Welcome Summer, Vest repairs, baby gift

Let's all give a warm (ha, get it?) welcome to the summer season! It's hot, it's humid and you want to stay indoors and in the cool breeze of a fan. So what have I been working on? Plenty of things, that's for sure! Of course stop by my Instagram to view weekly things I do or share about.

Each season I enjoy decorating and celebrating the season. On June 21st we had Summer Solstice, which did these photos for and a staff.

summer decor

summer solstice

I've been sewing, crafting and doing repairs to thrifted clothing I already own. The vest above needed some TLC recently. The piping on this (the edging) was frayed and just falling apart with time. So how do you repair that? Well I wasn't going to tear apart the piping edge on this! Instead, I find a simple (beginner. easy) solution that can be done in an afternoon. 

a paint brush and puff paint

before & after

I purchased puff paint to make repairs with. I used a dark brown shade which matched perfectly! With the use of a paint brush, I could simply dip it in puff paint, then paint the piping. This left a nice smooth coverage and no more frays or cracks! Just put down a little paper and use a wide brush, easy as that.

plush toy pattern design

I am also working on a toy plush for a friends soon-to-be baby boy (due in autumn). I based this off Nightwing from the Teen Titans series. Since it's for an infant I kept a simple round pillow shape to it. I am going to use flannel fabric, felt and sew it mostly by machine. I try to never put any pieces that an infant can tear off - safety first! So no buttons, ribbons or the like. I only recently cut the pattern pieces out and traced them onto fabric.

If you are in the mood to shop for handmade gifts, do visit my Etsy shop (linked in the side bar). I have over 35 items for sale currently. I have felt creations, plushes, hair accessories, upcycled clothing and much more! Support small business, support artisans and gift handmade when you can. 

Thrifty fun, alterations and kitty wings!

Hello, and since it's today ~ Happy Spring Equinox! 

I have been going through my wardrobe the past several weeks. Weeding out clothing I no longer wore, had out grown style-wise or just found to be too worn out. I always donate my gently worn clothes to several local places. And of course, I end up at the thrift store seeking new clothes! It's my number one place for gently worn, pre-shrunk clothing finds. 

In doing that I often find pieces I love but want to improve upon. It could be a simple change in buttons or altering it to fit my figure better. If something is too small you can add width in several places. The first can be at the zippers, which I will touch upon next month (currently doing just this to a skirt!). The second is to add width under too-tight arms. Some are very easy alterations for any beginner while others can be more involved.

Here is a pretty blouse I picked from the thrift store recently. It's vintage, I suspect from the 60's and the white buttons it came with just had to go.

I took the original white buttons with me shopping at a craft store. I picked the same size to fit the current button holes. I simply cut the old ones off and added the new black buttons. It's all done by hand and is an easy change for any beginner seamstress.

here is the thrifted blouse with new buttons

My other fun project was new kitty wings for my fluffy cat who wears a harness (because he is a puppy cat!). In the past I have made him fairy wings, which I have shared in a post with adorable photos. But since I made the dog a dragon wing cape last year, my cat needed some too. 

dragon wings for my cat

These are very light weight and made from pipe cleaners and tulle. I hand stitched around the wire to make sure the tulle didn't come of. If you follow me on Instagram (click my side link to find it) you can see videos of my pets and my cat in this adorable winged costume!

dragon cat

I hope spring is arriving for you soon enough! Our flowers are trying to poke up from under a blanket of frost and a dusting of snow. Do visit my many links to keep up with me on a weekly basis. 

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!