07-03-2013

4th of July Outfit- jean cutoffs and star tank

So in addition to painting my nails I wanted to have a cute 4th of July outfit that was comfortable enough to be in all day. I love what I ended up making. It was very cheap and looks adorable. The shorts are made from a pair of jeans I got at Goodwill for $3.50, the tank top was $3.97 at Walmart and then the fabric was .97 cents as I used a fat quarter for it. I apologize for the horrible pictures, I was trying to take them myself and you can only get so good of picture in the mirror.

Here is the front of my outfit. I distressed the shorts in the front and cuffed them up. For the tank I cut some rough stars out that I sewed on in a random pattern using a zig zag stitch.

I covered the pockets with the fabric as well. Biggest pain to get the rivet out so that I could cover the pockets but worth it

Here is a close up of the front of the shorts

and the back pockets

and the stars. As you can see I was rough with my stars and rough with the stitching, I didn’t want it to look like perfect little stars.

I loved how this outfit turned out and am so excited to wear it tomorrow!

Filed Under: Clothing, Holiday Tagged With: 4th of July, clothes, i made, outfit

04-13-2013

Sweatshirt Re-Fashion

So I had this huge men’s sweatshirt that I used to wear before I ran a half marathon one time. They were just cheap Hanes sweatshirts and we would discard them before the race. Someone my mom ended up with them and it has been hanging in a closet for a year and a half. I knew I wanted to do something with it eventually and I finally managed to do something with it!

I started with this… cute right? Not sure what I was trying to capture holding my sleeve out, I think just how big they were. haha. Now I have actually already cut a bit of this sweatshirt off and have it criss-crossed and held together with binder clips. No joke.

And I turned it into this:

It took more work than I thought it was going to but I really like it. I fit it to me first by trimming all the excess fabric off, refashioning the sleeves by taking out a bit at the shoulders, and sewing in on the sides. I then trimmed the sides with the fabric, made a hood (not really to wear but really for the decoration)

I definitely think it is cuter than just a random large sweatshirt. :) I still want to find some buttons to add to it.

Filed Under: Clothing, Crafts Tagged With: Clothing, crafts, fashion redo, i made, sweatshirt

03-28-2013

Notebook Cover

I normally have a notebook that I keep with me for notes, to do lists, quotes and scriptures I hear etc. I wanted to make a cover for it that was a pretty general size so it could work for other notebooks when my current one is full. I also wanted to add a ribbon bookmark so that I knew where I was. I choose to use canvas as I would not have to deal with interfacing and it would be heavier than just plain fabric.

I tend to be a lazy sewer sometimes and just sew without patterns or anything else. I just cut a rough outline of what I am making and hope for the best! Here are the front and back pieces and then the two pieces for the inside for the notebook to slide into.

I seamed out the two side pockets

Ready to sew together. I always need to double check to makes sure I have everything sewn the right way as I have (more often than I would like to admit!) messed up and had to take everything apart. So I double check.

All done! I know you can find pretty journals but sometimes you just want a notebook cover instead.

Filed Under: Crafts, Random Tagged With: i made, notebook cover

03-23-2013

Make-up Brush Holder Tutorial

So I have had this little project on my to-do list for quite a while and I finally got to it. It took under 45 minutes to complete and was super easy. I am thinking this is going to have to be one of my go-to gifts for people. Now, I didn’t set out to make this a tutorial so I apologize for the lack of pictures. I am pretty sure my mom is wanting me to make her one, so I will probably be able to have a better tutorial pretty soon when I make her one. :) So I am going to use a lot of text, probably more than I need to

Now here is a list of the supplies I used and the sizes. You can make these different depending upon the brushes that you are going to be putting in but it should be pretty uniform unless you have something crazy.

Supplies:

a front piece of fabric (the one you will see when rolled up, mine was 10.5″ wide & 12″ high)

a back piece of fabric (the one on the inside that the brushes will be against, same size as front)

interface for between the two sides

a piece for your pocket that the brushes will go in (make sure to seam the end out because it will be showing. Mine was 4.5″ high)

piece of elastic to wrap around it (or you could use ribbon to tie it, around 10″)

bias tape for the sides (around 45″)

Now to actually figure out the sizes, I laid my brushes down and then folded the top over to cover the brushes. You are going to have it fold over so that the brushes are not falling out if it is getting thrown around in your bag or luggage.

You are now going to take your interface piece, your inside piece and your pocket piece (already seamed). I took my brushes and laid them in and then pinned in between them. You need to do this because it will give the pockets a few different sizes. This is why you are also going to have the pocket piece longer than the back two pieces to leave room for the larger areas. Now take out all the brushes and go sew in a line from the top of the pocket down to the bottom.

Now it is time to sew your bias tape on. I have a confession to make, I used to absolutely hate bias tape and saw no purpose in it but now it is one of my favorite things to use. It is much easier than having to sew everything together inside out and then turn it back around, especially on smaller projects.

Make sure that you pin in your elastic as you are pinning your bias tape down. You don’t want to have to go back and add your elastic as that is not going to be the easiest thing (or look the prettiest). Sew on all your bias tape.

Then you are done. Seriously, it is THAT easy.

Completed make-up brush holder open

Here it is with the piece folded down. This will cover your brushes and keep them in your roll.

All rolled up and ready to go. The size is very convenient for travel and your purse.

I put my most used brushes in here as well as an eyeliner pencil and mascara and still had another spot left over. Give it a try and let me know how it comes out!

Filed Under: Accessories, Crafts Tagged With: crafts, i made, makeup brush, tutorial