Thursday, September 17, 2009

Thrifty and Nifty!

I have heard about this thrift store that has really cheap prices here in town (Family Thrift Center). I finally went a few weeks ago on the $1.50 day (everything in the store is that price on that day). I found a great men's shirt to redo into a women's shirt (that's at the bottom) and I couldn't wait to go back on the $.25 day! However it's also the craziest day at the store! I got a babysitter for the girls and I was glad I did. It was seriously crazy! Some people had 3 carts loaded to overflowing with clothes. I have no idea what they were going to do with all of that!

I went for a few specific reasons - first the girls really need dress up clothes and they have such pretty dresses (old prom dresses) that would be easy to cut up into play dresses! Second I am going to do Peter Pan theme for Halloween (that's right, no t-rex, deer, or Cinderella I convinced them all to do a theme) and I wanted clothes that I could transform into costumes. Third was if I happened to find more stuff for me, and Talmage needed new church slacks.

After about 2 hours I made it out spending under $5! That made it all worth my while! Here's some of the great stuff I found...


Cute dresses for the girls. Some will be princess type stuff and others might turn into cute church dresses (birthdays and Christmas are right around the corner!)


Here is the Peter Pan costume stash! The blue one is Wendy (Mhari), light green for Peter Pan (Talmage), dark green for the crocodile (Grant) and the pretty green dress for Tinker Bell (Sandra).


I have made the Wendy and Tinker Bell dresses. I only got a picture of Tinker Bell thus far. Sandra doesn't stand up that great for pictures... I think the dress fits her better than the picture shows. She loved prancing around the house in it yesterday! I'm in the process of getting the boys done.
It is amazing what starting with a women's size 8 dress can turn into. I'm still planning on making little bloomers or something like that to go under the dress (it turned out shorter than I wanted).


This was the Geoffrey Beene shirt that I found on my $1.50 day. I loved the flowy material and such a pretty color (like a silver with a light blue tint)!


This is the finished product. It's not the greatest photo, but whatever. I just don't want it to look like a maternity shirt (because I'm not prego).


I'm still learning from these experiences of cutting up clothes to make other stuff. Out of all of the mess ups or not sure if it's going to work, either way, I can't complain about material for $.25!! Each of the girls dresses so far have only been $.25, and there's no way I could've gotten that at the store for anywhere near that cost!
(I did end up cutting up slacks that were adult size and make them into Talmage slacks... that turned out pretty well, definitely a learning experience, sorry no photos.)

8 comments:

Alli said...

Genius! I love it! That Tinker Bell dress is so cute :) You rock Sharla.

Anonymous said...

What a great idea. Great work!

Cindy Killebrew said...

You have a great eye for this stuff!

Shay said...

I am sooo impressed Shar! You are amazing and I am still shaking my head in amazement! That is so cool!

Christy said...

You are so creative. I am inspired to get a sewing machine now!

Katie Busken said...

Wow! Your shirt looks so cute. Did you have a pattern, or a tutorial, or something? I definitely need to take some sewing classes if I ever want to jump into something like that. You're amazing!

Machelle said...

I am impressed. Great job Sharla. I love thrift stores its addicting.

Williams Family said...

you are so awesome! and you don't look prego. I will have to try that. when i come to visit, we will have to shop there. miss ya