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

DIY: Rosette and Lace - Refashioned Tee

Wheee! Another DIY post! These babies just keep rolling in, don't they? I am loving this winter break.


I've been thinking of doing a simple refashion project for a long time. Then something happened and I HAD to do it. No prizes for guessing what it is because I'm going to show you the pictures of the rather unfortunate incident.

Yes this is what the washing machine did to my tank top. It ripped it right across at the back! And how unfortunate that it's not located at some place where I can do some strategic sewing or patching. Oh whatever. 


What is done, is done. So I simply cut the strip, gathered a few beads, a section of lace ... and got this after less than 30 minutes.

So, if your washing machine is also an angry, tank-ripping machine, come follow the steps and create your own refashioned Rosette and Lace Tee!


Materials:
Plain top
1 strip of t-shirt
Pearl and clear beads
Lace
Sewing needle and thread


Steps:
NOTE: You may want to practice the steps and see if you like how your rosette looks before attempting to sew it into position.

Sorry about the orientation. That's Blogger trying to smart and rotating my pictures...


1. Cut the bottom of your tee (the hem) to yield a 36cm strip. You can use a longer strip to make a bigger flower or a shorter one to make a smaller flower.

2. Fold down to create a triangle at one of the ends. Sew into position.

3. Crease the lower part of the strip and fold it towards the triangle. Sew into position.

4. Crease at a lower part along the strip again, this time a further distance away from the 2nd crease. Sew into position.

5. Turn the strip towards the first triangle to cover the bottom part of the triangle. Sew into position.

6. Crease and turn it anti-clockwise. The first triangle should be partially covered. Sew into position.

7. Fold the strip down while turning the strip anti-clockwise. Sew into position.

8. Continue folding and turning at random and sew into position. You should get a rosette that looks something like this. It's ok if your rosette looks lightly different from mine. That's the beauty of it! 

9. Sew the rosette onto your plain top. Don't sew it all around the edges because we need to add the lace! Sew beads to the centre.

10. Get a section of lace. 

11. Fold the straight edge of the lace left and right like an accordion. Sew it in place.

12. Tuck the folded bit of the lace into a corner of the rosette. Sew it in place.

13. Tuck the 2 ends of the lace under the rosette and sew it in place.


There you have it, a t-shirt flower with lace as its leave. (^_^)


Hope you like it!


P.S.: Ok, so you may be thinking that I still have the rest of the tank that I have not cut and used... Well, I'm keeping them at the moment and waiting to see what comes to my mind. I don't want to waste an inch of the tank!!!

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

DIY: Upcycled drawstring backpack from t-shirt

Pile on the Joy to the World!

That was what the t-shirt says. Not forgetting, " Gobble up these Thanksgiving savings", which sounded just like a promotional tagline in a supermarket during the period leading up to Thanksgiving.

My mum bought it for me YEARS ago. Great graphics, cute lines, but AWFUL cutting that wasn't the least bit flattering. Last but not least, it looked like a darn cheap tee. So it wasn't good enough to be worn as a tee. But I thought perhaps it may be good enough to be carried as a bag on my back! :D

This is how you do it!

Materials needed:

Colour cord (from Daiso, for just S$2! Do try to match your tee! I am using black because my tee had black prints)

Tee

Cloth for lining

Eyelets

1. Determine the size of the bag that you want to make, with considerations of the size of the graphics on the tee. Remember to leave extra 2 inches to make room for sewing.

2. Cut off the sleeves of the tee.

3. Cut the top and the bottom of the tee according to the markings that you have made when you measured the size. Then cut the lining according to the same size of the tee. For the lining, I made the cut in a way such that I will only need to sew the sides and the top. The bottom is folded over and thus do not require any sewing at all.

(I decided to use a very old teddy fabric instead halfway through the work)

4. Sew zig-zag stitches all around the cut edges of the cloth to prevent the thread from running. Or use an overlock machine if you have one.

5. Sew the bottom of the tee together. Sew a hem at the top of the tee, ensuring that the sides the tee is not sewn together so that the cord for drawstring will be able to pass through the hem. The top of sides of the tee should already be separated when the sleeves were cut in the beginning. You can determine the how much opening you'd like to have at the top of your bag by sewing the top of the sides together.

6. Sew the sides of the lining together. Sew a hem on the top of the lining, adjust the width according so that the lining fits INSIDE the bag (tee).

7. Thread the cord through the top hem of the bag to create a drawstring opening of the bag.

8. Punch 2 holes with the eyelet, 1 at the bottom of each corner of the bag. Secure the cord as shown in the picture. Try to punch through both the tee and the lining so that the bag is sturdier!

And there you've got it!

I like this new bag sooo sooo much! But my mum was saying that I am too old for such bags. And I wanted to take a picture of myself carrying this cute little bag as well, but my brother was such a bad photographer that I had to force him to model for the bag while I take the picture instead.