A Shirt I Made+The Rest of my Outfit

The other night I was bored and Race was out and about somewhere so I decided to make a shirt using this tutorial. Mine didn't turn out nearly as cool but it is super comfy! And I still want to add a pocket to it which might help it look a little cooler. It is super easy to make and I had the fabric on hand so it was a fun project for the night. And I'm going to make another one and change a couple of things {Like making the neck smaller, and making the sleeves a little tighter}. Anyway, you should all make one and show me how yours turn out!! :] It's definitely a fun shirt to act like a bird in! Haha. Happy sewing everyone!

Breakdown: 

Shirt- Made by Me {FREE!}

Scarf- WalMart {$3.00}

Jacket- Old Navy {$5.00}

Jeans- Kohl's {$15.00ish}

Something Borrowed.

The Fab Four

Mobbin through my wardrobe one day something caught my eye. It was one of my hubbie's button-ups. He had just gotten it at Target for only four dollars a few days before. To his chagrin, after only a few wears, and a single wash, the shirt had shrunk to a muscle tee. And despite his best efforts trying to convince me that it made his muscles look sooo much bigger, I told him he'd have to retire the brand new button-up. Now, a few days later it occurred to me that maybe I could sport the shrunken tee. And that's how the fab four came to be. The shirt fit like a glove and combined with a four dollar belt, a four buck pair of kicks, and a four bone "flannigan" (what my husband calls cardigans), I was ready to hit the streets with a fresh, new, 'onda.'(style).

This beautifully written post was brought to you by my husband, E.B. He is quite the story teller!
As my husband mentioned, the shirt (Target), cardigan (Old Navy), shoes (Target), and belt (Target) were all 4 dollars a piece.





{I added a belt to give it a little more form}

This takes me back to the days when I would sneak into my big sister's room to take some of her clothes to wear.
She always caught me...
Dipping into your husband's clothes can be a great way to add to your wardrobe and not have to spend a dime.
I've even borrowed his jeans on occasion!

Pause the Spending Freeze! {An Outfit Post}

Three and a half weeks ago I went on a spending freeze. I didn't set an amount of time to do it for and I didn't really set rules. I did tell Race {and a billion and one other people} that I was going to do this so I was being held somewhat accountable. I lasted three weeks and then found a shirt that I HAD to have {I passed it up twice before finally going back and buying it}. I now present to you the shirt that made me pause my spending freeze!

Breakdown: 

Shirt- Target $6 

{At least I didn't pause my spending freeze for 

something CRAZY expensive..right?}

Cardigan- Old Navy $3ish?

Jeans- Kohl's $15

Flats- Target $5ish

Bow- H&M $2ish?

My hair was done using this sock bun tutorial. Check it out!

{Also, you all can now hold me accountable for my new spending freeze. We'll see how long I last this time! I was pretty proud of the three weeks that I lasted the first time around!}

More outfit posts to come! {Since apparently those are pretty much all you'll be getting from my portion of this blog!}

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Outfit Photo Shoot

My old roommate and good friend Kylie took some outfit pictures for me the other day. It worked out really well for us because she wanted to practice taking pictures and I wanted some legit outfit photos not taken by me in the mirror. {I don't even have a full length mirror anymore...mine broke :( I'll have to get a new one since I can't always have Kylie take my pictures! {Also, if you are in Flagstaff or possibly the valley you should check out this post of Kylie's.} So, are you all ready for some fun pictures?!

Breakdown: 

Shirt- Target $6.00 {Shirt style we used in this post}

Cardigan- Old Navy $4.00

Belt- Wet Seal 3 for $1.98

Jeans- Kohl's $15

Shoes- Ross $6

Flower- Made by me $0.19

It was so fun to get dressed up and spend the afternoon taking pictures and hanging out with Kylie. We were roommates for about a year and it's been so fun staying friends even though we are both married. Sometimes I feel like we've actually learned more about each other and talked about more legit things since we got married than we ever did before. It's a lot of fun. Although I still think we should hang out more! 

Oh, also, I am AWFUL at posing! I never know what to do with my hands. Any advice?! I guess I'll just study some fashion bloggers to learn all about it!

Have a wonderful day everyone!! 

No-Sew Banner!

As you probably know, we will also be having lots of posts on crafty projects & ideas along with clothing (ie. Nikki's post on those cute bags!). So, I thought that I would go ahead and share a fast and easy project I did a couple of days ago! I was put in charge of decorations for my sister-in-law's baby shower and knew immediately that I wanted to make a banner. My initial plan was to cut out letters of my new nephew's name and sew them on the banner. However, I just didn't have the time!So my mother-in-law came up with the idea of using paper letters & tape (she's a genius!). This made the project so quick & easy. You could use this idea for birthdays, baby/bridal showers, anything! The cool part is that because you are using paper letters, you are able to reuse the banner and switch out what it says whenever you want!
So here is how it goes down:

1. Cut out the banner pieces.
2. Print the letters & cut them out.
3. Tape the letters to the pieces of fabric.
4. Attach the banner pieces to ribbon (or whatever your little heart desires). I attached them to the ribbon by using mini clothes pins so I didn't have to sew or glue a single thing!
5. Admire your beautiful work of art & craftiness!

I think the best part of this was that I didn't have to spend a dime! I used all scrap fabric and I already had all of the supplies I needed.
{Sorry I don't have more pictures, but it's pretty easy to put together!}
{Also, you can print the elephant banner here!}

Stylin' on a Sunday

Let's be honest. Sundays are usually the only day of the week that I'm stylin'!

Breakdown for Me:
Coat- Charlotte Russe ($10)
Shirt- Delia's ($10)
Skirt- Target ($12)
Tights- Old Navy ($0.98)
Shoes- Charlotte Russe ($8)

Breakdown for Race:
Three-Piece Suit- Goodwill in Chicago, Illinois ($4)
Tie- Goodwill in Chicago (No idea how much)
Shirt- For our wedding (Also no idea how much)

Small Zipper Bags

Tutorial at

Noodlehead.
I loved these when I saw them.
I tried to make some but I didn't add any of the dividers or card holders on the inside.
For some reason mine turned out really small so I'm not sure I would call it a clutch
but they're still really cute!

Here is my first one. The zipper is wavy but the tabs turned out on this one!


I had a hard time sewing the zipper tabs and the zippers.
I just couldn't get them straight or to look right.
(except for the first one I made!)
But with some practice I'm sure it will get easier.

I made a few of those and then I found
these two tutorials for zipper bags:
Rounded Bag - FAVORITE!
Zipper Pouches
SO I tried some rounded ones with a bow on the front but I used regular fabric.
and I used the second tutorial as another way to sew in the zipper.

This is one I made without zipper tabs.



I have no idea how to do the vinyl stuff printed on the front.
I just liked how there were no zipper tabs to worry about, you just
sewed it right in.

First rounded one! with no zipper tabs


Also at first all the leaving a hole and turning the bags inside out to finish confused me to no end!
BUT
Once you sew bags with linings a few times it gets easy and obvious what you have to do!
And they're actually really fast and fun to make!
They would make a cute gift with candy in them just like the rounded bag tutorial suggests.
All you need is a 2$ zipper from Joann and some scrap fabric.
I didn't even use the padding for most of them. Especially if your fabric is a little bit thicker you don't need it. Maybe you don't need it at all!
That's a really great cheap gift!

The last one I made. I tried tabs again and they just got stuck underneath somehow.
You can't really tell from these pictures. And it looks the same on both sides anyway so it isn't
too bad.



Make It and Love It
has SOOOOOOOOOOO many cute free tutorials!
I am using it a ton!
I suggest you go check it out!

From One Shirt to Four.

Have you ever found a shirt and then you wish that you had purchased a couple of them in every color because you love it so much? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like this happens to me a lot! This is how I felt about this shirt that I had purchased from Target in their clearance section (of course).

{Me & the shirt. It even came with a belt!}

So I was more than happy to get together with Nikki and Emma and try to make this same shirt! This is actually a fantastic was to expand your wardrobe cheaply (... is that even a word?). This also gives you a chance to add a little twist to the shirt by changing it a bit in the process!

This past Labor Day we took on the task of making our own versions of this shirt. All we had to do was trace half of the shirt on to some newspaper and cut it out to make our very own pattern! This allowed us to make as many of them as we wanted.

{Here is the pattern we used that Emma made!}

{My cute 10 yr old sister-in-law Gelsey! Don't they make cute little girl dresses too!}

{I paired this shirt (or dress) with a $1 belt I found at Goodwill.}

{And finally, the three shirts that I made from our pattern.}

Single Loop Lace Infinity Scarf

This is Nikki! In case you don't know this already, you can tell who wrote the post by looking at the bottom of each post for our name beside the comment link.

Sweet Verbena is a blog I go to for lots of cool COOL tutorials on how to make clothes or make clothes look a LOT prettier. I have already tried a few things I found on her blog
but my favorite is the Single Loop Lace Infinity Scarf. That's a really long name. Anyway it's a really really pretty scarf and it's WAY easy too! I had a yard of lace laying around and I didn't know what to do with it and by chance I saw this tutorial just today! So I HAD to try it.

This is a tutorial that is very simple and it was a lot faster to make than I thought it was going to be. The directions were a little confusing at one part but I have a slightly slow brain today (and most days) so it just took a minute to figure it out.

I used part of a light blue jersey queen sized sheet that I found at Goodwill for about 2$ instead of silk. Goodwill sheets are a great thing to use as fabric because they are big and super cheap! And sometimes they do have big pieces of actual fabric! Just make sure to wash them a few times first!!! Anyway big sheets make for a lot of project possibilities!

And one thing I did differently is I zigzag stitched the small hole at the end instead of secret stitching it because it will be on the back and I have no idea how to secret stitch AND I just learned that when you do zigzag but only let the needle catch the fabric once it cinches it closed sort of like a serger would do! It's awesome! And I ironed it flat.

AND this scarf is almost reversible. You could let mostly the backing show with only a little bit of lace and it's just a pop of cute OR you could just wear the full on lace and it's beautiful! SO it will go great with jeans or you could use it to dress up a fancier outfit for church or whatever!

Here's how mine turned out:




You can tell the night setting on my camera doesn't work! Why do they even put settings on crappy cameras?

Check Out Ma Outfit!

Welcome to Thrifty {Modest} Threads! I thought I'd get a little outfit post cranked out on here since Nikki was so kind as to introduce our blog to all of blogland! :] I am Emma from Race and Emma and you can check out my personal blog to read about adventures with my husband and other super random things that interest me! You can also check out the About Emma section of this blog to learn a little bit more about me!

It's fall in Flagstaff {where my husband and I are going to school} and so I'm loving the change from warm weather clothes to layers, tights, boots, scarves, ear warmers, etc. I wore this outfit on Saturday and it was perfect for the weather. Some cute tights, moccassins, and ear warmers and then some layers up top. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the adorable white jacket I wore over all of this so you'll just have to trust me that it was adorable. At least until I actually get around to getting a picture of it!

Here's the breakdown:

Headband- Made by me out of an old shirt. {I used a pattern from Pinterest

that I linked up on my blog here}

Shirt- Hand-me-down from Jackie {I'm pretty sure...you can correct me if I'm wrong Jackie!}

Long-sleeved undershirt & Tights- Old Navy {Tights- $0.97}

Skirt & Shoes- Target {Skirt $5ish}

Belt- Wet Seal {package of three for $1.97}



Also, just a little sidenote, I am about 98% sure that everything I'm wearing was either a hand-me-down or was bought on clearance or on super sale. When I do know the prices of things I will post them because I super like to brag about finding good deals. :] And I like people to know that it is possible to have cute style for cheap. {That is assuming that you all think my style is cute...my fingers are crossed!}

Well, dress cute and warm because it's fall! Unless of course you live in Phoenix where it's still pretty hot...in that case dress cute and cool in fall colors! Have a wonderful week everyone!

New Blog! First Post!

This blog was Jackie's fun idea! We have been slow at getting it started and so I thought I'd write the first post because it's easier to post again if there's already one post right?
This blog will probably be like a lot of other blogs out there but here you have 3 very cute
sister-in-laws (or sisters-in-law) doing fun things!
We will have cute, cheap outfit posts and awesome thrifted finds.
Maybe some decorating because I'm still trying to decorate my newishly rented house
and Jackie is a new homeowner! I'm sure her house will be VERY blog worthy!
and MAYBE some recipes that we think are extra tasty.
We will do tutorials of all kinds and show you how good or bad they are and if it's possible to actually follow and make what the tutorial says. Because there are plenty out there and let's face it...
can get VERY confusing sometimes! At least to me. That may be because I just need more practice!
But that's the whole point. We want to learn how to sew cute things and of course anything else we find to do or make.
We have already made skirts, shirts, diaper bags (Jackie), other kinds of bags, hair accessories, and jewelry. We will just have to get organized and post the things we've already done and get working on NEW and FUN things!
I am excited!
If you are actually reading this, please be patient! We will get it going soon!