I looked and looked for cotton yarn from every thrifty means available to me and finally caved and bought some from a craft store. Now, all I see is cotton! I got a nice sweater that’s in the unravel pile and the above lovelies for a buck each at a garage sale. I may have gotten a little out of control and bought a pink and purple, too. Oh, well. You can never have too much dishcloth yarn, right?
I could have posted this last Thursday, when I actually found it, but that would have ruined my Father’s Day surprise. There are very few surprises around our house where gifts are concerned, so here it is a week late.
A few weeks ago my husband was looking for some shoe polish and I told him to check the pink wicker basket in the linen closet. Yeah, I know. A pink wicker basket doesn’t seem appropriate for black, brown and cordovan polish, wooden brushes and buffing rags. Then last week, while I was wandering around a church sale not really looking for anything in particular I saw this:
Now that’s proper shoe supply storage! I checked it over briefly. It looked ok from the outside. The inside appeared to be filled with old polish tins. I figured I’d throw them out and clean it up later. When I got home and had a closer look, guess what I found!
Not only was everything there, but it worked! I was pretty excited. I think for once I actually surprised my husband and he seems to really like it. Now the question is: how well does it work?
church sales: This year church sales have been mostly a bust for me. Usually they are filled with garage sale leftovers. I don’t know if people are holding on to things longer or they are selling more at their sales. I still go to them because they’re inside and it’s much easier to keep an eye on my daughter while I look around. Plus, there’s always such a wide assortment of things that get donated. You never know what you’ll find!
I love going to garage sales. Having them is another story. Every May my neighborhood has garage sale weekend. My first one was very organized: everything was tagged, I had tables, there were signs. I spent all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday sitting in my least favorite room of the house. It was exhausting. I swore I’d never have another one.
Then the 2010 Spring Cleaning began. I found a lot of big items that I wanted to get out of the house. Big, heavy items that weren’t quite big and heavy enough to ask the Mission truck to come pick them up, but too big and heavy for me to pile in my car and make a few trips to donate. When I realized that the neighborhood sales were this weekend, I decided to put them out and beg people to take them away try to sell them.
Earlier in the week I had taken a lot of my daughter’s clothes and toys up to Once Upon a Child. This place is awesome. You drop off your bins of stuff, come back a few hours later and pick up a check. So I really didn’t have a lot to put out. My goal was to close shop once all of the big, heavy stuff was gone. If I sold any kid stuff in the process, it was icing on the cake.
Not much was tagged. My biggest signs were, “Make me and offer” and “Free.” I’m happy to report that I met my goal and closed the garage door after lunch on Friday (with a few hours to spare for my favorite church sale, which was this weekend, too).
The weirdest thing: I made almost the same amount of money with my Once Upon a Child visit and loosey-goosey garage sale as I made with the long, tiring and involved garage sale. Plus, I had A LOT LESS left over. Is this a recipe for success? Maybe I’ll test it out next year and see!
the string: Yes, it’s kind of weird, but I had to block off my garage. People kept wandering in and looking for stuff on sale. I had to tell them, really, what’s in the driveway is all. Our lawn mower and my daughter’s bike are not for sale!
Did you have a Dressy Bessy (or Dapper Dan?) when you were little? I did and I loved her! My daughter is learning to button/snap/tie and I really wanted to get her one. However, the dolls from the last few decades look very different than the one I had. This one isn’t so bad. I don’t even recognize this one!
Here is the Dressy Bessy I had. I’ve been searching on ebay for the past few months and these girls are hard to come by in nice condition. (New in the box went for $84!) Then I started to see dolls like the one above. She looks like the doll I remember, but doesn’t have the vinyl shoes and vest. I figured I could live without them if I could get something similar and clean.
I was so happy to win her! I’m also happy that my daughter likes her, although she’s not a fan of the buttons and snaps. I guess she’s officially a member of the Velcro generation. I’m going to keep working on her, though. Sooner or later she’s got to learn how to button/snap her own pants!
Do you have a favorite doll or toy from your past that you really wanted for your kids? When you gave it to them, they like it as much as you did?
I can’t believe it took so long for me to write about my daughter’s new quilt. I think it’s because I had a hard time getting a nice picture of it. Usually it’s covered in stuffed animals and books. I just recently took this pic while she was in school.
I’m not exactly sure when I found this, but it was still cold out. I remember having a conversation with my husband about our daughter’s new bed needing a comforter. I had looked for one that week, but nothing had seemed quite right. Once you eliminated licensed characters, it was slim pickings.
I also remember sharing this story with my friend. Less than two hours later we had discovered this brand new, handmade quilt. The lady said there’s a group of women in a Small Nebraska Town (I can’t remember the name) who make quilts and donate them to the store. Isn’t it beautiful?
thrifting: Sometimes all you have to do let the universe — and a friend with a good eye — know what you need. The rest takes care of itself.
After yesterday’s trade, I got to thinking about my stash. My projects are usually small: hats, scarves, fingerless gloves. There’s no way I’ll use an entire sweater’s worth of wool or cotton for anything. So, I’ve decided to keep some and share some. First up is the beautiful cream and gray wool I’ve been working my way through. It looks so lovely after I took the kinks out. I’ve got a skein of 220 yards in my shop. You’ll find more pictures and details there, too.
My daughter doesn’t really like wearing hats, unless it’s her Nebraska Husker hat. I bought this little bucket hat at Neat Repeatz, long before it would ever fit her. I just fell in love with the denim and unfinished edges. It finally fits, but I knew I’d have to come up with something special to get her to wear it.
I asked her if she’d like me to crochet a flower for it. Yes! What colors would she like? Red and white! (Husker colors, of course.) Would she like to pick out the flower pattern? Yes! Yes!
I whipped this up Sunday morning and she wore it to the zoo on Monday. I’d say she had it on about 95% of the time — a definite success!
wardrobe refashion, stash and pattern: Cotton yarn from my stash, left over from knitting baby bibs. Pattern from Crochet Adorned, which I received via Swaptree.com.
So, what was I doing Friday evening instead of writing a blog post? Sewing! Unfortunately, I didn’t finish until it was too dark to take pictures. But to make up for it, I’ve got a before pic for this one!
Another long skirt — this one I originally bought to use for tote bags. That was before I started refashioning. But there were a few nit picky things that bugged me about it, so I had to weigh my options.
Pros
Cons
I figured I could fix two out of three and live with the wide elastic, so out came the scissors! First I cut about 10 inches off the bottom and finished it with a
This skirt comes with a bonus matching top. I plan on using the leftover fabric from the skirt to make this a little longer. I think it might also need some shaping. Any other suggestions?
thrifted: Both of these were garage sale finds. I think it’s kind of funny that I bought them to make totes and now I’m going to wear them!
In my creative space today (and tomorrow and the next day…) are granny squares. I had no idea how relaxing these were until I stopped making them. Then I felt a hole, like something was missing, and I realized it was clusters of double crochet!
I’m using my recycled sweater yarn for this one simply because it’s so soft and nice to work with. Whenever I start to feel stressed, I take a deep breath and grab a square.
What’s in your creative space today? Why don’t you pop on over to Kirsty’s blog and join the fun!
The other day I saw a woman wearing a cotton scarf that was layered and unfinished in the most beautiful way. She looked like she just walked off a catalog shoot. I’ve never been able to pull off that “I just threw it on and it looks perfectly ruffled” look, so I decided to design one that made it easy.
Step 1
Cut a large triangle of fabric on the bias. I chose a lightweight cotton, but anything with a nice drape would work. (Flannel would be nice for Fall.) My piece measured 80 inches across the base and 32 inches high. Run it through the washer and dryer to fray the edges.
Step 2
Fold the ruffles. I figured a diagram would be easiest to understand. I folded mine 8 times, but you don’t need to see that many steps to get the idea.
Step 3
Stitch the ruffles in place. I didn’t back tack and pulled on the threads to create a little gather before I tied them off.
That’s it! You can wear it with the ruffles hanging down or wrap it around a few times with the ruffles facing out for that perfectly unfinished look.
