Saint Salvage

I found this sad cream colored top at a Goodwill by the Pound store. It was looking a little rough, but had potential. This is the front of the top. This is the back. Really cute.  I inherited this dress from my mom, when she passed last year. I really like the lightness, but it's really long and had some stains.                                                          I cut the bottom tier off. You can see the lining left behind here.                                 I gathered that bottom tier and pinned it to the crochet part of the top.         I hand-sewed that bottom tier to that crocheted upper part. Then, I took out a roll of Stitch Witchery, and used it on the inside...

I inherited a vintage floor-length dress from my mom when she passed away in April 2015. I've had this dress in my possession for months, not knowing what to do with it. It was in colors and a pattern I love, and it fit. But, it was way too long, and not practical for my life.    Oh, what to do.... I trawled Pinterest for ideas, and I came upon this photo, but with no instructions. Tie-dyed Denim Skirt But, I had my inspiration, and I knew what to do with my dress. I decided to honor my mom, and update the dress to fit my lifestyle.... separates... a top and a skirt. Step 1: Gather the Materials Step 1 is pretty simple... gather your supplies: Dress, jeans, pins, scissors, color-matching thread, iron, ironing board, dressmaker's dummy. I selected the button-fly jeans because I wanted to have a different type of denim skirt. I've seen a lot of them with zipper-fly fronts, and the skirt material just slapped on the bottom. I didn't want tha...

I was trolling the local thrift stores, and I bought this abused vintage Coach crossbody bag at a local Goodwill store. It was priced for $19.99, but it was 50% off, because green tags were the "special" color. It was "ridden hard and put away wet", so to speak. It's a Coach, for fashion's sake! No logos all over it. I really like the vintage Coach bags that don't have logos. It even had an ink mark on the underside of the flap. Ugh, so sad. But, it became a great candidate for a makeover! The creed (aka serial number) is 767-1839. So, I got some thin masking tape from the tool box.... I taped up everything that shouldn't get sprayed: the hardware, and a beaded tassel that was on an old bag that has passed on. I also took great care to get a can of Dupli-Color Vinyl & Fabric Coating in  HVP-107 Deep Red  to match the original purse color. I bought it for $1.39, at a local hardware store. I sprayed the...

I found this cute pair of vintage cone shaped pierced earrings at one of my favorite local thrift shops: Kathleen's Closet . Their sales support the  Community Food Bank of NJ . I love finding bargains that help the Food Bank and other helping organizations. I bought this pair with the plan of using this as part of a DIY. I had these fringe beads sitting in my stash... they turned to be perfect for this quickie DIY. I bought them last year on clearance from  Michaels . I selected the brown, black, red and silver fringe bead strands because they were the only duplicate colors. I took them off the chain, and separated them; one for each side. I took a gold tone head pin and threaded it through the top of each cone. I threaded the beaded strands onto each head pin. Then, I curled each wire and trimmed them. Last step... I bent the wire back up into the cone. Here I am, modeling my new creation. Not bad for about 10 minutes of...