Easy Bow Back T-Shirt Surgery Tutorial
Depending on your side of the world, it’s warming up or cooling down. It’s cooling down here but I refuse to accept that and so I’m still making Summer clothes >_>
I had this big shirt that I bought from the thrift store laying around and while it was super comfy, it wasn’t super feminine so I decided it was time for a make over.
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You need:
So step one is to cut a deeper neckline on the back. I cut a deep v neck and then hand stitched up the seam again.
Gather up the fabric right down the middle and stitch it together.
Wrap the gather in lace and stitch it in place.
Done!
Yay for make overs and t-shirt surgery. I am thinking of doing similar things with some of James’ old gigantic shirts.
Now it’s a little more feminine but still super comfortable and very airy for summer. Triple win! |
Want to download this tutorial in one handy file?
How To Make Paper Bunting
Some of you guys asked how I made the bunting in my video back drop so here’s a quick tutorial on it!
You need:
To begin with, cut large triangles out of the pretty paper you have. They don’t need to be equilateral, in fact I think these look better if they are longer on two sides.  I used a variety of Cristina Re papers I had in my collection.
 To attach them to the string you can use a variety of methods. I just folded the tops over and stapled them in place:
 but you could also go to the effort of gluing on a second sheet of paper to make a tunnel for the string to go through.
 For these mini ones I cut a diamond shape and then folded it in half to make the triangles. To attach them to the string was as easy as just placing the string at the fold.
 You can see the fold here when they are hanging:
  Easy!
  Hope you found the tutorial useful and I’ll see you all next time!
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Cable Knit Beanie Finished Project!
The cable knitting obsession continues even further with a hat to match the cardigan I made.
I think the hat actually took longer than the cardigan because it’s such a tighter gauge to work.
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To begin with I cast on 156 stitches. This is a big floppy hat so that’s one of the many reasons it look so damn long! The ribbing at the bottom is k2 p2 continually as I was using circular needles.   I’m not sure how many rows it was but I continued the ribbing for around 25cm long.
 At this point I did one row of decreases so k2, k2tog. I made sure the decreases were on the purled stitches so that the knitted stitches would continue into the cables.
  I then counted the remaining stitches to work out a nice cable pattern which would fit. I had 104 stitches so my cable pattern became:
K3 p3, 2 strand cable with 3 stitches per strand, p2. Repeat this pattern 8 times and you should be at the end of the row.
 I found cables a bit harder to work in the round as it was harder to distinguish where I was in the pattern at a glance. I knit to tune out while I’m watching tv so counting stitches is not something I enjoy doing much.
 I did 8 cable twists which got the hat long enough for my head. Then I began to decrease one stitch in the k3 part of the pattern every row, then the p2 part etc until there was only the cables strands left on my needles and eventually there were to stitches left and I tied off.
 Done and omg so glad it’s over! I always remember knitting beanies fondly until I’m actually doing it and remember what a pain in the butt they are for being such small projects!
  The only thing missing at this point was a thick pom pom for up top.
   Done!
    As much as it wasn’t my favourite project ever, I really love the finished product! I don’t think I’ll be doing any beanies for a long time though… maybe a beret though… No, bad Violet!
   Hope you enjoyed looking at my latest project!
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Bergamot And Friends Pattern Grid Download!
Today I have a really fun reader requested pattern up for download!
Kimmi wrote to me a while ago to request downloadable patterns of Bergamot and friends for her cross stitching. It’s something that had been on my long term to do list for ages so it’s good to finally have them available!
These patterns are downloadable here or via the VLB mailing list. Each pattern is worked over 100 squares so you can adjust them as needed for the gauge you are knitting or stitching. There is one for Bergamot, Lottie, Sir Reginald and Nana Bunchkins as well as the background floral pattern for my website and also my VLB monogram.
Please note they are provided for personal use only, not for profit.
They should be suitable for knitting, crochet or cross stitch but make sure to do a swatch first so you can adjust for your personal tension.
I hope you enjoy and I can’t wait to see what you guys actually make with them! I’m thinking of doing a massive bergamot knitted sweater as my next project! Let me know what you do with them so I can add your photos to the readers gallery!
To save them just click below for the full image 🙂
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How To Make A Tape Measure Rose Bracelet Tutorial
I think I’ve seen just about every incarnation of the tape measure bracelet but even though I love the concept I never found one that was perfect for me. So obviously it’s time to make my own!
The main points I wanted to include were a stiff bangle base and bunch of roses. I prefer roses grouped in threes so I went with that for a design.
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Let’s get into it! You need:
Let’s make the bangle part to begin with. Measure your wrist and cut the two ends of the tape measure off so together they are long enough to wrap around your wrist.
Hot glue them together in the centre.
Measure out some wire which is 3 times as long as the tape.
Fold it up so it’s the same length as the tap and hot glue it to the bottom.
This will allow the bracelet to move and bend but remain stiff on your wrist. Now cut off a piece of ribbon as long as the tape, fold over the edges and hot glue it over the wire.
This will hold everything in and hide the wire but it will also make sure the metal ends don’t irritate your skin. A good tip when gluing things like this around curves is to bend the bracelet roughly in the finished shape before you glue, this will avoid any bumps in the ribbon at the end. Now we need to make the rose.
These are the same kind of rose that people often make from ribbon. I’ve done a full tutorial for that over here so have a look if any of this is a bit confusing. Take the end of the tape measure and fold it at a right angle. Roll the folded part (the stem) up towards the fold. Fold the tail of the tape backwards again at a right angle. Continue rolling the stem over the fold you made. Keep going with this process, fold backwards and then roll the stem over it. As you keep going it will form petals.
Continue until you think the rose is big enough and then secure the end with some hot glue. I made one big rose and two smaller ones.
Next, snip the stems off the roses and glue them to the centre of the bracelet you made.
Done!
And there you have it, my take on a classic.
I love having jewellery which matches my hobbies! Let me know what you guys think and if you try it out!
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Random Craft Projects!
I think it’s time for another random project dump! These are things that I’ve done but not had time to film tutorials or did when the lighting was too bad for photos! I do a lot of things which aren’t always included on the blog so it’s nice to be able to show you guys some of them!
For my new video set up, I repainted this lamp.
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It used to look like this:  I added a fur collar to my old jacket and then I ended up removing it and storing the jacket as I got a new one which doesn’t shrink every time I wash it XD
 I really loved this dress but it was way too long so I took up the bottom.
   To make it a bit more wearable with a cardigan I removed all of the beading too.
   Easy!
 I bought this top on sale for like $3 but it didn’t come with straps and was huge around the sides.
 I took in the back and the front.
 And added in some lace straps.
 I painted our Ikea bench thing white.
 And the sleeves of my favorite jumper had to come off because they had an un-patchable hole in the knitting ;_;
  At least it still looks cute though!
 I covered James’ photography stool in a really quick and slightly dodgy way because the underneath was all cracked.
 When we moved everything around James gave me his old photography shelves. I covered them with some owl wrapping paper but the eyes creeped me out too much so I recovered them in white decoupage XD
 Much cuter!
 And that’s it for now! I’m sure there will be lots more random projects happening soon though as I have a little more spare time!
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