Easy Lace Ideas for Tee's

Hello! I don't know about you but I can't stand collars or sleeves being too tight or too close to my neck, it's a pet peeve of mine and I always end up chopping off the neck to my tshirts, the sleeves are nearly always next to go. Only I've been careless and have ruined many of my once favourite tee's by chopping off too much, so I thought to use black lace panels to fix it!

I sewed freehand but a sewing machine would give a stronger stitch. Remember to turn your shirt inside out too!

It came out so nice I went on to do it to a further three shirts of mine. It's so quick, really only a ten minute job and it adds a little bit of chic to your regular tank top like my grey one in the pictures. Now I can wear those old favourites again :) XO

DIY // Inspiring ways to reuse your tee's

Hey Re-Fashionistas!

Here's a little project I've started doing for the long awaited Autumn months!

Okay so I know it's not reaaally a garment type project but it does involve garments and it makes a nice new feature for your bedroom or living room! Recently I've been getting around to ticking off my Crafty List for 2011 and one of them is something that I never thought I would actually get around to doing but I started it and I'm obsessed!

I've been recycling my old tshirts (&hand dying the plain ones) to thenn be cut into long strips and wooven using the standard crochet loops and knots into a crochet rug! It's so much fun, a little too much for me really because I found myself not being able to wait for the hand dyed yarn balls to dry I just got straight on with knotting into my rug! It's getting quite big at the moment and I plan to have it so much bigger! It started off in a sort of square shape but it's decided to go circular as I've gone along!

Come have a peek over on le bloggie of Sylvieepops :) I hope it inspires you to use your old tshirts for better uses! XO

http://scuzzface.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/yarn-balling/

Snail love // tshirt design

Something I've wanted to do for a while now that desperately needed to be ticked off my crafty list was restyle some plain tshirts by designing ideas and fabric printing them, I used pencil to draw out my design and then carefully went over it with a black fabric pen. It was really easy and looks cute on :)

For more pictures visit my blog! www.scuzzface.wordpress.com

I've also been experimenting with my embroidery option on my sewing machine and have a few cute projects to show you soon! XO ♥

DIY // Project Restyle: Hoodie to Backpack Refashion

Hey there fellow refashionistas! Today I'm going to show you a little project I made for a friend using a regular hoodie top and some fish line. The hoodie didn't fit my friend and she wanted me to come up with a cool idea on how to refashion it.. So I turned it into a stylish sling back pack in a few easy steps! It was interesting doing this because I hadn't done something like this bag before so it was a little learning curve for me too! Full post with pictures is up on my bloggie over here on wordpress! XO

Sylvieepops diy ty-dye Amazon dress

Hello lovely refashionistas! :)

Whilst going through a bit of a clean out via my laptop I stumbled across these two photos of a dress I restyled for my best friend's birthday a few years ago. I've always been a fan of home dying, especially tyedying. It's really simple and I've written a blog post with step by step instructions how to begin ty-dying over on my blog if your new to it.

I bought this dress from Primark, it was originally white so it was easy to take to the colour I wanted to dye it. I used DYLON ''Amazon Green'' hand fabric dye and had loads left to spare which I bottled up to reuse. Eco friendly or what! :)

Here are the results, my friend loved the dress and so did I! So much so I really wanted to keep it for myself haha! What do you think?

Refashionistas! Please follow me over on my blog, tumblr or twitter! I'd love to hear from you/follow your lovely blogs back! XO

Project Restyle // DIY Festival Dress

Hey there! The other night I made a cute floral festival style dress from a single curtain! It took about four slow and careful hours, endless cups of tea and done using a straight stitch & a zig zag stitch on my little sewing machine! Its free size too with two straps that tie at the back if you want to bring it in a little. Sorry for the poor picture but it's been terrible weather where I live and I haven't yet had a chance to wear it for an outfit post in the sunlight!

The full tutorial post can be seen on my blog, or just click this link here to be taken directly to the post. You'd be surprised how easy it is, I copied the pattern from a previous dress I had and worked from there. Good Luck! XOXO

DIY Dip Bleach Shorts

Another mini project I got up to making recently while my computer decided to give up on me was restyling these blue shorts that had been long abandoned to the back of my closet. Armed with a bottle of basic bathroom bleach and a good scrubber, I got to work!

I filled the bathroom sink with one part bleach and two parts water and dunked the shorts in (but not fully!) and left them to soak before scrubbing them and leaving them to dry. Hey presto, dip bleached shorts!

Full blog post over here on my wordpress bloggie, have a peek! Comments over there welcomed too :) XO

Handmade Elephant Dress // Project Restyle

Hello again fellow re-fashionistas!

It's been a while since I was last on here forgive me, my laptop has decided to break down and the only ways I have to blog are through my iphone (not very practical) or on my boyfriends computer.

So that's what I'm doing now!

Handmade Elephant Dress

A few weeks ago during my dressmaking obsession I made a little shift dress with sleeves out of this rather large bohemian maxi type of dress. *points up!* It didn't fit as the crochet top half was tiny so I used the fabric to make a different kind of dress. I basically cut the crochet top half off and unstitched the fabric I was about to use and folded it out to its full size, then drew out my basic dress pattern and made sure it was twice the size I wanted.

I don't use patterns, I just roughly draw out the shape I need, only bigger and work from there. Cutting out the shape, pinning it together and taking it in as I stitch along. Simples :) This fabric was really nice to use, it stretched slightly so I wasn't worried about making it too small, in the end it fit nice and hung slightly loose. Perfect for those humid days and hot summery nights!

Here's the finished dress, I always get really stuck into my projects and constantly forget to include during the process step by step pictures.. But this pattern was pretty much the same for the raspberry crush dress in my previous post, only I added sleeves which aren't too hard to make.

Sorry for lack of in-between pictures! >_<

Click on the link here to see the full post and more pictures!

XOXO

Handmade Raspberry Crush Shift Dress

Hello again!

Some nights ago I decided to make use of all my fabric I have stashed away in my cupboards. (I literally have bags and bags of the stuff!) As usual I began my dress making plan far too late at night to begin it so I decided to wait another day before I got started, because rushing through it at night is never a good thing and I always work best after a good nights kip! So yesterday I got started on my dress! It took me the bones of about 6 hours but I did it, and I seriously love how it turned out! I wore it all day today too! I used vintage bedsheets kindly given to me from my boyfriend's mum, which I’m almost out of too!

I started out drawing the dress shape onto the fabric and making sure it was atleast 3 times my size. (its better than being too small!) Next I pinned the sides together and tried it on making sure it was the right shape, the large size wasn't a problem at the moment.

Next I took in the dress at the sides, quite a lot as you can see!

Then I pinned the taken in sides together and carefully stitched along the curves on the inside of the fabric. Leaving enough space for arm holes!

This is a rough shape of what you want your shift dress too look like!

Fold in in half to make sure both sides are equal.

NEXT, I made small darts at both sides of the bust line in the dress. I hope these images help!
Firstly I drew a line and made a crease. Your aiming to sew your straight line to your dotted line with a raised triangle of fabric poking out after.

Pinch the fabric that is not to be sewn and sew along the fabric where the dots and straight line are drawn.

Make sure this is done on the inside of your fabric. It gives your bust that little curve that dresses need.

Next I hemmed the bottom of the dress neatly and sewed the shoulders carefully together and lastly, making a little peter pan collar to fit along the swooping neckline.

Aaaannnd... VOILA!

Sorry for the rather poor tutorial, but I forgot to take more step by step pictures! See more of this dress and my other creations here at my blog, www.scuzzface.wordpress.com. For a more direct link to this dress, click here.

XOXO

D.I.Y: Long Trousers to Cute Summer Shorts in 5 easy steps

How to turn a pair of trousers (or pants if your irish!) into a cute pair of summer shorts. And it's farrr too easy with these simple step-by-step pictures!

I should really add to turn the pants inside out before you mark with a pen/chalk/whatever your using.

Try to keep a straight cut, it will effect the way your shorts end up otherwise!

I cut just above the knees, you need space to turn them up for step four. Remember this!

I also straightened the fabric down using my hair straighteners for extra neatness before sewing. Any excuse to use my ghd’s once again! :)

Just sew a simple straight stitch along and knot neatly. Easy as pie right? And for a fiver you can’t go wrong!

Happy Altering!
XOXO.

Ten Minute Craft: Summer Bunting Project

Hey there(:

I’ve been crafting some summer style birthday bunting for my little sister, Ellie's up coming 1st birthday in April.
I already made a little D.I.Y Bunting project before, it’s a lot longer and takes more time but its worth it!

The key word in this project is simplicity. These were made so quickly, roughly ten minutes, it really depends on how fast you can be at cutting the triangle shapes :)

I used a pillowcase that mum didn’t need.

I cut 11 triangles to fit the cord, I didn’t actually mean to cut 11 to spell ‘Happy Birthday’ out on each triangle
but it’s a good thing it worked out!

Once you straight stitch the triangles along the cord your pretty much done!
Hang them up against a wall or window, either looks pretty and they can sweeten a room instantly.

We’re going to pin fabric letters spelling ‘Happy Birthday’ along the triangles nearer the time of Ellies 1st birthday. :)

Sylviee
XOXO

D.I.Y: Taking in your pretty little dress

One problem I always seem to have with beautiful little dresses is that they are that little bit too long. Recently a lot of dresses sold in shops are three quarter length, which can be off putting to girls, I was put off the length of my Autumn Sun dress when I bought it but quickly realised I could take it up and have a nice bit of floral fabric to spare. So, when your thrifting or rummaging through Penneys finest, always keep in mind that length is no biggy (if your handy with a sewing machine/needle and thread) and if not, you could always get your mum/friend/sister to help you!

Here’s the quickest tutorial I think I will ever make!

This is important so you don't get your pen lines on the front of the fabric! I used charcoal.

It's always safest to cut the fabric longer than you want. Your going to be hemming it anyway. And it's better than being too short!

Use hat pins to turn this over or straighten it with your GHD's like I do!

If you don't have a machine use a needle and thread and take it slowly.

Afterwards, turn it right ways in and find the cutest cardigan and boots to go with your newly refashioned dress :)

Any confusions or comments don't be scared to comment me here or over at my blog!

XOXO

Sylviee's re-fashioned vintage inspired pillow cases.

Just stopping by to update you on my latest re-fashion project! I was given this fabric kindly from my boyfriend mum and knew I would make proper use of it! I'm trying to make my bed area as girly and vintage inspired as possible, and I think these new pillowcases fit nice and snug in with my bedroom(:

I measured both white and floral fabric against a regular pillowcase I had and cut the sizes out leaving about 1-2cm's of space to sew. Next I pinned the fabric back to back (so the floral print was on the inside) and used a straight stitch on my sewing machine to stitch up the sides leaving an open space to pop the pillows in! I hemmed the edges after ward and turned it inside-out and viola!

You can come see my full post here (:
Happy Monday! XOXO

Sylvie's Refashion project numero uno (:

Hey there(:

I'm Sylvie from Sylviepops blog of the Arty+Crafty, I've been making my own clothes from scratch and altering+making everything/anything since I was about 11 or so. Instead of seeing something I want I always think to myself if I can make it instead of buying it, and usually the answer is yes, unless I really want it!

I was kindly invited along to join this blog by Erica not so long ago and thought it was a super fun site and easy to find what your looking for, plus its just awesome from every direction. We need more refashionistas in the world :)

Anyway enough ramblings, I want to show you one of my recent most favourite skirts I have made for Summer. It was originally made from a single bed sheet that was 'dated' looking and over 30 years old anyway. When I saw this I instantly saw an opportunity to make a cute and easy high waisted skirt from the frilled hemming along the edge of the bed sheet. The entire project took me slightly over an hour due to careful planning. It was worth it though, I'm head over heels for my new raspberry skirt!

Making it wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated, I'm usually getting frustrated over certain things going wrong and such but with this I was so determined to make a pretty skirt that I got everything done in my own time! It has a cream little zip at the back and a hidden small belt in the top band which can be pulled in from behind to cinch in the waist. Also it's my first skirt with successful deep oval pockets. I just think this little skirt is super cute for Summer! :)

I also added this skirt to Project Restyle and you can see it's before and after photos here.

Hope you enjoyed my first post here at Refashion co-op.
See you soon! XOXO