I'm back! At least this week I am back! Sorry to miss several weeks there. My daughter had a music festival to attend a few weeks back, so I missed posting a Frugal Friday due to that, and even though I have been back for weeks now life keeps me SO busy!
There is no way I can keep up posting every single week without missing--but I do enjoy posting whenever I do have a chance to and I hope you will also share with me what you are doing to save money in your family budget, because I am always looking for new ideas on how to save!
This week, we have had some GLORIOUS Spring weather! Only problem is it is not exactly spring yet, so I am quite sure it won't be lasting--but I am sure going to enjoy it while I can before a cold spell comes back! :) Anyway, with the nice weather my daughter has been trying on her summer clothes to see what still fits her as she is definitely still growing (Size 9 feet! She is taking after me, because I wear shoes size 9 1/2 and 10's!). So I have been hearing from her about how she has outgrown a lot of her summer bottoms, and that she would REALLY like to have some play skirts--meaning some skirts for every day wear, not a fancy one for church.
Well, we have spent the last two weeks shopping for clothes here, there, and everywhere. I even got brave and ventured into the mall--I am NOT really a mall shopper, hate the crowds and soon feel overwhelmed with all the STUFF everywhere! But even in the mall we didn't find anything for her (though I did find a great clearance top for me for $4.39 thanks to Belk!). So last week I decided to try a local thrift shop. I knew we wouldn't find anything that would fit her exactly, but I was hoping we might possibly find a large women's Hawaiian muumuu that we could cut smaller. You know--something large with a lot of fabric in it. But as frequently happens when thrift shopping, I couldn't find exactly what I wanted--but we DID find a Hawaiian mini skirt that we both liked! It was just--too short. We loved what was there--there just wasn't enough of it to love! I carried it around for awhile as we continued to search, because as they say, a mini in the hand is worth two muumuus in the bush! But it was the only Hawaiian type thing we could come up with. So while debating if I should just put it back, I had an idea. . .
Maybe, just maybe, we could lengthen it. I am NOT an experienced seamstress by any means. I can do a few things here and there, but I know my limitations so I wasn't sure I could do this, especially since there was a pleat in the front of the skirt. BUT--this thrift shop only charges .75 cents for the clothes it sells, and the money is all used to help people in our community, so the risk was pretty small even if I couldn't get it to work. I told my daughter my idea, and we started searching for some fabric that would match the colors in the mini skirt. "Fabric," meaning another garment that we could buy for .75 cents and cut up. Finally, after much searching, we found a shirt that was just the right shade of green to match! We could have gone with blue, but couldn't find the right shade of blue in anything so went with picking up the green color instead.
We bought both pieces, brought them home and I washed them. The next day, I started taking the green shirt apart trying to obtain the largest fabric pieces that I could out of it.
It did have some nice green buttons on the front of it that I didn't want to throw away, so I had my daughter cut them off and add them to my button jar. One never knows where those little green buttons may appear next! I cut the largest piece--from the back of the shirt--in half, and then evened it up where the arm holes were. I ended up being able to get a total of four pieces--two from the back, and then one from each front panels. The shirt sleeves were just too small to really get a usable chunk from as far as a ruffle went, but I have saved them in my fabric stash just in case. . . I am thinking maybe some type of hair bow flower? Not sure yet. Will have to research a bit and see if I can find any idea that I can make with those pieces. . .
Sewing the strips together, we managed to extend the length of the skirt by around 7 inches. I basted the top of the strips and then pulled on the basting threads to ruffle it. It didn't come out perfect, but I think it isn't half bad. And it passed the "teenager test," as my daughter LOVED the end result!
I am VERY happy with the result myself as well! I had to take in the waist a bit for her as well--I added two additional darts in the back of the skirt (are they called "darts" when they are shaping the garment from the waist down?) as well as take it in a bit at the two sides. So it is smaller in a total of four places in the waist, and longer all the way around. I think my daughter looks adorable in it (yes, I AM biased!) and she is thrilled to have a summery, happy looking play skirt! And I guarantee there is not another one like it back at the mall, especially for $1.50 total cost!
I would love to hear from you--what did you do this past week to save money? And any ideas for how I can take the green shirt sleeves and make something for my daughter to wear in her hair?
~Susan
1 comment:
It came out great. And it was teenager approved. Love it.
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