DIY: how to resize a tee

I got a couple of new shirts for work the other day (we have to wear shirts with our logo) and even after I washed them, they fit me like a maternity shirt.  Pretty awkward I must say.  So I figured I'd make them fit me better AND show you how to to do it, too!

Turn your shirt inside out and lay a shirt that fits you how you like on top of the shirt to be altered.

Then mark the outline of the fitted shirt onto your new shirt.

*the sleeves of my shirt fit just fine, so I only altered the sides and left the sleeves alone.

Sew along the marks that you made onto your shirt.

Cut along the edge of the stitch.

I added a zig zag stitch for sturdiness.  If you have a serger, serge away!!

done in less than 15 mins.

Now you know where I work.

Please don't stalk me.

flower belt

the sister-in-law asked if I would make belts for the girls' Easter dresses.  I waited around til the last minute, but I got them done.

no sew... just hot glue and fabric.

my sweet niece posing for me at breakfast.

she did a great job of not spilling!

And my sister-in-law did a great job making the rest of the dress... she should blog about these things.

DIY Christmas dishtowel

I got crafty last week and decided to put some fabric flowers on a dish towel.

(for fabric flower tutorial, click here.)

so I picked up some scraps of red, green and yellow and made fabric flowers (minus the hot glued buttons)

figured out how I wanted the flowers on the towel and then pinned them in their spot.

sewed buttons on.

this keeps the flowers in place.

you have to make sure that you catch the fabric on your needle so be sure that your flower middles aren't too large (or buttons too small!!)

and done.

something that can be easily done while watching episodes of Intervention you've DVR'ed.

it's a really good show.

Oscar loves sewing

he needs to learn how to replace the bobbin.

DIY burlap stockings

too soon???

nahhh.

I decided to hand embroider names on the stockings... 

you know, just to be more difficult and time consuming.

I found a pretty font, printed everybody's name and traced it with a pencil on fabric.

It's not too difficult to make your own template for a stocking.  So I got 3 pieces of card stock, taped them together, drew a big fat stocking and cut. it. out.

hand embroidery time!

using the template, I cute out 8 pieces of burlap and 8 pieces of lining

using pinking shears, I cut squares of the names I embroidered 

I sewed the names on the unfinished stockings, then sewed the stocking together inside out, turned it right side out, put a ribbon on it and...

aw.

aren't we a cute family of stockings!

DIY flaxseed neck wrap

I made a ton of these last year for Christmas gifts.  My husband has been needing a heating pad so I made him one and decided to make a tutorial out of it.

Cut out 2 pieces of fabric (preferable 100% cotton.  quilting fabrics work great!)

20 inches long, 6 inches wide.

sew right sides together only on the long sides.

fold one short end to look like this and then stitch it together.

measure out a 1 or 1.5 cups of flaxseeds.

carefully pour the flaxseeds into the casing and stitch about 6.5 inches up from short end seam.

pour about 3 - 4 cups of flaxseeds, it should look like this pic.

finish by stitching about 6.5 inches from other end, pouring 1-1.5 cups of flaxseeds into the last section of the wrap.  Finish by folding the end in just like the other end and stitching shut.

finished product.

after about 3 minutes in the microwave (in 90 second increments)

modeled by the mister.

my style: honeymoon dress repurpose!

I was so excited to buy some beachy clothes for our honeymoon so I bought this dress off of Modcloth...

aw.

Since I haven't worn the dress since the honeymoon (6 months ago), I figured it was time to make a little use out of it.  So I cut the top off of it and made it into a skirt!

I like this length much better.

tank top: old, cardigan: Forever21, skirt: Modcloth repurposed, shoes: UO

gifts for the kiddies.

My friend Heather has 2 awesome little twin girls who celebrated their 7th birthday with a spa party this past weekend.  Heather asked me to come down and help, so I didn't want to go empty-handed.  

I found this pin and decided to put 2 together (one for each girl).

supplies... rope, suction cups, clothes pins, twin bed sheet, flashlight, ribbon

I sewed the ribbon to each corner of the sheet.

put clips, suction cups and flashlight in the small bag the bed sheet came in and then embroidered a felt piece, resized a pillowcase and turned it into a drawstring bag and put everything into the bag.  Pretty cute!  I made one for each girl.  It was a hit!

DIY fabric flowers

After making my fall wreath this past weekend, I decided to post a tutorial on how to make some of the fabric flowers I glued to it.  So here's what I made this afternoon...

supplies... a strip of material (this is about 2.5 inches wide and 11 inches long), fabric scissors, needle and thread, buttons, hot glue gun

fold the strip of material in half longways

begin to sew along the open edge of the strip weaving the needle through allowing the material to bunch up on your needle.

 when you've made it through the whole strip, it should look like this.  pull the thread through and connect the sides so it makes a full circle.

add a few stitches to connect each side, then trim thread.

when you turn it over, it should look like this.

hot glue a button and there's your nifty little flower!

Attach it to a headband, clip, purse, shoe, wreath or whatever you want to add a little snazz to!

you thought I would never post again...

not without posting this shirt I made.
A halter top made out of a t-shirt!

It took me about 30 minutes to throw together! Not too bad!

tee party.

this weekend we decided to have a tee party... it was a small group of us and we didn't take any pics because we were working so diligently on our projects but I managed to take a pic of my finished project yesterday... so here it is!

my tee tote!

lay your head on my skirt.

my pillowcase skirt... the elastic made me yell once or twice but it was quick and easy. I may try to make some more to sell... we'll see what happens.

comfy.