Maybe Matilda: I am the crazy cat lady.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

I am the crazy cat lady.

I went thrift store shopping (am I the only one who hates using "thrift" as a verb?) yesterday and brought home this treasure for $1.95:

PHOTO EXPLANATION: I feel like I should be more embarrassed to put this picture on the internet, but I'm hoping that it's a far enough cry from what I usually look like (key word: usually) that we'll all just get a good laugh . . . I started to crop my head out of it, but my husband glanced over and practically shouted, "DO NOT CROP THAT!" I took this picture right after I got up at 6 this morning, so those are my nerd specs, insane bedhead, and sleepy makeup-less face. But combine all that with the dress (lovely, is it not?) and the resemblance to this was just too good for me to keep to myself:
. . . I don't know why Jeff won't let me get a cat. What a jerk. 
Okay! Back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

The dress is clearly atrocious, but I loved the floral print and figured it was long enough that I'd have some extra fabric to play around with.

I hacked about 7" off the bottom, took the sides in by about 2", and used the extra length from the bottom to make short sleeves. Here's the finished product:

And I especially love it with a cardigan and belt for our still-chilly weather, and with the sash from my McIntosh dress:


Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I think it looks quite a bit like these more ($56 more!) expensive vintage-inspired floral dresses from Modcloth:

 dress on the left and dress on the right


I'd say that's $1.95 well-spent! If I'd only had hot cinnamon rolls to eat while I worked on it, this really would have been the ideal Saturday morning. Oh, and minus the "got up at 6" part. Then it would have been the ideal Saturday morning.

Linking here and here!

20 comments :

  1. oh ddddddddd-dear! Hahah! That was awesome! I love the top look best :) Total cat lady!

    Nice find!

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  2. I love the dress, and your crazy cat lady comparison. :)

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  3. That looks great! I love it the best with the big pink bow :) you are making me want to learn to sew!

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  4. I love it! The cardigan and pink belt make it too. So cute.

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  5. Oh. My. Goodness. You amaze me. Seriously amaze me. To be able to see something like that at a thrift store, and see through it's cat-lady-ness to it's potential!? Incredible. Can I be like you when I grow up?

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  6. What the?! You, my friend, are the dynamite! How in the world did you come up with that beautiful creation from the cat lady dress?! Amazing!

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  7. Looks great now! You have vision.

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  8. shut the front door! you are a sewing genius! love it... to my fellow "crazy momma" ! ;-)

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  9. I am wanting more and more dresses the more I read your blog! What kind of camera do you have? I am looking into getting a new DSL for my birthday!

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  10. Oh you are so clever! I just might have to take up thrift store shopping myself and pretend like I know how to use my sweing machine. Cutie blog!

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  11. Love it :) You are a talented girl! Thanks for linking up to Made With Love!

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  12. Haha cat lady! The one from Simpsons cracks me up. I'm highly allergic to cats but I'm loving the dress. I do this with dresses often when the invisible sipper breaks, I turn it into a skirt instead.

    Great idea!

    Dana

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  13. Wow! That is amazing how you transformed that dress!!! It was so horrible looking before and you made it look so trendy and cute!! Nice work!!

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  14. Haha! What a clever dress transformation. I bet mama simpson can't do that. I think you an adorable mummy, you will make your husband and kid happy, at least you made me laugh when I read your "about me". You don't have 3 million followers yet but you are closer to it than I am. Haha....following you from

    mythriftycloset.blogspot.com/

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  15. awesome! i love the pink bow. it's perfect. GREAT job!

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  16. WOW! So cute and an awesome transformation!

    Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. I'm now your newest follower and would love for you to keep coming back and join my followers, as well! :)

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  17. hahaha love the Simpsons crazy cat lady and LOVE what you did with the dress!

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  18. Oh geez, that first picture is so eerily creepy. But you are so adorable in the other ones....and always! What a contrast.

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  19. Oh my goodness! This is phenomenal! Excellent, excellent work! I am humbled by your eye for turning an ugly 90's into this sweet sassy little number! Love it with the cardigan too. Just so you know, I totally love using "thrifting" as a verb...can't help myself! Come pop by my blog sometime, www.icantstopcrafting.blogspot.com

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Thanks for commenting!

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