DIY: Upcycled Scarflette

I am Momma Hear Me Roar (how cute is that name?) has a quick and easy upcycled sweater DIY.  Even we can't screw up this little sewing!  We love this and love her blog - so check her out!

I took this long sweater and cut out a long rectangle.  (My dimensions were about 8 inches by 29 inches.)

I flipped the nice finished sides together and sewed around the edges.  I left the bottom end open (the one with the ribbed edge).

I inverted it and sewed on two large buttons.  I didn't make real buttonholes, since the scarflette can easily be pulled over my head.  I also didn't bother to sew the end shut, since the buttons keep it in place.

Super easy, super cute, and super warm.

DIY: Upcycled Sweater Scarf Embellishment

Grosgrain blog has a great upcycled sweater blog that keeps us on our theme from yesterday's sweater tutorial for vase covers.  We love this scarf and can totally see it keeping us warm on those cold winter days!

Be sure to check out their blog for even more DIY!
I tried to add the leaves on the sleeves as well but it looked too bulky against the thin sweater. I might suggest a looser or thicker sweater to add the sleeve embellishments. Or using a thinner wool, like craft felt to make the leaves.

Doing the sweaters late in the day has really helped to make me look sharp when picking up Lily. People must think I dress this way all the time.

1. Cut out some 3" leaves from felted wool.

2. Overlap the leaves and sew them together.

3. Once you have a chain long enough to line your neck sew it to the collar.

4. Make another chain of the same length and sew to first chain.

5. Make another chain and sew it to the front of your cardigan. To hide the buttons on my cardigan I sewed the leaves on one side but overlapped it over the edge.

The cardigan is still able to be buttoned and unbuttoned.

DIY: Recycled / Upcycled T-Shirt Bracelet

This is a great DIY tutorial that could easily go hand in hand with other t-shirt tutorials since it uses only a small part of the t-shirt after you've cut it up for other things!  We like multi-tasking with our materials.  Thanks to Dollar Store Crafts for coming up with and sharing this tutorial!

If you like cutting up t-shirts to transform them into necklaces, pillows, tote bags and other fun stuff, you often end up with a few extra pieces. Here's an easy project that uses up scrap pieces of a t-shirt to make a simple summer bracelet.

Project estimate:

• T-shirt scrap, on hand
• Aluminum conduit connector or similar hardware, $1 or less
• Tape, on hand

Total: $1 or less

After cutting the  useful parts off a t-shirt, save the pieces around the sleeve or collar.  In my case, I was able to cut one long strip about an inch or two wide and about 12 inches long.

Wrap the ends of the strip with blue tape or masking tape.

Feed the strip through a hardware tube. Wrapping and twisting the fabric a bit, feed both ends through a second time.

Depending on the length of your scrap, tie any loose ends into a knot or bow or tuck them into the rest of the bracelet (a little like a turban).

Fabric glue or stitch into place.

DIY: Party Animal Necklace

These are whimsical, creative, and we adore Flamingo Toes blog for putting them together!  What do you think?  Do you love them like we do??  We must find an occasion to wear one of these bad boys...

Here is what you’ll need:

• Animals (I got these at Michael’s – and I think they are the same animals they used. They were in a tube – take your 40% off coupon)
• Beads, chain, ribbon, fabric, rhinestones, wire, etc for embellishment
• 22″ chain and closure findings for necklace
• bails (to make the animals into pendants)
• Glue (I used E-6000)

We’re going to start with the elephant so you can see what I did, then I’ll show you closeups of all of them.
The beauty of these though is that you can dress them up any way you want!

Start by gluing a rhinestone spacer to the top of the elephant’s head.

Add a colorful bead on top of that.

I think he likes his hat. :)

Cut a piece of ribbon for his blanket.
(I got this gorgeous jacquard ribbon from my lovely sponsor, The Ribbon Retreat. I have a nifty project planned with it but this little scrap made a perfect blanket piece.)

Glue to the back of the elephant.

Trim the blanket with a small piece of chain.

Add a strip of rhinestones between the blanket and the tail.

Wrap a bit of wire around each foot.

Glue a bail to the elephant’s back, towards the top.

Let everything dry thoroughly before you add your chain.

Cut a piece of chain the length you want your necklace to be (I cut mine 22″).
Feed the chain through the bail.

Add the closure pieces to the ends of the chain. I used a lobster clasp on one side and a jump ring on the other.

Now you have a super cute Party Animal Necklace!!

Here are some shots of the others so you can see how they’re dressed up.

Our zebra has a crown (lucky him!) and a fabric blanket.

Our giraffe likes rhinestones and sequins. Snazzzzy.

Our tiger is wearing a pompom collar (all the cool tigers do) and some chain around his middle. He has a flat bail, which was easy to cover with the chain.
Here’s a pic before I wrapped it.

Aren’t they fun??