Spring Top Sewalong 2011 Entry #2: Floating Flowers Top

Introducing my second top to enter into the Spring Top Sewalong.  It’s fun to have a contest to enter, just so it motivates me to finish projects.  Once I sat down and got started, this shirt only took me a few hours (including the time it took to figure out to embellish this one…that’s ALWAYS the hardest/longest part for me!)

The way the flowers are positioned, they appear to be floating upon the shirt.  It reminds me of lily pads on a pond for some reason.  I like the comfort of the t-shirt, but love the embellishment.  It makes me feel kinda fancy.

I made the pattern based off one of my favorite shirts.  I got the knit from Joann's (It's a thicker knit, and not my favorite, but it worked for this project).

~Lynette~

My Closet is a Bed of Roses

Have a few plain t-shirts laying around?  Found some t-shirts for a great deal, but need to add some flair to them?
Here’s an idea for you, add fabric roses to your shirts.  The top one is for me, and the bottom one is for my sister for her birthday.


Tutorial for the fabric flowers, found here at Fireflies and Jellybeans.  Nearly my whole entire collection of shirts are plain solids, but with a little work it can look like a bed of roses.  You’ll be seeing more t-shirt makeovers in the future for sure!

Maxi Dress Refashion!

Hello there!  I hope you all are having a fabulous Friday!  I sure am.  I am feeling very ambitious and already made a batch of bread.  I like those days, when the ordinary chores seem fun.  (Doesn’t happen very often).  But I’m not here posting about chores! 

I love all the Maxi dresses out there right now, but there’s a slight problem.  I am short.  Like 5’ 1’’…So these dresses and I aren’t real great friends at first sight.  So I altered it, and I LOVE it!  It hits just below the knees, and looks great with a bright colored shirt underneath.

Before, it looked like this, now it looks like this

Last Saturday, after the LONG bake sale, I came home and refashioned this dress.  My husband knew that I needed a crafting break or I would go crazy.  So he kept working on his projects, and I worked on mine!  I found the tutorial for this dress here at Make it and Love it.  It was super easy, and only took me a couple hours.  I used Fawnda’s tutorial for the flowers found here on Fireflies and Jellybeans.

I had a little bit of material left over from this project, and have another project in mind, so stay tuned!

TUTORIAL: Multi-Colored Fabric Flowers

Well Hello there!  I've been super busy with homework lately, and as I was listening to an online lecture, I realized I could whip up a fabric flower and show you how to make your own!  So here we go!

This is what we'll make today:

 

(And you can totally put a button or bead in the middle...I just didn't have time to do it, and I wanted to get this thing POSTED!)

First off, you'll need:

2 different coordinating fabrics (I used solid colors, but designs would probably be super cute)

Needle and Thread

Scissors

Measuring Tape (or just eyeball it too!)

Button/Beads (something for the middle)

Figure out which fabric you want on the top, and which fabric you want on the bottom.  I chose yellow for the top and pink for the bottom.

Lay out the fabric you want on top.  Measure 2 inches, and cut a slit in the fabric. 

Then start ripping the fabric to make your strip about 18 inches long.

Don't worry, the fabric will stay the right width as you rip! (Love this method!)

Then you'll get the material for the bottom of the flower, and rip a 3 inch wide strip by about 18 inches long.

  

The you'll have 2 strips of fabric:

Fold them hot dog style to make skinny and long strips, and then pin them.

*If you want your flowers to have frayed edged, pin against the folded edges.  If you want your flowers to have finished edges, pin against the frayed edges.

I pinned against the frayed edges to have the finished look.

(sorry for the blurry pictures!  Don't know what the deal is today!)

That's a faraway look of it pinned together.

Then you'll start sewing a long stitch (basting stitch) down the length of your strips.  As you go, gather or "crinkle," it up.  Be careful not to pull too hard, or you'll break your thread and get to start over! :)

You'll end up with a shape like this.  Pull really tight to keep the center really small and tight.

On the back side, you'll sew a few stitches to close the flower up.

Here's a funny picture to help you get an idea.  Sew all the way to the edge and keep it tight.

Then grab your hot glue gun and stick a button, bead, or other embellishment on and you're done!  

*I taught some teenage girls to make these several weeks ago, and most of them had a hard time keeping the middles tight.  Some of them made really small stitches, so I think that was part of the problem.  I just grabbed my hot glue gun and secured the flowers more in the middle.

Have fun with this, and leave me a comment if you have any questions!