One Hour Craft

Tshirt Surgery: How to Make a Dress from a Tshirt and a Singlet

The Finished Product
This is a really quick and easy project. Em and I had a spare afternoon and finished two dresses in under and hour and a half. The only fiddly part of this project was adjusting the position of the tshirt on the singlet so that it sat well. I’d love to see this project using a colourful rocker tshirt or tie-dyed shirt and a wildly coloured singlet under. Let us know what you come up with and we’ll put them up here ok.

Materials
1 singlet top to fit
1 Extra large tshirt
Sewing machine (we used double needles because it makes a great finish on knit items), thread, scissors.

Step 1
Cut the tshirt down both seams from the neckline to the sleeves.
Step 2
Fold these under and pin them. Hem the edges. We sewed around in a u-shape using double needles (not necessary though).

Step 3
Try on the singlet. Put the tshirt on over the top. Pin the front neckline of the tshirt to the front of the singlet. We pinned it about 12cm/5″ from top. Spend some time adjusting it so that it sits right and looks flattering on you. Pin the back neckline of tshirt onto the back of the singlet in the same way.

Step 4
Try the ‘dress’ on with a belt and make sure that it still falls well. Adjust the pins until you are happy with it. Make sure that the sleeves turned inside out are at the same place as pockets should be.
Step 5
Take off the dress and sew the top neckline of the tshirt onto the singlet where you have pinned it.
Step 6
Sew the back neckline of the tshirt onto the singlet where you have pinned it.
Step 7
Turn the tshirt inside out the sew the sleeve holes together to make pockets (pretty clevery huh?)

That’s it! How could it be easier to make a cute little dress? If you are making it for winter buy a long-sleeved tee instead of the singlet and do the same thing. Pair this with a cinched belt, tights, boots and a gorgeous coat. Lovely!

Enjoy!
Mia
xxx
PS Our advent calendar should be completed by tomorrow! All going well. And pompoms and still coming!

Shredded Tshirt Tutorial (Tshirt Surgery)

I had a spare few hours in front of the tv last night and a new camera to play with. I am in love with my new Canon EOS 500D. It was impossible not to fall in love with! So I whipped up a quick shredded tshirt and tutorial to go with it. Shredding is so easy and reminded me so much of high school, sitting on the bus shredding my new tan stockings – the more shredded your stockings were, the better back then. Well, I still love the shredded effect.

I am obsessed with torturing textiles, i.e doing things with them to make them different. One day soon I will post more textiles treatments (or maybe save them for a lovely little book). I just love taking fabric and playing with it. There is so much you can do to it, paint it, dye it, crush it, fold it, pleat it, shred it. If only I could spend all my time just playing….

All you need to shred is a knit tee. I suppose you could shred a skirt (if you have a slip to wear under it) or a jumper, but I like the look of a tee. Next, I am going to try shredding an oversized white tee. For shredding it’s best to use a new tee so that the stitches aren’t compacted together from washing.

Step 1
Take your stitch ripper and undo the bottom hem of the tee so that it is a raw edge.

Step 2
You will notice some loose threads running parallel along the edge of tee. Pull one of these threads. Keep pulling for as long as you would like the shredded panel to be. Then start separating the stitches of the tee between your thumbs and fingers, pulling the stitches wider. This is a bit fiddly. It is easiest to shred inch-long sections of the tee. Work from the bottom to the top of the tee, separating the stitches. You can make all different sized holes. My fingers got a little bit sore doing this. Work your way one inch at a time, pulling apart the stitches until you have a panel as wide as you want. Oh yeah, before I began I make two marks with tailor’s chalk on the bottom of the shirt to mark the size of the panel I wanted.

Ta Da! Here is the finished product. It took me about two hours in front of the TV to shred this. As you are doing it, it is easy to make holes. It just seems to add to the whole torn effect that I love!
I hope you have fun shredding!
Let me know…
Mia
xxx

Tutorial: How to Make the Easiest and Cutest Scarf!

(NOTE:  This scarf requires absolutely no knitting or crocheting or knotting so stay around and read more…)

(Mia modelling the tube scarf)

I walked into my local craft store a few weeks ago and saw these divine scarves behind the counter.  They looked like a cross between a feather boa and a scarf, totally cute.  I asked the lady how they were made and she was kind enough to give me a demo on how to make them. Now I am passing on the love….

I am hooked!  These are the cutest scarves and they could not be easier to make. My nine-year old made half of this one easily.

Materials
I used four balls of polyester (this will depend on how long you want to make the scarf)
1.2m of 5/8″ white elastic
30cm/ 1ft length of plastic tubing
Two medium wooden beads
Hot glue
Scissors

Tie a knot in one end of the piece of elastic. Apply a dab of hot glue onto the knot and push it onto the bead.

Use two balls of yarn together – this gives a fuller look to the scarf. Tie the two ends of the yarn onto the elastic with a knot, just under the bead.
Thread the elastic through the plastic tube, with the bead at one end.
Begin wrapping the yarn (two together) around the plastic tubing.  (I started by wrapping the yarn this tightly but found it much better to wrap it quite loosely going down the whole tube).
When you have wrapped the yarn around the plastic tube about ten time push it off the tube and onto the elastic.

To keep the other end of elastic from getting in the way, secure it with a peg as shown in the photo above, letting out more as you need it.

Continue to wrap the yarns around the plastic tubing and then gently push them onto the elastic. You will quickly start to see this yummy, feather boa scarf!

Finish the scarf when you get to the elastic gets to the end of the plastic tubing (you will have 30cm of elastic left when you cut it). Knot the yarn around the elastic. Tie a knot in the elastic (as in the first step), place a dab of glue onto the knot and push a bead onto it to secure it.

Finito!

(Look what I made!)

The next one I will make will be double as long so that I can wrap it around my neck a few times. Millie’s getting this one – lucky girl. And the last thing I have to say — what a strange thing to be making in 40 degree heat!! And that photo shoot with the turtle neck! Hot!
Enjoy!

Flower Crown Tutorial

Long hot days of summer give us plenty of time to become fairies playing in the garden or princesses wearing long white dresses and beautiful blue flower crowns….

This crown was very quick to assemble. It took no more than half an hour and now I have a little girl who is completely in love with it. She has gone to bed and put it in the ‘most special place’ in her room, on the top shelf far from her kitten’s paws.

Materials
Small fabric flowers bought at a craft store
Silver-coated wire (22 guage)
Wire cutters
Flat-nosed pliers

Firstly, wrap the wire around the top of your head so that it is a loose fit. Hold the wire and cut three times this length. Wrap the last length of wire around the other two to keep it in place.

Take a fabric flower and wrap the stem around the wire base. If the stem is too long, cut it in half with the wire cutters.

Place the flowers close to each other and wrap the stems around the wire base. Alternate the flowers you use or use all the same flowers.

Continue to wrap the flowers until you are finished. You could also embellish your crown with rafia, ribbon, beads, diamontes, whatever you like. I prefer to keep mine simple and lovely enough for a big or little princess.

Enjoy!
Mia

Simple Presents

I don’t know if your family is like mine – my family likes to procreate. This is great because we have lots of beautiful children running around. But Christmas can be a little difficult finding presents for all the nephews and nieces.

This past Christmas I really wanted to simplify the present giving. I usually come up with very fancy gift ideas and get quite carried away. This year I wanted the present to be simple, inexpensive and useful.

The only thing I could think of that fit into all those categories was to make each child their own tote bag. I made the girls very girly tote bags in floral prints with their initials sewn on in rick-rack. For the boys I made more boyish bags in blue with beach prints and blue and white gingham linings.

The great thing about these bags is how useful they are. They can be used to pack for an overnight stay. They can be filled with beach toys for a day at the beach. They can be stuffed with bathing suits, towels and sunscreen or they can be used for bottles, extra changes of clothes etc. for little children.

And my lovely little niece, Tara, aged one and a bit, decided that hers was good enough to wear and tried her best to hop inside it!

Overall, this simplicity decision of mine, started at Christmastime is going very well I think.

Have a good one.

Mia

PS Any more ideas for simple presents to make and give during the year? I am going to whip up a whole heap of presents and give them out over the year.

Hermes Paper Kelly Bag Template

I love the little paper Kelly handbags from Hermes!  Visit their site to download these for free.  We have a birthday in a few months and I am definitely going to make these for the lolly bags.  So cute.   Nice to see that even the fashion houses understand the power of giving something away for free.  One of the many things I love about the Internet – the freebie. 

And, hello everyone.  Yes.  We are officially back in action.  With lots of lovely treats and projects coming your way.  We will be getting the monthly craft challenge back on track and plenty more.  There will be a site relaunch in July.  So happy to have the free time to re-connect with you all.  Thanks for the well wishes while we were so busy! 

Miaxx 

How to Make a Gorgeous, Quick Handtowel

Have you ever had a hand towel in your kitchen – so you can wipe those grotty hands on a towel rather than on the teatowel?!?  Great idea hey.  Here I will show you how to edge towels and add a loop for hanging them.  These can also be used in the bathroom.

What you will need to do this project: a fabric cutting matt, a rotary cutter, a ruler, a fabric pen or pencil, pins, scissors, fabric, a hand towel (or towelling from a fabric shop), and a sewing machine. 

The towels are edged with home-made bias tape.  Why use the sad range of polycotton bias tape that you can buy out there (that balls up quickly and looks dreadful) when you can make your own out of any pretty or groovy fabric you like?  I found fabulous instructions by Shelley Rodgers here http://pir8.freeservers.com/quilting/CBT to make continuous bias tape.  Thankyou!  These instructions are very similar to the way my dear mother taught me how to make bias tape.

Step 1 

I made my bias tape super wide for effect.  I cut it out 2.5 inches (6cm) wide.  (After sewing it onto the towel it was super wide on the front and thinner on the back of the towel).

Step 2 

After making the bias tape, I simply sewed one edge of the tape onto the back side of the towel (right sides together for tape and towel) with a straight stitch. 

 Step 3

I then folded the other raw edge of the bias tape over slightly and ironed it flat.

Step 4

The next step is to fold the bias tape over the towel edge (and iron if you like) and sew into place as shown.

Step 5

To do the corners I simply cut the bias tape 1 inch longer than needed and folded it in and continued stitching.  In the finished project you can see how I just overlapped the fabric at the corners.

To make a loop to hang the towel onto a cupboard handle or hook you can use tape or ribbon of any sort.  I used some spare bias tape, folded it in half with the right sides together and sewed along the edge making it as wide as you like, then turned it inside out (right sides up), zigzag stitched the raw ends and sewed it onto the wrong side of the towel in the middle of the long edge of the towel at the very edge. 

And here you have 2 designer hand towels!

These towels were made as a gift to coordinate with a specific kitchen.  Imagine the amazing fabrics you could use to make some groovy towels to match your space  …  Go on, go ahead and make one.

Em xx

Reduce, reuse, recycle… RE-THREAD

(Photo of Mia taken by Em, “Yes she is back to blonde again!”)

Mia was looking so cute in her newly screen-printed tee and her groovy beads that I just had to take a pic!

This photo was taken as we had breakfast at the cool King Street Cafe in Perth to celebrate our birthday (being twins!). We’ll show you more of our birthday celebrations soon. But for now, more on the beads.

Rethreading a beaded necklace
Why not look in your jewellery drawer or visit your local thrift store and make some old jewellery come alive again?  The necklace pictured was originally a long strand of the large beads only. Mia bought it for next to nothing and set about reinventing it.  She added some small goldish square glass beads to separate the large ones and rethreaded the necklace using Tigertail and a magnetic clasp, to make it much shorter and much groovier.

Happy beading!

Em

How to Make A Recycled Paper Tree Advent Calendar

I am forever looking for different ways to use the glossy pages of old Vogue magazines to make into something new. I am so happy to share with you guys my new little creation, an advent calendar with a difference. Me and my little one spent some time last weekend creating and perfecting these little trees. They are easy to make, very inexpensive and so colourful and fun.

Materials
For these little trees I used the soft tree pattern from Little Birds Handmade and adapted it a little.
Glossy good quality magazines
Little pom-poms for the top of the tree
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun
Candy for the middle

Steps to Make Advent Calendar
1. Download pattern and then cut out twenty five little trees from pages of a magazine.
2. Cut out the circles for the bottom but adapt the pattern by adding four tabs onto the bottom to help glue it.
3. Glue together your first little tree using your hot glue gun. Place a line of glue down the side of the piece and then stick the other side of the tree onto the top of it. You will need to repeat this 25 times, of course. I found it a little fiddly at first but it got better and better.
4. When you have the tree forms made, glue a pom-pom onto the top.
5. Cut out numbers from magazines from 1 to 25 and glue them onto the front of the trees.
6. Place the candy inside the trees. Or place little inspirational quotes, parts of the Christmas story, little activities to do, little love letters. You are only limited by your imagination.
7. Take one of the bottoms and place a dob of glue on each of the four tabs you have cut out with it. Place the tree on top of the bottom, fold the tabs upwards and glue them to the outside of the tree. This gives them a really funky little edge. I tried putting the tabs on the outside and this way definitely looked a lot better. You will need to repeat this 25 times too.

Ta-Da! You now have the cutest advent calendar!

Handy Tips..

• Cut out all the pieces at the same time and glue the same pieces together at the same time. It will save you time, which is a precious commodity at this time of year.
• Cut out magazine pages in mostly reds and greens then some in purples or blue or yellows for a little variety.
• Please don’t let little children anywhere near a glue gun! They are dangerous. My little girl searched for all the numbers and cut them out for me. She also counted out the candy and put it in the trees. She loved doing it!

Enjoy!
Mia

Give Mum a Paper Flower Pot Plant for Mummy’s Day: A Craft tutorial for dads and kids!

In Australia, Mummy’s Day is on Sunday! What a great day. Even if Hallmark thought of it, who cares? Seriously, we say get as much pampering out of it as possible. We hope you all have a teary moment brought on by the cuteness of the creations your little ones offer you. This craft is for the dads to help their kids with and give to the mums. Quick and easy to make and sooooo cute! Point your hubby in this direction…
Tutorial to Make a Paper Flower Pot Plant with Kids

You will need:

• Scissors
• Sticky Tape
• Tissue Paper in three colour
• 3 Bendy Straws
• A tiny clay pot
• Blutack
• A felt pen
• A small dinner plate to trace around
• A few pins

Step One

• Place the small plate on the tissue paper and trace around it three times. A child of about four and up will be able to do this step but may need a little help holding the plate in place.

Step Two


• Pin together three sheets of different coloured tissue paper together (an adult should do this step)
• Cut out the tissue paper circles (a child over five or six will manage this). If you have a younger child keep them involved by expaining what you are doing and talking about it to keep them interested.

Step 3


• Repeat the above steps until you have cut out nine circles, three of each colour.

Step 4


• Take three circles of tissue paper and place them on top of each other. Grab them in the middle and twist the centre to hold them together.

Step 5


• Take a piece of sticky tape and a bendy straw. Tape the scrunched up bit of the flowers onto the top of the straw. Wrap the tape around a few times to hold it in place.
• Repeat this until you have three paper flowers on their stalks (straws).

Step 6

• Now that you have finished the three flowers, tape their stalks (straws together) near to the bottom so that you have a bunch of flowers.
• Now bend the straws so that the flowers face outwards.

Step 7


• Take a of tissue paper about thirty cms long and fold it over. Cut slits in it and make it into the fringe.
• Sticky tape the fold of the fringe around the top of the clay pot. I suppose you could glue this part but I think you would have to use a hot glue gun (don’t let kids any where near it – they leave the nastiest burns, trust me!)

Step 8


• Take a biggish lump of blutack and stick in on the middle inside of the clay pot
• Stick the flowers into it to hold them upright.
• Fill the pot with tissue paper
• I found some fake grass and filled the pot with that

And There you have it. A simple paper flower pot ready to make mummy cry!

Hope you have a lot of fun,

Emma (with help from my gorgeous niece, Milly, aged 7 and a half – don’t forget the half!)

xxx

PS Of course if you just want to make this with your child for no particular reason at all that is quite alright with us!