#70: Cat Clutch

Summer is here! I've got lots of new projects to post, but haven't had much time to post them, but that changes starting with today's post!

A while back I was reading my favorite upcycling blog www.NewDressADay.com, where the fabulous Marisa Lynch made a copycat Charlotte Olympia Kitty Clutch, which originally sells online for $995 (for that much, I sure hope that's real gold and diamonds!).

Charlotte Olympia Kitty Clutch

Marisa upcycled an old black clutch to capture the essence of the original cat purse. This is how hers turned out:

Marisa's version

When I found this shiny red clutch at the thrift store for $2, I was inspured to re-make the re-make!

I started by cutting out cardboard outlines of the eye shapes and tracing it with a pen on the flat side of the purse.

Cardboard eye

Outlined Cat Eyes

Then I outlined the rest of the cat face free-hand.

Cat face

I then took fabric matte paint and outlined the cat face.

Outlined cat face

I did not have any thin oval-shaped gems, so instead I used gems I had in my collection and slanted them to give it more character. I glued them on with fabric glue.

Eye gems

In order to make the ears, I cut out ear shapes from a red foam sheet.

Cut out foam ears

Then I painted them a brighter red to match the purse.

Painting, painting, painting

RED!

After painting it multiple times and letting it dry, I cut a small slit in the bottom, and folded the sides in opposite directions.

Cut

Fold oppositely

Then I used a strong glue to glue the folded parts to the top of the purse.

Supplies

Glued on each side

And that was that!

Here again is the original purse and my original piece:

$995 Charlotte Olympia Kitty Clutch

Before: $2 Thrifted Clutch

And here is how it turned out after!

After: Re-re-transformed cat clutch

After: Cat clutch

 

After: Cat clutch

My husband and I took my mother-in-law out for her birthday to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, Hollywood Wax Museum, and Guinness World Records Museum in Hollywood, and I decided to bring along my cat clutch and got some pretty awesome celebrities to show off my purse! Strung through with a turquoise necklace as a strap, check it out!

Reptile Man!

Fashoinable C3PO

Channeling Marilyn!

GROWL!!

Jolie pose

Ready for your close-up Mr. Freeman

I dream....of a cat purse!

Kristen Stewart sporting the latest fashion (this wax figure wasn't very good)

Thanks for the box of chocolates, Forrest :)

I'm queen of the world!!! WOOHOOOO!!!

"And it's so tasty too." ~Yuck!

"Make that change"

Which do you think is the better Michael?

Mother-in-law and I with Charlie's Angels!

You hardly look like yourself Mr. President!

Oh my! ;)

Ready for action!

Have you seen my movies?!

Nicholas Cage, ready to explore.

Cutting the house in two!

Doesn't look like Beyonce at all, but I still got down with my bad self!

Largest man ever recorded

It's-a ME!

And for my favorite model of the day:

Leanne, I AM YOUR MODEL!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Check back soon for more transformations.

Until next time, blessings.

#69: Teacher Dress

Hello. I've been sick for the past few weeks (finally getting better!), so I've been occupying some of my time at home with some new projects.

The first one I'd like to feature is this dress I bought for $1.99.

Before: Teacher Dress

Before: From behind

This dress had Teacher written all over it!  Especially these mismatch buttons.

Mismatch buttons

I like some prints, but floral always stumps me. There was a lot of floral length to this dress, but it had enough space between the flowers that I wasn't overwhelmed.

The first thing I did was remove the mismatch buttons.

No more mismatch buttons

After that I removed the sleeves and hemmed the arm holes. I also sewed darts at the bust to keep it from gaping.

Removing sleeves

I followed that up with removing about a foot and a half of length from the bottom and hemming it up.

Shortening the dress

Bottom hem

Two final details I decided to add were yellow gem buttons up the front, and sewing a red ribbon tie to sinch the empire waist to make the dress fit better without taking it in.

Yellow Gem Buttons

Red Ribbon

 At last, I took this dress from "Teacher" to "school's out for summer!"


Here again is the before look:

Before: Teacher dress

Before: From behind

And this is the new, fresh, Summer-y look!

After: Summer Dress

And with leggings (before I decided to add the yellow gem buttons):

After: Summer dress with leggings

After: Summer dress with leggings

After: From behind

I think I'd give myself an A :)

I hope you enjoyed today's post. Check back soon for more transformations!

Until next time, blessings.