Salvaged Jeans

Somehow I manage wear holes in my jeans on a regular basis. I'm sure it has plenty to do with being on the carpet with my kids a good portion of the day! Sometimes the rest of the jeans are wearing out too, so the hole isn't that big of a deal, but a hole in a pair that still had plenty of wear remaining, and I am super bummed!

Patching a hole from the inside never looks right to me, and just patching the one little hole would have drawn attention to the fact that it was there even more so. When I was doing an internet search about patching jeans, I came across several different "patchwork" styles (for examples look at various designer brands, Hot Topic, ArtFire, and even eBay).

I decided the patchwork look would be easy enough for me to make, but I still wasn't sure that I could pull it off style-wise! After getting the advice of my fashion-loving sister (who happens to live in Miami), I decided that I really liked how my "new" jeans turned out!

After getting ideas from some different websites, I ended up using a pair of my daughter's jeans for inspiration also.

I really wish I had done a better job documenting the process along the way because it was so easy! I had a very small (less than 1 inch) hole in one knee, but the other knee was thin also, so I realized I needed to reinforce both sides of the pants. I have saved every worn out pair of jeans we've gone through, and was finally able to put them to good use!

I cut a bunch of square-ish pieces from different wash jeans, then pinned them onto my jeans to see how it would look. I even worn the jeans while I was pinning the pieces over the knees because the knees were fairly stretched out, so leaving them flat would have made the patches not end up sewn on evenly.

I used my sewing machine and stitched around each patch, and then helped tease out the material to create more of a frayed look. This ended up being kind of an extra step, since I sewed over top of these when I patched the jeans.

The most time-consuming part of this was sewing the patches to the jeans, but it was so worth it because I love the finished product!

My husband took a bunch of pictures for me one evening, and he had fun getting me to pose (something I feel extremely awkward doing!). I wanted to do a whole second-hand "salvaged" outfit for you...I think I got everything from Goodwill over the past 2 or 3 years. The jeans are Gap (paid $2.50), the sweater is j.Crew ($3.50), and the books are knock-off Uggs (less than $5).

What do you think? Do you like the patchwork look?

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Secondhand Spring Clothing

Now is a great time to start looking around at resale stores for spring and summer clothing! (And of course it is also a great time to look for end of year clearance sales on winter clothes for next year).  Many of these places are beginning to put out the warmer weather styles now, so the selection is really good.

We walked into Goodwill the other day just to take a look around and I ended up finding 2 things for myself within the first minute of browsing...I love it when that happens!

American Eagle shorts for $3.50

and a skort (I didn't realize it was a skort until I tried it on!) for $3.50.

That's a lot of plaid!

Goodwill is also my favorite place to shop for jeans. I have gotten to be pretty snobby about the jeans I get now...usually Gap (some American Eagle) and always $5 or less!

Sometimes it is frustrating to go into a thrift store and only see "junk", but sometimes you can get a little creative and turn that junk into something you can really use! My favorite Goodwill transformation is this mirror.

Have you found some spring clothes secondhand lately?

My favorite place to buy jeans

I picked up 3 new pairs of jeans yesterday, 2 pairs from Gap and one from American Eagle.

Cost if I had bought them new: probably upwards of $75, if I found a good sale

Cost at Goodwill: $5 each, $15 total.

The Goodwill here in Middletown doesn't organize by size any more, which makes it more challenging to find something that fits, but not impossible. I love looking for jeans at Goodwill; the selection is huge, there are many different brands, and you can't beat the price.

My method is to keep the looking quick; I flip through the jeans looking for brand names. If its a brand I'm looking for, I check the size. I try to grab 5 or 6 pairs to try on, hoping for one or two of them to fit. I got lucky yesterday finding 3 at once! I am a quick shopper, so it only took me 10 or 15 minutes to get in and out, since I knew what I was looking for.

Have you found any great deals on clothes at Goodwill?

Brand new toy - Second hand price

Yesterday I spotted this while taking a quick look through the local Goodwill:

Its a brand new (still sealed) Bristle Blocks basic set. The sticker priced it at $17.49, but Goodwill was selling it for $8.50. I looked online quick and found $15 to be a normal price for this toy in stores, so I got it for about half price.

Our Goodwill often will have brand new, unopened items for sale. I believe that they receive shipments from Target, which is where many of these items originate. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that other Goodwills receive donations from stores as well.

Have you something brand new in Goodwill or another second hand store? Yard sale season is starting up too, which can be other way to get new or even just gently used items for a fraction of their original cost. Happy hunting!

Goodwill Project

I found this at Goodwill. I really like the basic premise of the piece (three openings with mirror and pictures, and of course the three hangers underneath) but it was white and we're dark wood people...


and it was pretty cruddy

But I figure for $5.50 it could make a good project!

The back came off and I popped out the flower pictures and the mirror, sanded the wood (the frame was real wood, which was great!), and cleaned the mirror. I used black paint that I got for free as a sample. It took between 2 and 3 coats to get the quality that I wanted, probably because I just sanded the white paint instead of removing it.

Those cruddy flowers needed to go too, so I am planning to use some credit I have saved from Shutterfly to order prints of photos my sister took. She's a photography student and genius with a camera, and I take every opportunity possible to showcase her work! While I'm waiting for the new prints though, I put in 2 of her other pieces, these she printed herself. They are not sized for the frame, so its not perfect, but you can barely tell.

Me and my husband at the beach

And our daughter at 4 days old

I'm learning to decorate more purposefully, so I tried to add a little color to the black and white of the wall hanging with this dried rose and red ribbon.

What do you think?

I love how the red pops, and ties in to the red walls we have in the living room and the red stripes in the pillow. The toys give everything a warm "lived-in" touch cause, well, we do live here too :-)



This is my first time linking up to Do it yourself day @ A Soft Place to Land. Tons of DIY projects will start appearing tomorrow night. Check it out!