Posts tagged ‘fabric’

We were attending a wedding last weekend and I really wanted to dress up my outfit since it was  a friday evening wedding. I thought about a necklace, but my blue dress had a ruffled neckline so that seemed a bit too much. Then I thought I should wear a slight veiled pillbox hat, but I don’t have one! So since I know how to make fascinators, and I had some blue crinoline in my stash I went to work on this beauty.

To make it was a piece of cake. I cut a 10 inch circle of crinoline and folded it in half so that the edges did not quite match up. Then I fanned the folded side about 4 times to give it dimension, leaving the ends straight. I stitched through the fan folds and used the stitching to attach the crinoline to a head band.

Then I decided it needed more drama, so I used acrylic paint to tint the edges navy blue, and used a vintage broach as a focal point. The bonus was that the broach covered my stitches that held it onto my headband.

Apart from drying time, this really only took me 15 minutes. And I let the paint dry while I got dressed and did my makeup. It was a really fast way to dress up a simple dress, and make a subdued statement. I can’t wait until I can wear it again!

This beautiful vintage button belonged to my grandmother.  There’s only one, and I’ve been painfully particular about how to use it.  When guest blogger, Erica, wrote about making a vintage brooch into a necklace, I immediately thought about my button.  But since I’m on a hair-accessories kick, I thought I’d try it within a flower instead.

I used recycled shirt fabric & a vintage button for this flower.  It’s just like this orange flower one I made a while back.  The original pattern & idea came from a fabric flowers tutorial at Wise Craft.

I’m not talking about my “I found this in the car & won’t get sunburnt hat” in the left picture.  And I didn’t buy a hat either.  I did buy a headband though.  Isn’t it pretty?  I met Paula Singleton of What A Great Hat! at the Akron Arts Expo this weekend (she’s wearing pink in the left picture).  Her vintage style hats are each originals with the most delicate & perfectly classy embellishments.  Plus she’s getting ready to begin teaching classes.  I suggested a hat embellishments class where you bring a thrift store hat and learn how to add flowers, beads, feathers, etc.  But she also does the blocking herself for the straw hats, so I’m guessing she’ll teach that as well.  I wish I got a close-up of the brown hat above my right hand.  The base is hand blocked straw of the most wonderful pattern.  I’d take a class to make one of those!

*Update*

Paula send a photo of that hat for us!

hat by Paula Singleton

my box of books to review (minus the sewing one Devona wanted!)

Back in December I did a book review of Mixed Metals.  I decided to ask publishers to send books so I could review them.  A woman from Quarry Books asked what books I’d be interested in and sent me a box full.  So here’s the first review from that wonderful box of books.  My hope is to give you some information so you’ll know if it’s worth purchasing for yourself.

Sweater Surgery: How to Make New Things with Old Sweaters by Stefanie Girard.

Book Summary: Sweater Surgery shows you how to upcycle your sweaters into new wardrobe & home items.  You’ll learn how to wash, block, choose, cut, restitch, felt, and embellish sweaters.  There are 35 step-by-step projects with patterns, plus additional gallery designs.

Review Notes: I like the variety of projects.  There are lots of purses, hats & gloves & scarves, necklaces, headbands, stuffed animals (like the bird I made last week), pillows, and many redesigned tops, skirts, & dresses.  Plus there are some more unusual items like a magazine file cozy, place mats, pot holders, a laptop cozy, pet bed, knitting needle case, and a tissue box cover.

I’m pretty novice at sewing, so I found the “getting started” section very detailed & useful.  I like the suggestions to use existing design elements & edges in new projects and to unravel yarn from extra pieces & incorporate it in the designs (it’s free matching yarn!).  I found the hand & machine sewing basics clear & necessary for my skill level.  It tells when each stitch is used, how to do it by hand or by machine, it shows a diagram, and then shows a project where the stitch is used.  This section made me feel like I could actually sew sweater material without it unraveling & falling apart.  This has been the main reason I’ve been hesitant with knit sweaters in the past.

I’ve only made the “Hippie Chicks” project so far, but I found the instructions & pattern easy to use & clear to follow.  Here are some favorites I’d like to try:  ”Scarf of Many Colors”, which is a patchwork scarf made from remnant pieces.  I think it’d look good as an infinity-style scarf.  I also love “Snow White Scarf”.  The scarf is hemmed & fringed, and incorporates some beautiful sweater texture.  It looks like it cost a fortune.  ”Toot the Owl” is the sweetest stuffed animal.  And the “Lace-It-Up Cable Sweater” is the best wearable reuse.  The trim & ribbon look so fashionable.  I also like the “Kick-A$$ Socks”.  I never would have guessed you could get the toe & heel situated properly.

bird I made from a pattern in the book

My least favorite project is the “Pet Rock Sweater”.  Maybe I just don’t get it?  Is this something kids are into these days?   I’d probably never wear the “Peppermint Patti Swirl Necklace”, which is made of strips of sweater swirled into circles.  It’s just not my style for a necklace, but I’d use the idea for festive garland.  Or perhaps a bunch sewn together could make a headband?

Overall I really enjoyed the book.  There are a handful of projects I surely want to try & others I’d consider if I keep practicing my sewing skills (mainly the shirts).  This book is a great source of inspiration after a visit to the thrift store.

I made this sweet little bird from an recycled t-shirt and a pattern from the book Sweater Surgery.  Instead of using fiberfill I used dryer lint, which worked really well except for having to pull some long pieces of hair out of it.  I used the bottom half of a snap for each eye.  The beak is made with a piece of dark t-shirt fabric, but I don’t recommend that since it’s a little floppy.  I’ll either use fabric stiffener or perhaps sew some fabric to this piece, considering it a base, to strengthen it.  I hand stitched all the pieces, which took a few hours while multitasking on other things.

This was probably the most frustrating part of my sew-my-own-swimsuit project. I went to Jo-Ann’s and there were only 8 bolts of swim fabric. None of which were navy blue and yellow. I did manage to find nylon thread for my serger and stretch needles also for my serger. Those together cost me $20.

So I took my search online. I’ll tell you what, swim/dancewear fabric was not easy to find. I eventually found the site Fashion Fabrics Club, and they had pages and pages of swimwear fabrics. They also had helpful descriptions of the fabric choices to help me make up my mind. Oh, yeah the prices were decent too so I’m not $125 in the hole on a project that may not even end up wearable.

But even with all the choices available on the FFC site, I couldn’t find navy blue and yellow stripes. I ended up settling for these:

If anyone knows me, they can see that this is almost exactly the color combo of my kitchen! Not what I had in mind, but I’m not the most adept at finding fabric, apparently. If anyone out there has an awesome source, by all means let me know. If this experiment is successful I will probably sew some suits for my kiddos, too.

Colleen and I joined forces to make this bib necklace. The pairing is perfect, as it uses my skills with fabric and sewing and Colleen’s excellent jewelry making skills. And check out the final result! Just the right amount of over-the-top to dress up a simple shirt and cardigan combo.

This was something we’d been talking about doing for a long time, but just needed the motivation to get it started. So, what was that motivation? We’ve entered our project in the ReadyMade magazine MacGyver Challenge. The challenge was to repurpose a necktie. Keep your fingers crossed that we win!

Saturday at Mini-Mart, I discovered these sweet fabric Babushka dolls made by Jane King.  The dolls are double sided, with the eyes open on one side and closed (sleeping) on the other.  And they have pockets on each side to store special items.  I think they’re perfect for a little girl to snuggle & sleep with.

I’ve been craving this navy and white combo ever since I read this post on Darling Dexter, so I used some scraps from men’s dress shirt overhauls to make some flower hair accessories. They are so quick and adorable, I’d love to share the tutorial with you. Now we can all wear some springy and sporty nautical bliss.

If you don’t want to wear this as a hair pin, swap out a pin back and make a broach, or attach a jump ring through the fabric, and make a necklace pendant.  But I will showing how to attach this clip to a bobby pin, my favorite way to attach pretties to my hair.

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Like my new shirt? I have been planning this out in my head for a few weeks. I was just waiting until I had a free morning to get out some fabric paint.

I am using the profab sample pack of fabric paints which I picked up at Craft Akron. The print is made with a rubber floor tile from Zero Landfill (this is the project I alluded to on Monday) which from the get-go reminded me of argyle. I like the first run pretty well, but I have to research a little more to see about getting better coverage, etc. As I get better results I will be sure to post pictures.