Halter Tee-Shirt

So it's been forever since I've blogged anything, mostly because I've been busy going on vacation and summer break starting and visiting family. But I'm back and I'm working on a new tutorial for two tee-shirts into a halter top.

I made one today and thought I'd at least show you what it will look like-

Front

Back

I love the way tee-shirt fabric drapes :)

[I'm wearing a tank top underneath so ignore that part, I didn't make it]

Look back for the tut!

Thanks for reading,

~Courtney

The 3 Most Inspiring Animals

Today I'm going to share with you the three most inspiring animals. Or at least in my opinion.

1. First off, Octopi, they are so amazing!!!

They are so neatly colored and pretty! You can make so many things resembling them. For example in my last post, OctopusMe, has some pretty amazing octopi themed things. If your interested in learning more about octopi look at this blog- http://www.everythingoctopus.blogspot.com/ A very intriguing blog.

2. Next Elephants.

Elephants are so beautiful! They are so powerful and big. Here's something Elephant-ish for you to gain inspiration from. Are those not the cutest things ever?! And did you know elephants come in a variety of colors?

(if you don't know what movie these^ are from you NEED to watch Dumbo. Or at least the Pink Elephants Song, tis amazing!!) Why not make something with Pink Elephants on it? That would be awesome.

3. Last but not least Giraffes.

Awwwwww!!!!! ^

They are so adorable. And are little kid giraffe costumes the cutest thing?

I think a cute project would be a giraffe head band. You could take a head band and cover it in giraffe fabric, or even just plain brown fabric and attach little brown pom-poms onto springs and put them on top. Cute!

Now for some etsy-giraffe cuteness this little stuffy. How cute is that?

Thanks for looking! Hope you were inspired!!

~Courtney ♥

Awesome Etsy Finds!

So I've made a list of really cool shops and individual items to look at on Etsy. Just a bunch of my most favorite things.

First off, just searching TBGuild, you can fins things made by ThreadBanger forum members. They are all very talented and make really awesome stuff.

Next I've fallen head over heels in LOVE with MountainGirlClothing's halter tank tops they are so amazing, as soon as I have money I'm going to buy one, they are so adorable!

3rd, I know shameless advertising.... But here is my shop. I make up cycled bags mostly, till I pick up a bit in the business area.

4th ArtbyheatherSupplies has oodles of really cool supplies and neat things to craft and make jewelry with, pus, she has bingo chips!! I love bingo chips! They remind me of those little tiny colorful sunglasses worn in the sixties.

I also fins my self returning again and again to audreyandgrace's shop to look at there beautiful dresses. They are so amazing! One of my favorites is this one, it's got lots of vintage appeal. I really love the colors.

I'm also madly in love with any tentacle earrings. And there are plenty to choose from on etsy. Check out these by cashewandalmonds. They are so awesome! If you are stretching your ears they are amazing! Also for those of you who have average sized ear holes, there's these ones by OctopusMe. They are wicked awesome!! Also OctopusMe has many other fantastic things that are all made from REAL, yeah that's right REAL octopus!! 0.0 It's really awesome,it's all cast in silver, really neat. All amazing, I love octopi so this shop is one of my favorites.

And these little neck warmers by Etnyk are so adorable and they are all soft and cuddly you can't help but love 'em!

And on the subject of neck warming devices, this is sooooo awesome! Its like a chain, but knitted, way too awesome. It's by FiBreRomance. Also this bonfire scarf. Too cool! It looks like your neck is on fire. It's made by minedalgic.

Thanks for looking!!
~Courtney

Arts In The Park and Etsy

So I haven't posted in a while because I was busy with Arts in The Park (an art show for artists to sell their wares in the park of my town), and didn't have the time to blog!

It was over all a good expeirence, although I didn't sell much, but I put alot of effert into the items I made. Although with the things I didn't sell I started up my Etsy Shop!!!! I already made a sell! (even if it was just my aunt!☺)

I sold this bag:

Just from the front ^

The inside/lining

Button detail^

This bag was made from a burnt orange colored corduroy skirt and some Garfield sheets. I really liked this one, and my dad says that it was one of his favorites as well.

At some point I would like to make a tutorial for a lined bag, I will have to take a break from sewing for a while though!

Thanks for looking!

~Courtney

Scrunchie Tutorial

Scrunchies are a good way to use up old scraps

Scrunchie Tutorial

Materials you'll be needin'

A Pony Tail Holder

Scrap fabric

A sewing machine or needle and thread

1. First get out your scrap fabric:

2. Cut a strip (or strips depending on many you want to make) that are 8 inches by 4 inches, like so:

3. Fold those strips in half long wise, good side together (the side you want your scrunchie to be inside) and make a seem along the longer side, I usually make a double seem just to make sure its nice and strong.

4. Here's where we're gonna flip the fabric right side out. Take a safety pin and pin it to one side of the tube you've just created, make sure to only pin one layer of the fabric.

5. Take the pin and push it back through the fabric tube you have created, and pull it all the way through until it comes out the other end. Pull until all the fabric is right side out. This will give you a very neat looking tube.

Finished Tube completely right side out ^

6. Now take you pony tail holder and cute it in half along the seem(cut out the metal if there is any)

7. Pin one side of the cut pony tail holder to on end of the tube and put one safety pin on the other end of the pony tail holder so it looks like this:

8. Push the end of the pony tail holder not connected to the scrunchie case through the case to the other side and pin the two ends together so they don't go back through; and hand sew the two ends together tightly.

9. Now carefully hand sew the two ends of the scrunchie together overlapping one side over the other so that you have a neat seam and your done!!

Hope my instructions were clear!!

~Courtney

P.S. I weren't sure how to spell scrunchie because I never need to spell it, but I tried my best and I'm just assuming that's how it's spelled, so if it's not sorry!!

Juice Carton bag

I saw this amazing bag in Threadbanger, and awesomely enough, she made a tutorial!!

http://clothwithpegs.blogspot.com/2009/04/juice-y-couture-handbag.html

Definitely check it out!!

~Courtney

Messenger Bags

So messenger bags are one of my favorite things to make, they are fairly easy and totally useful(to know how useful here's a history of messenger bags).

Today I made made one out of an old pair of blue jeans and fully lined it with rainbow sheets. It's my favorite project to-date, I'm so proud of it! (His name is charlie :) )

From the front ^

From the side^ (the other side has a camouflage panel)

Very brightly colored rainbow lining^

Pocket sewn into the lining^

The strap is the hem of the sheet sewn into a strip of denim.

Messenger Bag Tutorials

So I pretty much make my own pattern as I go every time I make a messenger bag, but i know not everyone knows the basic messenger bag shape, size and how to put it all together. So here's five different tutorials for five different messenger bags:

Here's how to make a duct tape messenger bag.

Here's how to make a very nice lined messenger bag.

A messenger bag out of fused plastic bags (and how to fuse the plastic bags!)

A reversible messenger bag.

A little kids messenger bag.

And just so you know, I did not make any of these tutorials nor do I take any credit for them, I'm just showing them to you.

Hopefully I helped!

~Courtney

Ahh, I love the smell of Mod-Podge in the morning!!!

Last night I made some magazine beads using old magazines and mod-podge. They are really easy and fun to make, so I made a quick little tutorial for them, so here ya be!

Magazine Beads

What you'll need:

A magazine with pages the colors you want

Mod-Podge

Toothpicks

A Paint brush

Step 1. Cut your magazine pages into triangles, like so:

Step 2. Lay a toothpick on the wide end of the triangle, and make sure you have the colorful side(the side you want to beads to be) face down.

Step 3. Brush some mod-podge onto the paper and start rolling the paper tightly around the toothpick.

Step 4. When you get to the end of the paper, brush mod-podge over the whole bead and wait a minute or two for it to dry a little bit and them carefully slide the bead off of the toothpick.

Step 5. Let them dry for half an hour then add another coat of mod-podge to add extra shine a durability. And that's it!! They should look something like this:

Thanks for looking!!

~Courtney :)

P.S. Please excuse the bad pictures, my photography and my camera are terrible.

First Post and an introduction :)

So I thought it would be fun to join in on the world of blogging, so here I am!

Let me introduce myself, my name is Courtney and I loooooove to sew and make things. I spend most of my free time creating. I want to inspire other people to start doin-it-themselves, and recycling things, it's really fun! I like to make my own clothing (although I will admit I also really like shopping, so I don't make it all, just some) and I really like to make my own accessories and jewelry, almost all of my jewelry is handmade by myself, or someone on Etsy, and mostly recycled.

At first I couldn't think of anything people would be interesting in reading about that I could have to say, and then I realised, I spend almost all of my time crafting, sewing, knitting, drawing, and doing art of every sort and thought people may like to know how to do some of the things I find so much fun.

I'll be showing some awesome links to some of the best Do-it-yourself sites, amazing tutorials, making my own tutorials, and showing some of my projects, so hopefully, I will be bale to help and inspire some of the crafter/sewers out there!

Awesome noteworthy link:

My all time favorite DIY site, ThreadBanger. It's an amazing website. There are weekly shows with tutorials on how make tons of DIY clothing, and fashion. They almost always recycle and there projects are mostly easy and always easy to follow.

The forums on ThreadBanger are amazing, people make such amazing projects and wonderful tutorials. It's very inspiring to look through and see all the awesome things people make.

Hopefully someone will eventually stumble across my blog and read it!!

~Courtney