Hell yes! Silver Pants!

I'm kind of excited about my super cool, super comfy, perfectly fitting new silver pants. I've been wanting crazy pants for a while not but have been having a hard time finding ones that won't hurt (FMS) and will fit my body right (curvy + petite = trouble). So, no problem. I just made them! I found this stretchy silverness at Fabricana in Richmond for about 20$ for two yards. The pattern I used was the Kwik Sew Misses 3807. I'll be honest though, I was not happy with the pattern. The waist was too high, the sizing WAY too big and generally weird. It took a bunch of alterations to get them to fit right, I acutally almost gave up. But, it all came together in the end.

Silver Stretchy Pants:

Materials:
"Metallica" Pewter fabric 1.5 yards (for med-small)
Kwik Sew 3807

Step One:
Cut out your pattern. (Use regular scissors for this part)



Step Two:
That thing's been folded up for a while so you'll want to iron it flat so that the shape is perfect.




Step Three:
Fold your fabric in half, right sides in and pin the pattern piece over top. Make sure the fabric is flat and smooth so that the shape isn't warped.




Be warned! Don't ignore pin or needle self pokings. They can lead to inadvertant bleeding and fabric-ruining!



Step Four:
Use FABRIC SHEARS to cut out the fabric. For this pattern the seam allowance is included so cut flush to the paper.

Step Five...

Okay, there are no more pictures. At this point I kinda lost it with this pattern. I followed the pinning directions (which were a little weird) and included turning the pants inside out again and sewing them inside each other. At one point I sewed the ridiculousy high waist shut and had to seam rip it out. Then out of mere curiosity I tried the pants on.

Holy Crap! They were awful. Too big and tent looking (even though my measurements had matched perfectly) Erkel-high and generally terrible. I threw them in a box and gave up for about ten minutes, at which point I was reminded how much I loved that fabric by all the scraps laying around. So, I decided to save the day!

I took the waist down, added a drawstring (I don't love elastic) and took the seams in about an inch and a half. I also doubled, and in some places tripled the seams, just in case. I shortened them for my 25 in inseam (yep) and finally, without daring to hope, tried them on again. And...

Step Six: Flaunting the awesome



Holy Crap!!!
I'm pretty sure I own the coolest pants in the world.

Pop can tab necklace

Hello!

I made some silver pants the other day (which I'll post a tutorial for soon) and then realized that I didn't have a lot of silver jewelry to go with it as I rarely wear metal (too heavy). Fortunately that is a problem easily solved with a little craftiness.

Pop Can Tab Necklace

Materials:
Cardboard or card
brown fabric
10 pop can tabs
Needle
Thread
Black ribbon

Step One:
Cut out your triangle of cardboard (I used an old cereal box) and wrap it in brown fabric.


Step Two:
I used electrical tape to tape the fabric down. Fast and easy!




Step Three:
Sew the pop can tabs into place. I started at the bottom and worked my way up. A word of caution: I cut my triangle too big for the tabs and ended up having to make it smaller on one side. But don't cut the fabric! The beauty of electrical tape is that you can just peel the fabric back, clip the cardboard and retape.


Step Four:
Tape black ribbon to the back at your desired length and you're done. The whole thing takes about 20-60 minutes, depending on how fast you work.

The finished product:


Make. Make. Make.

RAWR! is dinosaur for I love you

Hello lovely crafters!

This wicked cool dinosaur shirt was one of my first ever major refashions and still one of my favourite. Unfortunately the majority of the "during" pictures were lost in my old computer. So, I have a few from the beginning and a few from the end. I'm going to have to describe the middle part.

First thing I did:

Originally I had planned to do this with a dyed t-shirt and a giant hunk of felt. Unfortunately I don't really have the energy still to correctly dye things. I attempted it though, and thus, the unfortunate result:



Not the dye's fault.



Not sure if you can see it but there's red and black spots in there that confuse the heck out of me.

So I pitched that idea and moved on (the shirt is going to become the base for my next form waste not!) Why make more work for myself right? I found a men's grey polo at Value Village that was a much thicker material. I realised something heavier will hold the weight of the felt much better.]

The shirt, being a polo, had a really low collar that I had to get rid of so I ended up having to cut it really low. It definitely needs to be warn with a shirt underneath, otherwise it doesn't keep the ladies under control. To make the racerback I just layed my favourite raceback tank top (from Joe Fresh) over top and cut out the same shapes. I did have to do some alterations as the fabric was making the cut hang all weird but it all worked out in the end.

I bought a big chunk of black felt at Michaels for around 7$. Here is the part that I really wish I had those pictures for. The dinosaur! I found an outline of a t-rex that I really like online. Then I just held a piece of paper up to the screen and traced it lightly. I wanted to make it huge without going anywhere, I like my house :) and my artistic talent does not stretch so far as drawing. So, I drew a grid over the little dinosaur, then increased the scale of the grid until it was shirt sized and copied what was in the little boxes and...bam! I had a shirt-sized dinosaur (onomatopoeias make everything better).

I cut out the super huge dinosaur and had a pattern piece. I pinned it to the felt and cut out my giant dinosaur for the shirt. Sew one to the other and...pow! (seriously, its fun, you should try it) I had a super cool dinosaur shirt.

A word of caution however: If I ever make a similar shirt (I'm considering a robot) I'm not planning to do it with felt. It's finnicky to wash and seems to collect my white cat's hair intentionally.

The rawring shirt:



The pretty kitty:



Make. Make. Make.