$6 Polka Dot Dress

I picked up this polka dot dress for $6 at the thrift store the other day. I will probably be too lazy to get around to taking a picture of me wearing it in real life, so y'all will have to settle for this fitting room shot.

I wear it with a cardigan and some combat boots right now because it's cold, but I think it will be a great little dress for the summer. 

Thank you, thrift store, for always being there for me when I've have an irritating day at work and need to participate in some retail therapy but can't afford to actually spend money. 

Planning Before You Buy

When thrifting or surfing through the clearance racks, it is so easy to tell yourself, "It's okay, it's only ___ dollars." You know what I'm talking about. This is your justification for buying the thing without giving it any real thought, without looking into the future. I know it sounds dramatic when I'm talking about really inexpensive clothes, but it DOES matter.

Impulse buys can sometimes have a fairytale ending. If not quite that, they can at least make for an interesting tailoring project. But why not prevent the most likely outcome: regret. You know I'm a big advocate of just trying the clothes on, even if you are at the thrift store and, yes, even if you get all creepy-crawly about putting on used clothes. But if you plan to wear it at all, you need to know that it fits or at least has the potential to fit well after some simple alterations.

Also, plan how you will wear the piece. Do you need to make any wardrobe investments to pull it off? What I mean is, will it require you to spend even more money for it to look good? Because if you don't have pants that are the right color to go with it, or a belt to cinch it in just right, or leggings or shoes or WHATEVER, then the couple of dollars you are spending will quickly turn into a lot more as you buy more items to make the first item work. And is that really worth it?

But for more than just your wallet, you should consider purchasing or not based on your closet at home. Will this be just another faceless garment tossed into your closet to be quickly forgotten? Will it just sit by your sewing machine, waiting for you to have the time to alter it correctly? Will you bring it home only to realize you have another almost exactly like it that you haven't even worn yet? All I'm saying is, don't add more clutter to your closet that is unnecessary. Just think for a second before you buy.

Clearance Dress from Target

Sometimes I am surprised to find some really nice things on the clearance rack. Lately, I've been having a lot of luck with Target clearance. I highly recommend their clearance section.

I am always skeptical of anything found on the discount rack, and for good reason. You shouldn't buy clearance clothes without trying them on--that's my policy. A reason the item might be on clearance in the first place is because it might have a strange fit or weird fabric. You definitely won't know for sure until you see it on yourself!

So when I grabbed this dress off the rack, I didn't have high hopes but I couldn't resist--look at the price, for crying out loud!

 The dress actually fit quite well! It was definitely worth the price.

I wore my new dress with leggings, boots, a tie at the waist, and a long-sleeve shirt layered underneath. Very cozy!

DIY Add Lace to a Cardigan

For today's trick, I'm going to take an old sweater that has been turned into a cardigan and add lace.

Remember this DIY cardigan made from an old sweater? Well, we're going to take that idea and add some embellishment.

 I cut this old sweater down the front to make it a cardigan. It looked fine left that way, but I was wanting more. I grabbed some scraps from a project I'd done with lacy curtains purchased at the thrift store. I cut strips, then began sewing them along the inside of the cardigan....

 And here's the result! Very easy. I went back and added a little more lace to the neckline to make it looked even nicer:

It sure looks fancier than it did in the first place!

DIY Louise Costume

For Halloween, my sister dressed up as Tina, and I dressed up as Louise from the show Bob's Burgers.

It was a major search to get the components of this costume. I ended up getting fabric and sewing the dress myself. It was a pretty makeshift, but it worked. The fabric was like $6.50.

For the hat, I bought a pink hoodie, cut off the hood, and cut out the ear shapes from the rest of the hoodie. I used pipe cleaners to line the ears so they would stay straight. This didn't work as well as I hoped...

If I did this costume over, I would have bought pink fleece to make the hat and just sew it all from scratch rather than using the hood from the hoodie. I don't feel like it saved that much work, and it was more expensive than buying fabric. 

Clashy Red and Pink

So, I guess there's maybe like some idea floating out there that you shouldn't wear pink and red together. I've always loved these colors together, though.

I got this red skirt and this camel blazer at the thrift store. I got the yellow scarf at Wal-Mart like a year ago. I think it was like $3. 

I got this sweater at Target on clearance for like $11. I couldn't resist the sheep!

Here's a cool post that totally supports my love for pink and red. 

Second Chance Halloween: Tina for $20!

Halloween is a WONDERFUL time to give clothes a second chance. It's great to recycle, and also great to save money on a costume. I mean, to get a cheaply made piece of crap costume that's already made, you'll probably shell out close to $50, and even then it might be missing components. This is one reason I love thrifting and looking for deals around Halloween.

Months ago I decided that I wanted to be Tina from Bob's Burgers this year. Over the coming weeks, I collected the various parts for my costume, and I'm happy to say that this costume can be made for $20. Yeah. For real!

Wig: $6, WalMart
Glasses: $5, WalMart, on clearance
Bow: $1, WalMart, on clearance
Shirt: $2, thrifted
Skirt: $4, thrifted
Socks: $2, Target (painted my own stripes)
(Shoes: already had similar ones I could have used, so I'm not counting this as part of what I purchased for the costume, but I did need some new ones so I spent like $15 on them at WalMart.)

Success!

"Cheri" Red Blazer

I'm not big on blazers, but I've worn my share. And red it my favorite color. So finding this at the thrift store was awesome!

 It's such a vibrant red!

 And it was literally like $2 at the thrift store. That's it! So it simply had to become part of my vintage collection.

 Personal Petites is an 80s brand specializing in career clothes for petite ladies. That's probably why the sleeves are a little short for me...haha. But they look cute rolled up :)

Blue dye fun... with HAIR

OK, OK, this isn't a clothing post. And it isn't even about thrifty finds. It's about hair dye. But... it's about DIY hair dye, and that is something that I LOVE.

So since I love to dye my hair all the time, my friends have started coming to me to dye their hair as well. I've also done some cuts, but I assure you, I always make it clear that I'm totally not a professional...although I might like to be.

My friend called me last night and asked if I could come over and do her hair today. She wanted a chunk on the side to have peacock colors.

We started with piecing out the chunk of hair that we were going to dye and separating it from the other sections of hair.

In order for the funky colors to stick, you've gotta bleach the hair first. Unless you're like already a blonde.

Soooo, I mixed up some bleach powder and peroxide (30 vol--her hair is thick and dark) at a 1:1 ratio and covered the section of hair to be dyed. Very thoroughly.

We let it sit in her hair until the hair was nice and light. Tip: never leave bleach in your hair for more than sixty minutes. It's not really accurate that bleach will make your hair fall out, but it is going to severely damage it. Like super duper fry it to death.

We rinsed out the bleach and had some lunch.

You wanna put the dye on dry hair, so we dried up the bleached portion of hair and slathered on the dye. 

When dying your hair a funky color, you want to leave the dye in your hair as long as possible. Well, that is if your doing a funky color that's sans peroxide, which is practically all of them since it's really rare to find permanent funky colors. Anyway, leave it in as long as you can; it's not going to damage your hair. It's just going to help the dye stick.

We rinsed out the dye after we couldn't stand waiting any longer, and much to our dismay, the color had not taken the way we hoped. 

It might be hard to tell from the above picture, but the dye was basically just a super thin wash of teal over the bleached blonde. My friend bought the dye, and it wasn't a brand I've ever tried before. It was Color Jamz. I won't be buying it. I was quite unimpressed. 

I didn't want her to hate her hair, so I took her to my house and slathered some more dye on it. I used Ion Color Brights in aqua for the top bit of color.

I LOVE Ion Color Brights colors. They are super sticky. We also used N Rage in purple plum for the darker part of her hair. It's also fabulously sticky color.

We let the color sit for a while and then washed it out. We dried it and took some pics of the finished product, which I think is awesome. 

$12 Fall Outfit

Are you looking for the perfect fall outfit for an affordable price? How about a dress and jacket for just $12? Well, my friends, look no further than your local thrift store!

I got this dress for $6. It didn't need any real adjustments, but I did sew between the buttons so there wouldn't be any gapping. The jacket was $8, and it's just perfect for days that are a little chilly, but not too cold. It also didn't need any alterations.

I'm so happy with these two pieces! I'm excited to get a lot of wear out of them during the coming months.

$6 Blue Dress

This little dress came from the thrift store a few days ago. It was $6. And look at the cute zipper detail!

As you can see, it was a bit large for me.

But it's nothing that some simple sewing (and I mean SIMPLE) can't fix. 

Voila! It fits fine now.

"Petunia" Top

Another beloved piece from my vintage collection:

 This beautiful top has a delicate mix of pinks and purples and an asian-inspired flower print.

 I'm not usually a fan of collars, but the collar on this top lies pretty flat and is pretty understated, so I don't have a problem with it.

This top comes from a company called Pykettes. I've seen a lot of this brand in thrift stores around here, and I'm guessing it may be because Pykettes, which was made by Pyke Manufacturing Company, was based in my local area. A lot of their shirts scream "little old lady" to me, but some are just too pretty to pass up. They do have some lovely patterns!

Here's how I'd wear it:

Petunia by princesszandra featuring black pants

DIY Denim Jacket to Vest Transformation

Hi, and welcome to another super-easy DIY transformation!

I inherited a nice denim jacket recently. I didn't want to turn it down even though I already have a denim jacket I like (and in my opinion, there is such a thing as owning too many denim jackets. Personally, my limit is, like, 1). Fortunately, I realized that I could quickly turn this jacket into a denim vest, which is something I'd been interested in getting anyway.

All this DIY needs is a good pair of scissors.

 I cut nice and close to the seam to remove the sleeves at the shoulder. If you want a frayed look, leave a little extra fabric and kind of...mess it up, or whatever.

So long, sleeves! You've served your purpose.

 Here's my new (old) vest! It's in the perfect wash, too :) A denim vest is a pretty versatile piece--you can use it to layer over a long-sleeved shirt, a tank top, a dress, or whatever.

 I like it!

It doesn't get much easier than that. Now go forth to the thrift store, find a denim jacket, and give it a new life as a vest!