Easy Peasy Headband

This project is easy peasy AND it's ec0-friendly chic! All you need is:

1) an old tee

2) scissors

3) a coordinating button

4) a needle and thread

I used my awesome rotary cutter, but you can just use scissors to cut a 2" wide strip of tee shirt. Make sure the length is a little smaller than your head so that it will actually stay on!
Next, trace four almost-circles onto more tee shirt and cut that out. I used 1-5/8" circles for mine, but you can do bigger or smaller depending on how big you want your flower.
Sew along the straight bottom edge WITHOUT tying knots on either end.
Once you sew the length, pull both ends so that it becomes a flower. Then tie both ends of the thread together to hold the flower in place. After that, place the button on the center of the flower and sew them both to the band. All that's left is closing up the headband. TADA!!!! Finished. You have a cute new headband in no time!

R-Lo and Auj: Craft Day, or "Hold Me Closer, Tiny Tailor"

Finally, a day off! I "slept in" (which is now, sadly, 8a.m.) and took about an hour to wake up. I started reading a book, but I just couldn't get into it. So I decided to do my other favorite day-off activity - crafting! I figured my friend Auj would be up for some refashion projects, so I invited her to bring some old clothes and shoes over to see what we could come up with. I planned on doing 2 things: a men's plaid shirt refashion, and a bleach pen shirt design. The bleach pen shirt seemed like the easier of the two, so I went ahead and did that first. Success! Then it was time to move onto the men's shirt refashion. It pretty much involved cutting off the sleeves, creating a new neckline, and adding ruffles. As a non-sewer, this seemed like a pretty good beginner's project. At first it went well...I mean, cutting is easy! But when it came time to sew, it was a disaster! The thread kept bunching up in crazy ways or getting caught in the bobbin somehow, or breaking (seriously?!?). I tried for hours and could not manage to make a ruffle. At this point, Audrey had made some super cute boots and a bleach pen shirt. She brought in her Singer Tiny Tailor (her mom found it for $2 at a garage sale!) so we could try the ruffles on her machine. That too was an epic fail. It was the most confusing bobbin set up process I have ever experienced. Finally, we gave up on sewing. On the bright side, I know how to thread my machine and put in a new bobbin. And we came out of it with some cute new things!

Audrey's bleach pen desgin: a super cute owl!

Boots made from old flats and sweater sleeves.

My bleach pen shirt design

And my headband!!!!!!!!

I have another craft day planned for tomorrow with L-Mo. I'm hoping it yields much better results!

Sleeve/Gloves = Sloves

had such good intentions...then again, I always do. Recently, I was very excited about the prospect of acquiring a free sewing machine. They say to never look a gift horse in the mouth. I tried to just be grateful, really I did. At first, I was! That was before I tried to use said sewing machine. It's a beautiful antique from the 1930's, the kind that's in a table. The table has lovely cabriole legs and darling little slipper feet. And the sewing machine itself has very few things to change or adjust so it should have been quite simple. I invited Lexie over for a craft night. We made yummy Indian food for dinner and had plans to make these awesome sweater scarf things I saw on a blog. They were the perfect project for a beginner and they suited our taste just wonderfully. I had found a sweater for $2 at Value Village and cute cheap buttons at Walmart. We were set to go! And then we tried to use the sewing machine. It was a total bust. I think the sewing machine doesn't work, but Gabe just thinks it's a "user error". Either way, it didn't work out.

I had, however, seen another project I wanted to try, one that didn't require the part of the sweater we needed for the scarves: sloves! I folded the ends of the sleeves over like cuffs and cut the sleeves off of the sweater about midway down the arm. It was a man's sweater and the sleeves were WAY to big. So I cut them at the seam and took them in about an inch and a half. After I hand sewed them back up, I went ahead and used the buttons I bought for the scarf project and sewed them on the cuffs.

I think they are adorable and I have a friend who could totally pull them off. I, on the other hand, am not that trendy. Plus, I'm always in either work clothes or pajamas so I have no need for them.