Upcycling - First Try

After I finished my blog post last Saturday, I drove to Goodwill and went a little crazy. Well, I only spent $25, but I swear I was only looking around for about 4 minutes. I had to stop once I had picked out 4 things and had only made it to two small sections of the store. My first stop was in the sleepwear, where I bought a big aqua nightgown. I headed into the suits and outerwear section and bought a yellow with white polka dots skirt set. Also, a horrible dress that made a not-so-horrible skirt! Fair warning, this post has lots of pictures.

Tell me this would not look
cute for fall with a pair
of skinny jeans and boots.

I bought this jacket and have no plans to alter it. It's just awesome. It is a dark mustard with faux leather trim. The left side comes across with a belt that loops through the rings on the other side. J Momma (my mother-in-law) told me that it looks like a movie theatre usher jacket. When you see me wear it, just ask me for some candy and popcorn.

And now - Cute and fun!

Here's a random close relative
to the horrible dress.

The dress was my first to tackle. I wish I had taken a picture of the silhouette, because it was so awful. But the print was really cool, and I was looking for stuff to alter! I chopped it off above the waist, kept the original hem (but not the hemline - it hit mid-calf - ewww), removed the zipper, and fixed a couple of spots where the stitching was coming out. I added an elastic waistband, which I covered with my shirt when I wore it, since it was a tad bulky, but it was my first try! Part of the problem is that the dress was flaring back out at the top where I turned it down, which meant that the two pieces I was sewing together were different sizes. I fixed this problem by adding some bad impromptu dart-ish things! With no stretch to the fabric, I really should have added back a small zipper, but oh well. I just have to squeeze it over my hips. The best thing about making my own skirt was the control I had over the length. This hits me right at the top of my knee, which is great for work. It is hard to find cute skirts for work that don't make me look like a floozy, and I am short. I can't imagine how difficult it is for tall girls. They probably have to go to Ann Taylor, or something... Anyway, I wore it the next day, and got a lot of compliments. They obviously didn't notice the waistband that was really fit for a 3-year-old. I plan to pack it for our trip to Austin, as well.

Guhbye!

Just in case you get really
sweaty around the waist
when you wear skirt suits.

Next up, the yellow shirt. This shirt is one of the more strange ones I have encountered. Keep in mind there is a pleated skirt in matching fabric that goes with this to create one really odd outfit. It has shoulder pads, but that's not really surprising or noteworthy. What's crazy is the waistband. Please direct your attention to the left and notice that this waistband is made of the stuff that sweatbands are made out of. Or, the top of athletic shorts. It's thick and chunky and paired with a skirt suit. Try that one on for size. Anyway, it had to go, but who knows? Maybe I really will make a sweatband out of it! Here on the right is the shirt taken apart. The sleeves were too chunky, so I took the cuff out of those, too, to make it where I can roll it up again and tack it to be shorter. The lining and the top fabric are two different lengths, which is what gives you that nice poofiness right around the waist. No thanks, so I ripped that up to reattach too. That's as far as I've gotten, because I ran out of empty bobbins that night, and though I have purchased more, I haven't had time to get back to it yet.

I'll get to the nightgown next week. I bought some cute bulk buttons to perhaps use in making a giveaway, finished a painting, and redesigned this blog along with my etsy shop to match my cute new logo and business cards. That's it for me, and I won't get near as much done this weekend, because it's my anniversary on Monday and we're going out of town! Cheers!