Quick fixes for big dresses

Now that I work full time and can't pull off jeans every day, I'm finding my skirts and dresses and getting more wear than they ever used to. That's great, but it's a little challenging when most of them were secondhand in the first place, and they're threatening to wear out. I bite the bullet and bought a new dress from a good quality, ethically responsible store.

Unfortunately, it was a little big.

 

This is the smallest it comes. I loved the stripes so much, though, that I decided to make it work.

Viola! It only took 15 min of sewing to get the shape I wanted. I just pinned the rough outline I wanted, ran a seam, and kept tweaking it until I was happy. 

Oh, and the belt's from Goodwill. But you could have guessed that.

Jane's craft room

This isn't my house, but I just had to show you what my mom has been doing. When I moved out my parents were left with an empty, slightly garish room. My mom has turned it into a functional, fun, detailed craft room, and without needing to buy almost anything! When I took these pictures she had spent only $3 on the room. (It helps that we had a black and white craft room before, and a lot of things transferred.)

She is so good at staging shelves. Each of those boxes contain craft things, and most of them she covered herself.

So cute.

This is an antique steamer trunk, complete with drawers full of ribbon spools. And that's my granddad's military jacket hanging up. My favorite part is the glove hanging out of the top drawer.