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My first tutorial!!!

So this is my first tutorial.  It was really fun!  So, this tutorial is how to turn an ugly, over-sized sweater into a mini dress and legwarmers.

Mine turned out pretty 80's looking.


Here are the steps:

1.  Cut the sides of the sweater, the neck off, and cut the sleeves off.

2.  This is going to be the leg-warmer.  While the sleeve is still folded in half, cut off the edge.  Use the entire sleeve length, and I made mine the width of my calve so it would fit snuggly.  The finished sleeve end will be the top, the unfinished edge will be near the foot.  Repeat with other sleeve.

3.  This will be the mini-dress.  Cut the sweater body to fit your body type.  I made my dress very fitted.  I measured the top of my bust, under the bust, my waist, and hips.  Divide these measurements in half to cut both pieces at once.  (Or you could trace a dress that already fits and cut around it.)

4.  Sew up the sides of the dress.  I made sure my stripes lined up.

5.  Sew the legwarmers up the one side, creating a tube.

6.  Sew along the top hem of the dress, but leave one inch unhemmed.  Measure elastic over your bust and cut accordingly.  Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic.  (My elastic was from an old fitted sheet.)  Feed the safety pin end through the hole, and pull through the entire casing you created.  Once it reaches the end, sew the two ends of the elastic together.  Hem the hole closed.

7.  Tada!  Match with accessories and leggings!

Zippers

So, I finally got a day off, and I pumped out four more zippers!  I've been finding a lot of black zippers at thrift stores, I wish I could find bright colored ones!

Here they are!

I think this pink one is so cute, I bet it would look really nice with a lacy top.


This one has a really nice crest button for the center.  It's so unique!

This one is so feminine!

So this one looks like a reverse sunflower!


Halloween!

So I was Mother Nature for Halloween, and my inspirations actually came from youtube!


For the head piece I watched this great tutorial:

And I bought a twig wreath at Goodwill, which I tore apart.  And almost all my leaves and flowers were from some awful Goodwill wedding centerpiece. haha


And for the dress I used this tutorial (except I added a zipper to mine):

The body of my dress was made from an old sheet, and the rest of the fabric/cord was from JoAnn's.  


The makeup was done with many green/brown eyeshadows.  And then I eyelash-glued all the leaves onto my face/body. They lasted almost the whole night.  And the lashes are feathers!!!!

Happy crafting!!!



I'm on a roll

So, since I finished all of Pushing Daisies, I moved onto another show.  My roommates were all out last night and I stayed in, and I discovered "HGTV Design Star" on Hulu.com.  I watched the entire first season last night, four more seasons left.  I like this show, it helps to give me DIY ideas.

I am also so excited because I joined a swap featuring Blogger on swap-bot.com and now actually have followers!  YAY!!!!! *throws confetti*

And I made some more zipper flowers while watching Design Star.

This is the first one I made with leaves.  It is just so adorable!



I love the center on this flower, and it's bright like summertime! 



This one feels really aquatic to me, and I promise it is blue and teal.  Not green.  I will not make green flowers.  Awkward... haha



More Zipper Flowers!

I watched a total of 17 episodes of Pushing Daisies yesterday online.  Some were hosted by the WB, but a few episodes I had to find on Megavideo and youtube.  I wish they would have continued that show, it was so cute!!!

But while I was a watching the Pie-maker solve mysteries for hours on end, I did make some zipper flowers.  So, I didn't waste my whole day. haha

I love the anchor center. I love nautical accessories.  This was originally green zipper. Add a little bleach, do a little rinse, dye it and tada! Summer!






I think this one is my new favorite.  I love the two colors together.


This was originally a gross brown zipper.  Who uses a brown zipper?  So I dyed it.  It looks very appropriate for autumn in my opinion. 

Yes, another nautical piece.  I love the two-tone on this one as well. Ohhh summer please don't ever end.

Peach Dress, Yellow Scarf

I made these!  The peach/orange dress was a reconstruction of a HUGE 'mom' dress..... tada, now it is adorable.  And the top hem is slightly ruffled.

And I made another V-neck scarf.




Owl Shower Curtain

So I really wanted to make my own shower curtain because buying artsy ones are expensive!  

So I bought a plain colored one at Target for less than $10, and then bought some puffy paint because it can be machine-washed.

Here it is!  The leaves glow in the dark- but my camera wouldn't pick them up.


The owl eyes glow as well (my mama painted the owl- how cute!)


Here is one picture showing us painting it.  We watered down the puffy paint to make it appear more bark-like.



More Zipper Flowers!

I made more!  This is the other half leftover from the navy zipper a few posts ago.  I really like this one.  I'm gonna make more with this same shape.

It's just so elegant!


This one is kinda punky; it's made with denim zippers, ripped off of jeans!  And a button from the fly!


This one is so big and bright!


Avatar Makeup

This is almost all eyeshadow (Loreal and Covergirl),  also cheap lip liner with eyeshadow over it, and eyeliner.  

Note:  Use liquid white eyeliner.  I tried to use wet white eyeshadow but it wasn't bright enough, and the pencil made the dots too big.


Yes, I wear green contacts.



Toddler Ruffle Skirt

I made this for my lil sister.  I used fabric from a remnant bin.  I just measured the height of each strip, and just left the length from selvedge to selvedge. I found that cute ruffle trim at a Hospice where I live for pretty cheap.

I wanna make one for myself. lol



It's so girly!



She's such a ham.



I think she looks identical to me when I was little.



Pillow Cases

So my mom was saving these... pillows.  And I thought they needed a little bit of a makeover. But, I don't need anymore pillows for my room, so I made one for each of my sisters.



Ta da! Transformation!



This one is fleece and flannel.  I think its pretty hip for an 11 year old.



I love the little heart. Do not pay any attention to the fraying cotton base layer...lol



This one is for a 4 year old, she likes shiny and soft things, so I think it's a perfect fit for her. Note: Flannel with satin on the right side likes to fray... A LOT.



Ta da! lol