One Hour Craft

Where I Surf….

Just a quick post to update you with the current sites I surf. I am giving up social networking but still love my daily surfing.  I follow craft sites, fashion sites, and lifestyle sites.

Sites I love (a motley mix I agree).  Click the ♥ to visit:

The Cherry Blossom Girl♥  A very cool Parisienne who works as a stylist, with a penchant for beautiful shoes and vintage-y things.

Bleubird Vintage♥  James, another fashion blogger, everything vintage and fantastic.

Ismoyo♥  A crafty designy blog, a lovely girl half-Dutch, half-Indonesian living in NYC.  Cute, quirky style.

Fashion is Spinach♥  Betsy a fashion writer and blogger, living in Washington DC.  Great fashion blog written in a very down-to-earth style.  Always well written and interesting.

Not Martha♥   A crafty site by Megan Reardon, Seattle girl.  lots of crafty links and great product links.  No fuss, quick to read and always interesting.

One Lucky Duck♥  Sarma Melngailis dishes on raw food benefits.  Will get ya drinking green juice and eating raw foods.  Eat raw, sparkle more!

We Like it Raw♥  Raw foodists site, interesting articles.

Crazy Sexy Life♥  Chris Karr has set up an on-line health community.  So many super-fantastic health experts and amazing people in one place.  Always interesting, always great read (even if you eat meet this will interest you. i’m sure). Vibrant.

Crazy Aunt Purl♥  Laurie, a southern girl living in LA.  Funny.  Funnier.  Knitting blog (sort of), more just tales of living in la la land.  She’s a staple in my internet diet.

Andrea Scher♥  Another staple.  Berkeley girl, photos are wicked.  Jewellery designer.  Posts to lift your spirits.  

Gala Darling♥  A New Zealander living in NYC.  Lifestyle, fashion, articles, photos.  Such a fun, amazing blog.  Always makes me smile.

I think I have covered everything I love, making things, eating good stuff, having fun, dressing up..

Oh how could I forget…Each time I get a chance I am working my way through all the episodes at..

Darryl Hannah Love Life♥  All I can say is…go and have a look.  It is the best!

Mia

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