Drab Tank Dress to Fab Halter Dress

This is my best refashion to date.  I'm so impressed with how this turned out.  I saved yet another dress from the donation bag, this one left by my mom the last time she stayed with us.  I started with a dye job, as it was a blah greyish greenish.  You're going to have to imagine it, because I didn't get a picture before it jumped in the pink pool.

Grey/Green + "Rosa Mexicana" = Mauve

The only redeeming quality of this dress is the soft jersey fabric.  It was too wide on me, and I'm not a fan of screen printed lady bugs on my clothing.  So I got to choppin'.

See ya straps.

 I folded over what used to be the back of the dress and sewed a casing for the new front neckline.

Next, I got rid of the lovely lady bugs.  Don't worry, I'm saving them for something else.

Lady bug, lady bug fly away...

Next on the agenda was taking in the sides about 1.5" on each side so it would be a little more fitted.  I have no idea what size this dress was to begin with, as my mom is a habitual tag cutter.

I cut away the excess fabric and unfortunately the pockets had to be sacrificed.  

Sacrificial pocket.

 Next up I took the extra fabric from the pocket/seam sacrifice, braided it into 2 pieces and sewed one set of ends together.  I threaded it through the neck casing.

 Next I had to deal with the drapey back, as I only took in the sides of the skirt portion of the dress.  I decided to sew another casing and put some elastic through.

I also had to figure out what to do with the front of the dress, as I still had some leftover fabric hanging on the sides.  I left it for last to make sure I wouldn't cut/hem too much and have major side boob action.  I tried it on inside out, and pinned the excess fabric on each side, sewed it down, and cut away the excess.

WOO HOO!!  I did it!

From the back.

Halter strap detail.

I am super pleased/surprised at how well this turned out.  Thanks for stopping by!

Bright Paint, Big Words

I'm not usually a fan of "word art".  You know, the crap some people put on their walls to remind them to "dream", or my favorite, "live, laugh, love"?  I figure if you need a reminder of those things, you've got bigger problems.  I made an exception to my rule for this project.  Not only because it required me to go to the beach and collect driftwood, but because I also got to use fun, bright paint.

I collected a pile of driftwood and then proceeded to go to the grocery store, where the man that loads the groceries into your car asks me, "que paso" with all of the wood.  I told him I was building a new house for my hombre.  Giggles all around.

The day I started this project was super rainy and humid.  The wood was SOGGY.  So I popped it in the oven on low for about 10 minutes to dry it out.

Mom, what are we having for dinner?

Out of the oven and a base coat of plain white paint to seal some of the furry parts so I would have a smooth surface to do the lettering.

Don't mind the soft porn in the newspaper.  Breaks up the corruption, moped accidents and stabbings.

I painted all of the pieces a different color and threw them back in oven.  I have no patience when it comes to watching paint dry.

I free-handed all of the letters, but you could easily use a stencil or trace a font.  It took a couple of coats to get good coverage on the lettering.

I think they turned out great and I think I'll make some more!  After all, I could always use a reminder to do the things I already do ;)
 

Bangle Arm Candy

Bangle bracelets are fun.  Except for all of the noise they make.  I like moving like a ninja.  Quiet.  Stealth.  Sneaky.  I decided to up-cycle some old metal bangles that I've had forever, and have worn once.  I found some neat variegated nylon cord at my local jewelry supply shop and had a flash back to my teen years doing a neat little macrame action on the bangles.

Neat cord, for less than 2 bucks a roll.

Plain ol' metal bangle.

Put your feet on the coffee table and hold the bracelet between your knees!

Beginning of the knot

I think this is what they call a "half hitch" knot

If you need more detailed instructions, you can check out a decent tutorial on how to macrame bangles here, the author used 2 knots on each side, and I used one, but you get the idea.
 
I altered the color combination on each one.

Super fun, and now I can sneak around with my funky bracelets, and no one will hear me coming.  Bwahahaha!!

Embellished Cutoffs

I came across another cast off in the donation bag of el hombre.  This time a stained up pair of jeans.  I found these  pretty shorts for inspiration for 381 Euros (yikes!) and these destroyed cutoffs for $180 (seriously?!).  The bottom cuffs of el hombres jeans were destroyed, and the area on the front by the pockets are grimy.  The waist on these is a little big for me, but I figured, I can always wear a belt, or continue drinking copious amounts of beer and fill them out.  I chopped them off and did a zig-zag stitch around the bottom so they wouldn't disappear in the wash.

Easy.  The pocket areas are still a little grimy so I busted out a spray bottle of bleach and did a little acid wash flashback to the 80s style, and threw them in the wash.

I knew I wanted to jazz them up a little, so I found these t-shirts that were beyond help.  Stretched out and stained, but they had some neat embroidery that I thought I could salvage.

So I painstakingly cutout the flowers from the shirts, and pinned them to the pocket areas of the shorts (not even bleach could help some of the yuck).  I used a hot pink thread and a fancy decorative stitch to attach them.  My ability to sew straight is limited, so I opted to do a crazy pattern versus trying to sew around the flowers.

Kinda funky, huh?  And according to some rough calculations I just saved a couple of hundred dollars, at least ;)

Holey Man Shorts, Batman!

I have a couple of bags of old clothes from various members of the family.  One of these days I'm going to have a garage sale, I swear.  Clothes from the US sell pretty well here, so I'm sure I could make a couple of pesos for the cerveza fund.  But I'm a pretty good procrastinator, so it hasn't happened (yet).

I came across these shorts in the bag from el hombre.  Usually the stuff he gets rid of is destroyed.  As in holey, stained and smelly, only good for cleaning rags, used clothing.

 Upon first glance, they didn't look/smell too bad.  Then I found this:

Cojones A/C

Normally I try to fix blowouts, but this hole wasn't in the seam.  I've never tried a pants/shorts into a skirt refashion, but I figured this was a good candidate since I didn't really care if I screwed it up.  They aren't MY shorts :)  I read a couple of random tutorials, and decided to take the plunge. 

Flappin' in the breeze

I undid the inside seams.

Then I sewed a straight line from the bottom hem to the end of the curve of the former crotch on both sides.

 Ta da!  A skirt!  I tried it on, and the waist was good since it has a inside drawstring, plus elastic.  The length kind of bothered me though.  It hit right below my knees, which is kind of an awkward length when you're short.  Plus, I would need a kick pleat in the back since I couldn't really walk.  Hmmm.  So I had a couple of options.  Hem it a little above my knees and add a kick pleat or chop through the cargo pockets on the sides and make a mini-skirt.

 I decided to CHOP.  Screw the rule about not wearing minis after 35.  I don't know who made that rule, but I'm not following it.  My legs are pretty tan, so at least the cellulite and varicose veins aren't too obvious.

 Cute!  But now the color is kind of bugging me.  The white parts aren't totally white (these were man shorts, after all, and guys are kind of sloppy).  So I busted out the "Rosa Mexicana" dye packet and...

 Better!  Now I have a comfy, elastic waistband for my expanding beer belly, mini-skirt!  Sweet!

That's a Wrap Arm Candy

I've been on a bracelet making binge lately.  Wrap bracelets, macrame bangles, beads; you name it.  There have been a lot of tutorials on Pinterest lately and I have a huge stash of embroidery floss and beads, plus there is a pretty nifty jewelry supply place here on the island that has neat beads, nylon thread, findings, etc, etc.  I also came across these Chan Luu Wrap Bracelets for around $200 (!!!!) and thought, "Screw that, I can make my own crappy bracelets."  So I did.

I started with some neat nylon cording with gold thread running through it.

Ooo fancy, and a whole roll with 180m only cost me 18 pesos (about a buck and a half)

 For a bracelet to wrap around 4 times, I braided 3, 60 inch pieces together, folded it in half and slipped it through a button.  Then I followed this tutorial from cutoutandkeep.net I should also mention that I have a super skinny 6 inch wrist.  Probably the last skinny thing I've got.

I used beads that I've had stashed away since my last bracelet and necklace binge, probably circa 1993.  I know, I know; pack rat.

Here are the final results.

So there you have it, 3 bracelets, for probably under a dollar.  I just saved $599 bucks ;)

Here Goes Nothin'

Welcome.  I've been on the fence about starting a blog for a bit.  I generally feel that most of the "mom blogs" out there are annoying, at best.  Most of them make me feel like I should have an opinion/clean house/dinner on the table all while being totally fashionable.  Nothing like a little pressure.  I'm going to attempt to show you the things I make.  Sometimes they turn out well, other times, I just make a mess.  The messes usually involve dinner, so you probably won't see many any recipes.  Because who needs a recipe for cereal or grilled cheese?  Plenty of places out there to figure out what to make for dinner, I'll probably see you there.

Ok, enough intro crap.  Here's what I'm working on today.  A too short dress for my almost 8 year old.  It's a 6X that I got at a thrift store a couple of years ago for a couple of bucks.  She's showing too much bum, and it's generally too hot here for leggings.  Did I mention that it's one of her favorites?  As in, "MOM!  You're not going to put my FAVORITE dress in the donation pile, are you?"  Sigh.  Note to self: clean out closets while the child is at school.

So, I'm making it into a skirt and little bolero/shrug jacket.  Here's the dress (sorry I didn't get a shot pre-chop, but you get the idea).

Choppy choppy.

  I left an inch or so above the actual "skirt" part so I could fold it over and sew, then slip some elastic through.  In hindsight I should have made a larger waist band area, as I hard a hard time sewing it due to the curly nature of knit.  No worries though, I just used a skinnier piece of elastic than I had originally planned.

For the shrug I simply cut down the middle of the top, folded it under and zig-zagged around.  I used yellow thread, I guess I could have used some cute pink, but then my drunk-like sewing would have shown up for the world to see.

And here's the after.  We'll probably get another 2 years out of it.

Future supermodel.

   Not too shabby.  I would love to know what you think!