April 24, 2012

DIY: Transform a Mens Button Up into a Sleeveless "High-Low" Shirt!



 WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
-Scissors/rotary cutter

 STEP ONE

Smooth out the shirt and make sure the seems on the sleeves are aligned. Based on personal preference you can cut just behind the seem or just in front of it. 

After you cut one sleeve cut the other. You can line up the material to make sure you cut it in the same place if you want. 

It should look like this!

 STEP TWO

Now we're going to change the long straight hem into a high-low hem which makes it shorter in the front and longer in the back. 
First choose how long you want the shirt in the front, I'm cutting mine right above the last button. Then cut straight across a couple of inches and begin to angle your cut downwards as you reach the side seem of the shirt. 

After you reach the side seem cut straight down the seem to detach that piece of fabric. 

Turn the fabric over and line it up on the other side and cut along the edge of the fabric to ensure an even cut on both sides. 

Once that's done it should look like this. 

I went ahead and cut the hem off at this point. 
Next just continue cutting at an angle until you reach the edge of the fabric, it should make kind of an oval shape. 


when you finish one side, line the side seems of the shirt up so you can cut along the first edge to make it even. 

It should look something like this!

Shirt: Local Thrift Store: $1.99
Time spent: ~10 mins

*Not all high low hems will end up looking as drastic as this one, the shirt was pretty big on me and I have a pretty short torso so naturally, I cut mine shorter in the front. Just don't be discouraged if yours doesn't look exactly like my pictures! 
Also, you can use this technique on any button up shirt! I've done this to one of my dads old dress shirts, its pretty big but it still worked fine.*

Also a huge thank you to all my new followers!!! I really appreciate you all taking the time to look at my blog, please leave me a comment if there's anything specific you'd like to see from me!
More D.I.Y's to come! Thanks so much!
:)

April 21, 2012

Denim Shorts: From Frumpy to Fab!



WHAT YOU'LL NEED
-Tray or bucket to bleach the shorts in
-fabric dye in the colors of your choice
-squirt bottle for the fabric dye
-Scissors
-Gloves
-Sand paper
-Bleach

 Step One

Submerge the shorts in bleach 
Make sure you wear the gloves while bleaching the shorts or else your hands with smell like bleach for a very long time!! Not to mention its probably not the best for your skin. 
Keep the shorts submerged until they have reached your desired color. 
After they reach the lightness you want rinse the bleach out using a hose, a shower, sink or whatever you prefer. I suggest putting them through the rinse cycle in the washing machine ONLY AFTER you rinse them thoroughly. 

Step Two

 Mix your fabric dye according to the instructions on the box. I chose to use on of these ketchup-like squirt bottles that I found at Hobby Lobby. You can use a mist bottle or even a sponge or paint brush depending on your desired outcome. 

Lay your shorts out on a blanket that you don't mind getting dye on-I recommend doing this outside but still use the blanket so you don't dye the concrete. 


It's pretty much up to you to put the color where you want, you can do it really neat but I just kind of let it go wherever. 

Blue!


After you've finished with the dye, let it sit on the shorts for 30 mins to an hour. 
After that rinse them under cold water until the water runs clear. Again you can put them through the rinse cycle in the washing machine, but you should probably rinse them first. After you've rinsed them hang them and let them dry thoroughly over night 
You can put them in the dryer if you choose, I just didn't want mine to shrink. 

Step Three

After you've rinsed them a lot of the dye is going to come out.




But now I'm going to distress them using two methods: 

First I'm going to sort of "rake" my scissors across the seems to add a little distressing around the pockets and the legs. 

Then I used some sand paper to rub holes into the fabric. 
You can distress the denim before you bleach or dye it but I recommend waiting until after you bleach them because the distressing will be easier as the denim will be broken down a little from the bleach. 

 And you're done!! 








Jeans: Salvation Army- $3.99
Dye: Hobby Lobby- $2.29
Bottle: Hobby Lobby- $1.29

Time spent: ~3hrs

Thanks for reading!
Let me know if you have recommendations of what you'd like to see next! 

April 15, 2012

Urban Street Bazaar!

So, today I went to the Urban Street Bazaar in the Bishop Arts District downtown!  All the vendors had awesome stuff for sale, I couldn't buy everything I wanted so I picked up a few business cards so I could check out their stuff online! 

Here are the things I bought:

$3
This bow was the first thing I purchased at the bazaar! I love cute little hair clips and I couldn't pass this one up. Check out their website for other hair bows, jewelry and knitted accessories! 


 
$5
Okay, this is definitely my new favorite thing I own. This is a monochromatic color chart... on a bracelet!! How cool is that?? I'm really into art and I love simple things like this, it's just very me I guess! She had all different colors and sizes so definitely go to her etsy and check them out, along with her other handmade things! Oh and don't forget to follow her blogspot too :)

 After we finished at the bazaar, we headed up the street to a new antique store we had never been to before...
I have a fairly small coin collection so I was excited to see that he had an assortment of coins for .25 cents each. I picked up these four, I don't have any like these so I'm really glad I saw them. 
There was also a box of old keys there for $1 each so I got these three. I will probably be making a necklace with at least one of them on it so stay tuned for that :)
These are his business cards, how cool is that? 
M'Antiques 
424 W Davis St. 
Dallas, TX 

Definitely stop by if you're in the DFW area, it's only been open for six months!


Yomono
B-link
Ornamental Things
^^totally recommend! One of my favorites there!!^^
Blossom Shop
J Margot
Freeforged Jewelry
^^highly recommend-awesome hand sculpted metal jewelry!^^
Gypsy Trading Company


I strongly recommend visiting all the websites listed, especially if you live in the DFW area, it's great to support local artists! If you've never been to a bazaar before you should definitely try to find one in your area! They're great to just go and look around, meet cool people, and buy hand crafted, unique things for friends and yourself. 
I love going to these kinds of things because they're really inspiring to me. I'd love to one day have an online shop to sell things that I make to people from all over the world! I know that day will come, I just need to find my place in the crafting world first. 

Thanks for reading! 

April 12, 2012

DIY Simple Shorts!


In this tutorial I will be showing you how to turn some tacky pants from a thrift store into cute high waisted shorts! 





Lets get started!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

Step one:

Put the pants on and make a mark a little lower than how long you want them to be. Remember: you can always make them shorter, but you can't make them longer!

Step two:

Next, lay the pants out on a flat surface. If you're using a rotary cutter remember to put something under the material so you don't cut your table!
Find the mark or cut you made where you want to cut the material. I would recommend using a straight edge to mark all the way across the material so you get a straight cut but since my pattern goes straight across i was able to use the lines of stars as a guideline. 
And cut!

Step 3:


Fold the pants in half along the seem and make sure the side seems line up. Make a mark where the material ends, and cut across!

Tada! Shorts!

Now, put the shorts on and make sure they are the length you want. If you want to trim them more, remark and cut them just like in the previous steps. 

Step 4:

 Now these shorts are a little too plain for me. If you want to hem them and keep them plain, you're done! If you want to add a little more, keep reading!
Turn the shorts inside-out

Line up the lace on the inside of the leg and pin all the way around

When you've pinned the lace around the leg it should look something like this. once you have it pinned, use a strong thread and straight stitch when you put the pins. Remember to add extra stitches on the seems and where the two ends of the lace meet for extra strength. 

After both legs are sewn on it should look like this! Turn them right side out and they're ready to be worn! 





How I wear them:
top-Nordstrom Rack
shoes-H&M-$13
shorts-Salvation Army-$1.99
lace trim-Hobby Lobby-$1.99/yd

Total time spent:~2 1/2 hrs
(hand sewn)

Total cost: $5!




So, as you can see, this is my first post on this blog! Thank you for reading and please take a second to leave a comment on this post and let me know what you think! I know my pictures probably aren't the best but I will get the hang of it soon. I have many future posts planned out so if my blog seems interesting to you I would really appreciate it if you followed me! 
Also, please don't hesitate to give me any suggestions of things you would like me to post about. It can be as broad as "T-shirt reconstruction" or as specific as sending me a picture and telling me how to make the shirt the person is wearing. 

Thanks for reading!