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SUMMER OF DIY

Jane and I have decided that this summer we would focus a lot on DIY projects.  We have no travel plans--thank goodness, so lots of long stretches of time to work on being creative.  Here are a couple of projects just finished.....

 

I bought this chair at a consignment store for around $200.  I had it recovered in plain canvas for $100, then the amazing Sam from StyleSwoon took the chair home and spray painted it with graffiti, then I put two coats of clear acrylic on it.  This chair now resides in Jane's room.  It was a great inexpensive DIY project that added a lot to her bedroom.  I totally redid her bedroom while she was in Italy, and I will post pictures soon.

I made this cat claw muffler from an old leopard faux fur coat purchased at the thrift store.  

 

The cat claws are from spikesandstuds.com.  It's a great site, and they have great customer service.  

 

 

I'm going to do some more work with these claws, and I will post a tutorial.  Making the scarf was easy, but the claws are a little tricky.  More later.....
 
 
 

 

SPEAKING SHRIMPTON AGAIN

It seems like everytime I have a public speaking event, (which isn't often) I choose to wear something from Shrimpton Couture.  Here is the choice for tonight's event.  60's Mr. Mort evening coat.

 

Sorry for the crummy pic!!  I'm pairing this with an incredibly fun 80's statement necklace made from braided leather and turquoise.

 

These two were made for each other.  Stop It Right Now  sent me this great photo of an incredible koi fish belt.  Now that is a belt!!  Thanks J.

 

Photo from Stockholm Street Style.
 
 
 

More DIY T-Shirt Stuff

I started recycling t-shirts more than 20 years ago.  They are one of my favorite things to work with.  T-shirts are such a part of pop culture, I can't help but find them compelling.  Pictured below is a skirt I made this past Friday.  

I've made this skirt forever, but last year one of my favorite T-shirt artists and designers, Natalie Chanin came out with a great book titled "Alabama Stitch Book."  You can purchase the book at her website--Alabama Chanin.

Definitely have a look, Natalie has been doing great things with T-shirts for years.  (she actually makes clothing that is simply amazing, I'm sure some of you have seen her work)   She shows you how to make a 4 panel skirt, the one I made Friday is 6 panels, I wanted a little more swing, and I added a second piece to my panel for substance and length.  I also bleached down old t-shirts to get that faded tie-dye feeling.  Here are some detail shots....

Shelly inspired my color palette. 

I made t-shirt rosettes for a little polish, and did beading between the gathers.  I should do more beading, but I need to brush up on my beading skills, I haven't done this in a while.  It's really simple to make--honest.  Natalie sews all of her things by hand like I did with this skirt and you can see the genius in this on how the skirt will give with your body, and they are extra durable.  I use buttonhole twist, and double it.  These skirts are so durable, I own several, and throw them in the washer and dryer.  If they develop a worn spot, just hand sew a little patch!

 

I also made this jacket on my machine a while back.  

I made the pattern myself by cutting up an old jean jacket I purchased at Target and tracing it on to newspaper.  I cut each piece 3 layers thick and then quilted each one heavily before putting them together.  

This makes the fabric very thick and heavy.  Almost like a denim, but still soft like a t-shirt.   It feels really nice.  I made it dip down a little more in the back, and left a little of the t-shirt graffiti for interest.

I made the lining a contrasting orange for more detail.  The looping was very easy to do.

Both of these projects can be done in a busy weekend.  If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me.  If the idea of recycling t-shirts appeals to you, you will definitely love Natalie's book....

DIY T-Shirt

Being stuck indoors always motivates me to do something creative.  The other night Jane and I watched Matrix-Reloaded.  I was so inspired by the wardrobe!  Of course Keanu's black trench is amazing...

I love the overall steam punk vibe of this movie, and how all of the clothes looked like they were on the verge of coming unraveled..so feeling inspired I thought I might try to do a shredded t-shirt much like the one on Camille's blog.

Childhood Flames

I love how she did this--I watched her tutorial on line, but either I'm inept, or my t-shirt had too much elasticity....probably a bit of both.  Either way, I ended up with this....I got a little carried away on the studs.

Not quite the same, but I kind of like it.  Thanks Jane!  Carol kept me company and studded her own converse tennishoes....

DIY Jeans

I'm wearing my DIY 501's today.  I was able to sew all of the patches on by opening the seams on the side with a seam ripper.  I sewed leather patches on with my old Elna machine and a leather needle--it was quite fun.  I'm wearing my jeans with my Dries sandals, Christopher Ross Lion belt, and thrifted cardigan.  The dogs decided to join last minute.....

Felting

Another great way to recycle is felting old or thrifted sweaters.  To felt sweaters, you just throw them in a top loading washer on hot with a little soap.  (like colors together)  Next, put them in the dryer.  That's it!  All sweaters felt differently, but medium  weight 100% wool sweaters are the ones I look for.  If the sweater has a high acrylic content, the results will not be very good.  My mom was visiting the other day, and below are some of the things we made with felted sweaters....

Mom made this very cute vest by cutting squares of felted sweaters, then sewing them together by hand. She added the running stitch for more detail and contrast.  Didn't it turn out well?

She then took the leftover scraps and made this scarf.  The pieces were sewn together by hand, then pressed with an iron.  When pressing felted wool, cover with a towel so as not to scorch.  Lastly, mom added a blanket stitch going all the way around.

I made this red and pink scarf on my machine.  I laid the squares together with the ends barely overlapping, then ran several zig zag seams over the ends that were just touching.  This fuses the squares together, and there are no exposed seams.  I then ran a satin stitch all the way around the perimeter of the scarf.  This gave the scarf a rippled or wavy effect.  

Looking at all these sweaters make me wish for snow.....

Send me any great felting ideas that you have!

Recycling 101

I love all of the things you can make from a pile of castoffs.....

t-shirts....

simple tiered T-shirt skirt.

Old flannel shirts to....

Cute flannel skirt.

The same pattern applies to both skirts.

I made a very high tech pattern using the girls notebook paper.  The first tier is 7 inches tall by 6 3/4 inches wide.  Second tier is 8 1/2 inches tall by 8 inches wide.  Third tier is 10 1/2 inches tall by 11 inches wide.  You can adjust this pattern easily to suit your own shape.  Cut 8 squares for each row.  A total of 24.

Sew the tiers together in vertical order adding tucks to ease in the extra fabric right sides together.  I wanted to do this on my serger, but it was not co-operating.  I used my Viking Mega Quilter and it worked just fine.  If you own a serger, you can sew this in 20 minutes. 

Now take your 8 vertical rows and sew them together right sides facing each other. 

You should have something that resembles this....Now make a tunnel that will hold 1 inch elastic leaving a small opening.  Measure you waist, cut elastic and insert using a safety pin.  Sew ends together and sew opening closed.

Carol was kind enough to style a couple of outfits with the finished skirts...Thanks Carol!

E-mail me if you have any questions!

DIY Christmas Tree

I love to make these ornaments at Christmas time. They're so cute and fun to make, and they're really inexpensive. 

Here is a photo of our finished tree!  It looks so festive!  We also added easy to make paper chains for a old fashioned look.  Here is the step by step instruction guide on how to make these ornaments.

1)  Go through your photo albums and select your pics--close ups of kids and pets work best, but use whatever you like.  (it doesn't matter if they're black and white or color)  Make basic photo copies on regular copy paper.  Next, dip the photos in strong tea water.

2)  Lay photos out flat to dry.  Next, find your backing.  We used brown lunch bags, but newspaper, or construction paper will work too.  Sew photo and backing together on your sewing machine, leaving an opening to stuff.  Sew around the shapes of the photos so each ornament is unique, trimming away access paper.  Stuff ornaments with polyfil or whatever you have lying around, and sew opening shut.  Now comes the fun part.

drying the photos....

Sewing the ornaments!

3)  Decorate the ornaments with glitter or sequins.  We used a very fine glitter purchased from JoAnn's craft store.

4)  Now spray the ornaments with a few coats of clear spray finish.  We liked MinWax.  Finally, take a small sized hole punch, and punch a hole at top of ornament, and insert ribbon or natural twine!!

Ornaments drying after clear finish....

Finished Tree!!!  Off to our next project, see you soon.......