Friday DIY- Earrings Update

This week I tried the ol Fabric Covered Stud Earrings project out again. This time I used stetchy fabric and made smaller little fimo circles.






















I think they came out a lot better than the last ones. And I didn't even burn the fimo this time! ; )












Next Friday I'll post a how-to for making a cute gift box out of a mac & cheese box!

DIY Friday- Sweater Skirt Redo!

This is one way to make a pencil skirt out of an old sweater!













Here's what my old sweater looked like:








First thing you wanna do is chop off the collar. I tried to cut as straight across the shoulders as I could. This is going to become the waist.














Next, I measured a 1/2" and folded that over and pinned it,all the way around the top part that was just cut off.
















After the whole waist was pinned, I turned the whole thing under one more time and sewed all the way around.
I set the stitch width at a wide zigzag because that allows the stitching to stretch without breaking.




























Then I tried it on in order to figure out what to do next! I realized it would fit well if I chopped off 1 of the sleeves. I put it on inside out and pinned it so that it would fit.






















Next I sewwed straight down next to the pins. I used a smaller zigzag stitch so it wouldn't stretch quite as much as the waist, but would still stretch without breaking. I'm sure it wouldn't make a huge difference if you use a straight stitch too. After sewing along the pins I cut off the sleeve.


















This next part I wish I had taken better pictures of, but hopefully you'll get the idea. Feel free to ask me questions by the way!



















So next I held up the skirt, right side out, and it had only one sleeve left. This sleeve would be made into the pocket. I tucked it in so the sleeve was hanging on the inside. I pinned the sleeve in place and sewwed around the edges of it so it would stay in place intsead of flopping around. I also sewwed straight across where I wanted the bottom of the pocket to be.




Then all that was left was chopping off the end of the sleeve that poking out from under the skirt.

Friday DIY! a day late lol ; )

Ok, so I didn't get to it yesterday. maybe I should change it to "Sometime around Friday DIY" hahaha anyways, without further ado.....


This week I decided to try and make some of those cute little fabric covered stud earrings that you see on etsy lately. Here's an example of a really well done pair by Fluffington. They were on the front page the other day.




















I didn't succeed in making my pair as clean looking but they're still kinda cute.




First things first: materials.




stud earrings with flat front
scrap of cool fabric
fimo clay
super glue
scissors



I got the glue at a jewelry supply shop on 6th Ave. It's a multi-purpose super glue.













First I made little circular disks out of the fimo clay. I made mine just slightly bigger than the flat part of the earrings.











Next I baked them. Apparently too long because they burned! : 0 haha Fortunately that doesn't matter because they're just getting covered with fabric anyway. I think they were in for about 15min so I guess you should try 5min or so.




















After letting my poor burnt-beyond-recognition fimo disks cool I cut a little square of my fabric scrap that fit the whole fimo disk. I glued the front part first and let that dry by placing it face down on the table for a couple minutes. after the front was securely glued I started folding the rest of my little fabric square around the fimo clay disk. I continued gluing bit by bit, holding each fold in place for a couple minutes to let the glue set.

After the fimo clay disk was completely covered I glued the stud to the back. I held that in place for a few minutes too. I then let them sit overnight before I starte playing with them, just to make sure the glue was really strong.

And that's it!

I have some ideas for
improvements, so maybe next week I'll post an update on this one.

Simple Tank Top Re-Do Project

So I tried out a little diy project idea I spotted in this month's Blueprint magazine. They did tiger stripes on a little black dress using a bleach pen and I said to myself, "Hey I have one of those bleach pens at home". So I gave it a try on an old tank top.




I put the shirt on my mannequin so as I was drawing I could see how it would look while being worn. If you don't have a mannequin, some large cylinder shaped object would probably work, maybe a tall bucket or an empty wastebasket.




I covered the mannequin with a left over drop cloth from painting my apt. a few months ago.














Next I drew one continous stripe using the bleach pen. I started at the bottom and worked my way up in a spiral until I ran out. I think my bleach pen was just a little less then full when I started.






When I was done drawing the stripes, I let it sit for about 30 min. because I wanted to make sure the bleach got a chance to really work and become pretty bright. After the 30 min. I slipped the tank off the mannequin by pulling on the plastic drop cloth. Then I washed it in warm water with a little detergent.



















and voila! the finished shirt!
Now I'm eyeing all my other old tops for a re-do.... : D