DIY: Summer Diary/Planner

The front cover of my planner

The back

And so, it has begun.


I think that the very idea of having a summer holiday is very romantic. The thought of summer conjures up images of the free-spirit, youth, islands surrounded by clear blue water, sun-kissed skin and unforgettable memories. 


But sometimes the mind fails and it forgets things. I wish I could sing the song by ABBA while I reminisce about my last summer, but sadly, I can vaguely recall it. 


So, this year, I am trying something different. I spent the entire day making this scrapbook/summer planner/diary thing from the junk on my shelves. As a self-confessed hoarder, I often find myself having too many travel brochures, free postcards and magazines lying around. So once in a while, I make something like a scrap-notebook or card. It's my way of recycling. 


Materials:

Steps:
1. Cut the scraps of paper and cover the pages of the magazine with empty spaces for your writings/doodles/whatever.


2. Get some other unwanted magazine, cut some more pretty pictures up and paste them around the pages. You can be creative here and try to use different medias as well. I used some cartoon tapes on some of the pages. Here are some examples:

3. Make an eye-catching cover. Do a collage of pictures of random models if you are tired by the time you reach the last page, just like me. For a great finish, stick contact sheet on the cover page and the back page. FYI, I think contact sheet is the most amazing that I discovered in Sydney. It's this sticky clear plastic that you stick to the covers of paperback books to prevent those doggone dog ears from forming. Damn, you can even spill coffee all over the cover.


4. Start writing in your diary/planner using your coloured markers. It's a diary/planner because I will be writing about the things I plan to do and the things I managed to achieve in the same book. You can fill the book with whatever details you want.


The huge top picture of my cover is actually a photo of Hamilton island that I found in a magazine. The words "Summer '10" are something that I wrote in permanent marker. 


I think I will be posting the scanned pages of what I have written in the book. :)

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

From the streets of Bangkok - 2

 Check out what the folks in Bangkok have been doing with aluminium drink cans! Cans that were once considered junk once it has served its purpose have now become these colourful, intricately crafted souvenirs.

They have made tuk-tuks, motorcycles and even alarm-clocks (that look like a drink can monster) out of the unassuming drink can. Who would have thought of that!

So the next time before you chuck out the drink can that you have just emptied, stop for a moment and think of all the things this drink can could have been.

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.

Eco-friendly Xmas Card Competition

This is the Christmas card that we made for the competition we had recently! The card is actually A1 size. We spent several days trying to complete it and even had to stay back for 2 days or so to finish it. As you all should be able to tell from the picture, the Christmas tree is made from many many strips that we cut out from green aluminium drink cans.

The bronze strip that you see at the bottom is actually some sort of a floating ribbon, but the colour made it looked like a muddy path instead. This is the part that I didn't like about the card. :(

One of my favourites is the golden bells that we made. It's actually made of the top of the Yakult/Vitagen bottles and the bottle caps of the eye drops we have in our clinic! We sprayed gold spray all over it and scattered gold glitter on it before the paint dried. Tada! And we've got a pair of golden bells!

Another one that is also worth mentioning is the heaven-sent gifts with parachutes attached. The parachutes are made of the individual cells of the plastic egg carton wrapped with potato chip wrappers for a more appealing look. And as you can see, the gift is made from fruit juice carton!

The silver star is made from aluminium foil wrapped with old newspaper crushed to the shape of a star and the ribbon, is simply something we got from old Christmas decorations.

And for the snow men's face, we were all desperate and short of ideas by that time. So in the end, we simply grabbed the notice board pins we have on the table and the used super glue cap that was also lying around with the rest of the mess.

And with this project... *drum rolls* we've got the FIRST PRIZE, beating the rest of the other Outpatient clinic that took part in this competition.

DIY: Upcycled Xmas Tree

Tis' the season to be... upcycling!

Christmas is just around the corner! Add a little joy of Christmas around the house by making this little upcycled Christmas tree ornament.

Click on the images to view larger pictures! (^_^)

Tools and Supplies

1 Cereal Box

Scissors

Mathematical Compasses

Glue

Bottle Cap

Plasticine/Blue Tack

Penknife

Drinking straw

1. Get an unwanted Kellogg's Cereal box.
With the help of a pair of mathematical compasses, cut circles of 4.5 cm, 4.0cm, 3.5cm, 3.0cm, 2.5cm, 2.0cm and 1.5cm

2. Cut slits of around 1cm all around the circumference.

3. Your circles should look like this when stacked together on the straw. The circles should fit snugly on the straw if you didn't cut the holes too big.

4. Trace the size of the bottle cap (which is going to be the pot of the xmas tree) on the cereal box.

Repeat Step 3 only for this circle.

5. Position the circles nicely at one end of the straw.Cut long slits of about 4cm at the other end of the straw.

6. Stick a small volume of Blue Tack, plasticine or even sticky tape at the centre of the straw where the long slits stop.

7. Stick the straw to the centre of the bottom of the bottle cap.

Try using long slender items like pencils to help you in this step.

8. Add stuffings of unwanted paper into the "pot". Tear lengths of used, unwanted paper, then twist them lengthwise. Try joining the twisted paper into a circle and stuff it in the bottle cap.

If you have plasticine around your house, use it instead! I think it's definitely a better material for support.

9. After the bottle cap is stuffed full, stack the circle cut to the circumference of the bottle cap on top.

You can add a little glue to stick the cereal box circle to the cap.

10. Apply glue to the area where the straw and the cereal box meets to secure the xmas tree.

11. When the glue is completely dried, snip the remainder of the straw at the top.

Embellish your upcycled xmas tree with stars, ribbons and glitters!