My (possibly over-confident) plan for the summer

Hey everybody reading this! You're great! You've come here just to read about my plan. So here it is.
A little while ago I purchased a book called Little Green Dresses by Tina Sparkles. And I must say, it is some kind of wonderful (remind me to start using that expression way more). Basically Tina challenged herself to make all of her own clothes out of repurposed clothes and fabrics that she already had in her closet/stash or bought secondhand. I was super excited by this idea because a) I'm like real poor guys, and b) Altering clothes and refashioning things was always the most interesting part of sewing to me. One of my very first projects was a skirt made out of some old cords. And one of my favourite stores (that I have never once been able to afford an item from) Preloved, does this very thing with all of their pieces.

So, with all that said, I am setting out on this same challenge myself. My plan is to follow her rules at least until the end of the summer. The Little Green Dresses Rules are:

• Any clothes in your closet on Day 1
• Clothes made, altered or refashioned by you
• Reused clothing and textiles from places like thrift stores and clothes swaps
• New eco and ethically friendly designer items
• Small amount of conventional items 
• Perpetual reincarnations of all items in closet

I'm actually pretty excited about this. Especially since I'm a pretty bad clothes hoarder and have a lot of old crap to work with and make it into lovely new crap. I also just raided my boyfriends stash of old crap today. For some reason, I kind of want to hang onto his old Blue Jays t-shirt. Don't ask me why. It's a pretty heinous t-shirt.

"$40? Don't buy that! I will make it for you myself! I promise!" - Mary McDonald making a promise she has no intention of keeping

Really? An elastic waistband, UO?
It's like you're not even trying.

 The above quote is something I say on most shopping trips I go on. I pretty much never follow through on this promise because a.) I usually forget that I promised you anything immediately after promising it/don't want to make you anything and pretend to forget the promise and b.) I am usually exaggerating the truth and could not, in fact, make that item myself. But once in a while, I follow through on this promise. Only when I make the promise to myself, and only when the item in question comes from Urban Outfitters. A company that knows that really cool people love the idea of second hand a lot more than they love digging through smelly racks of second hand clothing. They capitalize on this by creating their "Urban Renewal" pieces. And by "Urban Renewal" they mean, "Let's buy a bunch of shitty old clothes for cheap, wash the stink out of them, gussy 'em up a bit and sell them for a %600 profit." It's genious. It really is. But I actually own a sewing machine, UO. And I can recreate most things you sell in a few hours.

So I took this skirt, which would have cost me $40 and made it for $3. Literally $3.

It wasn't even hard. If you have a basic knowledge of sewing and own a sewing machine, you can easily whip one of these off in an afternoon.

You just take a large or XL men's shirt, depending on your size and how full of a skirt you want. I used an XL shirt and I ended up with a pretty full skirt. 

Then you cut straight across the shirt from armpit to armpit (you may have to remove pockets). The bottom part will be the skirt.

Use some of the rest of the shirt to make a waistband and sew one of the existing buttons and buttonholes to the waistband so you don't have to make a new buttonhole (it truly is the worst part of sewing).

Then, gather the skirt as much as you need to and sew it to the waistband and you are done!

Cheapest skirt I have ever owned. The best.

Mug Cake! Cake in a mug!

So, it's Saturday night and I'm having one heluva time. I made mug cake. Basically you put the ingredients in a mug and microwave it. Incredible! Here's how!

• 4 tbsp Flour
• 4 tbsp Sugar
• 2 tbsp Cocoa
• 1 Egg(s)
• 3 tbsp Milk
• 3 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 3 tbsp Chocolate Chips (optional)
•  a small splash of Vanilla

So, you put the dry ingredients in the mug first (a big mug) and mix it up. Then add the wet and mix it up and then add the chocolate chips if you're adding them. I recommend adding them though unless you have icing as well because the cake could be a little dry without them. After that you just pop it in the microwave on high for 3 minutes and you have cake. Just like that.

I couldn't even believe my eyes. Cake! In a mug!