by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 27, 2011 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
Some of the things I made for people this Christmas were felt because I’ve been having a lot of fun trying new designs with it. So here are a couple of things I made and quick instructions on how I did them.
This felt flower was quite simple but looks really pretty when worn ^_^
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Start off with a long rectangle, cut slits in like this:
Turn the slits into petals and cut chunks out of the bottom …
With a needle and thread run through each of the bumps once…
Pull together and form a circle. Tie off ^_^
String in some pearls and add a hair clip on the back, finished!
Another hair clip/brooch/whatever. Simply done, cut out all the pieces…
Stitch together then add something to the back to attach it… done 😀
Lastly a very special pen case! Measure the pens and cut out around them, don’t forget the flap too!
Cut out a top piece…
Stitch up the sides and cut slits for the closure…
Add some hearts and a ribbon and it’s done!
Do you guys prefer made or bought presents? |
by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 25, 2011 | Craft, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial
If you’re anything like me, your needles and pins tend to wander which is really terrible when they wander somewhere your feet tend to go too *_* I have a pin cushion but I don’t like keeping needles in there so I set about making myself a little needle case.
This is what I ended up with:
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What I used:
- Plastic case that some nail supplies came in. You could either make something similar out of felt or find something along these lines.
- Pretty paper or paint
- Pen, scissors
- Felt
- Needle and thread
- Glue gun
- Decorations eg. rhinestones.
First thing, trace around the outside of your container onto the pretty paper and cut out 2 of that shape.
You should have something like this:
Fit them into the inside of the container. They should be very snug so they don’t fall out.
Alternatively you could paint the container, here’s one I did another time to hold my letter writing stuff:
Now cut out a bunch of felt pieces which also fit on the inside. I cut mine in both full length and sections:
Then stitch them together down the side to form a booklet:
And using the glue gun put a line of glue down the spine and glue it into the container.
Like this:
When you close it all it will look like this:
I decided to add another strip of felt on the other side to hold my most used needles:
Add your needles or pins!
And decorate the front! I used some diamantes from my stash ^_^
A cell phone charm to make it easy to carry and find and it’s all finished!
Now there will be no more stepping on them or losing them and the case is pretty damn cute if I do say so myself XD What do you all think? |
by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 21, 2011 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial
Overalls have a love hate relationship with me. Everyone seems to love them in Summer but I’ve always been a bit meh. I wore a pinafore (the dress version) for many years as a child and loved it to death but I just couldn’t make the leap as an adult because I have a fear of looking like some kind of cliche farm girl -_- BUT I am trying to branch out and try new things and as Liz Lisa has come out with a few cute sweet looking versions and I had denim left over from repairing James’ brother’s jeans last year I figured what the hell, nothing to lose!
This is what I ended up with ^_^
And worn!
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So here are the detailed instructions of what I did ^_^
What you need:
- Denim, I used less than 1/2 a metre of scraps left over from another project
- A pair of shorts that you know fit well to use as a template
- Sewing machine and overlocker/serger
- Pins
- Elastic
- Cute buttons
- Pre-ruffled elastic lace (or just make your own)
So first step is to cut out the pieces. Pretty much all pants are made from 4 x 1 basic shape of fabric (not including waistband) Once you get the hang of how the 4 pieces fit together you can make almost any kind pants you want. The easiest way to make pants is to copy the shape of old pants you already know fit you!
Fold your base pair of shorts in half down the center like this:
That is the shape! You need to cut out 4 of them, two facing one way and 2 facing the other. I find the easiest way to do that is to fold up the denim in half, then half again and cut. Make sure to leave a good couple of inches extra around all the sides, you can always cut them later if you leave too much but it’s a massive pain to have to start from scratch if they are too small! Also make sure you take in to account whether the fabric of your original pair of shorts had any stretch to it, if your old pair of pants was stretchy and your new fabric is not then you will need to be very carful to cut out enough!! |
This is roughly what you should end up with:
Now cut two pieces to be used as a waist band, again make sure you cut these long enough that you can get them over your hips easily and include an extra inch for seam allowance.
Now let’s make some shorts!
Get two of the pieces and put them together with the nice side of the fabric inside like this:
The side that sits on the outside of the hips is on the left in the above photo. Using your overlocker/serger go down that side.
Repeat on the other two pieces.
Now overlock the diagonal parts of each fabric pair together. You can see below in white all of the areas which you should have done at this point:
Now let’s put the two pant legs together. Starting with one, fold the top layer open like this:
Fold the other in the same way and placing it on top so it makes a kind of pants sandwich XD Pin down the seam like this:
Flip the top pants leg over so you have access to the other side.
…and pin the other two loose edges together.
Now when you flatten it out at the waist again you should have something that actually looks remotely like shorts!
Again using your overlocker stitch right up that seam from one side of the pants to the other. You have officially just made a basic pair of shorts 😀 Try them on and make sure they fit and you can get them on and off easily. They should be reasonably loose around the waist (we’ll be keeping them up with elastic later).
Now this is completely optional but I decided to change the fit of the shorts and make them a little looser for easier lounging around so I added some inserts on the side:
Right! Now turn them right side out and overlock around the leg holes to prevent fraying.
Now let’s make the top section! Cut out a rectangle that is around as wide as the pants are when laid flat and as tall as you want the front section to be. Also get the waist band pieces you cut out ready, we’re going to sew them together like this:
So using your overlocker again stitch together like this:
Fold it in half to find the middle and match that with the seam down the front of the pants. With the good sides facing each other pin it in place.
Keep pinning all the way around:
On the back measure how much waist band you need and trim/overlock the seam together so it forms a continuous loop and pin it at the back too!
Now overlock all the way around the top where you just pinned!
When you fold it all up it should look something like this:
Overlock any raw seams left. Now let’s put in some darts to make the whole thing a bit form fitting!
Turn the whole thing inside out and put it on. Fold a seam along the top and side edges and pin them in place. Now pin two darts from the fullest part of the bust down to the waist. Here’s a picture of me wearing it as I pinned it in place roughly:
The darts will make it fit around your bust and waist much more nicely.
Take it off again and clean up the pins so they are all straight and completely symmetrical.
A good dart should look something like this, see how it’s a big curve?
Using your sewing machine stitch all the seams around the edges in place.
Should look something like this:
Now fold along each dart line and stitch along the line of pins:
Make sure you go completely off each edge so you don’t have odd bubbles when it’s right way out. Should look like this:
This is optional but I decided to add in two more side darts so it was more tummy flattering ^_^ So that’s the front part finished, congratulations if you made it this far!
Now it’s time to add some elastic to the back so you’re not showing everyone your underwear when you bend over XD
So measure how much elastic you need to be comfortable and stitch it in place along the waist band part. You will need to stretch the elastic while you stitch so it grabs the right amount of fabric.
Taadaa:
Now decoration and cute making! Grab your stretchy lace and measure enough to go from the front part, cross over your shoulders and then sit at the waist at the back. I’m using pre-made stuff but you could use anything. It’s kind of similar to that stuff they use for cheap garter belts but it’s not made of ugly satin XD
Stitch in place at the front like so:
And the back! I also added a strip of it around the waist to cover the seam.
Then I added another round at the leg holes.
The leg areas can also be flipped inside for a more subtle look which I prefer.
Lastly I decorated the front with some pretty buttons…
And that’s it! Start to finish it probably took me an hour to make, and I’ve never made anything like this before so I was making it up as I went along XD I figure pretty much anyone could make them!
So there you go! Pretty massive sewing tutorial, what do you guys think? I made this pair nice and short so they would be awesome for lazing around the house in Summer but I’m thinking that next time I might make one with longer legs and cuffs on the end and maybe wear it out with stockings and a cute blouse for a casual nautical look, we’ll see if I find any cute fabric!
by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 20, 2011 | Craft, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial
I like bargin craft shopping and when I see things of sale I have a habit of buying them and thinking about what I can actually do with them later. Thats happened when a local bead store closed down around 6 months ago and most of the things in store were $1. The owner was super nice and once he found out I liked pink he kept grabbing pink things from around the store and giving them to me for free XD
And that’s how I got a ridiculous number of these things which apparently go on earrings…
But let’s face it, how many of those am I ever going to actually use?? Not many. So this is what I did with some of them!
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What you need:
- Weird round things. Or something you can substitute!
- Glue Gun
- Paint in white and yellow
- Cardboard
- Magnets or bluetac
- PVA glue
- Pliers
So let’s make some daisies! Place the petals like this:
Hot glue them together…
Make a whole heap of the flowers 😀
Paint them whatever colour you like. I decided to go with traditional white/yellow daisies. I needed a couple of coats of acrylic paint to get a decent finish.
Keep coating them until they are the colour you want.
This is what you should have:
Now cut out a cardboard circle big enough to cover all of the middle gap and paint it yellow.
Make one for every flower…
Should be around this size:
Now with some of the other circle thingies use the pliers to remove the little round part on the end so it’s a complete circle.
Paint them with a base coat too:
Then yellow over the top ^_^ I used sponge to apply the paint so it gave them more texture.
Now after everything is dry hot glue the cardboard to one side and the yellow ring to the other side.
Now to make them nice and shiny 😀 PVA glue to the rescue!
Give the whole thing a going over the the glue and let it dry.
After they are dry you should glue the magnets to the back. I decided to use mine for fridge magnets but you could easily just blue tac them to walls or windows 😀 Reminds me of a teenage girl’s room in the 90’s, just add “Girl Power” poster XD
And there you have it! Pretty decorations made with something I thought I would have no freaking use for XD
What’s the oddest thing you guys have made into a craft project? |
by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 19, 2011 | Craft, Decoden, Decoden-Tutorials, Tutorial
So my Mum bought me this cute little calculator for Christmas as something to deco, how could I say no to a challenge like that XD
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The parts I used are mostly from The Sticker Monsterwho is beyond awesome! People always ask me where I get deco parts from and I always give the following answers:
All of those places ship internationally and all of them are full of awesome stuff so no more questions about that XD |
First thing I did was put together a basic design by laying out the main pieces on the calculator…
I transfered the flowers to the side while keeping the design in tact so I could see what needed to go where. Then one by one I glued them in place.
Now let’s talk about glue. Again another question I get at least once a week is about the glue that I use. Glue which can be used for deco:
- 99% of the time I use epoxy glue. It comes in 2 parts which are mixed together. This stuff is hard as nails and once you glue things with it they aren’t coming off so make sure you’re sure before you glue.
- E9000. I haven’t used this but many other people recommend it.
- Clear nail polish/super glue. Only useful on false nail. They don’t hold very well so if you use them on a phone or whatever it’s not going to last.
- Hot glue. No. This is not good for deco. Not only is it not durable enough but you will probably burn yourself and also it doesn’t stick well to flat smooth surfaces.
- Jewels that come with sticky backs. Meh they are ok but eventually the sticky loses it’s stick and they either peel off or you will lose the jewel. Generally I peel the sticky off first then epoxy them down or just use them on things that won’t get knocked around like this calculator.
So after gluing down the flowers I started adding larger jewels around the edges of the buttons…
Then smaller jewels, stars etc…
And I just really kept going until I felt there was enough. Done!
This is the kind of deco that only takes a few minutes especially if you’re using sticky back jewels ^_^
Of course you probably shouldn’t let your boyfriend take the before/after shots -_-‘
I haven’t decided if this is finished yet, I might continue the deco around the other other side but I’m more focused on my next big project… my laptop. I’ve finally settled on a new design for it so I just need to get off my butt and get some parts now 😀
by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 13, 2011 | Clothing-Tutorials, Craft, Tutorial
This is another dress re-make I did a while ago ^_^ Originally I bought this dress at a thrift store for like $8 and I loved it to death because it was super comfy as well as being nice and cool for Summer. Unfortunately there are only so many times you can repare something so when the strap broke for the millionth time I took it as a sign it was time for a re-make. Then I left it sitting in my sewing pile for 2 years because I’m lazy.
I still love the skirt part, looks especially good with big dramatic heels, so I chopped off the top.
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I picked out some nice stretchy white cotton and used a singlet I knew fit well as a template.
I cut out two pieces like this:
I overlocked the sides and around all the raw edges.
Next it was sewing the two pieces together.
Done:
As you can see there is a fairly noticable colour difference between the new fabric and the old, such is life unfortunately but after giving the whole thing (minus the coloured parts at the bottom) a nice dunking in some bleach it all matches again. I have also been considering dying it a completely different colour but can’t decide which one! |
Anyway back to the actual sewing part…
I used some eyelet lace to edge the top section on the sides:
Then after measuring the length I used the eyelet lace as straps and for the front section edging as well:
Taadaa:
So that’s it! Another nice comfy dress saved and reworked to something more current-wardrobe friendly ^_^
And here is what it looks like on. Zombie dress rises from the dead to live again!!
I haven’t bleached or dyed it yet but once the rain lets up I think that’s my next project ^_^
Hope you enjoyed the remake ^_^
