Embellished Flip Flops

I made these super fun little t's for my niece's sixth birthday. Read about how I made them here: http://confessionsofadesperatemom.blogspot.com/2012/03/flip-flop-t-shirts.html

Here's a pic. Don't you just love them? Me too.

I decided I needed to include a pair of flip flops to go with them. I'm so inspired by all the great little tutorials I've seen lately on Pinterest for fabric flowers. This is my favorite one.
http://pinterest.com/pin/54395107969046870/
And check out this one on the scarf.
http://pinterest.com/pin/54395107968984376/

So this is what I did. First, grab your supplies.
Flip Flops (I got these for $2.50 at Target)
Fabric Scraps
Buttons
Needle and Thread
Glue Gun

Cut your fabrics (in my case I used the same ones I used for the t-shirt appliques) into various sizes of circles. I used cotton for the top two circles and put a dot of glue to hold them together. I cut little slits into the fabric to make it look like petals. Next, put the circles into your palms and rub them together to give that worn look.

Next, I put another dot of glue to add the third layer (the pink t-shirt applique fabric from the purple tank). Cut a long thread and sew on the buttons. Use the excess to tie the flowers to the toe of each flip flop. I put a couple dots of glue under the flower to give it a little more stability (Be careful not to burn your finger like I did. Ouch!).

Makes a great little gift. Right?

Flip Flop T-Shirts

Another girl project. You would think I actually had a girl. Alas, I will just have to keep making projects for the wonderful little girls in my life.

My niece is having a birthday next week. Six! Wow, that means Parker will be six in just a few months. Anyway, this little girl LOVES flip flops even more than I do. So, I decided to add to her collection - in the form of some t-shirts.

Who knew that neon (aka fluorescent) would be back in after the late 80s? Not me, but I'm loving it. Here's the simple T it picked up at Target. Perfect for a little embellishment. I also needed a little scrap fabric, a small piece of ribbon (about eight inches), some fusible webbing and some sharp scissors.

See that little flip flop pattern in the pic? I just drew it out on a piece of newspaper.

Follow the directions on the fusible webbing and iron it to the back of your applique fabric. Next, pin your pattern on the fabric and cut out your pattern. I did it upside down on a second piece, so you will have a pair of flip flops (rather than two of the same foot).

To make the plain shoe look like a flip flop, I made the straps from a scrap piece of ribbon. Cut to the right size and burn the edges to keep the ribbon from fraying. Pin it in place and straight stitch it on.


Trim the excess ribbon and burn the edges once more. Place your flip flops on the shirt where you want them and peel back the paper from your webbing. Iron them in place.


I've seen appliques done with a zigzag stitch, but I prefer the look of straight stitches. Stitch around the applique and Viola! Done!


Ninety percent of the time, this monkey is wearing a tank top, so I decided to add one to the gift. Here's what I did to this simple little cami from Target.

For this one, I decided to do a reverse applique. Pull out the pattern once more and cut out a pair about 1/4 inch wider all the way around. Turn the cami inside-out and pin the flip flops (with ribbon already added with the same method) in place. The right side should be face down, since you are going to cut the top fabric out to get the reverse applique. Keep reading, you'll get it.


Straight stitch around the edges from the inside of the shirt. I left about 1/4 inch seam allowance (this is why you added to the size of the flip flip pattern). Once it's stitched, flip it right-side-out. It should look like this.


Using sharp scissors, cut the inside of the flip flop out. I made a simple cut in the middle to get the scissors in there.


Be careful not to cut too close to our stitches. Tada!


Here are both T's. I also bought a pair of pink flip flops, which I think I'll make removable flowers for, but that's a project for another day and another blog post.

"Let's Go Tu-Lo" T-shirt Refashion

Spring Training has started and that means baseball season is almost here! I love baseball. Not just the game, but the experience. I don't usually need an excuse to sit in the sun and drink beer, but if I did, baseball is a good one.

I'm a Giants fan, turned Rockies fan. I'll cheer for both, but feel a little bipolar when they play each other. Five years ago when my family relocated to Denver, I started watching the Rockies. Coors Field is pretty awesome. I do miss "The Stick" though - even if the Giants now play at AT&T Park (which is also pretty great).

Anyway, last season we took the boys to a Rockies game (we only lasted a few innings), but I think we have some baseball fans on our hands. Kwal Paints gave away Tulowitski t-shirts. They only came in XL, so I have a couple extra. The boys can't wear XL.

I've been saving them to rework into something I might actually wear and checked out a lot of different options I found on Pinterest.

Like these: http://www.dana-made-it.com/2009/08/where-ya-been-part-1.html

and these: http://crafterhours.blogspot.com/2011/08/tee-to-tank-tutorial-by-jen-from.html

I decided to do both. Here's what I did...

The shirts


Cut off the top, just under the collar. The original tute, suggested cutting through the front and back together, but I wanted to preserve the #2 on the back. I cut the back and front separately - the back will come up a little higher than the front on the finished T.


Cut off the sleeves. Bye, bye Kwall Paint logo. Thanks for the shirt though.


Next fold over the neckline on front and back and pin to make a channel.


Finally thread in the ties. The purple came from an old tanktop I pulled from the Goodwill bag. A safety pin will make this step easier.


Tada!


And the back.

For the other shirt, I decided to give shirring a shot. There are tons of great tutorials on Pinterest, but I really like this one from Make It Love It (one of my favorite blogs): http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/11/sewing-tip-shirringsmocking-with-elastic-thread.html

I did the cuts exactly the same way as the other shirt, but instead of making a channel, I shirred the top with three rows of stitches (using purple thread on top and elastic thread as the bobbin). It was pretty easy! Just stretch out the fabric a little while pulling it through your machine. I did take this one in a little bit on the sides to make it more fitted.


I also did the hemline with four rows of shirred stitches and attached straps from an old gray t.


And the results - I may move the straps over a little more before opening day.


Now, which one to give to my friend, Jill (the biggest Rockies fan I know) and which one to keep for myself.

Easiest T-Shirt Skirt Ever

I've been reading a lot of DIY articles about creating a skirt out of and old t-shirt. When I thought I found the easiest one, here: http://www.littlebitfunky.com/2011/05/20-minute-crafter-how-to-make-t-shirt.html, I decided to give it a shot.

This tutorial is really great and I'm in love with the bicycle skirt she made (gotta find that shirt), but I made mine even easier.

I started with the hub's old t's. He wears a L. Since the gray one had some deoderant stains, I chopped it straight across, under the pits. This makes the skirt body.

Next, I chopped the sleeves and cut the waistband out of the chest section (about 5 inches wide). I'm just making a fold over waistband (hence the reason it's so easy), so I measured the two pieces around my waist and sewed them together end-to-end making a circle. You'll want both pieces to be the same size (I'll tell you why later).

The red t-shirt has seams on both sides, so it made lining up super easy. Take the seams of each of the circle waistband piece and pin to the side seams of the skirt body. Next, I found the center of the waistband front/back and the center of the skirt front/back and pinned together.

I didn't want to cut the skirt body, so to make it hang nicely, I put two little pleats in each of the 1/4 sections (between the pins). Pin each pleat to the waistband. Now the waistband and body should fit perfectly. If you're thinner, you can make three or more pleats.

Now, you can sew the waistband to the skirt body. Pull it on and fold over the waistband and you're done. The red one is a little shorter because it had a grease stain in the middle (thanks for fixing my car hun).

My neighbor stopped by yesterday and noted that we were wearing the same skirt. My reply, "Yeah, but mine was a shirt yesterday."

Now I have an eye on this old navy blue shirt. What can I ask him to do to get a stain and make that one mine too?

T-Shirt goes from frumpy to OooLaLa

My family wears these silly "Happy Camper" t-shirts on all of our camping trips, which, during the summer, is a lot. We try to go as often as possible.

We got back from a trip last summer and I saw this pic of myself in mine. Yikes! Since when did I look so frumpy? And it's like P is staring at the worst part! Oh, and cut me some slack, we are camping after all.

I've been reading the Dress A Day blog for a while and figured I could take some scissors to the offensive t-shirt.

I started by cutting off the crew neck and turning into a slight sweetheart line. Next, I shortened the sleeves and length of the shirt itself.

I'm really into a banded bottom t-shirt right now, so I ran a quick straight stitch all the way around the new bottom of the shirt, pulling the string to gather it a bit. Measuring the left over bottom to fit around the upper part of my hips, I trimmed off the excess. I sewed the left over together forming a big circle and pinned it to my newly gathered shirt bottom.

A quick seam to attach the band and seam around all my raw edges, and BAM! new t-shirt.