Sale Tag to Bookmark: DIY

It really has been so long to post on here! It’s been a rough couple of weeks, so I’ve been a bit out of it when it comes to inspiration and all that, but I finally have a 3 day …

Prepping That Small Sweater For Summer: No Sew Sweater Beach Bag DIY

While I was thinking of things to DIY, I figured there were some things that were just going to be off limits. Handbags being one of them.

BUT THEN
1) I was checking out some stores’ spring collection and noticed stripes are so in for this year (well…have they ever not been?)
2) Vera Bradley bags look like they’re made out of quilts

So when I was digging through my stash of old clothes that don’t fit anymore (and even if one did, there’s no way I would keep wearing it) and saw this lovely colorful striped sweater and found some potential!

This was actually a great sweater to work with (I’ve already had a fail moment with trying DIY petal headbands on Thursday, that’ll need more thinking) since the colors are vibrant, there’s stripes, and cutting was not too much of an hassle.

So first things first. I decided that since the bottom of the sweater had the vertical stripes, I would make that the bottom of my bag! Turned the sweater inside out and used my new favorite crafts thing in the world, duct tape, to tap then ends together. Think all the gift wrapping I’ve had to do has definitely paid off here!

Then I turned it back around and noticed the bottom felt a little flabby. I wanted some rectangular shape as my new bag base and lo and behold! A shoe box lid was chilling right next to me below my bed! So I estimated the size my bag bottom would be and cut up that box lid and forced it into the bag bottom.

Snipped the top part of the sweater just below the sleeves…

Snippty snip! And that's definitely Big Bang Theory in the background!

So now I had this stripey little bag but I wanted a handle. I probably spent a good 30 minutes running around trying to figure out what would work as a good handle…until I ran into this little hottie.

why hello mr. male model!

I’ve read people using JCrew bags to make bracelets or something, and thought “well hey, these Abercrombie handles are nice, but I never use them”…so I decided to try it out! Had two Abercrombie bags on me, so I used two handles from one bag to make one longer handle.

Tape the two handles together...looks a little strange though...

Taped to my little make shift bag…

Duct tape making my crafting dreams come true! ...until I figure out the sewing machine

I really didn’t like the duct tape in the middle so I grabbed a fabric bow from a shorts belt and made two little bows where the duct tape was!

Final result! Voila!

When I figure out how to use a sewing machine, I may sew the handles to my bag so it wont fall apart if I put something heavy in, but now I’m counting down to the currently unexistent day that I’ll be sipping strawberry daiquiris and playing in the water!

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Making the Most of an Old Tee-Tie Dyed Halter

I wasn’t going to make a post on this attempt because I didn’t think that it turned out as well as I wanted/imagined it would. But then since I mentioned Rainbow in my last post, I was looking at their site and saw this halter top:

Floral halter!

What really attracted this top to me was the colors in this tank. It’s just so bright and happy, a great bit different than a plain colored halter. And when I saw this, I thought of my very first DIY old tee project! I did this before even starting this blog!

Tie Dyed Shirts!

I think this is actually a great way to reuse old tie dye shirts! Because unlike other tees I own, my tie dyed tees has a splash of color which makes it fun to wear! So if the floral halter is so pretty and that tie dyed shirt isn’t getting much usage, why not make it into a halter too? My favorite part of my remake is actually what ties around the neck (the collar?) as twisting the tee fabric straps gives more swirl to the color and thus makes it more retro (in my ever growing not-so-humble opinion).

Like my DIY skirt, this is a try 1. I still have one more tie dyed shirt in my arsenal, but I’ll save that one for when I can actually learn to use a sewing machine because then I can take in the shirt/halter to better fit my figure. And when I get around to that, I’ll have a DIY tutorial up for it :D.

Every day should be a DIY crafts day! Let the imagination grow!

The Makings of a Skirt: Potential with Rough Edges DIY

It’s probably too soon to start thinking about skirts, but I did had a chat with my friend from work earlier today on how much we love skirts and dresses…And then I was looking through the JCrew clearance page (up to 91% off, with an extra 40% off with the coupon code OURTREAT…I sound like a JCrew rep right now! And I don’t even own any JCrew, which is minorly surprising because I believe it was a popular brand to shop at in my preppy alma mater)…and I ran into this little dress:

…It’s cute but the first thing I think is “sophisticated toga party” because it looks like it could have been a green bed sheet wrapped around and neatly tied in a big bow, like the dress is a present! So what do I do naturally? I run to my closet and grab one of my bed sheets to try and replicate…didn’t work. JCrew 1 Meg 0

As I was standing in front of my bathroom mirror wrapped in my bedsheet, I encountered a light bulb moment. Remember how prior to college, those school lists said to get fitted sheets? But fitted sheets? What a waste-well not really, they came in the whole bedsheet package. I never used these fitted sheets that are not really tucked-in-able (fact: I make up words when I can’t think of what to say…that or I’ll spend 5 minutes trying to figure out the word I want) and they’ve been taking up space in my closet since. But…these fitted sheets are a nice bit of fabric to play with!

I wanted to get make an infinity dress, but after reading that the girl took 3 hours and I still have work tomorrow, I decided to simplify and start with a skirt! Still leagues more challenging than gluing a statement on a ring blank, so things are stepping up!

Steps

1. Take the fitted sheet and fold it in half

2. Draw two semicircles (or 1/4 of a circle). The inner semicircle is what goes around the waist, but it’s good to start off smaller, because it’s always easy to cut more, but if it’s too big from the start it’s start-over time (unless paired with an elastic band and knowledge of sewing)! The distance between the two semicircles is how long the skirt will probably be.

Sheet with the semicircle markings! Messed up a bit on the outer oops :O

3) Cut along the semicircles. The cutup result will look like:

Since this was folded in half, there will be another one of this underneath

4) There’s already some imperfections here and there but in this step I demonstrate the complete noviceness that is me. In front of me I have my mom’s sewing machine. But…I don’t know how to use it. I’ve watched a Youtube video 5 times and can’t get the spool to roll up the thread, whatever that does. While this is definitely a hindrance, I’m not going to let this stop me! I turn to the next best thing, duct tape!

How fun is duct tape? One of my high school friends made a bag out of duct tape and I’m pretty sure I read that there’s an annual competition on duct tape prom dresses!

Digression aside, I’m going to tape the fabric together. When that’s done, turn it inside out to cover the markings and duct tape and there’s a very simplistic skirt!

A taping we will go

Inside out and upside down (ok, minus the upside down) and it's a skirt!

Like the title suggests, this DIY is still in the works. I’m lucky that this fitted sheet is elastic…if this were now the case, I would have to more accurately calculate the inner waist semicircle and do fun math stuff with circumference, diameter, and radius, oh my!

Maybe math would also help make the semicircles actually semicircles so the skirt doesn’t look lopsided!

Kinda not a clean bottom finish...

Lastly, learning how to sew would give a cleaner look. But I’m pretty happy with my first attempt at a skirt! Once I can perfect this, I’ll move on to making an infinity dress! Thanks for the inspiration JCrew!

Fitted Sheet -> Knee Skirt Round 1? Win!