Create with Care: How to Make a Skirt out of a Thrift Store Dress

 It's Earth week!

I think it's about time we had another "Create With Care Post!"

Create with Care: How to Make a Skirt out of a Thrift Store Dress
Hello everybody! My name is Claire, and I’m here as part of Rachael’s “Create With Care” project to talk about ways you can be more eco-friendly while creating!
There are lots of big environmental problems out there, and trying not to contribute to them can be overwhelming. That being said, it’s easy to change your lifestyle a little bit at a time. One piece of advice that I constantly give is to consciously choose to consume less.
Don’t buy something unless you absolutely NEED it. Most products in the United States (even food!) have traveled thousands of miles, and burned thousands of gallons of fossil fuels, to reach our stores. Yuck.
But it’s unrealistic to stop buying completely. When you need something, try buying it local or used! Check out your local thrift store! These shops are wonderful – they’re making sure that our slightly-used items don’t end up in a landfill.

And if you’re itching to buy some new clothes … try making your own! I get compliments on my recycled skirts all the time, and I love sharing how easy they are to make!

 Try it yourself - I’ve created a tutorial on how to make a skirt out of a thrift store dress. It’s super easy, super cheap, and the environment will thank you for it!

You will need: 1 thrift store dress, 1 piece of elastic slightly smaller than your waist, and thread.
 

Step 1. Bike to your local thrift store and buy a dress. It doesn’t matter if the dress is too big on you, but stay away from dresses with side slits. Figure out how long you want your skirt to be, and then cut the dress in half so the bottom part is a little bit longer than your desired length.

Step 2 (optional). Hem the top part (where you just cut). I fold over about a half inch of fabric and sew it down to ensure that my skirt doesn’t unravel in the future!

Step 3. During this step, you’re going to create a waistline where the elastic will be inserted. Fold over the fabric you just hemmed to create a waistline slightly wider than the elastic. Make sure the elastic fits inside the space! Sew along the bottom, but leave an opening to insert the elastic. 

Step 4. Insert the elastic in the waistline you just created. This part takes some time. I find that scrunching the fabric helps, you just need to ease the elastic through.










Step 5. Now is a good time to safety pin the elastic ends together and make sure that the skirt fits you. If it does, sew the ends of the elastic together! I was sloppy with mine, oops.

Step 6. Sew up the opening you inserted the elastic through.
Ta-da! You now have a recycled eco-friendly skirt! Enjoy!

Creating With Care: Inside My Studio

Hey everyone!

This post is a little late, I don't normally post so late in the day..

Today has been a pretty rotten day. 

But, I'm going to show you some of my favorite supplies.

They are eco-friendly, and recycled. 

These are great money-savers, which is good...

because the primary reason today has been so awful is,

I lost my job.

I won't get into details on that, instead I will focus on my favorite things.

Painting, and painting with fun supplies.

As you know, I do a lot of stuff with mixed media.
I put a lot of layers and texture into my paintings. 

Here are some of my favorites:

This is a sequin stencil. It's the waste left over from sequins.

 It's great for art stamping, and collage work. 

This piece was given to me by a friend, but these aren't that hard to come by.

When we moved, we noticed an incomplete deck of cards.

I think I fished this deck out of the trash, and have been using card pieces in my work ever since.

I save all of my scraps. 

These could be easily thrown out, or seen as trash, 

but I try to use every single scrap or paper, or fabric.

I'm always the one at Christmas who asks for the ribbons, and tags and tissue paper. 

Tissue paper makes great texture in a painting, and the colors will sometimes even run.

This is actually a shelf/rug liner. 

Sometimes, when you put these in the dryer accidentally, they tend to get a bit ruined.

For holding down rugs that is.

I use this like a big giant stamp. It creates fun bubbly textures.

This is a canvas wrapper.

It's basically just cellophane, and could be considered trash.

This is one of my favorite ways to create texture very easily.

Just use a very watered down paint, and apply crumpled up cellophane for a moment.

It creates abstract texture, but can also be used on rocks and tree bark.

This painting has antique lace on it.

I found some tattered lace at an antique store,

the sides were frayed, and it couldn't be used for much.

I bought it, and have used it in many paintings.

These are some of my favorite brushes to use.

They've obviously seen better days.

I think I left the giant orange one in mod-podge a little too long.

But, they are great. I try to never throw brushes away, 

unless they are totally falling apart.

Do you have a favorite recycled or echo friendly art supply?
Visit the Create With Care page!

This painting was done using many of the supplies shown above.
As was this one. 

"Shy but Spirited" will be available in the shop by this evening.
Only the original is being sold.
It's 5x7 mixed media for $46.00
If you'd like to reserve this painting before it's up for sale in the shop, send me an email here!

Creating With Care

 Hello everyone! Happy April First! 

This post is not a joke.. 

Today, I'm introducing a new project to you. 

"Create With Care"

"Create with Care" is a project to challenge all artists
  to bring more ecological consciousness into their work.

 
This endeavor was born when I announced that I was switching to all organic foods and products.
A blog friend, Yaga contacted me about it, and we got to planning.

We both got pretty busy, and had to push the launch date back a few times.. but today is the day.

Here is the "About" section of the website.

The project is the result of Yaga and Rachael's pledge to switch to a more sustainable daily practise in their lives and especially in their art.
 
We know that such an endeavour can feel overwhelming on first sight.
Our idea was to create a group of likeminded people who could support each other with ideas, information and motivation. Together, step by step, we will turn our art a little more green.
 
The Caring Artist Project will run from April 1st to April 30st 2012. In the course of that month, we will look at a different aspect of our creative practise every week.
Yaga and Rachael will post resources, ideas and inspiration on their blogs, but each and every one of you who is participating is invited to share their own knowledge and thoughts and link up their posts in our linky list.
 
Because art is about life, about beauty. Art is an expression of life itself. And without our home planet, there will be no life and no relation to our art.
 
Let's nurture this world so that it may nurture us, our inspiration and our creativity!

Stay tuned tomorrow, because I will be going through my studio
to show you some of my favorite supplies, products and ways to recycle through art. 

Grab a button, to show you create with care! 

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