T-Shirt Upgrade (x2!)

I have a pile of old t-shirts in the deepest, darkest corner of my closet, all awaiting a brilliant flash of inspiration and a few hours of attention. Over the weekend, I had both, and came out of it with two new t-shirts that I'm so in love with that I'm sure the other t-shirts still left in that corner will make an appearance soon!
Here is the before:

Just a regular grey t-shirt purchased from Old Navy years & years ago.
It now sports two small holes in the front (perhaps snags from cat claws) that had
rendered the shirt unwearable... until now!

Here are my materials:

1. An old grey t-shirt that I'd never ever wear (you get them free at the bar if the Bud Light Girls are there and you tell them you're drinking Bud Light!) and have used a bit of for some other project.
2. A bit of black fabric that I purchased a couple years ago to make a pirate's vest and boots for a pirates vs. ninjas birthday party.
3. A bit of white fabric... origin unknown, but I've used it for a bunch of things.
4. Pink Lace
5.White Lace ( I later wished I had black lace, so I used a fabric marker and colored some white lace black)
6. Pink fabric I purchased to make a cat bed for Hugo & had extra of
7. Some other little bits of pink & white fabric that I ended up not using at all.
8. I also used white thread, and note cards for templates. These, in fact:

First, I used note cards to cut out three templates which I roughly followed. I didn't want them to be perfectly round or all identical, so I mostly used them to keep the sizes mostly uniform when I cut the fabric to make my decorations.

I think I had 12 big grey pieces, 5 big black pieces and 5 big white pieces, which I put into a sort of design. The rest were mostly random, but I made sure two decorations next to each other weren't too similar.
Anyway, I stacked big on bottom, littlest on top until I had them all ready.

Then I took out a ruler to make sure I had the design centered....

then pinned 'em down!

I used white thread throughout and stitched each decoration in an X pattern. (This took a very long time, as I don't have a sewing machine) I actually watched The Long Kiss Goodnight during this portion of the activity.

It's hard to see on the white-on-white decoration I poorly choose for the close-up, but you get the idea. 

I wasn't too worried about neatness: I wanted it to look a little shabby chic, a little haphazard, etc.

And here's the After!

Yaaay! 

Now for the bonus (and promised) x2, here is the second shirt up for refashion:

It's hard to see in this photo, but there are a couple of light coffee stains right on the front of it.

I don't know where I obtained all these different laces, but boy am I glad I have them. I pinned this one into place and then stitched it on, but realized it didn't quite cover the coffee stain...

So I grabbed some different lace, and made some ruffles.  I just stitched small stitches in the bottom, and then pulled it tight, scruching the lace.

Pinned them into place...

And voila!

It looks really cute under a cardigan, too.

So there you have it. Two old t-shirts that were unwearable turned into two of my new favorite tops. 

We're going to call this a $0 project, too, since everything was old, given to me, or recycled from other projects.

It's All About Covering Things...

This is a theme post. More specifically, this is the first theme post. It's about covering something (a hint you may have gotten from the title) and there will be a few more posts in the not-too distant future about covering other things. That's what makes it a theme.

Today it's a chair. Now, I've never "reupholstered" or covered a chair before. I didn't really know how to do it. But when has that ever stopped me?

Never.

 So I just jumped first

                                                            & looked later.

So even though this is a cover story (no pun intended), it also involves a Before & After. So, here's the before: 

It used to be quite cute: I got it last summer at a garage sale in Romeo. I think I paid $5 for it. It lasted me a year, and then the fabric got worn and started tearing. But why throw it out when you can just make things up as you go along? So I took it all apart. That blue on the bottom was covering an ugly blue silky fabric... and that was covering....

this:

Can I get a collective "ick"?

So my plan of action was to remove the old stuff, put on the new stuff... sounds simple, right? . I pulled out a gazillion staples. That awesome (ugly) table-cloth like cover was regrettably nailed on, so I just left it. The back of the top cushion was nailed on, too, so I left that. 

I used the old fabric pieces as stencils to cut out a bottom layer of plain white. 

Luckily, I didn't have to worry about being neat, since it all gets hidden later

So then I used the white liner pieces to cut out the top pieces (which come from some fabric I had left over from making a bed for Hugo [cat] awhile ago), and stapled the crap out of it. I stretch canvas for my paintings, so I used the same theory...staples go about a thumb's width apart. (Also, if you're thinking of doing it, I stapled at opposite sides of the circle, top to bottom, right to left, top-right to bottom-left, etc. etc.)

It seemed to work... 

The black marks are to mark where the screws fit.... an important step I'm impressed I remembered the first time.

Covering up the 70's inspired mistake.

And, 

after reattaching the new cushions to the frame... 

here's the after!

And, for a bonus... as we all know how I'm unable to resist lovely details...

Yup. I monogrammed my chair. 

SO. "new" desk chair.... $5 last year.

Oh, yeah.

In addition to more  covering posts, I'm also moving

into a new apartment, TOMORROW!

You'll get to see me try to fit   a house-worth of stuff 

into a bedroom-sized apartment. 

Hilarity ensues. 

I Have an Ugly Apron.

Yes, I wear an apron.

Why an apron? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, I fry things in olive oil a lot, and it spatters, and I'm sick of tiny oil splotches on my clothes. Second, when I make bread or pizza dough, I wipe my flour-y hands all over my jeans. Gross. Third, I have a painting class and to prevent ALL my clothes from being permanently oil-paint-stained, an apron is a must. Fourth, I'm pretty sure I was a 50's housewife in a past life. But the problem...

This apron is ugly.

Can't you see how unhappy I am?

So, the last time I was at Goodwill, I bought this to turn into an apron.

I also love these socks.

Things I love about the smock: 

These Buttons ♥

-The Girl Scout-esque color palette

-The large pockets

-The buttons

Things I hate about the smock:

-It's a tent

-The extremely high front

-The back is exactly the same as the front, minus the pockets.

-It's not an apron.

This is how I fixed it:

First, I cut straight up the back. I wished I had my seam rippers, but they are currently in hiding. 

There are those socks again!

I also removed some fabric to battle the tentness. 14 inches of it, actually...

I put these aside, as they will come in handy later.

This is after both of the sides have been hemmed. I chose a fushia-colored thread because I liked the way it looked, and I didn't have a brown that matched.

Remember that extra fabric I cut out? Well, here it is again!

I folded the extra strips in half inside out and pinned and stitched it to make the ties... a very important part of any apron! The top one is completed, the bottom one is just pinned.

I attached the new ties to the back of the apron with a couple of cute x's.
just because.

So that leaves just the one problem left: The awkwardly high neck. It was an easy fix: I made a cut straight down the middle and folded the extra fabric back:

Then I hemmed it and trimmed off the access fabric underneath.

Annnnnnnnndddddd

Here's my new Apron!!

This project: $3.50

Mad for Plaid

One thing that seems to be back in style this season is plaid. It's everywhere! I even saw a website that said "This season's two greatest hits, Tweed & Plaid!" I thought, If only I could find something that was plaid tweed, it'd be two birds, one stone.  Ultra-trendy. if you will.

Instead, Goodwill sold me this lovely plaid poly-cotton blend, but the colors are fantastic, and it's got darling mother-of-pearl snaps. And it's only about 6 sizes too big.

 I can't give a proper thumbs-up as the length of the sleeves inhibits the movement.

Anyone up for a picnic? 

First of all, I had to get rid of a lot of extra material, lest I have bustle like an early 1900's dress.  Then, I used a strip of elastic to keep the new ruffle in place as well as provide some room for movement. We all know there's nothing worse than a button-up that is too tight and has no movement... it's a popped button, waiting to happen. Especially if your cup runneth over as mine does. 

Helpful hint? I pinned the stretched elastic to a block of wood to make it easier to sew.

Then I stitched up where I had removed the fabric, and was met with a very unsightly bulge-y mess. So, I took that extra material and fashioned a bow... awwww.

It's practically camouflaged, but adorable nonetheless!

THEN... disaster strikes.

I sewed the bottom of the shirt to the back of the bow! It's the equivalent of tucking your skirt into your pantyhose!

Ugh. Rookie Mistake

So after I redid the bow, the shirt looked good, but still kinda mannish. It needed a feminine touch. So I grabbed the lace. ♥

And Voíla... 

my new shirt is born.

The shirt cost $2.96 at Goodwill. 

It took less than 4 hours.

This Project: $2.96

Total Project: $9.67

.

An Outing in Argyle!

My roommate, we'll call her E (for privacy reasons, of course), chose to have an argyle-themed birthday outing. Instead of wearing the one argyle shirt I already had [boring!] I went to the good ol' Goodwill and purchased this monstrosity for a measly $2.96:

A little bit of Grandpa with a little bit of 80's... and a whole lot of argyle.

I know you're now thinking, "what in the world was she thinking?" I was thinking "Deep V-Neck Cardigan!"

So, I hacked that puppy up a little until I ran into this problem:

The knitted collar was not going to cut it for a deep V.
Solution: It had to go.

I folded the raw edge under & made a (not-so-straight, but who's perfect?) new hem. Success!

Problem number 2: button holes. How the heck was I supposed to do button holes?

Solution:

I totally sewed them suckers straight on the front.
Tracie: 1 Button holes: 0. 

So then we're left with the final outfit. I threw it over a tank & some leggings & a necklace I got from a garage sale a couple years ago, put on some flats and we were ready to rock!

Ze front

Ze Back

All in all, it was a great night, and I wish a very happy birthday to E. As soon as I have access to the photo of the whole Argyled-Gang I'll post it!

This Project: Sweater: $2.96
                    Buttons: $3.75 (don't you love that I paid more for buttons than the sweater?!?!)
                  Total: $6.71

Whole Project: $6.71

Next time: A brief history of the spork.
                                                               Kidding.

Anything Unrelated to Elephants is Irrelephant!

I have a plan that includes making purses and lining them with silver satin and calling my "brand" Silver Lining Purse Company. Here is the first one... it's a Before & After though, does it still count? And it's not completed yet, I'm still going to cover the sides and back... someday.

The original was a gift from an old roommate... she got it for free during Spring Break in Florida, and everything I used on it was given to me or I already had, so total cost for this purse... $0!

The Before:

The Pieces:

I added the striped background, the elephants, the heart, the cute cupid "grass"

Lace cloud :)

Some fabric, a little tatted piece and a button make the sun

The After:

Two cute elephants sharin' some love on the savannah

Project Cost: $0

Total Cost: $0

That's all for now!