Christmas Past

I haven't really made any Christmas crafts this year so I thought I'd share one I've previously blogged about. I still use (and love) this wreath... but I'm all about decorating for Christmas in the traditional red and green. (Originally blogged about here.)

I originally made this fabric wreath years ago (in 2008?) and then later on added the holly and berries out of felt. Easy and cute. :)

Antlers

Over the past little while, I've seen a home decor trend that I wasn't completely sure about. The antler trend. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Check here, here, and here. Are we on the same page now? Good).

I liked it but at the same time I wasn't 100% sold. And who wants to invest in or kill an animal for the antlers when you aren't 100% sold? Not me. Well, I figured out a way to incorporate the antler trend into a home without actually having any antlers.

Ta-da! Embroidered antlers!

I'm actually not going to keep these, as I made them for a homemade gift exchange, but I really love how they turned out. In fact, I may make one for me... who knows. The larger one was embroidered with a coral colored floss while the smaller one with a blue. Both are on a blue-gray fabric I had hanging out in my fabric stash.

Two-toned Infinity Scarf

Guess who is posting a tutorial today? ME! Yay!

It is for this bad boy:

A two-toned infinity scarf! Pretty cute, amiright?

First off, you need two colors of knit fabric (mine each measured about 24x70ish inches).

my fabric is actually folded in half here so it doesn't look as long as it is

With right sides together, zigzag or stretch (if your sewing machine has one) stitch down the two long sides (so you get a long tube). Sorry, no picture...

Switch that tube right side out. Fold your long tube in half (hamburger style - so the open ends meet). Now, it might get a little confusing, but bear with me. I folded my fabric so that the light blue fabric was sandwiched on the inside. I started pinning my light blue fabric together (only through those two layers). Like so...

Keep on pinning. When you reach where the dark blue fabric is (or whatever color you have on the outside of your fabric sandwich), just readjust your fabric and only pin through the dark blue fabric. Keep on going until you have about a 4-5 inch gap from where you started. The bulk of your fabric might get bunchy, but just try to keep it out of the way.

And now start sewing where you just pinned (starting on the light blue or inside color)... again with a zigzag or stretch stitch.

with this picture you can also see what I mean by the fabric bunching up...

Once you are done sewing and you readjust your fabric, you will notice that gap we left open (so we could flip the seams we just sewed inside).

Now just hand stitch that opening closed and you are done! 

Here is another way to wear this cute scarf:

I had extra knit fabric on hand, so I made another one! (I used less fabric on this one so it isn't as long).

Navy navy navy (beans?)

Guess what? It is another post about my house. Lucky you?

Last Christmas we got an awesome TV and since then it has been hanging out on a Lifetime folding table... which isn't so awesome. I knew what I wanted for a TV stand - a dresser with the top drawer removed and a shelf in its place. Nothing too specific right? Ha. But I am cheap and lazy so I never got around to finding what I wanted at a price I was willing to pay. But luckily I have awesome friends who, when they found out my TV stand dreams, sold me the dresser they don't really use.

It went from this:

To this:

I could have left it cream but it wasn't the prettiest against my yellowish-cream walls and I really was itching for something navy. So navy it became!

I wish I could have kept the original hardware as it was pretty and ornate but one of the handles was broken so I had to replace them all. Luckily brushed silver looks great against navy.

My hot husband installing the shelf.

It was a lot of fun to work on this project with my husband - he made the shelf, drilled holes in the back (so cords could be plugged in), and fixed problems with the drawers. I'm so so so happy to have a real TV stand!

The view from my couch. Awww... perfect! Well, except for the husband's backpack in my shot... :)

Color

I really love color. It makes me happy. My house is slowly becoming a hodgepodge of color. Whenever I start a new project I always think of a new color I want to use... so basically my house isn't color coordinated but not-matching is totally in right now, right? Right? 

Here is a chalkboard I made months and months ago (I'm really good at posting on this blog... obviously... *sheepish face*). Isn't it great? I love how big it is. It was originally intended to help my menu planning endeavors but since I just painted directly over a textured painting, it isn't the greatest at erasing... so I just leave it be. I still love it. Also, this is one of the aforementioned wall hangings in my kitchen/dining area.

See, here is what it looks like over my table.

Here are my coral and white curtains (also made months and months ago). I usually get sick of prints pretty quickly (as far as home decor goes) so I wanted these to mostly be solid with only an accent of a print in the hopes that I wouldn't get sick of them within 6 months. So far so good. I still love them. Also, half-off sales are the only way to buy home decor fabric. That stuff ain't cheap (or maybe I just am...).

Does anyone else have a really hard time photographing curtains?

Lastly (for now), is this awesome pillow cover I made only a few weeks ago (surprised it wasn't months ago? me too). If you saw this post you may have caught a glimpse of it in the background. Cute huh? I attached a doily to some mustard yellow fabric and had instant craft gratification.

Speaking of Chairs...

I realized after posting my freecycle chairs that I never shared pictures of my kitchen chairs on this blog. I have a matching set of four, two of which are cream and slightly boring (one pictured below), but the two that I painted last summer are pistachio green and are awesome.

I promise there is a 4th chair, but I keep it in my sewing room.

I sure love color. And having chairs to sit on whilst eating my dinner and/or using my computer. Life is good. :)

Also, I promise my kitchen/dining area isn't as boring as it looks in this picture (I have two whole wall hangings... so it is slightly less boring than it looks). I guess my decorating style could be defined as: functional + simple + color + cheap (but not necessarily in that order). Plus, I can't be bothered with staging photos to make things look cuter than they appear.

I totally labored on Labor Day

Wanna see what I finally finished? These awesome chairs. Last summer we got them from freecycle but the seats were busted. I wasn't in a rush to finish them but didn't realize it would take me basically a year to actually work on them. But I totally finished them and I feel awesome about it.

First, I got those nasty broken seats off. Then painted the frames white and distressed them a little. I don't know why I always feel the need to distress painted wood, but I do. It might be because I don't like some things in pristine condition. Plus, it helps draw out details that would otherwise be masked by paint. And these chairs have some lovely details.

Some of the distressed details

Once the frames were to my liking, we (mostly meaning my husband) went and got some 3/8 inch thick plywood and had them cut down to size. Then I got my high-density foam (40% off coupons are the best as high-density foam is not the cheapest) and cut it down to size (I used my serrated bread knife - worked like a charm).

Then I used my super soft, light-gray pleather remnant I found at Joann's to cover my newly-made seats. My sweet husband stapled the fabric down and will eventually screw those seats down for me (so I guess they technically aren't finished but they are still functional so they still count as done... to me... ). And now I have beautiful and comfy new chairs that were relatively cheap!

Cost breakdown:

• chair frames: $0
• paint (cheap-o spraypaint): $8
• clear topcoat: $3
• plywood: $4
• high-density foam: $8
• pleather remnant: $4

Total cost for 2 chairs:  $27

Tee Finale

I thought I'd end my t-shirt week with other refashion ideas I've found.

Up first, another idea with lace from icandy handmade. Love the color.

I absolutely love ISLY and this tee refashion is no exception. I might have to make one for myself. Sweet and simple.

Welcome to the Good Life always has amazing clothing projects. Srsly. How cute is this top?! Made from t-shirts?!?!

And last of all, this one would make me feel like a ballerina. But maybe that is just me... :)

Are there any other t-shirt refashions that you've done or want to do? Let me know! :)

Random T-Shirt Past

So now that you have seen all the tee refashions I've done lately, I thought I'd show you some I did ages ago. There are so so many ways to refashion t-shirts.

Remember the shirt I showed you on Monday? The ombre one? Well, the first time I refashioned it, it ended up looking like this:

I liked the shirt but every time it was washed the corsage part of it looked crumpled to heck and would need to be ironed. So while it was cute it was annoying.

Another one I did, I just chopped off the sleeves, took it in, and added a rosette.

And here is what it looked like on:

When a shirt is just too large, you could always cut off the sleeves, take things in, put the sleeves back on, and gather up the sides like I did on this shirt:

Also, why not sew two t-shirts together?

Stay tuned, there is still one more day to t-shirt week!

Sequins = Love

Ready for another t-shirt refashion? I am! And guess what? This one cost me absolutely zero to make. Zip. Here is why: hand-me-down t-shirt and swapped sequin dress. Awesome right?

So this:

Started out as these:

My inspiration:

I simply cut the sequin fabric off of the dress and cut it down to two strips. Aaaaand sewed it down. Easy, easy. Oh, I also decided to add a strip of sequins to the pocket. Love it.

I'm thinking it would be super cute with a skirt. Yes, I like that idea. Consider it done.

Blue Lace Tee

Last summer (I think), I made myself a t-shirt from an extra-large shirt I had laying around. I didn't finish any of the edges (yay for knit fabric) so it was super duper easy to make. I wore it a few times and then stopped. It was boring. But not anymore!!

I took some lace and some royal blue Rit dye and got to work.

Once my lace was dyed and dry, I tried my shirt on and pinned the lace in place. I (very) carefully took the shirt off and sewed in place. Here was my first (and failed) attempt at sewing the lace straight. My advice, put more than 3 pins in to hold in place.

crooked... oops :)

And here it is after I unpicked and sewed that blue lace down.

This shirt has now been put back into my summer wardrobe rotation! Success! If you'd like to dye some lace of your own, pick up your supplies at Hobby Lobby! They have a great coupon promotion going on right now! Check it out!

I've linked up to:
Dittle Dattle
Craft-O-Maniac
Running with Glitter

Tee Week

Got a boring t-shirt that could use a little snazzy-ing up? Well, you are in luck! I am going to have a t-shirt refashioning week... starting RIGHT NOW!  :)

Ombre is all the rage right now. Need proof? Well, here it is, and here, and here. Oh, and here.

Well, I had a boring white v-neck that used to be this t-shirt (I got sick of ironing the ruffle/corsage thing so I took it off) and I decided to jump on the ombre band-wagon. Luckily, C&C (LOVE her blog) had a tutorial on how to dye your own ombre shirt.

Originally I had wanted to do a navy blue (like the J.Crew shirt) but when I went to buy the Rit dye, my husband helped talk me into the bright sunshine orange. I think it turned out pretty cute but kinda wish I had still done the navy blue. Oh well. Next time. :)

Call For Help

I've been getting sick of my header for a while now. I figured if I changed it then I might want to blog more. Here is my first-grade skill level attempt at making one. Anyone care to help or just make one for me? I can't pay you but I could make you something.

Tribal Belt

Lately I've been loving fashion/style blogs. One trend that I've picked up on is that tribal prints are coming back. I didn't want to get too out of my comfort zone but thought I'd give the trend a shot with a belt.

I've had this ribbon for a few years now and had no idea what to do with it... I've also had this belt buckle-thingy for even longer. I don't even know what it technically is - it just came in a random assortment of buttons and notions I got FORever ago. But it works just great for what I had in mind.

Here is what you'll need if you want to recreate this belt (if you can even find a similar buckle-guy, but you could use a ring of some sort in substitution). Ribbon, buckley-thing, Velcro, and a sewing machine (or glue?).

First off, stick one end of ribbon through one side of buckle. Sew (or glue) down.

Measure the belt around your waist (or wherever you want it to sit) and add about 3 inches. Cut to length (it would also be a good idea to Fray Check your ribbon ends). Figure out where Velcro will go.

Sew Velcro down (on WRONG side of ribbon). Tip: I sewed the "hook" part of the Velcro (the scratchy side) on the very end. I did this so that when I am wearing the belt it won't accidentally scratch my clothes because when worn that part of the Velcro will face away from my body.

Wear belt and try not to feel stupid while posing for pictures. :)

Yes, I know I need to weed and throw away some cardboard. Thanks. :)

And here is another closeup.