T-shirt turned leggings Tutorial

Just like I promised, here's a tutorial to make your very own pair of recycled leggings. :)

1. Find a men's XXXL t-shirt in a color you like. These are kind of rare, but I've had good luck and found a gray one and a blue one. Just keep your eyes open and eventually you will find the perfect shirt.

2. Place your favorite pair of leggings on the shirt and trace (See dotted line in photo below). Don't forget to add a 1/4 in. seam! Line up the leg openings with the edge of the t-shirt and you won't have to hem them!


3. Cut out.

4. Repeat 2 and 3 until you have 4 pieces.

5. Lay 2 pieces on top of each other outsides facing in. Make sure they match up.

6. Sew along the straight edge.

7. Sew the other side until the part where it starts to curve in.

Confused? Look at this diagram:

1. Match up the edges
2. Sew the straight edge
   
3. Sew the other side until it begins to curve in.

8. Repeat steps 5-7 for the other pieces. Now you should have 2 leg pieces ready to be sewed together!

9. Put the 2 leg pieces next to each other and sew the seams indicated in the second picture.

Sew red to red and blue to blue. This is the hardest part.

10. Hem the top (or just leave it, that's what I did) & enjoy!
P.S. This is my first sewing tutorial, please let me know how I did. :)

Project ReStyle

Elsie at A Beautiful Mess and Rachel at Smile and Wave are the master minds behind this
wonderful project. Basically, the goal is to create a project from old, unwanted clothing every week. Click the yellow button above to learn more about Project ReStyle!

My first project is one I've already mentioned. Remember, I picked up an XXXL t-shirt at the thrift store and turned it into a pair of leggings? Oh right, I didn't have a picture! ;)
Here's one:I have to be honest, I surprised myself! They came out really good. What do you think?
Here's a before picture:I also bought a red t-shirt and tailored it to fit me. The shirt has such a soft, slubby texture that I just had to have it. :)
It's the shirt I'm wearing in this photo:
I also wanted to show you my current spinning project. I'm plying it now:
Stay tuned, I'll be sharing a tutorial for the t-shirt turned leggings tomorrow! Edit (Link)
Also coming up:
-My current crochet/knit project
-Another pair of leggings I made (blue this time!)
-Some new jewelry

Well, it happened.

I let myself get away with not posting.
But let's not dwell on that, I'm posting now.
We went thrift store shopping on Wednesday, and I bought 2 men's XL t-shirts with the sole purpose of making leggings out of them. One of them turned out too small to do that, so I just turned that one into a smaller t-shirt using one of my favorites as a pattern.

It's been very cold, and it rained on Wednesday. Last night is was really, really windy.

I dyed wool for some kits I sold. I wish I had taken photos, but I always forget too.

Some jewelry-making supplies arrived at my doorstep today, so I will be making necklaces and listing them tomorrow. Maybe when I have my camera out I will remember to take pictures of the leggings and shirt I made.

Alright, I think I will go spin some yarn now. I will take pictures of it and show you tomorrow. :)
Happy New Years!

Outfits :)

Wednesday's outfit:

The boots and pullover are both thrifted. I saw that quilted light gray darling and knew it was destined to be mine! Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but I like it. A lot.

Tuesday's Outfit:

Everything except the umbrella and jeans are thrifted! I was wearing a black coat over everything, but I took that off when we took the photos. You can see the shrug, boots, and t-shirt up close and personal in yesterday's post.

Okay, that's all for today. Have a very merry Christmas!

Thrifty Thursday + Outfits

As promised, here are some photos of my thrifting loot! I love finding things for such a good deal and I have a couple good thrift stores around here, so I try to go as often as I can. This time one of the thrift stores was having an awesome sale. White tags were 25% off, green tags 50% off, and blue tags 75% off! :) I have a lot of clothes that are second hand, so Thursdays will be reserved for thrifty finds (among other things, if I don't feel like talking about thrift stores, lol).

These blouses were all found at the same thrift store. I've already worn the blue one and it's really nice. I love it.

The crocheted shrug I found at the same thrift store as the shirts above, and I've already worn it. It reminds me of sweet old ladies. :)
The butter yellow cardigan actually has a bright pink, sequined palm tree applique that I will have to remove before wearing- it has this wow factor that stuns you for a second. Not good.
I never would have found the mustard shrug if it wasn't for my mom- she spotted it and knew I would like it. Thanks mom!

...and here's my pile of skirts. I have this thing for skirts. I just love them. I haven't been able to wear them recently because it's cold and rainy, and I don't have very many leggings or tights. I need to get some more of those asap. I'm going to have to hem about 80% of these skirts before I can wear them. Wish me luck. :/

I already have a pair of white keds, but these are whiter and fit me better so I snatched 'em up.

Be still my heart. These boots. They. ROCK.

Come back tomorrow! I will be posting photos of some outfits I've worn recently.

Wednesday Wishes: A kind of fire

Wednesdays are for Wishes. :)
(Left to Right, Top to Bottom)
1. Pollen pure cashmere yarn, $33
2. Vintage suede stripe pixie boots, $38
3. Crimson flames wig, $76
4. Hand-knit socks, $65
5. Cream heart leggings, $42
6. Eleanor print, $20

So yesterday I went thrifting & I found some pretty nice stuff. I'll have to show you some pictures tomorrow. I'll also show you the outfit I wore. It was pouring down rain and we were out and about for a good 5 hours. I was so tired and wet when we got home and I quickly settled down to a nice bowl of hot pozole (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozole).

I'm glad to be back into blogging- I have so much I can talk about! I want to bring you up to date on all my craft projects, but that's a post for another day.

Tuesday's Thoughts: Reincarnation Post

My thought for today is:

My blog is an interesting specimen. There were 4 years where I consistently posted. (I call 49 posts in a year consistent, since that comes out to a post almost every week. In 2005, I had 96 posts!) This year however, has been the worst year yet. Only 4 posts -well, 5 counting this one.
There could be several reasons for this. Lack of time, not wanting to post, forgetting all about it completely. But trust me, it has not been for lack of material. I'm constantly doing something. My interests change from week to week, but that doesn't mean I can't blog about it. That's what I realized this morning. A blog is a very beneficial thing to have. But not if you aren't consistently updating. So, my goal for 2011 is to post things on this blog!
I hope you all will help me and keep me accountable.
And to those who actually read this entire post, thank you thank you thank you! :)

So I have not been around in a while...

...but I plan to be more active around here. I thought today I would just share some random crafty stuff. :)

It's not like I haven't been doing crafty stuff. It's basically all my day is filled with. Here's just a sample of something I have dyed recently. I was going for black where the gray is, but that didn't work out. It's kind of frustrating, I haven't been able to get black with my "True Black" dye. I think the problem is it isn't concentrated enough. Yesterday I dyed up some BFL that I wanted to be dark blue, olive green, and black, but it came out a brilliant blue, yellowy-green, and gray. I have to admit, the result was unexpected, but I love it!

I've been wanting to get into screen printing. I saw a kit on dharma trading co., and I really want to buy it and get started! Here's a cool tutorial I saw. The only problem is, I'm constantly trying new things and wanting to do this or that. I feel like I should calm down and get some other stuff done before diving headfirst into something new. But I can't resist... it's in my nature, and screen printing is so cool! :)

That's all for now, talk to you later.