Upcycling Stuff from a Thrift Store, Part:1

Upcycling at a Thrift Store

Another month, another rushed blog post. 
This year, I have been trying to reduce waste as much as I can. I enjoy the challenge of reducing waste and reusing things that can be salvaged. A lot of things you can easily reuse are at thrifts stores. The source for most of the stuff I try and reuse are from a Thrift store/ food bank that I volunteer at. It's a great place to find treasures or fun things to try and upcycle. As my mom says, "it's a treasure hunt". Lately, we have been getting a lot of donations in because of Spring Cleaning and deaths in the family(sadly). Though I love looking through donations, they can be overwhelming sometimes. And when overwhelming times hit, the easiest thing is to throw the unsellable ones away without a second thought. That's a point where we are at BAUCM. We have had so, so many donations in that it's hard to keep up with it. 

Reusing unsellable clothes

Though we aren't zero-waste ambassadors or anything like that, we do our fair share of reusing things. When looking through donations, we see our fair share of unsellable things; basically clothes with stains, holes and just plain disgusting. What we do is take them and cut them up for rags for a lady who has a son who is a mechanic. It's very good thing. As for me, I like taking clothes with nice patterns that happen to have stains or holes on a part of it(which we don't sell), and I use the salvageable part to sew with. Another thing that I do is cut zippers off of unsellable clothing. They are still usable, so I keep them; they are practically free. 

Repainting

Scripture Wallhangings

The last month or so, another volunteer and I have been upcycling frames to make them sell. She stains the wood frame while I paint on the cardboard and make scripture wall hangings. I really enjoy making them and I do hope they sell. I love Proverbs. They are very practical, true, and great for wall hangings. They are great for wall hangings because a quick look at them can encourage you throughout the day.

top: Proverbs 3:3, Bottom: John 14:6

Proverbs 3:6

Coasters

Earlier this week, I repainted a pair of coasters. When we first got them in, I knew I was going to repaint them. They are a mix of wood and marble(I think it's marble). I taped off the marble and did color-blocking with acrylic paints in various colors on the wood; I left a part of the wood bare. It says United Healthcare Services, but I'm not sure if I care about that. I'm not sure they will be suitable for coasters anymore because I didn't seal them, but they are nice to look at. I love the white flowers on the black background. The hardest thing about it was that I didn't tape it correctly and I didn't mark where the colors were going to go, so I got confused with where each color was supposed to be. Because it wasn't too important where the colors were going, I just went with it and it turned out nice. 

Before and After


Clothes and Sewing

I haven't been sewing much lately because my sewing machine is being serviced at the moment; my small purple one is not as efficient as my Pfaff. My mom and I have been planning to take it to a repair center, but we keep forgetting. I saw this dress come in last week and I love the style so much. I love that it has short-sleeves(instead of sleeveless) and the flowy skirt on it. It's so beautiful. It's a 3x though, and I don't really want to alter it. I'm sure some lady is going to buy it soon(at least I hope so). 


So, instead of just yearning for it, I have decided to try and recreate it once my sewing machine is fixed. I found a grey lace shirt and a floral skirt that I am going to try to combine to make it into this dress. I'm excited. I'm almost positive that it's going to work out.


Grey Lace Top
Colorful Skirt bottom

I made a wallet with a placemat. It has sunflowers on it and it is so, so cute! I got another placemat to make another(more functional) wallet because the sunflower one doesn't have a clasp or a place to put coins. 
Sunflower Wallet


Worthy Subject #2

Conclusion

So, yes, I am going to make a part two because I have unfinished business. I can't wait till I get my machine fixed so I can start back sewing. 
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