Archive for March, 2010

T-Shirt Refashion: Jersey Necklace

March 27th, 2010
111 Comments

Sometimes I feel like I ride on the coattails of creative people.

Back in January as I was surfing my favorite blogs, I came across this post on Ultra Vroom about cardigans and fabric necklaces. I instantly fell in love and had to have a fabric necklace for my very own. I week or so later I remembered the large stash of white jersey hanging around the basement and hap-hazardly made my own version of Annie‘s fabric necklace.

If I remember correctly, I wore that necklace for 4 days in a row. I didn’t really take it off until Penelope bumped her mouth on the table and bled all over me (Penelope is ok, BTW). It was with much sorrow that I parted with the necklace long enough to launder it.

I love my necklace so much, I’ve been wanting to share it with you for sometime, but haven’t worked on the tutorial until just now. Here it is! I hope you like it.

Materials:

  • 1 XXL or XXXL men’s t-shirt
  • Scissors and/or rotary cutter
  • Sewing machine and or needle & thread

Cut off the bottom hem of the shirt. Cut 9 2-inch strips out of the shirt.

Cut open one end of each strip. Stretch the jersey through your hands to allow the fabric to curl inside itself. Group strips into threes.

Sew coiled ends together. Secure the end to a stationary object (like a couch) with a safety pin. Start braiding. I find that a tight braid looks nice, but avoid pulling and stretching the fabric.

Once finished braiding, sew ends together to make three separate rings of fabric.

Cut a 5 x 7 inch square of fabric from the remainder of the shirt, fold it over the three braids and sew. Sew the tube as close to the braids as possible for a snug fit. Trim excess fabric. Turn right side out.

Voila! Your necklace is complete. Twist, and double over and you’re ready to rock and roll!

If you twist the loop twice before doubling over, the necklace looks like this (above).

Twist the necklace once before doubling over and pull some loops longer to have a cowl neckline (above).

So there you have it, in less than 15 minutes you can have a really rad fabric necklace ’round your neck. Hope you give it a try! Happy Weekend, All!

P.S. You might want to check out Annie’s etsy shoppe: Annily Green.

Chris & Cesia Wedding Invitation

March 24th, 2010
8 Comments

If you ask a designer (at least girl designers) what they enjoy designing most, most of them will say wedding invitations. Just ask a designer you know. For me, I like designing them because it’s print (I love print design), I get an excuse to do something a little more formal, the wording is already laid out for me (I’m terrible with creative text) and it’s a great way to get my creative juices flowing.

A couple months ago, my engaged cousin asked me if I’d design their wedding invitations, of course I was just thrilled to. I had a lot of fun working on these, and I’m so excited to share the design with you.

Chris & Cesia have a lot of family and friends; they printed and sent out 700 invitations. 700! So of course the cost of printing was definitely something to we had to consider. While brainstorming and discussing the design, they decided that they really liked the invitations I designed for my own wedding nearly four years ago. I feel like I’ve grown a lot since designing those, but it is flattering that someone liked the design I did so long ago!

Here’s a little bit of info about the creative process and the invitations themselves:

  • A10 Envelopes & Invitation – I formatted the invitations to fit A10 envelopes; they are very inexpensive and you can find them in almost every color!
  • Black and white digital printing – We kept the printing cheap, but used good-quality 110lb cream uncoated cover so it didn’t feel cheap.
  • Custom Stamp – Getting this custom stamp made cost about $35, and added a whole lot of color and variety to the invitations. This is also a great way to add a touch of your wedding to anything (i.e. favors, envelopes, centerpieces, thank yous, place cards, etc)!
  • Sewn Invitation – This added a bit of variety and structure to the invite and kept the invitation and photo together. Additionally, it allowed us to include and hide registry information.
  • Photograph – While I don’t shoot engagements, I did take theirs. They were so easy to photograph! It was really nice to have full control of the quality and styling of the photograph.
  • Fonts – I used Quicksand for the invitation text and my own handwriting for their names.

There you have it. Chris & Cesia were SO incredibly easy going and fun to work with on these invitations. Now I’ve got to work on getting the rest of my cousins married. ;)

Thrifty & Chic: My Sister-in-Law

March 22nd, 2010
9 Comments

I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine started a little early on Friday morning at 3am when I woke up with the stomach flu. Penelope had had something a few days earlier, but she was up and running within minutes. I was flat on my back the entire day. So no blog posts, no iPhone case tutorial (yet!), just hours and hours of Gumby.

Thankfully, I got over the flu by Saturday morning; just in time to pack my bags and cart Penelope off to Phoenix for the next week. Penelope and I are having a fabulous time in sunny-but-not-too-hot Phoenix. It’s especially nice since the weather in Utah is schizophrenic. Yesterday I wore first pair of sandals I’ve worn in months! It was so nice to sport some springy clothes!

My sister-in-law, Shelley, wore such a fabulous outfit yesterday (as always), I’m featuring her for this week’s Thrifty & Chic column. Here’s the breakdown of what she wore:

  • headband: handmade, won at a church event
  • top: retro handmade
  • skirt: retro handmade
  • shoes: hand-me-downs from mom

Firstly, can you believe she’s a senior in high school? I just wish I had that kind of style savvy when I was in school. Shelley has confidence that all women would kill for. She’s super adventurous, always makes the most genius ensembles and has the best eye for vintage/retro goods. She’s so inspiring to me!

Secondly, the top and the skirt are handmade hand-me-downs from my mother-in-law, Linda. Aren’t they awesome? I know Linda made the skirt in high school, but I think that she made the skirt sometime in her twenties. Both items are very well constructed, you wouldn’t know it was handmade. Linda is awesome at sewing.

So, there you have it, a completely awesome outfit all for under $0 dollars. Amazing, right? What/who are your Thrifty & Chic inspirations?

Just a side note and a little shout out. . . I am so proud of this photo. SO PROUD. This is what came straight out of the camera! I made no corrections or adjustments, only cropping and resizing. Since taking Nicole’s photography class and reading her book, I’ve gone ALL manual. I’m shooting with manual white balance, exposure and aperture and LOVING IT!

Irish Pride

March 17th, 2010
4 Comments

For St. Patrick’s day, my mom used to turn tables and chairs on their sides, mess up the sheets and then sprinkle Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and gold coins all over. She’d also dye all of our food green and once in a while she made corned beef & cabbage. YUM. Love that stuff. Are you doing anything fun to celebrate?

I’m being totally lame and not doing anything fun or creative for St. Patrick’s Day, but I am so proud to have some Irish blood in me (err, we’re pretty sure there’s Irish in there). Maybe someday I’ll get to go there and meet all the rad folks of Ireland.

March Flickr Group Challenge: Keeping it Green

March 17th, 2010
7 Comments

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everybody!!

Isn’t this the  most adorable little girl’s apron you’ve ever seen?!?

I have a fun little challenge set up for you! Last month’s flickr challenge was so much fun, we have to do it again!

For this month, Puking Pastilles, a sweet etsy pattern shop, is sponsoring this month’s challenge. The theme is “go green”. You know, it’s kind of a play on words, green is a great color and it’s also a great way to live (I’m so clever). Submit your crafts using either versions of the term “green” for your chance to score some fabulous boy-themed fabric and a PDF pattern of your choice from Puking Pastilles! If you don’t even know how to sew, it’s not a problem, Puking Pastilles offers virtual sewing lessons. Cool, right? You can check out a sampling of free videos on their YouTube channel.

This is going to be fun!!

Here are the challenge details:

  • Items must be made and photographed by you (unless you’re the one modeling the handmade item – but please, don’t hire a professional).
  • Photos must be uploaded and added to the flickr group by Wednesday March 31, 2010 at 11:59pm MST.
  • Judging is subjective and as non-biased as possible. Entries will be judged by Georgia of Puking Pastilles.
  • One (1) Winner will be announced Friday April 2, 2010.
  • US entries, only.
  • Multiple entries are encouraged.
  • Comments on this post are NOT entries.
  • To enter, join IS•LY’s flickr group (click here) and add your crafts that are earth-friendly and/or the color green!

Bonnes Chance, everybody!

Have questions? Please comment below.

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