The Tea Towel Dress

I made Claud the Martha Stewart Tea Towel dress for her birthday, in stolen minutes here and there. Except it's the Max Bennett Tea Towel Dress because the Martha Steward dress pattern is in fact infant sized, despite the model standing and looking distinctly toddler-like in the photo. So I improvised. Quietly pleased I finally made Claud an item of clothing. Quietly pleased all the materials, fabric ribbon, buttons, linen tea towel and elastic were all op-shopped.

Show and Telling with Leonie an Co.

I am a girl in a material world:Op-Shop Show-Off :Tuesday August 6th, 2013

Retro Linen teatowel, $8 Trademe.  To be transformed into a Martha Stewart Linen Tea Towel Sun dress for Claud at some point in the not too distant future (approx. before next summer is over).

An off-cut of sheepskin, 50c, Rangiora Charity Barn.  To be transformed into a Sarai Mitnik Faux Fur Collar (featured in Mollie Makes Magazine, way back) for Claud at some point in the distant future (before next winter is over?).

Navy wool blankets; $22. Trademe. The last of the colours I needed for my Hudson Bay Point Braided Rug Project (TBC sometime in the next decade?).




Op-Shops. Making making affordable for all.


Have you bought anything second hand for making or creating purposes lately? Do tell!

Linen Love. Op-Shop Show-Off:July 18th, 2013.

I like my kitchenalia country-style and I have been hankering after more of these stiff old linen tea towels since I found my first last year. They never come up in the op-shops I frequent so I finally bit the bullet and saved 'linen tea towel' as a search on Trade Me, New Zealand's answer to Ebay. Whilst not as cheap as I would have liked ($17, plus p&p) they are exactly what I like, so were therefore worth the extra expense. 
We used them when we made farfalle on Sunday, whilst it rained and rained and the drive flooded, and then the street. I fed and caught the pasta strips, Claud cranked. Then we pinched and pressed to make bow ties butterfly shapes which we ordered in neat lines, practicing counting. The linen spirits away moisture from the surface of fresh pasta preventing them sticking together when you gather them up to throw in the steaming pan.  
The plus-sized model of the tea towel world, they also make a rustic-chic table runner, polish glasses beautifully and make for excellent, post-cooking child butterfly wings.


How do you like your kitchen gear? Shiny and sleek or shabby chic?

Have you posted about your second hand shopping antics lately?

Do share if you did so we can all come and ooh and ahh! Just click on the linky below...