Christmas Leftovers - Faux Frosted Glass Jars

I loves me some Christmas leftovers. I totally do.

Turkey = good.

Boxes of Lindt chocolaty thingies = better.

Plastic candy jars with lids = best.

See?

And if you're thinking "Dude. Really?" then stick with me here...

I picked up three of those guys from the Dollarama before Christmas; I'm guessing they were meant to be used for gifting homemade treats. I, however, have no homemade treat skillz. So I didn't do that with them. Instead I did THIS:

Buh-bye christmas-themed plastic item! Hullo classy frosted glass apothecary jar with year 'round storage usefulness!

And the BEST part about these? All I used to transform them was some nail polish remover and a clean kitchen scrubbie. Which I happened to have on hand. Which means free. Yay for free!

So, I used the nail polish remover and a bit of paper towel to wipe the print off of the plastic. You could totally stop there. That looks like this, see:

Otherwise, grab your clean kitchen scrubbie and rub gently on the surface of the plastic in small circles until you've reached your desired level of opacity (You guys! I LOVE the word opacity. And I hardly ever get to use it.)

If you were feeling kind of fancypants you could mask off some areas with tape (or say, heart shaped stickers to make a VALENTINES candy jar?)

And that's it. Done. I'm using mine as STUFF holders in my bathroom, (yay for unbreakability!)

How are you using your Christmas leftovers?

Oh and I shared over at Melissa's (complete with embarrassing spelling mistake. GAH!)

And over HERE too!

A $12 Rental Bathroom Makeover (again)

Way back when, ooou a squillion (ok like, 3) years ago, I had a rental bathroom that I hated. And while my first choice was to SACK IT LIKE CARTHAGE. I didn't. (I'm restrained, see!)
Instead I used $20 dollars worth of dollar store stuff. And I fixed it. You can read all about it right here. But here're the previous before and after shots:
We still have that same rental bathroom; but since then we've had a new bath and shower and tiles put in. But the hideous early 60's sliding door'd cabinet is a keeper apparently.
SO, that's the backstory. On Wednesday night I was whipping around the dollar store for supplies (adhesive photo-magnet backing, but that's a different post) and I spotted some sticky mirrors and had a lightbulb moment.
So, I picked up.

3 self adhesive mirrors- $2 a piece
4 plastic placemats - 2 for a dollar
3 new hand towels -$1 each
a lidded glass jar - $1
AND a big sheet of vinyl butterfly wall sickies - $2
Total = $12

The first thing I did was cut the placemats to size to use as new sliding doors, then I just stuck them over the same backing I used before (the skinny for that is here).
Big change already, and it took all of about 5 minutes.

Now, the slidey doors don't really need handles; but I happen to have some pushpins (you know, the kind for corkboard?) in the shape of teeny weeny birdies. I bought them 4 years ago from the dollar store but I've never used them for anything even though I LOVES them. Anyhow, I stuck them through the new doors and secured them with a tiny spot of Mighty Putty (like off the teeeveeeee!) Et voila. Door handles.

Then I gave the wall a quick clean and dry and stuck my new mirrors on. I was worried about how sticky they were but the answer is DUDE. PRETTY STICKY. So I lined them up careful like, and bam, another big change (If you're a renter and need to undo the stickiness, try giving stuff a blast with a hairdryer before peeling it off).

Next up I needed storage, so I dragged in some metal flowerpot buckets from the balcony(they were originally form the dollar store, anybody else sensing a theme emerging here?), and stuck stuff in them. Tubby toys? BINGO. Hairbrushes? YUP.)

I also popped stuff like Pointy Metal Objects and hair bungees in the little jar I got. Then bunged a bit o' ribbon round it.


Next really big thing was the shower curtain. I have only just recently got over the opaque shower curtain = certain death by serial killer fear that's plagued me for years. (Thanks Hitchcock you big, jowly, jerk).
Anyhow, I happened to have a piece of fabric in my stash that I love a ridiculous, paralyzing amount. My ma brought it home for me from Sardinia when she was there ( I know right!) and it's a pink and paisley patterned cotton and it feels BLOODY GLORIOUS.
But I love it so much I couldn't decide what to do with it. At all. And it's just been sitting there in the drawer. So I whipped it out, folded it over and used a handful of safety pins as curtain hooks and stuck it over top of the shower curtain we had up already. Now I get to see it everyday and I can still make something out of it next summer. And when my chums ask if I'm wearing a shower curtain I'll be all "YAH I AM!".


OK, back to the bathroom. The last thing I did was scatter butterflies all over the joint. I wanted it to look like one of those Victorian specimen boxes had come to life and gone nuts in there. And just so you know, random is HARD for me. I am a Person Who Likes Symmetry; but I like how they turned out more.

And that would be that. One bathroom. Half an hour. $12.
In case you're curious, this is what is written on the door (um, prolly best not to look too close at the pictures if you're easily offended, the girls there are Edwardian nudey shots (100 year old porn!), a gift from my sis and the start of a my collection)


And lastly, I just wanted to say something on the subject of renting; we've been in our current apartment for 4 years and a few days. Which you guys, has gone RIDICULOUSLY fast. We never really intended to be here for so long, and there are/were plans for buying a place. But you know how it is right? In addition to the Insecure Jobmarket Two-Step we've been dancing a few rounds of the Visa Application Tango. I know my sweetie is eager to get our own place but our lives here have been brilliant so I'm not in a hurry.

The Skirt That Was In My Head

HAH. Got it done!
You know, the musing I was doing in that earlier post? About what I want to be wearing now?
Well for the last AGE I've had a skirt in my head.
A high-waisted, a-line, red one. Made of soft corduroy. With a Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five vibe (in my head that's cool).
Kind of like this one, Anthro's Hop, Skip and Jump skirt $78 - which is not too crazy expensive.

Or this one the Finishing School Skirt , also by Anthro also $78

But you know what's cheaper than $78? A meter of red corduroy I picked up at Goodwill last year for $1.98. And a pattern I already happened to have, McCalls 4783.
Here's my version:

I extended the waist UP an inch and a half (using the "meh, looks close enough" method of pattern adaptation).
I made the skirt less froofy and more gentle-a-liney.
And I added kind of off-center line thing (yah it IS a technical term) by folding over a little pleat and topstitching it down.

While I was making it the skirt tried to kill me a couple of times (I have pin-related WOUNDS!) but it came together fairly easily and now I LOVE it. Love Love it. I want to hold it's hand at a midnight showing of Pulp Fiction and make it mix tapes. Here's it in action today:

I had to wear thick tights, but it's super comfy and I managed to wear heels all day. Which is a win for me!

More thrift store karma, and some musing

This might just be me, but there is totally something about this time of year that makes me want to scour thrift stores. (Not like clean them, just look around in them, scour is a weird word...)

I think maybe it's because autumn makes me want to dress like my Auntie M or my ma in the late 70's. Which, doesn't mean a lot to you guys, so um, think west coast, granola, feminist, whip-smart, potty mouth'd, sexy. With paisley. And good boots.
Still not clear?
Like this:

Germain Greer, 1974, Tuscany( image)

And this:

Margret Atwood, 19??, but she STILL dresses with enviable badassery, (image)

And lookit these suckers:

Ms. Atwood's shoes. Swoon. (Image)

So, thrift stores is where I'm shopping (H&M also has a few things but I'm still off the buying new - WR4life baby!).
A few weeks ago I had a couple of bear-free hours, a giant vat of sugary coffee beverage, comfy shoes, pointy elbows and some steely-eyed determination. Prerequisites for a successful thrift store haul.
But I also reckoned I'd hedge my karmic bets. That is, I figured out what we'd been buying for the bear most urgently, (footie jammies, sweaters) grabbed some of his old ones and took them with me to drop off. I was mostly thinking how crappy it would be to need warm fuzzy jammies for your baby and to not be able to afford them; pretty crappy I imagine. We really are lucky.

Anyway, apparently the thrift store dryads were happy enough with the trade, 'cause I scored these
(badly photographed) goodies:


The first one looks way better in person, I've worn it a BUNCH already. The second dress is kind of a tough one for me, I love it, and it kind of makes me feel like a Shieldmaiden of Rohan (heh, ubernerdy!); but it's tough to find the right situation to wear it.
Got any tips for Good Thrift Karma?

Lacy Linens

If I had all the money in the universe. I would buy 365 sets of 600 (million) count cotton sheets and duvet covers. And I would have a robot who would iron them and put them on for me and maybe spray them with lavender and plump up my pillows and bring me chocolates and trashy novels to read and puppies to play with and generally do my evil bidding.

What I'm saying is that I like nice new linens. But the ones I like I can't, as a general rule, afford.
I wanted to make a duvet cover and a set of pillowcases that had a Restoration Hardware/Pottery Barn, Laura-Ashley-with-a-touch-of-quirky, mismatched, stolen-from-your-grandmother's-hope-chest feel to them. And naturally it had to be on the cheap.
Here's what I came up with:

Wondering why they look that wrinkled? Yah? This is why:

And also this:

ANYWAY...
I used
A dirt cheap fitted sheet set (one flatsheet, one fitted, 2 pillow cases. In white, naturally.*)
Another flat sheet, (you could use a plain ready-made duvet cover)
About10 meters of cotton lace trim ($1/2 meters from the Dollar Store in three different designs)
Some long strips of stitch witchery (the iron-on adhesive stuff)
A handful of plastic snaps/poppers

First you take the flat sheet that will be the TOP of your duvet cover and lay it out on the floor. Then you do it again and again because your dog and baby instantly leap on it squealing and wagging. Then you decide that maybe doing this at naptime would be more sensible.

Next you mark out where you'd like your trim to go. My duvet cover has two big squares, one inside the other. You can get all math-y and work out the numbers and measure or you can eyeball it and hope for the best. (Guess which one I did.) I used a bit of white chalk to mark my lines but if you have a fancy pants disappearing pen thingy then awesome.

The next part is actually kind of optional. Depending on how brave you feel. You could simply pin your trim on along your lines and have at it with a sewing machine.
OR use your long strips of stitch witchery to stick the lace on BEFORE you have at it with a sewing machine. I did the latter.
I found it easier NOT to start at a corner, and I like the way the turned edges look (there are other ways to turn corners).

Oh, and I know you know, but don't forget to flip the stitch witchery the same way UNDERNEATH the trim.

Once you have your lace in place. Whip around it, pretty close to the edge, with a medium sized stitch on your machine. And that's the top bit done (or the whole thing done if you used a pre-made duvet cover). Stick the top good-sides-together with the other flat sheet. Whip around three sides and add a handful of poppers (or ribbons or buttons) along the bottom and voila. New duvet cover. The Pillowcases are the same thing but on a smaller scale.
Just get your robot minion to iron the lot and you're all set.

I've also been thinking that this would work really well with a heap o' cotton doilies, scattered randomly about on a crispy white cotton. Yup. I am DEFINITELY keeping my eyeballs peeled for doilies from now on.

* I am weirdly scared of dark coloured sheets. I know it's crazy. BUT, in my head dark sheets equals heavy. Therefor I could be CRUSHED LIKE A BUG under a navy duvet cover. Like a bug I tell you. Crushed.

Invisible Extras

More dresses MORE AND MORE AND MORE. I seriously don't want to wear anything but dresses these days. Maybe because the winters here are so anti-dress. Or maybe 'cause dresses make me feel like dancing a bit? Or because I'm lazy enough to like the one-item-and-I'm-dressed routine?
Either way. I am on a dress kick. My only requirement is that they be long enough. I'm 5'9" and my leggies are... let just call them a "problem area". They get me from place to place (good job with that guys) but my thighs are the first place that cake goes to. Also flashing my undies has never really been my favorite thing.

So that's the back story. This is the dress/tunic in question:


Do excuse the blur and weird pose. Teddy and I were playing the giant squid game with the waist ties. (You know, where you wobble something fabric on your kids' head and go "OH NO. The Giant Squid got you! NOT THE GIANT SQUID!" Just me? really?)

Anyhoo, I'm wearing it with jeans because it was those vital 2 inches too short. BUT it did happen to have those (giant squid) waist ties.
SO I whipped the ties off. Unpicked the seams, ironed them flat, then added them to the bottom of the dress. Like so:


I'm pretty pleased with it. It is, of course, a compromise; I love the border pattern but adding the lenght above it was just WAY more complex. and I'm lazy. My real point here is that I'll be keeping an eye out for the "invisible" extra fabric in ties and straps to make stuff longer from now on.

To Mangle a Mockingbird

What a brill weekend. Really. Started Friday with a dash of inspiration and a spot of mad refashioning. (And got another-post's-worth of awesome from there).

The inspiration part came in the form of THIS tute from Grosgrain (Kathleen is all about the inspirational stuff; have you seen her sew-alongs? So awesome).
She calls her's The Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird Dress, and as I have a tiny fraction of her sewing skills mine is the To Mangle a Mockingbird dress.
I love the embroidery on her shirt but I don't happen to own anything half as cute. But I did happen to own this fellow:


It's... wrinkly. And WAY too big. I bought it from the Gap ages ago (two years maybe?) and it had this little 'lasticy waist thing going on. It was... "puffy" on me, and totally unflattering so I unpicked the 'lastic and wore it as is. A lot.
It's now too big but I love that ruffle so I planned on doing SOMETHING to it.
I did this:

Kathleen's tute is really easy to follow (and holy cats is her baby ever the sweetiest!)
However, I didn't do a circle skirt like she suggested; mostly because I hadn't enough of the blue print left over from the Sundae Frock. In fact I had to use some piecing together and swearing to get the skirt out of what I had left.
I also put my zipper in at the side rather than the back. (I always do that, even if it means hacking the pattern a bit. I just prefer side zips).
This would have gone together about a squillion times more easily if I had a dress form. I think maybe it's time to try making another one. yeesh. scary.
Anyway, here it is as I'm wearing it today. I'm pretty happy with it.


I shared over at Melissa's place. (And have you seen what those clever girls are sewing up next month? Eeep! Upciting!)

The Swimwear Tute (that might make you dumber)

Ok before we start out I should say that I have NO expertise here. I've made a grand total of three wearable swimsuits in my entire life. And this "method" consists entirely of my own hacking and would probably send ACTUAL swimwear designers into paroxysms of horror. In fact there's a good chance that this tutorial is going to make you a worse seamstress. Or maybe dumber? Or possibly cause giant asteroids to crash into the earth?
So, fair warning. And if you want some info on making swimwear that will actually make you smarter then check out this site.

AND onward!

The first thing I did was score my fabric.
I used a Nylon/Spandex (Lycra) mix with 4 way stretch. My closest fabric shop (Farbicland at Bloor) carries solid colours of it all the time and occasionally gets ends of SUPER cute prints in too. There's some good info HERE on just what is up with swimwear fabric.
I also use a lining fabric, the best description I could get out of the scary Fabricland ladies was

*YAWN*. "A swimwear lining. For lining swimwear. No." *eye roll* "That IS what it's called. SWIMWEAR LINING."

Pah. Turns out it's made of Nylon too and has two way stretch.
I buy 50 cms of the fabric (unless there's a direction to the print, then I buy a meter) and a meter of lining fabric. I also buy 3 or so meters of pre-cut lycra binding. But it turns out that it's cheaper to cut your own and super easy too. You're also going to need a ball point or knit needle for your sewing machine.


Once I'd gotten my goodies together I needed a pattern. The first suit I made I just eyeballed a pattern based on my current suit. There is some info about making a pattern from an existing item HERE . This method took a bunch of trying on and hacking down.
For the second suit I took apart a swimsuit that fit fairly well but had that weird see-through bum thing. and voila. a muslin:



Then I laid the bits out on the fabric and pinned. I wanted a the neckline a bit higher and the bum and bit more covery so I marked that out.

Once all the pieces were cut out I made duplicates in the lining fabric. The lining I use has a two way stretch and I like to have the stretch go from side to side as opposed to up and down.

You don't HAVE to line the back of your suit. I do anyway though. This time I cut out the lining a bit smaller than the body of the suit. Which, it turns out, is not a super great idea.

Then it was time to do some piecing together. This is the stitch I used for sewing everything
(both piecing together and sewing on the binding) it's a small zigzag.

The most complex part is the back; and really, it not complex at all, you just sew the two bottom pieces separately (lining and fabric), then place them wrong sides together and sew on the crossy back thing. Easy.

Next I sammiched all the layers together.. The sammich goes lining- fabric- (good sides together) -fabric- lining.
Then it gets sewn together at the sides, crotch (heh the word crotch makes me giggle) and top straps. I used the same zigzag as before and was careful to include all the layers.


Then I flipped it right side out. And you guys! It kind of looks like a swimsuit! Exciting!

Except for the gappy bum issue; that needs to be fixed for sure. And that's where the binding comes in. For this suit I made a self binding. On account of the pre-made binding colours all looked terrible with this print.
I folded the width of the fabric in half. Folded it again. Then snipped 1.5 inch strips.

=

Then it was time to bind the exposed edges and fix the gappy bum problem all in one go.
This is what I do with the binding, fold it over like this:

Then encase all the layers like this:

Then sew it down with my zigzag stitch.
I don't worry about the raw edge, it doesn't fray and I chop it away once the binding is in place anyway. The tricky bit about binding the legs is that you have to pull the binding taunt and sew at the same time, making sure to catch up all the layers. Pulling the binding taunt should give this effect:


(Don't worry it doesn't look like a diaper cover when it's ON!)
And you only really want this for the back of your suit, not the front; so you give the binding some slack for the front.
When I get to the end I tuck the raw bit under and backstitch.
I repeat the binding process on the armholes, neckline and back hole bit and because there's no need to pull the binding tight I just pin it on and whip around. Which you can actually see better in this picture:
Once the binding is on I trim it close to the stitching. Like this:

And that's it. Gots myself a swimsuit. Of course you might NEED ruffles (really, who doesn't?) and to add those you just ruffle up a bit of you binding (or fabric) and sew it on with the same zigzig stich. I do this step before I even piece the suit together. And I only sew the ruffles onto the actual fabric, not the lining.
If you've read this far, (good job with that, this was a LONG post) then here comes the big reveal.
And I'm cringing RIGHT NOW. But here we go. Me in a swimsuit. On the internets, which is practically like PUBLIC. yeesh. OK. Just getting it over with. Look away now if you're easily offended.


See what I did with the ruffle there? and the neglecting to brush my hair?




Oh hey, and I shared here:

And here too: