Tori's Dress Made From All Sorts Of Things

When I see anything with a ruffled edge in a thrift store, I buy it.  For the right low price, of course.  Pillow shams with a ruffled edge?  In the cart.  Bed skirt with a ruffled edge?  In the cart.  Curtains with a ruffled edge?  In the cart.  Men's underwear with a ruffled edge?  Okay, not even if they were free.

I've also been setting a stash of shirts aside so some day I could make Tori a ruffled dress by attached the ruffles to the bottom of it.  Well, with me and my sewing abilities...  I just kept putting it off.

Enter Melanie.  The college girl that is boarding with us this year.  She's not too shabby with a sewing machine!  (Me on the other hand.... let's not go there.) I basically handed her the shirt, pile of "thrifted ruffle stuff" and gave her a brief description of what I was hoping for.  Oh my wow.  She took the project home over spring break, and with the help of her sweet mom.... put together this beautiful dress for my daughter!!!

The shirt originally had some gauzy white bows, but they looked really chintzy so I took them off and added this shabby rosette by twisting a long strip of fabric around and around and sewing it on.

Tori's big brother adores her, can you tell? :)

Stenciled Sweat Shirt For Ty

I had bought this really nice quality sweat shirt on clearance at Target for $2 last year.  It was only a couple of days before we were going to open our Christmas presents and I still didn't know quite what to give my little Ty Guy.  I went on Etsy and found these cute shirts with "boy quotes".   I was prepared to buy one (being an Etsy shop owner myself, I know what I thrill it is to get a sale!) but I didn't have the time to order one and have it shipped on time so I decided to make my own.  I used my Silhouette to cut out the letters, and then mixed some white acrylic paint with a squirt of Martha Stewart's fabric medium.  I put cardboard inside the shirt because it will leak through to the other side if you don't.  I learned that the hard way once.  I did two coats of paint to make it bright white.  Then I used a black sharpie to fill in the letters that had dots.  

So now I hear you asking, does it hold up in the wash? 

 I waited until after at least three laundries before I took the pictures of Ty wearing his shirt, and I'm happy and relieved to report it still looks as good as the day I painted it!  Woo hoo! :)

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My First Experience With (actual) Fabric Dye

We all do it.  Go digging through the clearance bins just because there might be something in there we didn't know we needed for the best price ever.

Such was the case one day when I walked in to JoAnn's and what to my wondering eyes - Behold!  Fabric dye for fifty cents!  I bought an assortment of colors.  Who knows what on earth I was going to dye, but I just might need this some day!

So these packets of dye sat in my craft room for over a year, until one day I decided my off-white throw blanket was just looking dingy.  I should dye it!  But the dye is to be added to the washer, and my washer can hold quite a load... so not wanting to waste any dye...  I went from room to room, looking for thingsthat would look much more stunning as a brilliant blue/'greenj and gathered a big pile.

If you've been hanging around here for long, you know I love any shade of turquoise.  But that was not one of my color choices.  However, I did have royal blue and fluorescent yellow.  I added the whole packet of blue, and not quite half of the packet of yellow to the water, and my cup of salt just like the directions said.  I also went through the agitator cycle three times, just to be safe and let it soak for an hour.  

The results were fabulous!!!  I'm now a huge fan of iDye!!!!  SOOOOO EASY!

I'm glad I read the materials it will dye, however. You have to buy something special if you're coloring polyester or other such fabrics not listed on the package.

I dyed white towels that had turquoise spots on them from my bleeding run, and now I won't be eyeing those new ones on the shelf at Target anymore!  Also had a boring green and white striped scarf that turned out fabulous.

I thought this shirt turned out awesome. 

I got it at Kohl's for a couple dollars because I wasn't sure if I could get some faint yellowish spot out.  

It went in the "dye pile" and I was surprised that the fabric dyed turquoise, but not the white thread, which made such a neat contrast!

This was my only issue.  There must have been a light stain or something on the white part of this shirt and another one I had, because when I pulled them out of the dryer, there was this purple spot.  Now, I didn't see anything before the dye job, so the dye must have enhanced the before-hidden spot.  Rats.  

That was my only complaint though, and I'm still hooked on iDye!

The throw is definitely my favorite.....

But a close second is these off-white cloth napkins that my mom made for me thirteen years ago.  I was rather amazed at how these turned out. The design must have been made with a fabric that didn't take the dye so there is a contrast in it and it is lovely!  Here is a dyed napkin next to an un-dyed one so you can see the difference:

I hate buying napkins - seems such a waste to wipe your mouth on it once and toss it in the garbage -so we pretty much stick to cloth.  Not because I'm "green" but because I'm frugal. :)

These are just a cheap calico fabric with the edges surged.  Thanks, Mom!  We're still using these after thirteen years and now they have been "made new" with a change in color.  I feel like I got a whole load of 'new' things while only spending fifty cents!  Gotta love that.

In case you're curious as to why I put the word "actual" in my blog title, it's because I once did a post on how I dyed some things in my washer with a rug that was having some major dye-bleeding problems.  We're talking major hemorrhaging.  Click HERE to see how that turned out!

What about you?  Love dye?  Want to try it?

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My Repurposed Life

T-Shirt Fringe Scarf {Upcycle}

By the way, I did a quick Pinterest search since I know these are out there and one of the differences between mine and the ones I found is that most keep the hem on and just slice on the raw edge.  I did that, and I didn't like how skimpy the scarf seemed, so for me, I like to cut off the hem and slice on each side.  Make sure it's a t-shirt, otherwise it won't "pull" and curl the way it should.

And here's one in white: 

Updating A Thrifted Girl Dress

I bought this dress for ONE DOLLAR at a local consignment shop.  

The two other moms I was with (Ahem...Angelina, Ahem....Debra) turned their noses slightly up when I asked them what they thought of it...

but I had vision, yo! And that patchwork skirt?  How could I pass that up?!

Since I learn better by "seeing" than "reading", 

here's a little picture tutorial:

In the bottom left photo, I had pinned the ribbon rosette onto a white piece of fabric and then trimmed off all the excess you see as closely as I could so none of the white showed.  Then I hand-sewed the flower onto the front of the dress.  A little more time consuming than Miss Patience prefers, but fairly easy with very rewarding results! :)

 My Repurposed Life

Wash A Rug... Dye a Skirt While You're At It!

So I bought this rug for the extra bathroom upstairs.  It was a cheapy, which I like, and the perfect color turquoise.  Which I also like.  HOWEVER....

When my guests got out of the shower, their feet were turning a dark shade of turquoise and they couldn't figure out why.  Also, I was getting mysterious turquoise spots on my hard-to-keep-white-anyway towels.

Don't know why it took me so long to realize the culprit.  I'm sure if I was a brunette, I would have been Johnny-on-the-spot... ha.

I knew the only way to get the turquoise dye to stop leakin' and bleedin' all over was to wash it.  And since this was obviously some pretty powerful dye, I decided to throw a few old white things in with it.

My mom had made me a really pretty white casual skirt probably over a decade ago.  I wore the daylights out of and it had yellowed over time.  I remembered I had tossed it into the "fabric scarps" pile in my craft room to repurpose it and though, why not?  It would be an awesome skirt in aqua!!  I soaked them all night.

Tossed in a few old white t-shirts also, so I'd have a pretty color for t-shirt scarves.

Click HERE for one of my t shirt scarf/necklace tutorials.
  I've since changed a few minor things to my tute, but you get the idea. :)

Yay!!  

So glad my rug "saved" my skirt!!! :)