brenna’s book page fabric I love the look of old book pages. The toasty brown edges and pale centers of the pages pair perfectly with the stark black type. Simple design with such a vintage feel, but so fragile and brittle. CLICK HERE for the full how-to after the jump! Materials paper of choice (old book pages, decorative paper, newspaper, etc.)household silicone sealer (must say “silicone” on the package)scrap piece of cardboard to use as a small spreaderscrap newspaper to protect work surfacesewing machinescissorsspray adhesivescrap fabriclarge piece of paper (at least 15 x 21)piece of heavy poster board or chipboard with dimensions larger than above Instructions For all projects except writing pad: 1. 2. 3. For the tiny notebook: 1. 2. 3. 4. For the envelope: 1. 2. 3. For the writing pad: 1. 2. 3. 3. 4. 5.
Refashionista - Kelly from Sewing In No Man's Land Kelly amazes me with her detailed, over-the-top designs. She is an incredible seamstress and to top it off she's a professional photographer. Even if you don't sew, her blog is too beautiful to pass up. Welcome Kelly! I am so excited to be part of the Refashionista event this year! My family is from Ireland and my Granny and Granddad never left the island. I wish I had taken the opportunity to learn more from her. What is fantastic about using an old coat is that all the difficult parts are already done for you so the coat comes together incredibly fast! This left me with an extremely professional looking pocket and hardly any effort. The same is true for the center placket. The topstitching from the original coat again makes the shrunken version look much more professional: The original coat had a turned over collar not a hood. Plus hoods show off the super cute lining you put in! Although, I don't know how soon Evie will be letting me take some more pictures of her though ha! Cheers!
Upcycled Design Lab Blog - Starting Over - More T-shirt Tales and a Tutorial (Basket Weave Upcycled T) So yesterday I accomplished what I was beginning to believe was the impossible!!! Drum-roll please..... I finally finished another t-shirt project!! Amazining?? I know. Thank you. Can you here the music? No? Ok I guess that part is just in my head. Anyway I actually used one whole t-shirt and a good portion of another tee-shirt. As you may already know I was feeling quite discouraged a few days ago as all of my current work in progress was at the I don't know What The Fork to do with it stage . Remember this? OK so it actually looked like this. Well I am happy to report that as with most things persistence does pay off and surprisingly no gin and tonics were even required. I am learning to be more tuned in to the lessons that can be learned in even the smallest experience in our lives. But it is important to be able to let go of things. Isn't it? We hold on to so many things that hold us back in life. But of course the lesson is, that in the end, I was glad that I did. That's it for now.
puppet play: diana schoenbrun guest post! If you're anything like me, you have any number of stray socks and mittens lying around the house that have sadly lost their mates. In the new book Puppet Play: 20 Puppet Projects Made with Recycled Mittens, Towels, Socks, and More, author Diana Schoenbrun shows her readers how to make super cute and easy puppets from these and other recycled materials. Since many crafters are interested in the creative process behind a craft book like this, Diana is here at the honeybee blog today to tell us how she came up with the inspiration for her book. PS--if you'd like to try out a couple of sample projects from Puppet Play, including the quirky striped elephant puppet on the book cover, please visit the links below! Crazy Cat PuppetBetty the Elephant Puppet From Diana Schoenbrun: I came up with the idea for Puppet Play a few years ago. I had taught a puppet and playwriting classes for children ages five to seven. Here’s some fun background information about the book.
Re-purpose And Save Money During Back To School If you can re-purpose old clothes for this school year, I highly recommend doing so, think of the money you will save. These three pairs of jeans were from last year. Two pairs are too short, and the third, well, the holes just too big. It's still summer, we live in San Diego, and these are not worth sending to the Thrift Shop, so I decided to turn all three pairs into shorts for the little man to wear to school. I began by using an old pair of shorts as a guide for the length: I tend to just eye-ball things but if you prefer, measure and use a fabric marker to make sure you get your line straight before cutting. As you can see two pairs of shorts still had holes in them but the third didn't, so I tackled that pair first. I cut a piece of scrap fabric to the size I would need to make a hem for the shorts, then stitched it on. I then turned the edges of the hem up, hand stitched the sides to keep the hem up, and ironed it in place. The second pair I tackled were the tan pair.
Re-Purpose Little Girl Jeans How many other mother's go crazy spending money over and over again on pants that end up looking like this? I'm so tired of it. You can't donate them, and yet you feel guilty for throwing them out. Today I decided to add a little something to these and turn them into new summer pants for Marisol. So I chopped off the torn bottoms. Cut up some sweet flower fabric (that I picked up on clearance this week at Beverly's for $2 a yard). Then I hand-stitched a pretty lace trim (I really need an industrial strength sewing machine). Such a simple way to bring new life to old jeans, and perfect for the weather we are currently experiencing. As seen on: The Mother Huddle This post linked to:
PR&P Tutorials, Week 4 - Upcycled Ruffles Dress Week 4 of Project Run & Play was the Upcycle Challenge, we were tasked to create a look using only things that were thrifted. NO new fabric. I actually happen to love upcycling, I find that using old clothing to make new items can actually make the finished product look nicer. It can also make the sewing process easier and more fulfilling. For the Upcycled Ruffle Dress, the main body of fabric I used was an old skirt I found at the local Salvation Army. Initially I wanted to use more of that lacy curtain you see in the photo above…but it just started to look like a giant hair net. And in the end, this was probably my very favorite look I submitted for PR&P. Did I mention this was also the easiest dress I made for the competition? Seriously, it doesn’t take that long. Let me show you how… So I started with these three thrifted materials. Then cut up alongside the zipper, removing it from the top piece of the skirt, and cut off the waistband. Hem the bottom of each strip cut. Happy Sewing!
Refashionista - Jen from iCandy Handmade I hope you guys have been enjoying this Refashionista series as much as I have. It's been fun to see such different projects from each blogger. Today we have Jen from iCandy Handmade. Jen and Autie have an awesome blog full of great projects. Jen has some fantastic sewing skills and she has a fun idea for us today. Hi there! I was so excited to have been asked to participate in I am Momma's Refashionista series. If you could see my office closet right now, you would see about 7 refashion projects either in the works or not started yet. One of my favorite things to refashion are sweaters. There are endless possibilities, like turning them into cardigans, embellishing them, resizing them, etc. I had some fun wide stretch lace in my stash, and thought of ... stripes! To make this look yourself: Materials: Sweater and lace/trim/ribbon chalk or fabric marker Steam-A-Seam or Heat N Bond Tape Thread to match Hem Tape/Ribbon Repeat for each piece of lace. Thanks again, Cheri for having me!
Etsy Russian Team You can make a beautiful and stylish pendant with your own hands. It's easy if you'll follow this tutorial from Katrinshine You will need: a.. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. MADE: TUTORIAL: Recycled Grocery Totes Ready to go green? Then say goodbye to your old grocery bags by melting them into something cute. Afterall, plastic is the new plastic, right? Skill Level: Beginner to IntermediateNeeded: * plastic grocery bags (Target bags work best)* Parchment Paper* Fabric for handles and decor (optional)* IronWe’ll be fusing layers of old grocery bags together to create a stronger “fabric” for our new bags. 1. I guess Target needs to add #6. I chose to only use the white portion of my bags. Cut the bottom, top and sides off of your bag. Lay the long rectangular sheet flat. This is the tricky part, so I won’t sugar coat it. I found that the best way is to start at the bottom and press the iron up, to get any air bubbles out. When you’re all done, it should look like this, a large sheet of plastic: Continue the process so that you have sheets of this new “fabric” to work with. 2. Cut out your bag pieces using a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler. 3. Trace the letters on to your fabric with a marker.
Tutorial lite: Getting another year of wear out of a top Disclaimer: This really isn't a tutorial and can probably be filed under 'Well, duh' but I'm sharing it anyway because sometimes the 'Well, duh's pass us by. Or at least they pass me by. Due in part to me failing to make my own kids any clothes in forever, Maia has very few long sleeve tops that fit her now that the weather has grown cold. Like most kids, she has grown far more vertically than horizontally (she has actually lost most of her toddler shape) in the last year so tops fit her in the body but come up short. Let's give it another year. Materials:A top that has normal hems (i.e. does not have cuffs already)Ribbing (or jersey works too provided it's not too flimsy). Cut a piece of ribbing that is roughly 5.5" to 6" high and half an inch narrower than your sleeve hem when the ribbing is folded. Cut two pieces of ribbing that are roughly 5.5" to 6" high and an inch (or a bit more if your ribbing is super stretchy) narrower than your hem. Cut the sleeve hems off at the stitch line.
The Chiquita Dress Tutorial Isn't it funny how a characteristic in someone can drive you crazy one moment, but be the very thing you love about them the next? Olive is rather mischievous. Like, the other day she brought up how "when she was little" she used to hide her vitamins because she didn't like them. She laughed to herself and I responded that I just found one in the corner of the bottom of the pantry in shades of green that even I was repulsed by! She laughed even harder, like her big joke had finally played out and the punchline was even funnier than she had schemed. How this one loves life, and it's hard not to get sucked into the point of view of her world. Clover was wearing this yellow dress the other day and a reader wondered if I had done a tutorial on it without her knowing. For your chiquitas: I used two coordinating knits. Cut a rectangle out of the contrasting knit for the placket. Pin the placket to the front and stitch down both sides. Then, with even bigger eyes, she put it to her lips.