Refashionista | Ugly Pillows to Mossy Oak Pillow

Not only is this post a refashionista project, but it’s also a salvage project from a previously blogged FAIL (Nursing Cover). I originally thought this would be a fun DIY pillow recover post, but my plans quickly changed when I cut open the cover of the first pillow to find crumbly foam bits filling it (see photo just below). I was quite disappointed at first because the project I thought would be so easy looked like it was going to be much more complicated than anticipated.

With a few minutes to think I finally came up with a way I figured would work with the things I had. I was already going to use the fabric from the nursing cover fail to redo these pillows so I just decided to make a big case and then stuff it with the foam bits.

First I cut the two pieces of fabric to be 14x23 inches. Two sides of the fabric were previously sewn together from the FAIL project so I just had to pin the remaining two sides. I went ahead and stitched most of this area up and got it ready to inside out.

I left about a 6 inch gap in the middle, bottom of the pillow to have space to stuff it with the foam bits. This ended up being barely big enough for me to fit my fist full of foam bits in. I laid a big piece of fabric under the pillow so it would catch all the stuffing that kept falling out so I wouldn’t have to pick it out of the carpet later.

You can see the foam bits sticking to the outside of the pillow. I had to really brush it off to get rid of them all.

Once I got the pillow stuffed I pinned the gap shut. I thought I’d be able to stitch it together on my sewing machine, but that proved impossible. I threaded a needle and went after it with some really horrible hand stitching.

I think the stitch I used is called a whip stitch? Either way it was the easiest thing to do to the pillow so that’s why I did it. I put the stitches really close together so that the foam stuff couldn't come out of the pillow.

I am quite pleased with the finished pillow. I honestly didn’t expect it to turn out so well. It’s a tiny bit lumpy, but all things considered it’s really not bad and it is actually perfect for using as a back support pillow in the rocking chair since it has a little give to it from the foam bits. I’m completely happy with how it turned out!

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Refashionista | Men's Waffle Shirt to Skirt

In fall of 2012 I put together a skirt using a men’s waffle shirt. I thought I’d be able to write a tutorial post with it, but as it didn't turn out quite as good as I expected I decided I would just share photos instead.

The shirt before it was transformed into a skirt.

Turning a men’s shirt into a skirt is actually quite tricky. I've tried it several times and so far this particular skirt is the only success. I usually wear medium or large in the skirt department, but to turn a shirt into a skirt for me I usually have to use a men’s XL so that there is enough room in the waist of the finished skirt. It’s a complicated process that’s for sure!

The shirt about to be turned into a skirt.

The main thing you have to do is get the shirt from its ‘shirt shape’ to a big square or rectangle shape. After that you can add the waistband and if you have enough excess fabric you should be able to put in an elastic waist band so the skirt fits comfortably. I wasn't able to do that with this skirt, but if I try this idea again at any point in the near future I’ll try be able to add in an elastic band so it’ll fit better. The waist in the skirt is actually a little big on me so layering is necessary to keep it up!

Here is an outfit post where I wore this skirt:

Fall Style | Voting Day Outfit

Christmas Wreath Refashion

It's been a LONG time since I shared a refashion, but it's also been a long time since I've done any. Well, I did one the first week of December and I'm here to share it! As you can see from the above photos you can see that it was quite a refashion! And the best part is that it was completely free! I had the wreath, the ribions and the red balls already so it was just a matter of a little creativity and work before the wreath was completely remade.

Here is the wreath before the refashion. Not my favorite at all!

My cats, Demi (grey) and Emerald (black), were very interested in the beads.

I fluffed out the greenery and added some gold ribbon.

After adding the red balls I put together the bow and ta da!

We now have a beautiful Christmas wreath on our front door!

Homemaking 101 | Add A Little Paint

It is amazing how much a little paint can change the appearance of some things! Today I'm going to share with you a project I did awhile back to help spruce up and organize my bathroom. The basket was one that's been around for awhile and I thought it was time for an update. I never used it with the flowers on it before, but since I've painted it the basket has been quite popular.

We only have one bathroom in our apartment. There was a little space right across from where the toilet sits for me to store the old secretary bookshelf that was given to me. At first I wasn't really sure what I was going to put on it, but as you can see it's come together quite nicely.

Now this is the basket that had a little paint added to it. I forgot to take a complete before photo when I started painting the wood piece on the front, but you can still see pretty much what it looked like before I added the paint.

Here is the basket after I painted it. I am using this red color in several rooms throughout the apartment and LOVE it. The painted handwriting isn't my favorite, but it's the best I could do with the brushes I had on hand. I now use this basket to store lotions in and it keeps them nicely organized and in one place.

Here's a close up of the top two shelves. As you can see I like baskets! The one on the bottom (technically the middle shelf) is used to store small hand towels and wash cloths. It does a nice job of keeping them orderly too.

These are the roses from my wedding. I strung them up to dry out and haven't taken them down since because I liked how they look with the rest of the bookshelf. I'm sure they won't stay there forever, but it works for now and I like smelling them when I walk by.

What projects have you 'added a little paint' to?

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DIY Tank With Lace Insert

I don't know about you, but for me sometimes shopping can be really frustrating. Especially when you're trying to dress modestly and it seems no one else is thinking "cover up". Especially when it comes to tank tops. If you're crafty then you might really be grateful for this tutorial...if you're not crafty I am considering selling these on my online shop so email me and we'll talk about it. Okay, back to the tutorial!

What You Will Need

A tank top. (New. Old. Doesn't matter!)

Lace*

An old white sheet (or same color as lace)+

Notes

*I find good size amounts of WIDE lace at antique stores. I know that seems odd, but it's there! I find it all the time and I always pick it up because it's so hard to find lace without spending a fortune on it! Most of the lace I find I get for less that $2 per roll. Totally worth looking into...especially if you plan to make several of these tanks.
+I usually pick up sheets for 0.25cents at yard sales/garage sales since you can usually find them in still decent shape.

Directions

1. Lay the lace over the top part of the tank. Cut it with plenty of space on each edge as shown in the photo above.

2. Take the piece of lace you just cut and lay it over a corner of the sheet. You'll want to make sure you have the sheet smoothed out so there are no major wrinkles since this will be showing on the finished product. Pin the lace piece to the sheet with plenty of pins! Cut the sheet so there's just a bit of space around each edge of lace.

3. Time to sew! I've found that it's easiest to just do a straight line instead of trying to follow the fancy edges of the lace. It still looks nice and you really can't tell much of a difference. I've done them both ways, but I recommend the straight line which is my personal favorite way to sew the lace to the sheet.

4. Time to trim! Now this is where I usually follow the edge of the lace so that you can see the pretty edging even though I don't usually sew along that line. View the photo above for how I trim my sheet edges to match the lace edge.

That black silky fur in the corner is my cat Emerald. She likes to watch me sew.

5. Take the tank and put it right side out (if it isn't already). Put the lace insert piece in the front of the tank as shown. Make sure the lace is facing up and the sheet is facing the back of the tank. You should have enough to pin it to both sides of the tank edge. You'll want to pin it to both sides even though you'll only be sewing it to the closer side. Pin the full scoop to the lace.

The inside of the shirt after the lace insert has been sewn in place.

6. Now you will want to sew the tank to the lace. I always do this with the front of the tank facing out so I will know exactly how the finished product will look when I'm done. Sew following the lines that are already on the tank (there's usually 2 or three lines where the original seam was sewn). Sorry I don't have a pic of the actually sewing process for this step!

Emerald's paw again.

7. The final step in this project is trimming off the excess fabric once you've sewing the lace insert into place. (See photo for step 6 to see what the inside of the shirt looks like after sewing). One you've trimmed off the excess fabric you're good to go!

There you have it! A new way to make a modest tank for wearing under your favorite low-neck shirts and only spending about $5 for the whole thing!

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Refashionista | Sparkly Blue Sweater

Awhile back I was going through my refashions box and found this lovely sweater which was way too small for me, but perfect for my little sister. I showed it to her and at first she hated it, but as the weather got colder she started to ask about the sweater and if I would be able to fix it for her to wear since she didn't have any 'winter' clothes. We're not used to this really cold weather lol. Anyway...

his refashion is super easy. I mostly just did a resize and then added some extra bits of the fabric that was left over into the V-neck so that it would be modest on her since she's so tiny and the V was really too low by itself.

For the fill in on the V-Neck I just cut strips of fabric that were leftover from the sides of the sweater after we fixed it's size.

 

What I Did

This refashion is super easy! I mostly just did a resize and then added some extra bits of the fabric that were left over into the V-neck so that it would be modest on her since she's so tiny and the V was really too low by itself.

Let's start with a before photo so you can see just how big it used to be on her:

I had her try it on so I could get the before photo and then I had her take it off, inside it out and put it back on. Now I'll walk you through what I did in case you have to resize a sweater. I will say that the pins kept falling out since the weave of the sweater was so big. I'd suggest using safety pins for better results...it'd be slower when you're sewing, but at least they wouldn't pop out while you're trying to pin it plus the pins won't stick you...or in this case, the other person wearing the sweater!

The Process

Pin the sweater close to the person's sides. Start near the bottom and then work on the arms. Work on the armpit area last so that you can make sure it will fit well, but not too tight or too big.

Here's the sweater as I'm sewing it. In this photo you really can't tell where the edge is, but it's on the left. :)

Here's what the sweater looked like after we were done sewing up the sides. I had her try it on again and I actually had to re-sew part of the left side (right on the photo) so that it would fit right cuz it was still a little big.

I did a zigzag stitch back and forth all the way around the hem so that the stitches would be secure and the sweater wouldn't unravel. This will be very important for you to do if you don't have a serger...or you're like me and don't have your serger working at the moment.

A close up of the stitching so you can see kind of what I did. As you can tell it's not pretty, but it works so that's all that really matters!

Once the stitching is secure and done grab the scissors and cut off the excess fabric. This shouldn't take too long and if you sweater really was too big you'll have some extra fabric to play with so you could add some embellishment or, like I'm getting ready to show you, you can fix it to make it more modest.

Here's what the sweater looks like now with all the excess fabric off of it. Obviously it's still inside out.

Out of the scraps from the left over pieces you cut off strips to layer in the v-neck area as you can see I have them here. I had four strips that I was able to get out of the leftovers. I would've liked at least one more, but all that was left were too small to use.

Sew together each piece. I didn't worry about pinning them since the pins don't really work on this stuff anyway as I said above...Make sure to do the zigzag along the seam so it will stick together and not unravel.

Pin the piece in where you want it to be. As you can tell I had to use a ton of pins for this tiny area just to keep them from falling out.

The uneven top is what you see now. I ended up folding it under and sewing the edge of it to the zigzagged part just below to create a nice finished edge.

Here's what the sweater looks like on the inside. You can see all the zigzagged edges to keep it from unraveling. You can also tell that the strips I sewed together weren't all the same size and they were kind of uneven but they looked just fine on the finished product.

Well, that's all I have for you! :) If you'd like to see more of my refashions check out the Refashions page on the left or click here to scroll through all the full posts.

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DIY Water Cup

Last Monday I posted on my Exercise Encouragement Group Blog that I wanted to start drinking more water, and one way I was going to do that was to clean off a cup I had found in the 'get rid of' box in the garage so I could easily track the ounces I consumed each day. I thought I'd share with you this tutorial because once I removed the old logo stuff from the cup; it really isn't that bad and I LOVE it!!!

Thrift stores have plenty of these well insulated water jugs, but I always avoided them because of the hospital writing all over them! Well, not after I figured out this trick I'm about to share with you! I'd like to have two ro three more of these, but for now I just have the one. I will warn you that this will take a lot of elbow grease, but it's totally worth it!!

What You Need

~a clean hospital 'jug'

~pure acetone, like for removing fake nails

~Lots of cotton balls!

~a towel to lay over the surface you use

Some Notes

This is what your Acetone should kind of look like. A friend gave this to me almost a year ago and at one point I almost threw it away because I didn't think it had any uses other than the obvious...now I'm SO glad I didn't because there are plenty of alternative uses for this stuff! As you can see I have a towel over the table and my jug/cup ready to start cleaning!

Here's what my hospital jug looked like before I 'refashioned' it.

Directions

Step 1: Soak a cotton ball with acetone and rub it all over the wording you want to remove. I wanted to keep the oz. label since I would be using this cup to help me measure my water throughout the day.

Step 2: After a few seconds to a minute start scrubbing at the wording with the cotton ball. It may take a bit before you notice anything coming off, but that's okay! Also, you may need to get more acetone if your cotton ball is dry. That's what is taking off the wording/logo.

Step 3: It's going to take A LOT of scrubbing to get everything off, so be patient with it. Also, check to be sure you didn't miss any little bits that may have been harder to scrub off.

Step 4: The first side is done! Start on the next side and repeat this process over. I used a total of 8 cotton balls to remove the logo from my jug.

That's it! Super short tutorial for something that takes so long to fix!! I promise you that it'll be worth it though!! These jugs are well insulated so when I pack mine with ice water it doesn't leave condensation anywhere so I can set it on any surface without worrying about it, PLUS it has a super awesome lid which keeps it from spilling so it travels well too!

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