Anthropologie really IS inspiring.

First of all, I'd like to extend another special thank you to Stephanie at Under the Table and Dreaming for featuring my Nifty Fold-Out List Notebook on her blog yesterday. Click the Under the Table and Dreaming button under "I Was Featured!" to the right.

Now, on to the crafty stuff.

I've been seeing a bunch of "Anthropologie-inspired" stuff on various crafting and sewing blogs and forums, and to be frank, I always kind of stayed away from it because of all the hype Anthropologie was getting. So it wasn't until yesterday when, bored and itching for inspiration, I began to browse some of their wares. And I'll go ahead and say it:

I get it.

Now, a lot of that stuff is clearly designed for people with no boobs, which I am...not. And the price tags made me snort coffee out of my nose. But I guess that's why Anthropologie makes for such good creative fodder. You can take a brilliant idea and make it fit you perfectly at a truly miniscule fraction of the cost.

I did find something I really liked right away.


These Seven Day Bermudas seemed like the perfect solution for a pair of yellow jeans I have that are just a hair too short to look cool.

Here are the offending pants:


They were a gift from my husband's grandmother - she'd bought them and never worn them. I wore them once and loved them, but the first time I washed them they shrunk and the color faded. I guess I'm okay with the new color (but they used to be so bright and happy!), but the shrinking is not okay. I don't care how many magazines say it's okay, I do not like jeans that expose my ankles.

So I chopped off about six inches from each leg - I wasn't too fiddly about getting them exactly right or straight - then turned them inside out. According to the website, there's a bit of green fabric edging either side of the outer seam on the wrong side of the pants - so it shows when the edge is turned up. I hand-stitched a strip of green plaid fabric and let a little hang off the edge. Then I turned them right-side out again and folded up the bottom of the pants. I sewed the green plaid to the outside of the pant to hold it in place, then tacked it at a few spots around the leg.

A pretty simple operation that took about 45 minutes (just because I hand-sewed instead of using my machine), and here is the result:


(Note the "I'm so awesome" pose.)



So there we have it: the first in a line of probably many...many Anthropologie-inspired wardrobe makeovers which will give me the quality of being completely unique just like everybody else.