2 Minute DIY: From Tank Top to Framed Art

April 6, 2015October 7, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, DIY, Home Accessories, Quick Project, Recycling Craft, Home Accessories, Quick and Easy, Re-use, Recycling, Thrift Store

Got an extra 2 minutes? It’s time for some lightning speed DIY!

We have all heard it said that sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box. True in so many ways, including home décor. Case in point, this black tank top with a cool metallic gold American Flag detail:

I added the frame in this pic as a clue to my “out of the box” idea. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Of course you are, you smartie!

This tank was a child’s size that I got at my local thrift store in one of those “as much as you can shove in a bag for $5” sales. I love those. I can shove a LOT in a bag. I have seen similar tank tops in my days of perusing thrift stores and garage sales. My guess is that if you frequent these cheapo shopping venues, you are sure to run across frame-worthy art, as well.

You will notice that my frame in the above pic is black. I just applied a couple of coats of off-white paint and scraped off bits when it was still a bit damp to reveal the black beneath. FYI: I am not going to count that in my 2 minute (see my title) time frame. My blog, my rules! My thought is that you may already have a frame that you love that you don’t need to paint. 2 minutes: Ready? Begin!

Take apart the frame and use the glass (carefully) as your pattern to center your tshirt art. Trace around it with a pencil, pen, whatever (a white colored pencil works great on black), then cut it out. At this point you can just discard the glass, or keep it. Your choice. I tossed mine. Now, just adhere the fabric to the cardboard back of the frame, making sure that it looks centered in the frame. I used spray adhesive, but you can tape the edges down or in all honesty, you can just center it on the cardboard backing,

…then stick it in the frame. Voila!

Makes me feel patriotic, just looking at it! So, what are YOU going to frame as art?

**********Linking up to these awesome parties!**********

Tips&Tricks-LP-FEATURED

Thanks, to Brenna from Life After Laundry for picking this project as her favorite for Tips & Tricks week 10! Another big “Thanks!” goes to Nemcsok Farms and Witty Hoots for picking this project/post as a Frugal Family Linky favorite!

Recycled Jeans Satchel

April 2, 2015April 9, 2015 spcountrygal Accessories, Craft, DIY, Girls Camp Crafts, Quick Project, Recycling, Super Saturday Accessories, Craft, DIY, Fabric, Girls Camp Crafts, Quick and Easy, Re-use, Recycling, Super Saturday

At this very moment, do you have any jeans in your home that really should be in the trash? I’m talking holey, stained, terribly out of style jeans that you know will never be worn again? I recently came across some jeans destined for landfill and I decided to check out Pinterest (of course!) to see what I could make with them instead. Although I found some really fun projects, I didn’t see anything that screamed, “Make me!”. Not knowing what I was going to make, I started cutting and this is what I ended up with.

I kind of love them! Think of it as a satchel for putting your phone, lipstick, or whatever you need, in. Do you ever find yourself wearing an outfit that doesn’t have pockets? Maybe a dress, skirt, yoga pants? It’s kind of a pain. Make one of these simple satchels and you won’t need to carry your stuff in your hands or have a full on purse when you really don’t need it. Ready? Set? Go!

First step, cut off the pockets. Easy! Cut only the bottom layer (not the finished pocket edges) and leave a bit of fabric on the top.

Flip it over and hot glue the top edge down so you can have a finished-looking front. Back doesn’t look too bad, either.

For the flowers I did an internet search for “flower template”. Here are the two that I used: 4-petal-heart-template and Flower-Pot-Card-Template. It is best to have at least 3 different sizes, so I had to do some re-sizing in Word. Once you have a paper pattern, cut it, then trace it on your fabric,

then cut out the fabric. Might as well cut out two layers at a time, right? I wanted the denim to looked a bit frayed, so I just scraped the fabric edges with my fingernail to get that effect.

To assemble the flower, grab some thread, a needle and a button and sew the button through all of the layers…or…hot glue each layer and add the button to the top. Then just hot glue the flower to the pocket. Play around with positioning before gluing.

For the strap, cut out the inseam starting up one leg and once you reach the crotch, going down the other leg, then back up and down the other side. Most, if not all jeans have double stitching for the inseam so just cut near the finished edges on each side of the stitching. Easy-peasy!

And this is what you get:

At this point, determine how long you want your strap to be, cut to size, then hot glue on the back like so:

Done! Check it out!

I have been asked to be in charge of crafts for a young women’s camp this summer and this is definitely one that we will make. My goal is to have the girls create items that are useful, not something to shove in the back of a drawer once they get home. I think that they will like them.

What do you think?

Linking up to these awesome parties!

Easy Floppy Bow (Using a Blouse Sleeve)

March 7, 2015September 19, 2016 spcountrygal DIY, Home Accessories, Quick Project, Sewing, Thrift Store Home Accessories, Quick and Easy, Sewing, Thrift Store

Remember this pillow that I made using a blouse that I recently bought at a thrift store?

Well, I promised that I would show you how I made the floppy bow. Remember? I hate to break promises, so here we go.

For this bow, I used the sleeve portion of the blouse. See here?

First, cut off the cuff, like so:

So far, so good? See that fancy slit? That is what helps make this easy bow so, well… easy. You’ll see.

Now, just cut your fabric so it is slightly wider than you want your bow to be. Basically 3 quick snips, don’t over-think it…it doesn’t have to be perfect. Turn the fabric inside out and pin it, making sure to secure that slit well. Then simply stitch the ends like so:

Now here is where that little slit makes life easy. Remove the pins and turn that baby inside out through the slit. No need to sew it up, it is going to be hidden in the back of the bow. You may notice that one side of the bow is a little wider than the other. Since the fabric is so floppy, it really won’t be noticeable when you are done. Trust me, it will be okay.

Now grab that cuff and cut it in half lengthwise

Position this knot to form a bow and either sew to your desired tightness, or just add a touch of hot glue. Trim the ends off then add a hair clip if wanted. Done!

Yep…that was pretty easy!

DIY: From Blouse to Pillow in 10 Minutes Flat

February 26, 2015September 19, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, DIY, Home Accessories, Quick Project, Sewing, Thrift Store Craft, DIY, Home Accessories, Quick Project, Thrift Store

Do you have pillow forms hiding at your house? Maybe in your garage? Closet? Craft room? Yeah, me too. And when I say “pillow form”, I am also referring to ugly throw pillows that just need to be updated. Like the ugly hunter green checkered pillow that I adored in the 90’s. It has been hiding in the garage for the last 10+ years. Well, I resurrected it today with this:

I know what you are thinking… that is one stylish blouse. Am I right? Or am I right? Or am I right? The fabric is a really shiny rayon/polyester mix that doesn’t photograph well, but you get the gist. This blouse came from my local, small town thrift store that likes to do deals like “as many clothes as you can stuff in a bag for $2” sales. Yep, I shoved this in my bag, knowing that I wanted it for the fabric only. I wanted to see if I could use it to make some of these silk flowers:

Unfortunately, my gray shiny blouse was an epic fail for that project. Caught on fire! Luckily, I was near the kitchen sink. I know that polyester fabric melts, so I just “Bing”ed the question, “Is rayon flammable?”. The answer, “Yes. Very much so.”. Perhaps I should have checked before I lit it with a candle. Hmmm…you learn something new every day.

I couldn’t let the blouse go to waste, I mean, it cost me a quarter. I got my thinking cap on and thought of my ugly hunter green checkered pillow hiding in my garage and out it came. Remember this pillow tutorial where I made a heart-shaped pillow out of a sweater with buttons? Same concept here. I just cut out two rectangles just a bit bigger than my pillow form using the front and the back of the blouse and then sewed around all four sides. No need to leave an opening so I could shove the form in and hand sew it shut. No way… that is where the buttons come in handy. Check it out:

Can you see how I made the buttons (which were purposely hidden on this particular blouse) off center. Much better than sticking them smack-dab in the middle. Don’t you agree. I made a floppy bow using one of the sleeves and just safety pinned it on. That way I can reposition it later if I want to. I will show you how I did the bow some other time. Promise.

Since it is a rectangular pillow, it can sit either way:

Now you can see why I just pinned the bow on… I might want to change the position depending on which direction the pillow faces.

I seriously spent more time getting my sewing machine set up and then put back away than I spent making this simple pillow. You have GOT to try one for yourself. Resurrect an old pillow of your own. Time to do some blouse shopping.

DIY: Super Simple Satin Flowers

January 24, 2015September 19, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, DIY, Gift Idea, Home Accessories, Quick Project Craft, Decorating, DIY, Fabric, Gift Idea, Home Accessories, Quick and Easy, Super Saturday

There is something incredibly awesome about being able to take a flat piece of fabric and turn it into something 3 dimensional, useful and beautiful. I don’t consider myself to be an expert seamstress, but I still love to create with fabric. I’m in no way the inventor of this simple satin flower, but I thought that I would share how I make them.

First of all, you will need some sort of a polyester satin-like fabric. You can find it everywhere. Since you don’t really need very much fabric for each flower, it helps to check the remnants section of your fabric store. I have even cut up items of clothing to make these. Check out your own fabric stash. Or, someone else’s fabric stash…with their permission, of course. Seriously you only need a tiny bit of fabric. How much depends on the flower size that you want.

I had a few different fabrics that were satiny that I quickly found they weren’t polyester. To see if a fabric is polyester, just place an edge of the fabric above (not into) a candle flame. Polyester will melt on the edge, which is just plain neat-o. This melted part will darken in color, which makes a pretty cool effect. The fabric will pucker and bend, making the previously flat fabric more flower petal-like.

To get started, cut out your fabric. If you are a perfectionist, you might have a problem with this, because it really doesn’t matter how you cut the fabric. I usually just roughly cut squares, but circles or cloud-like shapes will work. Play around with it…that’s half of the fun.

For each flower you will cut 4 or more shapes in descending size and a thin rectangle for the back so you can attach a hair clip. The more layers you add, the fuller the flower will be.

See how imperfect my cuts are? I will admit that the white fabric isn’t satin, it is more of a sheer fabric, but it must be polyester because it melts. It is fun to see what fabrics will work.

Next step, grab a candle. I prefer small-ish candles in jars. Think dollar store. I’m not going to lie… when I first started making these, I just used the flame on my gas stove. Works seriously fast. If you are worried about fumes, I haven’t really had a problem with this… maybe do it under the stove vent.

The process is simple. Run the entire edge of each piece of fabric above- not inside- of the flame. As you get going, you will notice that there is a hot spot and that is where you want to place the edge of your fabric.

The fabric will curl up as it melts, and that is great. I like to have the shiny side of the fabric facing me as I do this, but play around and see what works for you. The cool thing about the square edges is that they seem to disappear, get rounded, as they melt. I like to mess around a bit and even allow the heat to “cut” in a bit. Experiment with it… it is seriously fun.

Here are my same pieces, after melting the edges:

Now it is time to layer the pieces. Start with the largest one first, add a drop of hot glue to the center, then place the next smallest piece, and so on until you have used all of the pieces except for the thin rectangle that goes on back. For the center, you can get creative with buttons, gems, beads, whatever. As an alternative, just scrunch up a couple smaller melted pieces of fabric to form the center of your flower (see brown flower at the top of this post).

Of course you can be done right here and just hot glue the thing on a frame or pillow or whatever, but if you want your flower to be a hair clip or easily moveable, add a hair clip to the back. Michaels has them, but a beauty supply store (Sally’s) seems to have them cheaper and of higher quality.

To attach, clip the center of your melted thin rectangle piece, with the flat side of the clip facing down, then glue onto your flower like so:

Now flip it over, ooh and ahh over it, run to the mirror and put it in your hair and admire it…

…or grab the closest nearby child (with this excitement, it doesn’t matter if it is a girl or boy… well, I’m sure it matters to the boy). Doesn’t it look great?

What else can you do with these beautiful flowers?

My Scriptures bag that I take to church gets changed out regularly now:

Here’s how I packaged a pair that I made for a baby gift: I just printed up the words on cardstock and cut to size.

Classy, huh? Or you can make it the “bow” on your gift. Get your thinking cap on… I know that you will come up with a hundred ways to use these awesome flowers that you made. What was once a boring, flat piece of fabric is now an awesome accessory. How simple was that?

Stay tuned to see how I took this project and amped it up for home décor. You’re gonna love it!