by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 15, 2010 | Craft, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial
Yesterday I showed you how to make a jumper/sweater into a cardigan and at the end I mentioned that I wasn’t going to add buttons or ribbon ties because I wanted to use cardigan clips. This is how I made them!
Clips like this can be really useful in jazzing up a plain cardigan and are also great for girls with bigger busts who find it difficult to find cardi’s that actually fit in that area!
This particular one was made as a graduation gift for the lovely Celeste^_^
So what you need:
- Pretty beads, I’m using pearls and pink crystals
- Clip on earring parts
- Thread, needles, scissors
- Felt
- Decorations, I’m using bows and some little heart dangly things
- Glue gun
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Start my working out how far apart you need the clips to be to keep your cardigan closed and laying out all of your parts. |
I decided to put a bow on each side then the heart dangle then alternate between pearls and crystals. It’s really important to use fairly heavy beads otherwise the clips won’t hang down in that cute arched way, they will just get pulled straight from the cardigan.
Now let’s make the beaded part. Using your thread secure it around the first bead (in this case the heart dangly).
Thread on all of your beads…
Tie it on to the other side too. I used jewellery wire for this one but I’ve used plain thread in the past too.
Now let’s take care of the clippy part. You can of course by these from a craft store but I have got an excess of old clip on earrings so I removed the bases of those to use. I cut out felt pieces to cover the front and back of the clips:
Then glued them on…
So that makes a pretty good base.
Now let’s put both of the pieces together! I glued the dangly heart bits on first:
Then added the bows over the top!
Now this is very important: when you put it together, before you glue everything make sure that the clips are pointing in the right direction! They should be facing opposite directions so they can be clipped to the cardigan like this:
It’s a good idea to lay everything out before you actually glue it.
All finished! Very quick and easy to make and a fun way to add some sparkle to a plain cardigan ^_^
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 14, 2010 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial
So I have this problem a lot… I buy Winter clothes because they’re pretty but you know, living in Australia and all, I don’t have that much use for them. Winter clothes are just prettier though!
This brings me to my current situation, I bought this jumper when I was 16 and living in North QLD (which for those overseas is ridiculously hot. There are pretty much 2 seasons: Summer and slightly more Summer with rain) and it never really fit in the right way. The neckline was really high and the middle had no shape, the shoulders didn’t sit right and generally it just made me look out of proportion… but the pattern was so pretty! So I’ve lugged this stupid sweater around through 3 cities, 7 houses and various different climates. Now living somewhere it does actually get kind of cold I thought “Hey! I’ll finally get to wear it!”… Then I didn’t. I didn’t wear it once through the whole damn Winter.
This time when I decided to clean out my wardrobe it didn’t make the cut… but somehow I still couldn’t let the damn thing go! So I decided to see if I could alter it and make it wearable XD That’s a long intro for this one tutorial but this is going to be the first in a lot of sewing tutorials as I become more ruthless with my wardrobe!
So this is how it started:
I decided to turn it into a cardigan.
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What you need:
- Sweater
- Needle
- Thread
- Scissors
First thing fold it in half with the neckline on the outside like this:
Cut down the fold, only cut the front layer of fabric!
You should have something like this:
Now because I hated the neckline I decided to make it more flattering so I folded myself a new one which scoops down below the bust. In theory you could cut whatever neckline you want at this point.
Cut off the excess:
Starting on one side at the bottom we’re going to hem the whole thing. Because it’s a knit fabric you will need to enclose all the edges so it doesn’t fray. If you have an overlocker/serger it’s a good idea to go around all of the edges but not completely necessary. |
So fold the edge over:
Fold it over again so the raw edge in sandwiched inside:
Thread your needle and using a blanket stitch start going down the seam.
This is the close up on what it should look like:
You could easily run down the seam with a sewing machine but this method (if you’re careful) won’t leave visible stitches on the front of the cardi.
Repeat on the other side and you’re finished!
Now you need some way to close it, you could add a button or ribbons very easily but I decided to leave it as-is and make sweater clips. I’ll show you how to make those tomorrow!
Because I took out a good couple of inches in the middle for the seams it’s now a whole lot more flattering and form fitting. I haven’t decided if I want to do anything else with it yet, I’m thinking it might benefit from some pretty embroidery or possibly some more shaping in the arm area. We’ll see! And if I decide to do it I will definitely post photos!
So there you go, first sewing tutorial in ages. More to come though, I’ll be digging out my sewing machine later this week to do some real work on it and everything XD
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 13, 2010 | Notices
So as you can probably tell by now I’ve been doing some cleaning up around the site ^_^
There are a whole lot of changes happening so please excuse any problems over the next few days! As you can see there are still lots of things that need tweaking but it’s getting there 😀
I’ll still be posting normally in the mean time (starting from tomorrow as I’ve been staring at the screen too long today hahaha!) and once everything is completely sorted I’ll do my usual post with a complete list of changes and the reasons behind them all.
In the mean time I hope you like what’s been done so far of the new layout and have a lovely night!
<3 Violet
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 12, 2010 | Nails, Outfit Of The Day
Yesterday was the Melbourne Beauty Blogger’s Christmas party so I decided to do my nails^_^ Lots of party pictures to come!
I went with a snowflake design because I miss Winter already XD
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They were pretty dodgy because I didn’t leave them to dry enough before the top coat but they did the job!
And my outfit from the day…
Dress- Some store at Harbour Town the other day, on sale for $15! |
Stockings- Myer, previously white but my washing machine turned them pink XD
Cardigan- Ice, on sale at Harbour Town 3 for $10 😀
Shoes- Can’t remember, I added the shoe clips
Necklace/Bracelet- Gift from the lovely Casey!
Brooch- Amaranth Opulent
Bonus photo:
Look at the epically huge rice crispy square I made XD It was actually several smaller squares but it melted in the container into one massive one!
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 10, 2010 | Beauty, Hair, Hair-Tutorials, Tutorial
This is another one of those tutorials that’s been a long time coming. I’m doing my best to get through all the requests now that I have inspiration again XD
So a lot of people asked how to I did this style for the Nuffnang Christmas party…
Well there is a trick… it’s done with 2 types of hair extension ^_^ One of these plain track ones:
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And one of these ones which are supposed to go over a pony tail on big clippies:
I bought my extensions from Bodyline and they were very cheap but decent quality. For the two of them I think I paid about $18. By using extensions you can do this style with pretty much any length hair at all ^_^
Also obviously these extensions don’t match my hair colour since I dyed my hair again but hopefully that will make it easier for you to see what is my hair and what is extensions!
What you need:
- 1 set of hair extensions on clip in tracks (curled)
- 1 matching clip in ponytail (curled)
- Bobby pins
- Brush
- Hair Spray
Ok starting with clean brushed hair, grab the track extension and fold up the track like this:
Holding it in one hand, use your other hand to grab half of the tips, scrunch it up…
Plonk it on the top of your head like this…
You should have a couple of long curls hanging down the side like this and the rest piled on top in random curls. Pin it in place ^_^
Divide your natural hair in 3 sections, one on each side and one at the back. On the side that has the hanging bit, pull the section of natural hair backwards.
Scrunch it up in your hand loosely and pin it at the back of your head where the top of the extensions meet your scalp…
Pinned it looks all scrunchy like this:
Repeat on the other side…
Pin it down!
Ok time for the clippy part!
On the side that had the hanging curls, hold them up and out of the way for a second. Clip the hair piece right above your ear and into your natural hair…
Let go of the curls so they fall over the top and you end up with something like this…
Now that is much too unbalanced on the side for my tastes and it looks terrible at the back so lets finish up! You should still have a piece hanging down the back of your natural hair. Pull that up…
Scrunch it up…
Pin it in place ^_^
Now let’s cover the back up so it blends in more ^_^ Grab a handfull of the side ponytail her from the top:
Pull it around the back and pin in place over the top of your natural hair. You can chose to leave a couple of strands hanging down or you could pin them up to your head.
Hair spray the hell out of it ^_^
If you need to, fix up the curls with your fingers so they are perfect.
There you have it! You can add some bows or flowers or clippies or something else to decorate it!
From the side…
And the other side!
So there you go! If you practice you can have it all up and finished in about 15 minutes 😀 Hope you enjoyed the tutorial ^_^
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