Weekend Bag Fix

Ready for the partner to last week's Makeup Bag Fix? Here she is:

The gold trim was in terrible shape, but I love this bag for a weekender and wanted to find a way for it to be user friendly again. No more fairy dust in my car and all over my clothes all weekend long, thanks. I'm not sure why this happened, nor why it happened to me twice. I guess my selection of cheapie, metallic-painted fabric is the culprit, so I have only myself to blame.

I took quite a bit of time continuing with the corrosion process that had started itself for me. I picked, scraped, and wire-brushed for hours. And hours.

My first cover attempt was with this blue Hawaiian flower style duck tape. While I love mixed prints, and in my head (in the store) this was going to look precious, I hated it. That's when I decided I'd use it for the makeup bag.

Back at the craft store, I found this blue pin dotted fabric duck tape. YES. This with parts of the natural canvas underneath left uncovered turned out ever so lovely. 

As did my weekend at the beach.

I love you, Josh. Happy anniversary.

Makeup Bag Fix

This one is kind of a teaser for an upcoming post that's even more exciting. It involves the same problem, a strange, metallic material, crumbling and peeling away, as well as the same/ similar fix: duck tape. And no, I don't mean duct tape, I mean Duck Tape!

Now this disaster of a makeup bag, which had been leaving annoying, glittery dust all over my bathroom closet, is altered to a once again fully functional object, and does not have to be thrown out. Yay! 

Curious about the sister project? ...It's even more impressive. At least to me! ;)

Furniture Update

When I got married, not only did I get a wonderful husband, but he came with furniture.

Luckily for me, while he isn't ok with getting rid of it, he is ok with refinishing it...

I have only tackled a couple of furniture re-vamps so far (remember my stool?!?), though I have plenty more waiting in the wings. This before number has a whole matching set that I hope to get my hands on. Part of the hold up is space. Apartment dwelling makes big, dirty, smelly projects a challenge! 

This original set, though its nice and sturdy, looks like it belongs in an uncle's bachelor pad in the 70s. While I love a good throwback, and a nod to the past is fine- even welcomed by me, this is not my taste. The almost orange, shiny stain, wood paneling, overall bulky, heaviness, garnished with clunky, goldish hardware is all just too much.

My hubs helped me strip the thing, then we did some experimenting with the drawers. Which is why the top three are no longer there. Thankfully, plan B became favored to plan A anyway; I love that it looks more hutch-like than (whatever it was) first intended.

Upon close inspection, you can tell that strips of moulding were shaved off the drawer faces, and cavities where the original pulls sat, as well as the spaces between the panels on the sides were filled in. After all that came the best part: the gray paint! I have a Pin Board devoted to gray furniture because I just love it so much, and I drew inspiration from some pieces I'd seen. The inside shelves got a creamy ivory coat, and I chose clear glass pulls for the remaining three drawers. Voila!

Well, not exactly voila- this project took us, like, 2 years to complete. No joke. Between using a family member's garage, the experimenting, re-planning, wood filling, etc, etc, this project dragged on and on! I don't think I'm patient enough to do it again under these circumstances, but I am happy with the outcome!

Toddler Vest

You know when you start a project thinking, "This will be an easy, simple, quick project", and a couple of months pass and it's still not finished...

This scrap fabric came from the clearance bin at the fabric store. I wasn't intentionally looking for fabric (it was supposed to a quick in-and-out trip), but this rocketship-printed fleece was so precious, I couldn't not buy it. So I did; although I had no idea what it would become, I did know who the what would be for.

I have an adorable, nearly 2-year-old niece who I don't get to see often enough as we live 1800 miles apart. We were together for the holidays though, so, using one of her vests, I made a pattern and quickly had three pieces sewn into a basic vest shape.

That part was easy, however, as often happens with me, I got stuck on the finishing. So this became an experiment and lesson for me on a few things:

1) Fuzzy fleece- this shed like a mutha! There were (and still are) little blue fluffs all over the floor! Plus, and more importantly, this is why I desperately needed to finish it. Trying to fold and hem it under was impossible- it got all stuck in the machine when I tried. 

2) Binding- I have never used binding before, so this was for sure a learning experience! I used the extremely knowledgeable Habby Goddess as my main teacher, though I read and viewed a bunch of tutorials before I started so that I didn't mess it up too badly! The result is imperfect, but I did get a little better as it as I went.

3) Zipper installation- sucks. I was so proud of myself a while back when I successfully put in a zipper on a Pillow Case, but that was a whole different story. Mostly, again, because of the fuzz factor. Maybe I should've bound and then zippered? I ended up using wash away basting thread to hold it in place, then machine sewed. That worked. -ish.

You can see it looks a little bumpy and does not lay completely flat, but the wash away thread is super cool!

All challenges and lessons aside, I think it turned out to be pretty dang cute! And it's really dang cute on the really dang cute little girl!

I also included a little lovie blankie from leftovers and legwarmers from an old pair of my socks in this "just-because" care package that didn't make it for Christmas and might be out of season come birthday.

...and maybe I'm just a proud aunt, but this thank you note is the. best. thing. ever.

Sweater with Removable Leather Details

Here it is! My completed sweater with leather details- and not just any leather details, removable leather details! Though it has been a long process, I'm so happy with the outcome.

Inspired by this trend, I have created a mood board on Pinterest dedicated to collecting like images, but there were a couple of aspirational pieces in particular swirling around in my head during this refashion.

My most recent post showed how I made the collar. And though the collar was the most complex piece to this puzzle, I won't describe the rest was as simple...

This blue-green sweater is a thrifted find, which began several sizes too big for me. I loved the over-sized length, but ultimately needed to rid the frump.

Following the tailoring principles laid out so clearly in a tutorial by Australian blogger, jltfk, I took in the shoulders, arms, and body. (The shape would have shown better in photos on me rather than a hanger.)

Measuring the length from the end of the sweater cuff to my wrist, the width around my arm, plus room to hem, I cut rectangles for cuffs from an old pair of leather pants. (If I were going to do this over again, I'd cut these larger, rather than just the exact measurements required. A bit more wiggle room would have been nice.)

For each cuff, using a leather needle, I machine sewed a hem on one long side.

Folding in half width-wise, right sides facing, I sewed again, leaving as slim of an allowance as possible...

then turned each cuff right side out.

At 5 points along the outside, raw edge of each cuff, I hand sewed snap faces.

Inside the cuffs of sweater, I carefully matched up and sewed in the counter parts.

By stitching between layers of the sweater knit, instead of going all the way through, the snaps are invisible from the outside.








(Most of this was done on a day off, while watching a marathon of Project Runway All Stars.)








The removable aspect of these details is important to me because I really want to be able to wear and launder this sweater easily. I am NOT a fan of dry/leather cleaning. It's expensive, it requires time and extra errand running, it's no good for the environment, and I just always wonder- is it even clean? In my brain, the chemicals probably do me more harm than any germs, dirt, or microbes would. Like I said, not a fan. Hence, with removable pieces, this problem is solved in a snap! Now I can take off the cuffs and collar, spot clean them as needed, wash the sweater on a delicate cycle, and lie flat to dry. Done.

A sophisticated garment was my goal and I think I achieved that to the best of my ability. I can genuinely say that I am proud of my work. 

Removable Leather Collar

Leather details are everywhere right now. While I'm not always a trend follower, I am really digging a lot of what I see, and when it's done well it has such a luxurious and classic appeal. My goal with this project, is to create a sophisticated looking garment with that luxe appeal.

Truth: I'm finishing up the full refashion that goes with this- the process has been very time consuming! As a preview, here's how I made the detachable leather collar for this sweater that I'm still working on...

Thanks to an archived Collar Tutorial on a fabulous (but expired) blog, 3 Sheets, I had a great reference and place to start, but I tweaked her steps a bit:

The back left leg of this hot pair of leather pants is my canvas, without which, none of this would be possible. Thank you, leather pants, for being such a cheap and ridiculous thrift store gem. I am honored to cut you apart and transform you. (I already used them to make soles for slippers in my Funny Footsie post.)

Using the 3 Sheets template (along with a collared shirt of mine to double check that sizing was correct), I cut out the pieces for the collar: 2 for the actual collar, and 1 for the neck piece. 

With the 2 collar pieces, right sides facing, I machine sewed along the 3 straight sides, leaving the curved neck side open.



I did not use pins, as I did not want holes showing in the leather. I used a leather needle in the machine, and just went slowly and carefully.

After ironing the long hem down, I flipped the collar right side out, (fiddling with the collar tips and a pointy object for a bit), and ironed down again on the sewn length to get a flat-ish crease.

Ironing leather can be done on a low temp, no moisture, with brown paper to protect the leather and iron from one another. *Always test using a scrap if uncertain.



(I did not use interfacing here. Although traditionally used in a collar, the leather will be plenty weighty without.)

My intention was to topstitch along the edge of the collar, but my test scrap was showing tracks from my foot in the leather. (Too thick I guess.) I decided to skip it, but I bet if I had a special foot it could've happened.



With the suede side, facing the desired top side of the collar, I machine sewed the neck piece to the collar.

I chose to only use 1 piece of leather for the neck piece, rather than 2, as suggested on the 3 Sheets tutorial. Sewing 4 pieces of leather together sounded a bit cumbersome. (Also, I thought the suede side to my neck would be nice and soft!)

With pinking sheers, I trimmed the excess as close as I could to the seam, to remove as much unnecessary bulk as possible.

Folding the suede side over the seam, I and ironed again as above.

Standing this collar up was very satisfying indeed. I left the little ends of the neck piece longer than the collar itself and trimmed just slightly once I fit it into the sweater. (Would be a great spot for a little button.)



At this point, I could have sewn it in to the neck of the sweater, but I chose a different route...


Instead, placing the collar into the sweater, pinning once in the middle of the back, I marked 5 spots (using chalk) for snaps on the leather face of the neck piece; 1 center back, 1/e shoulder seam, and 1/e collar tip.

Hand sewing each snap in place, (flat side to the sweater, pokie side to the collar) 1 at a time to ensure correct alignment, is by far the most arduous part of this process.

I'm excited about how it's coming along and about the removable nature of the collar! Not only will it make laundering super easy, but it will keep this sweater versatile too. And in theory, if I feel like sewing more snaps, the collar can be snapped right onto another top. I say "in theory" because I might be done with snaps for a while after this baby is complete!

Sneak peek! My next post will feature the full refashion of this sweater, tailored for size, with more removable leather details! Wish me luck with the snaps...


Update: Now see the full refashion, Sweater with Removable Leather Details.

Funny Fuzzy Felty Footsies

Martha, Martha, Martha. She's knows how to do it all... Or a lot, and the thousands of crafty peeps that work for her know how to do the rest. Regardless, the template for this slipper craft is from Martha Stewart, but I came across the idea first on a post from A Handmade Life, who upcycles felted wool sweaters to make a couple different kinds of slippers. Love!

This slipper version is super simple to make, and the charmingly home-spun look of the finished product makes me smile. The biggest challenge of this project was getting the template the right size and onto one sheet of paper. Did not work on my little home hp, but my hubs was able to do in a jiff on his copier at work on legal sized paper. The first pair I dallied on over the course of a few days, but when I sat down to do the second in a more focused manner, it took me 2-ish hours to complete. Not bad.

I snagged this awesome pair of thrifted leather pants with intention of multiple refashion uses, and the suede side works perfectly for non-skid soles. (Doesn't this outfit look very Theo Huxtable!?!)

The Martha version is the same material all over (which would be great because it could be thrown in the washer), but I thought this option would be more sturdy and less slippy on hard floors.

I had a great time making these and think they made great gifts. Hopefully, the gentlemen I gifted them to thought so too! I didn't snap a pic of my b-n-law, but d.o.d. looks so cute in his! Love you dad!!!

Dear Old Dad