Back to School Wardrobe Refresher

Save money on your back to school shopping by revitalizing clothes you already have.  Below are several ideas to revitalize old clothes and fix broken clothes.

T-shirt to Tube Top

Before

After

Materials:

*T-shirt

*Sewing machine or needle and thread

*Scissors

*Chalk

*Tube top that fits you well

*Ruler

Directions:

*Turn the T-shirt inside out and lay it out on a flat surface.

*Using a ruler, draw in chalk a horizontal line running just underneath the armpits of the shirt.  Make sure before you cut that this will not interfere with any part of an image or saying that you want to have on the tube top.  If it does, try laying the tube top atop the shirt and centering it so that it will include all of the image that you want, then trace around the shirt as described below.

*Carefully cut along the line, discarding the top portion of the shirt.

*Turn the shirt right side in.  Fold about a quarter of an inch of the fabric at the top toward the inside of the shirt and sew down so that the top of the tube top will not fray.

*Turn the shirt inside out again and lay flat.  Place the well fitting tube top on top of the shirt, lining up the top of the tube top with the top of the shirt.

*Trace around the tube top, leaving about 1/4" of space between the tube top and the piece of chalk.

*Cut along the chalk lines, then sew together the two sides of the shirt.

*Turn the shirt right side in.  Fold about 1/4" of fabric at the bottom of the shirt toward the inside of the shirt and sew down.

Here are some common garment issues and some ways to fix them.

Pants Zipper that Won't Stay Up:

Materials:

*Small key ring

Directions:

*Take the key ring and wind it through the zipper like so:

*Zip up the zipper, then loop the key ring over the button like this:

*Button your pants as you would normally.  The key ring should not be visible, as is the case with these jeans:

Falling off Jeans Buttons:

Here's what I did when the button on a pair of my jeans started tearing away from the fabric:

Materials:

*All purpose, fabric safe adhesive (such as Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive)

*Small piece of scrap cloth

Directions:

*Glue the button and the part of the denim the button has torn away from back together. Set aside to dry.

*For added stability, glue a small swatch of fabric behind the button so that it covers both the back of the button and the surrounding denim, like this:

Fading Clothes:

Before

After

Materials:

*Fabric dye

Directions:

I wrote a blog post last July providing stove top dyeing instructions.  This time around I tried dyeing my jeans in the washing machine using the Rit dye washing machine instructions, which can be found here or on the back of the bottle of dye.

Torn Lace Trim:

Before

After

Materials:

*Stitch ripper or sharp scissors

*Sewing machine or needle and thread

*New lace trim (optional)

Directions:

*Carefully remove the stitches holding the lace to the shirt.

*If the fabric is sturdy enough, you can resew along the previous seam. Otherwise, fold the fabric over until you will not be sewing along the area where the original stitches were and resew.
*Sew on new lace, if you wish.

Looking for more ideas?  Check out the apparel and accessories portion of my blog.

Photo Cube Puzzle

Materials:
* 8 wooden blocks 1 1/4" x 1 1/4"
*12 photos 2 1/2" x 2 1/2"
*Photo safe adhesive
*Scissors
*Ruler
*Pen

Directions:
*Arrange the eight wooden blocks into a cube with dimensions 2 blocks x 2 blocks x 2 blocks.
*Select a photo and carefully divide it into four 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" squares.
*Cut out the squares and glue them to one face of the cube so that the pieces line up to form the original image.
*Repeat the process for another photo and glue the pieces to a neighboring face of the cube.  Make sure the first and second pictures are facing the same direction.
*Repeat the process for another photo and glue the pieces to the top of the cube.  Let dry.
*Once the three faces have dried, carefully flip the cube upside down.  Repeat the above procedure for the remaining sides of the cube.  Let dry.
*Turn the cubes so that the photo covered sides face toward the center of the cube.  One quick way to do this is take the top and bottom halves of the cube and swap their positions, then take the left and right halves of the cube and swap them, and finally take the front and back halves and swap them.  You should be left with a blank cube.
*Cut up and glue pictures to the blocks following the above procedure.
*Now you can swap between the two photo cube arrangements.  It's like having two photo cubes (although you can only use one at a time).

Nail Polish Splattered Picture Frame

Spruce up a cheap picture frame with a splash of nail polish.  Here's a link to the post that provided me with this idea.

Materials:
*Nail polish in various corresponding colors
*Inexpensive picture frame
*Painter's tape (optional)

Directions:
*Completely cover your work space with newspaper.
*Tape up any portions of your picture frame that you would not like to get nail polish on.
*Have fun splatter painting.  Once the paint is dry, you can peel off any painter's tape you applied to the frame.
*If you end up with paint in an unwanted spot anyway, clean it off with a dab of nail polish remover.

Duct Tape Sneakers

Have an old, grungy pair of shoes that you're not yet ready to give up on?  Decorate them with duct tape. Here's a link to the post that inspired me to try decorating my shoes with duct tape.

Materials:
*Old Sneakers
*Duct tape in the colors/patterns of your choice
*Scissors
*X-acto knife

Directions:
*Cut off strips of duct tape and adhere to the portions of the shoe that you would like covered.
*Carefully trim off any excess duct tape with an X-acto knife
*Use smaller pieces of duct tape around the curvy parts of the shoe so that you don't end up with bulges and creases in the tape.
*To cover the toe of the shoe, take a strip of duct tape and set it across the toe of the shoe.  Carefully cut the tape to the appropriate shape, making sure not to stick the tape to the shoe all the way.  Otherwise the tape will bunch together in places and it may be difficult to unstick the pieces.
*Peel the duct tape off of the toe of the shoe.
*Excluding the flat top part, make incisions about 1/4" deep every 1/4" along the piece of tape.
*Line up the flat top part with the top of the toe of the shoe and stick down.  Slowly press down the other parts of the tape, which will overlap slightly.

Duct Tape Feather Earrings

Materials:
*Duct tape in the color(s) of your choice
*Marker
*Scissors
*2 ear wires
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*Needle, safety pin, or similar implement

Directions:
*Cut off a strip of duct tape about twice as long as you would like your earrings to be and carefully fold in half, so that the sticky sides of the two halves touch.
*Repeat with a second piece of duct tape.
*Draw or trace a feather shape onto each of the two duct tape pieces, then cut out.
*Decorate the feathers as you wish.
*Cut slits into the duct tape to create the feathery look, being careful not to cut all the way through.  Also, once you reach the top of the duct tape, leave a small portion at the top center uncut.
*Using a needle, poke a small hole through the top center of each earring.
*Using the pliers, open up the base of one of the ear wire and slide it through the hole in one of the earrings, then close the base of the ear wire.  Repeat for the second earring.

Owl Pillow

     A fun owl craft for my 100th blog post!  Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog.  I hope it has given you some inspiration and ideas for your own crafting.

Materials:
*Sheet of fabric in the color of your choice for the owl's body
*Fabric and/or felt in colors of your choice for the owl's wings, belly, beak, and eyes
*Sewing machine or needle and thread
*Stuffing
*All purpose adhesive (optional)
*Chalk
*Scissors or fabric shears

Directions:
*Select an owl template.  I used the same one I used for my Felt Owl Pal, included below.

*Enlarge owl template to the desired size.  Make sure that you print the template larger than the size you would like your owl to be, as once you've sewn together the fabric and stuffed the owl it will be much smaller than the template.
*Cut out the pieces of the template.  Using chalk, trace the pieces onto the chosen fabrics and felts.  You will need two copies of the owl's body, two large circles for the owl's eyes, and two small circles for the owl's pupils, but every other piece need only be traced once.
*Sew or glue on the owl's belly, wings, beak, and eyes.
*Place the two pieces for the owl's body one on top of the other with the patterned side facing in and sew together, leaving enough space at the bottom for your hand to fit inside.
*Turn the owl right side in, then insert stuffing into your pillow until it reaches its desired fullness.
*Sew or glue closed the opening in the owl.

Oversized Clothespin Photo Display

Materials:
*Oversized clothespin
*Stickers, die cuts, or other embellishments
*Patterned paper
*Thin cardboard (e.g. cereal box)
*Photo
*Mounting tape (or other photo mounting adhesive)
*All purpose adhesive

Directions:
*Choose a photo that you would like to display, then select paper, stickers, etc., that you feel represent the important aspects of your photo or the event it represents.  For example, my picture was taken on a trip to Rockland, wherein I did some genealogical research and visited a lighthouse museum.  I chose a lighthouse die cut for the museum, vital record paper for the genealogy, a map sticker because our GPS stopped working as we were heading home and I insisted that we buy a map, and a lobster sticker because of our lobster magnet souvenirs and because we took out picture in front of a giant lobster.
*Decorate the clothespin as you see fit.
*Cut the paper so that it is slightly larger than your photo.  Cut out a piece of cardboard the same size and adhere the paper to the cardboard.
*Mount your photo on the paper.  Add stickers or other embellishments, then clip inside the clothespin.