Make Jeans Into a Skirt Tutorial

A few months ago, a girl at my church handed me a bag with about 10 pair of jeans in them and said you are creative, maybe you can make them into skirts for me.

Yes, I have made jeans into a skirt, but I wasn't ready to invest that much time into that many skirts that looked the same. I didn't know if any of the jeans even fit the girl as they were all given to her. 

I made a deal with this girl, I would teach her how to make the skirt, but she was going to come over and do all the work. She agreed, but I didn't know how long it would take to actually make it happen. 

One day, she got out of school early, so she came over and we got to work. By that evening she had gotten three skirts made. One light denim, one dark denim, and one black. I was impressed!

Do you have a pair of jeans that you would like to make into a skirt?

The first thing you need to do is to cut the inseam between the legs. Cut right beside the seam. You will need to cut a little above the inseam into the crotch in order to get the skirt to lay flat. 

Decide what length you want and cut off the length. 

You can also keep them full length, and then you will need more fabric to put in the middle. What you cut off will help fill in the skirt if you cut it off to about knee length,

Pin together the crotch area. I would encourage you to try on the skirt at this point to make sure that what you have cut lays flat. 

Take the legs that you cut off and add those pieces of cut off jean into the triangle hole. You will sew these together. 

Decide on your hem. You can just sew around the bottom and let it fray or you can fold up the bottom and hem.

Here is Ashley in one of the skirts she made. 

I know these are brief instructions, so feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to help!

DIY: Photo Recognition Book

Last year for Christmas, I made my niece this photo recognition book. What a fun project to make!

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from the step by step process, but I will do my best to share with you what I did. 

1. I bought a board book. Doesn't matter what is on the book, you will cover it up!
2. You will want to decide on what you want on pages and who you want to go where. I doubled up the aunts and uncles to make everyone fit.
3. I took pictures of all family members to use. You want a head shot of just the people. I did both sides of the family for my niece. 
4. Decide on front and back pictures. You can see my examples above. 
5. I measured the pages of the book and uploaded the pictures into Word. I made the pictures the size of the page and then added a black text box with white writing. Some of you might be better at the computer aspect, but Word was what I had, and I made it work.
6. Print pictures. I did them at home.
7. Trace around the pages on the back of the picture. Most board books have round edges. Use an exacto knife to cut around the pictures. 
8. Spray the back of the picture with spray adhesive and attach to the book. I would do one page at a time and let them dry.
9. You are done! Enjoy!

Make Your Own Fire Starters

My husband found this idea of making your own fire starters, and we love them. They create a slow, intense burn that helps light the rest of your stuff on fire. And they are super easy to make with things you can save from around your house!

Supplies:

Old wax

Paper egg carton

Dryer lint

Instructions:

• Fill all the holes with old dryer lint.
• Optional- my husband has put used matches down in some to use as a "wick" 
• Melt down wax. We use old candles and put the jars on the stove in a pot of water.
• Pour the wax over the dryer lint until the lint is pretty saturated. Not really a right or wrong amount here.
• Tear apart the egg carton and you are done!
• Place where you would like to start a fire and light. Use responsibly :)

I have heard that these are good for use in a charcoal grill. You don't get the taste of lighter fluid that way.

Follow Me Buttons

Recently, I have been trying to get my blog a little more up to par. Technology and I don't get along very well.  

My husband and I got each other Chromebooks for Christmas. I absolutely love mine, but when it comes to editing something, the Chromebooks are lacking. 

My favorite things that I have added recently are my follow me buttons. This picture is what they look like. Do you see them in the upper right corner of my blog?

I would love it you would click on these buttons. You might be wondering, why would I do something like that?

Well, the blue button, you can follow me on Facebook. The red button, you can follow me on pinterest. The orange button, you can subscribe to my rss feed. And the green button, you can get my updates sent to your email. 

Now you know what they are for so why don't you go click on one or all of them :)

I used the tutorial from Laura's Crafty Life to help me add these buttons.

DIY Laptop Sleeve Tutorial

I was given a pile of clothes. There were a few sweatshirts that I wanted to upcycle into something else. This pile has been on my list of goals for the last few weeks. 

My husband told me the other day that he wanted a laptop sleeve for when he has to go to class. I was flipping through Martha Stewart when I saw this picture. I thought I could at least give something like it a try! 

source

I started by taking the old sweatshirt and cutting off the front and sleeves.

I then made sure I had enough length to fold in thirds around the laptop.

I folded down and sewed around the top of the laptop sleeve. 

I then pinned together the sides with right side together. I wanted this to be fitting without being too snug.

This is what it looked like with both sides pinned. Go ahead and slip the laptop in to make sure it fits. I sewed these sides together. 

Then I folded down and pinned around the flap. I sewed these areas together. 

I then sewed on buttons and sweet talked my mom into putting in button holes. I need to figure out how to use my button holer. 

Done! 

Linking to Romance on a Dime, Pin Junkie

DIY Boy's Argyle Shirt

I have thought about making some shirts, but didn't want to spend much money on brand new shirts. I found a good deal at Gabriel Brother's where a shirt was less than $1. I decided to see what I could come up with. I searched through pinterest and this became my inspiration. An argyle shirt. Super easy and fun!

• I started by printing out a diamond from google docs (microsoft word for most of you). I then held it up to the shirt. I had to print the diamond again and make mine smaller. 
• Then I cut out 6 diamonds from fabric. I used cotton and did 3 diamonds from each material
• I also cut out 6 pieces from fusible interfacing.
• I ironed the interfacing on the wrong side following the instructions on the package. Apparently, I didn't cut them all straight :)
• I then chose the pattern that I wanted them in and pinned them on. Make sure that the points on all sides are touching. 
• Next, I sewed around the edges of each diamond individually.
• Then I sewed between the diamonds. I picked a side and started at the bottom of the diamond, all the out to the middle point. I would sew through the middle of the diamond and up to the top in the white area, like in the picture on the right. I did this until I had completed the pattern. The picture on the left might help you figure this out better. 

How are you going to incorporate this idea into your sewing? Also, I have a few more of these shirts and would love to know what you would put on them.

Linking to Bower Power, The Pin Junkie

Upcycle Sweater to Infinity Scarf Tutorial

My grandma had been given this sweater a while ago and she didn't want it. I did not like it as a sweater, but something about it drew my attention. 

I wanted to make something out of this sweater. Stockings and a hat crossed my mind, but neither of these had been exciting enough to me to do them. I then decided on an infinity scarf. And off to work I went.

The first thing that I did was cut off the sweater right under the arm pits.

Next I sewed a zig-zag stitch around the edges that I cut. If you have a serger, this would be even better. Just trying to keep the edges from raveling.

I cut up one of the side seams. Then I folded the material in half, right sides together, and pinned it together.

I then sewed it together and turned the scarf right side out.

I then took the ends and put right sides together. I sewed these together as far as I could with my sewing machine.

I was left with a little hole.

I sewed this hole together by hand.

There you have it! Great way to make an ugly sweater come to life.

Make sure you pin this project to use in the future!

Linked to Romance on a Dime, Craftionary, Ladies Holiday, Serenity Now, My Repurposed Life

DIY: Upcycled T-shirt Headband Tutorial

Do you have an old t-shirt that you don't want to part with? How about making a headband from that t-shirt?

I love repurposing things that I am not currently using. I had a t-shirt from Scott that I made into a scarf. I didn't want to throw away the shirt, but it was beyond wear! You can see about that here.

Well, that left me with some knit scraps that were too good to just throw away. I went on a little bit of a headband craze.

I don't have much of a headband head, but these work well for me. Plus they are super comfy. Double bonus, I got to use up some material that was sitting in my closet...sometimes this causes an explosion. Or maybe most of the time. 

Here is how I made them. There is a lot of variety in how you can make these! My example will show you how to make these from a large adults t-shirt.

What to cut

Cut 2 1" strips under the armpit of the shirt, using the whole circumference. I cut mine in half so that I had   just one long strip. 

Cut 2 1" strips that are 10 inches long.

Cut 2 pieces that are 2" by 3".

Here are the strips being cut. I used a rotary cutter. 

I then pulled on the fabric and wrapped them around. You can use 1 or 2 strips depending on how thick you want your headband to be. 

The next part is where it gets a little tricky. Just follow the next 3 pictures! You can do it!

I then pinned the 10" pieces onto what I just tied. You can hot glue this if you would rather.

I then sewed this together.

A little trick to save thread, sew these two ends back to back. I usually sew a lot of these at once so this saves a lot of pulling and cutting!

 I then take the 2- 3" strips and hot glue them around where I sewed. I like how this looks better! 

This last time of making these, I ended up with second degree burns on my finger so be careful with your hot glue gun!

Let me know if you have any questions.

I also would love to see if you decide to make this, link up some pictures.

Interested in making this in the future? Make sure that you pin it so that you can!

Canning Ring Pumpkins

I can't say that I am much into the decorating area...paying money for something that you have to store for nine months of the year. Only to hope that it comes out in great shape next year. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so practical.

I knew when I saw this idea on my friend Cindy's blog, it was for me!

This project was absolutely free and the supplies can be used between now and next year and then quickly reassembled. 

Who knew that canning rings could be cute?! I took the rings and tied them together with yarn. I quickly put together four.

I then added a twig in the middle and cut out some leaves from scrap material. Love it! This is my kind of decorating! Free and doesn't take up space all year!

I linked up to The Shabby Nest.