The Process to Repurpose Clothing

Someone recently ask us "if we get all our shirts from the same wholesalers as the others?" (referencing vendors at a large flea market / Canton trades day.)

My response was "no ma'am, we fix up all of our own shirts." to which she was surprised and then said, "well y'all do great work" and picked a shirt off the rack and took it with her!

This conversation prompted me to outline the process and show you what all goes into repurposed and upcycled clothing.

If you read my last blog post and sustainability in our business, you learned that

According to the EPA, American discard approximately 13.1 million tons of textiles a year and only about 15 percent of that is reclaimed for recycling. This means that more than 11 million tons of textiles are dumped into landfills across the country each year. 

Keeping textiles out of landfills would save more than $375 million per year in fees alone. ($44/ ton to dispose of waste.)

Source 

• Our process starts by rescuing clothing. Almost every Thursday morning, Angea and I meet up at our favorite thrift store, then hit the road together, searching for any kind of good junk along the way. I'm always looking for flannels, denim jackets, vintage pearl snap shirts, lace, and any other fabric or clothing item that I think has the potential to become something more that it was originally. 
• I come home and most of the clothing goes straight to the washing machine, since I don't know where exactly it came from.
• After it's dried, it usually winds up in a laundry basket or hung on my clothing rack (in the living room, I might add!) waiting for inspiration to strike.
• The shirts have to tell you what they need. Sometimes they get bleached, others want lace added, or some fun graphics, or lately I've been combining some t-shirt graphics onto the button up shirts. 

Recently, I had a shirt that had a small rip towards the bottom of it, so I cut off the lower section of the shirt and added layers of lace to make it a one of a kind fun shirt.

Occasionally buttons or snaps have to be replaced.

I had a bunch of white shirts on hand and decided to give them a vintage look and dyed them a camel color, although each fabric took the dye differently and turned out shades of pink, coral, and tan in color. 

Sometimes there might be a small hole that needs patching or a spot on the shirt that I decide to cover up with lace or a graphic patch. 

For the distressed flannels, they go through a process of bleaching, rinsing, and run through the washing machine. 

For the shirts with the graphics:

• I have a paid subscription to a digital graphics site, that allows for commercial use (side note: you can't take images off of google and use it without proper licencing and many digital graphics are for 'personal use only.') 
• I "play" with the digital graphics till I come up with something I like. I have a few apps on my phone, that I do most of this in. 
• Next, I must get them to the Mac Book, so the images can be reversed and printed. (I can't reverse print from my phone or I would print from there.) This involves using drop box or email to get the image sent to computer and then downloaded to photos on conputer. My main computer and the printer I use for graphics don't jive too well, so even if I design on my computer, they still need to be sent to the Mac. The Mac Book was Jeff's computer and I should really learn more about using it and finding a design program on there... This is truly the most frustrating part of the entire process, but rewarding once it's complete. 
• Once printed, the patches are then heat pressed onto fabric.

Random tidbit here - when I first started my etsy shop, I was making caps and purchased a cap press on ebay. I didn't have much success with caps and I can't seem to give them away now, but I've still got the heat press and use it for patches now. I do wish for a flat press, instead of the curved hat press, but we are making it work right now, till we can get a bigger shirt press. 

• After the graphic patches are made, they can then be sewed onto shirts! 

Like I said earlier, I am always looking for vintage lace. It doesn't matter if its lace curtains, a table cloth, by the yard, white, ivory, skinny little dainty lace, flat lace, ruffly lace, lace trim...if I find it, it's most likely coming home with me! Once I bought a box at an estate sale that took over 2 hours to go through and sort it out and roll it up neatly, once I got home. They originally wanted to price the lace by the yard, and I ask for a box price - I can't imagine how long it would have taken to actually measure and record every yard of lace in the box and then figure the total price! If you're selling vintage lace at your estate sale - mark it by the box and I'll be more likely to take it off your hands, all at once! 

 Since I buy and rescue mostly vintage lace, there's only a certain amount of each style. The fun part comes when matching up the right lace, with the right shirt and having the correct amount to do the job! There's been a few occasions when I thought there was enough lace to go around the bottom hem of a shirt, although after pinning it in place, coming up an inch short. When that happens, I have to start digging through the lace and find an alternative style. 

My workroom gets to be a big mess when I'm adding lace to shirts! I have several tubs, buckets, and bags of trim, doilies, and hankies and I start digging for the right match, lace gets strewn all over my work tables and sewing machine! 

• Somewhere along the way, most everything gets ironed, tagged, and measurements taken.
• I include measurements of the width and length of each shirt, when describing them. I know from my own online clothes shopping experiences, that measurements help insure a proper fit, when I can compare to a favorite shirt in my closet. I have learned from taking the measurements that sizes vary so much between brands and styles. I hope this extra step helps you out! 

• Next comes photographing or videoing the shirts, so that I make them available to everyone, by listing them online or taking them to our booth. 
• After this process is complete, they are folded and placed in storage tubs until they are purchased and shipped out to you. 

It's a long process but I do get excited to create something new, fun, and one of a kind, with something that someone else was finished with. I know when I wear my unique shirts out, I always get compliments, so it makes me feel good that someone else likes my upcycled clothes and at the same time, we've saved textiles from the landfill! 

I hope this helps you understand the process we go through and I honestly feel like we have a very reasonable price on our upcycled shirts. The lady who originally ask the question about our clothes knew that our shirts were reasonably priced compared to many of the others who were purchased at wholesale. We had a sale going in our booth at the time and she got a bleached flannel for a 1/4 of what many boutiques sell them for. Our goal is to keep all of our items at a price point that is affordable to everyone and that is usually 1/2 of what many places charge for upcylced clothing. 

P.S. We are planning to do a LIVE Facebook Sale with some of the new shirts. Please stay tuned and watch for special announcements concerning the sale! Like and Follow my Facebook page to get updates and notifications. 

Sustainability in our Home and Business

April is designated at Earth Month and April 22 as Earth Day. Within our business and our personal home, we make many efforts to reuse and recycle items to be more sustainable. I recently listened to an Etsy Success Podcast about sustainability factors and how customers like environmental friendly shops and it made me think about things that we personally do to recycle and conserve resources.

For the love of junk. Reuse, Repurpose, Rescue... One of my favorite sayings and t-shirts from Suzy Swede.  

Things we do to reduce our environmental footprint:

• We work from home eliminating the need to commute daily.
• We coordinate our trips to get supplies, groceries, appointments, post office, etc. We never drive to town just to eat out. (In fact, we cook almost all our meals at home.)
• When leaving home, we always carry on own drinks. Personally, I've used the same stainless steel tumbler for two years! I'm lost without it. Occasionally, I do stop and get a drink if my travels take me out longer than expected and my cup runs dry. If we know we will be gone a while, we will both fill a thermos with additional water, tea, or coffee. 

Decorative tumbler wraps available in my shop. 

• We often carry a "grub bag," as Jeff calls it, when leaving home. Of course its a recycled container with an assortment of fruit, nuts, pretzels, etc instead of stopping at the store for a bag of chips or candy bar.
• We recycle barn tin for signs and my photo booth and many other projects. Most of the tin has been rescued and salvaged from my Granddaddy's old hay barn.

• We used only reclaimed items for flower containers in our yard. (see this post, including a video, demonstrating  how-to plant in rusty bottomless buckets.)
• Our gazebo was rescued from a trash ditch and all of the containers and chairs are second hand. Yes, really! The only thing store bought are the lights, hummingbird feeder, and some of the plants.  (Spring 2018 garden tour coming soon!)

• Almost all of the furniture in our house in second hand. (Only the kitchen table was purchased new and I regret doing that.)
• My camper is a 1959 model and almost everything in it is second hand. The exception being the 3/4 mattress, sheets, and a string of lights. 

• We search the thrift stores and estate / garage sales for vintage lace, clothing, and anything we can repurpose. Some of the lace in the wedding bouquets is vintage or second hand. 

• We upcycle and repurpose clothing. Some of my favorite outfits cost less than $5 and they are usually the ones that get the most compliments! 

(The Vintage Queen Collection is coming soon and will feature vintage lace and upcycled clothing, among other things. The fabric for the mocha satin roses in the bridal bouquet was cut from a bridesmaid dress. Also, vintage jewelry / brooches are included in the arrangement.)

  

Did you know:

According to the EPA, American discard approximately 13.1 million tons of textiles a year and only about 15 percent of that is reclaimed for recycling. This means that more than 11 million tons of textiles are dumped into landfills across the country each year. 

Keeping textiles out of landfills would save more than $375 million per year in fees alone. ($44/ ton to dispose of waste.)

Source 

We do our part to help eliminate part of the textile waste!  

Have I mentioned I love rust? (Currently in our Uniques and Antiques booth.)

• If possible, we recycle packing materials such as the air bubbles, paper, peanuts, and bubble wrap. If the packaging is clean and in good shape in boxes we get in, we reuse the packing on orders going out. Several family members will also save their air packs for us. If I come across a box of vintage patterns, I'll use the tissue patterns for wrapping wedding bouquets and pillows, instead of new tissue paper. You would be surprised how many old patterns have never been cut and you can find extra large pieces of tissue in them. 
• Most days, my mail carrier picks up my packages at home, saving me a trip to town and about 25 miles round trip. So thankful for my rural mail carrier and honestly sad she will be retiring this summer! 
• Many times, we use recycled glass vases or other containers for flower arrangements. (I will not sacrifice quality - they must be in good, clean condition or I won't use it.)
• Cans, scrap metal, and batteries are saved to take to a salvage yard.
• We monitor our electricity usage. Jeff is great about watching the sun and opening or closing blinds and doors at certain times of the day to either let the sun in on cold days or keep it out on the hot days. We try to run the clothes dryer at times when the house needs heating up (late night / early morning and avoid the middle of the day in the summer time.) I can honestly say our electric bill has gone down in the last few years, while many complain about higher bills. 
• We hand wash all our dishes. Its much quicker and doesn't use as much water as the dishwasher.
• We have 6 reusable grocery sacks. On top of saving plastic bags, they make it so much easier to tote groceries in the house.  Seriously, no slinking grocery sacks spilling out in the back seat or the pickle jar falling through the flimsy sack and busting on the ground. We usually grocery shop once a week and hit the farm supply store and check on all the farm animals on the same trip. 
• When I do get plastic sacks from stores, I save them up and take them to our favorite thrift store, so they can be reused or line garbage cans at home. 
• I've used newspaper underneath mulch, instead of black plastic in flower beds. 
• Food containers are often reused as paint trays. Just because it says cottage cheese or yogurt on the outside, many times it paint or stain on the inside! 
• We prefer glass jars to plastic for food storage.
• We have a small toaster oven - the best $1 ever spent at a garage sale! Cooking for two, it is perfect for us and many times we avoid turning on the "big oven". Our microwave went out 2 1/2 years ago and we've yet to replace or miss it and we honestly feel healthier without it! 

While I know there are still things we can improve upon, I feel like we do pretty well. We do discuss adding solar panels on future improvements. Jeff and I are constantly asking each other "what can we do with this?"

What are some of the sustainable things you do in your home or business?  

Frilly and Distressed Flannels

Hot of the Press! Literally, its super hot the last few weeks, while I've been working on new frilly  and distressed flannels. While working on the shirts, I have been dreaming of fall, pumpkin spice everything, cooler weather, county fairs, and fall mums, scarecrows and all things autumn!  Some of the flannels have lace, some have vintage doilies or hankies, some are distressed and destroyed, all are fun for fall and now available in my shop! 

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Not all the shirts are flannels, like this brown plaid western shirt.

This black and grey flannel would be great for wearing over your favorite school shirt and cheering on your team, on a cool Friday night! 

A little gypsy style, boho chic, frilly, fun, rustic, western, vintage, shabby chic...
Each as unique as you are!

Some of the shirts are long enough, the would be great as a tunic dress and layered with leggings, belt, and your favorite boots. 

Doily elbow patches! 

Sizes range from small through 3X. Please note that most of the flannels are men's sizing, so order accordingly. I do understand the inconsistency in clothes sizing (I have s-xl in my own closet). I have done my best to list the actual measurements of each shirt in their listings! Shirts were laid flat on my table and width measured underarms and length from point of shoulder to front hemline. Grab oneof your favorite shirts out of your closet and compare measurements, to get the perfect fit. 

Almost all of the shirts have been previously loved and broke in, repurposed in creative ways and looking for a new home. There may be some imperfections, but that's the wonderful part about all of us, right? Some are newer, hardly worn, some are very vintage and a little tattered. They are super comfy and looking for a new forever closet. 

(Any known issues, will be described.)

Don't be like the rest of them, darling. 

A special thanks to my very own Farm Boy, for stopping by my photo shoot last week and modeling for me! He kinda likes this motorcycle flannel! The distressed flannels would work for men or women.

There are lots more in my shop, so please go take a look for the current availability!

Angea and I are both excited about all the items we are working on for our fall markets! Of course, our clothing items will be there and you can shop in person and try them on. Please save the date and plan on coming to see us at the East Texas Yamboree and the Backwood's Marketplace! 

Fall in Love

Fall - its one of my favorite times of year! Pretty colors and slightly cooler weather is always welcome. Add my love for pumpkins, mums, scarecrows, and county fairs and its makes for a happy season. It also means it was time for a yard and gazebo makeover! I moved around some of my junk and added a few bronze and burgundy mums and went with white pumpkins this year. 

My little red rusty wagon has a load of pretty fall goodies. The creeping jenny, coleus and dianthus were already in the wagon, they just got moved around and some new companions. 

We got this old, folding wooden chair from an estate sale a couple weeks ago and it was begging to show off some fall favorites!

Mr. Scarecrow has been helping with some modeling jobs! Here he is sporting a turquoise burlap boutonniere. 

Here's a step back to see all the gazebo. For any of you new visitors, almost everything you see is rescued and repurposed, including the gazebo! We pulled it from a trash ditch several years ago. Of course, all my metal buckets, containers, the wagon, doors, bicycle and chair are second hand as well. Its true what they say: One mans trash is another mans treasure! 

This little scarecrows greets us with a Howdy! 

I've made a couple pumpkin wreaths and Mr Scarecrow helped display them as well . 

The pumpkin wreath above has sold, although the one below will be available at our Yamboree booth in just a couple weeks. 

I think autumn weddings have the prettiest wedding colors! I love the burnt orange, golden yellows, and shades of brown and the decorating ideas are so plentiful this time of year. 

A customer recently ordered the fall bridesmaid bouquet and boutonnieres to match her bridal bouquet she had ordered previously.

So, what are your favorite things about fall? The only thing I don't like about fall, is that winter follows it. If we could only skip the cold winter and go right back to spring...

Earth Day - Our Recycled Yard

Happy Earth Day! As many of you know, our yard is mostly recycled / upcycled. The only thing bought new in this picture was the lights and a few of the plants. I love to call it the junk yard! 

The gazebo was laying on its side, literally drug and pulled out of a ditch. The former owners had discarded two of them and our friend saw them and ask about them. As part of helping him get a gazebo home, we got one in the process and the transformation and decorating has been fun. 

These two hanging buckets, have rusted out bottoms! (See how I did that by searching on the side bar.)

Several years ago, I made the desision to stop buying flower planters. The only pots I buy, come with plants in them. No plastic pots are to be seen in my yard. Either the flowers are directly planted in old containers or I slip the pots down inside a rusty vessel. A little mulch goes along way to hide the plastic containers. The chives on the right or slipped into an old tin can, while the dish pan holds an assortment of flowers and herbs. The 2-3 year old dianthus is planted in an old crock that was rescued from a trash ditch. 

Framed oragano! The square planter is missing a peg foot, so it's now a hanging pot! The rusty frame came from an old wheel barrow. Once upon a time, it held flowers till the bottom rusted out. Not to throw anything away, the frame has found multiple purposes in my yard. 

A few roses from this morning. 

Another rusty wheelbarrow holds a load of hens and chicks. 

Wild petunias. These are growing out of the stone porch, but I let the wild things grow. No extra care or cost has been endured and they are pretty! 

So as you can see, we love our flowers and junk! How about you? Any recycled or upcycled containers in your yard? 

My new photo backdrop / bench / yard decor

This week, I've been working on a new photo booth. I was in desperate need of a new back drop to take pictures against, but I also wanted this piece to be functional, fit in with my yard decor, serve as a bench or add pillows and cushions or a mattress and have an outdoor day bed. Also, it had to be rustic, repurposed, mobile, and fun.  I'm talking multitasking furniture here! 

My old photo backdrop was collapsing. You may remember me fixing up this free dresser a few years back. When I got it, the top wasn't attached and it wasn't in the greatest shape. Although for outdoor use, the dresser served its purpose and made it longer than I expected. It was time for it to take it's sagging top and go away. (I did salvage the drawer handles, so all was not lost.) 

We actually started this back in the winter, but then it started freezing and rained for a month. I finally found a little time to work outside and bring my vision to life. 

The mister had the perfect bed frame on his scrap metal trailer and he shared with me! It's even on casters, so it can be rolled around. Last week, he got ask if he was part of the Duck Dynasty crew! Believe it or not, he started growing his beard before Duck Dynasty was a household term! 

I'll just go on and say, I love my battery powered chainsaw and yes, I used it to cut the boards! 

Meet my junky fun new piece that cost me absolutely nothing out of pocket to build! All the supplies were salvaged or purchased at a garage sale, waiting for the perfect project.

The head and foot board from an old bed was rescued from a curb last year. The chippy peely door came from garage sale, along with the grapevine. The boards on the base came for my granddaddy's barn. 

I slapped a coat of plaster paint on the head and foot board to freshen up their appearance and added lots of plants around the porch. 

It's been a nice spring week and I've enjoyed working outside some. I expect you will be seeing glimpses of my new photobooth a lot in the future. Now I'm thinking it needs a roof and a chandelier hanging up!