Several months ago, I bought a huge box of somebody’s old clothing for refashioning purposes. Although there were lots of great clothing (WAY bigger size than what I normally wear), this great experiment went nowhere because the holidays came and I got busy and started one refashion that took me months and months to finish.

One particular dress in this bunch has haunted me with its adorable black and white floral pattern. It started as a size 16 long sleeveless dress with buttons up one side (what??) The material is light, flow-y rayon, and I knew it would be perfect for summer..but how?

I thought of many things I could do with this dress. I thought about a maxiskirt and also a maxidress.I thought about turning it into a short dress, a fitted dress, a loose dress. I never once considered turning it into pants because I ain’t stupid. Then it came to me: hi low dress refashion

I used to hate hi low dresses. How stupid. Like, the mullet version of a dress? Party in the front, business in the back? Basically, we’re talking an uneven hem, with the front shorter than the back (for those of you who havent’ been following my Pinterest boards and why not? How dare you…)

Then they started to grow on me, so I got to work transforming this long, oversized, slightly frumpy dress into a hi low dress refashion.

Hi Low Dress Refashion

I first drew a new neckline with chalk. I know it looks atrocious because I had to do a couple lines to get it right AND the cat was all in my business.

Next, I drew the front of the hi low dress. I didn’t have a pattern; I used pictures of hi low dresses I liked and tried to mimic the hemline. To get the right length for my hi low dress refashion, I measured on my body from the neckline to where I wanted it to fall, then measured on the dress the same length, adding about 2 inches for mess ups and my hem.

Please ignore how terrible the chalk line looks on this..hey, chalk brushes off, people!

I turned the dress inside out so I could get the back of the dress even with the front. This part was tricky because it’s sort of an oval (the has to gradually flow into the longer back.) I used the same chalk to draw the back hemline of the skirt. Again, I did not use a pattern; this was all eyeballed.

The next step was the sides of the dress. I measured 2 inches from each side starting with the side seam (not measuring from the true side of the dress.) I got this measurement from trying the dress on and pinning the sides to see how much I needed to cut off the sides.

The next step of my hi low dress tutorial was sewing. I hemmed the arm holes, the neckline, and the hemline. I tried on the dress and it was a little baggy in the front. The dress already had darts in the front, so I sewed another half inch on each so pull the dress in a little. I added two lines of loose threads 1/4 inch apart from each other  about a half inch from the top hem of the neckline. I pulled the loose threads to create a little detail/ruffle to the top of my hi low dress and make the straps fit a little better.

And full disclosure here: I ended up not hemming the bottom of this. Although it is rayon and will fray, the hem I tried to do just didn’t look right. I need to work on my hemming skills, clearly. I used Fray Check to keep ….frays in check.

Here’s the final hi low dress refashion:

Some refashions keep some semblance of the old garment, but I think this hi low dress refashion looks like a completely different dress. I cut off a lot of material, but it fits great! I can pair it with a denim jacket (oh yes I did!) or wear it without for a summer evening out to dinner with Kel. This just goes to show that refashioning is about seeing the potential in the material, so a tip for all you refashionistas out there? Don’t overlook a big, bulky dress when you’re thrifting. It might hold something amazing.

Your thoughts on the hi Low dress?

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I’ve always been afraid that once I got my sewing machine, I’d eventually get to the point where I have no time to refashion. Unfortunately, the late fall and winter months proved me right. I started my latest pocket tshirt to ruffle tank top refashion the night of thanksgiving when Kelsey was our shopping for me. Months later, I finally finished it. As in, last week. As in, more than two months after I originally started it.

This one started as a really nice Ralph Lauren Polo from Goodwill I snatched up for $4. Our Goodwill is expensive y’all. I loved the feel of the soft, silky cotton and the color, a slate grey that pulls a little olive in certain light. I thought it would make a cute pencil skirt, but at the last minute I turned make a pocket tshirt to ruffle tank top refashion. It looked like this before:

I used a tank top with simliar stretch material for creating the base of my pocket tshirt to ruffle tank top refashion. I’ve made the mistake way too many times of using a different material shirt for the pattern (like when I used a stretchy shirt for a linen top refashion and couldn’t button it over my boobs, ANYWAYZ.) I had pictures of this, but you know, it was in November and my phone is two iPhone editions behind, which means I didn’t have space, so RICS (rest in cyber space) picture of the pattern. I cut extra material off the sides, cut off the collar and buttons and made a scoop neck, and cut off the sleeves. Now, all that was left was that pesky pocket:

Look how lame that looks! In all honest, when I started the project I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but we all know how I love ruffles, so I knew this would be the perfect solution to covering up the carcass of this stupid pocket for my pocket tshirt to ruffle tank top refashion. RUFFLEEEESSSS! I took all the extra fabric pieces from the sides of the original pocket tshirt and cut them in long, wide strips about the same length.I put them through the machine using my typical ruffle technique you can find here.

Unfortunately, each one of the ruffles individually wasn’t long enough to cover the entire neckline and the outline of the pocket that was still left on my freshly sewn tank top. I decided to get a little asymmetrical with it. I started pinning the ruffle on the top of my tank top starting at the top right. Where that one ended, I started a new ruffle to finish it off on top.

At this point, the ruffles on my pocket tshirt to ruffle tank were uneven — on one side, the ruffle was a bit lower. So, I added another ruffle starting on the opposite side (the side I just finished), pinning it under the original ruffle. I did the same for the opposite side. Basically, the ruffles met in the middle of the tank top (I sewed them together to keep from having a gap) and covered the front of the tank top in a criss-cross pattern, with the previous ruffle covering the stitches.

Because I’m a ding dong and got rid of those pictures, I drew on a tank top to see how the inside / layout of the stitches look:

The pocket tshirt to ruffle tank top refashion turned out so much cuter than I originally intended and fits great. I love these kinds of tanks for layering under cardigans or blazers because I can take off the layer and it still feels appropriate for work. The ruffles give it just a little dress, but with a pair of jeans, it can be dressed down. I want to fill my closet with 40000 of these pocket tshirt to ruffle tank top refashion.

Here’s the final product:

I have a plan for the first time I wear it and it involves a short sleeved crop jacket, so plan on seeing that from a bathroom mirror on an Instagram feed near you.

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Last year, my baby dressed up like a zebra for Halloween. It was his first Halloween and we got the costume at a consignment sale. Although it’s Florida and still a billion degrees in October (and the outfit was fleece), we tugged it over his chubby little legs and collected candy that only we could eat. Later, I thought to myself, “we really missed our chance at dressing him up as Charlie Brown for Halloween, with his lack of hair and all.”

Little did I know, he’d still be bald for his second Halloween. I decided to take full advantage and dress my little man up as Charlie Brown for Halloween.

Now, any normal person would just go buy a Charlie Brown Halloween costume for their toddler at Target or something. Like this one:

But my frugality is well established on this blog, so of course, I’d save my $26 bucks and make a DIY charlie brown Halloween costume. Easy, right? Yellow polo shirt, cut out some zig zags from felt, call it a day.

Except I couldn’t find a yellow polo shirt. I looked far and wide: Walmart, Kohls, Target. Even eBay. But if I was going to spend $10 on a yellow polo shirt, why not just throw a few more bucks in the pile and buy the entire costume.

Hub came to the rescue. On a trip to Goodwill, he found bright yellow youth T-shirt and a black youth t-shirt. Total cost: $2.

I got to work. First, I made a pattern out of one of Luke’s 24 month polo shirts.

Charlie Brown Pattern PDF for 24 months  (Right click to download. I have two pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper taped together for each side.)

I cut out the Charlie Brown halloween costume pattern and laid it on the shirt.

I also cut off the sleeves from the shirt to use for the sleeves of his Charlie Brown Halloween costume. I wanted to keep the sleeve seams because when I try to hem sleeves on knit they always turn out all kinds of funky.

I didn’t take pictures of the rest, but here are the step-by-step instructions for the Charlie Brown Halloween costume DIY:

• Cut the front and back of the shirt from the pattern.
• With right sides together, sew the shoulders together and the sides together to make a tank top looking piece.
• Take the pre-made sleeves and lay the sleeve pattern over it, placing the pattern piece on the edge of the sleeve to keep the original hem.
• Sew the newly cut sleeve together with the sleeve inside out. The seam will be under the arm.
• Turn the sleeve back the right side. Stick the sleeve into the arm hole. I didn’t take a picture because this step always vexes my brain, but here is a drawing:

Isn’t he the cutest toddler to ever don a Charlie Brown Halloween costume?

That’s my refashion of the week, folks! If you’re looking for a quick and easy Halloween idea for your bald child, consider this Charlie Brown Halloween costume DIY!!

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I’ve really been into trying new (to me) fashion and styles. I’ve been seeing peplum a lot lately on a few fashion blogs, but you know me and my cheapness. Why would you buy something you could refashion?

I picked up this tshirt at the Salvation Army for $1. It’s an XL women’s shirt, so I knew I’d have to work a little magic for it to fit. I loved the color for fall, so I bought it.

I decided I’d turn this tshirt to peplum top. Get ready for some really awful pictures of the steps I took to make it.

First step, I cut the shirt at the bottom where I wanted the peplum to start. I choose about 2 inches above my natural waist.

Next, I took a shirt that fit me well to determine where I’d cut the sleeves/arm holes. I also cut the sleeves off each side right beside the seam. I guess if I really wanted to, I could have kept the sleeves and just hemmed them to fit my arm, but I’m into layering because it’s hotter than blue blazes STILL in this swamp of a state. I cut along the sides of the tshirt to peplum top with one inch seam allowance on the side.

Next step, I sewed the sides to make the top of the tshirt to peplum top.

I took the bottom of the top and cut it at the seams so it was two pieces. I don’t know if I needed to do that or not, but I did. I did a basting stitch at the very top of both sides to create a ruffle effect. That just consists of a loose stitch with pieces at the end so you can pull the material together. Here is a great tutorial on how to do this and many other ruffles. 

Next, I pinned the peplum skirt to the top. Now, this took some pinning and repinning to figure out how it would work. Turns out you should pin the skirt with the “right side” of the material to the “wrong side” of the bottom of the tshirt to peplum top. The peplum skirt should be pinned within the top, like so:

(It will look like the second picture, except you’ll stick that whole skirt inside the top.) The seams of the bottom should match with the seams of the top.

I did a zig zag stitch to connect the peplum to the top,then sewed the sides.

I decided the top of the tshirt to peplum top needed to be more structured and not so t-shirty, so I cut off the ribbing, shaped the neckline, pinned (and included some little pleats on the neckline) and sewed.

I didn’t sew up the sleeves because I intend to wear this with a jacket or cardigan.

I loved how it turned out.

And here’s me rocking tshirt to peplum shirt, my cardi, refashioned skirt and teal jewelry.

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A couple months ago, I won a lot of jewelry from eBay that included a ton of stuff, as well as some cheap plastic beads. I paid $20 for the lot, so I’m sure the person just threw them in there to get some junk out of her house…well played, eBay seller…well played.

I was trying to figure out what to do with them and one night twisted them up mindlessly while I was watching tv. I realized it would make a pretty DIY necklace if only the doubled over, twisted beads would fit around my neck….

An idea was born!

DIY Necklace with Pearls

What you’ll need for DIY necklace with twisted pearls:

• spray paint (I choose this bronze/rose gold-ish color for fall)
• two sets of plastic beads (like the Mardi Gras kind)(but don’t flash anybody for them…buy them in the store or steal them at the next football game you attend)(I mean, you can flash if you want to. I don’t judge.)
• necklace chain
• jump rings in various sizes
• clasp
• needle nose pliers
• glue gun
• patience
• pretty good fine motor skills

Linking up with:

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Psst.

Hey you.

Yes, you. the one who has a ridiculously stuffed closet and an empty wallet?

Wouldn’t you love to turn that around? Like, make your wallet stuffed and your closet empty? So you can fill it up with more amazing things?

I love eBay, but dont’ know where to start to sell my things — plus, it’s super crowded with too many other people wanting to monetize their old stuff.  Craigslist is cool, but I’m a bit wary of any platform that has been a major plot-point in a Lifetime movie.

I’ve discovered a great new service called Ubokia, which is what I’d like to call the illicit love child of eBay and Craigslist. Illicit because — well, you know, Craigslist has sort of a bad reputation. I was so excited to find it because not only can I sell my own things, like necklaces and purses (currently listed in my marketplace), but I can reach likeminded users who are searching for exactly what I’m selling. Cool huh?

You’ve probably noticed me talking about my online thrift store that just opened – Go on, here it is, check her out. It’s powered by Ubokia, and lets us all (you, me and all the other Its Blogworthy fans who want to get some cash for their old clothes) have a safe place to find buyers, sell our stuff and complete transactions safely — with uTrust, a process that vets buyers, you can be assured you’re dealing with a real person, not a scammer.

I love that I can get emails for the things that I’m selling that link me directly to people who WANT the stuff. I  mean, how can it be easier? Let’s say you NEED a pair of brown slacks. I have a pair of brown slacks! We can make a deal in my Virtual Thrift Store and never leave our houses….Ok, I will have to leave it to ship and you’ll have to get it from your mailbox.

Here’s how to join:

Find my Virtual Thrift Store at the top of my blog:

Join through my Virtual Thrift Store by clicking the JOIN button or connecting with Facebook:

Post items you’d like to sell or post your wants, and Ubokia takes care of the rest!

 Payments are made through PayPal or credit card and are safe and easy. I purchased a box of old clothes for refashioning and had a great experience.

I’d love for you guys to share with each other — what’s great for one person might be what someone else wants to throw away. To get you started thikning about your closet, and what you’d like to replace it, name one thing you want and one thing you’d toss RIGHT NOW…and leave it in the comments!

I was compensated for this post. All opinions (and Virtual Thrift Store) are mine!

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Today’s refashion:

The other day, I was perusing Old Navy and saw this skirt:

“Hub, did you see that skirt?”

“You mean the one that looks exactly like the one you made the other day out of that thrifted polo shirt?”

“Yeah, that one. And thanks for paying attention. That skirt is $22!”

So I knew what I had to refashion next. I’m here to save you $20 and fill your closet with beautiful, easy-wear pencil skirts.

An aside on pencil skirts: I love them, especially when they are made from jersey knits. They are comfortable, easy to wash, you don’t have to iron them, and they bring instant class to your outfit. You can have a whole mess of pencil skirts and wear a comfy tank top and flip flops and some cute earrings and still look pulled together. It’s even MORE comfortable than yoga pants. I know, right??? If that hasn’t sold you on this polo to pencil shirt refashion, I don’t know what will…except that this is a NO HEM skirt and only has three stitches. WHAT!?

It’s as easy as the t-shirt skirt tutorial I did, but this one you can wear out to a nice dinner. It’s just as cute as the other tshirt to pencil skirt refashion I did — that one has more structure, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Here’s what you need for the three stitch shirt to pencil skirt  refashion:

• elastic band (1 1/4″ is what I like to use)
• Pencil skirt you already love and wear all the time
• Heavy-weight men’s tshirt or turtleneck – I like to thrift these, but check out my new “Online Thrift Store” to find people just like you who are cleaning out their closets and want to make a deal
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine

Here is my before shirt — a turtleneck from my brother-in-law. This cost me $0!

Place the pencil skirt you already own at the bottom of the shirt near the hem. You’ll use the original hem as the hem of your skirt because who loves hemming? Not me. Cut the mens’s shirt around the sides and top of your pencil skirt, leaving room for the seam (about 1/4″).

With right sides facing, sew up the two sides of your cut men’s shirt.

Pin and sew a casing.

Use a safety pin to thread your elastic through the casing. Sew the elastic tightly, then sew up the casing.

Turn inside out. Wear. Turn heads. Save yourself $22 at Old Navy. Feel good.

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Have you ever looked at Pinterest and thought, OMG that looks so easy! I could totally do that!

And then, have you ever looked into your closet and thought, “hmm, I’d love to have a bright blue belt, but I don’t want to spend money on it.”

And then, have you ever texted your sister and said, “Hey, can I cut up that tshirt you gave me into tiny strips? I want to make a tshirt to a DIY braided belt!”

And then, she texts back and is all, “Of course! It was going to Salvation Army anyway!”

And then…..a refashion is born.

This tshirt to braided belt tutorial is one of the thousands of things a person can do with gently used, unwanted and discarded tshirts. I mean, I never in my life thought I’d get so excited about old tshirts.

Here is the shirt in question:

Cute, but what am I going to do with a long sleeved tshirt? I live in Florida, people! That fact, combined with my mama pooch, meant it was getting the rotary cutter treatment…and I was gonna Pinterest the hell out of it.

• First, I cut the bottom of the tshirt, still folded, into four strips about two inches wide using my rotary cutter. I love my rotary cutter because it gives me much straighter lines than if I cut.

That picture is awful because it’s clearly not two inches, but you get the picture.

• Next, cut one side of your tshirt strips so they are four LONG pieces.
• Pin the four pieces together at one end with a safety pin and start to braid. It’s a fishtail braid for all y’all mamas of little girls (or fans of long hair), but for the braiding challenged among us, here is a really wonderful step-by-step of how it’s done (and my inspiration for this tshirt braided belt tutorial.)

• Braid the whole thing, and when you’re done, tie a knot on the opposite side of the safety pin (keep this on until you sew it.)

• Use a straight stitch to sew together each end. I used three lines of stitches on the safety pin side and one on the other side.
• Take the formerly knotted side of the braided tshirt belt to secure your belt “loops” — the hardware that will keep it in place. You can buy them at fabric and craft stores, but I had an old belt I didn’t wear anymore, so I recycled them.

• Loop your braided tshirt belt through both loops, then head back to your machine to stitch them closed. Use two or three lines of stitches to secure the braided tshirt belt to the loops. Be very careful because at this point, your belt will be quite thick. It depends a lot on the thickness of your strips and the material.

You’re done. It’s incredibly easy, even if you don’t know how to sew. Now, if you don’t now how to use scissors, that may be a problem.

Now? We wear our braided tshirt belt!

I love how this one turned out, and I want you to wear a braided tshirt belt, too. Win it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(As usual)(Because I love them)

(Because I love her too)

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When my hub and I were searching for a house, we tried our best not to get hung up on the aesthetics of the houses we viewed, turning a blind eye to lime green walls and brown shag carpet and red bathrooms in various houses. It was the bones of the house that mattered. Carpet could be replaced and walls could be painted, but a crappy layout was a deal breaker.

I’ve brought that same mentality into my refashioning. While I’m thrifting, I feel the material, eye the patterns and check for wear and tear, essentially ignoring the overall look of the garment. I picture the possibilities rather than the current state.

That explains this find:

Ain’t she a beaut? I’m sure some old lady really enjoyed slipping this on, pairing it with some white pumps and a huge hat and heading to her local church.

Although I’d never, ever ever wear this dress in it’s former state, the material was soft and silky and the print was super fun. And it was $1.50. I couldn’t even buy material for that — plus, it already had pleats and a fitted top , which are two things I don’t know how to do yet!

I was inspired by this cute dress at TJ Maxx. Since it’s 80 degrees as I’m walking to my office at 8:15 in the morning, I wanted a sleeveless dress. I knew I had to get rid of the panels on the front, but wasn’t sure how I’d do it. This dress was one idea (I ultimately went another way.)

Here are the steps I took for this old lady to young lady thrift dress refashion:

• Cut about four inches from the bottom of the thrift dress and hem.
• Cut off the sleeves and turned the material under to make it look finished, then sewed.
• Cut off the collar (Good Riddance!)
• Take off the pocket with fake lace hanky (RIP fake lace hanky) with my seam ripper
• Cut the sleeve material into small strips, about an inch wide and as long as I could make them (these will be the ruffles)
• I used Fray Check on them instead of hemming the sides because this type of material was prone to fraying.
• Ruffled the pieces using the longest stitch and highest tension my machine had. Learn more about ruffles here.
• Folded the front panels under, then pinned the ruffles from the shoulder seam to the waist on both sides. The ruffle on one side overlapped the other, but I took it all the way down to the inside waist seam, pinned and sewed.
• Cut off the excess folded back material from the panel in the inside of the dress.
• The last step was a little tailoring…nip here, tuck there.

I love the way this dress refashion one turned out. This is the perfect summer dress and it just makes me feel so pretty. I’m glad I took a chance on this old lady thrift dress!

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Sometimes I like to tell my husband that I’m going to steal his clothes to refashion them into things I’ve pinned. I’m only about 75% kidding about this. Truth is, he has a lot of clothes. A. LOT. I’m confident he really doesn’t know exactly what he has, so I could cut something up while he’s still asleep someday and he wouldn’t be the wiser.

“Wow, hon, that’s a really cute new skirt. Where did you get it?”

“Oh…you know…..around….”

But I’m honestly way too nice to do that, so I went the honest route: asking him to give me the shirts he didn’t want.

He gave me a really nice XL Express for Men tshirt, and after finding some inspiration from my color blocking pinterest board, I decided I needed to make the tshirt to pencil skirt refashion from it. I have a black pencil skirt from NY and Co I’ve had my entire professional career. It’s a soft, knit material, super stretchy and incredibly comfortable. I even was able to wear it while I was pregnant because of the elastic waist.

I started by turning the pencil skirt inside out to see how it was made. I discovered it was two pieces in the back with a small slit about five inches high. The front was one piece and the band was a simple casing.

I cut the sleeves off the tshirt and cut it into two halves (front and back). I took one side and folded it in half, laying the skirt (also turned inside out) on top of it. I made sure to line the bottom of the skirt with the bottom of the shirt, so I could use the already hemmed bottom…YESSSSSS. I cut around the skirt, leaving a half inch or so on each side for the seam allowance.

I cut the shirt pieces in half at the fold. That gave me two pieces for the back part of the skirt. I did the same for the front, except I left that piece whole.  That left me with three pieces for my tshirt to pencil skirt refashion:

Next step was sewing. Starting with the back, I pinned the back two pieces of my tshirt to pencil skirt refashion together to about 5 inches above the seam, like so:

Next, with right sides together, I sewed the side seams and a casing. The last step was to stich the little slit to make it look finished. I might have overdone that a little, but EH.

I tried my tshirt to pencil skirt refashion on and it was a little baggy on the sides, so I turned the skirt inside out, put it on, and took in the sides so it fit sort of tight-ish against my legs.

The last step was pulling some thick elastic through the casing and securing it. I have to say, I LOVE how this tshirt to pencil skirt refashion turned out. It’s one of my favorite skirts I’ve refashioned so far. I have to dress up every day for work, and pencil skirts are one of my favorite pieces of clothing. This one is bright, comfortable and stylish and cost me 0 dollars!

Even though I loved my tshirt to pencil skirt refashion (and Hub did too) it didn’t stop him from mourning the loss of his beloved shirt (that he hadn’t worn in years and didn’t want anymore.) I’m doing him a favor.

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