Recycle Crafting: Runway Re-View Challenge

Taken with Lo-Mob app.

If you’ve been to CraftTestDummies even a handful of times, you know that I love to craft with found/recycled objects. (Or make “outsider art”- we don’t get hung up on semantics here.) I was invited to participate in a challenge for the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo- a “Runway Re-View”! Here were the challenge guidelines:

• Dress form was provided.
• 80% of the materials must be recycled.
• No more than $20 could be spent on the “new” materials.

….and really, that was about it!  I dug through my materials and decided to spend ZERO dollars on my piece- in other words, just to use those items that were already in my stash. Here are the items I used:

• Old men’s neckties
• Recycled denim jeans
• Discarded Doily
• Old sewing patterns
• Vintage Rick-Rack
• Rhinestone brooch- bought at a yard sale 4 years ago
• Gesso, spray mists, and sewing machine/thread

Now for the photos!

I cut the doily in half and decoupaged it onto the form as a bodice.

I cut off the skinny ends of the neckties and stitched them to the exposed seam from the jeans.

I added some rick-rack and “pennants” cut from the denim to make a skirt.

I used a bit of paint to highlight the lace in the doily, and added a denim “collar” with more denim and rick rack.

I pulled this brooch out of my junk jewelry drawer. Lovely, right?

Back. detail. The skirt has a snap and is detachable.

The title is “tongue tied”- taken from the name on one of the neckties.

So there it is! I hope if you go to the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo you’ll check it out. Click the link for locations and dates!