Recycledlovelies.com

My Vintage Crocheted Spring Sweater

Deanna — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:28:44 +0000

I was so excited when I found this sweet little sweater. Its adorable and perfect for spring. I cant wait to wear it. Its still a little cold outside but it wont be long before I can slip this on over a floral print dress.

Perfect condition, like it had never been worn.

I love these flower details.

Sweet scalloped sleeves.

And a little button closure.

My Thread & Needle Have Overcome the J Crew Challenge!

Deanna — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:30:05 +0000

Evan, You will be so proud of me and dang it, I am proud of myself!

Can I be proud of myself?

Is that a perfectly sane thing to feel about ones self?

Well regardless I am so proud of myself. On Monday I was challenged to make this shirt from J Crew.

I took out the needle and thread and sewed my heart into a new shirt. Ok I didn't sew my actual heart into it, but I do not like to sew by hand but by golly I did it! And the next amazing fact….I actually like this shirt. I love how the flowers turned out!

What do you think Evan? Be honest!

DIY Sweater Ruffles

Deanna — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:25:39 +0000

To go with the cute shirt I have been challenged to make(but am not finished with) I decided to add some ruffles to an old sweater.

Making ruffles is super easy!

Instructions:

Take strips of fabric of desired thickness, sew a loose stitch all the way down the middle of the strip, remember – DO NOT BACK STITCH! Then take those strips and pull loosely on one of the threads to make a ruffle. Then take those ruffle strips and pin to your sweater or garment of choice. Sew down the middle and take out the loose stitch if possible with a seam ripper.

I Have Been Challenged!

Deanna — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:50:24 +0000

If you know me at all, you know that a challenge to me is not something to be ignored, in fact, its something I take very serious. Someone asked me once if I could shove this piece of cake in my mouth all at once, and as soon as I feel like there is a challenge on the table, well I will show you that I can. I did shove that cake in my mouth, unfortunately I did spit it out again, but I did shove it right back in(which made everyone sick) and chewed and swallowed the whole thing. That just tells you I have a big mouth and that I will do whatever it takes to prove to you that I can do it!

Well Evan from A Nerd Like Me challenged me to make a shirt like this one below from J Crew. Evan how did you know that J Crew was one of my favorite stores??

J Crew's Hand-cut Flower Art Tee

I take your challenge Evan! Now I have to find me a v-neck tee.

Check back!

Upcycle an Old Shirt into a Pintuck Tank

Deanna — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:12:08 +0000

I was looking through the Anthropologie catalogue, as I normally do for ideas, and saw a pin tuck tank. I didn't think it would be too tough and so I tried it on a shirt my daughter was getting rid of. The shirt was a cotton but it was a stretchy smooth feeling cotton and sewing pin tucks in it was not the easiest.

Anthropologies Pintuck Tank

I forgot to take a before picture but as you can see it has a mock neck and sleeves.

I sewed the shoulders and then to even out the bottom I sewed the bottom on the other side.

This is picture shows the true color.

Now I will be trying this with an old guys tee, I think it would give me more to work with. Then maybe I could get flutter sleeves and a cowl neck like the from Anthro.

32nd Street Blog Parade!

Deanna — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:01:18 +0000

I joined the blog parade happening over at Rear Window. Head on over and check it out!

1. What's your favorite time of the day, and why? Night.

2. If health wasn't an issue, what food could you live off of? Definitely Hamburgers!

3. If you could have one wish granted (besides wishing for more wishes), what would it be? That my husband could be completely healthy and free of pain.

4. What's one thing that you get teased about a lot? Being skinny – but I don't mind (at least not much), because it affords me the right to eat whatever I want.

5. If you could choose one movie, book, or TV show to spend your life in, which would you pick? What type of character would you be? Seinfeld – because I love to laugh.

6. If you could have one talent that you don't already have, what would it be? Awesome guitar skills!

7.If money were no object, where would you go on vacation? Disneyland! All my best vacation memories were there.

8. If you were an awesome singer, which genre would you sing? Jazz

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, what would it be? Williams Sonoma

10. If you could live in any point in time, when would it be? 1950's – they had great clothes!

11. If every outfit in your wardrobe had to be one color, what would it be? That is too easy….White, because that's what it consists mostly of now.

12. If you were one of the seven dwarves, which one would you be? I don't think I can choose just one, I am a mixture of all, except maybe Doc.

13. What's the last album you listened to? John Mayer's Room for Squares.

14. What's something we'd be surprised to know about you? I would wear dresses and heels every day if I could.

Easy DIY Cloth Napkins

Deanna — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:41:07 +0000

I found this cute checked fabric at the Goodwill bins about a month ago and I used it on this bolster pillow but still had a bunch left, so I found a tutorial online for Handmade Napkins here. I have a friends wedding coming up and thought some napkins and napkin rings would be a great gift. Still looking for the perfect napkin rings to make. Thanks to the Purl Bee for this napkin tutorial!

I didn't have the handy dandy bias tape maker(would love one though, hint hint) so I had to iron my strips in half and then iron them in towards the middle. It wasn't too tough, just time consuming. For the binding I used a cotton shirt from Old Navy that I bought from a thrift store just for this purpose. I just cut strips and started ironing. I thought the colors contrasted the check fabric perfectly.

There are so many possibilities of colors and combinations. I will certainly be making more of these.

DIY Upcycled T-Shirt Skirt

Deanna — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:25:19 +0000

This is a quick post today. I saw this skirt made from tee's over at Beelieve and loved the way it looked. Of course mine is a bit different. T-shirts really are great material for a comfy skirt. I made this skirt in about an hour. I just started cutting shirts apart and piecing them together. Next time I will try overlapping more, like Karen from Beelieve did. I even used a long piece from a tee for the drawstring.

For directions on how to make your own upcycled t-shirt skirt click here.

Strapless Dress Re-do

Deanna — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:22:16 +0000

I have this beautiful niece who gives me clothes that she no longer wears or doesn't like and this week she gave me this really cute strapless dress with a side zipper. I love it but for me I knew I would never be comfortable wearing it without some sort of strap. I had this scarf that I had found while thrifting a while back and decided to try some different ways of adding it to the dress for straps. I sewed and seam ripped and sewed some more before I decided to do plain old straps.

This is the BEFORE.

I added this tulle to the bottom and then took it off because it just didn't look right.

And here is the AFTER photo with the scarf straps. Another self portrait, sorry.

AFTER

Silk Slip into J.Crew Tank

Deanna — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:07:48 +0000

I love looking at the clothes in the J.Crew catalog and while I was looking I came across this silk tank top and I remembered this vintage silk slip that I had found a while back, dug it out and decided I would turn it into this.

Who knew silk was so hard to sew.

The silk tank from J Crew.

This is the vintage silk slip before.

I cut the slip in half and cut the bottom half into 2 inches strips.

For the straps I sewed strips of the silk, folding them over as I went to mimic those of the J Crew tank.

I started sewing the strips on at the lowest point first while ruffling different points.

The silk tank I created.

And the bonus is that I have some silk left over to use as roses for a head band or I could add a rose to this tank.