Racerback top

Awhile back I was playing around with some scrap fabric and came up with this top. The neckline has knotted fabric as the detailing on the front. The back has the raw strips of fabric (left over and still connected to the knotting from the front neck) wound and secured around the top.

Purple racerback front

Pretty quick sew, especially with keeping raw edges.

Purple racerback back

Don't forget to check out the sites I link up to by clicking on the tab at the top of the page!

textured tube top tutorial

I've been working on beagle proofing our house (yes, again...) and was out of town for several days so my sewing room activity has been light lately. But, I had my embroidery machine looked at while I was gone and everything is alright with it. Hopefully that means I'll bust it out and get back to more embroidery/sewing :)

Now, how to make the textured tube top:

1) Cut fabric as if making a simple tube top, but add about 5" extra length at the top of the front piece

2) Make several horizontal pleats with the excess fabric at the top of the front piece

3) Sew over top of the pleats back and forth several times (I made zig-zags across the entire front) to keep the pleats in place (Kind of like how I made this pillow )

4) Sew front and back pieces of tube top together

That's it! You can finish off the top and bottom edges, but I just left mine raw.

Recovering lawn chairs (part 3) complete!

I've been working on recovering a couple of patio chairs, here are links to the earlier stages:

Before the chairs were recovered
Making the pattern and assembling the chairs

Now, here's a look at how the chairs were completed!

My last post about recovering the lawn chairs ended with the fabric sleeve (new seat cover) being slightly too large. So, I sewed it smaller (about 1/2") and then reassembled the chair.

Since I was now satisfied with the fit of the cover it was time to sew the fabric at the bottom of the chair together.

To do this I folded the raw edges to the inside of the chair and used clips to keep it in place. Then, with an upholstery needle and sturdy thread, I hand stitched the fabric together.




Pretty simple. Here's how it turned out:




I have an extra yard or so of fabric, so I'm thinking about making little removable pillows to tie on to the back of the chair. We'll see!

Recovering lawn chairs (Part 2)

You may recall Part 1 of my attempt to recover lawn chairs. (or skip ahead to see the completed chair)

Here's where that project went since that post:

1) I cut fabric (with seam allowances) based on the paper pattern I made for the chair.

2) I sewed right sides together leaving the bottom edge open (I will hand stitch this together on the chair when it is complete)

3) I reassembled the chair (having to make holes in the fabric for some screws in the frame to fit through)

** for fabric reinforcement where the screws were to pass through it, I had a strip of two additional pieces of fabric that followed the frame, made button holes and used fray check around the screws location**

I made putting this chair back together more annoying than it had to be :)



4) Inspect the new fabric cover for the chair (before sewing the bottom shut)

In my case, the fabric cover was too large. (hmm I guess it would have been a good idea to actually make measurements hahaha)


More to come on this project, right now I need to take the chair back apart and sew the fabric case 1/2" smaller.

Refashioned t-shirt (green tank with elastic)

Hubby sorted through his t-shirt collection and rounded up a nice stash he doesn't wear anymore. Then, he gave them to me so I could do some more refashioned t-shirts!

The first shirt I took scissors to was a green shirt (with some lighter more faded areas) with a rather large logo across the chest.

Since I didn't want the logo on the refashioned shirt, I simply turned the shirt inside out. Goodbye logo and hello nice solid green shirt.


The photo above shows the first cuts I made to the shirt. The sides are a little uneven in the picture, but were trimmed more evenly before sewing.

With the NEW right sides together (logo on the outside) I sewed along the two sides of the shirt with a zig zag stitch.

I then cut off the collar of the shirt (and removed the tag)



Now, to finish off the shirt, I simply sewed elastic on the inside of the neck and armholes. I left those edges all raw. Since the edges kind of roll and ruffle a bit, you can see the lighter shades of green on the neck and armholes.

Recovering lawn chairs (Part 1)

A year or two ago, Hubby's parents gave him two lawn chairs they didn't want anymore...

We recently purchased a new patio set (table and chairs) so I was hoping all of our old lawn furniture (some from my parents too) would be thrifted now that we had a matching set (and the old chairs were hard to store). Unfortunately, Hubby felt differently and wanted to keep the ones from his parents.

Since the chairs were full of grime and holes, I agreed to keep them if they could be recovered. Hubby liked that idea.


Before taking the lawn chairs apart, I made a pattern and marked key locations of the chair. Usually I just use the old fabric as the pattern, but it seemed easier to use the paper in this case.



Yuck. Hubby told me he'd clean the chairs up way back when... that did not happen. I'm pretty sure this is even after I sprayed them down with a hose.

The picture below is after I took off a metal support bar from the back of the seat, and the base of the lawn chair.

The chair was ridiculously hard to take apart. So, of course I got my finger pinched by who knows what (nasty!) and was gushing blood everywhere.



I'll leave part one of this post at that... more to come later.


Skip ahead to see how the pattern was made (and tweaked) and the completed chairs!

4th of July bikini top

Several years ago, I decided it would be funny to crochet a red, white and blue bikini for the 4th of July. I have yet to crochet the bottom piece although it could be paired with a solid red or blue bottom from the store. Here's what the top looks like:

Crocheted 4th of July bikini top Red White & Blue! - Front

Crocheted 4th of July bikini top Red White & Blue! - Back

(I still need to add lining to the top and obviously would add it to the bottom too)

In addition to the sites I usually link up to (see tab above) I also linked up to these 4th of July related linky parties:

http://notsosimplehousewife.blogspot.com/2011/07/4th-of-july-link-party.html

http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2011/07/red-white-and-blue-linky-party.html