DIY from scrap to hair clip!

Hello, how have you been? It's the dog days of summer and it's just winding down now. Hot, humid and cooler in the evenings. The pets want to nap all day and I don't blame them!

What I have today is a DIY project from scraps you might have in your craft supplies. Every now and then we buy something that had a big flower, button or decoration on it. So I remove these and set them aside for some later use. I had a thrifted top that had some large decoration in fabric, I took one off. I decided it would make a great hair clip and almost resemble a fascinator.

scrap fabric and old earring

So above is the scrap piece from the thrifted top. It's almost like a deconstructed flower with pretty lace, raw edges and quite large. I wanted to add to this and again picked through some of my craft supplies. I found an old clip-on earring with no mate. I used some pliers to remove the earring from it's backing and laid them out. I also had an old mis-match barrette and that is what we will be using for this.

the back of the scrap piece we will turn into a hair clip

Now, before we decorate our scrap piece we need to make a back for it and attach the barrette. Turn your scrap piece upside down, so the back is facing up. Trace around the shape roughly and cut it out. 

cut out felt piece

this part will clip to your hair

I cut a small slit in the felt to allow part of the hair barrette to slip in (see above). This just helps hide it from view and lets you stitch it to the felt piece. 

Turn your felt piece over and stitch the barrette to the felt. I simply stitched around the metal to make sure it's secure. If you can not stitch your barrette to your felt, you can use glue. I would suggest a glue for metal or plastic and lets you attach it to felt. A very good crafting glue for many types or material is E6000. It can be used on metal, jewelry, fabric and plastics. 

now for the added decoration!

Once you have the felt attached (stitched or glued on) it's onto the next fun part! Take your decorative piece that you are going to be using. Remember I had that old earring I took apart? I took the beads and laid them out until I liked how they looked. I decided to stitch the beads to my fabric piece. If you are unable to attach decorations with thread you can always use that same glue I mentioned above (the E6000 or other fabric glue). 

You take your decorated piece, as mine is seen above (in the photo) and you will attach that felt backing to it. Now you can easily glue the felt backing (with the sewn/glued barrette) to your decorative piece. Be sure to let it dry well, often left to dry over night. 

You can repeat this for almost any number of materials! You can use tulle, netting, ole scraps of fabric and more. Play around, lay them out, glue or stitch and create something new!

finished piece

I hope you enjoyed this fun DIY project! I will certainly have more to come. But for now, I'm trying to cut a full length dress pattern and perhaps crochet some. Enjoy the end of the summer months friends!

DIY from barrette to headband (crystals)

Hello, happy Beltane to those who observe it! Spring has arrived and the birds sing, the trees are in bloom and the flowers are beautiful.

So this DIY I'm sharing is something I tried and it worked. I simply had a big, bulky barrette with crystals on it and wanted a headband instead! You will need a piece of hair decoration that you want to transform into something else. I had the barrette and I also had a spare plain headband. You will need pliers and some jewelry wire for this as well. I used some ribbon at the end but that's optional. 

First step is to remove the crystals (or maybe you found one with beads) using the pliers. Place the removed paces aside - be careful to not poke yourself with exposed wire!

supplies all ready

remove pieces and set aside

Now with your crystals all removed, you can decide how you want them arranged on your headband. I simply laid my headband on the table and started to place the crystals how I liked them. They could be in order of size or shape, whatever you prefer.

place your pieces how you like

Now the jewelry wire comes into play. You will need to twist a end of the wire around the headband, then proceed to add a crystal. You add a crystal, twist wire around headband once, then add a crystal. You do this until all the pieces are attached to the headband.

crystals wired onto headband

The optional part is you can leave this with the wire exposed or you can cover it. I covered my wire with some ribbon that matched the headband (in this case, brown). I started at one end and I decided to glue the ribbon on with a dot of glue. I let it dry, then wrapped the ribbon over the exposed wire - all the way across the headband. I simply glued it again at the other end. An alternate is to stitch the ribbon on, wrap, then stitch again. 

I used E6000 glue

the ribbon is wrapped!

I am so pleased with how this came out! It's not bulky and uncomfortable as it was when the crystals where on the barrette. You can do this to many things, perhaps an old necklace with beads you'd like on a headband. 

my calico kitty approves

the finished piece

I hope you've enjoyed this DIY and want to try making some new things. It's fairly easy to make and doesn't require much in supplies. It stayed on well and I might try this again sometime. I hope you have a good start to May! Be sure to check out my photography, my Pinterest & Etsy shop!

DIY customized sneakers!

A simple DIY project to customize your very own kicks (or sneakers). This project does involve sewing with a curved needle - which may not be suitable for unskilled crafters and smaller children. You can use fabric glue instead, which I will include in the directions.

You will need for this:
- fabric sneakers, similar to those famous canvas types (or any old one you like, I used a pair bought at Target)
- stash fabric, a smaller piece big enough to cover the area on the sneaker you want to
- a curved needle, often an upholstery needle is good and tough for this / alternately, you can use fabric glue instead of sewing
- straight pins and a fabric marker (optional)

My photo is below the instructions, I ended up adding steps to help you make these! 

1.) To start, decide what part of the sneaker you want to cover in fabric. For mine, I wanted to cover just the heel of the sneaker. You can either lay the fabric piece over the heel (as I did) and trace the shape with a fabric marker ** these will fade away on their own OR with a little soap & water ** or you may use paper to trace it.

2.) Next you want to cut the fabric with the traced shape on it. You want to cut at least 1/4" outside the shape you traced, you need some fabric to fold under and sew/glue onto the shoe (this keeps any frayed edges from being exposed).

3.) You want to pin the fabric piece to the shoe. You may have to wiggle it around, move it here and there, to get it to lay nicely. I just stuck the straight pins standing up, to keep the fabric the way I wanted. Be sure to tuck that 1/4" of fabric underneath, this helps prevent any frayed edges from being exposed.

4. Sewing) To sew the fabric on, use the curved sewing needle. I just started at one side and slowly worked my way around. The fabric shoe should have fabric on the outside and probably a tougher (thicker) fabric on the inside. You want to sew just to the outside fabric - since it will be on your foot, don't worry too much if stitches are uneven.

4. Gluing) To glue the fabric on, use the glue as directed. Some is quick dry, others you may have to hold in place a while before it takes. Start at one edge and work around, tucking under that 1/4" of fabric as you go. This method is best for beginners and children - but please, don't glue your fingers together! You can easily wear gloves to do this safely (and without a mess).

5.) And that is it, I hope you can have a fun time decorating and customizing your own kicks!

I added flat lingerie elastic instead of laces, they stretch and are oh so pretty. You can find lingerie elastic on Etsy at a super affordable price.

And in exciting news, my shop item was featured in an Etsy Treasury List!! Here is a screenshot of it, it was my felt dango Japanese sweets!

Alter what you have (shorts!) & EcoFriendly beauty

Ahhh summer has been lovely so far: plenty of rainy days, a few big thunder storms and plenty of greenery growing tall! My garden is flourishing and I hope to plant a bigger variety next year. My spouse built be beautiful raised garden beds. Our own soil in the side yard was just full of stones and chunks of cement blocks.

my two large garden boxes!

my toadstool

I found that adorable toadstool (it is ceramic, so it's OK outdoors) at a local store on deep discount. I have lettuce, arugula, peas, squash and some herbs growing. I love going outside to pick food for a salad now! 

So into the crafty fun, yes? We often purchase clothing, tuck it away for a season, go unpack it and... it shrunk, it got stained or something else. So what to do? Why ~ alter it of course! And it's super easy to do, a beginner can do alterations to existing clothing. I did this to some shorts I bought last year when they were on sale, out of season. They were very short - like, I was afraid to 'expose' my bum! 

I started by letting the hem of the shorts down, you can use a seam ripper to do this. If you don't know what this is or how to use it, please go to this link to MakeSomething for simple instructions. I already picked out some cotton fabric that I would add to the bottom of the shorts (at the leg opening, I let the hem down). I used a fat quarter of fabric, they often run for just $0.99 to almost $2.00 a piece. 

the fabric to add to hem of shorts

I measured my cotton fabric for the shorts leg opening. You can do this with the fabric laid flat and a tape measure. I then took my fat quarter fabric and decided the width I wanted - I went with 4"s, this let me fold it right in half (as seen above). I did a little zig-zag stitch to the raw edge just to give it some staying power. 

cotton fabric pinned to leg opening

Then you pin the cotton fabric to the bottom of the shorts, the leg opening. You can stitch this with a straight stitch of decorative one. Do this to both leg openings - this is a simple solution to too tiny shorts. I'm really happy with how these came out and I will certainly do this again in the future. You can also apply this same solution to long pants that are just too short at the ankle.

one side complete

finished!

Now my EcoFriendly project ~ a simple alternative (and saves on cost) to using cotton balls. These are just squares of fabric made with flannel (the printed side) and organic cotton batting. Here is a good link to what type of batting I had purchased - Honey Be Good. Batting is pretty handy stuff, it is typically very wide so you don't need a huge cut of this. It is often used as the lining or backing to sewing projects (such as quilting). But it has many other uses too, like cloth diaper linings to homemade face towel. 

First decide what flannel you want, often it is printed. And you may pick any shape you like best from circle to heart! I did a simple square, easy right? For this project I'd suggest two layers of batting and one layer of the flannel print fabric.

flannel print, solid batting

To help the pieces now get too frayed I used pinking scissors for the edges. Please note: these will fray some regardless - but for something so small and easy I didn't want to cover the edges. Next step is to pin the pieces together: flannel on top, batting (both layers) below the printed flannel. Then you sew about 1/4" from the outside edge.

sewing the squares together

Once you sew around the shape, just back stitch a few times, then snip off any thread. It's just that easy to do! I made several of these with scrap flannel I had, I like variety and cute prints. 

my collection!

I use these in place of cotton balls for toner or makeup remover. You can wash them by hand or put them in the washing machine. But do note: if thrown in the washing machine, try to put them in a mesh bag (such as lingerie type) or they may just go missing in the depths of you machine! I personally hand wash mine and then just lay them out to air dry. I might make some in heart shapes in the future. 

I hope your summer is filled with fun, tasty eats and much crafting!