Let's Make a Tank Top

I have tons of t-shirts that I don't wear any more. Whether it be they are too big or from five years ago, they just sit in the bottom draw of my dresser looking sad. I took a lot of them from high school and cut them up to make a t-shirt quilt but that's for another post... So I took a few that were too big and chose to make a tank top to use to lounge around the house in my Nike shorts to trick people into thinking I work out. Or to use as a swimsuit cover-up. 

 

 So I started with a shirt that was too big for me. This is a large and I normally wear a small, sometimes a medium depending on the length.

 I cut the ribbed neck hole out right at the seam.

 I them measured down an inch from the middle of the neckhole. You can measure down however far you want. I did an inch and a half on my other ones I did. I just chose an inch so it wouldn't cut into the front design. Cut half way down and then flip it over to be a guide to for the other half of the neck. You don't need to do the back side of the neck.

 I also cut the sleeves off at the seams, but that part is not necessary. I hen measured two and a half inches from the neckhole and cut the arm holes down in a diagonal. 

 This is what my shirt looks like so far.

 Nest next the sleeve and cut a 2" by 8" piece of fabric.

 You can curl it up to tie around the back of the shirt. You don't have to, but it makes it easier.

Please excuse my super white back, I haven't gotten my tan on yet this summer. Tie the back with the strip of fabric. I had to knot it around several times.  

 And here's the front of the shirt! Pardon the pearls, it's my Southern roots.

And the back!! I think it turned out fabulous! I hope this works for you too!!

Time for Plan B

I was at Hobby Lobby today and had to make a difficult decision. I had started a craft project a few months ago and made a terrible mistake. I had been stalking the scrapbook section at my local Hobby Lobby for months waiting for certain page. Sadly, the spot remained empty. Today I decided to purchase a different paper today and hope it work well with the existing paper. What exactly is the project I am talking about? Well, it's tutorial time!

My mom had purchased letters at Hobby Lobby that spell out my name. The plain white boring letters where starting to look depressing and since I'm not much of a painter I chose to cover them with scrapbook paper.

Here's how I did it:

I began with my remaining letter and the new paper I chose.

I traced the M on to the back side of the scrapbook paper. (Make sure the back side of the letter is facing you as well, this is where I messed up the first time...)

Now you have a copy of your letter. You will modge podge the paper to the letter.I used two coats on the wooden letter before I applied the paper and another two on top of the paper to make it stick.

After the glue dried, I trimmed the overlap. I suggest using a small razor or scissors. 

Here is my finished M!

Here is all three letters together. I'm pretty proud of my myself for picking out a good matching paper.

Here's the far away view. Hope you enjoy this! 

 

If You Can't Find It, Make It!

I love having my monogram put on items. I have it put on everything, from pullovers to scarves to bags, even my eye mask has it on there. A little crazy you say? Well, my mom just happens to own an embroidery business! So I get everything down. However, there are a few items she can't do; such as pre-made pillowcases. And the ones you can buy are super expensive. So I made my own and decided to show you how to make your own pillowcases. So let's begin!

So I started with two different fabrics: the piece for the cuff I cut to be 11 x 41 inches, and the body to be 26 x 41 inches. Now you can use scrap fabric and they don't have to measure up to my measurements as long as they fit a standard pillow cases.

I had the body and two cuff monogrammed because I own three pillows for my bed. So I'm going to have two different ways for you to make the pillowcases.

First way:

Pin the right side of the body and cuff fabrics together on the 41 inches side.

Now, sew it together like so.

After sewing, your pillowcase should begin to look this the above and below picture (minus my monogram).

I then hemmed the cuff by sewing an inch inseam. Your inseam can be whatever size you want, mine just had to make sure the monogram was centered.

After hemming the cuff fold the pillowcase in half with the right side facing in.

Pin the side and end where the pillow will not enter the pillowcase.

After you sew, turn inside-out and press. First way is done.

Second Way:

For this way, pin wrong side to wrong side of the 41 inches side with the cuff underneath the body.

Now flip over and roll the body fabric down.

Go all the way until the roll will reach the bottom and you can see the cuff fabric.

Fold the cuff over the roll and pin so the body fabric is inbetween a sandwich of the cuff fabric.

Side view. Now you may sew all of this together.

Now pull the body fabric out of the roll. This might be a little hard, but pull the body in one hand and the cuff in the other away from each other.

Now you have a beautiful cuff with no hemming.

Ta-da!

Now fold with wrong side out and pin the side and back end of pillowcase. Press if desired. Second way is finished!

Here is the finish product of the first way!

Twiggy was unhappy about the new pillowcases when I first put them on the bed.

Finished product of second way!

Twiggy likes them now.

Ta-da!! Hope you enjoy the finished product as much as Twiggy does.

New Needle, New Project!

As you can tell from my last post I really like TOMS. The thing about the TOMS is that they come with this  flag that says TOMS. I have no idea what to use the flag for. I tried hanging it on my wall, but it just seemed weird. So I decided to take them and make them into little bags. The only I love more than shoes is little bags. I have no idea why, but I do. So let's begin. 

 Here is my TOMS flag. I have it on the ironing board so I flatten out all those pesky wrinkles.

 Next I took a zipper (p.s. you'll need a 12 inch zipper. You could maybe get away with a 9 inch one, but I used the 12 to give me a little extra room.) And pinned the front side to the front of the flag. So now the back of the zipper is facing you when you see the front of the flag. Now sew together. WARNING! Watch out for the metal garnets. They will snap your needle and not even feel bad. Hince why the post is called new needle.

Those metal things are dangerous! Also a back view of the flag/front view of zipper.

Now, you will need to unzip the zipper and pin the other sides together. Repeat the sewing steps. 

Close up of unzipped zipper. 

Now zip the zipper about halfway up. This is for you to sew the sides. Also turn the flag inside out so the actual print of the flag is currently inside. 

Pin the sides and sew. 

You don't have to close the zipper all the way. I would suggest leaving an opening of 1/4 of the bag or so. This will allow to unzip the bag once it is complete. 

Pin the other side together and sew. 

I made a little boo-boo. I wasn't paying attention and next thing I knew, there was a wrinkle.

Now you can turn inside and Viola! You have a cute little bag made out of a TOMS flag. I left the garnets showing so I could string something through them in case I wanted to add a handle.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Check back soon for more awesome ideas!