Thrifting

Just back from the thrift shop. The Salvation Army, which is my favorite because they don't charge tax. I went looking for a mans shirt to refashion (found) and a pair of summer pants to turn into sailor pants (not found). The problem with the thrift shop is that there is always something else to find. Often I go looking for clothing to refashion and find that even at thrift store prices, it is cheaper (and easier) to buy clothing ready made. I don't know that this will change until our friends in the third world demand fair wages.. but that is a discussion for a whole other day....

Here are my finds for today:

The pants I did not absolutely love but I was intrigued by the tag (mountains of the moon eco-friendly fabrics). I found them here and they've got a great selection of simple but elegant clothing in all kinds of natural fabrics.  My 6.50 was a steal - even with a small stain; right around the knee could be a perfect place for a fun applique.

Now - I'm off to pick apart the shirt for a refashion. More on that later.

Summer Dress Re-fashion

Summer is coming - which means new dresses. And..money is tight so that means - refashion! There is little I love as much as a good refashion. I bought this dress last year at the Sally Anne for 7.00 and I`ve had it stored away since then. To celebration this new blog today was the day it got out and got a ride on Judy.

 Love: the fabric is a super light-weight denim and so great for summer. There was a ton of fabric as this skirt went right to the floor. The bodice already fit so a re-make was going to be really straight-forward. I also loved the big pockets.
Don`t like: The floor length was dated and I`ve never looked great in strapless, suffering, like most women, from `under arm bubbles`. So....

I started looking at apron dresses. I saw these:

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Classic and very summery.
I cut down my dress to below the knee and used the extra cloth to make some straps. The hardest part was finding enough of the fabric on the grain to make the straps as the original skirt was a circle skirt. I also used some of the extra fabric to make a facing for the new neck line. And voila!

If anyone wanted to look closely enough you could see that there are two different kinds of topstitiching now. Anyone who might notice will also probably be a sewer. And... this was a one nap project! (That includes the blog post.) Speaking of which I hear her now....Next up: a refashion of a white shirt for underneath.