Extreme Makeover: Clothes Edition

A few sessions of sewing during the past couple of months, and especially this past week, have brought me to the realm of clothes.  I'm only just a beginner, but I'm the kind of person who has the personality of the Dumbo train - "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" - so I just kind of dove in and came out with a couple of pretty good alterations and one colorful creation.  Before I spill the deets though, I must say that I've mulled over the thought of taking my machine to clothes for months and months but finally just went for it after being majorly inspired by a friend from college and her incredible ability to make Goodwill clothes look like boutique-wear.  You can see Grace's awesomeness for yourself by clicking here.  Sew, onto the good stuff.

Creation #1 - The One-Shoulder Wonder

I actually got the inspiration to make this cute shirt from psimadethis.com.  I loved the idea and it just happened that I had a plain blue t-shirt on hand:

And a must-have-shrunk, immodestly-small, green "Daddy's Little Girl" t-shirt, given to me by my little sis Rock one Christmas many moons ago:

So, with the tutorial in mind, I snipped a little here:

Cut a few strips there (don't worry Rock...I have plans for the "Daddy's Little Girl" part):

Pleated, sewed, and pleated a little more:

And ended up with this little number:

Bright?  Yes.  Different?  Definitely!  Homemade?  You got it!  Just wait though, there's more...

Alteration #1:  Trimmin' Trees

I found this cotton, cherry blossom print dress at a close-out store for ONE dollar.  My thought?  "This would be a perfect dress to practice altering in hopes that it might lead to more alterations...right?"  It WAS a large:

But, after I quickly zipped several inches off each side, it's now ready for a summer day:

Add a little belted flair and we've moved up in the world:

Alteration #3:  Spot

This one's my fave.  I have this love for gray and white and couldn't resist not grabbing this cute skirt from a local Goodwill a few months ago for a couple of bucks.  It WAS a size 20 (I know, betcha can't wait to see this one):

 But, one night whilst Anthony was a-workin', I gathered up my courage, the sewing machine, and a little of Grace's gumption and gave this little pearl an overhaul:

And that's all...for now.  You can be sure of seeing more ruffled shirts and down-sizes here in the future though.  :)

Of course I won't sign off before giving an update on the home front.  As I type, this is what I'm looking at:

Slowly but surely...

And this is what our bathroom currently looks like:

 Also slow going...painting to begin tomorrow? 

I did get a chance to put the finishing touches on our newly painted cabinets though, some clear bumpers.  I put two on each door and drawer to make sure no matter how hard they were shut, all of my hard work would be protected. 

.           .           .

That's all I've got this weekend - a few new wardrobe additions and a lot of work to be done!  On our over-achieving, weekly to-do list, we've got painting, as mentioned above, foam cutting, and finally some reupholstering to check off.  You'll see how we did next week!  Until then, have a great weekend everyone!