Author Archives: Kat

About Kat

I started this blog to share with you all the results of years of turning trash into treasures. Hopefully I'll spark some new creative thoughts and if that happens I hope that you'll share your discoveries and together we’ll build a blog that will singlehandedly reduce global warming and save the world! Okay, maybe that’s a grand goal but we should be able to at least downsize our own trash output.

Pop CanTabs – DIY Double Clothes Hangers

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Do you save those little tabs from your soda cans? Would you believe that my pop tab collection is getting bigger than my wine cork collection?. I’m always looking for ways to reuse pop can tabs and recently I figured out that you can use them to create double clothes hangers. This idea is making my morning loads easier. I can put together outfits when I’m in the mood, when I pull them out of the laundry, or just the night before when I know I’m going to have a tight morning. It also saves on closet space 🙂

All you do is slip one of the pop tab rings over the top of the clothes hanger and then use the other tab to hold another hanger with the other part of your outfit.

Gray Cardigan Refashion

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droopy and shapeless

I had this cardigan which while I liked the material it was made from I always wore it belted because otherwise it looked a little dated.

pretty details - but pretty boring as a whole

I had another cardigan that was almost the same color. This one was cropped and I NEVER wore it except maybe once in 2001.

one little insert - one big change

I cut up the shorter cardigan to make an insert that I stitched in place in a triangle shape under the right arm.

view from the side

I cut up more of the short cardigan to make a long rectangle that I stitched to the top of the collar of the longer cardigan creating a wide piece that I could wrap around and toss over my shoulder. The triangular insert under the right arm gives the sweater room for me to wrap it and throw it over my shoulder.

view from the back

 

view from the front

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Embellished Plaid Tunic

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left shoulder detail

I picked up this over-sized plaid shirt at a garage sale. So sorry but my before pic didn’t turn out. This was an easy refashion but I wanted to show it to you all so you can see how some very simple changes make something much more wearable.

I took in the shirt by running a stitch up both sides from the hem to right under the arm, tapering it out to meet the old seam at the arm hole. Then I stitched another line from the cuffs to the top of the shirt, tapering it out to meet the old arm hole.

I had some appliques in my stash that matched this top perfectly. I hand-stitched them to each shoulder, going for an asymmetric look rather than trying to make them look exactly the same. Add a belt and my fifty cent garage sale purchase is now a cute new tunic.

right shoulder

 

the whole shabang

 

 

 

Paisley Poncho

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I’ve been into taking scarves that I love but never wear and making them into clothing that I will wear. This scarf was a large square which I folded in half so that it was a triangle. I cut a long oval at the folded edge of the triangle that was big enough to slip over my head. I was a little too ambitious with my cut though and it was way too big. I tried gathering the neckline to the right size and while that worked well it didn’t look very good. Solution: I left it gathered and used the sleeve from a workout jacket which I no longer wear to make a collar for my poncho

a little off-the-shoulder action

 

twisted rose at the shoulder