The Awesomeness that is the day after Thanksgiving
LOVE it.
I am not a Black Friday shopper. I don't storm the mall at midnight. I don't plan on doing much holiday shopping at all; in fact, the little that I do will be done in locally-owned, small stores, to the largest extent possible. I saw some of the commercials last night for American Express, which is making a big push for local shopping tomorrow, and I plan on participating. I will also look online, shop local on Etsy, and do as much mail-order shopping as possible (you go, USPS!). So my day-after-Thanksgiving thing is not because of shopping. I just love being home. It's where I need to be on this day.
There's nothing monumental going on. It's not a big day. Today we're getting out Christmas decorations and watching Michael Jackson videos. We might rent a movie. I don't even know if we'll get in the car. Maybe I'll do a little sewing. Tonight we'll put up our tree (an artificial, pre-lit one, which I absolutely love, in every way I can love a tree. More on that another day).
Speaking of sewing, I completed a pretty quick refashion on Wednesday night. I'm sure lots of other people were peeling potatoes and making stuffing and preparing turkey, but I had a project that wouldn't leave my mind, thanks to the Greenstitch podcast, and I had to get it done. There was no point in trying to concentrate on food when an upcycled sewing project was beckoning.
Before:
Two years ago, a co-worker gave me several giant bags of her gently-used clothes. Many of them I wear as is - they're from Ann Taylor and other places too pricey for my budget. And, ironically, even two years ago I was not refashioning or cutting up clothes like I am now. My, how a couple of years can change things. Anyhoo, this dress is cute as is, but it's a lot longer than I would normally wear. I had just planned on chopping it off at the bottom, hemming it, and wearing it as a summer dress (which was clearly not a priority, since, like I said, she gave this to me over two years ago, and it's been in my closet ever since). But then I saw a project for the ruffle scarf at Greenstitch, which reminded me of Dana's tutorial several months ago on MADE, which made me feel like I was receiving a sign to make the project. So I did. Can't ignore a sign.
Now it's this:
(Picture courtesy of an enthusiastic 8-year-old who does not have the patience for auto focus to work).
Here's a close-up of the scarf:
The dress is 100% rayon, so it was the perfect lightweight material for the scarf. I did not do anything with the edges besides serge them, because of lazy (but, bonus, I think it makes it more lightweight and bouncy with no hem, and I like the deconstructed look in nearly everything, so win-win). I am often cold, year round, so this scarf is perfect. I wore it all day yesterday.
After chopping off the bottom of the dress to make the scarf, the original garment was too short to hem into a shorter dress, so now it's a tunic shirt, which I love. Today I'm wearing it layered over a white shirt, since it's cool, but it will be nice in the summer with a denim skirt. Two refashioned items from one original (which was free). That's a good return.
Now I have a whole day ahead of me of...doing nothing. At all. I am beyond excited.
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