March Crafts

I haven't made too many crafts lately, but I have made a couple things that I like a lot that I thought I'd share today. I'll post links to the tutorials/inspiration for these projects along the way.

I am not a seamstress. My sister got the sewing gene. She's made a lot of t-shirt quilts, and when I found a shirt that I got in New Orleans 4 or 5 years ago that doesn't fit anymore, I asked her if she would make a pillow out of it. She's pretty busy with dance and school, so I just put it in her sewing room for her to get to whenever she felt like it. A couple weeks later I happened upon this "10-Minute No-Sew T-Shirt Tote Bag" tutorial on Pinterest. I immediately thought of my New Orleans shirt and went to get it from the sewing room. Usually when I'm on Pinterest I'll pin something that I want to do and say "Maybe I'll do that some day" or just keep the idea in the back of my mind. This time, however, I did it right after I read the tutorial! I was so excited! The tutorial is really clear and the bags are really cute. They're great beach bags or craft bags. I currently have my crochet project stored in one of them. It's the perfect size for my skeins of yarn.

 

I actually messed up on this one. If you read the tutorial, you'll see the part that says to draw a line to cut your fringe (which you use to tie the bottom of the bag together) up to. I ended up CUTTING ACROSS THE LINE and being forced to make my fringe shorter and the "New Orleans" part of the shirt pretty much unreadable. But I don't care all that much because at least I still have the shirt and it's great for holding all the other T-shirts that I plan on turning into bags! 

The "Duck! Cover! and Remain Calm" shirt is from the first competition play that I was a part of. It's always been a little bit too small because it was long-sleeved and I should have ordered a large instead of a medium just so the sleeves would be long enough (tall people problems). I hadn't worn it for a really long time and I was extremely hesitant to cut it up because I love my show shirts a lot, but it's now my favorite of all 4 of my T-shirt bags because it's made of the strongest material and has the most sentimental value. This is the one I have my crochet project in.
"I'm a ninja... You can't see me" wasn't too small, but I hadn't worn it in a long time. The last time I wore it was some time in my senior year of high school and I was self-conscious all day because I felt like I was dressed like a middle schooler. I think it's much cuter as a bag.
Both of these bags have bows tied to the handles. I don't think she does that in the tutorial, but I thought it was a cute touch. The pieces I used for the bows were cut out of the collars of the shirts.

My last T-shirt bag was a little more of an art project. My mom gave me a white T-shirt that Tessa was getting rid of and I ended up making it look super fancy.

The first picture is the design for the bag drawn on a canvas. I put the canvas under the shirt and traced what I could see clearly (I had to improvise a couple times) with a fabric marker. Then I colored it all in over the course of a few days (because it was kind of tedious). After it was all colored in, I cut the fringe and tied the bottom of the bag together. I might try to find some black ribbon to tie onto the handles. 

So that's a fun thing to try if you have some T-shirts sitting around that you don't want to give away. I wouldn't put any heavy books or electronics in them unless the material is really thick and sturdy, but, like I said, they're great for yarn projects or for carrying a change of clothes or other light things. 

This next project was just something I picked up at Walmart for $4. I got one of those wooden plaques and a wooden "L" to paint for my bedroom door. If you already have some acrylic paint and mod podge/ hot glue at home, it won't cost much to make. I hand-painted mine, but for those that don't have a steady hand or don't like painting, this tutorial might inspire you to try it out with some scrapbook paper. I was going to make mine that way, but I enjoy painting and wanted to attempt the whole "using cardboard triangles to paint a chevron pattern" thing. That tutorial did help me decide on my colors though. I loved the black and white background with the black on the edges, so I ended up doing this: 

I should have done more planning to avoid wasting all of the paint that I did, but it turned out nicely! I did not screw my letter onto the plaque like she does in the tutorial. I thought "Hey, I have all this mod podge, maybe that'll work," and it did! The ribbon is stuck on with a few staples and duct tape. The flower was a last-minute addition because my bedspread is blue and green (which is why I painted the letter blue) and I just happened to find it in a basket of hair accessories that I was giving to my sister. I ripped it off of the hair clip and just duct taped it onto the plaque because I didn't want to wait for any more glue to dry. I used this tutorial mostly as inspiration for the bow on the top. I just wanted something to cover the nail.

Close-up and far-away views of the plaque

I think that's all I've been up to lately in the world of crafting. Maybe I'll get some more projects finished or started in April (my birthday month yaaayyy!). I hope this post has inspired some of you to start a couple projects of your own!

Bandana Headband DIY

Yesterday I posted a step by step tutorial of how I made my bandana bracelet out of the bandanas my little dog used to wear before she passed away. Today, I made a headband out of one of them! This one does require sewing, so if you're like me and can't sew for your life, turn away now. Unless you're even more like me and have an awesome seamstress sister willing to help you out. 

This is the bandana I decided to use:

I started with a spare black headband and flipped the bandana upside down. Then I dug out some wire that I had in my jewelry making box and formed it to the headband, then cut it and straightened it out. 

The only reason I formed it to the headband was to get an accurate length for the wire. One way I thought to do it originally was to just wrap up the bandana and attach it to the headband, but then I thought it'd be better to wrap it around the headband, which I couldn't figure out how to manage, and that's where the wire came in.

This is where you're going to need a seamstress with a cool sewing machine. I lined the wire up where I wanted it to go on the bandana and handed it over to Tessa.

This is what it looked like once she was finished: 

It is a bit off centered, but it honestly doesn't matter at all. Neither does the color of the thread, since we will be covering it soon. She used a zig-zag stitch very slowly as to not break the needle on the wire. She says that before you start sewing to use the wheel on the side of the machine to be sure that the width of the stitch is wide enough and that it won't hit the wire. Then I had her stitch the ends of the bandana over the ends of the wire like this:

That was just a straight stitch with her sewing machine. Now you see why it doesn't matter that it's off centered!

Next was the fun part; rolling it! I rolled it up really tightly.

I didn't get a picture of it, but I folded the tip of the bandana under.

Now for more sewing!

This is where she did some hand sewing with white thread. It's called a blind stitch, which should be easy to find on Google or the wonderful world of Pinterest.

Finishing it off:

Then we formed it to her head. We did have to bend it a little more for it to be tighter, and since it is made with wire we'll probably have to do that every time, but it's no big deal and it's super cute.

Tada! There's our lovely new headband made from a bandana! This came out so well and I'm really excited about it. Yay for teamwork!

Bandana Bracelet DIY

A little over a year ago, our little pomeranian named Sugar had to be put down because of her many health issues. She was 7 years old and we were very sad to have to let our sweet princess go to dog heaven.

Yep, she was pretty adorable. 

Whenever Sugar went to the groomer, she would always come back with a cute bandana around her neck. We threw away most of them after they got worn out, but a few of them were in pretty good shape. We had about 4 left after she died, and it wasn't until today that I decided to do something with them. I already had the idea to make bracelets, so that's what I did!

I took three of them and decided to braid them together. I lined them up and used a ruler to draw a straight line across them.

Then cut...

Then I tied them together at the top and taped them to my desk.

Then I started braiding...

I braided pretty loosely because I wanted the patterns to still sort of be seen. I estimated about how long I'd need it to be for my wrist and then tied it off. 

At this point I wasn't completely sure how to tie it into the bracelet form, but I ended up taking a scrap piece of fabric and using it to tie the ends together. Then I cut off some of what was left, leaving some hanging off and looking a bit like a bow.

And tada!

I personally like how it looks! And the fabric is somewhat stretchy so I was able to just slip it over my hand and onto my arm. 

Here's Sugar wearing two of the bandanas I used in this project:

She stuck her tongue out a lot.

So now I have a cute little bracelet to keep a memory of her with me. 

Tomorrow I'll post a step-by-step of making a headband out of one of these bandanas with the help of my seamstress sister.