Project - Sweatshirt to Sweetshirt

Now why didn't I think of this! Some fun with those sweatshirts!

A tutorial on how to turn a oversized sweatshirt into a stylish cute (and comfy) top. Link.


Before and After

Refashioning from your valued 'stash' - not a rag bag anymore!

Still in my early enthusiasm phase, after looking over all the archives and posts at Wardrobe Refashion blog, I found so many ideas that will work for my 'stash' - all those bags of clothing I have saved. But even more than the ideas, I feel so validated that I am not alone in saving clothing and accessories because they catch my eye, the texture, the pattern, unusual, vintage and any other assorted reason why I 'just can't get rid of it yet'.

Some people actually have an entire room of these wonderous 'saves' and 'treasures'. So, I'm excited about my renewed appreciation for my own pack rat characteristics and I regret having given away so much of the 'saves' I kept for years and years. Over the years I've had my stash stored away in plastic bags in basements, garage, storage closets but I continue to move it around with us when we move from one location to another. Now that we are in our own home and have been for 4 years, my 'stash' has been in the basement. It's time to bring the treasure out of storage and the basement and create a 'treasure room' and get busy with refashioning!

I just knew I was saving it all for projects - I just couldn't quite see the whole vision of what projects. Gotta love those creative people who think up clever new ideas and what I like best is that it is 'recycling, sustainable living, green living, frugal and thrifty'. There are people out there who have created small business enterprises out of refashionng old clothing into something individually unique and exclusive! What a fun way to generate some income. I'm no seamstress - makes me wish I was though.

Projects to explore using my 'stash';

- men's shirts - reconstructed and using men's deconstructed shirts to reconstruct new items.

- dresses - reconstruct into skirts, halter tops

- pants - reconstruct into skirts

- jeans - reconstruct into skirts and bags

- bibbed overalls - reconstruct into dress

- sheets and pillowcases - reconstruct into tops, skirts, curtains

- t-shirts - reconstruct into exclusively fashionable and personalized closer fitting t-shirts. Based on a popular selling book 'Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt'

- table cloths - reconstruct into circle skirts

- napkins, handkerchiefs, scarves, placemats - use to make halter tops, add onto top in layers to form bottom skirt, add as hemline motifs

- lace from doilies, napkins, pillowcases, dresses can be used as motifs in reconstructed clothing, ie, t-shirts, tops, skirts.

- clothing remnants - refashion into bags, journals, gift wrap, wrap a box for use as stationary box.

Project; t-shirt refashion - halter from crew neck t-shirt

from Make magazine

Nobody just wears a t-shirt these days. You've got to "mod" them. To get you started on your first t-shirt for the summer, artist Karyl Newman took a regular looking large crew neck t-shirt and created this cute halter tee. The complete step-by-step is up on Instructables. Link.




get instructions here;

Project - 5-minute t-shirt jacket

So okay then, Blogger help shows me there is indeed an as yet unfixed problem with the Blog This button in the newest blogger upgrade. Sigh. For now, then, I'm back to the 'old fashioned' way of blogging, but actually opening 'create a post' and doing the typing (instead of the copy/paste of Blog This).

Refashioning your t-shirts seems to be a big thing right now. And I have a lot of t-shirts from over the years, but I've gotten too big for many of those sized medium t-shirts. Well, gives me incentive though to shop for t-shirts again in the thrift shops. I'll be posting various refashion t-shirt ideas as I come across them.

Found this at mediathinker.com
“wardrobe refashioning,” taking an item of ready-made clothing and turning it into something else

How to instructions;





Finished jacket (recommend pinking shears to cut or hem the edges, get creative and hem edges with edging, piping, lace)

Blogger upgraded and now my blogger tool isn't working

I'm not pleased to discover that with blogger's new upgrades I may have lost some reliable old functions. I've been blogging with blogger since 2004, so I've seen it in it's early stages of development. The upgrades over the years have made blogger more functional and user friendly. Recently blogger did an overall upgrade in conjunction with google. Well, some of it is good and some not so good.

Mostly, I'm disappointed that my ability to use my blogger button on my toolbar to do copy/paste blogging (clip it kind of thing) does not seem to work with this new blogger upgrade. It still works on my older blogs which I didn't 'upgrade' but it doesn't work with this new blog I created in blogger upgrades.

So, unless it is a glitch that will be fixed, I'm not too sure if this blog will continue. There is my very first blog at blogger - Wonderwander - and I'm still fond of that blog, nostalgic about it even, since it was my first blog. I may have to convert the intended theme of this blog over to Wonderwander. I've already posted a couple of new posts to Wonderwander that were intended for this blog. See Make T-Shirt Stencils from Freezer Paper and Independent America entries at my Wonderwander blog.

Independent America: November 2006

Independent America: November 2006:

"We're two former network news journalists who have just finished production on our own road movie across the United States. More than ever it seems like it's Independent America vs. Corporate Chain store America. We searched for those pressure points along with our Black lab Miles in some of the most scenic, least traveled corners of the country. We endeavored to make our 55-day trip without setting one tire on an interstate highway – without setting one foot inside a corporate chain restaurant, motel or store." view trailer here

I am so impressed with the concept of two journalists crossing the backroads of America, finding what remains of the Mom and Pop stores in communities who have permitted the 'big box' stores to come into their communities. I haven't seen the dvd, but there are clips available and it looks like a dvd worth owning.

Independent America featured in Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone with five clips from the dvd;

clip part one

clip part two

clip part three

clip part four

clip part five

MAKE: Blog: Make T-Shirt Stencils from Freezer Paper

Make T-Shirt Stencils from Freezer Paper

project photos




Angry Chicken posted up a great tutorial on how to make stencils for t-shirts from freezer paper. Originally found off Craftster.org, this technique is so quick and amazing, you'll be ready to emblazon your designs on all your shirts, bags, you name it! If you can't draw, don't worry, freezer paper must be like magic because you can even run it through an inkjet printer (just make sure it prints on the matte surface not the plastic side). Link.

project A Shrunken Sweater makes a child's dress; Wardrobe Refashion

from Wardrobe Refashion June 2006; A Shrunken Sweater makes a child's dress

My next project was to try to salvage a cute little wool sweater that my husband shrunk when my first daughter was a baby.



I cut off the short, stiff sleeves and some of the length. I then fashioned a "handkerchief" skirt from a layer of eyelet and a layer of lace I had in my stash. At the waist I added buttonholes for a velvet ribbon that ties in the back. And I can't forget the embellishment: some felt flowers at the neck. Now the shrunken sweater has been reborn into a fall/winter dress for my second daughter!




TFTCarrie blog

Everything old is new again.... a phrase from a song

Introductions and getting started: I'm a child of the Pleasantville 1950s, a teen during the turbulent 1960s, a wife and mother during the 'earth mother' 1970s, a career mom in the 1980s, a grandmother in the 1990s, and now an empty nester in 2007.

Spent the past 4 years immersed in activism efforts trying to end war in Iraq and bring the troops home. So immersed, that I let go of a lot of pleasures I used to enjoy before the Iraq war and it's time to yank my life back into balance.

So what did I used to do that I don't do now, what did I used to like that I don't get to do as much of now and what were all those projects I was going to do when I had more time.... ??

I like collectibles, and have collected items from different eras.
I like vintage things that aren't exactly 'antiques' or collectibles.
I like trash to treasures kind of things and projects.
I like historical perspective of how families managed in different eras.
I am looking at sustainable living, simplistic living, meaningful living, frugal living, 'green' living.
I like learning about diy projects.
I like learning about and doing my kitchen vegetable gardening, putting up the produce.
I like crocheting, simple sewing projects.
I like 'decorating' my home. We bought a house built in 1892, in a fishing village - Bay Tower House, we call it - visit our blog at HouseBlogs.
I like my dog = Jake, an australian shepherd.
I liked the cat, inherited from my daughter, when I didn't think I liked cats.
I like the idea of new recipes, although I don't love cooking - been doing it for decades, so like to spice things up.
I like thrift stores, sales, collectible shops, antique shops, off the beaten path kind of shops. I don't like 'box stores'
I like oil painting.
I like reading for leisure and learning.

I'm a homebody by nature and prefer to find treasures and pleasures exploring things I can do in my home.
I'm also an explorer, wanting to explore new places, new ideas, new trails, knowing I have a home to come back to.

So what's the purpose of this blog? It's a place for me to collect ideas from others who are more creative than I in thinking how to repurpose, refashion, re-use, re-new, re-utilize old into new.

As I wander in my internet travels, I am so often finding happy discoveries amongst the many who share on the internet and today I was so excited when I found Wardrobe Refashion blog, I just knew when I finished looking it over I was going to make a new blog for myself. I recently was involved in trying to purge my closets and storage of decades old clothing I've saved and managed to complete the project. So several bags to go out to thrift store and several other bags remain to be used in sewing/crafting/quilting projects. Then today when I found Wardrobe Refashion blog, well those bags set to go out to the thrift stores will get another looking over for what might be useable in 'refashioning' projects. I'm excited and animated about some great new ideas for using the 'stash' I've saved over the past decades.

My family and friends find it humorous that I save stuff like I do, and my kids (adults now) like to laugh at some of the things I have saved - like some of their clothing from when they were kids. Some have said I need an 'intervention' to get rid of clothing, shoes, and purses that date back to 1980s. Of course I do - need an intervention, and I'm delighted with the new ideas being shared by so many people who are interested in retro fashioning old into new..... I have a whole new world stretching out before me.

posted by Lietta Ruger

Christmas at Home 2006

Wow, it was April 2006 we made the last entry to this blog! No way to 'catch up' 10 months of no posts. Life has certainly moved on for us, but not this blog.

Okay, so Christmas 2006. We purchased (at seriously reduced price) a new artificial Christmas tree. We already have a huge 6 foot tree that completely takes up either the upstairs or downstairs cupola if that is where we place it. Or takes up the whole front of the living room if that is where we place it. It certainly holds all the decades of Christmas ornaments back to when the children were, in fact, children. Now, they are grown with children of their own.

It's kind of sad in a nostalgic kind of way to put up the big tree with all the years of ornaments unless the kids and grandkids are going to come for Christmas visit. For now they are scattered about, and sometimes they can do the travel, sometimes not. I wanted instead a smaller more compact tree that I could tuck in a corner and I'm quite satisfied with the size of this smaller tree.



















Our Christmas gift to ourselves this year. A nice double recliner loveseat. We have for several years now been discussing getting either couch or loveseat that has dual recliners. It was still years in the future for us as a purchase. When we were out and about taking in Christmas bazaars and such like, we came across a garage sale that we almost didn't stop at and found this great dual recliner at a price too good to pass on.

Nope, not telling, but we knew we would not likely come across such an affordable price for this kind of piece of furniture again and it was in such good, cared for shape. We left, both yearning and wishing we hadn't committed to dental work and $$ cost to us. Somehow we managed to talk ourselves into believing we could tighten the budget belt, squeezing hard, eat beans and rice, and doing so could manage to pay the dentist $$ and treat ourselves to this Christmas present. Now, it's February and we are recovering but recliner is paid for and so is the dentist $$.


posted entry by Lietta Ruger

Toothless Me ..."Are ya ready Roy?" - Gabby Hayes

Yesterday, Lietta and I drove to Deep River Dental in Raymond and Dr. Hamilton pulled all of my top teeth.

I was surprised at how easy and rapidly it went once I was good and numbed up and breathing a little bit of nitrous oxide (laughing gas). I remember some sort of minor interruption while he gave one of my teeth another shot of numb juice, touching my gums with my tongue and saying "4 down and 4 to go," with which he agreed.

Shortly thereafter he was done, the upper plate was put in immediately and I was warned not to take it out, prescribed pain medication and an appointment to come back next day (this morning) where he checked and made minor adjustments in the plate.

Once the numbness went away, I was glad for the pain killer hydrocodon but have only taken 4 doses since the pulling.

Dr. Hamilton is also the local Mormon bishop and I have had some interaction with him previously. He's a good dentist and I've seen him in action at the one church meeting I was invited to attend back in April.

Lietta now cooking soft foods with mashed potatoes and shredded meat (beef, pork and chicken) as the foundation.

Tonight I removed the plate for a salt water rinsing as instructed and looked at my toothless self for the first time. It's not readily obvious although Lietta said she could tell right away. The gums are already covered over without stitches as the plate served that function.

I've been off work yesterday and today and will return to work tomorrow.

Spent lots of time on the computer, online and playing Age of Kings to pass away the time, especially yesterday when the pain was more pronounced. I did sleep good though but have been drowsy all day.

Now 7:45, Lietta working on supper and I'm writing.

A Gallery of my real oil paintings

Lietta paintings

click on the photo to view gallery of my oil paintings over the years

Messing around with the computer Paint tool - digital paintings

Using Paint tool - digital painting

click on the painting to see more at my Picasa public gallery