Dress Alteration
I found this dress at the thrift store, and loved the pattern immediately. I grabbed it so I could turn it into an apron, but it actually fits me! And it fits really well (I mean, I know I’m gorgeous, but in this I look amazing!), I just wasn’t enamored of the neck line. It reminded me of terrible 1980′s, tacky, overly-tan people for some reason.
I used my seam ripper to removed the neck strap, and separate the two booby cups. I then ripped open the end of the strap (which was one long piece), and I pulled out the giant, terrible, uncomfortable beads that were inside it. Yeah, because I want giant chunks of plastic rubbing on my collar bones.
I folded the strap in half long-ways, then cut it into two pieces to be two separate straps. I sewed the ends shut, including the extra hole I made to remove the beads, which wasn’t actually necessary since I was cutting it open anyways. I see that now.
Once I had the strap detached, I put the dress on and pinned the cups until they were the same size and shape. My goal was to create a more 1950′s-style sweet-heart neckline. And I think I succeeded:
BAM!!! See, hotness! I told you! I took the two halves of the original strap and attached them to the top of each cup so I can tie it around my neck. Again, I acheived this by putting the dress on, looking in a mirror and pinning it, then wriggling out carefully, and swearing a lot when I stabbed myself on accident. If there’s a better way to sew, I don’t know it. Hopefully, I’ll learn soon.
Mail Holder
I am a huge fan of Netflix. I know they’ve had issues recently with changing the name, price hikes, etc, but so far I still love them. There are a ridiculous amount of movies I want to watch that they have, and it makes checking the mail fun again. Unfortunately, those red envelopes are always getting buried under junk mail on the coffee table, so I wanted them to have their own special place where they won’t get lost.
The materials I used are a light bulb box, because it was made of really sturdy cardboard, left over paint, and a post card. I found the original idea that inspired this on pinterest using a cereal box.
First, trim the top of your box to look like this:
I used a nail to punch two holes at the top to hang it from.
I painted it blue, and let it dry overnight. I wanted to use this postcard to decorate the box, but I don’t necessarily want it on there permanently. I have these tiny plastic picture mounters that I used.
You can barely see it, but they are little plastic triangles that fit over the corner of your photo or postcard, and are sticky on the back. I put one each on the upper right and lower left corners, lined up the post card, and stuck it to the box. I then added the mounters to the other two corners.
I tacked it to the wall near the TV so my movies are always visible, and conveniently located for enjoyment.
My new Netflix box is hanging next to this set of framed movie monster postcards, and they look great together.
Ring Revamp
My sister-in-law, Nikki, gave me a cool plastic ring awhile ago. It was brown, with a shiny, iridescent coating. Unfortunately, that iridescence came off, but I still like the ring. What’s my lazy solution? Nail polish! Here we have the ring “before”, along with the black nail polish, which will be the first coat.
I did not take a picture of the in between stage for some reason, but it was a beautiful, shiny black. Next layer: red glitter!!
Look at that sparkle! I left a little of the black showing through the glitter, but you could always use a third coat of glitter to cover that up, if you like. I love this, because it gives me all the bling of red glitter nail polish without having to actually do my nails! Lazy crafts for the win!
Survive the Heat
One of my friends on Facebook, Katherine Fan, who took these magnificent pictures of Hubby and me, posted a quandry that made me think. In her home, her bedroom catches all the afternoon heat, and ends up sweltering. If she was to turn the thermostat down to make her room bearable, it would freeze out the other occupants of the house, and cost a ton.
Mine and Hubby’s bedroom has a similar issue, so of course, being the helpful person I always am, I offered her a couple of solutions. These can work for that one room in the house or apartment that never seems to cool off, or, like Hubby and I experienced, if the AC dies and you have to wait for a repairman until the next day.
Fans are always great for cooling you off. We have a ceiling fan, but an additional box fan can be really useful in especially hot areas. You can amp up your box fan by placing something cold, like a jug of frozen water, in front of it. Rinse out a used coke bottle or milk jug, fill it with water, and put it in the freezer. Place it on a plate (to catch condensation) in front of the fan, and let the cool air blow over you.
If you are horrifically hot and desperate, like the night Hubby and I spent waiting for the repairman, you can keep an ice pack on your head or neck. It can make a big difference, especially when it’s over 100 degrees outside, consistently, and with no end in sight.
Curtains can make a HUGE difference. We have these really gorgeous red silk sheets my Dad got somewhere, and I wanted to use them as curtains. Silk and sunlight don’t mix well, however, and they wouldn’t block much light. I hung up one full-size white sheet, folded in half, over each window. The white fabric reflects a ton of heat and light, and will protect the silk. Just hanging these up alone made a huge difference in the temperature of the room.
I have been crafty since time began (in the 80′s), and I converted these shirts to curtains somewhere around six years ago. Instead of using this method with the curtain clips, I sewed loops of ribbon to one end of each sheet. I measured out the loops ahead of time to make sure they were all equal, and spaced them about 4 inches apart. This shows how I sewed it along the back:
And you can see on the front there is only a small hint of the sewing I did. These bad boys have been hanging up for 6 years with no problems, and they still look great.
Here’s the finished product!
I even put up a curtain-hold-back-thing. I put it up high so I can put the curtains out of the way without rearranging the top of the curtains. I hate having to spread it back out and make sure it’s all even and everything.
My sis, Beans, had these tie backs laying around and didn’t want them. They totally match our decor!
The whole project took me maybe 30 minutes, and cost me ZERO dollars. I got a new look and a cooler room with little effort and for free! You know I love it!
Making cool magnets
I’m sure by now you all know that I love free stuff, and I love to personalize stuff. I have a bunch of random, free magnets on the fridge that were boring the crap out of me, so I dug through my “Box of Interesting Paper Bits” to improve them. For this project you will need: magazines you can cut up, glue, clear nail polish, toothpicks, scissors, and some magnets. And you should probably lay down some newspaper to work on.
I selected an image about the right size for this magnet. Lay the magnet over the image and trace around it with pencil.
I (very cleverly) took the pictures of the process of two different magnets, so bear with me. The steps are all here, but the magnets have changed. Once you have your paper cut to the right size, put some glue on the magnet. Spread it with a toothpick. Lay the image on top, and mush it onto the magnet, starting in the middle. Make sure the edges are thoroughly glued down. I used a silicon glue, which should be used in a well ventilated area. Which I found out after I was done. Meh, brain damage. I used a silicon glue, which haha I’m kidding.
Let the glue dry. If needed, you can trim the edges after it’s dry. Then coat the whole thing with clear nail polish. Glossy magazine paper works best for this project, because the ink won’t run when you use the nail polish on it.
Let it dry.
Aw, look at the cuteness! This will totally dress up my (already covered in magnets) fridge!
Corset top with coke tabs
At some point, somewhere, I acquired this top:
It’s kind of a camisole, tank-top type thing. It’s made of very light, flowy fabric, which is great for summer. Unfortunately, it was too tight on me, and I decided to play around with it. First thing, I slit it up the back, using the stripes for guidance to make sure I was in the middle.
I folded the raw edge under, then folded it again to hem it. The folded part is about a half inch wide.
Once that was done, I collected coke tabs to use for corset-style eyelets. I sewed them on individually, which took awhile. In the picture below, the are upside-down. I sewed them with the sharp metal parts facing into the fabric, not my skin. I placed each one so that the middle bar that runs across each one was just below the edge of the fabric, so that I could sew it to the fabric as well.
Here’s the whole back with all the tabs in place:
Here’s a bit of a close up: you can see that just the top of the coke tabs is showing past the edge of the fabric.
I threaded ribbon through the tabs, and I love the look!
Once I have it on, you get a blatant illustration of my body type, and the issues I have with clothes. Tiny waist, ample booty region.
I still like the top, but I may cut off the bottom 4 or 5 inches. You can also see my sunburn in this shot, which isn’t great.
I think this top will be great for a costume, like steampunk, gypsy, or pirate wench at some point in the future, and I may continue to alter it. It was a lot of work hand-sewing all the coke tabs on it, but I think it was worth it.
More Reupholstery
This is a much simpler reupholstery project than the ottoman we did recently, so I’m hoping this will illustrate the basic concepts in a simpler way. This used to be an office chair, then the back broke off. Now it’s a stool, and the vinyl is going to bits. Hubby and I have our computers set up next to each other on a long desk, so you have to walk past one of us to get to the other computer. Having a full-size desk chair in that narrow space is a pain, but this little guy fits right under the desk:
You will need, scissors, staple gun, and some cah-LASSY fabric, like leopard print:
For this small piece, I just flipped it over onto the fabric:
And cut around it:
The seat has rounded corners, so to make sure everything stays even, we fold it over on either side, staple in place, then do the other two sides. I hope I’m explaining this well!
Having the middle of each side anchored makes it much easier to do the gathers on the corners.
Here’s the finished under-side:
And the finished top. The fabric has that fur texture, which is why it looks like it has stripes in this picture, but it doesn’t. That’s just the light.
If you wanted to be REALLY clever, you could make a cover that goes on and off for cleaning. I don’t know how to deal with elastic, so I just did it this way. This would be a good place to use a t-shirt you really like, but doesn’t fit also. I love projects like this, because they add those little unique, personalized touches to your home. Plus, I get to keep a piece of furniture that fits my needs already, rather than buying something new.
I need more skulls in my wardrobe
These shoes were blank, and I decided I would not let that stand. Skulls? Hell yes. You need shoes with a large enough blank area to paint on, shirt paints, and a paint brush. If your shirt paints are older, like mine, you may need a safety pin and paper towels to clean out the nozzle.
I drew the outline on with the shirt paint first, and then filled it in with the paint brush. I did this on both shoes, let it dry completely, and then did another layer.
I made the skulls fairly small, and ended up using my safety pin to draw on the details.
I drew the bones and bow on with the actual tubes of shirt paint.
I think they came out really cute! One thing to be careful of: if you have to open one of the tubes of paint make sure there is nothing anywhere around you that you care about. In fact, put on a poncho and go outside. I opened one, and there was a casualty:
My cell phone is in the line of fire. I just let it dry and peeled it off, but it was about a foot away when I opened the paint. That shows you how large the radius of devastation can be. I’m also lucky I had newspaper down, because a ton of black paint jumped out. The phone just got grazed. But such are the risks of being crafty!
I’m Not Making Bottle Lights
Again, I’m flipping throught the Re-Nest website. I found these light fixtures made from bottles:
Gorgeous, right? And they seem like they’d be super simple to recreate on your own. You can get glass-frosting paint at craft stores, and the lamp parts as well. I constantly have empty wine bottles around (glug, glug, that’s me!), and my area doesn’t recycle glass! I had convinced myself to try this.
It looks like you just have to cut the bottom off the bottle, frost the glass, and sand the bottom edge thoroughly. I’ve seen many articles about how to make drinking glasses from wine bottles, like this one on Instructables. Once I started actually reading the steps, I got intimidated.
It sounds like at any second, the bottle could shatter and explode all over me, or else I have to spend the next decade sanding with a dremel tool, and trying not to breath in ground glass. Honestly, these things are pretty, but I don’t need more light fixtures in my house. I don’t need to burn more electricity, have more clutter, less time, and more dust catchers. I think I’ll stick to my box wine, which is much cheaper and more eco-friendly. If anyone actually tried this, let me know. To me, this is a little too focused on reusing something, but disregarding the amount of work you put into it, and the actual result. But, that’s just my opinion.
Flip Flop Revamp
For some reason, I have a weird love for those flip flops that have the cane or whatever woven for the bottoms. I usually own at least one pair, and I prefer black ones. My current pair had gotten worn down to the point where my big toes were basically on the bare ground when I wore them.
This sent my sis, Beans, into fits of laughter. She happened to have these extra flip flops laying around, and took pity on my poor feet by giving them to me:
They’re fine, and fit great, but plaid? No thanks. I think that’s why Beans never wore them. You can’t really tell from the picture, but there’s red glitter thread running through the plaid. I decided to revamp them into what I will actually wear.
You will need black shirt paint (it’s waterproof, and acrylic isn’t) a small paint brush, and the flip flops. I very carefully painted only the plaid areas. That’s a challenge when your small dog decides it’s play time in the middle of one flip flop. I painted the thong part last, and wore them while they dried to make sure they dried in the right shape for my feet.
The big reveal! I think they came out pretty good. Now I can finally retire the previous pair, or just save them for beach shoes. I am praying for winter to end. It should not be this cold here!
Earring Upgrade
I found these earrings on clearance for $2 awhile back. They are giant circles of red stars. I completely loved them, but the red was pale and tomato soup-colored, rather than a deep red. I also decided glitter would be an improvement. I used some nail polish I already had around the house to give them a good coating.
I had to be careful not to fill in any of the stars. They took about 5 minutes to paint, and about the same time to dry. They are super sparkly and gorgeous now! This picture below gives you a little better idea of the color differences. Quick, but fun crafting!
