A Tale of Two Levi's, Part Two: The Quasi-Prairie Skirt

So who wants doggie friends? I don't, not when I'm eating bacon! Trust me: you do not want your dog's snout hovering near your bacon-bedecked plate. Grrr...

Friday's post tells the tale of how I made like a serial killer and vengefully wreaked havoc on two pairs Levi's with a pair of scissors: Slash, snip, and rip! You can see "before" photos of the virgin and unsullied innocents prior to the desecration.

Then I made an A-line skirt with one pair, and saved the other pair for today's more complicated (for me) project: A quasi-Prairie skirt. It's the Prairie skirt technique I'll be using, but the combination of cloths I chose are not "country-style" prairie. But hey, the photos will hopefully serve as a tutorial of sorts.

I Purloined My Husband's Jeans!

My husband's job buys work clothes for him annually; he has more work jeans than a body can wear! So I stole, I purloined a pair yesterday. They were hideous, anyway, and must have been several years' old because they are too small for him now. I feed him that well.
So I bleached the life out of these things, following the excellent bleaching and dying guidelines by The Little Giggler.

Blouse refashion & FAIL for fun

I've held on to this blouse (from a thrift shop) for several years because I liked the dark color and its small pattern.  But its cut makes a girl look too much like General MacArthur, what with the shoulder pads and sharpened sleeves:

Shoulder pads. Poofy sleeves. NO!! 

Upcycled maxi to top

You know, I cannot seem to break my depression. The Abilify fattens me - so far I've gained a whopping ten pounds and I'm up to 150 from LAST WEEK. This is NOT acceptable. It's bad for my blood pressure, which goes up with weight gain (not rocket science). Time to quit Abilify because I won't be able to fit into my clothes if I keep taking it. Damn it all, the Abilify works but there is this trade-off, which just isn't worth it. Maybe with the Springtime sunshine the depression will lighten on its own. We shall see...

This was a VERY quick and easy 'upcycle'. The word works better than "refashion" because the maxi-dress was truly trailer-trash tent-like. So it classes it up a bit, chopping it at the waist and hemming the top. The bottom part I've set aside for another skirt, which I'll write about at a later date.

What I'm Wearing Today

Just a quick post on a linen skirt I dyed. I find I am actually wearing clothes I refashioned! Held on to this skirt for years, and rarely wore it. Now I love it!

What I'm Wearing Today

Earlier in the month I posted about this two-colored skirt.

A windy day, I want to dye my hair red, red, & more red!!

• Granny boots: Thrifted
• "Lagenlook" skirt I made 
• Thrifted knit black top
• My daughter beaded the necklace

Re-newing a Re-fashioned Skirt

Did you ever have a not-quite "fail"? This overly long two-toned prairie skirt could have gone either way. Fortunately, with a little snipping and hemming it turned out even better than I thought it could - YAY!!

Way too long...

 

Mean Greenie

My step-daughter Diana gifted me her lovely Italian silk plaid blouse when she visited me in the hospital in July 2012. (My depression was so deep I took an overdose and woke up in the hospital a few days later. I stayed for a month.) My husband's love and concern acknowledged, he had no clue as to what things to bring me, especially clothes. Jeans? "Here, honey... yeah, they were my Dad's but..."
So I begged my daughters & my step-daughter to donate to The Clothes Cause. Now, I'm a full-busted lady, a "full-figured gal" a la Jane Russell or Sophia Loren. Perhaps young, very slim girls in their late teens and early twenties have different visions of what the "Older, Full-Figured" style might entail... Diana got it almost right, but the blouse just would not adapt and I tore it. Oops! Time for a summery style skirt and a photo essay on how to make it:

Made it! Another maxi-skirt

My friend Jenny grew up with me; she and her husband own a huge old country manor in a rural New York village. Guess who is going to visit over the weekend? Yes, that would be me.

What I'm Wearing Today

The $5 Macy's Clearance skirt used to be a bright powder blue with bright green palm tree design on linen... I used RIT Black & RIT Brown dyes mixed together and transformed the linen to a more subtle design. Easy!

Prairie Skirt, Pt. II

Wearing my new Prairie Skirt with my floral Doc's!!

TIP:
I hand-stiteched my ribbon+fabrics through the Rear pockets,
by sticking one hand inside the pocket so
I didn't stitch all the way through it,  

What I'm Wearing Today

The Insomnia-Borne Skirt

*Not shown: Floral Dr. Marten's (what else?)*
Thrifted tee-shirt dyed from puce to dark lilac 
As a sort of "re-mix," I turn the tee around and wear it backwards: It looks like a 'boatneck' collar in front.
That floral design made of cheap polyester "lace" gives off a hairy-chest look when worn 'correctly'. 
My 19 year old daughter approves!!

Dancing with Albert, not having a seizure...

What makes this a "re-mix"? First, I wore this skirt in a recent picture, with a different outfit. Second, beside the skirt, everything else has been in my possession for years, plural. I started cleaning my daughter Betty's room, as it has become the 'elephant graveyard' for both her clothes and Miriam's. Such great finds, starting with a few things stolen from this Mom... always a pleasure to re-discover a favorite sweater!

Sprucing up the Chemex coffeemaker

My Chemex coffeemaker was hand-blown in the 1960's. The wood collar is original but the traditional pieces
(wooden bead and rawhide tie) were long gone; a piece of white polyester twine had been holding the wood collar pieces in place. Springtime Spruce-up idea:

braided and beaded blue cord, with an old wooden Coates & Clark thread spool for the bead

Drats! Woke up congested and coughing...

Oh, fercryingouttears... I have a viral infection according to the doctor, so all I can do is the Matzoh Ball Soup cure. Today I am staying mostly in bed, except for my bleaching & dying project. I found well-written instructions on how to bleach and dye jeans properly, via "The Little Giggler." "Before" and "after" photos from her "Bleaching 101" Tutorial inspired me to follow her guidelines.

Should I be embarrassed by my weight?

Obviously, no... when it comes to other people. But who is the hypocrite in this salad mix? C'est moi, mes amis, c'est moi!! I detest my body, I think I look too fat, and that is just plain wrong-headedness. Why post a photo of myself, then? To show my thrift store style, for one thing... the style that embarrasses the bejeezus out of my parents - both of whom are new name-branders when it comes to clothes. Ugh. Even if I could afford it... the only things I buy brand new are undergarments. Oh, let's be honest: If I could afford it, I'd buy out Imelda Marcos in the shoe department!