Tea Towel Top

 Hello Readers. I decided to make a top from a cute little tea towel I found at a thrift store. It had a pretty design on it and I wanted to see how it would turn out as a top. Let's do an experiment. 

 Before and after.

 These little mushrooms were so pretty. Could this be a cute top? Let's see. 

I was inspired by these tops made by Selina Sanders. I really liked these tops made from handkerchiefs. Let's see if I could make something this fun. 

I cut the towel in half. I wanted some mushrooms in front and in back. 

I also had these lacey place mats. I was going to use to fill in as needed. 

I sewed the piece of towel to a piece of place mat. 

 

 This is the front of my top. I added 2 tucks at the top so it would fit better around the bust line.
 

I had a front piece and a back piece. I needed a bit more to make the sides. I used a second place mat for that. 

I connected the side pieces to the front and back panels.

I had this ribbon belt from an old dress. I cut it into 4 pieces for the shoulder straps.

I attached the shoulder straps to the top with my sewing machine. 

I liked it so far but I didn't love it yet. It needed an elastic waist to make it less boxy and shapeless. 

The elastic made the waist look more defined. I liked that better. 

 

I liked the top and went with a light blue theme for this outfit. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

Wrap Top to Tie Front Top

 Hello Readers. This faux wrap top was a hand-me-down. (Thanks C.M.) I liked the denim color but I thought it would be fun and easy to change this top into a more trendy tie front top.

Before and after.

This top was cute and it had a little string waist tie. That would come in handy later. When I looked at it I saw an easy refashion. I could open the front and use the waist tie to make the ties to close the front. 

 

I used a seam ripper to open all the seams and stitches that held the wrap front together. This took a little while but it wasn't difficult.

 

When the front was open I could see the front pieces were wider than I needed. I wanted the 2 sides to meet in front but not overlap. 

 

I folded the 2 sides under and ironed them to get a straight edge. I cut off the excess.

 

I used my serger to finish the new edges. This will prevent fraying. Using a zigzag stitch on a sewing machine would work as well. 

 

Now it was time to use that waist tie. 

 

I wanted 4 bow ties on the front of my shirt so I needed 8 equal sized sting pieces. I cut them all as equal as I could. But honestly I just used my eyes, not a ruler or yard stick. 

 

Now... I did use a ruler or a yard stick rather. I wanted the 4 ties to be evenly set in place down the front of my shirt. I measured with my yard stick to make sure they would be evenly placed. I marked where I wanted each tie in chalk.

 

I used my sewing machine to sew the edges of the front panels closed and attach the ties at the same time. 

 

I tied knots in the end of each string. This would prevent fraying and look good. 

I liked the new shirt. The ties are a fun way to close the top and it had a built in peplum. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.