Lace

Remember that one remaining find I wanted to share? Well here it is, this delicate wisp of a lace dress. Only, when I paid $8 for it at the Welfare League Thrift, it was anything but wispy…

In fact, matronly 80’s-puritan ankle-length formal gown (with a Golden Girls silhouette, as one flickr commenter just pointed out, hitting the nail on the head I think) would better describe what I found hanging on the rack. This just goes to show that a diamond in the rough may be hiding in the most unlikely of places, so always be on the lookout.

The dress was originally made up of two pieces. Step one of the world’s simplest DIY dress transformation (Andie in Pretty In Pink I am not) was to remove this under-piece, leaving the knee-length lace shell.

I’m hanging on to it though, as I have visions of turning that bottom section into a lace skirt, any thoughts on the easiest way to go about doing that are more than welcome.

I wasn’t feelin’ the shape of the tapered sleeves so with a few quick snips of the scissors, off they came and step two was complete. The bib collar hangs over the front and back and completely hides the seams that I cut along so I didn’t even need to be that careful.

If you look closely you can see a second flap of lace that hung down from the bib collar which I thought was a pretty detail and went back and forth about whether to remove it, but in the end…

I preferred the dress with a belt and the extra piece of lace hung low enough that it covered the belt, which looked weird, so off it came and my dress was complete, literally as quick and easy as 1, 2, 3 with no sewing involved!

I like the combination of lace and denim and the way my trusty lil' jacket can give any dress a more casual feel. For those of you who mentioned wanting to find a little cropped denim jacket of your own, mine is actually a thrifted XL GAP Kids jacket, so if you’re small enough, don’t forget to check the kid’s section!

Also, the white vintage full-slip that arrived in Andrea's giveaway package is absolutely perfect under this dress, what perfect timing! Speaking of which, I did indeed pick a winner yesterday for my own giveaway and *drumroll please* the winner (as chosen by the mysterious random number generator) is susan said so! Congrats Susan! I'll be doing some thrifting especially for you this week :)

Since purchasing the lace dress last weekend, it seems like lace is now everywhere, I guess it has been and I’m just now noticing it. I'll leave you with some beautiful lace-spiration to gaze upon, enjoy!















(sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8-10,11,12-14)

Meteor Shower

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Unfortunately, mine was cut short by an overwhelmed two-year-old who refused to wear her thrifted Winnie the Pooh costume and found adults in spooky attire just a little too much to bear (har-har). Ah well, there's always next year, and at least I was really pleased with how my costume turned out.

Talk about a versatile Halloween dress, there were so many different directions I could have gone with it. I'm sure I'll be wearing this dress in various incarnations for years to come. It was actually in the Christmas section of the crafts store though, where inspiration struck.

When I came across the glittery silver star tree toppers and then that shiny-sequined spray on the headpiece. Some wire, a black headband, silver pipe cleaners, and a few safety pins later... voila, I'm an astronomical phenomenon!

P.S. Just a quick thanks to my lovely readers for all the wonderful comments on my previous post! So many of you shared your own personal experiences with thrifting and why you love it and I've really been enjoying reading them, so thanks! You guys are awesome :)

My First Terrariums

I finished my first two terrariums with thrifted glass jars, a few succulents, and moss harvested from my own backyard. I'm so happy with how they turned out and definitely see more in my future :)

These curious little succulents came from The Home Depot of all places. I love the fuchsia and eggplant colors of the two on the left surrounded by the green moss. I gave this one to my friend Joey as a birthday gift.

I got the one on the right because it was particularly bizarre looking and I was interested to see what that bloom coming out of the center was going to look like, though I'm half expecting it to start singing "Feed Me Seymour" at any moment... I think I'll name her Audrey III ;)

Terrariums

Every once in a while I stumble across a blog that I fall in love with immediately. This happened a couple of months ago when I first came across Amy Elizabeth Merrick's blog An Apple A Day. It's one of those blogs that just oozes charm and inspiration.

One thing I was especially inspired by when reading through her archives was her infectious love of terrariums and since reading this post in particular, I've been wanting to try making some of my own.

Lucky for me and anyone else interested in trying their hand at terrarium making, Amy put together this wonderful easy-to-follow tutorial for the Domino Magazine site which takes you step-by-step through the process. I am now officially left with no excuse not try it for myself.

I've been spending more and more time in the glassware sections of thrift stores these days looking for suitable vessels. I got these three for about $1.50 a piece. The fact that this type of glassware is usually cheap and easy to find makes this hobby even more appealing.

I love the way they look grouped together with their similar, yet slightly different, shapes and sizes, unfortunately they're quite small at around 4 inches tall not including the lids. I would have to find something pretty tiny to plant in them. So I'm thinking I may just fill these with something interesting to display.

I like how the glass jar in this inspiration collage looks filled with seashells. Incidentally, this image is from another love-at-first-site blog that I discovered through Mila's inspirational treasure trove of a blog, Loveology.

The blog, called Record the Day, consists of pictures of the most beautiful collection of date stamped inspiration collages. If you're like me and love looking at other people's inspiration boards, notebooks, etc. or just enjoy collections of lovely things, I highly recommend checking it out.


The other glass jar I picked up for $2 at the Goodwill was this Planter's Peanuts jar from 1979. It's got Mr. Peanut on the bottom and the lid (monocle, top hat, cane and all :) and it's nice and tall.

So we'll see what I'm able to come up with. I'll do an update post once I get some completed. In the meantime, these are some recent flickr favorites that I've found inspiring:

Originally uploaded by alicesaunders

ferns under glass
Originally uploaded by melissamh

Originally uploaded by alicesaunders

Originally uploaded by palindromepress

bhg - terra
Originally uploaded by tiny palpitation

tiny terrarium
Originally uploaded by Justin and Elise

Terrariums
Originally uploaded by SarahIvy

P.S. - I hope you all had a really lovely holiday!

Under Reconstruction

During my travels across the interweb, I come across lots of wonderfully altered articles of thrifted clothing which make me wish I was savvier with my poor neglected sewing machine. Luckily for us not-so-DIY-inclined (or just don’t have the time for DIY projects) types, there’s always the lovely folks of Etsy who are out there thrifting, altering, and embellishing for us.

I would love to be able to turn an oversized vintage dress into this cute little number, like Etsy seller NENEEE has done…

… or a baggy pair of overalls into an adorable jumper like this one by Junkhouse Dollyard Designs...

...and how sweet is this reconstructed vintage wedding dress from Etsy seller Lynn’s Rags?!?!


Customizing thrifted clothing with yarn is a new one for me, but I think it’s a great idea. I saw these reworked pieces (previously a basic full length denim skirt and fitted tee) on the blog NIBS the other day. They are from a spread in the gorgeous knitting magazine Rowan. You can check out the rest of the feature here.


While putting this post together, I also came across a darling Etsy shop called Photosynthesis. Megan, the seller and lover of ferns, hand prints thrifted vintage items using actual fern leaves that she collects, dries, and presses herself.


Myself being a scientist who once dreamed of studying botany, the fact that her inspiration to print ferns on clothing came from the specimens she collected for fern ecology studies in college, tugs at my heartstrings. The pieces she creates are one-of-a-kind, eco-friendly, and just plain lovely :)

But reconstruction is not just for clothes. In my experience, there’s no shortage of vintage jewelry out there for the thrifting, and jewelry reconstruction is one of those things that I’ve long wanted to try my hand at.

I found this NylonTV clip with Lulu Frost designer Lisa Salzer to be extremely inspiring and there’s even a little DIY project at the end. If you pay attention to the background there are also some lovely ideas for jewelry storage to be found.

How cool is her studio?! Oh, to have vintage card catalogs full of magical doo-dads and walls of vintage chains to choose from… *sigh*

I LOVE these gorgeous necklaces from Etsy seller Capricious Traveler: