This From That

In the event that my memory ever fails me, I want to remember that I actually did things like this and how I did them. There will be many posts to this category in the future and they will all begin This From That.

I love thrift stores. Some are better than others. Commercial clothing donated to the stores is often unique and of good quality. I don’t spend a lot of time looking for clothes to wear but clothes to cut apart and fashion into something else. That is because the fabrics are often one-of-a-kind which have been purchased in bulk by companies such as J Crew and Old Navy.

 That is where I find the birds and animals and vintage patterns.

This little apron was made from the bottoms of the legs of a pair of pajama pants, size large. I bought the pants for $1 at TAGS. I brought them home and washed them and cut out the inside seam and the waist band. The new apron waist band and the ties came from another piece of thrifted clothing. The orange-red looked hard to match. I said “whoopee” when I put the two fabrics together. Considering that I still haven’t used most of the fabric from either $1 purchase, I imagine that this little apron will have cost less than 50 cents when all is said and done. Look at the wonderful scallops along the bottom.

I’ll be you thought I did them myself.

Once I started making “this from that” I looked at thrift store clothing differently.

 I didn’t see a skirt or a shirt or a tablecloth.

I began to see bags and aprons and pillowcases.

I paid more attention to colors and textures and unusual fabrics

with an eye to what it could be.

I do love the hunt.

~

The little apron below was made from part of a skirt, part of a pair of pajama pants and 1/3 yard of a fabric I already had.  I made two aprons using the wonderful embroidered fabric on the white background. The vintage blue pajama pants with cherries were size large for $2 at DI.  By cutting off the waist band and the inside seam I was able to use flat pieces of fabric . There was enough embroidered fabric in the small skirt to cut four identical panels.

 I used two and have two to spare.

 

 

 

I added the rick-rack.

I didn’t write down how I measured 

or

 how I sewed things together or how I gathered the ruffle

or how I finished the seams.

I would not be very good at writing tutorials.

I think I would forget to write down steps.

Might be a very fun and inexpensive project for a child learning to sew.

If it doesn’t work . . . well, who cares.

Start over from the same piece of $1 fabric.

~

Wash Day

John Edward Huddleston