A Little Update So As To Not Be A Slack Blogger

I'm currently researching a big, fancy, journalistic-type blog post, which you may have an idea about if you follow me on the Twitter-machine.  It's not left much time for blogging about other things, but I thought I'd share a little bit about my op shop trip last week.
I went to Lifeline looking for something suitable to wear to a job interview.  I didn't find anything, but I did find this:

I saw her and immediately I was flooded with memories of my mother's aunt, one of my best friends and favourite old people as a child.  She loved dolls, Asian-inspired art, musical instruments and antiques.  As this doll is all of those things, I had to get her.  I took a deep breath and hoped whoever had priced her didn't know what dolls like this are worth and what a collector will pay.  I picked her up and turned her over to find the price sticker... $1.50!  If it is possible to smile audibly, I'm sure I did!  I went right to the counter and bought her.  I took my new little sister to the cafe with me and she sat on the table and "played" for me while I had a coffee.
On my way home, I stopped in at the Asthma Foundation op shop, and found a book by one of my favourite writers, Maeve Binchy, for $1.
All in all, a good day op shopping.

Lots of love to you,
Cassandra Louise.

Op Shop Hop - Maryborough Queensland

I've been in Maryborough to visit my pets, and also my parents are here.  I'm going back to Brisbane tomorrow, so today my mum and I went on an op shop hop around town.  We both found some great things, as well as some great things which we couldn't take home or didn't need but thought were wonderful.

Our first stop was the St. Vinnies shop on Kent Street.

 We chose a good day!  The "special" on the board today was:

Which is perfect for me, as I am a lady and wear tops.  I looked through the racks inside to find four tops that would fit me and were cotton.  The ones I picked out had an original sale price of this:

So I felt $10 for the lot was a great deal, especially since even the cheapest top I chose would have been over $10 new.
I chose this one, which is my new favourite top, so you can't tell me if you don't like it:

Along with these three:

Along with the four shirts, I found a nice cotton dress with pockets for $5.  I couldn't find anywhere to take a full length photo, so you'll have to believe me that it's about knee length.

I won't show you everything that Mum got for fear of making the longest photo-based blog post ever, but I must show you this sari* that she got for $4.

*Not being worn as a sari in picture, really just making me a beautiful speckled purple ghost

Other things of note at Vinnies included all these wonderful plants from $1!

This organ, with a stool for only $40.

And children's books for 50c each or 4 for $1 from this basket

Our next stop was the Salvos shop in Alice Street, on the corner of Bazaar Street.

Where the "special" this week is:

Mum was after manchester, so this was very good for her.  It's quite hot so we didn't even want to think about long pants existing, but it's great for anyone looking to stock up for Winter.

One thing really caught my eye in here, which was this two piece outfit, obviously home made but fits me like it was made for me!  It was $6 for the set.

And it looks like this on me:

Again, couldn't get a full length picture, but the skirt goes down to my knees.

Other things of note at the Salvos shop included these toys from 20c each, some with their original tags still on, averaging $1.

This beautiful bassinet for $40

And this 60cm long fish tank for only $20!

Third stop of our op shop hop was St. Paul's op shop in Adelaide Street.

My favourite thing at this shop is always this clothing rack at the door.  It always has a mix of women's, men's and children's clothing and each item is 50c.

Mum bought some candle holders here, $2 for a set of 4, and some fabric.  I found a book I wanted which was priced at 50c, but they threw it in for free with Mum's stuff.  Score!

Our final stop was the Lifeline shop, also in Adelaide Street

.They also had an excellent special on ladies' tops, but I already had four so I tried really hard not to look at any as I have to get all the stuff I buy home to Brisbane.

Inside, they also had a special on dresses, $5 each.  I got this pink dress which was marked down from $8!  It goes down to my ankles and is delightfully cool and breezy to wear!

Other items of note at Lifeline included 50c books.  SO MANY BOOKS!

These lovely dinner plates at $1 each:

And this big bin of green thongs (footwear, not the ahh... other kind) for 50c/pair, new!

If I didn't have to get everything back to Brisbane, I would have bought so much more... including that $40 organ, which I'm a bit in love with even though I never even saw it with the lid up.

Happy Op Shopping!

Cassandra Louise.

Some of my Favourite Op Shop Posts

For the purpose of this post and others like it I may do in the future, "op shop" will mean op shop, thrift store, secondhand shop, true vintage shop and any other place you may get "pre-loved" clothing, toys and homewares, including online.  I fished some really fantastic things out of the bin at a sharehouse I was living at, once, and I am extending "op shop" to include things like that, too.

This post is essentially a list of blog posts which I have found especially inspirational or inspiring.  In some cases I searched through many posts by a particular blogger to find just the right one, in some cases I knew exactly what post I wanted to feature before I even started.  I hope from here you get some wonderful, inspirational ideas!
They are in no apparent order save for the order I found/rediscovered them.

First, a little shameless self-promotion with this post of my own: Things You May Not Know About Charity Op Shops

2. This post about clothes swapping by Agy: Have You Been To A Fashion Swop?

3. Thrifted maternity wear with Erica: Human Friendly Fashion Blogger Outfit- Maternity Edition

4. This one at I Love To Op Shop, in which I quite like the ugly clock: How Ugly is my Clock?

5. This adorable collection by Op Shop Mama, as I'm a sucker for a kid's xylophone: But Wait, There's More!

6. This one by Ali, because she opens with a delightful pun: Confessions of a Serial Shopper

If you enjoy reading these, let me know.  I would love to make another list for you.  Lists are cool.
I was a bit sad that some of my all-time favourites are from blogs that have been taken down.  Boo! :-( Lots of gems here though, all from blogs that are still up and have a lot of interesting content. :-)

Do you have a favourite op shop post or thrift blog?

Signed with love,
Cassandra Louise.

My first ever refashion project!

(Remember to click on pictures to see them better)
On a sunny day down town a few short years ago (ok, so they were regular-length years) I bought this T-shirt, which I still really love to this day.  It's impossible not to love it, it has a little kitty-cat wearing a tiara on it.

(it is a fact that adorable kitten is adorable)

There's one problem with this shirt now:

As I'm not desperately seeking a date to a high school dance, I think it's a little tight...

My first thought was to cut the kitten off and sew it on a new shirt, but then I thought about all that wasted fabric, and so I decided I'd just make the shirt a little bigger.  I thought I could take the sleeves off and put some panels of fabric in the sides.

I proceeded to look through my fabric boxes, but I couldn't find anything large enough that was the right colour and cotton or similar to cotton.

Then I thought to go through my old clothes.  I have two bags of clothes that I thought needed minor repairs before heading to the op shop.  In the first bag, I found this skirt.

It's a children's size 14, which means it's designed to be about ankle length on a twelve-year-old.  I always loved that skirt, and it's the same shade of blue as my kitten shirt, so here's my chance to preserve both!  I'll make my kitten T-Shirt into a dress!

I was a bit nervous, as I'm good at using things for other purposes, but I wouldn't say I sew.

 This skirt is a dress.

This wheelbarrow is a baby's cradle, also it is full of plants.

 I also have a tablecloth poncho, a milkshake glass vase and shot glass candle holders, among other things...

But the last thing I sewed was this button:

Which looks great until you turn it over:

And I would be hand-sewing this dress, as I don't have a machine (and don't really like them).

But I set forth!  First, I cut the hem off the shirt, for easy unpicking.  I kept the hem, because you never know when you'll need bits in art and craft.

Next I prepared the shirt by unpicking the side seams and unpicking the sleeves:

Next I put the shirt on to work out how much of the skirt fabric I would need for the panels.

Then I cut the top off the skirt so it would lay out flat, and cut the bottom off the skirt to make the panels.  I took a little extra off the bottom in case I needed the fabric, but made sure the dress would still be knee-length.

I worked out how long I would have to cut the panels by measuring them against the laid-out shirt, bottom of the arm hole to a little bit past the bottom of the shirt.

I hemmed the tops of my panels (which will make the bottoms of my armholes.  The rest of the armhole doesn't need to be hemmed, as the fabric doesn't fray) and pinned them to one side of the shirt, "faces" together.

I sewed both panels to the front of the shirt before sewing them to the back.  Sewing the second side was more fiddly, especially since I'd used extra "in case" fabric, but it looked like this:

And like this on:

Which is certainly an improvement!  But now to make it a dress!

I pinned and sewed the front of the skirt first, rather than just go all the way around, as the skirt has two pockets on the front, and I wanted to keep them on the front, you see.

(front of the skirt sewn to front of the shirt.  About to sew the rest)

Next to hem the skirt.  I ironed it out as flat as possible and put a little chalk mark at the edge in line with the shortest part of my jagged cut.

(chalk mark)

I cut the bottom more evenly and turned the dress inside out over the ironing board.  I ironed and pinned the hem as per usual, and then proceeded to sew all the way around it.

As for that shirt hem I saved, it's a choker necklace, now.

And here's the finished dress!

It was actually quite fun to do, and I can say I made a dress by hand! :-D

Lots of love to you,

Cassandra Louise.

PS- I fixed up that button, too.  It now has a lovely back. :-)