Upcycled Goodwill Finds with Miss Kitty

We LOVE Goodwill in Marina, California. Today's blog with my long time friend and fellow seamstress, Miss Kitty shows two skirts created from her latest discoveries at the store in Marina. First item of business was to figure out how to cut down these huge Adult sized garments to fit her tiny frame. Miss Kitty was quick to get the measuring tape and help out.

Sewing with my young students is always a joy because of their enthusiasm. Kitty was not lacking any today. I think she was as happy to see me as I was to see her.
Project 1:


A wonderful green Ombre dyed skirt was a perfect item to re-make smaller for her. It started as a size Large for Adults. As you can see, it is a bit too wide for her. But she loved the twirly ruffles and faded colors from light to dark on the gauze fabric. We almost could have made two skirts for her with it. We cut off the elastic waistband and set it aside for some other use.

 The top was now open and Miss Kitty decided that she wanted the full fluffy skirt so it was easy to serge the two layers together at the top. Next, she folded it down all around the waistline about an inch and sewed it up to form a nice casing at the waist.

 Kitty inserted a piece of half inch elastic in her waist size, which is a huge 19"!!!! And after pulling it through the skirt waistband, she checked to make sure the skirt fit. It was awesome on her and the length was wonderful. An added bonus is she can wear this cute skirt for years.

 We found some pink ribbon roses and perfect sage green satin ribbon for a bow at the waist. Her cut off elastic waistband became a cute headband with a matching bow and rose.

 

A nice photo taken my Kitty's mom at her home. She put this together with a cute pink jacket to match the roses!!

One skirt done in just over an hour, we jogged down the road for a bit of fast food junk for lunch. Audrey joined us and Kitty's mother will never know that she ate half the hamburger but all of the ice cream!! Ha, ha...the joy of borrowing a child for an afternoon is to spoil them a bit. Miss Kitty is a very unspoiled child naturally and it is so much fun to steal her away. We are hoping her mom forgets and we will bleach her hair blonde, name her something new and keep her forever. This is one fun girl to have around.

Alas, we informed her mom that we were starting skirt number two and that she would be allowed to retrieve her daughter later. So happy she likes to share her darling girl with us. I do miss having some younger kids around at times. (This would be when my house is full of teenagers or worse, young men in their mid-twenties playing video games while talking about some of the strangest subjects relating to anime, D&D and more video games...seriously they are no longer cute at that age)

Project 2:  "Pastry" dress

I call this thing a "Pastry Dress". Some poor misguided girl wore this very short and poufy thing to a prom or other dress up event and probably did not realized how badly she needed a longer dress. I shudder at the thought of how it looked with some too high heels, a ton of bling jewelry and gobs of hairspray. Where was the mother when this item was purchased??

 AGGHHHH, don't get me started on mother's and what they allow their daughters to wear these days. If I see another toddler in a t-shirt sporting some Rock Star Icon, I might rip it off the child and offer to make something else for her or him for no charge just to see the kids wear actual kids clothes and not little mini sized adult clothes.

This was a real Mini Dress. It was only 25" from top to bottom! I am sorry but I find it shocking that any young woman was let out of the house in this creation. If only she would have come to me and let me create her a flattering and more modest ensemble, she would not have let it ever leave her closet.

Anyway...moving on with the "Pastry Dress". As you can see in the picture, it has a very puffy layered skirt in a zebra print. This type of skirt reminds me of a frosted pastry. The top had a pink sequined strapless band that was fully lined with a big thick and kind of gross bra structure but amazingly, not any boning to hold it up. There is also a very cute black bow and sash in the middle. Kitty was hoping this could become a fun skirt for her to wear for dressing up. She was right!

The back of the dress had a nice zipper and since it was so darn short, it was not far off being a skirt for Kitty with the exception that it was 9" too wide for her waist. There was also a lovely long sash in back as well as the adorable front waist treatment with a big bow.

We unstitched the large bow and pinned it safely out of the way while we created a smaller waistband for her adorableness to wear comfortably. 

 

The hideous pink top thing had to be cut off and I was pretty glad to see it go. Sorry, I am not a "pink" person. But I do love the musician by the same name. 

After cutting off the bodice, but retaining the installed zipper and the cute front band that was black, we took the waist in with large angled darts on four of the seams. I marked the seams with a removable purple marker. Kitty was easily able to follow these lines to sew the darts. It was a bit tricky with the thickness of the seams that were still in tact but the Viking machine is pretty tough and made it through. Kitty never had to pick out a single seam today. (But I did)

 We cut out a black waistband lining from some black cotton batiste. Kitty sewed this along the top and it was hand-stitched inside to form a nice lined waistband. The original zipper was only cut a few inches when removing the pink top. The black side tie sash was re-attached now and the front bow was unpinned and also re-attached.

The fit was amazing, Kitty looked just like a little striped cupcake in it! Just kidding,....I did not want to eat her. Just hug her a few times. It was a delight to have her over today.

In just about an hour each, both Goodwill finds were created into fun, useful and up-cycled skirts. This is Altered Couture at it's best when my young student is able to have so much fun with such nice results.Miss Kitty is just precious in this skirt.

Next time you are shopping at Thrift stores, remember that just because it is too large, don't overlook anything. Just finding some great fabrics and figure out something fun to do with them later so they can have a new life in your closet.