How To: Alter a Dress

I just love a good refashion. I found this dress for $1 at a thrift store and even though it was ridiculous with its enormous sleeves, neck tie and shoulder pads, I liked the fabric and thought it would be a good project.

Here's what I did:

1. Remove the shoulder pads. Always the first step when taking the ugly out of old dresses.

2. Rip out the seams along the shoulders and sleeves, removing the neck ties and the sleeves completely.

3. Re-sew the shoulders, following the original seams lines.

4. Take the dress in on the sides to make the arm holes smaller and the dress more fitted. I wanted the dress to be more of a shift style, so I only took in the sides about 6" down from the arm holes. If you want a more fitted dress, you would take it in all the way down to the hem.

5. Reshape the arm holes. I used a dress that fits well to see how much to trim from the arm holes. This was probably one of the more difficult steps, but you can see in the picture above the chalk line around the arm hole, that is where I cut to make the hole smaller.

6. Take in sleeves. The sleeves on this dress were enormous and the cuffs were very tight fitting around my wrists so I knew I would have to do a lot of work to make them look normal.  Again using a finished dress for reference I determined the new length for my sleeves and cut the bottom 5" off each sleeve, then took each sleeve in another 4" (2" from each side of fabric, where the pins are).

7. Make the cuffs. I used the fabric I cut off of the bottom of each sleeve to make the cuffs. After determining how big I wanted them, I cut them to size and then ironed on a very lightweight interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric to give the cuffs some shape. I then sewed them into a circle, with right sides together, pressed the seam open and then folded down each raw edge about 1/2".

8. Attach cuffs to sleeves. First I basted along the bottom edge of the sleeve, then pulled the basting stitch gently to pucker the sleeve. Only pucker the sleeve enough to make the opening the same size as the cuff (you want a slight pucker, but don't want to go back to what the dress looked like originally). Next, I pinned the open cuff to the inside of the sleeve (the sleeve is right side out for this step), sewed it on, then folded the cuff over and topstitched.

9. Attach the sleeves. Sewing on sleeves is always a little hard hard for me, but especially when I am doing alterations because my sleeve and my arm hole often end up not matching as well as they would from a pattern. Getting the sleeves on took a little bit of time because I had to do several adjustments as I went. It's always a good idea to use a basting stitch first when attaching your sleeves and then go over it with a regular stitch once the sleeve is in place and has no puckers. Rather than give you my step-by-step here, I'll share the best tutorial I have ever seen on attaching sleeves: Teach Yourself to Sew: How to Sew A Sleeve

10. Make sash. I used the remnants of the neck tie to make a sash for my waist. First, turn the neck ties wrong side out. Following the straight seam on each half of the neck tie, I continued sewing to the end of the fabric and then cut off the excess. Then I turned each strip right side out and ironed them flat. I folded the end of one strip inside itself, then tucked the raw edge of the other strip into it and topstitched it in place.

11. The picture doesn't show it, but a good tip to make projects look professional is to always give them a good iron when they are done. And, you're finished!

Money Wise: The Budget

Note: I originally wrote this and other posts about our finances on a personal blog but have decided to share them here. The original date the post was published is shown below.  

5/11/14

People don't usually like the word "budget". Usually it has a negative connotation of some sort, kind of like "diet". But having a budget doesn't have to be a negative thing. In fact, when you really figure one out, its sort of freeing.

We started using an online budget tool called mint.com shortly after we were married and continue to use it today. You create an account that you then can link  all other financial accounts to so you can see everything in one place. We see our checking and savings accounts, Roth IRAs, HSA, and student loan accounts. You can also create a budget each month so you can view it regularly and easily keep track of where your money is going. Mint will list all of your transactions and then you can assign them to different categories so that they fall within your budget.  It has been a great tool for us. 

That all being said, it has taken time to really learn how to create a proper budget. For a long time I had budget categories, but I mostly just looked at where I had spent money after it had already been spent, rather than telling our money how it would be spent beforehand. That is the key. You have to start each budget before the month has started, determine how much your income will be, and then assign every dollar to a category. It can be hard at first, sometimes you have expenses you don't expect, but after a few months you start to get a pretty good idea of how much you will spend and what you will spend it on. 

Some people may feel that planning how much you can spend on each category (ie: clothing, eating out, groceries, etc.) will be limiting, but as we have started to efficiently budget I find that I feel a lot less guilty. For example, when we didn't plan ahead how much to set for clothing that month I would buy things but then always feel guilty for spending the money, even if it was something I needed. Now I know exactly how much we have agreed to spend so as long as I stay within that amount I don't feel guilty at all. 

Creating an efficient budget (together! If you're married) is really the first step to taking control of your money. Once you start that, your debt-free future starts to become a little clearer. 

Money Wise: More on the Credit Cards

Note: I originally wrote this and other posts about our finances on a personal blog but have decided to share them here. The original date the post was published is shown below.  

4/24/14

I'm not an expert on credit cards, but I have learned a few things in the past couple of years that I think are really important. First of all, how often do we hear the words "credit score"? Like every single day, right? Society seems to think that having a credit score is one of the single most important things an adult can have, or maybe even that it makes you an adult. Lets blow away the smoke shall we?

First of all, nobody needs a credit score. Ever.

You often see or hear commercials that say things like "low credit score? no credit score? no problem!" Its important to clarify here that a LOW credit score and NO credit score are NOT the same thing. Car dealers and pay day loan sharks and such want you to think they are, but they are not.

A credit score keeps track of your ability to borrow money. Thats it. So if you have a high credit score it means you are good at borrowing money. If you have a low credit score it means you bad at borrowing money (make late payments, default on loans, etc). If you have NO credit score, it means you don't borrow money. I have already established that borrowing money is not the way to go, so not having a credit score is actually a good thing! Really! It means that you pay for things with money you actually have.

But you are all thinking, wait! What if I want to buy a car?! What if I want to buy a house?! I need a credit score. No. You don't. Unless, you want to borrow money in order to buy that car or house (although houses are a little different and I will address that below). See, that's the problem most everyone in this country is facing. We are told we need to borrow money so that we can get a credit score so that we can borrow more money so we can buy things we can't afford. (No, we can't afford them. Remember, if we could afford them, we wouldn't need to borrow money in the first place).

So, what is the solution? Well, if you never get a credit card and never take out a loan you will never have a credit score. Which means you wont be able to buy a car you can't afford, so you will either have to save up until you can pay cash for that really nice dream car, or you will have to buy an old beater until you can get something better. As for a house, well it would still be best to save up and pay cash for a house too. But, if that isn't realistic (as it probably isn't for most people) you do have another option. Thanks to Dave Ramsey (of course) I now know how to get a mortgage without a credit score. It's called manual underwriting. It's what people used to do before credit scores became the norm. Yes, you still have to have a good down payment, a job, and proof that you have been in good standing with your bills (such as rent, electric, water, etc), but hopefully that would be the case anyway. My understanding is that not all lenders know how to do this anymore, so you may have to look around a bit, but now you don't have to go take out some loan just so you can get a loan...

Isn't it freeing knowing that you don't need a credit score? It sure is for me. 

How To: Dye Your Clothes

I have had this sweater for a while now, and while I still love the cut and fit of it, it wasn't long before I grew tired of the color. It didn't really go with anything else in my closet (which consists of mostly black, white, gray and blue) and I found that I was never wearing it. Still, I wasn't quite ready to part with it either, so I decided I would try my hand at dyeing.

Dyeing this sweater was actually pretty easy, but before you go decide to change the color of everything you own, its important to keep a few things in mind. First, it does matter what your item is made of, and natural fibers will dye best. My sweater is 65% ramie/45% cotton, both natural fibers. Second, a patterned item may not (read: probably won't) turn out well because of all the different shades, so its probably best to stick to solid colors. And finally, no matter the color of dye you use, you are not going to get a super bright, super true-to-hue finished product, but it will still look nice.

Rather than give you a step-by-step how to, I will just post a few pics and recommend that you simply follow the instructions on the Rit color remover and dye, as I did (I know, that makes my post title deceiving...).

I "cooked" my sweater in the color remover for the whole 30 minutes that the instructions recommended and was pretty pleased with how well it took the color out.

After it was good and white, I prepared the dye in my washer (actually my mom's, I was at her house when I did this).  I wanted my sweater to be as dark and vibrant a blue (I used Rit Royal Blue) as possible, so I bought the liquid dye instead of the powder. One liquid bottle is about equivalent of two boxes of powder, but at a better price, so it seemed like the right choice and was easy to just pour right in. If you opt for liquid dye too, remember to shake the bottle before pouring it in the washer. I forgot, even though the instructions told me to, and I had a clump of dye that didn't want to come out of the bottle and then got all over my hands and dyed them blue. Learn from my mistakes.  

The dye did splatter around quite a bit inside the washer, but after I was all done dyeing and washing my sweater, I wiped it down with a wet rag and some bleach based cleaner and it came right off. 

Here is my sweater now:

This isn't really the best picture because I took it when the light was bad, but it shows the new color of the sweater pretty well. I'll admit that it's not as dark or bright of a blue as I hoped for, but you can only do so much with at-home dye, and I knew that when I started. Still, I am happy with it and have already worn it more in the past month than I probably did the whole two years I had it before when it was pink.

Have you ever dyed any of your clothes? How did it go?

How to: Let Out a Skirt

I found this skirt at the GoodBuys 99 Cent store in Albuquerque.

I would have paid a dollar, but was half off so I only had to pay 50 cents for it! I figured it was worth the money. I like the overall make, and the fabric is sturdy and in good condition, but it was just too tight around my waist. After inspecting it carefully, I decided it would be a good opportunity to try my hand at letting out a skirt, especially since I pretty much only ever alter things that are 5 sizes too big.

Here is what I did:

1.  First, I used a seam ripper to remove the belt loops in the front of the skirt since I didn't like how they looked and I knew I would never wear a belt with this skirt. I had to unstitch the seam that connects the waistband to the skirt (just around the belt loop) since the loops were actually sewn into the skirt, not just on top of it. Once I pulled out the loops in the front, I top-stitched back over the opening I had made. 

2.  Next I ripped out the seams attaching the waistband to the skirt in the back, starting from the zipper to all the way past the darts and the belt loop (again to remove the loop). You can see here that there is extra length (about 1/2") at each end of the waist band, this is what will give the the extra room to let out the skirt and tells me how much I can let it out. 

 

3.  I turned the skirt inside out and following the seam of the original dart, sewed a new seam, about 1/4" closer to the edge of the skirt. Then I ripped out the original dart seam, pressed flat the new dart, and repeated this step with the dart on the other side of the zipper. This gave me an extra 1/2" on each side of the skirt (the amount of extra waistband I had, as shown above). 

4.  I then pinned the skirt back onto the waistband. As you can see from the picture, there is no longer the extra length at the end of the waistband, but it matches up exactly with the end of the skirt. and, following the original seam, top-stitched to secure the skirt and waistband together. 

5.  Next, I removed the buttons, moved them about an inch to the left and sewed them back on.

6.  I gave the skirt a good press, and tah-dah! A 50 cent skirt that fits!

Before and After: Sport Coat to Tote Bag Refashion

We bought a sport coat for Phil to wear with his Halloween costume. Even though I found it at a thrift store it was still $10, which seemed a little expensive to me, but we needed it so I paid the price. Once Halloween was over and I started putting things away I wondered what we would do with it. I hated to just send it back to the thrift store since I didn't feel I had quite gotten my whole $10 back, so I started thinking of things I might be able to use it for. The coat itself, although it was too big for Phil and not really his style, was made of 100% wool with a nice lining and was still in really good shape, so I decided to turn it into a tote bag.

Before:

This is the first time I have ever sewn a bag, let alone one made out of an old coat and leather (I wasn't sure if my machine could handle it but is sewed right through that leather like it was butter)! It took a bit of trial and error figuring out the size of everything so that it the finished product was half decent, but I love how it turned out and think its a fun accessory for fall and winter. I especially love the lining, which of course came from the original coat lining and still has all of the original jacket pockets.

After:

I am hoping to post a full tutorial soon, but there are A LOT of steps for this one so its taking me a while to write it all out. For now, I hope it just inspires you to think twice before you fill up that goodwill bag and repurpose your old things!

Money Wise: The Credit Card

Note: I originally wrote this and other posts about our finances on a personal blog but have decided to share them here. The original publishing date is shown below.  

4/21/14

Like so many, Phil and I have had our share of credit cards. I got my first card when I was 18 and getting ready to go to college. It was a Capital One card with something like a $300 credit limit. My mom, who like the majority of us believed the myth that we all need a credit card to build our credit, allowed me to apply for it. Don't get me wrong, my mom did nothing wrong here, she didn't know any better and neither did I. We have all been ingrained with the idea that we need a credit score to do anything; it's only recently that my mom and I both have learned that that is not true. My mom did have the wisdom, however, to teach me to use my credit card carefully. I used it only a couple times a month to buy gas and groceries and then always paid it off in full.

Later, when Phil and I got married, we opened a joint checking and savings account with Wells Fargo, and each got a credit card through them. Looking back now, I don't even remember asking for a credit card, it seems like it was just part of the package and we signed away. I don't blame Wells Fargo either, their bankers are just doing their job. And most of them probably believe you need a credit score too. 

We never considered not using our cards, at least not at first. We continued to use them as I always had, buying the things we needed anyway and then paying them off in full every month. We never carried a balance, and we had the "benefit" of getting 1% cash back on all our purchases. That is not a lot, but, we told ourselves, if we were buying it anyway why not make a little money while doing it?

You are probably wondering why, if we always paid off our cards and received cash back, is it a big deal? Why close them? Well, that was our feeling too, for a long time. Actually, until about a month ago. We have known for a while that once Phil graduated we would get super intense and pay off all our debt as fast as possible, and the closer it gets to that time the more excited I am to get going on it (we can't start yet because we don't have an income and need to save everything we can for moving expenses once he starts a new job). We really want to be debt free, and even though we have never carried a  balance on our cards, we came to a realization that to keep using them was kind of counter to our goals. When you use a credit card, you are borrowing money. It doesn't matter if you pay it off right away, you are still borrowing it. And we are done borrowing money. No more. Ever. I don't want to worry about the "what ifs" any more. When you pay for things with money that you actually have, you never have to worry. You never have to worry about paying it back, or interest rates, or missing a bill, or not having enough, because YOU HAVE ENOUGH!

So, we cut up our cards (two Wells Fargo cards and a Target card, I had closed my Capital One card previously) and even though we still have our student loans to pay off, I feel even closer to our goal. 

Before and After: Denim Shirt Dress

I altered this denim dress without taking enough pictures to do a tutorial, but I love how it turned out so I still wanted to share it here. I really like the shirt dress style, but I can rarely find any that are long enough for me so I knew I would either have to make one from scratch, or find something to alter. I decided I would start by checking out some thrift stores (always a great place to find big, denim dresses) and I found one for $3 that I was able to alter in just a couple of hours.

Before:

This dress was a size 16 (I usually wear a size 4 or 6) so it was several sizes too large, but it definitely had plenty of length! When I alter dresses like this one, I always look at is how the shoulders fit. I don't like re-setting sleeves, and I especially didn't want to re-set them in this dress because of the top-stitching that I would have to try to duplicate, so I tried to find one that fit ok across the chest and shoulders. It looks pretty awful in this picture (and it doesn't help that my hair isn't done either), but I wanted my dress to fit somewhat loosely (the way a comfy denim jacket would) so I knew it work out after the alterations.

After:

The make of the dress was fairly simple, so I really only had to do a few cuts and seams to get it to fit the way I wanted. I took in the width of the sleeves (about 2 inches) all the way up from the cuffs, along the underarms, and back down the sides of the dress. Then I cut off about six inches of length and sewed a new hem. I used the same techniques for the hem of the dress as I used in this jean tutorial.

I wear this dress all the time now.  It has been perfect for fall and can be dressed up or dressed down and it's so comfy! What do you think of my before and after?

How To: Shop at Thrift Stores

Have you ever asked someone where they got that cute shirt only to hear the answer, "at the thrift store, it was only two dollars!" Determined to find something just as good, you also head to the thrift store, walk through racks of junk for fifteen minutes, and walk away empty handed.  "How does she do it?" you wonder.

While finding that $100 designer purse for $5 at Goodwill may be a stroke of good luck, most often successful thrifting is about knowing some tricks and putting in a little extra time and work. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Go to various stores and go often. Just as you shop at various retailers for all your other clothes, try to shop at multiple thrift stores. They are not all the same; prices, sales, and quality and quantity of items will vary greatly between stores. Also, it helps to go frequently because items are constantly changing. I probably stop at at least one thrift store at least every two weeks (often it's more than that).
2. Go with something in mind. Most of the time, successful thrifting requires a lot of digging through a lot of junk, and it's not always fun. I have found that when I don't really have anything in mind that I'm looking for, I'm less willing to dig, and therefore usually less likely to find anything. It always helps to at least have a few ideas in mind--such as a black pencil skirt or red cardigan--of what you hope to find before you go. That doesn't mean you only go to the skirt section and then nothing else, but if you start out by looking for something in particular it sort of breaks you in to the somewhat tedious, but necessary, process of of picking through every item on every rack until you find the treasures.
3. Take your time. I can easily spend over an hour at a thrift store (if I don't have the baby in tow) because it takes time to go through all the clothes. If you only have ten minutes to run in and look around chances are you aren't going to find anything. Thrifting will be more successful if you take your time and look through as many items as possible.
4. Ignore tags. Thrift store items are constantly being mis-tagged and misplaced, so don't focus too much on the tags or section labels. I usually wear a small or medium but I still sort through large and x-large sections to see if I find anything I like. Some items that say x-large may have shrunk and now fit a size medium, or it may be something that can be altered to fit. 
5. Try it on. Absolutely never buy anything from a thrift store without trying it on first. Remember rule number 4: just because the tag says it's your size doesn't mean it will fit. Many items are donated to the thrift store because they have shrunk or stretched and no longer fit the way the tag says they should. Most thrift stores do not accept returns (although some will allow you to exchange your item for something similar within a few days of purchase), and even though it may only be three dollars, that's still three dollars that you wasted if you get home and find that it doesn't fit after all.  
6. Double check. If you find an item you want to buy, make sure you give it an extra good look over checking for any tears in the fabric or seams, loose buttons, or stains. 

Even following all these rules, there will still be times when you don't find anything worth buying at the thrift store. But, your chances of finding some great bargains will definitely increase if you give it the time and work. Happy thrifting!

How to: Sell on eBay

My husband and I have always lived pretty simply. Partly because we have never had much money, and partly because we just like a minimal lifestyle. We try not to gather too much clutter in our house and often are going through closets and drawers finding things that we don't need or don't use to give away.

Until recently, I always just donated things we didn't want to a thrift store. Then, when we were getting ready to move back to Utah we participated in a family garage sale with some friends. We didn't make a lot of money, but it was definitely more fun to make some money on our old things than no money at all. After the garage sale we still had lots of things we wanted to get rid of, but now with a taste of profit we decided we would try selling on eBay before just giving them away.

I won't pretend we have made a fortune doing this, but we have made money, and since it was on items that we had used up and would have given away anyway, it has been that much more rewarding. If you want to start selling on eBay, here are some thoughts to help you get started:

1. People will buy anything. You never know what someone might want, so don't throw something out just because you wouldn't buy it online. Since listing is free on eBay (although they do take a small percentage of the sell price) there is no harm in trying. The only exceptions to this would be if its an item you can't or don't want to ship, or an item that is very worn or damaged.
2. Charge for shipping.  When I first started selling things (mostly clothes) I had the idea that people would be more willing to buy it if I didn't charge shipping. But then shipping costs always ended up being more than I expected and I didn't come out making much of a profit. Once I started charging for shipping I found that people still bought my items. If someone wants the item enough, they won't mind paying a little to ship it.
3. Use descriptive titles. I have found that the more details I can put into the item title the more quickly it sells. So instead of listing your item as "black dress pants" say something like "Express Design Studio Black Dress Pants Women's Size 6 Long". It may seem excessive, but the more information a buyer can see right away, the more likely they are to click on your ad and buy your item.
4. Take adequate photos. I say adequate because it doesn't seem to matter that much. eBay is not Etsy (which seems to always have beautiful photos) and buyers seem less concerned with the quality of photos than the information the photos provide. If you are selling a book, for example, buyers will want to see the dust jacket, the front and back covers, the spine, the title page, the publishing date, relevant illustrations, and any wear and tear the book may have. The buyer will not care whether or not the book is displayed on a velvet cushion as long as there are enough photos to show them its overall condition.
5. Price right. eBay has auction and flat rate selling options. I almost always use auction because I like the possibility of getting multiple bids and making more money. However, the system will make suggestions to help you list your item and it often prompts you to start at a very low price if you use auction style. Then if you only get one bid you just sold that expensive sweater for one dollar. Despite what the system recommends, don't start your price any lower than you feel the item is worth to you (even if you are sure you are going to get multiple bids) that way you have no regrets when the item sells.
6. Be smart. eBay is a pretty safe marketplace, but there are still scammers. Use a paypal account to safely accept payment and report any strange emails, such as ones asking you to sell outside of the eBay interface, or asking you to ship to suspicious countries for extra payment. If you aren't sure about something contact customer service.

Selling on eBay is great way to make a little extra money, especially on items that you would have willingly given away! Give it a try and you might be surprised. 

P.S. I was not compensated in any way for this post, the opinions and experiences are completely my own! 

How to: Lengthen a hem

Of all the skills I have learned in my life (which may not actually be that many) sewing is by far one of the most useful. I have always loved clothes, but have never had much money to spend on them so being able to make my own clothes as well as alter and repair items has saved me a lot of money over time.

Most recently I bought this cute sweater dress on clearance at Target. It is so comfy but can also be dressed up or just worn casually so I felt like it would be a good addition to my closet. (Please excuse my lack of shoes).

 However, one of the problems I always have with dresses and skirts is that they are never quite long enough. This dress was close, but when I sat down came up just a little too high for my taste. Luckily, it had about a 3 inch hem, leaving plenty of room for me to take it down and add a couple inches in length. Plus the dress just used a regular straight stitch for the hem, rather than a blind stitch which is more common, making this alteration even easier.

Because I wanted to match the look of the original hem, I used extra wide bias tape. Bias tape is so easy to use and inexpensive. You can find it in just about any color and width at any fabric or craft store, or even at Walmart.

First, use a seam ripper to unpick the original seams and lay dress flat.

Next, lay your tape and fabric, right sides together, matching up the edges. You can pin if you want, but probably don't need to. Sew tape onto fabric, using the small fold in tape as a guide.

Trim off the extra tape and your dress should now look like this.

Turn dress inside out and fold up hem to desired length. I wanted the hem seam to be about the same as the original so I folded up the fabric about 3 inches.

Pin all around. If you have slippery fabric you may also want to iron your hem to make sure it stays put when you sew, but this knitted fabric was heavy and easy to keep in place so I didn't worry about ironing.

Depending on the look you want you would now either do a blind hem or a straight stitch. I am matching the original hem so I did I straight stitch as close the the top of the tape as possible. Then I flipped the dress right side out and did a second straight stitch, using the first as a guide and matching the look of the original hem.

Trim off any loose threads and you're all done!