DIY - No Sew Denim Shorts.

I see blogs and articles about this all of the time. What's the RIGHT way to cut off jeans? What's the PROFESSIONAL way? To this I say pish, what's the EASY way? For me, all of these articles have one thing in common, they are making this way harder than it needs to be! Cutting off jeans is EASY! I've been doing it since I was 12! And here's how...

You need: your jeans that you wish to cut off, scissors, iron-on hemming tape (found in any craft shop or haberdasher), and some way to mark the jeans. I've used tailors chalk, but if you don't have it then you could even use masking tape if you want. You will also need and iron (not pictured).

Step 1: Turn your jeans inside out and mark the length you want to cut them at. You can do this either by putting them on too judge the length; laying a pair of shorts with a length you like over the top and marking at the same length; or, if you're feeling like a renegade, you could just wing it and do it by eye like I did.

Step 2: Fold your jeans in half along the leg, taking the time to make sure they are properly lined up. You can pin them if you like.

Step 3: Cut your jeans a good 5-6cm below your line. You need to cut at a slight angle, so that the length is longer on the inside leg. Cut through both legs together.

Open them out, this is what you should have so far.

Oh dear, they look dreadful, right? Guess what? IT doesn't matter! We're not done yet. Don't get to this stage and lose hope, because the next step makes it all okay again.

Step 4: Fold each leg over twice. Try to fold them so that both legs look the same, and you should end up with a much neater result.

Step 5: Lay out the hemming tape over one side of one leg fold, and cut to fit.

*apologies for the change in colour on the pictures, I did the first 4 steps in the evening, and the ironing the next morning, so the light was completely different.*

Step 6: Tuck your hemming tape underneath the fold.

Step 7: Place a damp cloth over the area and iron. IMPORTANT - do not slide the iron back and forth as you normally would as this will move the fabric and stop the tape from sticking. instead, use a up/down pressing action ONLY.

Now it's just a case of repeating steps 6 and 7. I recommend doing it in 4 stages, one for each leg front, and one for each leg back. You can add extra bits of hemming tape on the edges if necessary.

Done!

That's all it takes to make your very own summer wardrobe staple. It costs nothing and would take you less time than a trip to the shop to buy a pair.

Total cost: £0.00
Total time spent: 20 minutes.

DIY - No Sew POW! Headband. 15 minute make.

I love all things nerdy, as you may have noticed. With the new batman films getting darker in tone, it makes me crave those days of the Adam West Batman TV show, where you waited the whole episode for a fight scene because it was all about that POW! BAM! ZAP!

Inspired by this epic level of awesomeness, I bring you my latest creation, in colour!

You will need: 3 sheets of felt (1 black, the other 2 in your choice of colours), scissors, glue, A thick black marker pen, and enough elastic to go around your head. (I used an old headband here, but a piece of elastic would work just fine.

Step 1: Choose your first piece of felt (in my case, the yellow), and write out your letters with your marker pen. I went for POW! but anything would work as long as you use nice big capital letters and an explanation point at the end.

You don't need to worry about the "holes" in the letters, such as the middle of the O or P, at this stage as we will be dealing with that later, and trying to cut them out with scissors is likely to make a messy end result.

If you want to, you could make a paper template of the letters first. I didn't because I like to live dangerously, and, as a result, I lost half a sheet of felt due to making the letters too big. Lesson learned.

Step 2: Cut out your letters, ensuring you leave the thick black line around the edges.

Step 3: With your second colour of felt, cut out the insides of the letters and glue them into place. Again, remember to keep your thick black line for the comic book effect.

Step 4: Apply glue to the back of each letter and arrange them onto your second colour of felt. Leave a good distance from the edges so that you can cut out your shape around them.

Step 5: When the glue is dry, draw a nice big starburst shape around your letters and cut it out.

Step 6: Glue this to your black felt. Then cut around it, leaving a thick black border.

Step 7: Turn it over and glue your elastic to the back.

Wait to dry, then fly your nerd flag with pride.

The possibilities for this one are never ending! You could make any word, in any colour. Like a particular hero logo? Easy! Want a princess crown? No sweat! Play with shapes and colours and words. Of course, it doesn't even have to be a headband. How about a hair slide? Or mix with THIS TECHNIQUE to make shoe clips. Use your imagination.

Total cost - could easily make 2 for 50p
Total time spent - 15 minutes plus drying time.

Just a quick note before I go to let you know that I am now on pinterest! Come check it out HERE, but if you are new to pinterest be warned, I cannot be held accountable for any losses to your free time!

DIY - Scrapbusters felt bookmark.

This one is so simple that it's a good one for the kids to do. When I made my flower brooches I had such awkward amounts of felt left. Was I going to waste it? Of course not! So I came up with a super simple and cute way of using those scraps.

You need: felt, scissors, needle and thread, and a ruler (optional). You could also use some optional decorative elements such as beads if you wish. Sorry for the lack of picture at this stage, I was so eager to get started that I didn't pause to take one, duh!

Step 1: Fold the felt corner to corner.

Step 2: Measure the bottom edge. This one came to exactly 5cm. you want to make a square so after taking the measurement, measure the same length upwards and cut.

Step 3: fold the square in half diagonally.

Step 4: With the folded edge along the bottom, cut a rounded corner so that it looks like half a heart.

When it's opened out it should look like this:

Step 5: fold the heart together, and sew along the straight edge.

And that is the full extent of what you need to do. Anything beyond this point is purely decorative. I added stitching around the entire outline to give it a more coherent look.

If you are going to do this just remember that you MUST NOT SEW THE HEART SHUT! It must remain open to be able to slip over the corner of the page. You can do as much or as little as you like to it from this point, but I chose to keep it simple and prefer that rustic look.

Easy peasy!

Total cost: £0.00 (because it was made using scraps)
Total time spent: less then 5 minutes.

Polka Dots. Yay!

I have been making accessories for quite some time now, and I've come to the conclusion that, scary as it feels, it's about time I jumped in the deep end and had a go at making actual clothing. So that's exactly what I did! This blog entry is not presented as a DIY because it's my first real try at making clothes. Maybe I've gotten a bit ahead of myself and forgotten that I'm a beginner with no clue what I'm doing, but who cares?! This was so much fun, and to my surprise, it was EASY! Super easy.

I used scissors, needle and thread, newspaper, masking tape, a borrowed sewing machine, copious amounts of pins, and some super bargain fabric found in the charity shop for £1. Yes, seriously, it was only £1. See..

Firstly, I measured myself around the bust and waist (I'm not going to tell you the numbers though), and then measured the length I wanted the top to be. 
Then, I taped together newspaper sheets, marked out the correct shape, and cut it out to make my pattern.

I then lay this pattern on top of my fabric, pinned it down, and cut it out. I had to be careful not to make mistakes though because there wasn't a lot of fabric to spare.

I then used the pattern again to make the back. The problem was, as stated earlier, I didn't have a lot of fabric to spare. In fact, I plain and simply didn't have enough to make the back. So, what I did was to cut out 2 pieces, each a third of the width of the first piece, the plan being to put a panel of plain black fabric (taken from an old jumper that no longer fits) in the back.

Each of these pieces were then hemmed by folding over each edge twice, pinning, adding temporary stitches, and then running through the sewing machine.

Now for the straps. Once again, the lack of fabric seemed as if it was going to be a problem. I had enough left over, but none of it long enough. The solution was to make each strap in two parts. So I cut out 4 pieces of equal(ish) size, folded each strip in half along the edge and inside out, and hemmed as before.

 After passing through the sewing machine, I turned each piece back the right way out. This proved to be tricky to do by hand, so I solved the issue by using the handle of a wooden spoon.

 Now came the time to assemble!
Firstly, I laid the front on the floor, right side up, then laid the two back panels upside down on top, making sure that the edges lined up.

These were then sewn together. Then the back panel was added.

Time to try it on. This was when I noticed the big problem I had with gaping at the back.

To solve this, I first made 2 pinches in the front on the bust, one on either side..

I then pulled the back together at the top and stitched in place.

Now I know what you're thinking, that looks unsightly. And I would agree with you. So I added poppers to the points to bring it together when wearing, and made a bow to sew onto the back to cover the whole mess up.

I then put the top back on and pinned the straps into place on the front and the back, then sewed them into place.

I was going to sew the two halves of each strap together, but at last minute I changed my mind and thought tying them would look cute.

And it was as simple as that to make my first ever item of actual wearable clothing from scratch.

It doesn't look much like this, but comes to life with a belt and look really good with a pencil skirt.

Works with jeans too!

I'll be honest, with all of the trial and error, this took quite some time, completely worth it for the sense of gratification though.

Total cost: £1
Total time spent: around 6 hours.