$5 or less- Goodwill Floral Dress

Above: Before. Below: After!

Hi again! Sorry it's been so long, yesterday was my first official day of graduate school. I'm about to depart for more errands (I bought two of the same textbook on accident, go me!) but wanted to update first. I haven't been slacking on the crafts, but I haven't taken any photos of my latest stuff. Eventually I will and will post them, but today's focus is this awesome 90s dress I got at Goodwill.

I've expressed my love of altering Goodwill clothing before, and this piece was just as easy as the dress in the link. The original dress had the hemline about 4" lower, a back and sleeves, and- of course- shoulder pads! What made me want to buy this was the little vintage crochet piece on the front and the little buttons right below it, and whatever I did to this dress must feature those pieces. So, halter!

Those were on the dress already and prettier than anything I can do.

I cut the shoulder pieces out to add to my collection and then cut the top of the dress into a halter shape sans the straps. I raised the hemline and used some of the fabric from that to make straps, sewed them on, and fitted the dress to me a little better, and BAM! Brand new dress in very nice condition for only $5, and nobody else has one like it! Bonus: this dress seriously slims me down. I'm fairly heavyset and it's nice to look skinny. Another bonus: cute and fresh without having to resort to copious amounts of cleavage.

This afternoon one of my stops will be at a local vintage dress shop I discovered in my college town, hopefully I'll have a post about that soon. For those of you in school, have fun, and for those who aren't, also have fun!

College cleaning tips

I somehow seem to spend the most time in the smallest, most cramped places. In my current living situation (back in my parents' house post-college), I have roughly 2/3 of my apartment's contents in an 11x 14 space. This includes my desk, queen-size bed, bookcase, dresser, several large storage bins, and a craft table. Yikes! So despite me not being a particularly messy person, piles accumulate.

Also, as hot as it's been in my area (yesterday it was 110 out, I wish I was exaggerating), I've been indoors when I'm home, hiding from triple-digit temperatures in air conditioning. So again, things are piling up.

Here's a bunch of tips I have learned about how to make a messy room (or entire apartment) look presentable in under 1 hour:

1. Make the bed first. Not only is this going to make roughly 1/4 the room look nice right off the bat, but it gives you a surface to put other things on while you clean.

2. Put all the clothes away. Trust me, unless you're super Type-A there's clothes laying around. Fold/hang up the clean stuff, and put the dirty stuff in its proper place.

3. Throw away all trash. Tissues, plastic cups from various stores, receipts, outdated post it notes, tiny fabric scraps, etc. Also, take this trash to the trashcan. Don't leave the bag sitting around the room.

4. Put things in their correct spots, or if you're in a time crunch stack things pleasingly. Textbooks can be gathered and stacked in one pile. Fabrics and papers can be folded and stacked.

5. If there's time left, dust/vaccuum, Febreeze, etc.

And voila! Passingly cleaned living quarters in under an hour!

Remnants- Jewelry frame

I've only been sewing since the beginning of 2011 (seventh grade home ec doesn't count), and I've already built up a large collection of spare fabric bits from various crafts. So far I've found out of the way places to put them, but soon there will be too many to stash under beds! Lately my goal has been to use a bunch of my remnants and clear out some room for more.

Today's craft is based on an idea I've seen on other craft blogs- a framed jewelry display. Here's the version that finally got me inspired to make my own, courtesy of Poppytalk.

First off, my materials:

Foam board- $2, Hobby Lobby

Fabric- $0, remnant from a previous craft

Nails/ hammer- $0, already owned those too

Wood frame- $12, Hobby Lobby (I have no doubt that cheaper frames can be found though)

Spray adhesive

Pins/tacks- I used $3 beading pins from Jo-Ann's and have plenty left over for future crafts

How- To:

First, cut out the right size of foam board- slightly smaller than the area in the frame. Cut fabric 2" larger on every side, and glue (or tape, doesn't matter) to the foam board.

Cut more fabric for the frame, 2" extra fabric on both the outside and inside of the frame window. Glue on frame.

Glue/tape foam board to frame. I had a damaged spot on the fabric in one of the corners, so I made a twisty flower by scrunching up one edge of fabric and glueing the whole thing on top of the spot.

Place pins on foam board as needed to hang jewelry on. Suggestion- put the pins in so they tilt up slightly, so that when the frame is on the wall the jewelry doesn't slide off!

Hang on wall, add jewelry, and show to all your friends!