written by threadslinger

I have ridiculously short legs. It used to make buying jeans one of the most miserable experiences on the planet because even the shorts weren’t short enough. But, then I actually broke down and paid to get my jeans professionally hemmed and when they came back I did what all good crafters do and thought “hey I can do that myself.” So, with the next pair I hemmed them myself. Here is a super easy way you can do it too.

Materials needed

-Sewing machine
-Good Scissors
-Pins
-Good iron

Step One:

Put on your jeans and measure how you long you would like them to be and pin them. Don’t forget to be wearing shoes you want to wear with the jeans. This is only really important if you wear heels regularly like this shorty and want to make sure your jeans are the right length.

Step Two:

Carefully cut the bottom of your jeans off. This is the most terrifying part for me, especially if you just dropped 150 bones on the jeans. Eeeee.

Step Three:

Turn the jeans inside out and sew the bottom part of your jeans you just cut off to your jeans. Be sure to line up the seams.

Step Four:

Once your hem is complete turn the jeans back the right side out. Press the seam really well with an iron to avoid it flipping out when you wash them and woot there are your new hot appropriate length jeans.

written by marieann

I picked up this great Asian silk dress at the thrift store for $5 but I knew that I wouldn’t really wear it as such. It was really form fitting and not really my style. So I made this skirt that is just the right amount of Asian print and yet is much more wearable. I’ve got it paired with a long black shirt and it looks great.

Materials:
Form fitting dress you’d like to make into a skirt (Asian dresses work great)
1″ elastic (longer than your waist; don’t cut it until you’ve sized it in step 6)

Tools:
Sewing machine
Scissors
Safety pin (large)

Instructions:
1. Try the dress on and find your natural waist line. You can find this by bending sideways. The place that your side folds is your waistline.
2. Mark this point with a pin on either side of your body.
3. Remove the dress and lay it really flat and even. Line up the hem to be sure you’re going to cut straight across. Cut a line straight across the dress 2 1/2″ above the pins.
4. Fold the top of the skirt over 1 1/2″. Fold the bottom half inch under (to make a casing). Pin in place and sew along the bottom of the casing with a tiny seam. Leave a tiny hole (about 1 1/2″ in the casing to put your elastic thru).
5. Pin the safety pin thru one end of the elastic and push it thru your hole. Feeding the safety pin thru the casing, work it all the way around.
6. When you’ve gotten the elastic all the way thru, try the skirt on. Pull the elastic as tight as needed to hold up the skirt. Sew the ends of the elastic together with a zig zag stitch. Sew the hole you left in step 4 closed.

I found that the silk was difficult to work with so the band looks a bit wonky but it doesn’t matter as I would always wear a long shirt that covers up the waistband anyway.

written by marieann

I participated in my first real swap on craftster. I was really nervous because I really wanted my partner to like what I made her so I went a bit overboard. These days I have a LOT of crafting time (or rather, I make crafting time like right now when I am skipping class) and I love to give away the crafts I make. SO, if you want to personal swap, contact me I’d love to make a package for you too.

Here’s what I sent in this swap:

• Half apron: featured here
• Baby girl dress: featured here
• Squirrel print (I bought this fabric from Japan) travel tissue holder: tutorial here
• Squirrel print fabric covered journal: tutorial here
• Crochet mushroom case: to be featured
• Fabric bookmark with buttons: to be featured
• Cute envelope with forest animal stickers
• Paper decorated shoebox (I mailed everything in this and she can store her craft supplies in it)

written by marieann

I used this tutorial to make a bitty toddler dress from an old adult botton up for my swap partner. The tutorial was really easy to follow. It’s especially easy because you just need to know the baby’s chest size. My shirt didn’t have a yolk as she suggested but I don’t think that it mattered. I added the lace on the bottom and tie straps to be sure that it fit the little girl. I hand sewed this design in felt scraps. I’m a bit worried that this won’t wash but I’ll just tell mommy to gently hand wash.

Felt Motif Tutorial

Materials:
Felt scraps
Thin paper (I used tissue paper)

Tools:
Some design to trace/or drawn
Needle
Embrodiery floss
Fabric glue
A “base object” to sew your motif on

Directions:
1. Choose your design. I chose Deery Lou from the makers of Hello Kitty because my partner loves kawaii and it’s a forest friends swap.

2. Trace each part of the design that will be a different color on thin paper.

3. Glue the felt pieces to your base (whether it’s a dress, purse, pillow, etc.). Don’t put glue near the edges but rather just in the center to hold it in place. Let the glue dry.

4. Using the floss and needle, sew around each piece (thru all layers) with a coordinating color. You could use a blanket stitch but I thought it looked cool with just sewing a straight stitch thru the edges.

5. Adore with buttons, ribbons, etc. for extra cuteness.

In this photo I hadn’t finished all the hand-sewing around the orange but I had really good light so I shot it anyway.

written by marieann

I have long adored the t-shirt recons that I see featured all over craftster.org and flickr. The girls usually say that they use a shirt to make a pattern. I’ve never really understood what this means because I don’t want to cut up the shirts that I like. I’ve also been afraid to sew tshirt material because I don’t have a serger. This weekend I tried some stuff and came up with a really easy way to make t-shirt recons. This is almost certainly not the best way to do it but it worked for me.

Materials:
Two t-shirts; one must be too big for you (so that it’s wide enough to fit around your butt) to use for the skirt and one can fit you already (this is for the bodice)
Remnant lace
Remnant t-shirt material (or other white fabric scraps)
Very light weight interfacing (it doesn’t need to be iron on but that would probably work better)
Piece of thin paper (like tissue paper)

Tools
Sewing machine
Pins
A shirt with a bodice that fits you snuggly and comfortably

Instructions:
1. Pin the thin paper to the shirt you like. Be sure to stretch out the fabric as you go if there is stretch in the original shirt. Cut the interfacing the same size as the shirt (don’t leave a seam allowance). Be sure to go all the way up the shoulder (I left a little extra for wiggle room) and go all the way to the side seam (again, make the interfacing a bit bigger so that you have some fabric to fit the bodice to you).

2. Fold the paper in half and pick the better side (no matter how carefully you cut it’s not going to be perfectly symmetrical. Pick the side that looks smoother or bigger). Cut the paper pattern in half and pin that onto your interfacing. Cut around the pattern then fold the pattern over and cut the other side. The reason for this step is to clean up your pattern because it’s really hard to cut it perfectly when your paper is pinned to a stretchy shirt. I didn’t use thin paper in step 1, I used some interfacing then realized it was asymmetrical so I made another one with the method described in this step.

3. Pin the interfacing piece to the t-shirt that you want to be the top part. Cut out the piece leaving about a 1/2″ seam allowance all around.

4. Fold the edges of the t-shirt over the interfacing around the top and armpits (I actually had already done that in the photo in step 3). Leave the shoulders and the sides free. Here’s a closeup.

5. Sew the edge you just folder over down with a 1/4″ seam. Trim the extra t-shirt material in the inside close to the seam (otherwise it will roll out and you can see it in the front).

6. Repeat steps 1-6 for the back of the shirt.

7. Sew the front to the back at the shoulders with a small seam. Try it on. Check to see if it hangs where you want on your boobs. If not, sew a bigger seam.

8. Pin the sides together while you’re wearing it. Be sure that it fits snuggly. Sew the sides together.

9. For the lace part, I just cut a triangle out of white t-shirt remnant then sewed a piece of lace over it. Then sew that to cover up the v-part of the top.

10. Okay the bodice is done! For the skirt, cut the tshirt just below the armpits straight across. If you have a design that you want to feature (like I did) that starts above the armpit, then cut from the top of the design to the bottom of the t-shirt with an A-line. Then you’ll have to sew the sides shut again. Then, decide whether you want pleats (like I did) or gathering (the better method; I was just lazy and too excited because my bodice fit). If you want to gather, then sew along the top of the skirt piece and then pull those stitches to make it gather. If you want to pleat it, just fold some pleats into it. To determine how much gather or how big of pleats, pin the bottom piece to the bodice (right sides together) first lining up the side seams (if your skirt piece doesn’t have a seam, then line it up where the side seam would be). Then pin the excess as you go around. If you have extra skirt fabric, then add a pleat or pull your gathering stitches tight.

11. When it’s all pinned in place, sew the skirt to the bodice with a 1/2″ seam.

12. BAM. Pair with leggins and rock out.

written by threadslinger

I made this scoody last week (Scarf + Hoody = Scoody). It is super warm and functional. Plus, it doesn’t give you hat hair, but still keeps your ears warm. I wrote a full step by step tut on Cutoutandkeep so feel free to check it out if you want to make your own!

written by marieann

I had this very awesome owl sweater. It was the greatest sweater I have ever owned and I got a compliment on it every time I wore it. When I was at my parents’ house, I washed it and it totally funked out (even though I’d washed it dozens of times at a laundrymat). I was very sad but I decided to cut out the cool tag and the buttons and play taps when I threw it away.

When I went with my mom to our local Walmart, I had to pick up the same pattern and buy some cheapo fabric at Walmart. At first I didn’t love this green fabric but it turned out great. The lining doesn’t match perfectly, but I wanted to go cheap because I already made a coat last year and this was just a fluke project considering I had ten million other things to craft while I was at home.

I made the coat but was missing something …. it was missing a sweet owl patch. After testing the placement all over the coat, we decided it looked best on the sleeve. So the poor owl sweater still lives with in this coat.

written by marieann

I made this apron for a swap partner that loves hot pink and kawaii. This was such a satisfying project. I wrote up a photo tutorial located here.

written by marieann

I think this shirt is adorable! Give it to a friend to tell her how much you love her, in a funny way.

There are stenciling tutorials (that make it easy, here and here.

Click to download/print full pattern.

written by marieann

Caro and I went to the Tegan and Sara concert and Northern State was the opening band. This is the name of their new album and they were wearing t-shirts to advertise. We thought that it was a really amusing phrase so we made our own.

There are stenciling tutorials (that make it easy, here and here.

Click on the image to view/download the large image. Just print on regular paper to make the stencil.