No-Money Make-Overs Imagine With Me . . .

Well, first of all let's imagine that it hasn't been eight days since I last had time to visit this little blog of mine.  Pretend also that last week wasn't one of The. Most. Stressful. Weeks. Ever!  {That pretend is for my sanity.  Thanks.}  I had sick family last week.  Every. Single. Day.  I wonder if there will ever be a day that you can buy amoxicillin by the gallon -- like chocolate milk or something.  That's what I need this time of year so I don't have to run to the Minute Clinic every day. Also, Riley's play was Friday night, which he almost missed because he had a pretty good fever and ear infection going on.  He's a real trooper, but that story deserves a post all its own.  I think we finally finished the sets for the play Thursday night, just in the nick of time.  Add to that not having access to your money because the bank says your account is in bankruptcy.  {Ummmmmmm, no.}

But everything is great this week.  :-)  So now, imagine with me {because I forgot to take a photo} that you bought a super cute pair of canvas ballet flats.  They were a black and white flower print and they went with everything -- well, lots of things anyway.  Then imagine that you are going to see your brother-in-law compete in the Iron Man triathalon.  And it's a rainy day.  And you are trying to carry a large bag of snacks, a blanket and two folding chairs while shepherding seven children through a crowded park.  And it's dark.  So you step in a mud puddle.  And you're wearing those cute shoes.  And even though you rinse them out at home and send them through the washing machine they never regain their original cuteness.  Got it?  Mmmkay.  I couldn't bear to throw those cute shoes away -- they're still perfectly good shoes.  So I gave them a little makeover this weekend with black fabric paint and a couple of zippers.

Et voila!  They look like new shoes, and cuter than the original, if I do say so myself.  I painted them with a few coats of black fabric paint {which make them look like leather if you don't really look too closely} and hot glued on a couple of zipper ruffles and rosettes.

 Then, because the outside was so cute, I had to add that cute polkadot pattern to the insoles.  And now I love them again.  Yay me! {London Tipton in the house!  What!}

Now, imagine again that your daughter has a cute yellow sweater.  Kind of like this one:

but the dragonfly is gray.  And then imagine that, even though it was super cute, and your daughter was super cute they just didn't really go together.  The proportions were weird -- the sweater was too long and just a little too tight in all the wrong places.  So your beautiful daughter never really wore that cute sweater.  And also imagine she had a pair of gray yoga pants from the second grade that she still wore and you wished she wouldn't.  Got it?  Mmmkay.  I couldn't bear to throw that sweater away -- it was still a perfectly good sweater and my baby girl looks great in yellow.  So I gave it a little makeover this weekend by adding those old yoga pants to it.  {Sis was concerned, too.} It looks like it came straight out of Down East Basics and didn't cost us a penny.

I cut off the bottom edge about 1/2 inch above where the ribbed part started.  I also cut off about 6 more inches of sweater and sliced it open down the front middle.  {This is where Sis got really concerned.}  I flipped the bottom band over so the raw sweater edge was facing down {because it made a cute little ruffle detail that I liked} and reattached it to the bottom of the sweater with a long zig-zag stitch on my machine.  Then I cut the waistband off the yoga pants, removed the elastic, cut it in half and used that to bind the two middle front edges.  That also gave me about an extra inch and a half on each side so I could make it overlap and add buttons, but I didn't.  I liked it loose and open down the front, but the option is there in the future if I change my mind.  At this point it looked really plain and you know how I like to girly-things-up.  So I cut strips of fabric down the length of the legs of the yoga pants, gathered them up with my machine into pretty ruffles and sewed them down the front of the sweater, three on each side.

I started with just two ruffles, but my little sister, Leslie, suggested a third to fill the gap between the two which was pure genius on her part. And now that old sweater is as beautiful as the girly who wears it.  We made a matching flowery headband out of more of the yoga pants fabric to go with it, which is like the cherry on top of the sundae.  SO CUTE! Sydney likes it, but says she doesn't have anything that it matches.  I told her Clinton and Stacey always say that things don't have to match, they have to go.  And she looked at me like I was from another planet, but that's OK.  {Has she never seen What Not To Wear?!}  Plus she has jeans and a white t-shirt.  She'll figure it out.

Check this out.  It's awesome: