What I'm Wearin': Fall Stuff; No Pumpkins or Anything

Here are some pictures of some outfits I thought were fun. That's about it. After viewing them, I recolored my hair with a quickness. Sorry they're indoors with no falling leaves, pumpkins, and/or pumpkin spice lattes to imply it's Fall-ness.

Sweater: Goodwill $4.99, skirt: Family Outfitters $2.00, tights: Express found at Marshalls $2.99, shoes: I've had them so many years that I no longer remember acquiring them.

I love my teal colored tights. I also like the teal/gray color combo.Bows are also pretty fun to wear.

Sweater: Goodwill $4.99, dress: Savers $5.99, necklace: Savers $2.99

 

The black maryjane shoes are vintage '90s (lol, I know that's not vintage, but people are wearing style from this era as if it was.) I don't remember buying them, but I have a feeling they were secondhand. I remember wearing them to stand at ringside during a hardcore (weapons used) wrestling match many years ago, like 2005. I got some thumbtacks stuck in the bottom of the soles and left them there, where they remain to this day.

I Bet I Can Wear this Skull Shirt to Work Tomorrow

I made this shirt, but I made it fast, right before bedtime. So, I neglected to take pictures of the process. However, it's mind-numbingly simple, I think anyone who likes the idea can follow without a step by step pic tutorial.

Basically, I cut little sparkly skulls off of one shirt and attached them to another.

I got that black shirt at Savers, probably. It was recent, but I honestly don't remember. It's a size large, too, how did I even end up with it? I really like the drape of it, and how it covers my butt when I want to wear leggings (the cool kind with the pockets.) Anyway, after a couple wears, I was devastated to find a little hole in the front.
I had this unflattering, polyester top that I bought while I was still involved with wrestling and my colors were black and gold. I don't think I ever wore it, but before getting rid of it, I scavenged the three sparkly skulls. I just cut them out of the shirt.
I'm gonna call this project, "easy-ass 'appliques' shirt" and applique is quoted to imply that you can't really call this technique that. Step 1: cut design or designs out of a shirt, sheet, curtain, or whatever you got.
Step 2: arrange your little cut outs on your shirt in a way you'd think they will look good and pin them in place.
Step 3: Try it on before permanently attaching to see where the designs end up. I almost made skull pasties, it's a good thing I tested the shirt first.
Step 4: Make sure the shirt is laid on a hard surface and place something like freezer paper or wax paper in between the layers.
Step 5: I chose not to use the iron-on method because of the hard sparkle things. I didn't think it would work. So, I used a paint brush to apply fabric glue to back of the cut outs before pressing them in place.
I let them dry and that was about it.
I love the outfit because it's allegedly "badass." The pants are those leggings by Hue that come packaged like tights but are pretty thick like real pants. My parents bought them for me for Christmas and they are actually pretty flattering for a fat-bottomed girl like me. 
By they way, this was one of those days, when my pics were just coming out lousy and I was pretty "meh" on fixing that. Also, my hair was in desperate need of a color touch up (done). So, here, I saved a few with retouching.

look how annoyed I look

But wait, there's more. See that necklace? I made that, too. I had that black chain with unbreakable links that I didn't know what to do with. I folded it in half and attached it at the top and bottom with jump rings.
For the bow, I cut two pieces of ribbon and for each, I folded the sides over so that the ends met in the middle and glued them. Then I took my two pieces and crossed them over each other, gluing them together. I cut a smaller third piece of ribbon and folded it over the center of crossed ribbons and glued that in place, leaving some room in the back to fit it over the chain. I made little holes in the ribbon with a pin and used that hole to attach jump rings to hold them in place on the chain.
Have an easy-ass DIY Halloween!

Cross Post? $.50 Dress Refashion

I just joined another blog. It's called Refashion Co-op, and I guess you just ask to join and they let you! Here's my first post over there: Teacher's Dress into...Still a Teacher's Dress

I guess that's not really a teaser, I just gave away the ending. Sorry for the spoiler.

Dress to Skirt Refashion (Not very Fall-like)

I really, really like dresses. I just think they're great. So, I'm always disappointed when I check out refashions on others' blogs and see a dress turn into something other than a dress. But, that's what I did here and I'm pretty happy about it.

I bought this summer dress with some sort of lilac-ish flower print in early fall at the Goodwill for $4.99. I looked at the shirred elastic waist and thought it would make a nice skirt, then thought it should stay a nice dress.

As you can see, it's actually not all that flattering as a dress, I tend to avoid empire waists. So, I carefully used the seem ripper--lol, who am I kidding, I grabbed my scissors and started cutting.

I saved those triangle pieces, in case I want to turn them into pockets. Unlikely. I didn't take pictures of the process, because sometimes, I forget things. Basically, I took the elastic shirred center of the dress, which is now the waistline of the skirt and and folded it over, so that the raw edge wasn't sticking out. I hand stitched a few places around the front of the skirt.
Then, I got bored with that, because who wants to stitch by hand? I wasn't about to wait for a sewing machine with elastic threaded, either. For the back, I used about four safety pins to keep the fold over in place. Whatever, I was planning on wearing a belt with it anyway. Then I was so pleased, that I took some pictures. A lot.

 

 Skirt: Goodwill $4.99, top: Savers $2.99, belt: Savers $2.99, necklace: some thrift store, don't remember,

boots: Marshalls $39.99

Arrow Sign DIY

I love old signs, and I always think they look cool when hung up as wall art. I found this "antiques" sign in the wood section of Goodwill a while back. It was $1, I believe.

I liked that it was arrow shaped, and I liked the shadow font, but it struck me as kinda cheesy. Like a country cottage look with stuff made to look "primitive."
First, I slapped some light minty green paint on it. Then I had to decide what word I wanted to replace "antiques" with. Then I had to decide which way the arrow should point (which would indicate which way my letters would face.) I chose to be classy and make an arrow pointing to my bar cart. Of course, my bar cart is rarely fully stocked, so rather than "bar," I just went with "liquor," because it seemed more accurate and would look cuter.

Here's what I used to revamp the sign:

craft paint, stencils, a paint marker, some little gem stickers, and a glue gun to better secure the stickers. The little gems I used are actually more gold colored, they look reddish in the picture.
I don't think anyone actually needs a tutorial, I'm assuming that like most of my DIY projects, one can just look at it and keep up. So, here's the finished product:

Not bad, I guess.

Thrift Hoard: Cute, Not Necessarily Useful

Very few of the items I bring home are actually necessary, but...I don't know where I was going with that. Here are my things!

This adorable owl clock with its faux wood and half done paint job on the leaves. I just couldn't pass it up, maybe I can sell it some day. Until that day; welcome to my kitchen, owl mom and baby. (I used an "effect" to edit this photo, for some reason.)

 Owl clock- $3.99 from Savers. Not sure if it works, I don't have any spare D batteries around.

 String art! (Yes, I have too much light in this picture, my bad) I have never purchased string art, but this old car on black felt is in pretty good condition and cost $1.50! At first, I didn't notice that stray nail, now staring me in the face.

What the hell was attached to that nail?

This is...some sort of mushroom sculpture...ceramic mushrooms on wire, stuck in a cement slab or something. $1, Goodwill? OK. Maybe I should paint them red?

Unusual, Adorable, Easy, One Piece Outfit Refashion

I have a strange affinity for one piece articles of clothing. Dresses make sense, but the pants+shirt as a single unit type items can come off as a little unusual. I plan to do a post with pictures of all my items like this. They go by many names: jumpsuit, romper, jumper, catsuit...uh, onesie.
Anyway, I did a quick Goodwill trip last week and I grabbed this vintage (probably late 80s, but that's old) jumpsuit for $4.99.

It was all loose-fitting at the top, and had to be worn with a little tube top underneath. The pants are freakin' huge. They look like a dress, but they're totally pants. I was told that they are called "palazzo" pants. I can't explain, but I really liked them. Not as much as this lady liked hers, though:

I don't do weird stuff either

Of course, as is, that jumpsuit wouldn't do. By the way, that woman keeps calling hers a pantsuit. Pantsuits are what Hilary Clinton wears, that's not a pantsuit. So, using my method of hastily making cuts and pinning together, I got started.

The top was too long, and the waist kinda low, so I just made a cut in the middle of each shoulder.

Then I put it back on and pinned it the way I thought it worked best, before sewing it up. Of course, I hand sewed it messily, so I sewed a ribbon over that.