Recycled Style 4

This is another chapter in my ongoing attempt to urge people to recycled things, but especially clothes. As I have stated many times here, and will continue to state, the clothing industry is one of the biggest polluters of the environment. 

So, here we go on a new example of Recycled Style. 

My latest find at the Goodwill was this amazing reversible jacket. The material is heavy cotton like a sweatshirt or, to be exact, two sweatshirts sewn together. It washed beautifully. Cost of the jacket was $8. The blue side is the one I prefer, but the lighter green side has side pockets, which the blue side does not. The dragonflies, coins, and bamboo leaves are printed with shimmery paint that reflects the light very prettily. The buttons are made to looks like coins, but are light, not heavy. It is really a unique and lovely jacket.  

The long-sleeved green T-shirt under the jacket is by the Gap, bought a year or so ago at the Goodwill for $3.99. 

The necklace is one I made from an earring that had lost its mate. 

Now for the not-thrift store things. 

The hat was a birthday gift from my husband about ten years ago. No, it was not from the Goodwill, and it was kinda expensive, but I wear it EVERYWHERE, and it is aging with style. One of the perks of buying recycled clothing, is that every now and then you can splurge on accessories and jewelry. I admit, I do not buy shoes at the Goodwill or from thrift shops. I buy good ones, and have shoes that are over 25-30 years old that I still wear because they were well made.  The only inexpensive shoes I buy are flip-flops for summer, and I have three pairs of those that are over four years old! My good leather purse, which is over 15 years old, is just now starting to look a bit shabby, but I love it, so will keep it until it falls apart. I am trying really hard to avoid the whole "buy it then trash it" cycle in our current society's "throwaway" mindset. 

This was the very outfit I wore out to breakfast with my husband last weekend, along with a pair of dark denim skinny jeans, and my Ariate shoes (made for horse riding, but they are so comfortable, I have a pair to ride in and a pair for street clothes). I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favorite finds. The only regret I have is that whoever owned it before cut all the labels out, so I have no idea who made this beautiful jacket. 

You really can be "styling it" with recycled clothes. And the hunt for unique pieces like this jacket is half the fun. Wearing them is the other half of the fun. 

Recycle Style 3

Here are two easy tips for using things found at the Goodwill or secondhand shops.

These are coffee mug holders. You can find them at the aforementioned Goodwill store, garage sales, and thrift sales. I always intend to paint them, but then never get around to it. They make perfect displays for jewelry, and I use them at home, but also when I take my jewelry to events to sell. The most I have paid for one, which was the wooden one, was $1.99.

The next little tip is what to do with all those very inexpensive clip-on earrings you can find at junk/antique shops, thrift stores, etc. They make very decorative sweatshirt, coat, or sweater clips. I have shown a few from my collection on a simple sweatshirt, but I have also clipped them to hat brims, hat bands,  and head scarves. Think outside the box on these little guys, which are so pretty, and I bet you could come up with dozens of ideas on your own.

It is little things like this that can be fun to play around with, is a good way to recycle which is good for the environment, and it saves you money. A win-win for everyone.

Two Recycle Projects

With the weather becoming more and more iffy, inside projects are nice, for the most part relaxing, and give me a few new items of clothing to wear. Here are the latest ones to keep me occupied when I'm in-between painting and cleaning horse stalls, and it's pouring rain outside.

The first is a turquoise T-shirt. It's a bit shorter than I like them, but it was only $2.99 at the Goodwill, so I bought it because I loved the color. I decided to stencil a design on the front then add either tulle or more T-shirt material to the bottom and sleeves. I have seen tulle added to shirts, and as long as it doesn't look too cutesy, I like it. So, black stencil design to be beaded, and then black tulle added to the hem.

The photos make the shirt look royal blue, but it isn't. The stencil is a Martha Stewart.

The little white mark at the center is made with soap, to help me line up the design.

I think I will add a small piece of T-shirt material on the inside of the shirt, behind the stencil design, to help carry the weight of the beads and stitching.

The next in line is a very wide sweatshirt, also purchased at the Goodwill. I want to make a jacket out of it, with elbow length sleeves.  I am always shoving the sleeves of sweaters, T-shirts and sweatshirts up my arm, so figured why not just cut this one off at that length. The lines on the front are made with soap to show the center, and then how much I am going to trim away from the front. This thing is REALLY wide (the size tag says M, but two medium sized people could fit inside it), so I will also have to figure out a way to take in the back. Maybe make something out of the leftover sleeve material— like the little mini belts on the back of jackets (I am sure they have a proper name, but I don't know what it is).

The T-shirts above it were laid out to see what trim color would work the best. I finally decided on the dark blue. The buttons and beads will go on last. Originally I had pulled out some very nautical looking brass buttons with anchors embossed on them, but decided it looked way too yacht club, preppy, proper, ladies-who-lunch, so I put those back in the button box and went with these mother of pearl ones, turned back side forward, with some old red buttons I dug out to be sewn on top.  This project may or may not work out. I have mixed feelings about it, so when I get it sewn up, if I don't really like it, I won't bother to add any decorations.

Here are both projects laid out on my big work table in the garage.

Those should keep me busy for a while. I am especially looking forward to stitching and beading the T-shirt. So, time to grab a book on CD, make a cup of tea, park myself in a comfy chair, and bead away.

Word for the Week = HOT

For the last week it has been swelteringly hot. Between 95 and 110 degrees. I love summer, but trying to get anything done in that kind of heat just makes people and animals wilt. I have to do things either early in the morning, or later in the evening. However, that doesn't always work, as the day it hit 110, at 7:00 at night it was still 95. Usually, this kind of heat wave in our area doesn't last long. Maybe two weeks, on average. However "They" say this year it could last, on and off, all summer. With this being the fourth year in a row of drought, our biggest fear is fire.

The heat also affects the plants in the gardens. The squash and pumpkin leaves collapse in self defense, the basil wilts, the flowers fade out, and leaves get crispy around the edges. The potted flowers on the deck must get watered every night, or within hours they are wilting. But, some plants, like the peppers and tomatoes, love the heat and thrive.

Last evening I picked our first tomato of the season. Kinda cute, doncha think?

Even though I really liked this photo, and thought is very zen-like, it didn't show how tiny the little guy was, so I stood a wine cork next to it to show scale, and took another photo.

The plant this little fella came from is loaded with fruit, so we will be eating lots of these. I plan to put them in a big bowl on the kitchen counter, and we'll grab them to snack on as we pass by. This one was very sweet, so we are looking forward to using these in salads as well.

Other than tending the gardens and yard, and trying to keep them all from withering in the heat, I have been working on the painting Gypsy 3 - Soul Mates. Here is a photo of it after I inked the drawing and then erased out the pencil. Currently the base coats of paint are on parts of it, but I don't have a photo of that yet. I want it a bit further along before I show it again.

The other thing I have been working on, besides riding my horse - which the other day was so miserably hot I felt like a fried piece of bacon - is a new costume project. Robert and I didn't compete in the Rogue Mounted Archers International competition this year. We sweltered as ground crew. Next year we want to ride (I did the previous year), and for that we need "warrior" costumes. The norm is for everyone to go black leather, corsets, medieval, or native (which could be from any country, as riders come from all over the world). I can't ride in a corset, I have NO desire to wear black leather when it's 90 degrees plus, and I wear medieval when I do SCA stuff, so wanted something different. Then we watched the new Mad Max film, and shazam! Road warrior! Robert and I have already trolled the Goodwill for bits and pieces of stuff, and got pretty lucky. The idea of ripping, shredding, and coffee dying all of this has me very excited. Also adding bits of flotsom, and metal hardware to the clothing, is going to be way fun. It's all so different than what I am used to working on, so that is the really exciting part for me. Here are the items, other than two belts, we picked up from the Goodwill, laid out on my work table. This is the "Before" shot. Every item is between 90 and 100% cotton, so even if it gets hot, it will breath. All of this has to be comfortable when riding a horse and shooting a bow, which influences the design. A fun challenge. So, let the ripping, shredding, and dying begin!

 I will post updated photos of these pieces as I go along.

So, that's what's happening in the heatwave of Southern Oregon. Well, at least at our place.

Goodwill Finds and the Spring Bolero

A few days ago I did a troll through the Goodwill, after dropping off three boxes of "stuff." I came home with quite a few nice finds = two ENORMOUS XXXXL man's T-shirts that I think I could get whole outfits out of, a faux silk kimono-type top made in India that already has some beading on it, and two woman's extra large T-shirts in a happy Spring green, with tiny sprigs of leaves in white. Now, normally, I would avoid anything with white like the plague, but this was a small pattern, and looked so cheerful, that I caved and bought it anyway.

The faux silk top, which has big, square sleeves...well, like a kimono...I am going to cut up the center and make into a kimono jacket. The beading on the fabric is sewn on pretty sloppy, but looks nice, so I will leave it and probably add more, and then replace the sloppy beads that will no doubt fall off as I wear it.

Not sure what I will do with the two huge man's T-shirts, but the possibilities are endless. They are nice, Fruit of the Loom brand, so the cotton has a good weight. The colors are dark navy blue, and charcoal grey. Yeah, the colors are kinda blah, but I can add stenciling, embroidery, beading, and appliques to whatever I make out of them, to jazz things up.

I will have photos of these pieces up later. Mainly because I got all ready to post this stuff, thought I had photoed all of it, only to discover I only had photos of the Spring bolero shirts. My bad.

Anyway, here is my progress on the Spring Bolero. Even though the two women's shirts were size XXL, and wide, I wasn't sure I would have enough fabric to do the binding, so the rich, chocolate brown was going to be my backup binding color. It looked really nice against the bright green. However, as it turned out, I had enough shirt fabric left over to do the binding if I did solid color on pattern, and the reverse on the sleeves.

The first two photos were taken on my dinning room table, and the lighting there makes the green look olive, and the brown look maroon. They are not. The rest of the photos were taken on my work table out in the garage, where the lighting is brighter, and the colors show up better. 

 The beads and embroidery thread were some I pulled from my stash.

And here is where I am so far. Still have to add the rest of the binding, then bead it. I may add beads to the body of the bolero, but haven't decided yet.

This makes bolero number five. I love these guys, and wear them a lot. I also love that they are easy to make, and lend themselves to all kinds of decorations. And they are the item I get most asked, "Do you make them to sell?" My answer is always, "No." They might be easy, but depending on how crazy I get with them, they are time-consuming. Besides, making them to sell would take all the fun out of it, and that's the biggy for me. I do them for fun.

Medallion Sweatshirt Finished

I finished this project the other day and like the way it turned out. Not too shabby for a tarted up $3.99 Goodwill sweatshirt, doncha think? Yes, there are cat hairs on the shirt. In my house that is a given. What looks like areas of dirt, is the sun reflecting off the dust on my camera lens. Oops.

I really enjoy working with stencils and fabric paint, then adding the stitching and beads, so  I have plans for many more projects using all of those materials. Next is a kimono, and a over-tunic based on a 1920s beaded flapper dress.  I don't intend to bead the whole dress. Whew, that would be WAY too obsessive. I will post more about that project next time, but I did find a pattern to use, and as for the kimono, I have a pattern for that I bought back in the 70s.

While at JoAnns looking for a pattern, I also cruised the linen section. Sheesh! Cheapest linen fabric I could find, and that was on sale, was $9.99 a yard! The tunic needs 2 7/8th yards, if I make it full length (which I am not, but still...) How do people afford to sew anything these days? Unless you buy itty-bitty pieces for craft projects, it would cost you a fortune to make anything requiring over a yard of material.  I miss the old Fabric King in Southern California. During the late 70s and all during the 80s, I felt insulted if I had to pay over $2.50 a yard for anything. Trim was mostly 5 yrds for a dollar. I got all kinds of great stuff there on the cheap, which was nice, since I was doing a lot of costuming back then, making dresses that needed 7-10 yrds of material. Actually, I still have a few of those fabrics and trims.

Also, since we are bolting toward the holidays, JoAnns was a zoo of people buying craft stuff, and the cutting line was way too long for me to hang around.  I will probably wait until after Christmas...and the after-Christmas "I didn't like this" returns and "get rid of it" sales,  to get the tunic fabric.

Lastly, here is one more look at the scarab necklace.  A day or so ago, between rain sprinkles, the sun peeked out, so I took the necklace out on the deck to try and get a better photo. One that shows the colors. It was later in the afternoon, so there are some shadows, but the colors did show up nicely.

So, that's two projects finished, and two more in the planning stages. Seems there is always something fun to do, and now I actually have the time to do them. Sweet!

Ongoing and Future Projects, Plus the Finished Scarab Necklace

There is a project I really want to start which involves embroidery and beading on a Goodwill find jacket. The problem is, the design is complicated, and the jacket is dark purple Ultrasuede. Tying to transfer a labor-intensive Elizabethan design onto the said dark fabric, which has a nap, is something I still haven't quite figured out. I will, eventually, but for now, I am playing with this stenciled design for a sweatshirt.

I bought the midnight-blue sweatshirt at the Goodwill for $3.99. It is a nice heavy one, and in very good shape. A lovely blank canvas. The rose T-shirt was one I bought at the Gap years ago. It was faded a bit and the neckline had gone all funky. But, the rose-pink was on the blue side of pink, not the red site, so it was a perfect for the dark blue sweatshirt. I don' remember where I bought the stencil. It could have been at Home Depot in the paint department, JoAnn's, or Micheal's. The paint is an old pot of Lumier pearl blue, but was so old that it had almost turned to paste. I added water, stirred it like crazy, added more water, stirred like crazy, repeat...until I got it usable. Barely. However, because it was so old, the "pearl" effect on the knit is patchy. I ran into the same issue when I used some old gold Lumier on the Crown Bolero. But, I like the effect. It gives the stencil design a bit of texture.

So, here is how it went.

The rose Gap T-shirt cut in half, with the stencil painted on. The white lines are made with soap.

The top photo is truer to the color of the shirt. The second photo makes it look a yucky peach, which it is not. But you can really see the patchy effect of the paint.

 

The stencil pinned to the sweatshirt.  The top two photos of the shirt were taken in my garage, where my work table is, and where the light is better. The bottom one was taken in my dinning room, where my sewing machine is set up. The light isn't as good, but the colors photo truer. I also noticed that the design is a tad off center, so I will have to adjust a tad and re-pin it.

I will stitch around the pattern, then trim away the pink material from the edge, so the finished design won't be square, but rounded like the stencil. After that, I will add accent stitches around the whole thing. I had originally intended to make this a reverse applique by cutting out the larger parts of the design so the dark sweatshirt would show through, but changed my mind. Mainly because with the blue paint, I didn't think the reverse applique would show up very much. I'll just go crazy with beading inside those shapes instead.

So, that's the project that is going to keep me busy while I try and figure out how to deal with the purple jacket.

Along with getting this sweatshirt thing going, I finished the Scarab Necklace. Again, lousy photo, taken in my garage with the best lighting I can get at the moment (outside it is dark and raining). The scarab was part of a broken necklace in a  box of jumbled, broken stuff I bought at least a year ago. I really liked him, but wasn't sure what I wanted to do with him, so he has been sitting in my stash for all this time, waiting for me to make up my mind. While looking for something else I came across  him again, took him out, set him on my work table, and contemplated him for a few days. Well, I thought, he's got this Egyptian vibe going, so let's play with that, without going all Cleopatra.

The necklace is made of all kinds of bits and pieces...rock chips, coral chips, black glass beads, turquoise chips, red crystals, and frosted glass blossoms. The large copper jump rings were in a tube of copper rings meant for either electrical work or plumbing. I don't know which, as my husband found them somewhere and brought them home for me. I also wanted to play with the contrast of "silver" wire and the copper. The thin copper wire was a pain in the butt to work with, but if I did two layers of wrapping, it looked really kewl.

The necklace is choker length, which tends to be my favorite. I am going to try and get much better photos of this piece, as you really can't see the lovely colors very well in these.  But it does give you an idea of how it came out.

So, that's what's in the works, and that's what just got finished. Another project lurking at the back of my brain involves a pattern for a short kimono I bought back in the 70s. I made one back then and wore it out. I am thinking of making it again, out of linen, and doing a jellyfish applique/beading/stitching design on the back. Pinterest has some amazing photos of jellyfish, that got me all fired up to try that kind of design. Also, I happen to love jellyfish, and could stand for hours, totally hypnotized, in front of the jelly tanks at the Newport, OR Aquarium. Actually, Robert has had to drag me away from them on several occasions, I got so mesmerized.

Anyway, that's what I have in store for the winter...well, except for the make-your-own-rubber stamp kit I want to order from Amazon, and the jelly printing I want to try (which has nothing to do with jellyfish, thank goodness), and the SCA costumes I want to make for both  Robert and myself, and working in my art journals, and doing more drawings, and...and...well, you get the idea.