DIY Denim Owl Toy from Old Jeans

I’ve shared a DIYs from Old Jeans Pinterest Board with you the other day on my blog. And today I want to share my very first denim project with you, to show you how I am putting those old jeans to a good use!

The instructions are going to be pretty self-explanatory, and in pictures, but let me know if you have any questions by leaving me comments below this post and I will definitely get back to you!

Also I by no means am taking absolute credit for this project, there are tons of DIYs like this throughout the internet. I do request though that if you are going to be using my pictures, please link back to my blog! Thank you!

Some of you know that I used to babysit, and since I haven’t seen the girl for almost 2 months, I decided it was finally time to see little miss Ingrid, but I couldn’t go empty handed (that’s the Russian in me), so this morning I sat down and made this:

It only took about 2 hours, plus I was catching up on The Bachelorette on Hulu, so there 

Alright, so for this project you are going to need

- some fabric (any fabric) – I used the old jeans, some felt that I had left over from a swap and some striped fabric that came from the same swap  I am very savvy about where my fabric is coming from!

- magic fluff, or filling, mine came from a couch pillow that we no longer use 

- a sewing machine

- thread, pins and a needle,

- paper for the pattern (I created my own and had to readjust it throughout the process)

- scissors

- flexibility and creativity

So here we go:

And we end up with this:

I hope you had fun looking through this, again, please let me know if you have any questions!

Hope you all had an awesome day 

Xo,

Zhenya

necktie nonsense...

I've become a bit addicted to making vintage necktie wristlets:

but what to do with all of the leftover bits & pieces?

make some adorkable shirts for the munchkin...

and stitch the rest together to create a funky new bag for myself:

info & how-to's here

Remade T-shirts into Vests/Camisoles/Singlets

Last week I found some great unwanted men's T-shirts that seemed to be crying out to be given new life and turned into something different. On Wednesday I released my first self-drafted free downloadable PDF sewing pattern for vests/camisoles/singlets, and I realised these T-shirts could be a good raw material for such a sewing project. 

After printing out and stitching together the pattern, the selecting my size, I had lots of fun trying to incorporate the original features of the T-shirts into new vest pieces. The print design of the red Quiksilver T-shirt was an excellent scale for the vest, and the little pocket detail of the grey marl T-shirt fit well too. I was also able to retain the original hem finish of the grey T-shirt so I didn't have to finish the hem of my vest.

If you are interested, I've detailed how I cut the vest pieces from the original T-shirts in this blog post. I really love the idea that someone who has some old baggy T-shirts that they no longer wear, but perhaps have an attachment to them, makes them into useful little vest for sleeping in or what-have-you.   If you have some old T-shirts, why not download my free pattern and give this project a go?

Happy refashioning!!!

Zoe xxx

More fish, less sweater

One of the things I had trouble wrapping my head round when lived in Hong Kong for a couple years was that just because it was night it didn’t mean that it was all of a sudden cooler and you needed to add a layer if you were going out. Sometimes the darn place seemed hotter at night. Nonetheless, I need some wraps for the icy cold shops and often quite chilly airplanes in which we will soon find ourselves. After some other sewing this morning (some scratch, some refashioning), I had a trawl through my boxes.

I saw a drapey front cardigan in the Big City last weekend: it was made in shear and knit fabrics. The shear piece that ran around the collar and front edge was all the same width. It was one of those ‘don’t-even-look-at-the-price/you-can-make-that’ moments we've all had. The fish scarf has been lurking in the ‘use for fabric’ box for a while, having been recycled from a project I decided was too young a look for me (I would link to my RFC post about this project but the contributor’s list usually on the left is not showing on my computer today, I didn't post it on my own blog and I am NOT going through the zillions of RFC posts to find it!). This old navy (Van Heusen actually) cardigan was in the refashion box. 

I cut two inches off the whole neck edge (getting rid of the buttons and buttonholes), then a few inches off the lower edge, then eight inches from the sleeve, lettuce edged the latter two and pinned the scarf (which is 14 inches wide) to the un-lettuced neck edge (RST). The scarf was longer than the neck and front edge

so instead of trimming it to fit and finishing the cut edge I found the center of the scarf and the center of the back of the cardigan then...convinced them to fit. I used a zig zag to neaten the seam. 

Himself keeps asking what I want for our 20th anniversary come this Wednesday. I’m thinking a serger, which would have been useful for that last step. ('How romantic', I hear you say. Hey, I've never been a flowers/chocolates/lingerie kinda girl when it comes to gifts. Give me a new set of counter sink drill bits and leave that other stuff). I’ve got on for forty-mumble years without a serger, but I hear if you get a good one you will wonder how you got on without it -- or maybe that was just a good pitch by the Janome saleswoman I chatted with a few months back while helping a friend chose a new machine. 

Any opinions on the matter? Is your serger the most used item in your house or does it function as a doorstop?

Rockin' Wristlets

*A huge warmfuzzy thank-you to Pillows a la Mode for the splendid inspiration! 

I finally found a few spare minutes to create some of my own vintage necktie wristlets:

with a variation of the groovy original tutorial I managed to make mine slightly larger & a bit thinner…here's my version of the awesome necktie wristlet

a little patchwork.

     So, ever have that fav pair of pants that you wear until something happens to them to make them unwearable, I have several. This is one of them.

      Nothing like going to the store and having your husband point out that your undies are showing lol. This isn't much of a refashion really but I plan to work on several today being as i'm off and don't have errands. especially because my bf, and sis in law is coming in tomorrow and she has a way of sweeping you up like a hurricane and you never know when you'll land :).

     I had tried just sewing the hole up before but in came undone so this time i cut a pic out of one of the shirts in my growing pile to use as a patch that i hoped wouldn't be to look at my butt oriented and would go with the majority of the shirts i wear with them, I'm happy enough with it, I have a million tops and really only skirts at this point to wear with them. well ttyl---QueenOfNothing.

Recycled Fabric Wall Art project

I must admit I don't really like to rush my projects - especially the ones that I have been creating for our apartment, since these are the ones we will live with for a while. Consequently some projects can take me weeks or even months to complete. Sometimes waiting for the right fabric or buttons or even the right crafty day to come along.

Here is our new piece of wall art:

The inspiration for this piece was the seasons.   My little abstract interpretation of Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring which also celebrates my love for recycled fabrics.   The owlies I have been creating have produced lots of left over bits of fabric and felt which the hoarder side of me cannot bear to throw out.  So I have been collecting them all in a big container, coming in very handy for this project.

The circles measure  45cm and are made of what looks to be pressed grey felt/wool.  Each season has been hand stitched using embroidery thread in various colours including gold.

I really love how this piece turned out.  More so, I love that I got to use up lots of my scraps of felt and fabric. Fabrics that came from suits, shirts and some old woolen jumpers. For this and other recycled home craft / fashion ideas feel free to visit my blog

Slipper Refashion, From Plain to Princess

Here are the slippers I embellished for Emily to be worn with her Victorian nightgown that I blogged about here turning them from plain, pink $6 Isotoner ballerina slippers from Wal-Mart to slippers fit for a princess. I took off the little pink bow on the top. Then cut out circle and petal shapes from floaty, lightweight fabric. Then I stacked each shape one on top of the other in two separate stacks. Picked up one of the stacks, folded it in half put a stitch through it. Then folded it the other way and put another stitch through it to make an "X," and that made a pretty little flower. I did the same with the other stack. Then I sewed a bead on the top of each flower. Then sewed the flowers onto the slippers. That's it. Pretty simple refashion.
Sewing With Trudy

Refashioning a doona cover into a .... doona cover !

 OK, not very exciting, really just an extension but here the latest recycling to make a doona

cover that fits my needs. Also an excuse to use my new embroidery machine.

skirt into toy

For more info look on my blog:
http://mariannebags.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/upcycle-skirt-into-toy-here-latest.html

Here is my bunny toy i made out of the favorite skirt of my late mother -in-law as a toy for my son James. Unfortunately she died before he was born, which is a shame because she loved her grandkids!
I know its not wearable but knowing how creative you all are i thought you might be interested.

Slight adjustments to make a blouse wearable plus a dog coat and introduction

Hi,

I am Kathy, aka concrete 'n primroses, an underemployed woman of a certain age with a job interview on Monday. I need a nice fairly conservative shirt to wear to the interview. I've never worn this thrifted blue silk wrap blouse because I don't like the collar, its slightly too big in the bust, and the cuffs fall on the exact wrong place on my long arms. The color is nice and very flattering and the silk feels wonderful.



So, I cut off the collar, took in the bust and cut off the sleeves.

When I cut off the collar the ends poked me a bit so I ironed them down and held them there with a bit of same colored embroidery cotton. I took this at night in my sewing room and it looks like the shirt is black.



I needed to take in the sides at the bust but I knew that I couldn't make the armholes too small. So I was thinking that I would have to rip out the sleeves on the bottom and possibly cut the armhole a bit and reset them. Sooo I thought well, I'll just take the sides in right up to the armhole seam and then see from there how much I need to tear out. Well to my surprise just stopping there worked well enough! There is a kind of open tuck in my sleeve, but that gives the ease I need and it doesn't show. Best of all when I move my arm the whole blouse doesn't pull around because the seam is close to my body where it belongs.

The sleeves I cut long enough to be 3/4 length and hemmed by turning up 1/4 inch 2x.

So here it is. Without, then with the jacket I'll be wearing over it. Since this is kind of boring at the end I have added a pick of my doggie in a coat made from the sleeve of a woman's jacket.

Sorry about the fuzzy pics, plus I need to iron the blouse a lot! I plan to do that tomorrow night so it is all nice for the next morning.





Dog: here are the sleeves, one cut and one uncut for dog coat shape.

And here is doggy modeling. I added a silk tie and velcro. Since this pic, I put some bias tape on most of the edges.


TFL
Kathy

My blog is 10 Minutes Each Day in an Unreasonable Manner if you are interested.

A Spring Give-Away

Click on over to my blog to enter to win this refashioned necklace - upcycled from vintage brooches, earrings, and other bits.

For Spring

A little bouquet for spring - refashioned from vintage brooches, earrings, and other odds and ends - makes me smile.
See more pics on my blog.

Long time no post :)

It has been ages since I last had the chance to refashion something, I've been up to my ears in exams and NABS and all sorts, leaving no time to make stuff ( also, my sewing machine has been confiscated until the end of exams as my mum says it's too distracting) But last week I snuck it out of the cupboard to make this. I couldn't help it , withdrawal symptoms were imminent. I took an old pillow case and halved it , keeping the original hem and foldy bit. I then closed up the top and used fabric paints and stencils to make this cushion for my mum for mother's day.Simple I know, but it was all I could do in the limited time I had to sneak out the machine, sew, then put it back again before mum got home :P I turns out you can get exactly two cushion covers out a pillow case, so there's half left over for next time mum goes to M&S :)

Róisín :P

DIY fabric flowers are everywhere! Check out this tutorial on how to make them from old t shirts.

Half Apron to Full Apron

Full Apron . . .

. . . from a vintage half-apron . . .



. . . and a thrifted, hand-made placemat . . .


. . . using this tutorial.

Freezer paper stencilling

The other day I made my two babies a lovely little matching top each out of a plain white tshirt :)

Full tutorial on my blog.