For the Love of Purple

Several of you have been looking through The Purple Project posts and finding some good craft ideas in there to remake your wardrobe.  In just a month or so I’ll be done with my year long purple project and begin work on Purple-izing for Pennies.  I’d love to know which projects are your favorites and why so I can include more of the ones you’d like to see.

Maybe it was a bleach craft:

Or maybe a recipe:

Or maybe it was an easy purple addition:

Just click on this Purple Projects link and it’ll take you through all of the past purple projects I’ve done so far.  Leave a comment here about which ones you liked and why.  Also please share any purple projects you have done. You can either tell us about them in a comment or leave a link to your blog where you talk about them.

Have a GRAPE Day!

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Ok, so two weeks ago I started a jeans make over with intent to turn it into a jean skirt. I found a slight, but hilarious, problem.   As I couldn’t find any fabric I liked to cover up my air conditioned behind, I put off the project for another week, working instead on a few overalls.

This week I’m back with part two of Jeans Skirt or shall I say, “Take Two.”  As you remember the legs of the jeans were a bit too narrow to sew together to make a flowing skirt.

I had a tough time finding fabric I liked because the jeans had a raised beige on beige design.  All the fabric I found had patterns which clashed terribly or were too thick.  The other day I was just sitting here minding my own business when a thought struck me.  I could combine two, two, two Purple Projects in one!

Remember a while back I purple-ized a pillow case?  Well, it was just the perfect fabric and size to add to my new flowing jeans skirt!  Then I added some dark purple bows and you have yourself a flowing jeans and pillow case skirt!

In the, You Ain’t Gonna Believe This One file, I uploaded the pictures I took of this two week long sewing debacle, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the file on my computer!   It HAS to be there, but I still can’t find it.  I lost several other purple pictures, but I was able to take more pictures of this project so I could post them for you.

I love it when a plan comes together!  Ok it was about three or four plans, but hey, it came together! Ok…the sewing was waaaay too much work and I don’t recommend doing this unless you are a seamstress on a mission!  But, what do you think?   Someone tell me this was worth it.  I’m not even sure I can wear this skirt. I live in ARIDzona and it’s just too HOT!

Have a GRAPE Day!

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One of my readers posted a comment the other day that I thought deserved an entire blog post.  She said she would try to dye one of her articles of clothing because it’s cheaper than buying something purple in the store.  EXACTLY!  She’s got the purple purpose of my idea behind The Purple Project and the reason I wanted to write, Purple-izing for Pennies!

We have so many things in our wardrobe that we don’t wear because they don’t fit, aren’t in style, have a stain or just plain aren’t PURPLE enough!!  Instead of spending money at department stores to replace that item, why not change it?  And while you’re at it, make it PURPLE!  In the course of this blog, I have shared some fabulously fun, easy and inexpensive ways to do just that.  I thought I’d share some insight into Peg’s comment with a little recap.

Some have asked me to name a few ways in which we can purple-ize our wardrobe inexpensively.  Here are a few really simple ways.

1. Dying is a GRAPE way to purple-ize something in your wardrobe.  A bottle of RIT Dye is just a few dollars!  You can make up a batch of dye and put in several items at once.  You can not only dye something all purple, but you can dip the bottom or top of it in.  You can also tie dye or you can double dip.  Dye something light purple (leave it in the dye a very short time) then dip the bottom of it much longer to create a darkening effect.

2. Adding flowers, faux jewels, applique or ribbon is another purple-icious way to add some color to your wardrobe!  Joann’s or Michael’s has bags of them for just a few dollars.  Add a little or a lottle!  Either way, it’s all GRAPE to me!

3. Another mauvelous way to add purple to your wardrobe is with Puff Paints.  Puff Paints are only a few dollars too.  Create your own designs with hearts, swirls, dots or dashes.  Accent a shirt, jeans or even your blanket!

I’ll have MANY more tips on purple crafts for you in my new book, Purple-izing for Pennies so stay tuned to For the Love of Purple.com for more details coming to a computer screen near YOU!

And, have a GRAPE Day!

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It has been postulated that there is some correlation between those who love purple and their height (or more specifically, the lack there of).  So this week’s Purple Question of the Week is…How tall (or short) are you?

I think I secretly want to find someone, ANYONE, who is shorter than I am.  So if you are shorter than 5′ NUTHIN’, I’d really love to know!

So… how tall aren’t ya, purple people?  Please share and have a GRAPE Day!

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I still haven’t found a purple fabric I like to finish last week’s “Jeans Skirt” project but I have a fun one for you this week anyway.  I’ll come back to the Jeans Skirt next week. I only have 4 more purple projects to do to finish my one year commitment!  How am I doing?

Meanwhile, back at the purple ranch…I had a pair of shorts overalls that I hardly ever wore because they weren’t …PURPLE!

So I decided to dye them so, but when I did I noticed that overalls don’t look very feminine.  So…I added a few purple feminine touches.

A little purple dye,

a few stitches in the purple bows and…overalls a purple lover could love!

For extra measure, I decided to add a touch of purple to my other jeans overalls:

Whadaya think?  Comments???

As usual, have a GRAPE Day!

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Last week my mom, sister, niece, dd and I went to a rather upscale eclectic mall on our Three Generations Ladies Day Out.  It was such fun, but what was so unexpected is that we found several wonderful purple items.  These are all from a bath soaps store.  All of this is purple SOAP:

Candles

Bar Soap

Fortune Cookies

Bath Balls

Wasn’t that wonderful?  Some of it looks good enough to eat!  Have a GRAPE Day!

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My mother tells a story about how long ago I adopted the color purple as my favorite. She says it all started when I was only a few months old.  We were in a long, hot car ride (no AC in those days) and I had a hard time breathing.  My face turned purple and my folks had to turn off the road to cool me off.

Apparently, once upon a time when I was two, they noticed that I had a favorite one of those plastic ring tower toys.  The one with the systematically smaller plastic stackable rings around a white plastic stick that held them all.  My favorite one was the purple ring which was the smallest ring on top.  I remember that toy and it was a very nice grape color.

I also remember the Kool Aid flavors that they used to sell in small mugs.  There were flavors like Rootin Tootin Raspberry, Jolly Olly Orange, and Choo Choo Cherry, but Goofy Grape was my favorite!  It was especially dear to me because so few items came in purple in those days!

What was your favorite purple item from childhood?  Come share and have a GRAPE Day!

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This is going to be a two part project, not because the finished product will take two weeks to get done, but because I GOOFFED!

I started with a gorgeous white on white (actually off white) patterned pair of jeans that I used to wear all the time.  I loved them a great deal but they are one of those jeans they call low rise.  I really got tired of pulling them up and wearing long shirts in order to cover it up.  It just feels weird to me.

One of the things I was trying to do with all my pants was to create capris.  It’s fairly easy to cut off the bottoms of the jeans to make them into capri pants, but that wouldn’t handle the low rise problem I have here.  So…I decided to make the jeans into a skirt!

First I cut the inside seams on the jeans.

Then I was going to sew the front parts and back parts together to make a skirt and add a few purple bows I got at Michael’s for just a few dollars and voila!  A lovely white on white skirt with accents of deep purple!

Only there was a slight miscalculation.  Can you tell what it is?

Yes the backside is missing!  ROFL  I figured out that the legs are a bit too skinny to make a nice skirt.  I showed it to my dd who promptly starting giggling until we both couldn’t stop!  Sooooo…. I am going to fill the area that is currently MIA with purple fabric and turn the skirt sideways.  That way the flowing part will be seen from both sides and, most importantly, hide my behind.  ROFLOLOL

I don’t have time to do the rest of this project right now, but I thought you all would be waiting for this week’s project and I knew you could always use a laugh!

Word to the wise!  Let me make the mistakes so you don’t have to!  At the end of my one year challenge (September), I’m going to come out with an eBook with all the “SUCCESSFUL” purple projects with all the tips for how to make them inexpensively and how to care for them with all the inside tricks I have learned throughout the year!

Stay tuned and have a GRAPE Day!

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How many celebrities like the color purple?  Do you know?  I have a few hints for you and then I’d like you to post a comment with your guesses along with any other names of famous celebs who love the color purple.  (Not the movie, but the color!)

I’ve posted before about Captain Purple.  What famous actor/singer played Captain Purple?  Hint: he wore purple socks and had a variety show!  Also there is another actor I know of who claims purple as his favorite color.  In fact, he asked the producer of the movie he was in if one of his props in the movie could be purple.  Hint, the movie was a mega hit in the 70s and went on to have several sequels.

I’ll give you til tomorrow to guess.  In the meanwhile, can you name any other celebrities who claim purple as his/her favorite color.

Have a GRAPE Day!

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So many of you had asked to see the rest of my purple Miche Bags after I posted one of them.  I actually have four Miche Bags, but only three are purple. They all fit my small Miche base purse with magnets, but some are flat and some fit over the base purse kind of  like a small, form-fitting pillow case.  Here they are in order of appearance in my closet.  lol

This was my first one.  It’s dark purple and has faux zippers.  This is one that slips on like a pillow case so it has a pocket on each side.

This one was my second purple one.  This shell is flat.  You sit the base purse on and attach each side with the magnets so it stays on.  It looks more “summery” as it is light purple.

This one is a pillow case one and slips on giving me a pocket on each side, but it also has a small pocket on the front as well.  It’s dark gray plastic and a very unusual pinky type purple color.

I’m working on getting the big base purse with the dark purple shell but that shell  is not available right now.

Well, that’s my purple Miche Bag collection.  Whataya think?  Anyone have a Miche bag?  What has been your experience?  Post a picture of yours on YOUR blog and post a link here to your blogpost.

Have a GRAPE Day!

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