Thursday 24 July 2014

T-Shirts Galore!

Yay! A chance to craft once again! It's funny how good it feels to do something creative when you haven't had the opportunity to do so for a little while (like a three-week vacation!).

This time, it's all about the T-shirts. I had a couple of ideas for my elder kidlet, so here they are. She happens to be a huge Doctor Who fan, and I've seen some really cool T-shirts out there, so I thought I'd pull out the ol' freezer paper and make some stencils.

TARDIS stencil...


Paint added...

Adding back detail...

All painted!
I didn't rotate this one. *sigh* Completed shirt front.
Completed shirt back!
So needless to say, she loves her new shirt, and there's already a list of other Doctor Who-themed shirts she wants made! I may have to put one together for myself, too! :)

The second T-shirt I made for her is a fun one that was inspired by this blog post. I chose to do a Canadian maple leaf on a red T-shirt. Sorry the photos aren't great; my phone is my quick go-to device for these pictures, and sometimes they don't turn out very well.

Maple leaf stencil and paint dots!
Completed shirt. Looks better in real life, I think.
My daughter did most of the dot application on this one. I filled in a few gaps once she claimed she was done.

Two new, cool T-shirts for my kid to wear, and many more to come -- including one upcycled shirt that I'm working on right now! I hope to have a new post up very soon to show you!

Cheers!

Friday 6 June 2014

To The Maxi!

Hi, all!
We've sadly been awfully neglectful of this poor blog, but that's what happens when life gets in the way of everything else!

Due to a number of family medical issues -- and that aforementioned *life* in general -- I haven't had much time to craft lately at all. That doesn't stop my Pinterest boards from growing by leaps and bounds, though!

Today I thought I'd tackle an easy refashion that I'd been thinking about for a while -- a maxi skirt! I had this sundress I'd picked up at the thrift store hanging in my closet for ages.

Sundress! 
I didn't take pictures throughout the entire process, but all it involved was chopping off the shirred portion at the top, then folding over and pressing first 1/4" then 1.5" to create a casing for elastic. I stitched close to the folded edge, leaving a gap of a few inches through which to insert elastic. I measured a piece by wrapping it around my waist and marking the length with a Sharpie.

After that, I inserted the elastic and safety-pinned the ends together so I could try it on again. Thankfully, this was a smart idea. I needed to tighten the elastic more in order for the skirt to feel properly snug at the waist. Once I made this adjustment, I stitched the overlapped elastic twice with a zigzag stitch, then closed the gap on the waist.

And... ta-da!

I know, it doesn't look very different, but it is. Unfortunately, because I'm tall, the skirt doesn't quite go down as long as I would have liked -- even though I cut it as close to the shirring part as I could. It's okay. It's still light and flowy and extremely comfortable. So it's all good! And besides, I have a couple of other thrifted sundresses that are just begging to be made into maxis, too... :)

In other crafting, I also put together some bracelets a while ago, following this tutorial. Very cute, and very easy.


Anyway, that's it for now. My list of projects is huge, and now that life looks a little more normal *knocks on wood*, I hope to get on top of them. Watch this space for new posts (hopefully) soon!