Wordless Wednesday: t-shirt upcycle: The workout shirt

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday! 

(Am I doing this wrong, since I'm including words?)

Anyways, here we go!

Ta-da!!

Thanks for following along!

~Patricia

Easy T-shirt Bag Tutorial

Hey Y'all! 

The other day I was at our local natural parenting store, just browsing, scoping out the toddler carriers, when I saw these interesting bags made out of t-shirts. The concept is to basically cut off the sleeves and neck of the shirt, and to sew up the bottom.  The idea was so simple and easy, I decided to make one myself!

Last night I had an hour to spare, so I dug a t-shirt out of my upcycle bin, grabbed some scissors, and got to work! 

Got your t-shirt? Let's begin! I got this one from my mom, and while I love the color, it ended up in the upcycle bin.

I started by cutting off the sleeves individually. I then folded the shirt in half so I could make sure the sleeves were cut evenly.

I then lined up the arm holes, folded the shirt in half and then cut the sides down so they sloped.  I was aiming for an Envirosax shape, which is this awesome brand of reusable bags that roll up that I've admired for years. 

I sewed the bottom together.  I saw a cool version on my Pinterest that uses fringe from the t-shirt as  the means to the shirt together.  You can check that version out here.

I decided to add some bias tape to the edges of the arm holes and around the other edges, just to give the bag a little more structure and contrast. I didn't even pin it on first, just opened the bias tape and sewed it on.

I think it turned out super cute!  I also decided to match up the arm holes and sew the t-shirt from front to back, instead of from side to side, like is usually shown.  I just like how this looks better!  I'm excited to try it again with a shirt that doesn't have anything written on it, I think it'll be awesome!

And there you go--ta-da!!

Super easy and fast! I think this took under an hour to make, and that includes stopping to adjust my Stitcher radio podcast and trying to find the box where I store all the bias tape. :)

Don't forget to follow along and thanks for reading!!

~Patricia

Easy DIY Knee Patches

Hello all!

Today I am so excited to give you a brand new tutorial:

I don't know about your kids, but my daughter G loves to wear leggings. So much so, that she is constantly ripping holes in hers! That girl can play hard. I was searching around on Pinterest for ideas, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted...mostly because I couldn't think of exactly how to describe it. This is a problem I have quite often on Pinterest and it mostly leads me to finding a lot of other cool stuff that I wasn't really looking for.  It's kinda like shopping at Target, am I right?  You don't need anything, yet you end up getting a cart full of stuff! 

So, after figuring out the easiest way for me to patch up my daughter's leggings, I thought I would share it with you!  Here's what you'll need:

Items Needed:

Leggings with holes (or just leggings, if you want to jazz them up a bit)

knit fabric to cover the holes 

Sulky Totally Stable (Amazon link, or you can get at JoAnn's)

Iron

Sewing machine

Scissors

Coordinating Thread

Ready? Let's begin!

Let's start with the knit fabric you'll use to cover the holes.  I think it's important to use knit on knit leggings, as they both will allow stretch.  I tried to fix these pants before with a piece of felt, and it did not last one wear.  This particular fabric came from a pair of Wonder Woman PJs that my sister and brother-in-law got me for Christmas one year!  I cut the bottoms off the pants to make them into insta-shorts and used one of the legs to make an awesome grocery bag holder. (You can read about that here.)

If you don't have some cool printed fabric laying around (this is a great project for using up all those scraps!), you can use a cookie cutter or just freehand a cool shape on some knit fabric or an old t-shirt.

Next, you'll want to cut 2 pieces of your Sulky Totally Stable , making them a bit larger than your shape. BTW, this stuff is awesome for keeping your knits in place while sewing them and it's under $2, so it's worth it to pick some up. I've had mine for a long time, and use it mostly when doing monograms and applique. 

Using your iron, iron the first piece of Totally Stable over the hole, following the directions on the package.  Then place the fabric patch on top of the Totally Stable and place the other piece of Totally Stable on the very top and iron it down.  You'll be sandwiching the fabric patch between the two pieces of Totally Stable, and since they are ironed down, you don't have to worry about using any pins! 

I then took a pen and outlined where I wanted my sewing line to be. I basically traced over the black lines of the stars.  If your fabric patch doesn't have distinct lines like mine, you might consider tracing the fabric patch on the Totally Stable before you iron it down, and then match up the lines while ironing. 

Don't worry, the Totally Stable is tear-away, so when we're done sewing, we'll rip it off and it won't show!

Sew!  I sew with a vintage Singer Featherweight machine and it only has a straight stitch, so I went over the star twice to really secure it.  If you are sewing with a machine where the arm can come off, take it off and sew that way, because it's a bit of a pain to have to scrunch up your material the way I have to.  But it's worth it!

Don't forget to trim your threads from the front and back!

Now it's time to tear away the Totally Stable.  I tore the outside first, then gently pulled at the inside of the star to tear off the Totally Stable on the inside of the star.  I did not tear off the Totally Stable on the underside of the hole, since I thought a little extra something would help to prevent future holes.  You can also trim back the hole on the inside so it matches the shape of the fabric patch.

And then......

Here's a close-up! 

So there you have it!  Easy DIY knee patches for your leggings! Let me know if you have questions, or if you try this method and it works for you, please let me know!

Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest by clicking here! 

You can also follow my blog by signing up for updates and new posts by filling in your email on the right, or by adding me to your blogger dashboard. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Patricia

Ballet and a Easy Square Skirt Tutorial

First, a little throwback....#tbt:

This fall I wanted to find some sort of activity for the girls to be in. When G was 3, we put her in soccer, which really meant that she wore a soccer uniform while picking daisies in the soccer field. Well, probably not daisies, but whatever flower/weed that she could find out in the field. 

Oh, are we supposed to be playing?

Ok, so maybe she didn't pick daisies the whole time. 

Sometimes she'd just hang out with dad. He volunteered to be the assistant coach.
 

Needless to say, I haven't been much into organized anything since then. I wasn't sure if G liked playing or going to the games, and I wasn't sure I liked sitting outside in the heat watching her pick daisies. I mean, we could do that at home, right?  

So this fall I decided it was time to take the plunge and sign the girls up for ballet classes at the local studio.  Both G and M went to the same preschool (not at the same time), and each Friday the preschool has ballet class. (Their teacher is also a ballet teacher.) So they had some experience and seemed to like it, or at least liked wearing the outfits, which is step one, right?  They are also older, and I think some sort of organized something is important, so we'll give ballet a try. And it's indoors. Very important when it's 90 degrees out for most of the year.

We've been going for a few weeks now and so far, they like it! Truthfully, G hated it the first day, but I told her she couldn't quit until she had gone 3 times, and she's come around and likes it now.  My biggest challenge is actually C, who is devastated that she can't do ballet classes with her big sisters. We're talking won't leave the classroom door, crying and carrying on. The last two times I've finally been able to get her to sit in the playroom they provide for siblings and relax. Whew! Success!  I was worried for a little bit that I'd had to cancel lessons if I couldn't get C to calm down and play. 

G and M in the matching skirts I made them, getting ready for class.

I wanted to share with you how I made the knit twirly skirts, since they are so easy!  For a long time, I've been looking at this skirt on Pinterest and wanted to make it. 

It's a variation on a circle skirt, which is just a large circle of fabric with a hole cut inside and an elastic waistband sewn in.  The Square skirt is just a big square with a hole cut inside and an elastic waistband sewn in.  The original is a double layer skirt, but since I wanted to make one for all of the girls, I just did a single layer.

I placed a bowl (that was about 1.5 times the waist measurement in circumference) in the center of the fabric, and then measured out to mark the length. I made the skirts about 10-12" out.

Hole cut! 

I found this cool colored elastic at JoAnn's.
I made G's skirt with a purple band and M's with a pink band--easy way to tell them apart!

Once upon a time I thought about dyeing elastic and I even pinned this tutorial from dana-made-it.com.
Check it out if you're interested!

After sewing the elastic together, pinning it in and sewing it all together:
Finished! They loved how the skirts twirl!

Side note: since I used a fun knit print, I didn't have to hem anything (bonus!); I just gave the raw edges a little pull and then they start to roll, which makes them super cute too.

One of these days I'll get to my stash of knit t-shirts and make up some cute skirts, these are seriously so easy! Have fun and stay tuned for more tomorrow!

~Patricia

Anchors Away!

Have you been seeing all the cute anchor clothing on Pinterest lately? (Check out my board for some ideas!) click here!

Anytime I'm in Target, I always check for cheap plain T-shirts, so that I can embellish them. I decided to do a freezer paper stencil of an anchor on a shirt for my youngest daughter C, who is 18 months.

I found an image of an anchor I liked on the internet, printed it out, blew it up to the size I wanted, then cut it out, traced it on the freezer paper, then cut out the image again, ironed it on, painted over it all, let it dry, ironed over it all again and then voila! A cute anchor t-shirt!

Don't forget to put a piece of freezer paper as a barrier between the front and back of the shirt as well, or your project may not turn out. :) For a more in-depth look at freezer paper stencils, check out this post here.

Have fun and create something!

-patricia

DIY Plant Hanger

The other night I followed this picture tutorial and made a cool plant hanger out of an old t-shirt. I learned a couple of things along the way, and I'm going to share them here with you, so that you can make your own t-shirt plant hanger too. (Or make one for a gift!)  This is such a cool idea, here's the link to the website that has actual written directions, along with the pictures.

Hints:
Use a big t-shirt, like the biggest you have.  I used a woman's small from Target, and wish I would have used one of those big xxl t-shirts I have in my upcycle bin. (and yes, it's an upcycle bin, not a hoarding bin!).

When I do it again, I'm going to tie the knots at the end around my pot, instead of just tying them and then trying to find a pot to fit. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Get creative!  You can experiment with braiding, adding giant wooden beads, etc. There are so many cool things you can do with this idea once you get the hang of it.  And if you have an old, big t-shirt lying around, it's free! Who doesn't love free?

Have fun and get creative! Happy Mother's Day!

~Patricia

Maternity Extravaganza!

Lately I've been getting tired of wearing the same old maternity clothes that I've been wearing for my last 2 pregnancies (they've survived some of my friend's pregnancies as well!). Last pregnancy, I purchased a dress from Old Navy that turned out to be just hideous. I've come to this conclusion after much thought about it, and probably only wearing it once, because I realized it had such potential, but something just wasn't right about it. So I turned it into this dress:

And I like it so much better now! I followed this tutorial, using an old tank, some elastic and the skirt off the hideous dress. My advice is to put the skirt on first, and then try it on over the tank top, pinning it where you want and then sewing it together. I tried sorta just eye-balling where to put the tank part first, and had to take it apart because it got a little bulgy in places and didn't lay quite right. I chose this particular tank for this project because 1) it was one size too big already (perfect for a growing baby body) and 2) because it had bleach spots on it. I honestly don't know where those spots came from, because I never use bleach, but that's another story! I realized that some of the little spots where near the top, so after reading about this tutorial on how to change up your dark t-shirts using a bleach pen, I decided to give it a try! Here's how it turned out up close, before I washed it:

And after (which really doesn't do it justice, the lighting is so bad it looks like two different shirts! I promise it's the same one, and that the background color remained the same):

Using the bleach pen was fairly easy (I just put a towel underneath and then washed it separately after about 10 minutes. I'd like to try it again, using a shirt that isn't ribbed, which I think would work better. And I'm going to have to work on my art skills too, maybe find a drawing somewhere that I like and copy it. Overall the dress took an hour or two to make, which made this a really easy, cheap project and finally, something fun for me! ~Patricia

Old Favorite: T-shirt Iron-on Transfers

Today was the first day of spring break here. The first day of finding things to do to occupy my kids-so neither of us go crazy!!

I was inspired by another child I saw who made a t-shirt using an iron-on for Dr. Seuss's birthday--of course!! So combine an unopened package of printable iron-ons that I've had for at least 6 years with a t-shirt that I bought at the dollar store and voila!! A fun, easy diy project that took about an hour to complete (and we have something to show wear for it!).

T-shirt redo photo!

Here's a photo! Suggestions?

T-shirt redo!

Tonight I also worked on embellishing a t-shirt for my daughter. I like how it turned out, but I feel like maybe it's missing something. Hmmm, I'm going to have her wear it tomorrow and then see!

Happy crafting and creating!