Restricting the bask to directly under the heat lamp.Filed under: Finished it, Fixed it, Refashioned it, Sewed it, Thrifted it | Tags: blouse, button, hem, pants, Philadelphia, refashion, Stella, Svengoolie, thrifted, wardrobe refashion
I can’t stand the clutter in my apartment and closet anymore! It’s been dragging me down and occupying more mental energy than it is worth. Plus it’s that time of year in Chicago where I’m itching to put on more than my winter black turtleneck and dark cords.
Of course, I’m all supposed to be working on this other little project, but I’ve reached a point where I need another set of hands. And I’m too germy tonight to ask her, new mama of a teeny baby, to risk infection.
So this eve, I’m home with Svengoolie — tonight showing The Blob starring Steve McQueen and a sweet Burt Bacharach theme song all from 1958 — and the sewing machine, wrapping up all those little oddball repairs and fixes that have rendered so much clothing a total drag to wear.
This little sheer purple thrifted blouse had its ugly old button stuck on by the previous owner for ornamental purposes replaced with a cutie little flowered one.
It’s really see through and needs its own proper slip to wear underneath. I’ll table that for the next time SvenG shoes the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Some gray flannel pants needed a good hem. I shortened them with a little cheat technique I’ll post soon.
I started taking in a black top with some gold and purple irises on the front. Started pinning in some darts in the back to give the thing some shape. Then I thought about maybe just posting the thing on etsy as is.
And some black knit thrifted pants that were too big got taken in by the rear seam. Not a glamorous enough repair to photograph.
Must say that Svengoolie makes for excellent company.
I didn’t grow up here with him on Saturday nights. In Philadelphia, we had a similar cheeseball horror show called Saturday Night Dead featuring a busty hostess called Stella. Only Svengoolie has better songs than I remember on SND. And he starts at like 9 p.m. instead of 1 a.m.
Here’s hoping somebody ponies up the cash for the glow-in-the-dark Svengoolie t-shirt in time for my birthday. Though I think I’ve blown my t-shirt karma around here in a stack of boxy shirts destined for refashions but still sitting in the pile.
We’re getting married! In May in the old part of Philadelphia. And now that locations and invite lists are settled, it’s time to do fun stuff now!
I love the man whose life is getting joined to mine, and he’s a reporter, too. I don’t love the wedding industry and all the consumerism, and how it turns people who love each other as families and friends against each other with so many “musts.” Our inner reporter proves too skeptical to take wedding salesladies at their word (I’ve gotten through a bunch of stores without uttering the word, claiming accurately that it’s a Very Fancy Party.)
So we decided to skip some of the nonsense, and recreate some other nonsense ourselves.
Here’s how we asked family and friends to save the date: We think it’s amazingly good news.
I found the engraved liberty bell and old-timey poster fingers online. The party’s going to be in the old Philadelphia Public Ledger, the city’s first penny newspaper, and one of the original front pages had “fancy” ads introduced by such a pointing finger.
Printed out the postcards, two to a page, on a regular printer, using good cardstock from the Hobby Lobby.
Then my dad helped us trim and separate them using his original carpenter’s square from when he first became an apprentice. If I’m 32, he went through carpentry school maybe 35 years ago.
We marked the back side of a glass cutting board and sliced through with a utility knife.
I think I’ll use postcards as much as possible. You get the news faster when there’s no envelope.
Filed under: Finished it, Fixed it, Gifted it, Made it, Refashioned it, Sewed it, Thrifted it | Tags: Buddha, mama, maternity, refashion, Salvy, surgery, t-shirt
Mama’s shirt took more time and more hair-pulling compared with Poppa’s. I found this Buddha t-shirt for $1 at one of my favorite Salvy’s in the world early in her pregnancy.
Finally got the nerve to chop it right before her baby shower but didn’t quite make the deadline.
Anyway, she had about six weeks to wear it and seems to love it and it turned out a perfect fit.
I had to buy a new craft T and opted with a fitted one from JoAnn because Mama has a small and delicate frame, and I wanted the top of the top to fit her nicely.
So the logo was going over her belly. I thought about chopping the bottom off the plain T, but I ended up chopping the belly out of it, and fitting the logo back on. I also chopped about three inches off the bottom hem off the big logo T to make a tie – and to keep the nice hem.
The logo part got gathered on the sides, to make a pocket big enough for a full-term belly and sewn back on across the front and sides.
Look how cute she is!
Check out this how-to.
Filed under: Do it, Finished it, Gifted it, How to do it, Made it | Tags: baby, Big Poppa, Biggie Smalls, freezer paper stencil, gift, t-shirt
My dear friends are getting a baby in a few weeks. So of course we made them some presents. The bebe gets a blanky, a giant square of a blanky crocheted from fun Hobby Lobby yarn in circus colors. Mama, like me, isn’t into pastels and is convinced the most unisex color of all is red.
Mama I adore, but Poppa is my colleague and original tie to the family. And since we’re not particularly into indulging the demands of teeny babies, Poppa — our loyal date to summer rock and roll concerts, our link to Boris and the Hold Steadies — has our sympathy and especial love.
Poppa also has fab taste in music and a demeanor best described as generally nonplussed. At any rate, he’s not into pastel schtuff either, and wasn’t likely to receive any special presents at this weekend’s bebefest, so we made him one to treasure.
And he did love it when we called him, at the shower, Big Poppa, comme ca:
Really. My mister is loving freezer paper stencils since watching me craft a Halloween costume from a yellow t-shirt. We were Pat Hughes and Ron Santo of WGN’s The Pat and Ron Show, and since Pat – the literal play-by-play broadcast man is so very boring, I had to invent his costume and dress him in a t-shirt of one of the show’s sponsors, Square D, (Part of the Power of Wrigley Field).
But I digress. Mister saw the custom Square-D shirt and became convinced we could copy the method. So we fought over WHICH Biggie Smalls song to print onto a shirt. He voted for the “One More Chance Remix”, featuring the opening lyric, “First things first, I Papa,” and continuing in a filthy manner.
It’s not that I vetoed, it’s only that I had to cut out the letters and “Big Poppa,” as in, “I love it when they call me”, would be easier to chop out of freezer paper and also would fit better across Poppa’s front.
Anyway, enjoy the effect of a freezer paper stencil. We used this velveteen finish paint from the JoJo if only because it was the only black finish available in the small bottle.
I’d buy it again specially since it worked very simply; you wait until the paint dries, then hold your very steamy iron about half an inch away and watch the paint rise and get a velvety texture. Plus it comes readily at the JoJo.
If I had Poppa’s shirt to do again, I might have the Mister cut out the other parts of the design. Maybe we cut the wrong negative space???
Anyhoo, my how-to is here.
Filed under: Finished it, Fixed it, How to do it, Sewed it, Thrifted it | Tags: cotton, purple, sleeves, sweater, wardrobe refashion
Lousy purple is IN this season.
Boils my blood to no end since I’ve loved purple for many long years so I’m already sick of everyone looking like me. Went to a wedding last weekend in a fave purple dress — there were at least four other women all purpled up. Grrr.
A smart lady in my life said to shut up and stock up so when the trixies moved on to teal or yellow or whatever, I’d be all set. It’s pretty good advice. Since I haven’t bought retail since August 2007, I continue to stockpile purple at the Salvy.
This winning XL cardigan is a stunning shade, a solid lightweight cotton and sweetly long. It was too wide and shapeless though,
and the buttons were terrible.
1. Try sweater on inside out. Pin up sides. Fit, repinning as necessary.
2. Using a zig zag stitch, sew up the sides.
3. With sharp scissors, cut off the sleeves at the shoulder seams.
4. Find the middle of the top of each sleeve. About 1 inch, 1 1/2 inches on either side of the middle, baste about 1/4 inch from the edge. Pin the bottom of the sleeve to the bottom of the armhole, and the top to the top. Keep pinning from the bottom.
5. Pull the basted threads slowly from each side until the sleeve fits the armhole with a little gathering. Pin, fit and sew.
I stitched in a little folded netting to support the little puff.
I also replaced the original boring brown buttons with vintage yellow domed buttons, after much debate between yellow and pink.
The purple acorns and green discs wouldn’t fit. Boo.
So much better now.
And check out a similar slimming sans sleeve enhancements. Such a fantastic cotton knit with a boatneck and cheeky sneaky silver buttons up the front of one side, before:
And after:
The change is subtle; the fit is just better now that the sides have been slimmed.
