Give Clothes a New Life

 
We're starting the countdown to the end of school at our house.  We even got a message yesterday that my youngest 4 get out a day earlier than planned. Yeah!  Now if your kids are like my kids, their clothes are starting to look like it's the end of the school year.  I don't think Maddie has one pair of jeans that don't have holes in them.  The boys do, only because they grew and needed new pants a couple months ago.  Many shirts are stained and my kids are starting to look like little rag-a-muffins. :)  So a little DIY clothing rescue is in order.

First up:
Seriously stained shirts, even my awesome Stain Pretreater couldn't get these really set-in stains out.  At my children's school, Friday is "wear red day" so a red shirt is an absolute must (they get a prize if they wear red.)  So these shirts had to be salvaged.

This was the best picture, after several, without Billy looking like a dork. lol  They do like each other. :)

Billy's shirt was a simple fix.  I used iron on vinyl, very simple.  It was Silhouette vinyl, however I cut it out with my Cricut.  Iron it on and I'm the coolest mom because he now has an "infected" shirt (a version of play on "Halo" that uses that symbol.)

For Chole's shirt, I did a reverse applique, my first time ever.  It was fun!  I found this great tutorial from Sweet Verbena.  The shirt had a few more stains that the applique didn't cover so I added a few circles of the same material just stitched on (they were small enough that I didn't use interfacing on them.)  I also decided to add a little more color by just dabbing on some fabric paint in the flower petals.

Finally, I turned a shirt of mine, that was now to short into a shirt for Natalie.  She doesn't like long-sleeved shirts, but 3/4 shirts are okay so I couldn't let this one go to waste.

First of all lay down the shirt to be altered, inside out.  Lay a shirt that fits on top of it.  Match shoulder seams and center it.  I use an old piece of soap - best tailor's chalk ever!, to carefully trace the edge of the top shirt.  Then just stitch up the new seam and turn right side out.  Since this was such a little adjustment and not a work of art, I just left the extra material because Natalie didn't care.  If it was a big adjustment, you could cut off the extra and serge or just zig-zag the edges.

Just a little more fitted and a little shape to it now.  Natalie liked it, yeah!

Here are a few more ideas I've shared for recycling and getting more use out of the clothes that you pay good money for:

Dress into Shirt

Shirts into Skirts

Painting and Felt Applique

Now to tackle the pile of pants I cleaned out of their drawers to turn them into shorts for the summer. :)  What's your favorite way to extend the life of clothes at your house?

Decorate My Room

Okay, I'm asking for your help, opinions, input, ideas, anything you can share with me to help me decorate my living room.

We recently sold our couch in our bonus room and moved our living room couch upstairs.  So we got to go shopping, yeah! I didn't think I was going to get to replace these couches for a long time.

This is the before:

Well, I have changed things a little since this time, but these are the old couches.

We bought this couch and love seat, I think, or at least they are very similar to these and they'll be here in a week or two:

source

So I'm going to do a little redecorating while we're at it.  This is where I need your help.  I'm not a decorator.  This is what I have to work around, oak floors, floor to ceiling oak bookshelves that are "for books not decorations" as per Bill's instructions, a black gloss piano, and probably no painting of the walls - our floor plan is very open and I think if I painted in there I would have to paint the entryway, hallway, maybe kitchen, but I might stencil a wall or two (I just won a Cutting Edge Stencil. Yeah!)

  So here's what it looks like now and a tour around the room:

So what would you do with this room?  That green cabinet is my music cabinet and I'm thinking of painting it white or cream with sort of a french country feel.  I'm debating between keeping things all neutral (rug/curtains) and then using throw pillows for color accents or using curtains, sort of like this:

in a slate blue (federal blue) kind of color and finding a bluish rug.  However, if I add the blue, can I use lime green or tangerine tango orange pillows for the summer and change them to something more subdued come fall and winter.  What about rugs, I'm terrible with rugs.  Look at the top picture, this is how I've had the rug placed, does this look okay?  Do I need it to bump it up under the furniture?  Does it need to be bigger?  Also should I flip it (or get a squarer rug) so the long side goes toward the bookshelf?  Can you see any other furniture placement?  I'm open to any and all suggestions, give me your best ideas, and give me some place to start with this room.  What would you do with this room?

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A Peek in My Family Room

I don't know about you, but I love looking at other people's homes.  I had so much fun the past couple of days peeking at other people's lives through their beautiful (and not so beautiful, actually, lol) homes. That's why we go to home shows, right?  I know not everyone I've seen walking through home after home are looking to buy. Okay, so maybe I'm a stalker, I'll admit I enjoy seeing how other people live.  Hopefully some of you are the same way.   Today I thought I'd give you a glimpse into my home and show you our family room.  Oh, and I'm keeping it real here, crooked pictures (I can't believe I didn't notice that before), messy desk, and everything. :)  And it's kind of hard to take pictures of this room.  While it's nice and bright with windows on 3 of 4 walls, every direction is shooting towards a window, so bare with me. 

As I mentioned here, we redecorated our family room about a year ago.  Here is the "before" picture:

This was a couple years ago at our Superbowl party with some friends, Bill's brother and aunt and uncle.

The redo was brought about because the couch had seen better days and Bill had FINALLY warmed up to the idea of color on the walls.  So the whole family went shopping for a new couch.  Imagine trying to make 8 people happy.  Well, I got out voted when they all fell in love with this couch.  While I liked it, I didn't love it.  I didn't really want a sectional again, thought the fabric was a little weird (it's kind of like terry cloth), and really wanted something more tailored.  But it had room for all 8 of us, Bill could definitely see himself falling asleep there, and it was a "non-snuggling" couch (Bill's term) - important now that Cheyenne can date.

I do like it more now. :)  It is very soft and great to relax in. As I said, Bill liked white walls.  When we built our house 10 years ago, he even wanted me to take a picture of the nice, white, bare walls before I hung anything up so he could always remember it.  He warmed up a little when he finally gave in and we painted our bedroom a beige color.  So to my utter surprise, he picked out this dark brown for the walls.  This was a very bold step.  When we finished painting, I was almost sick!  The walls looked purplish.  The next morning it wasn't much better.  I was ready to redo the whole thing, but Bill convinced me to wait a few more days.  I don't know if it was letting the paint cure more, getting used to the color, or having the couch delivered and more brown in the room, but it looked a whole lot better.  It's like the color of chocolate milk. Really!  Kind of makes me hungry sometimes.

This is the other side of the room, looking into the kitchen, complete with the vacuum still sitting out. Like I said, keeping it real.  At least that means Billy did his chores. :)

This is my favorite part of the room, my photo gallery.  I hadn't heard the term "photo gallery" when I did it and didn't know if I could really just have this across this great big wall.  I'm no decorator and have serious doubts when it comes to my decorating ability. lol  Plus, you can see a little bit in the before picture, I had a whole quilt hanging here plus all the kids' pictures - just a whole lot more stuff.  I wasn't so sure it looked "right" to be so plain, but I love it now.

Other end of the room.  Really dislike the desk, and the reason we have to have short curtains, but Bill's not too excited about a new desk.  This is sort of his desk so it has to meet all his requirements.  So still trying to convince him we need a new one.

I love this little desk/table, but it is also in need of a makeover.  I think I've decided what I'm going to do, now just waiting for the weather to warm up a little to get started.

And finally we've made it around the room.  That's the couch in the lower right corner, and the opening to the kitchen is just to the left.  You can also see the front door in the upper right corner, we have a very open floor plan, it's nice.  I love this spot, too.  I told the whole story about this spot here. 

So that's it, a little tour around our family room.  If you read this post here when I said my family would be laughing at how spot-on the description of "Classic Traditional" was for me, you can now see it, too.  Beige - replacing the navy and burgundy, a little boring, plenty of family pictures, yup, that's me.  So help me break out of my rut a little.  While I really enjoy my room, the end with the desk has never seemed right to me, too empty, but I don't know what else to do with it.  Do I have too many tables in here?  I would love to hear any suggestions or what you would do different in a room like this.  It's always nice to get a fresh perspective on things.

Upcycling a Dress into a Shirt

On Saturday morning, Bill wanted all the kids outside first thing to help dig up all the potatoes in our garden. (I was heading to the church for a fun-filled craft day, part of which I was teaching.)  I told the kids to put on their work clothes (i.e. not good school clothes), plus it was still a chilly morning. So Chloe comes down the stairs in her good capris, flip flops, and this super cute shirt, inside-out and backwards. She is 6, don't quite know what was going on with the shirt.  Anyway, as I was taking her back upstairs telling her EXACTLY what she should wear, I realized I never posted about her super cute shirt I made.  Did a little scan through the pictures and realized, yes, I took pictures for it and everything and never posted. So here it is, the transformation of a dress into a shirt.

 Before                                                                                                  After

Before - Chloe in her modeling pose, I guess.

This was one of Chloe's very favorite dresses, mine too, for that matter.  I was so sad as I realized it was too short to wear to church anymore.  I couldn't give it up.  It sat in her closet for a few weeks, then in my sewing pile for a few more weeks, just waiting for inspiration to strike.  Then it came as I was visiting Make it and Love it and came across this tutorial.  Perfect!!  Basically, you cut the dress off to the length you want (plus enough for a hem.)  Have your subject try on the shirt and mark where you want the waist.  Remember, as I found out the hard way, after your shirt is gathered with the elastic, it will ride up a little more so take that into consideration when marking the waist.  Then you cut a 1" strip of material from the leftover dress.  You're going to make a casing for the elastic with this strip.  Pin the strip onto where you marked the waist (on the inside of the shirt) and sew close to the edge, leaving a small 2" opening on the bottom.  Cut a piece of 1/2" elastic just a little bigger than your subjects waist, you want it to gather up, but not be tight. Pin a safety pin on one end of your elastic (great tip for threading elastic or anything else) and start feeding it through the opening.  Once it's all the way through, overlap the two ends and stitch on top of them. Work the elastic the rest of the way through and adjust all your gathers.  Have your little girl try it on and admire your crafty genius!  Then call all your friends and family and tell them how awesome you are. Oh, is that only me who does that?  It really is pretty darn simple again check out Make It and Love It if you need more detailed instructions with great pictures.  She also shows you how to make short sleeves out of long sleeves.

After - Yup, still striking a pose. 

Linking up With:
The DIY Showoff
Making the World Cuter
Sew Can Do
Sumos Sweet Stuff
Mad In Crafts
Be Colorful
Sew Chatty
Pinkapotamus
R They All Yours
Singing Three Little Birds
Bluebird Sews
Three Mango Seeds
Leafy Treetop Spot
Sweet Peas and Bumblebees
Tales from Bloggeritaville 
A Glimpse Inside 
Saved by Love 
Gluesticks 
Allie Makes 
Momnivores-Dilemma 
Yesterday on Tuesday 
Frugalicious Me 
Happy Hour Projects
The Creative Paige
Blissful and Domestic
The Crafty Nest
Finding Fabulous
Home is Where my Story Begins

This shirt was featured on:
Leafy Treetop Spot

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Last highlights of the room

So if you haven't been able to tell, we (Cheyenne, Natalie and I) had a lot of fun redecorating their room.  In case you missed it, you can see all we've done here, here, and here.  Last post in this series, easiest jewelry organization EVER, and a very cool trash redo.

What is the easiest jewelry organization ever you might ask? Well, here it is. A simple hanger.

We assessed what they needed, something separate, easy to get necklaces on and off, and something cute.  While walking through Walmart, Bam!, I saw these fuzzy covered hangers and thought those would work.  We tied a bow (with wire ribbon so it stays stiffer) and we were about done.  When we first made these, they didn't have quite as many necklaces and one sister was worried the other would use her hanger, so I made these to put on each.

I took a cardstock punch out letter I had in my scrapbook supplies, glued it onto some scrap chipboard (actually packaging from another product) and cut them out together.  I covered it all in Mod Podge and sprinkled some glitter on.  Decided it need move coverage, so did another couple of coats of Mod Podge and glitter and finished it off with a layer of Mod Podge.  Then tied it onto the hangers from the middle hook with some thread.  Easiest, cheapest, organization ever!

Finally a little trash into treasure redo. 
As a part of my sister and brother-in-laws' property management business, they clean out and secure foreclosed homes.  These homes occasionally still have "stuff" in them that no one bothered to take with them or didn't want anymore or whatever.  So a few months ago, my sister calls me and asks if I want a display rack for karate belts (they even left the belts!) they found in a house.  I told her to send me a picture, so this is a quick "before" picture from her phone.

I wasn't too sure, it's kind of ugly - notice the little writing/symbols in the middle.  But I told her sure, we'd take a look at it.  It really was pretty ugly in real life, too.  But I had just tested my hand at spray painting here and decided to give this a go, too.  Out came the high gloss black paint and after a few coats it was looking pretty good.  Of course I couldn't just leave it that way, I had to cutesify it so I added some vinyl. Just a little bit, nothing to girly for Natalie.  Then I gave it to her for her birthday.  She was excited to have a place for all her belts and bonus, Cheyenne agreed it was cool enough to go in their room.

She'll add her cool embroidered brown belt to this display when she gets her 2nd degree brown belt in Dec.

Well, that's it.  I hope you've enjoyed a little peek inside our home as I showcased our fun projects this summer.  Now that the kids are back in school, and we've about got our routines down, it's time to get a little more organized again.  So coming soon, some of my best organizing tips and tricks.

Partying with:
The Sasse Life
Domestically Speaking
Handy Man Crafty Woman
Type A Decorating
The Thrifty Home
Someday Crafts

New Skirts From Old Shirts

While surfing in blog land, one of my very favorite places to visit is Make it and Love it.  She is awesome!! Her tutorials are so easy to follow and very complete.  Anyway, I had found this tutorial a while ago and really wanted to try it out, especially since our little Chloe is showing a fondness for wearing skirts to school or to play in.  So fast forwards a few weeks later, and as I was bagging up another load to take to the DI, I came across the perfect shirts - two matching shirts of Cheyenne and Natalie's.  Perfect, if I messed it up, I wasn't out anything, anyway.  Then I remembered the GIANT stash of material my mother-in-law has, specifically knits,  and headed to her house to try and find something.  After some searching, I think she's saved every scrap of anything she's ever made, I found the perfect material for the turquoise shirt, but nothing for the pink one.  I did have to buy a little piece of pink knit; the total expense for two skirts, a couple bucks!  Now, I'm not a super seamstress, I'd barely call myself a sewer of any sort, but this was really easy.  It took me about 1 1/2 hours, and a good portion of that was reading my sewing machine manual and playing with different settings and stitches.  My skirt isn't near as full as the tutorial, but my shirts were only a child's size large to begin with; it worked, though. End result two CHEAP skirts, a proud momma, and two HAPPY girls. YEAH!

Parties I'm linking to:

Upcycling and Recycling

So I've just recently learned a new hip and cool word - upcycling.  Here's the definition:

• Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.
• The repurposing of a material into a product of higher quality. An example would be a purse made out of woven candy wrappers.

I'm not quite sure how this differs from recycling, but blogs that are way cooler than mine use this word all the time.  So here's my newest "upcycling" projects:

 This mirror, in all its lovely golden splendor, hung in my parents entry way for a long, long time.  Underneath it was an equally lovely, and matching gold shelf on which two ivory and ebony little elephants stood.  I asked my mom the other day if I could have the mirror.  She said yes and pulled the dusty thing out from under her bed (my sister had already taken the little shelf). So in the mode of upcycling, and because I get asked at least 6 times a day, usually more like 12, what's for dinner, I decided to try my hand at making a chalkboard out of a mirror to post our weekly menu on.  It actually was pretty easy and if anyone wants to make a chalkboard out of something, I have TONS of the chalkboard paint left. (Found out later, there are much smaller bottles in the craft section, instead of the paint section.)

Next is my other new love, painting on t-shirts using freezer paper as a stencil.  I've cut the freezer paper using my Cricut (or I also did one by just laying the freezer paper over a picture I printed out and cutting) and then iron it on the shirt.  Then paint away.  Maddie's shirt had a stain on it which I carefully covered with the butterfly.  Jon was very sad when his favorite shirt (which is a hand-me-down from Billy, and before that cousin, Chase) got a big snag and hole in it.  So I cut out the felt guitar and painted it and the shirt.  Now he has his favorite shirt back and he thinks it's cooler than ever!  I also painted a shirt for Cheyenne, Natalie, and me (covering up a hole I patched).  I even painted all of the kids Halloween shirts.  My kids are now becoming a little leery of telling me they have a stain because they know I'll whip out the paint and fix it right up, instead of just buying a new one.
What do you have sitting around your house just waiting to be upcycled?

Linked to:
Love Notes by Lauryn