Thrift shop find makes nice summer dress

This lovely blue dress I got for a few dollars in the local Goodwill Thrift shop last year.  And, inspired by the Refashionista , I fidgeted with it on the sewing machine and this is how it ended up!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of what it originally looked like!          But it had blousy elbow-length sleeves, hung down to around my ankles and was way too wide or basically hideously hanging on me.   It was probably a Medium size and needed a slash down from me.  But I loved the almost periwinkle blue color and its pattern, the V-neck, the shiny shell like buttons and how light and summery the fabric felt.  So I chopped the sleeves and made them into little cap sleeves, took in the side seams about an inch each and hacked about 6 inches off the hem.  That piece I turned into a belt that you can see tied around the waist.  I think it came out all right!   It's easy to wear in the summer heat and washes and dries quickly as the fabric is some sort of light weave. 

Summer Bed Cover From Old Embroidered Handkerchiefs

I'm not sure I wrote about this sewing project already but since it's summer and I've put this back on the bed it's worth explaining.  When we cleared out my mother's house when she died, I came across a stack of handkerchiefs that were very pretty and embroidered.  It turns out a lot of these handkerchiefs and small table mats that had been embroidered by my father's sister, my Aunt Margaret, so I decided to keep them with the idea of using them in a crafts project. Some of the handkerchiefs in the stash also had manufactured embroidery on them but also were very pretty, so I kept them too.  I googled some Pinterest projects involving old vintage handkerchiefs and decided to lay them all out on the ground to see if they suggested anything.  So I realized I had quite a few pieces and that I could use them as decoration on a bed coverlet. I had a fine linen sheet from my mother-in-law that was a one-of and so it was perfect for this project.
 It took me a long time to actually piece and lay out all the handkerchiefs.  I pinned them out and then steadily worked my way through stitching them down.  This took quite a while as it was hard to manage a big sheet on my sewing machine which is not one really designed for large projects like this.  But I finally finished it and felt quite proud of myself for recycling,  and reusing these items.  And it's a very practical and light summer bed cover as well!