DIY faux fur trim is a bit of a challenge, hell faux fur anything more often than not just ends in a bit of a mess.
Going from Brisbane to Melbourne is quite the climate change and I knew that moving here I would need a really good big winter coat. So you know those gigantic Jesus Diamante coats that have ridiculous huge faux fur trim and an even bigger price tag of around $2000? I figured I’d just make one myself ^_^
This is that jacket that I started with… nothing fancy just a plain one from Target. Just make sure it’s a nice cut.
And I turned it into this:
So pick out your fur trim! I wanted black but all I could find was pink. You want fur with a really long pile so it looks nice and luxurious.
First let’s talk about the right way and the wrong way to cut faux fur. Some people *cough like the lady at the store where I got the fur cough* just hack away at fur in the direction they’re cutting, this leaves an ugly shelf at the end. This also means you’ll be cleaning freaking fur out of everything you own for the next month.
What you want to do is mark where you need to cut and brush the pile in opposite directions so you have a clean line in which to cut.
Then you get a nice full pile over the whole backing AND you have to clean much less.
So anyway what you need to do is cut a piece for each sleeve cuff and the collar. I just used rectangles that I estimated from the jacket’s measurements.
Now use your over locker/serger to seal the edges of all of the pieces. This will prevent fraying and lock the edges of the pile in.
This is what you end up with…
Sew the sleeve parts into tubes….
My jacket was too thick to sew in my machines so everything from this point is hand stitched. First let’s do the sleeves. With the fur inside out shove the end into the sleeve and make sure it all lines up well.
Use tacking stitches to hold it in place and then sew it.
Now turn the fur the right way out and pull it up the sleeve. Turn the ends under and then sew that in place too.
Make sure it’s all secure then repeat on the other side…
Now time for the collar! My coat had a really nicely cut collar already so I basically just cut a rectangle of fur, folded it in half and then covered the collar. If your coat has a different collar you will need to modify this step Or just attach this kind of rectangular collar to whatever yours actually has ^_^
To attach it I sewed one side of the fur to the back of the collar of the jacket, right along the seam that was already there. I then folded the fur around to the other side and sewed it along the seam there as well. This means the collar is fur on both sides.
I added a small pin so I could close the collar even tighter like a scarf if I wanted to. And you end up with this!
And being worn…
I tell you what, this jacket has been a godsend here! It’s so warm and the fur makes it extra comfy and warm 😀
I *LOVE* it
What do you guys think? Have any of you ever tried to DIY faux fur trim for yourselves?
Today I thought I would show you a few of my latest decoden pieces ^_^
We don’t have the internet at our place yet so I’m keeping everything as updated as I can between free wifi at McDonalds and 3G on my phone. Please don’t stop commenting, I promise every single comment email etc will be answered when I have ADSL again! <3
This was my hair brush which was quite boring but I love it to death.
I started with the bigger pieces, and played with them until I had an order I liked. I wanted it to have a line down the center of feature pieces.
Then I glued it all down!
Next I did around the sides so I had a defined area to deco in.
Add more jewels…
And there you have it!
I love the rose detail!
And strawberries of course ^_^
It’s so shiny!
Next I decided that a travel mug would be good for the trip down to Melbourne. I usually hate travel mugs but I found a really good one at Kmart in a pack of 2 for $4.50 so James and I each got one!
Add some deco…
I made all the pieces including the flowers and the cameo ^_^
I’m considering filling all of the gaps of the travel mug with purple jewels because I don’t know if it’s bling-y enough… what do you think? Keep it subtle or go for decoden craziness?
While you’re all reading about Sneaker Sunday I’ll be on day 2 of our epic car trip yay!
After last week’s post I was looking at those sneakers again. I love them but I’ve always thought that something was a bit missing from them.
I thought about it for a while and I realised… everything needs more glitter 😀
What you need for this sneaker sunday tutorial:
Shoes
Glitter
Pva craft glue/tacky glue. Make sure the glue dries clear before starting it!
Tray to catch run away glitter
Remove the laces from your shoes.
Pour all of your glitter into a container to hold it.
Pour some of the glue onto your tray.
Add some glitter…
Mix it all together using your paint brush. You want a mix that is more glue than glitter. It shouldn’t be too chunky.
Start painting anywhere you want glitter!
I do sections around this size at a time so the glue doesn’t dry too quickly.
It also helps to pull out the tongue (which I’m leaving blank for this design) to make it easier to reach the other parts.
Repeat on the other shoe…
Wait for it to dry and you get this!
Do a second coat of glitter 😀 Depending on the colour of the glitter and your shoes you may need to do several coats.
Wait for it to dry completely and then paint on a top coat of plain glue. This will ensure the glitter doesn’t go anywhere and means you will be able to wipe them clean without damaging the glitter.
Make sure it dries completely before you do anything with them!
Here is a close up of them dry. It really doesn’t capture just how glittery they are in person! Also you might not want to glitter the holes the laces go through but I was in a super hurry doing this!
I replaced the laces with black ribbon too.
And done! Super shiny, you really can’t tell in the photos but they are absolutely blinding in the sun!
The first few times you wear them they might be a bit sticky. After you have worn them in the glue will lose it’s sticky on the outside. If you want to speed this up just get them a bit dirty XD To keep them clean just wipe with a wet cloth.
Even better if you have a matching ladybug friend…
So cute!
Lady bugs= sneaker coordination at it’s best 😀
Hope you enjoyed this week’s Sneaker Sunday! For more information on Sneaker Sunday please click here or wander over to Valerie’s blog and check out her post for this week!
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Lots and lots of you have written in and asked for a way to store necklaces and bracelets like a pretty jewellery display stand or something. Well this is how I store mine so I hope you find it useful!
Remember when I was talking about candy cane themed crafts? Well this is it 😀
To be honest because of the colours I used it reminds me more of an old carousel which is even cooler than candy canes!
What you need for this pretty jewellery display:
An old tea cup tree, I bought mine at a thrift store for $1
A sheet of felt
Thick ribbon
Thin ribbon in another colour
Scissors
Glue gun
Premade bows or ribbon for bows
I find the easiest base to start with is an old tea cup tree, these were very popular in the 80’s over here so thrift stores are full of them minus the tea cups now. If you can’t find one you could always make one out of wire and cardboard or something similar ^_^
First thing to do is pull off all of the arms bits of the tree so you have a stump. The arms will probably be held on my screws but if not then you can just reattach later using whatever method you want.
Then take your wide ribbon (I’m using velvet so it protects my jewellery) start at the bottom and spiral it up to the top. Hot glue it in place as you go and you get this:
Do the same thing on all of the arms you pulled off. Then you should add the thin ribbon to disguise the gaps between the thick. Do it to each pair of arms then screw them back in, you might need to poke holes in the ribbon for the screws to go through. Use a little extra glue to be on the safe side.
The ends of my tree were hollow so I poked the end of the ribbon in and glued them in place. This is what it looks like when it’s all put back together…
Now place your tree onto the felt and trace around the edge. You want two circles.
Cut them out 🙂
The first one is for the bottom so the tree doesn’t leave scratch marks on your bench, just hot glue it on.
The second one will be for the top. Cut a straight line into the middle and then a hole the size of the middle pole of your tree.
Put it on like this and glue it down:
Now we need to cover the edges of the felt/rest of the stand. Normally I would do this with the same red felt ribbon but I ran out so I used a matching red satin ribbon. Basically I wound it around the bottom edge until no silver was showing and glued it in place.
I added a gigantic bow to the top and smaller bows at the ends of the branches to disguise the holes/ends of the ribbon.
Totally cute right?
Now the only thing left is to add your jewellery!
Because there are so many arms it’s much easier to find specific pieces than if they were just thrown in a box and tangles occur less frequently.
And there you have it ^_^
Now I’m frantically trying to pack away my craft supplies today in time for the move *_* I hope you enjoyed the pretty jewellery display tutorial and it gives you some ideas about storage!
We had so much fun with our other “Cooking with Susie” sessions that we decided to give it one more episode: Sushi erasers with Susie 😀
Because we’re moving, we’ve been trying to spend as much time with our friends up here before we have to say goodbye for a while.
What did we decide to cook? Sushi! Well not really sushi but erasers that are shaped like sushi in a a little kit thingy.
We bought the kit as a present for Susiewhile we were in Singapore so she brought it over to play with.
Basically it’s a little box that comes with clay and molds and when you put them in the microwave it magically transforms them into erasers. You can read more about it here.
With these sort of things reading he instructions is very important. Even more so when they are written in Japanese!
You should fill the little molds with some water so the clay doesn’t stick to it!
Add some clay to each side…
Squish the sides together
Pull the extra off and you’ve got a piece for your sushi!
Use something pointy to wedge the clay out.
No matter how realistic they look don’t eat them!!!
Bad Susie!
Keep making them until you’ve made all of the pieces!
This is the reaction you get when you tell two girls that you’re going to eat all their sushi…
These are some of the parts that will eventually make the wholes: rice, egg and roe! Susie made these ones so they are all perfect.
This is an example of the crappy ones I made… XD
Eventually she wouldn’t let me touch the clay anymore because of my shoddy workmanship mwahahaha! This mismatch of skills tends to lead to some jealousy.
But you know all of that can be fixed with our awesome dancing!!
So enough messing around, making sushi is serious business!
Fill the paper container that came in the kit with water and add the sushi pieces.
Wait patiently for them to come out of the microwave!
Then dump the pieces into cold water.
Cut out all the bits of paper for the nori wrappers etc!
This is a good point to exchange presents too… Susiemade me this awesome gigantic leopard print bow!! She is so talented and awesome. On the other side of that because I’m an awesome friend I got her…. my love and admiration 😛
And here is our finished sushi!
Yummy yummy yummy 😀 Congratulations you have successfully completed a craft project made for children! I will claim that the language barrier was the reason it took us several hours. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
But also even after it’s cooked you probably shouldn’t eat it.
Thanks for watching Cooking With Susie… and Violet!
Come visit Melbourne soon Susie!!! Let’s start a petition to make her come live in my spare room and do stupid stuff like this all the time?
Have you ever tried making this sushi erasers kit or any of these fun Japanese stye kits?
Morning everyone today I have an odd one, an earring hanger tutorial!
A lot of you have written saying you have lots of earrings but no way to store them all. I like to display my earrings because they’re pretty so this is what I’ve come up with ^_^
Continuing my theme of sweets related storage solutions it’s a gigantic hanging heart made of whipped cream 😀 It can hold as many earrings as you want and it doesn’t matter what type of backs the earring have because they can all just poke through the tulle.
So let’s get crafting!
What you need for this whipped cream earring hanger tutorial:
An old wire coat hanger
Pliers
Tulle in whatever colour you want
Artists Modelling Paste
Piping bag and tip
Ribbon
Glue gun
Needle and thread
Tray to do it all in so you don’t make a mess
Firstly you should take your coat and use the pliers to undo the top twisty bit.
Use the pliers to shape it into a heart. Use the twisty ends to secure it together. You can make the heart as big or as small as you need, it just depends on how many earrings you want to hang at the end ^_^
Cut out a piece of tulle which is big enough to cover your heart with a few inches either side for hems.
Thread your needle with the same colour as your tulle. Fold the tulle over the sides of the wire and sew in place. You might want to pin it all before you start sewing. You should make sure to sew it quite tightly, if it doesn’t have tension it won’t be able to hold up earrings.
You should stitch like this:
Keep going around to the other side:
Make sure to pay extra attention to the pointy bit at the top of the heart. You might need to cut the tulle a bit to make it fit.
Cut off all the extra tulle around the edges.
Now time for some whipped cream 😀 Put your heart onto the tray. At this point you should make sure the heart sits flat on the floor, if it’s not flat it won’t sit against the wall. You might want to put some cling wrap down on the tray to make it easy to remove later.
Get your modelling paste and icing bag ready. You can buy modelling paste from most art stores.
I got the idea to use modelling paste rather than silicone etc from Hikaria who is the master of making sweets! Modeling paste will be more durable for a wall hanging, keep it’s shape well and doesn’t have the safety issues that silicone does.
Use a spoon to fill your piping bag with the paste.
Eventually we are going to make 3 rows of little icing swirls but we want the top ones to be much higher than the sides so we need to make an icing platform for it to sit on! Use your piping bag to make a line around the edge of the heart, you should put it directly on top of the wire.
It doesn’t matter if it looks terrible or is broken up because we’re going to cover the whole thing up with more icing later 😀
Put a bit of extra icing at both of the points of the heart.
Put it outside to dry for a while. Depending on how hot it is in your part of the world, drying might take some time.
After it’s dry to the touch bring it back in. Use your piping bag to make a bunch of icing swirls on either side of the first line you made.
You should now pipe the top line of icing swirls on top of the first line you made. It should form a nice little dome ^_^ I forgot to take a photo of that step sorry! Make sure the icing covers all of the wires.
Now let the whole thing dry! It was quite cold when I did mine so I left it for a day then I turned it over and let the back dry for another day.
This is the back:
Once you are completely sure it’s dry gather the rest of your materials.
Cut a length of ribbon for it to hang on.
And hot glue it to the back of the heart. Make sure you do it in a way that’s not visible from the front.
And there you have it! It’s a gigantic whipped cream heart ^_^
To attach earrings just hook/pin them through the holes in the tulle. I made the ribbon hanger longer to make it easy to access the back of studs.
Here’s a close up of all the cream. Because it’s made from modelling paste it should be very hard, be careful because the tips of the cream are pointy!
And so the cycle of sweets themed storage continues XD My next sweets storage is going to be candy cane themed, any guesses to what it is? 😛
Hope you enjoyed the earring hanger tutorial, let me know if you try it!
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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