DIY – Page 8

I was bit by the DIY/craft bug a couple of years ago. It started out with an obsession with thrift stores and vintage pieces, then progressed to refurbishing vintage furniture, then upcycling (using an existing item in a whole new way, or turning one item into another), and finally to sewing items from scratch. The following project was my first attempt (October 2010) at incorporating the various crafting elements.

I got the drop cloth in the paint section and stencils and acrylic craft paint in the craft section of Walmart.

A true upcycle project, I used the stuffing from some old throw pillows.

(This chair was a $15 Goodwill find. I just reupholstered the seat.)

(Antique chair $5, Goodwill)

This is an easy peasy DIY project, but if you are interested in your own stenciled throw pillow and aren’t in the mood to DIY, you can always turn to me! I promise my sewing has gotten A LOT better since 2010! 😉

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Happy Sunday! Last week I went fabric shopping for the first time in months. I came across this gorgeous fabric by Alexander Henry:

Zikat

I was lucky enough to find it NOT on sale. (Why it is lucky to find something at regular price? Fabric stores tend to mark their items at around 30% off, and then publish coupons for 40% or 50% off that you can only use on regular priced items. For example, it’s currently on sale at Joann for $10.99/yd (less than 16% off), but with my 40% off coupon, I was able to snag it at $7.79/yd.)

When I got home, I knew I wanted to make this print into a maxi skirt (for me!) but then I remembered that I had only bought 1.25 yards of fabric of each of the 6 prints I had picked out. (When I spend forever and a day waiting at the cutting counter, I tend to do the math in my head and get scared to blow my entire budget just on fabrics, so sometimes I don’t buy enough, especially on designer prints. Blah!)

I still attempted to make myself a maxi skirt, but my hips protested. They insisted that I needed at least another ~~half~~ quarter yard to make it a maxi skirt and not an elongated pencil skirt!

No problem! I cut off a few inches of elastic at the waistband and trimmed some inches off of the length, and voila! A perfect “Zikat” maxi skirt for my mini-me in a cast.

Not only does she rock this look out, she balances extremely well on one foot so that mommy can get a good pic!

She wanted the same Katniss braid I had done for her when we saw The Hunger Games a couple of weeks ago. Love it!

And, here we are together. (Excuse the grip I had on her arm, her leg was getting tired from standing so long and she thought she might fall!) Of course, I had on ZERO accessories. Isn’t there a saying about the cobbler’s son going barefoot? In my case the cobbler is barefoot.

So what do you think about my daughter’s $8 fashion statement?? Tell me in the comments!

Click here to see where this and my other posts are linked!