Two Last Minute Christmas DIY's

It is getting waaaaayyyy too close to Christmas. I have so much work left to do and am still not in the right frame of mind to really enjoy it. Actually I feel rather like Jacob Marley this year (yeah, the dead guy from a Christmas Carol...). Nevertheless I have been making some cute Christmas crafts I thought I would share with you. These two projects take very little time and would be a great last minute Christmas gift.

Holiday Earrings
You will need:
Two mini Christmas tree ornaments
Two earring hooks

Step 1) Remove the string from the ornaments, and attach the earring hooks through the loop. (You may need to attach a jump ring first depending on the direction of the loops). If your ornament does not have a premade loop, use a bit of thin wire to attach it to the earring hooks
Step 2) Wear them or give them as a gift

And for the knitters:
Mini Knitting Ornament
You will need:
A small amount of yarn (I used several colours)
Two toothpicks
Glue (I used plain old white glue)

This set of instructions is pretty flexible as the ornaments can be made bigger or smaller depending on your preference. I used a few different yarns to add stripes to mine.
Step 1) Cast on about 12 stitches onto US size 2 needles
Step 2) Knit for about 1 1/2"
Step 3) Cast on 5 or 6 stitches at the beginning of the next two rows
Step 4) Continue knitting until the sleeve measures about 1/2".
Step 5) Knit halfway across the next row. Cut yarn, leaving a long tail, and carefully slip the needles out.
Step 6) If you toothpicks have two pointy ends, cut one end off. Slip the tooth picks in where the needles were.
Step 7) Loop the yarn up then down again to the bottom of the mini sweater. Roll the remaining yarn into a ball.
Step 8) Secure with glue. Make sure to glue the stiches on both ends of each "needle", as well as the top and bottom of the loop. Apply a lot of glue to the back of the mini ball of yarn and stick to the bottom of the sweater. And that's it!

I hope you all enjoyed the tutorials today. I love coming up with cute projects, but I'm not really sure what types of projects you want to see. If you could take a moment to take the mini survey at the side of my blog --->
I would really appreciate it!

That's All.

DIY Shoe Clips

Shoe clips are great for dressing up a pair of shoes. They allow you to inexpensively change the look of shoes you already own (which is very "make do and mend"). You could also customize a pair of shoe clips to exactly match a special outfit. You can buy blank shoe clips to decorate (Etsy has sellers that carry them), but here is another alternative. This has to be one of the easiest tutorials I have ever done...

You will need:
A large pair of clip-on earrings
Some ribbon
A glue gun

Step 1) Glue a small loop of ribbon to the inside centre back of your clips.

And you're done. See? I told you it was easy.

Before: Cute but a little plain

After: The clips really jazz up the shoes. They also allow them to be worn with both
cool and warm brown tones (rather than just cool brown tones).

DIY Tie-Scarf

I haven't done a DIY post in a while so I decided it was time for another one. This tutorial is for what I call a tie-scarf. Basically it looks like a cross between a tie and a scarf. It is very easy to make and only takes a few minutes. Thicker ones look great tied around your neck and long, thin ones can look great when used as a headband or a belt.

You will need:
-A strip of fabric that is the length you want your tie-scarf and twice your desired width
-Sewing machine (although I suppose you could do this by hand if you have a lot more patience than I do)

Instructions:
1) Iron your fabric
2) Pin the long sides of the rectangle (wrong sides together) and sew
3) Flip the fabric right-side out and iron it so that the seam lies in the centre
4) Fold one of the short ends in half, with the seam on the outside the fold, and sew

5) Flip the seam so that it doesn't show (this should now form a pointed end) and iron

6) Repeat on other end
7) Topstitch around the entire edge of the scarf
8) If desired, handstitch the opened of the pointed end closed (I don't normally bother)

I made a wider one using some up old flannel with a horse print.

I actually saw a very similar scarf that was featured in Life magazine in 1949 a few weeks ago on The Cats and the Berries blog. 

DIY Secret Lampshade

Remember in my last post when I said I craft when I can't sleep? Well it's 1:40am and I'm wide awake. While I was browsing the internet I found this cute idea for a lampshade. I loved the concept but I don't really have money to throw away on a new lampshade. So instead I created my own (removable) version using my existing bedside light.

The shapes appear when the light is turned on and disappear when it's turned off!

Materials:

• A light-coloured lampshade (mine is from Ikea)
• Some black card-stock
• Some invisible tape

Step 1) Cut out your desired shape(s) from the card-stock. I went with some simple hearts I cut freehand, but you could get fancier and use an x-acto knife to cut out a more elaborate design.
Step 2) Decide where you want to place you shapes and tape them to the inside of the lampshade. You shouldn't need very much tape per shape.
Step 3) Turn on your light and admire your new "secret" lampshade.

DIY 1920's Inspired Dress

Spring weather is almost here and summer is just around the corner. It is time to start wardrobe planning for the warmer months ahead. Here is a (hopefully!) simple tutorial for a 1920's inspired dress.

I love the 1920's but clothing from the 1920's comes with a hefty price tag and if often too delicate to wear. This dress is very basic but gives a 1920's look using a minimum of fabric. It looks best when done in a light sheer or silky material. (The pink version of this dress was created with a sheer fabric that already had a ruffle along the bottom)

1920's Inspired Dress

You will need:

-a couple meters of fabric (2 meters should do it but you may need more or less depending on your measurements)

-thread

-pattern pieces for armhole facings (you could make your own but using some from an existing pattern is easiest. I used some from a 1960’s dress pattern)

-about 1 meter of trim for the bottom of the dress (if desired)

Note: All seam allowances are 5/8” unless otherwise stated. Most of my seams were also finished with pinking sheers.

1) Cut out two armhole facings and two large rectangles. The rectangles should be half the width of the widest part of your body plus 2 inches (I made mine 22” wide since my hips are about a 40”) and the length should be 2 or 3 inches longer then the desired length of your dress.

2) Decide what type of neckline you would like (I did a square neckline for my dress). Cut out a facing for the neckline (as shown in the diagram below) and sew right sides together to the top-center of one of the rectangles. 3) Cut out the excess material on the top of the rectangle. Turn the facing inside the dress then stitch in place to finish the neck of the dress. You should stitch very close to the edge of the neckline.

4) With right sides together, stitch the top of the two rectangles together. Press the seam open and stitch along the back part of the neck opening. Stitch very close to the edge like you did for the front of the neckline.

5) With right sides together, sew the sides of the rectangles together leaving a 2 inch gap at the top.

6) Sew your armhole facings according to the original patterns instructions (this will likely be only one seam joining the short edges to make a circle). With dress right side out, pin the armhole facings to the dress. It may take a bit of time to correctly position them on the rectangle.

7) Cut out some of the extra fabric on the inside of the armhole and sew the facings to the dress. The stitch line is shown in red in the below picture. Turn facings to the inside of the dress and stitch in place (as was done for the neckline).

8) Hem the bottom of the dress as required. Attach the trim if you are using any. This dress would look great with some beaded trim around the bottom (I looked everywhere for some but I couldn't find any in my price range!).

9) Cut strip of fabric about 3 ½ “ wide and 5 inches longer than your hip measurement. Use a zigzag stitch to finish the edges. This will be your waist tie. When wearing your dress, simply tie this around your hips to give the effect of a 20's style dropped waist.

And voila! You know have your very own 1920's style dress. Here are some more pictures of my two dresses:

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for tutorials you would like to see!

That's All.

Postponed DIY and a rather boring weekend.

I wanted to thank everyone for their positive comments about my DIY seamed stockings post! I especially wanted to thank those who posted about my post. I was very flattered but due to my computer not letting me comment I was unable to express my appreciation. I have decided to try doing more DIY tutorials on here. If there is a certain type of project you would like to see leave me a comment! I will try to accommodate any requests :)

I had actually planned to do a DIY post today but the fabric store didn't have the trim I needed to complete the project. So here are two pictures as sort of a sneak peak. Can you guess what it is? (I'll give you a hint, the two pictures are actually two versions of the same project.)

This weekend has been quite boring since my mother decided to get sick and has now made me sick as well. At least it has given me plenty of time to work on my knitting for the Briar Rose knit-along. So far I have the back done and the collar.

I also went completely mad and turned my books the wrong way. I decided the books on my bookshelf looked ratty (all my pretty books are on display elsewhere in my room) so I turned them so you see the pages rather than the spines. I like how it looks but it might make locating books difficult (well slightly more difficult since they were already double stacked. 400 books do not fit very well on one tiny bookcase!).

That's All.

DIY Seamed Stockings

I love stockings. They are about a hundred times better than pantyhose in terms of look, feel, and cost (when one legs gets a run, you don't have to throw out both legs!).

When it comes to seamed vs seamless I would always choose seamed. The only problem is that around here real seamed stocking are nearly impossible to find! When I do find some (either in store or online) they are at least $20! Being a university student means that at the moment I have very very little money (stupid tuition...) so spending that kind of money on something I can only wear a few times is not an option.

For daily wear I have some seamless stockings I buy at the Bay for $4 or less. I suppose I could always draw seams on with eyeliner like some ladies did in WW2, but I would worry about getting eyeliner on my dress! Instead I have come up with a simple method to create the look of seamed stockings.

Instructions

1) Do a trial pair! Buy a cheap pair of pantyhose at the dollar store (or use an old pair of stockings) to practise on. It is very likely there will be some areas on your machine that will snag the fabric. Make note of these areas.

2) Thread your machine with a thread that is the same colour as your stockings. Now tape over the areas of your machine that snag the material with scotch tape.

3) Turn your stockings inside out and iron a crease where you would like your line to be. Use the coolest setting on your iron so you don't melt the material.

4) Set your machine to the zig-zag stitch. I used a width of about 2.5 and a length of 2.
5) Start sewing along your crease, starting from the top of the stocking. You should be so close to the edge of the material that on part of the zig-zag the needle is no longer touching the material. Do this very carefully and very slowly. If you don't sew your seams straight they will never be straight when you wear them!

6) End the seam about an inch before the toes. Cut off any excess thread and turn right side out. Tada! You now have your very own pair of seamed stockings!

This is how my pair turned out:

That's All.

My Sewing Room

The roads were terrible when I woke up this morning. My boss had already told me not to come in if the roads were bad so I stayed home. This meant I could spend all day inside doing nothing, which I did :D

Well I suppose I shouldn't say "nothing" since I got a lot of knitting done, and I also managed to snap a few quick pictures of my recently made-over sewing room. My "sewing room" serves a variety of functions. It is a place for me to watch movies, hang out with friends, store a lot of my stuff, and is sort of a hallway to our upperdeck. Which all these other functions, it perhaps isn't the best room for sewing. Still, I love having a space to relax and create something beautiful. So without further ado here is what my sewing room now looks like:

Bird's eye view of my work space. The craft show sign I actually found in the middle of the woods. I have to sewing standing up due to the height of the counter, which doesn't help the straightness of my seams...

On the back of my door I have re-purposed a broken embroidery hoop and some clothes pegs to create an "inspiration board".

1930's hats make any space beautiful.

I use a thrifted silver tray and a piece of vintage fabric to decorate my folding wall table.

Ribbon storage and antique postcard display.

This "side table" is actually a small stool with a box and a tray on top. I store most of my knitting supplies in the box.

I love this trunk for storing fabric and materials for sewing projects.

Where do you ladies sew/craft/be creative? I just love looking at other peoples work spaces so if you feel like doing a post in response to this please leave me a link in the comments :)

I would just like to give a big thank you to Betty2Tone Vintage for giving me a Stylish Blogger Award. Since I just did this one a few posts back I won't bore you with more facts about myself. But thank you!

That's All.

Simple Fingerless Gloves

This post took longer than anticipated due to the fact I couldn't seem to take decent pictures. So please excuse some of the pictures, since my camera hates the colour red and I had to use my own hands for modelling (I would never be able to get a job as a hand model!).

This weeks crafting project is a pair of fingerless gloves. Not super "vintagey" but very practical. I live in an old house, which means in the winter my hands get very cold when inside. These gloves are warm but still allow you to have use of your fingers (for typing or knitting!). This is a very simple project; if you can knit a scarf then you can knit these gloves.
Simple Fingerless Gloves

-Yarn (I used 100% wool to keep my hands extra toasty)

-Knitting Needles (around a US size 9 or 10)

1) Cast on stitches to create the length of the glove. I used 25 stitches for mine but add more if you would like them longer.

2) Use a plain knit stitch, and continue knitting until it can comfortably fit around your wrist (without stretching). Cast off.

3) Repeat, creating another rectangle of the exact same size.

4) Decide where to put your thumb hole (trying placing your hand on the rectangle to get an idea of size and placement). I used bobby pins to mark the spot.

5) Use some of your yarn to sew the top and bottom of your knitting together (leaving the hole for the thumb open).
6) Turn inside out and you're done! You can embellish these plain gloves any way you like. Perhaps a row of buttons up the side, or some lace around the edges? I knitted little bows from this pattern and attached one to each glove.And that's it! Very easy and very quick to knit. Want something more complicated? Check out my Etsy shop for some more challenging vintage patterns. Yes I know, shameless self promotion ;)