and over again, but I've really been trying to work at taking my time when sewing. Realizing that I don't have to complete a piece from start to finish in one day even though I'd like to is a big help as well. When I push myself that hard I'm not enjoying myself or doing my best work. As my skills advance hopefully my speed will pick up as well, but I'm just not there. So I said all of that to say that from far away this dress looks nice, especially compared to what it was before, but at least to me up close it has a lot of faults. I may just sound like I'm being hard on myself, but I don't want to give the home sewers out there a bad rep. I feel like a lot of people picture home sewn clothes as dowdy, plain, lacking style. That can't be further from the truth, but a lot of people are unaware of that. I'm always afraid people will be able to tell the difference between my made items and ready to wear (RTW) items. Besides the individuality of the clothes I'm sewing from patterns to style I want my pieces to look professional.... If I wanted to I could fix these things, but in reality I'm not going to. This fits in with my wardrobe overhaul, fits my body nicely, and even though it might not last for more than a season I got this dress for about $4 from Goodwill.  At the time I didn't have any purpose for it so I threw it in my stash. The dress was hideous unless shiny purple frock dresses that fit like a sack with a necktie and shoulder pads are your thing. Make sure to click the link below to get the 'How To' and more pictures!

Let me start by saying that this hack was both a success and a failure. Obviously, maybe this is a bit presumptuous of me, the sundress after version looks much better than the before; however, this was a bit of a hack job on my part and I made a ton of simple sewing errors. If I'm being really honest the majority of the errors were made because I was rushing, and that's when most of the mistakes I make when sewing happen. The center gather channel that the tied waist band sits in is crooked (guess who didn't draw a straight line to follow!) and all of the hems are rippled. I have all of these great (at least to me) ideas in my head and not enough time so I sew faster than I should, then get angry with the mistakes, then get more angry fixing my mistakes and the time it's taking. The end result: i'm just a mess of pins, a whirring sewing machine, and usually a piece that's ruined beyond repair or not wearable outside. This happens to me over and over again, but I've really been trying to work at taking my time when sewing. Realizing that I don't have to complete a piece from start to finish in one day even though I'd like to is a big help as well. When I push myself that hard I'm not enjoying myself or doing my best work. As my skills advance hopefully my speed will pick up as well, but I'm just not there. So I said all of that to say that from far away this dress looks nice, especially compared to what it was before, but at least to me up close it has a lot of faults. I may just sound like I'm being hard on myself, but I don't want to give the home sewers out there a bad rep. I feel like a lot of people picture home sewn clothes as dowdy, plain, lacking style. That can't be further from the truth, but a lot of people are unaware of that. I'm always afraid people will be able to tell the difference between my made items and ready to wear (RTW) items. Besides the individuality of the clothes I'm sewing from patterns to style I want my pieces to look professional.... If I wanted to I could fix these things, but in reality I'm not going to. This fits in with my wardrobe overhaul, fits my body nicely, and even though it might not last for more than a season I got this dress for about $4 from Goodwill.  At the time I didn't have any purpose for it so I threw it in my stash. The dress was hideous unless shiny purple frock dresses that fit like a sack with a necktie and shoulder pads are your thing. Make sure to click the link below to get the 'How To' and more pictures!

Fabric - Swatch article #12276028

Brand - Robert Allen

Pattern - Frontier Ogee

Color - Henna

Bought From - JoAnn Fabrics online

 I finally finished one of the clutches I was working on. I've been ordering swatches of reupholstery fabric for the couch I'm planning on reupholstering, and so far I haven't liked anything I've ordered. The nice thing about these swatches is that they were about a square foot in size, and while that's too small to do a lot of things, it was the perfect size for a clutch.

Enough room to stack multiple cards in at once!

I have a bunch of pictures and a some 'how to' steps so if you want to see the whole construction, click the link below.

Fabric - Swatch article #12276028

Brand - Robert Allen

Pattern - Frontier Ogee

Color - Henna

Bought From - JoAnn Fabrics online

 I finally finished one of the clutches I was working on. I've been ordering swatches of reupholstery fabric for the couch I'm planning on reupholstering, and so far I haven't liked anything I've ordered. The nice thing about these swatches is that they were about a square foot in size, and while that's too small to do a lot of things, it was the perfect size for a clutch.

Enough room to stack multiple cards in at once!

I have a bunch of pictures and a some 'how to' steps so if you want to see the whole construction, click the link below.

How To: Recycle Jeans or Capris into shorts

Tutorial

So I had a pair of jeans that had a hole in the crotch area which I had already previously hacked up to make my dogs jean jacket vests in addition to a pair of capri pants that I decided to use to make some shorts. I've had the capri's since I was in undergrad and they were a boxy fit to begin with on the bottom of the leg and I finally realized they'd serve me better as shorts. I always feel like I have a hard time finding shorts that I like, they're either too short or too tight in the waist/butt but then too loose in the legs or vice versa. That all being said I figured I couldn't go wrong using jeans that I already knew fit me well in the waist. Make sure to click the link to read the full how to.

Tutorial

So I had a pair of jeans that had a hole in the crotch area which I had already previously hacked up to make my dogs jean jacket vests in addition to a pair of capri pants that I decided to use to make some shorts. I've had the capri's since I was in undergrad and they were a boxy fit to begin with on the bottom of the leg and I finally realized they'd serve me better as shorts. I always feel like I have a hard time finding shorts that I like, they're either too short or too tight in the waist/butt but then too loose in the legs or vice versa. That all being said I figured I couldn't go wrong using jeans that I already knew fit me well in the waist. Make sure to click the link to read the full how to.

Making a Poster (Part 2)

I know you all were probably thinking I forgot about my original Making a Poster post, but I didn't. I had a craft fail moment and then just decided to wait and use pictures for my posters instead. I was under the impression that I could make my own Holi-like powders, similar to those used in the Design*Sponge Holi Inspired Poster Tutorial, by mixing cornstarch with food coloring dye. This didn't work, the dye just turned the bits of cornstarch it touched into a blob. I really didn't want to buy Holi-Powder just to make a poster or two and so I played around with spray paint and regular paint on some white pieces of printer paper too, but wasn't really liking how that looked either.

  These would've made the ugliest posters ever. You cannot make art out of everything
I finally just decided to look through pictures of places or things that I had taken and turn them into posters. What better way to remember favorite moments than by having a poster of that moment hanging on your wall! I used a picture from my collection and two awesome shots by my equally awesome friend Kenzie        (Check out her Flickr and Instagram while you're at it!) of Coco and Neva. I followed the 'guidelines' from the Design*Sponge tutorial that's linked above as far as dimensions go and used Irfanview instead of Photoshop.

I love the way the light is reflecting off of Coco's ears in the second picture!

All that's left is for these to be printed at Kinko's on some matte paper and framed - just in time for me to use my 60% off framing coupon at JoAnn's! I liked this project because it was extremely simple and I didn't feel pressed for time, I was able to just open my pictures and edit them. Technology has allowed for us all to carry a camera with us every where we go, and many of my friends and myself included are constantly snapping pictures. You post them and sometimes forget about them, and this way you get to see them when you walk into a room. I'll be sure to post the finished posters once they're hung. Feel free to send me posters you guys make as well and I can do a roundup post of all of your creations.

I know you all were probably thinking I forgot about my original Making a Poster post, but I didn't. I had a craft fail moment and then just decided to wait and use pictures for my posters instead. I was under the impression that I could make my own Holi-like powders, similar to those used in the Design*Sponge Holi Inspired Poster Tutorial, by mixing cornstarch with food coloring dye. This didn't work, the dye just turned the bits of cornstarch it touched into a blob. I really didn't want to buy Holi-Powder just to make a poster or two and so I played around with spray paint and regular paint on some white pieces of printer paper too, but wasn't really liking how that looked either.

  These would've made the ugliest posters ever. You cannot make art out of everything
I finally just decided to look through pictures of places or things that I had taken and turn them into posters. What better way to remember favorite moments than by having a poster of that moment hanging on your wall! I used a picture from my collection and two awesome shots by my equally awesome friend Kenzie        (Check out her Flickr and Instagram while you're at it!) of Coco and Neva. I followed the 'guidelines' from the Design*Sponge tutorial that's linked above as far as dimensions go and used Irfanview instead of Photoshop.

I love the way the light is reflecting off of Coco's ears in the second picture!

All that's left is for these to be printed at Kinko's on some matte paper and framed - just in time for me to use my 60% off framing coupon at JoAnn's! I liked this project because it was extremely simple and I didn't feel pressed for time, I was able to just open my pictures and edit them. Technology has allowed for us all to carry a camera with us every where we go, and many of my friends and myself included are constantly snapping pictures. You post them and sometimes forget about them, and this way you get to see them when you walk into a room. I'll be sure to post the finished posters once they're hung. Feel free to send me posters you guys make as well and I can do a roundup post of all of your creations.

How To: Felt Coffee Cozy

Tutorial:

My mom requested my help in making another coffee cozy, this time using felt, similar to one she had seen in a Better Homes & Gardens video. I changed the way I made mine slightly and added buttons as a cute finishing/detail effect. Not to mention I found this awesome felt for 25 cents! I was actually really surprised by the different varieties of felts my JoAnn's fabric store had. I didn't realize patterned and textured felt existed, who knew? When I saw this textured red piece I really liked the color, and the way that the texture draws your eye. This is a simple project that won't take very much time and is great for beginners and above, all in all it took me about 30 minutes to complete. I've posted the step by step breakdown after the link!

Tutorial:

My mom requested my help in making another coffee cozy, this time using felt, similar to one she had seen in a Better Homes & Gardens video. I changed the way I made mine slightly and added buttons as a cute finishing/detail effect. Not to mention I found this awesome felt for 25 cents! I was actually really surprised by the different varieties of felts my JoAnn's fabric store had. I didn't realize patterned and textured felt existed, who knew? When I saw this textured red piece I really liked the color, and the way that the texture draws your eye. This is a simple project that won't take very much time and is great for beginners and above, all in all it took me about 30 minutes to complete. I've posted the step by step breakdown after the link!

How To: Save your Shirts

Tutorial

 Hey everyone! I can't believe I'm saying this, but this week has been crazy so far and it's only Tuesday. I didn't get nearly as much done crafting wise as I wanted to this weekend, but that's okay. Rushed projects never turn out as nice as something that had time spent on it. What's most frustrating is the huge list of ideas I have penned down on a notebook at home, and not having enough time during the week to get to any of them. I'm really starting to understand why my favorite craft blogs don't post everyday, or the reason for having staff for the ones that do post everyday. Regardless of all that I was able to take in a shirt my mom had sent me the other day. It was too loose on her, and when I put it on it just made me look like a box. This is such an easy fix, and a simple way to give those looser pieces in your closet another chance before you toss or donate them. Click the link for the step by step.

Tutorial

 Hey everyone! I can't believe I'm saying this, but this week has been crazy so far and it's only Tuesday. I didn't get nearly as much done crafting wise as I wanted to this weekend, but that's okay. Rushed projects never turn out as nice as something that had time spent on it. What's most frustrating is the huge list of ideas I have penned down on a notebook at home, and not having enough time during the week to get to any of them. I'm really starting to understand why my favorite craft blogs don't post everyday, or the reason for having staff for the ones that do post everyday. Regardless of all that I was able to take in a shirt my mom had sent me the other day. It was too loose on her, and when I put it on it just made me look like a box. This is such an easy fix, and a simple way to give those looser pieces in your closet another chance before you toss or donate them. Click the link for the step by step.

How To: Camping in Comfort

Tutorial:

I'm very excited to be posting my first, of what will hopefully become many, How To/Tutorial Post. My boyfriend's friend is going camping in Colorado, Utah, and some other neighboring states for the next few months. Sleeping in a tent for a few days can be rough on the back especially after long days of hiking. One way to hopefully alleviate this problem is to use a camping pad underneath your sleeping bag for some more cushion. They can get rather pricey, but he had the idea to use an old mattress pad (Sultan Tjome Pillowtop) as a camping pad. If you don't have a mattress pad or pillowtop you could use an old futon mattress, i'm sure they're easy to find for cheap on Craigslist. If you wanted to start from scratch all you would need are a couple yards of fabric, 1 inch foam padding in your desired width and length, a sewing machine, and some thread! Here's how I made these...

Tutorial:

I'm very excited to be posting my first, of what will hopefully become many, How To/Tutorial Post. My boyfriend's friend is going camping in Colorado, Utah, and some other neighboring states for the next few months. Sleeping in a tent for a few days can be rough on the back especially after long days of hiking. One way to hopefully alleviate this problem is to use a camping pad underneath your sleeping bag for some more cushion. They can get rather pricey, but he had the idea to use an old mattress pad (Sultan Tjome Pillowtop) as a camping pad. If you don't have a mattress pad or pillowtop you could use an old futon mattress, i'm sure they're easy to find for cheap on Craigslist. If you wanted to start from scratch all you would need are a couple yards of fabric, 1 inch foam padding in your desired width and length, a sewing machine, and some thread! Here's how I made these...