Make Shelves From Drawers

 Hello Readers. I am always trying to make more storage in the space that I live in. In addition to myself I live with my husband and my kids and we all have "stuff".  Where can we put the stuff? I am pretty much out of floor space so we have to go up and use some of the vertical space. I am talking about shelves today. You can of course buy bookcases and cabinets. But let's do something more creative and free! Let's make some shelves from old dresser drawers.

 Drawers to Shelves!

I found these drawers on the side of the road when I was driving home from the library. There were 5 dusty drawers that a man was putting at the end of his driveway. I stopped and asked if I could have them. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he said yes.

I came home and used a vacuum to get some of the dust off the drawers.

 

I sanded the drawers because I wanted to paint them. The paint will stick better if the finish is sanded.

 

I dusted the drawers to get rid of all the dust I had made when I sanded them. 

 

I removed some of the knobs with a screwdriver. I knew how I wanted to stack my drawers and the knobs would be in my way.

 

I used some white acrylic paint to paint the drawers I was going to use as my shelves.
 

I started painting my shelves. I let the first coat of paint dry over night and I added a second coat of paint the next day.  

 

I wanted my drawers stacked like this so each of the lower drawers needed 1 knob taken off. That way I could stack a drawer on top of the 2 lower drawers. We tested and shook the shelves to make sure they were very balanced and stable. (If you have kids that might climb on shelves, you should to anchor them to the wall. )

 

Kids are wild and they will climb on anything when they are young. When my youngest was a toddler, he would climb things that I never even thought he would try to climb. He is older now but when he was young we anchored all our furniture to the wall. Better safe than sorry. 

 

I used the new shelves to display some of my child's artwork. 

These can be swapped out whenever we want. Displaying them this way won't leave holes in the wall.

 

You can put the drawers into any order and arrangement that works for you and your space.

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

Dye a Romper

 Hello Readers. I thought this floral romper had potential. I just wasn't sure about the white color background. The white background seemed to contrast too much with the floral pattern. But I could do something about that. I got a bottle of dye and got to work.

Rit Dye to the rescue.

I liked the fit of the romper but maybe the shorts were too long? I would address that later. 

I cut out the shoulder pads first. I didn't like the way they looked. and my shoulders are big enough already for me.

 

I put the romper in my washing machine with this blue dye as directed. This roper was a cotton/polyester blend so I used some dye for synthetics. 

 

The dye worked well. I thought it created a sort of denim blue color. I washed and dried the romper as directed.

 

I turned the hem of the shorts under and sewed a new hem to make the shorts a bit shorter. 

 

I ironed the new hem so it was smooth.  

 

The new color was great for me. The floral design is still visible but I like how the new colors all work together. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

A No-Sew Bag

 Hello Readers. I saw a cute idea for a bag that did not require any sewing. It was a quick way to make a bag from a scarf or a square/rectangular piece of fabric. It is great for a beach bag or produce bag for the farmers market because it can be taken apart and washed easily. 

No sewing needed!

I used a piece of striped cloth that I had on hand. The edges were all finished because it was originally used as a curtain. You could use a scarf or even a tablecloth. Use whatever you have on hand.

I was excited to make this bag because I had a lot of bag handles that my mother-in-law gave me. I was happy to use some. This bag needs handles that are a closed circle or an closed oval. 

I tied 2 of the corners of the fabric around the handle as you can see in this video. The other 2 corners got tied around the other handle.

This bag can hold anything you want and you can take the fabric off easily if you untie the knots. 

This would be perfect to hold all you need to go to the beach for the afternoon. 

I wish I was at the beach right now. The cool ocean breeze sounds wonderful. I hope you can stay cool in the summer heat. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

Simple Fabric Bag

 Hello Readers. 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 Instagram.

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.

Shorts

 Hello Readers. It is summer and hotter than the devils backside. Let's make some shorts. Let's make some fun shorts from these wild colorful pants.

Before and after.

I used chalk and marked where I wanted the hem of the shorts to be. 

I cut the shorts about an inch under the mark I made. I need the extra fabric to fold under and sew. 

I used my sewing machine to make the new hem. I turned the cut edge under twice and stitched it down.

 

My shorts ready to wear. I liked this wild fabric but I like it more when there is less of it. 

 

I also made these brown shorts and used all the same steps. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

Lengthen Your Shorts

 Hello Readers. It's is summertime and that means shorts. At least for me. It is really hot and humid where I live and I need to try and stay cool. What can you do if your favorite shorts are a bit short? Maybe they would be better if they were just a bit longer. We can fix that.

Let's lengthen these shorts!

These shorts are fine but they feel like they might have gotten shorter when I ashed them. They are a little short for me. I wanted to make them a bit longer. 

I unpicked the stitches at the hemline of the shorts. This was where I am going to find some extra length. The hem was folded under twice so, I didn't know exactly how much fabric was inside this folded up hem but I knew there was some fabric in the hem that I could use. 

 

I let all the fabric out and ironed it to make it straight and flat. This will help me really see how much fabric I have to work with. 

The edge was fraying so I needed to address that. I used my serger along the edge to control that fraying. Sewing with a zigzag stitch along the edge would also control this fraying. Once the fraying was under control, I could make a new neat hem. 

I turned the new hem under once and sewed the new hem in place. The edge is visible on the inside but it won't fray because I surged the edge. 

Here is the new longer shorts. The shorts are a little longer now. This will give me a little more leg coverage. 

Here is a close up of the new hemline. You can see the old hem marks above it. The old hem marks will get less noticeable over time and in the wash.

This was a quick sewing project and did not change the original look of the shorts, I just changed the length. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.