Thrifted Thursday: Anouk's "Miss Scarlett" tunic

I've written before that one of my favorite things to find at thrift stores is fabric. For the beginner sewer (like me), it's great to find lots of fabric to practice on without breaking the bank. I found this vintage curtain panel at Thrift Store USA an age ago, and bought it for 99 cents. Even though it wasn't a lot of fabric to work with, I really couldn't bear to leave the adorable floral anemone pattern behind to languish on the rack. What if nobody else appreciated it like I did? It stayed curled up in my fabric stash until Anouk noticed it one day, and told me she wanted a dress out of it.

I decided to make it work, Tim Gunn style. I used an existing bodice pattern piece, tracing it onto freezer paper and lengthening it to a tunic length, and just managed to make it fit the cloth. I lined it with some muslin, and then tacked the existing ruffle to the bottom (the ruffle is really the best part, with the yellow contrast stitching). Over pants or shorts, it really is the sweetest thing and even if it isn't perfect, I'm glad that an adorable piece of old fabric got some new life (of course its new life was quickly threatened by a handful of rogue blueberries but I managed to get the stains out without ruining anything so hooray!) It's one of my favorite thrift store finds to date. 

Now A. is all ready to visit Rhett at the Atlanta jail and ask for the money to pay taxes on Tara! I'm sure she'll get it, how could she not looking this cute?

Have you found any thrift-store gems lately?