Altering cardis

Boy I have a lot of cardis!  They come in so handy, especially with sleeveless dresses which I do love to wear to work, in air conditioning! Recently I bought a few plain cardis in op shops because I loved the shape of them - they're not shapeless cardis like most of the ones I already own, but nicely figure hugging cardis with a fitted waist.  But they were boring black and boring oatmeal.  So I had a think about ways to pretty them up.

 
First up I chose the oatmeal cardi and I was inspired to embroider some bright flowers, after seeing some vaguely similar ones on Bates Motel and Neighbours (stop laughing).  I couldn't find any pictures online, and couldn't get a good look at the ones on the TV shows, so made up my own design using grub roses, lazy daisies and french knots. It's a long time since I did any embroidery, so I just winged it.  :)

Next up was a second hand Portmans black cardi and I went with a simple chain stitch to define the neckline and cuffs.

By the way, I just found these instructions for doing chain stitches backwards, which makes it really easy to keep the stitches the same length.  I wish I read this first!

Next up to embellish will be a white fitted knit top.  I haven't quite decided what I'll do with that..

I've altered lots of clothes I've bought in op shops.  Use your imagination and think about ways to embellish something plain or turn an ill fitting dress with gorgeous fabric into a skirt!

What I Wore Wednesday

Last week I had to drive Dave to work mid morning.  It's a 45 minute round trip so I decided to make it worth my while.  First I rewarded the chauffeur by taking myself to San Churro for hot chocolate (REAL hot chocolate - there is no substitute!) and churros with caramel dipping sauce.  Really, that probably would have been enough of a reward in itself, but I decided to take myself to the three op shops near his office.  First up was the fairly new Smith Family op shop which is massively overpriced.  Like ridiculously so.  I would have bought myself a pair of men's Gap oxford shoes if they weren't $38 (I googled and I could buy them brand new for $41!).  I did however buy 2 Judy Blume books (turns out I already had them with different covers - do'h), 10 zippers and this dress.

I really loved the fabric, the neckline and the sleeves, and it's fully lined.  But I really didn't like the high waistline.  It made the dress feel like a big sack and wasn't flattering at all.  After pondering it for the afternoon I realised the gathered waistband wasn't gathered after all - it had pleats!  So I sewed them down, wore a belt lower than the seam and now it's so much better! 

I bought this sweet brooch from a girl I follow on Instagram.  It's made from a vintage puzzle piece.  So adorable!

And these are my new shoes from Modcloth.  Unfortunately they're a bit small.  They're wearable, just not for days involving lots of walking.

They do go perfectly with my jacket tho. :D

Dress - Op shop (it's a unknown Asian brand)
Jacket - Material Pleasures second-hand clothing store (Caroline K Morgan)
Belt - Yes Style
Brooch - Butter and Buntings
Shoes - Modcloth

I got a few other pieces of clothing in Vinnies and Salvos that day so I'll share them here soon!

What I Wore Wednesday

I've been neglecting my blog, but Mardi's Blog Hop post has got me going again.  So now I have a few outfit posts coming up soon.  First one coming up!

Last year I bought some gorgeous check fabric at Spotlight, reduced to $3/m.  I bought quite a lot and last year I made this dress. It's tricky to sew with because the fabric doesn't sit straight - it warps all over the place, but it falls beautifully and feels lovely to wear.

I had heaps of fabric left over so I recently made a skirt.  I decided to use up ALL the fabric, which meant it was a really full skirt, but also quite long.  I didn't use a pattern - the waistband and the skirt are both just rectangles.

I'm still not sold on the length - I'll probably shorten it eventually, but I've worn it several times at this length.  The skirt is roughly pleated into the waistband.

 

I bought this top at the Zonta pre-loved clothing sale recently.  I loved the colour but it was shapeless and un-flattering.  I took the sides in before the following picture was taken, and afterwards I sewed some vintage lace around the collar for a bit more pretty.

 So my very thrifty outfit went a little something like this.

Top - $10 at Zonta pre-loved clothing sale
Skirt - Made by me for about $6
Cardi - hand me down from my sister Alicia
Brooch - gift from my sister Charlotte
Shoes - faves from I Love Billy, which are knocking at deaths door but I refuse to turn off life support just yet

My friend Sam, who has the most awesome taste in clothing, has recently started a blog and done a Bernie Dexter dress post here!

Bedside table makeover

I've been looking for a bedside table for our spare room for a long time.  I didn't have anything in particular in mind, but I did want it to be vintage and to be wanting a makeover.  In a quick stop in a Goulburn Op Shop recently I found this for $20.  That was more than I wanted to pay at an op shop, but I knew I already had paint at home so the only other expense would be a new knob for the drawer.  I remembered Charlotte buying some beautiful vintage wallpaper when we were in Wellington NZ, so I asked her if she could spare a little bit for me.  I had plans...

So in one day I gave it a sand, undercoat and two top coats.  I used aquadhere to attach the wallpaper (isn't it so beautiful!!), and the next day I bought the knob.  It was done in no time!  I am SO happy with it!

 

What I Wore Wednesday

I found some barkcloth in an op shop recently and ummed and ahhed for a little while before finally deciding to buy it.  After all, they had 50% off everything in the store and there were 5.3m for, in the end, $5! 



I wasn't sure what I'd do with it but in the end decided to make old faithful - another dress. :)  I'm so glad I did.  I just love it, so much more than I expected!  I wasn't too thrilled on all the brown, so I chose to have a yellow trim to bring out the yellow flowers.  I think it makes the dress so happy.

I changed the pattern a little - I made the neckline higher, the shoulders wider, the skirt has more volume and I gave it unpressed box pleats instead of gathers.  The box pleats took a bit of fiddling but I love them.  The sash with a bow is something new too.

The fabric was so nice to sew with, and is so nice to wear.  Barkcloth is quite thick and textured.  I had to trim a few bulky seems - in some places six layers thick, which is a bit much when the fabric is so thick!  It feels so nice to wear though.

  

I was careful with the placement of the pattern pieces so the bodice pieces would have the same print on both sides, front and back.  I was glad I had so much fabric to play with!

The dress cost me about $8.  Less than $3 worth of barkcloth, $3 for the yellow fabric and $2 for the zipper.

Dress - Made by me
Shoes - Pierre Fontaine (these poor shoes have no soles and are too far gone to be repaired... and yet I continue to wear them... I haven't found a replacement pair yet!)
Necklace - gift from Mum, from the Stitches and Craft Fair I think

Retro armchair makeover

A few weeks ago I spied a horrid old chair at the op shop.  But I could see it had great potential for a makeover!  I sent Dave a photo and asked if he was interested in doing up the chair together.  He said sure, why not, so a lovely friend's husband picked it up and brought it home for us (our cars are too small).

Here's how it started out.

We took off the cushions and gave it a really good sand.  I loved the colour of the timber (I think it's teak) so we decided we would just buy a clear varnish.  Here it is naked and sanded.

I went to spotlight and bought some gorgeous fabric. :)

 

We gave the timber a few coats of varnish, and gave a few extra coats to the arm rests to make them extra glossy.

I made some lining for the metal frame from blockout curtain fabric, so it would protect the cushion covers from being damaged by the frame.

I made some piping for the cushions.

I got new foam for the seat and back.  The original seat would have been OK to reuse but the back foam was urk.  The cushion cover for the seat wasn't TOO tricky and I got it to fit the first time (YAY).  The cushion cover for the back was a lot trickier.  It had to go over the foam and the metal frame, but the frame wasn't as tall as the cushion.  It didn't fit well the first time, so I had to make some adjustments.  It still wasn't quite right but I hand sewed a fold once the cover was on the cushion and you'd never know. it was there. :)

And here's the finished chair!  We're so happy with it! It's in a lovely spot to sit and read a book in the sun.  It reclines too!

 

So here's what it cost us.

Chair $20

Foam $70

Fabric, piping, zip $20 (awesome sale on the fabric)

Varnish $25 (heaps left over)

Here's something funny.  When I unrolled the fabric to look at a big piece I realised there was a blur of hot pink in one spot.  I thought it was a fault - yippee, maybe I'll get it for even cheaper!  But as I kept unrolling I realised it was a ginormous Eiffel Tower printed onto the fabric.  It's about 2m tall.  So bizarre!   What would you use it for?  Really tall blinds?  Bizarro!

 

 

Vintage shopping in Goulburn

Tassy and I called into Goulburn on our way to Wollongong last week. We had stopped at the Big Merino before, but it wasn't until I watched Charlie and Boots a few months ago that I realised you could actually go inside it LOL.

Here Tassy is looking out one of the merino's eyes. She was pretty freaked out when we were inside!

I wanted to go to a few op shops. Vinnies was closed (I was warned by Charlotte that they have stupid opening hours, even though the Vinnies website said they're open Mon-Fri 9-5). But right next door was the most awesome second hand store called Tony's Handyman Centre. What a strange name for a second hand store...

Right inside the door was a glass cabinet with this beautiful little girl inside. When I saw she was only $1 I thought YIPPEE, this will be an awesome shop!

I think she's probably a milkmaid and used to have a butter churn, but even with that missing I still love her.

I found some gorgeous Pyrex. Strange pricing - the pie dish was $5 but the gorgeous casserole dish was only $2!

These glasses were $1 each - how shocked am I that Dave likes them!

Lovely old Famous Five books. I think they were $1 each. I have plans to repurpose one of them. Can't wait to get started on that after Christmas is out of the way!

Sweet, tiny little handpainted plates were $1 each.

Some black poplin, houndstooth, and an interesting length of a wide fabric trim. Oh, and the sheet that I photographed everything on.

And as I went to the counter I spied a box of Christmas things and whipped out some 1970s Christmas wrapping paper, never used! Do you remember the old seventies Woolies logo? These were $1.50 each I think - they'd only just been brought in and they hadn't been taken out of the box yet. I didn't realise I was helping myself LOL. The little tablecloth is in good condition apart from a few stains.

Tony's wife told us her life story and boy did she love Tassy! She gave her lots of freebies and said "Anything you want to buy you get for half price. Not your mum, just you." LOL. Hmmmm.... I think Tassy really wants to buy one of the old family bibles you have for $500 each!

In the oppie across the road I got the gingerbread moulds and in the oppie around the corner I got two Pyrex lids. One fits one of my lidless dishes, so YAY!

I was thrilled with my Goulburn op shopping! And I didn't even get to two other oppies I'd bookmarked!

Op shopping

Here's what i found op shopping this week...

* A crochet cushion ($2) which I will dye, not sure what colour yet...
* Some vintage childrens books (50c each). I'm so excited about The Lost World. Firstly cos it's so beautiful and fifty years old, but secondly cos I'm keen to read the story! We already have this same edition of Pollyanna but at 50c I had to buy it for someone else. There are a few books for me ($3) and a 30yo Sydney street directory which I will use for some crafting. I got that for free in a box outside a church along with a very old crochet pattern.
* Some vintage knitting needles still with their original packaging ($2/pair). Not that I can knit...
* A converse jacket for Tassy ($3.50) which surprisingly Dave loves!