Floral Shirt to Toddler Dress Recon

I have been into clothing upcycling/recon lately. So I asked all my friends to rifle through their cloests and give me all their old clothes. My friend Rose gave me this stretch-poly floral print shirt...I think its a L or XL Juniors. Anyhow, I knew it would make a great bathing suit or dress for my daughter. Here is the original top:


I drafted a pattern and got to work. The finished design ended up being slightly too big on her but she can still wear it now and she will definitely grow into it! I am tweaking the pattern so I can post it on here!! I used some tealish colored stretch poly jersey that I had leftover from another project to use as the straps, accent waistband, and headband. I also used a teeny piece to cover the button in the flower.


The picture doesn't quite show how flat the triangle top pieces lay because my daughter wouldn't sit still for the picture and my camera is terrible.

Lastly, I used these instructions to create the beautiful flower for her matching headband. The instructions were realy easy and the design is fabulous.


I will be making another one of these dresses soon so I can *hopefully* post a pattern with instructions for the design. In the meanwhile, you'll just have to over these pictures! :P

Junk Jewelry Necklace

Today’s “Use What You Have Tuesday” is more of an inspirational guide than an actual tutorial by me. I did a Junk Jewelry Swap right before Christmas...I think....anyway it was a new experience in so many ways for me. It was my first craft swap (which now I am addicted to them!) and it was my first time really trying to mess with jewelry making. Before I get into the details of the necklace let me show it to you. ...And yes, I decorated the entire "package" as well. I couldn't resist. :P




The idea behind the swap was to create a piece of jewelry using "junk" jewelry that you have laying around in your jewelry box. You know, the costumer jewelry your grandma sent you for your 16th birthday that you never got rid of. Or the thought-it-was-cute-at-the-time jewelry from Claire's. Like most of us, I had a jewelry box full of jewelry I never wore but just never could seem to get rid of. So with this swap you collage jewelry pieces together to make a new funky piece of jewelry art!

I made a necklace out of for my partner from parts from a necklace I bought at H&M years ago and never wore. The dangling green beads hanging from the rose were from a pair of earrings. The silver rose was a stud earring...I looped the post around so that I could attach a jump ring and the green dangling beads. The dainty chain hanging from the main part of the necklace was just a plain chain I had that had a broken clasp. And the tiny shell discs dangling in random places were from a pair of earrings my sister gave me.


Here are two little but great links to get you started....now go out there and make your own junk jewelry necklace today!

http://junkjewelry.blogspot.com/

http://www.hippyshopper.com/2009/03/the_art_of_upcy.html

Keyboard Clutch

I made this for a swap I was involved in around Christmas time. The girl I made it for was a computer science major (hence the computer theme). I love how this turned out and one day hope I can find the time to make one for myself.

The pattern/tutorial I used was from a Craftster.org post. Here is the original link for the instructions to this purse/clutch:

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=240105.0

The only thing I did differently is that I added a flap closure. I would have used a magnetic closure but it was a "Buy Nothing/Green Swap" and we had to use what we already had. At that time all I had was velcro! LOL. Anyhow here it is!

Bridal Bingo

I am a bridesmaid for one of my friend's wedding this July. We just had her bridal shower and I was in charge of the bridal bingo. Little did I know that it would be impossible to find a cute free bridal bingo game on the internet. Free? Yes. Cute? No.

So I decided that I would make one using Adobe Photoshop CS. I am, after all, going to school for graphic design. How hard could it be?

I ended up taking some inspiration from some other non-free ones I had seen on the internet and came up with this cheerful and happy version of bridal shower bingo. Feel free to download and use this design but remember not to use my design for profit! It's bad manners.

To use: Click on the image and it will open in a new page. Right-click and select "Save Picture As" and save to your Desktop. Then print! The image should print full size on one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of printer paper.


The rules are simple. Every guest writes in what gifts they think the bride will receive. Then when the bride is opening her gifts, the guests cross off the ones that she received. The daisy in the center is the free space. If someone gets a line (diagonal, horizontal or vertical straight line) then they get a prize. **Note: If you are giving out multiple prizes, as we did, you might want to mention that once you win you can't win again. We didn't and it was chaos.

Fabric & Chain Necklace

Just wanted to show off something I made for yet another swap. This one was especially hard for me to giveaway...I really loved it. I was inspired by two necklaces I had seen...this one and this one.

Waldorf Boy Doll - w/ clothes pattern!

I made this doll for a swap I was involved in on Craftster.org. My swap partner had asked for a blond-haired, blue-eyed waldorf-style boy doll for her stepson. The swap requirements also stated that I needed to make some extras for the doll and something not for the doll. I knew right away what I wanted to make: A matchin PJ set for the doll and her stepson (just like I had for my Cabbbage Patch doll in the 80's!!) I also made a blankie for the doll and sent along some bedtime story books.


For the doll, I refered to Simmy's blog Echoes of a Dream to use her waldorf instructions. After I emailed her, she was so kind as to email me the pattern she used for the body! I had used her instructions before for another doll I made for my daughter but made a different body that time.


Well as usual, I was smart enough to make a pattern as I made the clothes for the doll. If you use Simmy's pattern, which you can get by going to her blog and emailing her to request it, then these clothes will fit perfectly! Enjoy!


To use these patterns, Right-click and "Save Target As" and save to your computer. Print the images full size. Each should fit on an 8x10" sheet of printer paper to make it the right size. :P

Mustache Cd Case

Another installment of Use What You Have Tuesday! So the backstory on this one is that I don't have a car...I share with my hubby (you know, saves on gas, car insurance payments, yada yada...). Well my sister just joined the military and is in bootcamp for 12 weeks, so she is letting me use her car in the meanwhile! I decided that I would need to get a cd case in the car and found an ugly black Case Logic case that used to be the hubby's. It needed some work and so it inspired this project!

The supplies are super simple. All you need it a cd case of some kind, an iron-on patch for jeans, scissors, embroidery thread and needle, a seam ripper, and some ribbon to replace the ugly zipper pull with.

I used the seam ripper to remove the tiny sewn-on logo patch on the front of the case. I took the patch, which already comes folded in half and cut a half a mustache shape out on the crease so that when the patch was unfolded I had a full mustache.

Now when I ironed on the patch I accidentally touch some fo the seam binding with the iron...a word of caution, it melts...LOL. So if you come in from the spine area with the iron you won't touch any of the seam binding. Also, the patch didn't end up sticking as well as I had hoped so I ended up doing some stitching with the embroidery thread to help keep the mustache on. Then all I did was embroider the words on! I LOVE it! Something about the recent mustache craze with crafters that has me all giddy! :P