Heart Hoodie

 Hello Readers. Valentine's Day is coming soon. I love to make clothes with a theme. I don't know why but I do. Let's just go with it and have some fun with it. I had this plain sweat shirt on-hand and I decided to dress it up a little. 

New Sweatshirt! 

This was a plain sweatshirt jacket. It was simple and it had a zipper in front. That means I could open it up to sew the heart on it. 

 

I also had these sweatshirts that I could use for this project. 

 

I cut 3 hearts out of the sweatshirts. I wanted one in each color. 

 

I took the heart shapes and ironed on some fusible interfacing to give them more structure. I ironed the back of the hearts to the bumpy side of the interfacing. 

 

I played around with the placement of the hearts. I rearranged them until I liked how they looked. 

 

I pinned the hearts in place and sewed around the edges of the hearts to attach the hearts to my jacket. 

 

I sewed the hearts on the sweatshirt one at a time.

 

I used thread that matched each heart to keep the colors the same. 

 

My sweatshirt was ready for Valentine's Day. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Fabric Bag

 Hello Readers. I saw a bag online recently and loved it but I had similar fabric in my fabric stash. I thought I could make a similar bag for myself using what I already have. I used the directions from La Fabrique des Heart'istes below but this time I made a much bigger bag.

I made my own bag. 

My finished bag. This is a great project because you can use any piece of fabric. The process is folding the fabric together so it can be any size. Below is the first bag I made from about a year ago. This piece of fabric started at approximately 48' by 42', but all the steps were exactly the same as below.

 

  I made a fun little bag recently. This was really simple to make and the shape was straight-forward. There is a information on this and other projects from the maker La Fabrique des Heart'istes on

My fun new bag!

I wanted to use this fabric sample that I had on hand so I did not follow the recommended measurements very closely. The bag still turned out great. 

I folded my fabric square in half with the right sides facing each other. I sewed around the outer edge and left a small opening to turn it right-side out. I turned it right side out like this.

I ironed the fabric so that it would be flat and straight. 

I gathered the fabric together like this. 

I used a small piece of fabric to wrap around the center. It is going to be a sort of handle. The edges of the faux suede are folded in so there are no cut edges showing. 

I sewed the "handle" together so that it wrapped around the large piece of fabric.

The bag needed to be sewn together. I stitched the 2 sides together along the edges, where I was pointing. I only sewed the lower half. The top needs to stay open, that is how I will put things in and out of the bag.

I folded the bag so that the seams were in the middle. I had to sew these 2 sides and the bottom seams together. 

I was done sewing all the edges together. You can see all the seams. 

I flipped the bag right-side out to hide all those seams inside. 

When all the seams are inside the bag looks cleaner and the openings at the top make it easy to tuck items inside. The way the fabric is folded, the inside has the same fabric as the outside. It looks nicely lined. 

 

I made a second larger tote bag from some fun dog fabric. Thanks for reading along, go check La Fabrique des Heart'istes on YouTube or Facebook for more sewing ideas.

***Year End Update***- These bags are so fun. This was a great project.

Decorate Your Blazer

 Hello Readers. I think the best refashion project is the easiest one that makes the most impact. So, let's do a quick and easy "no-sew" refashion that can change our whole look. I wanted to change the look of this simple blazer. (Similar available here.) Let me show you how I did it, it only took a few minutes.

Let's have fun with pins, brooches, and more. 

Here is the blazer I started with. It's great, it's classic, and it goes with everything. It can obviously be worn just like this but it can also be a little more exciting. I wanted to jazz it up just a little with some pins and broaches. 

 

I dug around in my jewelry box and gathered all the pins I could find. (Similar available here.) You could borrow from a friend, your mom, your sister or your grandma. None of these pins really match or go together at all. That's the idea. The grouping is not meant to be matchy-matchy, it is meant to be a little chaotic and varied. I didn't really have that many pins but I had an idea. 

 

I had some earrings I could use. These are going to look like pins when I stick them in my blazer lapels. When they are mixed with all the other pins it will fill in space and add to the whole look. It doesn't really matter what they look like or where they came from. They will look great when they are mixed into the pins on the lapels.

 

I started pinning all my pins on the lapels of the blazer. I didn't have a really set plan. I tried to put different sizes together so that there was a variation of sizes all over. I didn't want all the larger pins next to each other or all the smaller pins all together. I thought it would look much better if they were sort of scattered around. 

 

I pinned on the pins and then I added a few earrings in between the pins. I didn't want two matching earrings right next to each other. Spacing them out made for a much better look. I used the earring backs to hold the earring on the jacket lapel. I pushed the earring post through the fabric of the jacket and put the earring back on the earring post just like I would on my ears. 

 

I kept adding pins and earrings to both lapels until the lapels were full and I was out of pins and earrings. I liked how they all looked together. It was slightly chaotic but lots of fun. (That sounds like life goals doesn't it? Slightly chaotic but lots of fun.)

 

I think the best part of this was how fast and easy it was. This took no time, no tools and anyone can do it. It is also temporary. You can easily undo all of these pins and wear the blazer again without the pins and earrings whenever you want. 

 

I had fun with this look. It really added a little something to my t-shirt and jeans. So, grab a blazer or even a jacket and all the pins you can find. Add some earrings and you will have a new fun look in no time. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Simplicity 5917 Dress

 Hello Readers. I have been wanting to use this wool fabric for quite a while. I did not know what to make so after a long time I stumbled upon this pattern at Goodwill. They dress on the front of the pattern envelope made me think this was going to be a good choice for my fabric. 

Simplicity 5917 

This pattern was never used so I had to iron it flat to get the wrinkles out. 

 

I cut the pattern pieces out with the fabric all at one time. I thought I would be the biggest size but this turned out bigger than I thought it would when it was all put together. I could have sized down a bit but it was great to wear on top of layers in winter so it worked out great.

 

My fabric was almost but not quite wide enough for this pattern. That's OK, I have never in my life had the right amount of fabric. That is just how I sew. The corner of the skirt hem would still look fine when I was done. I didn't worry about it too much. 
 

This pattern had very large pockets and I was excited about that. I cut them out so I would not forget to sew them on first. 

 

I put my pockets on the front. I raised the placement just a bit because I am short and my arms are short and I didn't want the pockets to be too low. 

 

I pinned the pockets in place with enough pins to keep them in place while I sewed them on. I wanted my pocket stripes to match the dress stripes. If they shifted around while I was sewing it would mess that up.

 

I sewed the shoulders and neck facings together. This pattern was a simple and quick pattern. It was not complicated. The package said it was a 2 hour sew and it was accurate. It did not take me longer than that. 

The dress was long on me so I cut it shorter and then I sewed the hem around the bottom. 

Here is my new dress. I cant wait to wear it. I finished this dress and the snow storm hit and I was home for days so I had to let waiting to wear the dress wait. 

 

It really did snow didn't it? It took a few days to clear out but it was gorgeous.

 

 I love the dress and the wool was light but very warm. Wool can be scratchy but this was perfect as an over layer. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.  

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Taco Bell T-shirts

 Hello Readers. I was given a bunch of t-shirts from Taco Bell. Do I work at Taco Bell? No. A friend owned a shop near a Taco Bell and the manager gave them these t-shirts. Why? I have no idea. The friend gave me the shirts because they know I like to cut things up and make them into new things. So.. what should I make from these shirts??

I love tacos and Taco Bell, I just didn't want to wear the advertising. 

 

A friend gave me all these Taco Bell shirts but what could I make from them? Let's make a dress. 

 

These shirts had writing all over them. It was on the front and...

 

And the back. 

 

I didn't want to be a walking Taco Bell billboard so I cut the graphics away and just used the parts that were plain black. 

 

I sewed the pieces of t-shirt together to make the skirt tiers of my dress. 
 

I clipped the tiers together. 

  

I also had this cropped shirt I made last summer. I liked it but I thought it would make a fun dress. I used it as the bodice of my dress. 

 

I clipped the skirt to the top and sewed them all together. 

My new dress was finished and it is so fun. It is still basic black which makes it easy to wear. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.