Formal Dress To Pin-Up Shirt!

My mom came over with two huge bags of clothes she didn't want anymore. Thanks to her I have so much stuff to refashion! I decided to start with this black Cache size 8 polyester and spandex dress. It's too big for me but the material is great (in other words it's much easier to work with than silk!) Here is a crappy before pic. I promise to get better before pictures soon. I currently have my iPhone and bad lighting working against me.

You get the head-less Lolo pic today because my hair is just NO.

I used a white material pencil to mark where I wanted to cut the dress off.

Chalk works so much better!

Then I folded the dress in half so I could cut the hem evenly on both sides. I used my pinking shears to prevent fraying.

SNIP!

Usually this is where I get nervous but not this time!

So I realized after I cut the dress in half that it has a zipper in the back. OOOPS! No problem though- I simply folded the edge over and hand sewed the hem where the zipper was so that it couldn't come unzipped all the way and fall apart.

Did I mention Im not that great at hand sewing either?

Next I took it in about an inch on each side.

 After that was done I folded the hem over, pinned it and sewed it up!

It was a fairly easy refashion and pretty fast too! Here is what I have in the end:

My husband cut my head off in this one!

I Have Joined A Refashion Co-op!

Im excited to report that although I just started refashioning I have joined a refashion co-op blog! Im excited to have another venue to display the items I have repurposed. It will also be an inspiration to keep me refashioning. I will be posting there at least once a month and probably more! You can check it out for yourselves here: Refashion Co-op!

Thanks Refashion Co-op for adding me to your team!

Here is my first post there:

First Co-op Post!

Balsamic Rosemary Pork Chops

This recipe is fast and easy. We don't eat pork in our house almost ever. In fact this will be the second time. So I needed a recipe that was delicious yet super easy to make because I'm not super experienced in cooking pork in any way.

This was a take-the-pic-fast-before-my-toddler-ruins-it picture.

You need:
pork chops of course- I used two but you can use up to six
1 tsp chopped up fresh, or 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp coconut or olive oil
2 pressed garlic cloves
1 can of chicken broth
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
skillet pan

On medium heat melt butter, oil, salt, pepper and sauté the garlic garlic about 1 minute. Add the pork chops and cook 4 minutes on each side until golden. Remove the chops.
Add broth and vinegar and stir. Cook until liquid is reduced by half. Add pork chops and cook for 5 minutes or until done.

Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and enjoy!

Just Dye It!

I dyed about 5 pieces of clothes today hoping to save or update some outdated pieces. Only one turned out. And it's not a total winner. But when refashioning I am learning you can't save them all!

I didn't get a before image because I wasn't expecting this child's dress to be the winner out of the 5 pieces. In fact I almost didn't even throw it in the dye bath. It's my daughters dress and has two small stains on the front. It was also a less than awesome tan and pink. I had tried many times to remove the stains with no luck. I figured why not try this one last thing. So in the washer it went! I used Rit navy blue and black dye mixed together.

This is the result- a sort of blue- grey. The stains are still there but barely noticeable and since my kid is going to re-stain it anyway I figure I will try to get a couple more wears out of it.

There is one other item I will post about later. It requires more than just the dye and I am hoping to still save it! 

Baked Cheesy Chicken

I was looking for a new way to make chicken tonight. I had some chicken breasts to use up and I was tired of BBQ, show cooker pulled, soup, salsa baked and any other way I often make chicken breasts. So here is the recipe I came up with from looking at several online recipes. I kinda combined them together to get this:

-preheat oven to 350 and cover a baking dish in 1/4 cup of butter

-get out 3 bowls

-in bowl 1 combine 1/2 cup of flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder

-in bowl 2 mix together 1 egg and 1 tbs of milk

-in bowl three mix together 1 cup of shredded Mexican blend Tillamook cheese, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 tbs italian seasoning

-cut 1 to 3 chicken breasts in half

-dip them in the flour bowl, then dip them in the egg bowl and then dip them in the cheese and bread bowl and get them good and covered- then place them in the baking dish

-drizzle 2 tbs of butter over the top of them

-bake them for 30 minutes

-make sure they are thoroughly cooked if you have really large breast pieces before you eat them- I just cut into a thick part and check to see they are cooked all the way through

Here is a before image:

I will be serving these with coconut oil and garlic wilted spinach as a side. 

Here is how they look after being baked:

These are delicious! Total comfort food! 

If you are hesitant because of all the butter, cheese and bread you can probably still make a pretty yummy dish by using something like coconut oil instead of butter. Im sure you can substitute the bread with something healthier as well. I will have to think what that might be!

Small DIY Window Valances

We badly needed some window dressings for the windows by the front door for privacy. I decided to do another DIY window valance. These ones were going to be a little harder to pull off because they needed a long strip of fabric to cover the window in addition to the valance. 

I am totally going to move the lavender owl wreath- it no longer works there!

 I started off by measuring my windows and cutting the fabric out of two yards of fabric after measuring them out and marking them with a fabric pencil. I don't have a board on which to lay fabric and measure it so mine are a tad bit off. Since I have enough left over fabric I am probably going to redo the long pieces of fabric at some point. Because of that I didn't do anything to the edges of my fabric, but I don't think they will fray just hanging there.

Couldn't get the whole thing in the picture frame...

I then cut out two pieces of insulation board I had left over. I made sure it was a bit bigger than my windows were wide.

 Next I cut out two more pieces of fabric that I would then wrap over the edges of my insulation board pieces. I used a hot glue gun to glue the edges of the fabric down.

I left one of the top edges exposed to I could place the hanging tabs there like so:

 Before I hung the valances I used a couple of thumb tacs to pin the long pieces of fabric to the inside top of my window pane. I forgot to get an image of this, sorry! Then I pressed the valances into place just slightly above the window, being careful that they were straight and even. It was a fairly simple project not considering my long strips of fabric are slightly un-straight!

Items needed:
fabric
foam board or something similar
glue gun
measuring tape
scissors
fabric pencil to mark your measurements
thumb tacs if you chose to hang your curtain strips that way
damage free hanging tabs

Make Up Brush Holder

I don't have any before images for this but its pretty straight forward. I needed something to hold some of my make up brushes in a nice and tidy fashion. So I did this:

What you need:

A small fish bowl from Dollar Tree
Pebble stones or something similar from Dollar Tree (I used the pebbles and some small plastic diamonds from Joanns Fabric store)

Thats it. Just pour the pebbles in the bowl and arrange your brushes inside. Cute and handy!

My First Refashion- From Large Shirt To Small Dress

So I recently discovered this awesome blog called Refashionista. I spent a couple weeks reading all the back entries at night after my kid went to sleep. I would stay up till all hours of the night reading because it was so addicting. I love all the before/after pics of the clothes she has refashioned.
I was inspired to pull out my sewing machine and finally put it to use. It had been collecting dust! I have a collection of clothing items to refashion and I decided to start with this Banana Republic 100% silk royal blue shirt in size large.

As you can see its the perfect length for a dress but the long sleeves are a no for me and the sash at the neck is too stuffy for my taste. Its also a little baggy. It buttons all the way down to the center so luckily I was able to take it in on the sides and still get in and out of it.

So thats what I started with- I put it on inside out and put a couple pins in. Luckily my dress form arrives tomorrow! I took it off and finished pinning the sides like this:

I only took in the top half because I wanted the skirt to have plenty of room. Im not a good sewer so you will have to excuse that my seams are a bit messy. I will get better I promise!

Also- ignore that messy playroom floor please. With 4 dogs and a toddler its tough to keep up on cracker crumbs and sand tracked in from the sand box!

Normally I would cut off the extra fabric but since its silk and there isn't much of it I left it. I don't want it to fray.

Next the sash, the sash loops at the neck and the sleeves had to go. CHOP!

I folded the edges of the sleeves in twice so it won't fray and sewed those up.

In the middle of all this I somehow misplaced the sash which will now serve as the belt- so for the after photo I had to substitute a black sash from another dress. But you get the idea!

And thats it! This was a pretty simple refashion. Good thing too since it was my first refashion!

DIY Window Valance

I badly needed some window valances in my kitchen. The top of the blinds are a little broken and crooked and just look bad. We rent so Im not going to spend the money to replace them. I had some left over insulation board from that time I made a DIY headboard for the bed which you can check out here. I used that and some material I got at the fabric store on sale to make the two valances I needed.

What you need:
insulation board or foam board (which is way cheaper and you can glue layers together to make it as thick as you like)
fabric
hot glue gun
tape measure
pencil or pen
no-damage velcro picture hanging tabs
exacto knife

First thing I did was measure my windows and cut my insulation board to the proper size which was just a tad bit bigger than the length of the window. Then I cut my fabric to a size that was bigger than my board pieces so that it could be wrapped around the board.

I lay the board down flat on top of the fabric. Then I wrapped each side over the board. Before I glued the edges down I cut a piece out of the fabric at each end on one side. This is where I would later stick the hanging tabs on. I then glued the edges down.

After gluing the edges down I folded the ends over and glued those down too. Mine is a little messy but no one will see the back.

It looked like this when I was done gluing:

Now I was ready to put the hanging tabs on. I used these:

I put one on each end of each of my boards where I had cut out the material and left a space. Before I put them on I glued on some pieces of foam board to make a small space between my valance and the wall when they are hung up.

Then the hard part! Hanging them up straight and even! I just measured it out and made tiny marks on the wall so I would know where to place each board.

Easy Christmas Craft Cookie Plate

I know I am about a week late posting this. This was super easy and quick to make. These are not real ginger bread cookies obviously but I needed something for the picture so...

What you need:
A plate with a christmas design (or not) (I got this at Dollar Tree)
A candle stick holder from Dollar Tree
White spray paint
E6000 glue

Spray paint the candle stick holder white and allow it a day to dry. After its done drying turn the plate upside down and glue the top of the candle stick the the center of the bottom of the plate. I allowed that a day to dry as well. Then I placed the plate face down on some cardboard outside and spray painted the bottom of the plate white. Yes it is already white but not the same white as the painted candle stick holder and I really wanted it to match exactly! I allowed a day for that to dry and that was it! All done. Do not paint the surface of your plate if you plan to place any food on it. I don't have any pictures of it in the process but this is pretty easy to do!

DIY Board Game for $2!

I love board games. Give me an evening with some beer or wine next to the cozy fire with some games and I am happy! My husband loves the game Go and Pente and so we decided to create our own board. It was super easy. We grabbed a piece of wood from the garage that was a perfect size to create a 19x19 intersectioned game board and made the straight lines using a pencil and a ruler. I got the stones at the Dollar Tree for $2. We use the green stones and the blue stones. Right now the board is just wood with the penciled lines but soon I will paint it and make it look prettier. I will post more pics when I do!

Coconut Oil and Garlic Pan Wilted Spinach

One of my favorite ways to cook spinach is super easy. Melt half a tablespoon of coconut oil in a frying pan with one minced garlic clove and then throw in the fresh spinach. Cook on medium heat until the spinach is just wilted. YUM.