Dress Refash!

Of course I always forget to take before pictures... but imagine the dress to have looked similar to this when I bought it, turtle neck and all!

 

It was black and white, however I wanted a bit more dimension, if you will. I was already dying a few things so threw the dress into a blue dye bath. It didn't take the blue on as bright as I had hoped, but it worked out well anyways!

So the first chop I made was getting rid of that awful turtleneck. I wanted a high-neck dress so cut, sewed, and tacked that in place first!

High-neck, check!

Next I decided I wanted to swoop the back and make it an open back!

Done with that!

Here are a couple other photos, overall I was very pleased with how it turned out and am so excited to wear it sometime soon! 

Front and back in this one!

Don't mind my messy room! It was a busy week...

So there ya have it, another refashion in the books! :)

Enjoy, and stay crafty!

New Year, New Goals

2014 is bringing many new and exciting things to my life. One of those things is a goal of mine. It's a very general goal... but I hope to start blogging more this year!

(Random recent climbing trip photo!)

I know my blogs are usually just photos of what I've come up with recently, so I hope to keep uploading more frequently. I don't know who all will read these, but it is a goal for myself! (If you do read this ever, you should tell me next time you talk to me! Otherwise I look like a goof just typing away to myself over the interweb.)

So my first photos today don't necessarily deal with a craft or refashion like normal... instead it is a outfit recreation that I ended up loving!

Here was the inspiration I found on glitzandgold.com

And now for my take on the outfit!

Pearls and Camo!

Even paired it with my new thifted boots! (Brand new Target stud boots for $6 from ARC!)

Now for the fun stuff:

I got some paints and canvas for Christmas so made a wall hanging for my very bare-walled bathroom! I had a lot of fun with this. I painted, Modge Podge-d, painted some more, then took out my sharpies to write a lovely quote from Walt Whitman:

I made a bunch of my Christmas gifts this year, but unfortunately can't find all the pictures from those gifts. Here's what I made my father though! I bought an old, ugly, falling apart cabinet off Craigslist, stripped all 3 layers of paint off, sanded it down and found beautiful oak planks underneath it all! With a little help from dad (yes, I gave it to him in the ugly state first so he could decide what he wanted to do with it), we added some reinforcing pieces to the front, underneath, and back and came up with this:

Two or three coats of stain/varnish later, here is the final project. Ready to fill with car part and engine books, and strong enough to be a nice bench for the front office of Dad's car shop )where he works on the race cars!)

TA DA!!! I was very proud of the result. I wish I had a picture of it before I started... it was hideous, to say the least.

Oh, and as a closing giggle, here's a photo of me shooting a pistol over winter break!

Stay crafty, everyone! :)

Oh, Lordy Lordy.

WOW. All I can say.
It's been a long while.
Moving to (& living in) Denver.
2 months down.

You guys, I've found the best deals on stuff here, I can't wait to get them all up on the blog... but the Goodwill Outlet here is 500 x's better than the one in Des Moines. (soon to come: Columbia soft shell jacket... for $1.39/pound, making it like a $3 jacket!!!)

I've kept my crafting up, but the pile is almost beginning to consume me. I just need a weekend without homework so I can catch up!

First off, some tasty treats I've made recently. Let me tell you... Warm treats have been my weakness... I've definitely been falling off from my dietetics roots recently. Not to worry though! :)

Homemade vanilla chai tea mix! (SO GOOD!)

Crockpot Monkey Bread! (Thank you, Pinterest!)

Homemade granola bars (2 bananas + 1 cup oats. Mix, add add-ins such as craisins, nuts, chocolate chips... then bake at 350 for 15-17 min!!)

YUM! I have done a couple small refashions such as take pockets out of a dress (you may be thinking "WHAT? WHY!??" well, they were in a jersey fabric dress and just made my hips look lumpy. Cue the "ohhh, good thinking" response!). I also have begun working on refitting a blazer. I have dyed a few things, just to spice them up a bit (cobalt blue and purple!!) And refit an old demin button down of my mom's.

Here's a shot of the denim button down with a dyed purple skirt that I shortened a few months back:

I love the look of the two together. The purple skirt was blue at one time so it almost has a marbled appearance now. I'll get a close-up of it sometime!

I'll leave you with my to-do shots

Can you find my sewing machine buried in there anywhere?? :)

You should be able to find: polka dots, aztec, paisley, the blazer I referred to above as well as a pair of hiking pants to refit, jeans to patch, and sweatpants to make into capris!

This is my "someday" box... but lots of fun prints to get to, hopefully soon! The items above are higher priority at this point, however!

Well, as soon as grad school dies down a bit, hopefully I can get to some fun refashions! :)

Stay well,

Mary

Pants Skirt

A few weeks back I discovered this awesome blog called ReFashionista. Within about a 3 week period, I viewed and read every single post she had. And let me tell you, she has a lot! She recently completed a 365 day challenge to refashion a piece of clothing every.single.day. for a whole year.

I don't know this person, I don't even follow her blog (I just have it listed as a bookmark on my internet browser!) but I feel like she really changed how I thought about clothing (and other artsy stuff in general!)

Well anyway, I've been wanting a maxi skirt for a while now but just never pulled the money out to buy one. Even a simple one like this for $25? I knew I could get one for cheaper, I just had to figure out how.

Before I moved out of Des Moines (which was just on Friday, FYI) I found an amazing Salvation Army Thrift Shop and visited it twice in 1 week. I found pants that looked scary similar to these (I forgot to take a before picture.)

These set me back a whole $2! Oh no, break the bank... not! I saw ReFashionista's post(s) on how she has made a skirt out of an old pair of pants. See how I did it here!!

So with a bit of seam ripping, figuring out how to thread and use my new sewing machine, this is what I came out with:

My very own pink maxi skirt!

Action shot??

Awesome fit and loving it! (no rhyming intended!)

I need to say, I wish I could claim that Twins shirt to be my own, but I actually borrowed it for the game from my friend Hannah Sanborn. My dad and boyfriend bought tickets for us and my mom for my mom's birthday and I realized I had nothing to wear. Luckily Hannah came to the rescue just in time!

So there ya have it! A quick and easy maxi skirt! 

Total time to make: 40 minutes (this included seam ripping, pinning, and sewing!)

Total cost: $2! Yahoo!

SEWING MACHINE!

Since I have been crafting more and more recently (and since AJ gave me the idea of this blog, the creative juices are flowing ever more!) I realized I had to stop waiting to go home to use my mother's sewing machine and buck up and buy one for myself!

On to Craigslist I went (thanks AmeriCorps budget... being thrifty is actually a need now, not an excuse!) and I found a nice lady who sold mer her Kenmore model 385 for $35 (thread included, yahoo!)

Well, only issue is I found it in Mahtomedi, MN and I am still in Clive, IA. That's an issue. Luckily my awesome boyfriend told me he would pick it up! So 35 minutes longer on his drive home from work, he ended up with my very own sewing machine!

I have yet to see it in person (I leave for MN in about 2 hours!) but I was able to have a few photos sent to me!

Here it is! And it's ALL MINE!

Yeah, it was cheap but it has a removable base to sew sleeves and collars. NICE!

So many stitch styles!!

Now, my question... Does having a sewing machine make me a grown woman? ;) How many 23 year olds do you know that hunt for a sewing machine in order to sew their own clothes? Yeah, that's right. Probably not many!