Sew simple

This spring when I switched out my heavy winter curtains for the summer ones, the summer versions looked too tired to hang up. Without thinking, I made a trip to Target, where I spent way too much money on curtains that were way too blah.

After hanging them up I realized that not only were they ugly, but I was going to have to hem them. Thinking about sewing reminded me of the tubs of fabric I inherited this winter from my sister-in-law.

D'oh!

In my defense, my usual stash tends towards the small pieces of crazy prints, so I assumed I didn't have anything that would work for curtains. But to my happy surprise, I came up with plenty of suitably plain fabric plus interesting scraps to jazz them up.

Now I just need to find time to return the very expensive rejects to Target!

Bookish

Of all my crafting skills, bookmaking is one of the most useful. I made this coptic-bound book from scrap paper collected at my office job in Georgia (the country), along with embroidery thread and a cardboard box from a package of rodent food. When I asked my host mom to save it for me, I think she believed (or hoped!) she heard me wrong.

Once she saw the book, she got it. Sort of.

Journal project

My art club started a round-robin journal project about two years ago and finally finished, so I got my book back.

My theme was "Scraps and Fragments." I made my cover from a dumpstered pair of Hee-Haw overalls, using the straps to hold the book, really just a portfolio for loose sheets, closed. I filled it with 9x11 canvas sheets (found in the art paper aisle at Michaels) so people could make their pages however they wanted.

I knew from a previous round robin that I didn't want to worry about binding the finished product, since people tend to make thick pages that are hard to corral. The finished book has everything from melted plastic to crazy quilting to needle felting.

Groovy African shirt

I bought this way groovy African shirt at a thrift store, thinking my husband would love it. He did, but couldn't fit his manly muscles into it. So I un-gave it and took in the sleeves a little (I do not have overdeveloped biceps like some people in my family).

One more addition to the tomboy wardrobe. (I got a haircut last weekend, too.)
(But, for the record, I'm wearing a dress today.)

Crochet flower sweater

Here's a great sweater I bought at a thrift shop this summer. It fits perfectly but has a two-inch wide nautical-style Izod emblem front and center, embroidered right into the fabric so I couldn't pick it out without wrecking the sweater. Bleh!

I tried pinning a brooch over it, but all my pins are heavy and floppy and not quite big enough to cover the emblem. Then I found this crochet flower left over from my crochet-madness phase last winter. It's the exact right size. I stitched it on with embroidery thread and added the button to cover the hole in the middle.

This is much more my style.

Duct-tape dress form

I'm no dummy, but I finally have one.

I put on a throwaway white t-shirt and a cling-wrap miniskirt, then got my husband to wrap me in two rolls of duct tape. (He enjoyed it a little too much!) I started getting claustrophobic when he did my ribcage. It took almost two hours to put on three layers of tape.

When the form seemed sufficiently thick, he cut the dummy up the back and helped me out. I taped it back together and stuffed it with old pillows and spray-in foam stuff (not recommended-- stick with polyfil). I plan to put a pole in her and stick her on a dumpstered outdoor-umbrella stand. I've already used her to help me take in several t-shirts.

I used instructions from Threads.

Wardrobe Refashion

I joined up for six months! Yeeps.

Basically, I've pledged to refrain from buying new clothes for six months. Luckily, underwear & socks are exempt, so I was able to justify this weekend's Target purchase of three pairs of leggings, as I consider them tights designed to keep me wearing skirts into the cold months.

Also, they came from the kid section, where everything is cheaper. And one pair is covered in silver skulls. I know, major loss of punk cred! But cool.