Friday Finds

Welcome to my new monthly feature, Friday Finds!!! I’ll be sharing some of my favorite finds(stuff I loved so much that I bought it) each month.
My favorite find of January was this light up globe (vintage 1982 – is that really vintage?!?)It works great, but it does have some damage here on Africa and also on the top. I think I can patch it up with some tissue paper and Mod Podge. If not I am making it into a light up Death Star(scroll down).
One of our local thrift stores last day of business was today and they we selling most of their clothing for 25¢. I managed to only spend $4.00, but it took a lot of restraint. This pair of gray cords and these camouflage cargo shorts looked perfect to recon into some tote bags.I was really excited to find this 100% cotton velveteen jacket in my size, now I need some fun accessories. Velveteen is apparently difficult to photograph, it is not nearly this bright in person. I won't bore you with all the t-shirts I brought home.
And finally some treasures that I found cleaning in the basement. My vintage (from the 80’s again) rainbow unicorn bandanna, my witch boot cookie jar, and my Victorian boot vase. I actually have a fairly large collection of shoe figurines, but really no where to display them.What is your fabulous find of January?, I’d love to hear about it.
Have a super crafty weekend!

Kids Pajama Pants for a Dollar

A few weeks ago I noticed that Little Miss and Little Sir were outgrowing most of their pajamas, I also found some pictures of them wearing the same pj’s from about two years ago (I buy big and they wear them until they’re too small).  New pj’s are pricey, covered in annoying characters, and usually polyester – uncomfortable!  I needed to make them so new ones and this is a great opportunity to simplify my laundry routine too: a random selection of pants paired with undershirts, no more matching up sets.

When my local Goodwill has $.99 day I  am always on the lookout for adult lounge pants, there is usually a good selection at my neighborhood store in size small and medium, I have been stocking up for a while.  (I wash everything I thrift the minute I get home, I want to make sure everything is nice and clean.)  Once that is done, I’m ready to get started.  I cut the inside leg seam completely open and spread out one side.  I use a one piece pattern (this one is Simplicity 9853), super quick and easy.  I have traced the size I need onto interfacing, so that I can use the pattern for all sizes.  I position my pattern on the fabric, I like to have the outside leg seam slightly closer to the front of the pants, not centered on the pattern piece.  I am also going keep the hemmed edge from the original pants, so I don’t cut the hem allowance from the pattern piece.  When you get ready to cut the second leg remember to flip your pattern piece over or you will have two right legs.

I stitched up the legs and then the crotch seam and all I had to do was make the casting for the elastic and I was finished. I finished the waist differently than the pattern suggests, by making the casting down 1/2” from the top and a lot wider for wider elastic, I like a ruffled waist and I think that the wider elastic works better and is more comfortable.  I didn’t count the cost of elastic in the cost of the pants because I have a bag full in my stash, but even if you need to purchase elastic your pants will still be really inexpensive.

These go together really quick, especially once you get the hang of the pattern.  I need to get the other pairs cut and sewn, I wonder which pair they’ll like the best.  Have a super crafty weekend!!!

Traditions and Vintage Patterns

Every 4th. of July there is a big flea market in the little town I’m from and it is my yearly tradition to go. This year we made the drive (about 1 1/2 hours), but it had rained all night and continued to rain all day and most of the vendors were already gone or packed up. We were so disappointed, luckily we were able to shop at the local antique mall (Nebraska translation – junk store). There were a lot of wonderful treasures and I hit the mother load of vintage patterns, the whole stack was bound together with a paper that said $1.00 for all.Here are the token ugly patterns from the 1980’s, maybe they’ll be stylish again in 10 or 20 years. I think these are from the 80’s as well, the one on the left is postmarked 1980. I can’t read the other one, but it is cute, I like the neckline detail. Some fun dresses and pant suits from the 1970’s, these are all really similar in design. The two simplicity patterns are Look Slimmer patterns, whatever that means. More fun 70’s dresses and culottes (is that really how you spell that?, it looks weird). In the very center of the stack DRESS PATTERNS FROM THE 1950’S!!!!! I about wet my pants when I saw these. The most exciting thing about all these patterns is they are my size (or darn close), can you believe it? I see vintage patterns fairly often and they are normally tiny, but these aren’t, they’re all around a size 20 or 22 AND THEY ONLY COST ME A DOLLAR!!!! can you tell I’m excited? Some of them are cut, but they are single sized patterns, not multi, like the modern ones and all of the instruction sheets seem to be intact. I am going to have to give some of these a try.

I found a lot of other great treasures that I’ll share in the future, they are waiting to be fixed, altered, and painted. Even Mr. Crafterella found something exciting for his collections (a vintage gas mask). It was a great day for shopping, even though the traditional 4th. of July flea market rained out. What are your 4th. of July traditions?

Thrifty Thursday – Reclaimed Yarn

Last weekend was, once again, $.99 at the Goodwill and I found tons of great treasures.  My favorite finds were these two girls sweaters, they are made from a bulky thick/thin yarn with a hint of metallic running through them and I just had to get them.The pink one is from the Gap and the blue one is from K-mart.  If you are going to unravel sweaters I recommend that you use high quality sweaters, the pink came apart much easier and I was able to reclaim about 95% of the yarn.  The blue one involved a lot of cussing and I only got about 70% of the yarn and the yarn quality was not as good.I’m thinking that I have enough to make a couple of hats from each color, but I guess we’ll see.  The process of unraveling the sweaters took an evening.  I worked on it while I talked on the phone and watched TV, so it went pretty fast.  I have one more sweater to unravel, a beautiful, cotton, bulky, chocolate brown sweater that I want to make into a bath mat, but I’m going to wait until I finish up some other projects.There were also plenty of fun novelty shirts to be had.I found this great handmade, vintage house dress too!  I remember this fabric from my childhood, not exactly sure where, but I want to say kitchen or bathroom curtains.

I’m taking a long weekend and getting ready for an entire day of crafting Saturday with my Lincoln Handmade Friends and some family time on Easter, have a super crafty weekend and I’ll see you next week!

Thrifty Thursday – Goodwill Treasures

I had a great weekend of thrift shopping, if you remember it was $.99 day at the Goodwill last Friday and Saturday. 

I found a great selection of striped shirts, a few tie dyes, and some plain colors for matching.  I also found a great orange dragon shirt and an interesting gaming shirt, it had Yoda and Darth Vader, so I had to get it. There were also several fun printed shirts, like Sponge Bob with “I’m Ready” on the back, an awesome bleached Catrina shirt, a Jon Stewart shirt, and a fun sarcasm shirt.  I had an Aqua Teen Hunger Force tee too, but my husband snapped that up.  I’m thinking that the Catrina shirt would look great with that orange and black tie dye. I also found this cute women’s tank top.  I love getting these, they are so easy to convent into dresses for Little Miss.  I just have to take in the sides and shorten the straps.  I especially liked this top because of the cute little pockets. It was a great shopping day and I probably would have come home with a lot more if Little Miss hadn’t been with me.  She has now started hiding in the clothes racks, so I look like a crazy lady talking to the clothes while really I’m just trying to get her to come out.  I also bought the cutest little doll cradle, for $4.00 I couldn’t pass it up.  I would look nice with some paint or maybe some decoupage, we’ll see what happens.

Lilblueboo Pattern Review

Last weekend was $.99 clothing at the Goodwill, my favorite time of the month, and this month I was on a mission for some super cute knit fabrics to make my new pattern. The Goodwill I go to is smaller, but really nicely organized, all the women’s clothing is sorted by color. All I had to do was find a few cute patterned knits and go to the coordinating color section to find matching extra knits, super easy. It was also fun because it didn’t matter what size the shirts were(smalls seem to have the best designs). I came home with this:

Using the Sienna Dress Pattern from Lilblueboo I made this awesome dress for Little Miss:

I was so excited when I got this pattern and have been waiting to try it, I had to find the perfect knits. It has lots of step by step photos and a lot of tips for working with knits, which I thought was going to be difficult (it wasn’t!). I also really like the different sleeve and skirt options for this pattern (I used a tapered sleeve and ruffle for this version), I will be using it over and over and the dresses will have different looks. Don’t forget the opportunity to embellish the fabric is endless. I also have to mention how impressed I was that the pattern pieces matched up so well, a lot of times the commercial patterns are difficult to match (all those notches and dots), not this pattern everything went together smoothly. I highly recommend this pattern, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, finding/reclaiming old knit fabric is so fun, and the dress is super soft and comfortable! Don’t forget to stop by her blog for more tips and tutorials.

I also brought a few more knits home to work with, you know I spent more that $2.00 on $.99 day, right?

And some cute tops for me and an almost brand new baby coat for next year, the bargain saving high is great and I can’t wait to make a couple more dresses. I also have a plan for the left over knit from making these dresses, more on that later this week. If you want to see what other people are making from her patterns check out her flickr group.

Ladies Top to Girly Dress

On one of my recent trips to my local thrift store I found this adorable super small top.  It was $.99 day and I really liked the fabric, I was thinking it would make a cute tote. I was looking through all of my finds and Little Miss saw this and thought it was a dress for her.  After trying it on her I realized that with only a little alteration it would be just perfect.

I removed one row of the elastic smocking about 2 inches from the “skirt” and then chopped the top off, I finished the edge with a stitch on my machine that looks like a blanket stitch (I’ve lost my manual and I have no idea what it’s called).  I did the same thing to the smocking about 2 inches from the top and cut off and finished the edges.  I used this strip to make the straps.  I also cut another strip of smocking off of the scrap to make a headband, I just stitched a seam at the correct size and ta-da, matching headband!

So here’s my super cute $.99 dress, I had brown thread on hand.  The great thing is that she will be able to wear this for several years, the smocking is loose fitting, with room to grow and the length is generous.  I will definitely keep on the look out for smocked tube tops, this was just to easy!

Unusual

I did some more thrift shopping this weekend, Goodwill had their $.99 clothing sale and I just couldn’t resist.  I always check the kids clothes, although since the new CSPCA laws passed there is never anything good.  I noticed this top right away, it was very colorful and odd.  When I looked at it closer I couldn’t believe the pattern.

(Yeah, I already ripped it apart.)  Look closely, there are Russian nesting dolls, Russian buildings, cabbage roses and woven rug patterns.  The fabric is almost like a photo and to top it all off it is velour!!!

Sadly the tags had been cut out, so I have no idea what brand or even what size this top was.  The good news is I have enough for three zippered pouches. 

So what do you guys think, is this a treasure or am I a bit weird?  Does anyone recognize this fabric, where is it from?

Thrifting at the Goodwill

Yesterday I stopped at the Goodwill that near my house, I hadn’t been there before, it’s a smaller store, but it really nice and everything is sorted/arranged very well.  It must have been my lucky day, I found all sorts of treasures!

The one is my favorite, this beautiful cut paper (???) picture, I snatched it up the moment I saw it.

It is really hard to photograph, the glass gives crazy reflections!  Here’s a better detail shot.I got all other sorts of stuff, clothes to recon, a purse, some shoes, and some extra special stuff for the 13 Days of Halloween Swap.  There was also some great chairs from the 70’s that were in great shape(I bet they spent their lives covered in plastic), I may have to go back for those.

Here’s a preview of what I’ll be working on next week.  All this stuff is getting repainted.I also have a big weekend ahead of me, it’s time for Little Miss to get here own room and I need to paint everything, including the ceiling.  The kids are spending the night at my Parents house, so hopefully I will accomplish a lot, see you next week! 

Twirl Skirt Recon

As I wandered through the Goodwill a few weeks ago this cute ruffled skirt caught my eye.  It wasn’t my size or even my style, but I just had to have it!  It was begging to become a twirl dress for my daughter.  It had a slight aqua color, but I am not a fan of light colored clothing for children, especially a party dress.  I used navy blue Rit dye to make it a richer blue.

I hand dipped the skirt into the dye holding it for a few minutes for each layer, I was going for a gradation dyed effect.  It’s a little wobbly, but I like it and besides she’s three, is she really going to hold still long enough for anyone to notice it’s not perfectly straight.  The top two layers were just dipped and immediately removed to be rinsed.

Now I just need to decide how to cut it apart and put it back together, Oh and I need to find my sewing machine and unpack the craft room, everything is still in boxes.  I hope to finish this up in the next few weeks, I want her to be able to wear it to my cousins wedding.

Finished Back Patch for Crafty Coveralls

I finished my back patch and got is sewn on yesterday. I really like how it turned out although I may have gotten a little carried away with the rhinestones and glitter paint on the mouth.

Once everything dried I carefully cut around the design and ironed some lightweight interfacing on to the back and sewed it on to the coveralls that I bought at my local thrift store. I altered the coveralls by cutting off the sleeves and then dying them with RIT dye in the washing machine. I used one package of purple and one package of red.

I know it looks kind of crooked in the picture, but it really is straight. They are surprisingly comfortable and I think they will make great studio attire that I won't be ashamed to leave the house in.

I'm thinking that the front needs something, like a name patch. I may make one that says "crafty". Anyone have any ideas?

Thrift Store Finds

I went to my local thrift store today and found some great deals! All their coats were free and I found a very nice faux sheep skin coat that fit me perfectly and it's machine washable. Here's everything that I bought, can you believe that I only spent $3.75?

I also found a great pair of coveralls, I have big plans for them, I'm going to cut the arms off and paint a vintage tattoo flash design on the back similar to this. They had some really nice children's books, there are ten of them. Most of them are board books and they're all in almost new condition.There are also two vintage floral pillowcases and these fake wood sparrows.When I saw them I thought wow, wouldn't those look great painted like this clip art. I'm hoping that the wind dies down so I can spray prime them today. I love thrift store shopping, you never know what you'll find.

Thrift Store Find - Mini Tea Cup and Saucer

I found this at my local thrift store today. I have been looking for tea cups to make a pincushion like this, but I haven't been able to find anything that I like until today.

This thing is tiny! It's going to make the cutest little pincushion, maybe I'll just keep needles in it.