One activity I really enjoy is thrifting (shopping at resale and thrift shops). I go to my local shop once a month or so. These are a few of the treasures that I have found. It doesn’t hurt also that I have a friend who volunteers at the thrift shop and buys me lovely things (she gave me the cups).
I love to collect milk glass, interesting glass bottles, cool accessories, vintage pottery wear dishes, and anything vintage. I also look for vintage fabrics and sewing patterns, yarns, designer and one-of-a-kind outfits, and anything denim. Today I had an outstanding thrifting day. I bought vintage felt scraps, 2 classic movies, a milk glass piece, 2 decorative chain belts, a denim dress, and 5 Metlox dishes from 1968 (a super bargain!). What a joy for just $22 total! If you haven’t tried resale shops or thrift shops before this is your chance to start and save lots of money. I get all sorts of complements when I wear outfits from the thrift shop. Also, I love to buy interesting denim pieces and embellish them or cut them up and make other things. You can see some examples of these on my website. Well, what are you waiting for? Go to your local thrift shop and go out and live the embellished life!
I’m back blogging again after such a long time. Such much has happened. Rest assured, though, I have been living the embellished life. A very busy job and a kitchen remodel job got in the way for a while. Here’s a picture of some of the things that I’ve been up to. I still love thrifting and recycling. I’ll try to post something weekly and keep you posted [read more...]
So here is the black and white bag that I made for my friend. I just love the fabric! It measures 17″ wide, 12″ tall, and 5″ deep. I used metal rings to accent the handles. The inside has lots of pockets which she really wanted. I used decorator weight fabric and interfaced the outer fabric to give the bag body. I made a second bag which I am [read more...]
Here is my version of the clutch purse on the cover of Amy Karol’s book “Bend the Rules Sewing” which I saw on her blog. I used Chinese brocade and embellished it with one of my ribbon roses. It was so easy to make. I designed my own pattern, of course, which is basically two rectangles for the outer and lining fabrics. I purposely pressed the lining so that it would [read more...]
It’s taken me a long time but I have accumulated a lot of tools that I consider essential in my sewing studio. I’ll list a few here. -rotary cutter and cutting mat. I hardly ever use my good scissors any more. I have several in different sizes.-acrylic rulers – 2.5″ square, 9.5″ square, 12.5″ square, 6″ x 12″ and 6″ by 24″-heavy duty scissors that look like pruners to cut up [read more...]
I recently ran accross a blog discussing zipper flowers. I thought that was so interesting and kicked myself for throwing away a bag of old metal zippers a while back. Anyway, last weekend as I was walking though JoAnn Fabrics, I noticed these long metal zippers in the upholstery department. They only come in this plain tan color (not enough color for me) but I thought I’d try playing with it. I bought a [read more...]
Well, my first post. Just a month ago I thought I’d never blog. But here I am. After doing research on blogs and blogging I realized that I was obtaining most of my tutorials and sewing/crafts information from blogs. Anyway, here is my sewing and crafts blog – Living the Embellished Llife. What’s the embellished life? It is about embellishing your creations of course, about finding new and different [read more...]
As you know, I love thrift store shopping. When I see the clothes on the rack I am mostly envisioning how I can cut something up and transform it into something else. That’s especially true with jeans and denim of every type. I made these bags with a jeans pocket, cute fabric, and even a denim top. They are so cute! I sold several of these to my friends. I used vintage junk jewelry and even silk flowers on some of my bags. They are lined with coordinating fabric. These would make great Christmas gifts along with my Texas scarves. By the way, I just bought a denim dress at the thrift shop. I’m trying to decide what to do with it. Do I embellish it? Do I shorten it and turn it into a cute jacket? Not sure yet. I’m sure inspiration will come to me soon. Oh, and you wouldn’t believe what I’m planning to do with a recycled denim shirt. Inspiration came to me while watching a cooking show. You’ll have to wait until I finish.
