Vinyl Record Jewelry

I bought a bunch of record at the DI. I wanted to play with them SO bad! I got a big ten pack book of old Reader's Digest records (for $1) and started experimenting. I made some bracelets of different shapes and some cute earrings. I made some cute rings as well (not pictured) but I'll find the pics and get them up here. The ring is my favorite :)

BEFORE-I'm glad I didn't have to suffer through listening to this...

AFTER-a heat gun...some random make-shift tools...and some burned flesh later. (you should see what my brother made out of vinyl while I was making these...I would post it is it wasn't offensive lol. True story. LOVE YOU JON <3) I can't wait to play with vinyl again!

Black and White Glass Bead Necklace

My dad gave me some old wire he no longer had a use for. I think he's had it from the mid 70's...(thanks pops). I had a giant package of black and white glass beads that I got forever ago on clearance to 2 bucks. I put them both together and here you have a pretty awesome necklace! I love long necklaces :)

BEFORE-fuzzy pic of 30+ year old wire...that's how we do it.

Container of black and white glass beads. Nothing too exciting here.

AFTER-This turned out to be one of my favorite pieces. I wear it all the time :) You'll see it around.

Breakfast At Tiffany's Purse

I came upon this ugly canvas DKNY purse in the quarter bin at hope thrift store. It was in perfect shape...just SO not my style. I started by spray painting it black...handle and all. Then I cut random circles out of a pair of silk PJ bottoms that I got from my mom (thanks ma). Hot glued the circles to the bag...and this is what I came up with :) It's VERY girly and feminine. I love the look of it!

BEFORE-slightly nautical looking...not for long!

This was about halfway through the spray painting process. It took a bunch of coats. (Good thing I am patient!) After I was done painting it I sealed it :)

AFTER-So...basically I just cut a TON of circles out of the silk PJ's...and they were NOT pretty. Then I hot glued them to the purse. If I were to do this again I would use a different glue...one with better hold...and that won't blister my fingers. ;) It's inevitable that I burn myself every time. I just don't care enough to be careful. Honestly. And this thing took FOREVER to make, but I totally LOVE how this thing turned out! My friend Ronnie said it reminded her of Breakfast At Tiffany's...hence the name :)

Funky Sixties!

I bought this bitchin homemade shirt. It was made from this really amazing green and black graphic print from the 60's. I picked it up at one of my favorite thrift stores for .50. I held on to this shirt FOREVER because I loved the fabric so much I just couldn't decide what to do with it. I finally decided to just make something with it...anything. So I traced out a tank top shape with my highlighter and then sewed it up! You can see the hilighter outline :) I turned it backwards so the buttons are on the back now...as you know...that's my M.O. Very cute. I loved that this shirt started out random and HOMEMADE. It made it that more special for me to work on. These clothes have seen a lot of things...that's one of my favorite parts about working with old stuff :) I ended up pairing it with a black belt...very cute.

BEFORE-Just your basic collared button up homemade Sixties situation. The print is amazing up close :)

Guess what??? I'm picking off the sleeves! That's wierd.(note the sarcasm) I need to do a project with all sleeves...I've got quite the collection!

Here's the basic outline of a tank...in highlighter. If you look hard you can see it ;)

And here it is cut out. Now I just need to sew it up!

AFTER-Here's the front. I paired it with a black belt. Kind of an odd pic, but it's the best I had lol.

And here's the back. You can see the buttons going up. I sewed the flap closed for more security. Again...random angle...but the best I could do. Thanks for the help with the pics, T :)

Polyester Grandma Shirt...To Awesome TubeTop-ish Shirt

I scored this awesome polyester grandma shirt for .75 at the thrift store. It was hideous. Lol. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, but I really liked the print. I just started playing with it and ended up picking off the sleeves...freehand sewing up the sides of this bad boy and cutting off the excess. Then I turned it around so the buttons were in the back (I love that for some reason) and bingo...done.

BEFORE-this is THE perfect polyester grandma shirt. I LOVE it.

What is this???? Picking off the sleeves??? Shocking!

At this point I had jsut freehand sewed diagonally from the bottom to the top on both sides. Again...if you look closely you can see the stitch lines.

This is after I trimmed off the excess fabric.

AFTER-I turned this around and kept the collar. Silky smooth comfy shirt :) I think I will end up shortening it a bit.

And here's the back. I basically sewed up the front button flap to the point that I thought looked good...but kept as much of the collar and flap look as I could. I LOVE the back. This shirt was a bit tricky to make as far as fit goes...there was much tweaking. But I think it was well worth it :)

Rustic Leather Journal

Here's a leather journal that I made. I've been wanting to play around with something like this forever! I sewed together some scrap pieces of leather with some wax cord. I just kind of fitted them together the best way possible. Then I bound the pages in in sections using the same wax cord. I finished it off by tying it closed with some leather cord. Pics are from the front, back, open and binding. I love how unfinished and rustic it looks. Definitely made my fingers hurt sewing all that wax cord...so pliers were handy and I broke a needle too. Lol.

Here's the front. I love the visible stitches. And it smells nice :)

This is the back...

Here's the journal open. I'm not crazy about how the stitches look in here, that's something I'll do differently next time.

And the spine. I think it turned out pretty great for my first shot :)

Dance Costumes...

Every year I am faced with getting costumes for my dance teams for competition. When I first started teaching I could never find any that I liked...and who am I kidding, I make everything anyway. I like to be a little cutting edge and outside of the norm when it comes to my costumes and my students really love them every year. This year I went with blue tanks, red sparkly shrugs, tulle and sequins skirt/tutus, white leggings, red shoes with glitter and matching hair accessories. They LOVED them. I think it was a success...and did I mention they won 1st place ;) just saying. <3 my adorable students!!!!!

I have a HUGE bolt of this fabric. It's stretchy spandex animal print in teal...who wouldn't want 25 yards of this? lol. It's perfect for the tanks.

 

Here's the reverse side of the teal fabric. I have a back and front piece of one of the tanks cut out.

Here's the sparkly wonder that I used for the shrugs. I've used this type of fabric for years with my costumes. It looks SO good on stage, but it a hot mess to work with lol. Because of the glue that is used to hold on the sequins, I had to oil the needle on my machine every few minutes or it would stop up completely. I think I've made enough of these shrugs to clothe a small nation...(that's a spectacular visual)...I could do it in my sleep at this point.

This is a pic of one of the shrugs cut out. No, that is NOT a pirate hat...those are sleeves ;)

This is just a bolt of single strand silver sequins. I used it on the skirt/tutu part. You have to look close to see it in the pics, but on stage and with movement it looks almost magical :)

Giant bolt of red tulle. I cut it into strips for the skirt/tutu

Teal tulle. I didn't have to cut strips with this one since it came on a roll...just the right width!

I just added red sequin cuffs...red soes with teal laces...white leggings...and pieces of tulle and sequin for their hair. (BTW, do my necklace and earrings look familiar?) ha!

The whole ensemble. They're so cute :)

Adorable :)