DIY: Knotted Double-Layered Scarf from XL Men's tee (inspired by Country Road Knotted Loop Scarf)

Finally! I’ve been so busy over the weekend because of assignments. They are not major assignments, but I’m a silly perfectionist when it comes to school work.

Now, as I have promised, the scarf refashioned from one XL Men’s tee! I got the XL Men’s tee from a discount store for just $2. The scarf was inspired by the Knotted Loop Scarf by Country Road. It costs 69.95AUD! (-_-x)

Knotted Loop Scarf by Country Road for A/W 2010 Collection, image from here

It seems to be really well-liked here because I’ve seen 2 people in my class wearing it. But this is something that I am making for a friend of mine. Oh, oh and this is the very first project that I did with my NEW Elna Sew Fun sewing machine!!! All right, enough with that introduction and monologue. Let’s get on with the tutorial! :D

Materials:

1 x XL Men’s Tee
Scissors
Sewing machine/Sewing needle, thread and a lot of patience

Steps:

• Cut your tee according to the picture. A and B should be about the same width and C is from the sleeves.
• One tee will yield 2 As, 2 Bs (the second one is underneath), 2 Cs and 1 D.

• Get A and open it up. There should be an open side where the C/the sleeves were cut off. 
• Fold A into half, lengthwise, with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other, such that the open sides meet at the dotted line.
• Sew along the dotted line.
• Open A up and you should get a rectangular piece of fabric. Do the same as above for the other piece of A.

• Put the 2 pieces of A together, with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other and so that the ====, ++++ and .... are in line with each other.
• Sew along the ==== lines together and then open the piece up.

• Fold the piece lengthwise such the ++++ side meets with the …. side with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other. The picture shows only one piece of A. The other one is out of the frame. The 2 pieces of A form a very long piece of fabric.
• Sew ++++ and …. sides together.

• Turn this long piece of 2 As inside out and you will get a long tube of fabric with all the clean seams on the outside.

• Get C and cut the seams so that it opens up as shown in the picture.

• Get one C and one B. Line the sides ==== and ++++ together, with the RIGHT side of the fabric facing each other. Sew ==== and ++++ together.
• Do the same for the other B and C. 

• You will get 2 long strips of fabric as shown in the picture, each made from B&C.
• Lie the 2 B&C strips on top of one another, RIGHT side of fabric together.
• Sew the sides together to get a tube like with A previously.
• Fold the 2 tubes of fabric inside out so that all the clean sides are facing outside.
• The tube from A should be longer than the tube from B&C.

• Tie 3 knots in tube A, where the second knot is right in the middle of the tube.
• Tie 2 knots in tube B&C, such that the knots have a space in between.
• Lie the 2 tubes of fabric parallel to one another. The knots in tube B&C should be next to the spaces between the knots in tube A.

• Holding the 2 ends of the tube together, try and see how it looks on your neck. Adjust how you want the 2 layers to look before sewing the ends together. 

• It’s ok if the edges of the ends are not exactly together. That was also what happened to mine.

• Fold/Roll the ends neatly into half, as shown in the picture.

• Now, the final piece! Get D, open it up and cut it as shown in the picture to get a small rectangular piece of fabric.

• Join the ends of the 2 layers together, and then wrap it using D. You may want to fold the raw edges of D inwards as you wrap the ends together.

• Sew it in place! You may want to do hand sewing for this last step instead as the fabric gets really thick here and you may want to hide the stitches with some strategic stitching.

• OMG we’re finally done. Take a break because I know the steps are really confusing!

I really have to apologise for the confusing steps. It’s hard to describe everything that I did because I did most of my thinking as I was cutting and sewing all those ends together. Please don’t curse and swear if you don’t understand any one these steps! Pop a message in the comments section instead and I will try to reply ASAP! :)

Yayy! So this is the tutorial for the week! What do you guys think? I think my friend would really like it. :D

IDEA: Cut your dresses

Is it just me or are fashionable dresses getting increasingly simple and easy to replicate with a few simple snips of the scissors?

All images are from Style Break

DIY: Casual Military Refashioned Tee

Hi guys! Here I am with another refashioned tutorial! Do you remember about my tank top that was ripped by the washing machine? Well, I used the bottom hem of the tank for the Rosette and Lace Refashioned Tee. But I still have a large piece of that lovely stretchy knit fabric left. So, I’m using it for this project!

Military Epaulette Jacket by 2treasurehunt on Etsy

This Military Refashioned Tee is a design that is inspired by those military coats with majestic epaulettes on the shoulders. I have had this black tank for quite some time and wanted to add something to it. The “Air Force” iron-on patch is something that I added after getting the black tank top. But even with that, I never really had a real kick whenever I wear this tank. It was a very very plain and boring military tank top. But now that I have added the “epaulette” on one shoulder, I think I’m ready to become a revolutionary and show it to the rest of the world.


So, are you ready? Let’s go!


Materials:
Unwanted tee/Knit fabric
Tank top
Scissors
Sewing needle and thread

Steps:
1.Get 2 pieces of knit fabric. I got mine from cutting off the bottom half of a ripped tank. 
2.Cut the knit fabric into strips of about 1 cm wide.
3. Pull the ends of the strips so that it curls around breadth-wise as shown in the picture
4. Sew the strips around the joining seam of one of the shoulders of the tank. The strip can be sewn to the tank top at its midpoint or at 1/3 of its length. You can also try to vary the point where the strip is sewn to have a messier look. Don’t try to make everything too neat!
5. You should get a sizeable tuft of… fabric strips on one of your shoulders.
6. Grab some strips and tie them into braids to create greater volume and an even more interesting look to your DIY epaulette!
7. Get another strip of fabric of about 2cm wide and sew it around the other shoulder.

8. Viola! Get a beret and strut your stuff like Che Guevera.

So after 2 refashioned tutorials, I still have quite a bit of my ripped tank top left! Hmm… I wonder what else I should with it…

DIY: Slash your old tee into a new one!

Materials needed:

Old, plain and boring tee

A pair of sharp fabric scissors

Fabric carbon paper

Rollers

Pins

Measuring tape

Slashed tees seems to be in season right now...

Link

And SO! I decided to make my own!

Step 1: The most important step! Choose your tee very carefully! 100% cotton tees will definitely NOT work as they tend to fray after cutting.
Do try to experiment with the excess fabric at the hem area to see if the fabric fray after cutting. Usually the stretchy tees are the ones that don't fray after cutting.

Step 2: After deciding on the tee, it's time to start drawing the lines for cutting!

Fold the tee into half by aligning the hem by the side together. Align the front and back of the tee well and then pin them in place.

Step 3: Start drawing the lines! I used washable fabric carbon paper and a roller. Fabric chalk is tricky to use on stretchy material.

You an decide on the length and width of the cut that you want. For my tee, I did 15 slits at the back, with each slit measuring 4.25 inches long (8.5 in when you unfold the tee), with the spacing of 1 inch for each slit.
Use a SHARP pair of scissors to make clean and straight slits!

Step 4: Repeat for the front of the tee! Due to the scoop neck design of the tee, I only made 13 slits for the front of the tee.

Step 5: Last but not least, make 2 slits on the sleeves as well! (If you are using a tee with sleeves)

Step 6: Pair your brand new tee with a contrasting tee inside and show it to the rest of the world! (^_^)v