Knot No-Hem Pants for Adults

Look familiar?

If you were reading back in May, you'll probably remember my knot no-hem capri pants tutorial.

Well, ta-da!  They work for adults, too. And yesterday I whipped up a pair of them for myself!

Sorry about the goon-tarded face!

I had these denim bermudas that were made to look like cutoffs.  I just never wore them because I thought they were an awkward length and kind of boyish.  So I cut off the bottoms and added some pretty fabric using my knot no-hem tutorial.

And you could probably do this with an old pair of jeans or long pants, too.  So many options!

The fabric I used matches a lot of the pink, purple and blue shirts that I have in my closet, plus I think it will look fabulous with this top that I made back in the spring.  ;)

Now you know where the fabric came from.

I never used to wear this pair of bermudas and now it looks like I'll want to wear them all the time because of all the tops they match!  And what's best is that this project cost me nothing because I already had the pants and the fabric on hand from another project.  Wow!  Don't you just love how refashioning an old item can freshen up your wardrobe so easily and cost effectively?

Have you refashioned anything lately?  Share a link if you'd like!  I'd love to see.  :)  Happy crafting and thanks for reading!

--CC

This post is linked up here.

Refashion: Men's Dress Shirt to Sleeveless Blouse

Ta-da!  I told you I'd be back with this shirt refashion today!  Anyway, I made this top using this tutorial, except, of course, I made it big people size instead of child size.  :) 

Tyler donated a button-up shirt that didn't fit him anymore and I cut it up using a sleeveless blouse of mine as a pattern.  It does pucker a little bit around the bust, so if you try and make this top I suggest cutting it a little larger than needed so you can add darts.

Notice the slight puckering near the arm holes?

Anyway, I kept the same bottom hem as the original shirt, so all I had to do was sew together the sides and the shoulders/neck, plus add bias tape (which I made myself for the first time!) around the arm holes.

I did everything pretty much the same as the tutorial, except that since my shirt was adult sized I didn't have enough fabric leftover for the neck tie.  Sooo...I just happened to have this teal and navy satin fabric that I scooped up at Jo-Ann's for $2 a yard way back when and it matched fabulously.

I think I like the top with the satin tie around the neck better than I would have liked it if the whole shirt were just the navy blue fabric.  I think it gives it the shirt a little surprise factor and femininity.

This top was so easy to make it was ridiculous, and now I have something new I can wear for work that cost me less than $2.  Hooray!

Thanks for reading and happy crafting to ya!

--CC

This post is linked up here.

Tutorial: Slide On Dog Collar Bandana

Recently I showed you how to make a cute felt flower dog collar embellishment for your pooch, but you might remember way back in December when I first came up with the flower idea that I told you I'd been making bandanas to slide over my dog's collar for a few years.

We've never been able to get bows to stay on our Pomeranian, Monica.  They just drive her crazy and she paws them off her head.  For awhile we tried tying bandannas around her neck and that didn't bother her, but they fell off easily.  That's when we had the idea to sew them with a little tube at the top so they slide right over her collar.  This solves the problem of them falling off and getting lost.

They stay in place and they look adorable on a boy or girl dog, so I thought you'd like to know how to make a slide-over-the-collar dog bandanna for your puppy.  It's a great way to use up scrap fabric, it only takes about 15 minutes and it's super easy.  I've made it even easier by creating the template for you!  So join me after the jump to learn how to make your own dog collar bandana.

P.S.  Did you know you can spell "bandana" with one or two N's?  Bandana or bandanna is acceptable according to Dictionary.com.  Weird, right?  Okay...on with the tutorial. :)

Tutorial Review: St. Patrick's Day Garland from Kirstikoo

I had some free time this afternoon and decided to do some quick home decor crafts.  If you're like me, you're probably ready to get down those Valentine's Day decorations and get something up for March.  So I hit Google and found this really cute St. Patrick's Day Garland tutorial over at Kirstikoo.  This is what I came up with:

The tutorial made a pretty long strand of garland.

And I just love the way the cute little buttons look on the end.

So, surprise surprise, today we'll be taking a look at the St. Patrick's Day Garland tutorial from Kirstikoo.  I'm really whipping out these tutorial reviews this week, aren't I?  Anyway, here we go!

Accuracy: 10

Clarity of Directions: 10

Helpfulness of Pictures: 10
Difficulty: 1

Time: ~1 hour

Overall Rating: 10

Recommended 

Details:

So this review almost seems a little unfair after the last two reviews I wrote.  But, really, there weren't a whole lot of ways you could go wrong with this tutorial!  I mean, garlands are kind of self-explanatory.  And this one was super simple.

Like the tutorial said, the most time consuming part was cutting out all the felt clovers.  That's where I spent 90% of my time.  The rest was just sewing in a straight line and putting on the buttons!  Simple, simple, simple.  There were lots of good pictures and the directions were well-written if you're a "green" sewer and need to be walked through it.  (Ha-ha-ha...I'm so punny!)

 I do have one important note about the tutorial, though.  The tutorial provided a shamrock template for cutting out all your little clovers.  It was supposed to open in Google Reader, but when I opened it I got a "Server Failed" page.  No worries, though.  Just type "shamrock line drawing" into Google and click on images.  I found this one, saved it and resized it to my liking.  (As a sidenote, that website might be good for seasonal projects later.  Lots of line drawings of holiday things!)

Clearly, this tutorial gets my recommendation.  Simple, quick and a definite home sprucer-upper for March. :)  

Heat Therapy Pillows for Friends

 At Christmas time I made rice pillows as gifts for two of my friends.  (I never posted it because I was going to make a tutorial but haven't gotten around to it yet...)

















My mom used to make them and sell them at craft fairs when I was growing up.  She used flax seed instead of rice.  I'll admit, flax feels a little nicer but rice is so much cheaper!

















You can keep the rice pillows in the freezer and use them as an ice pack on injuries, etc. or you can put them in the microwave for a few minutes and use them as a heating pad.

On Friday I was in class with one of the friends for whom I made the rice pillow at Christmas.  She said it was great for cramps and that her roommate had been using it, too.  So I offered to make one for her roommate and got two more requests from other girls in the class!  Soo... 

I sewed three rice therapy pillows this weekend!

You might recognize the elephant fabric and the purple fabric from my last couple of posts.  This is a great project to use up scraps since it doesn't take very much material.





















I made the pillow itself with muslin, filled it with rice, and then made a removable pillow cover.  This is makes it washable, since it's likely you'll be using it when you're sick.

It was fun and incredibly easy to make these and it made me feel good that people actually asked me to sew things for them!  A little ego booster for me.  :)

Hope everyone in the sewing blogosphere is doing well and ready to celebrate Valentine's Day tomorrow.  See you next time.