Denim Choker *tutorial*

Hello! Here's a tutorial to make up for the lack of... posts... for several months. :P
This is a really quick tutorial (took me about... twenty minutes?), and really easy, too. (It's basically a filler until I get my [TWO!] shirt tutorials done and up. :) )
Alright, I do a lot of work with denim. At least jeans. I get a pair of jeans, wear them until they get holes in the butt several times, until I just don't feel like patching them anymore. (Or they get too short. Either way. Or both.) And then I cut them up. Usually I make them into a purse (although recently I made a skirt.. O.O), but the legs, and the hems, are left. So I've been pondering ways to use up the random denim bits I have laying around, and I thought... "Choker! Hem! Yes!" So, yeah. If you don't happen to have any hems just laying around like I did, and you don't feel like cutting any of your jeans up, you can use other fabric, too. I just like the way that denim looks and feels. :)

Alrighty. Step one.
What you need:
Scissors.
Thread.
Sewing needle (not a machine, note.)
One snap. (This means it will have two pieces- if you don't have the appropriate pieces of a snap, it will not work. I cannot stress that enough.)
And a hem. A denim hem.



Next, what you have to do is measure around your neck, and cut the denim bit to fit. :)
Then, I used the thread and needle, to stitch the ends, so they wouldn't fray.



Then, you sew on the snaps. MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE SEWING THEM ON THE RIGHT WAY.
That is important. If you lay the hem down, sew a snap on one end. then flip the hem over and sew the other half of the snap on the other end. If that doesn't make sense, fold the hem as it will be folded around your neck- in a circle with the ends overlapping. Not just in half, okay?
I think you can figure this out.


Then, it's done. Yep. Done. You can, of course, add embellishment- beads, sequins, glitter, thread designs, lace, etc. But that, my friends, is a very, VERY basic choker. :)

Victorian Sleeve Arm/Wrist Warmers

Sorry for not posting in so many months!!
(Happy New Year, by the way!)
But, lucky you, I have a couple of pictures (no tutorial today, sorry) of my take off of this tutorial.
As you can see, her hand/wrist/arm warmers are gorgeous. mine... are interesting, and I think I'll wear it for a steampunk costume (next Halloween) and for a Murder Mystery Party I have coming up, where I have to become a Victorian era archeologist.

Steampunk Necklace PICTURES

Nope. No tutorial this time. :) Just pictures. The thing about steampunk is that it's more of a feel, less of a "style". So, yeah. Just pictures, but I hope you like it. My fingers are still sore from bending all those chain bits and jump rings. :P

not that this especially counts for steam punk. Not much that is "useful" in a sense, lol. Anyway... just in the "style" of steampunk.

and end of ramble.

Halter top out of t-shirt tutorial

Hi! As all of you who follow this blog (or even read it) know, we haven't posted anything for a long time. I'm so sorry for this delay, but to make up for it, I've got an amazing tutorial right now. Veela is going to start making recipes, too, so make sure you watch for those!!Alright. So, it's almost summer here! Okay, so, maybe it's not. Maybe it hasn't gone above fifty degrees for the past few days. For purposes for this tutorial though, lets pretend it is. Alright? Alright. So, as it is *cough* almost summer here, I need summer clothes. What, however, is a thirteen year old girl without a job to do, though, when in need of new summer tops? She makes them out of ugly hand-me-down tops from her (boy) cousins. Duh? Alright. This tutorial is going to show you how to make this:
Out of these:
If you can't see what is in the picture, let me list them. First, you need a fairly well fitting t-shirt. It has to be 100% cotton. I say "fairly well" because I've made several of these, and out of three (I think), two (including this t-shirt) of the tees have been a teeny bit too small. You will want to make sure that it isn't too small, or too big, though. You're also going to need something to mark on the t-shirt (I used some pens), scissors (the normal type work on most t-shirts, but you'll get a smoother cut with special fabric scissors), and either a sewing machine, or a hand needle and thread. I used a hand needle and thread for mine, because you will need to do very little sewing, but it's up to you, really.After this, you have to cut the sleeves of the t-shirt off. You want it to start near the inside of the armpit, and go up to NEXT to the neck. You do not cut the neckline!! (not yet, anyway.)That red line is how you should cut it. Do that to both arms. Okay??? Alright. When you've cut off both of the sleeves (and a little of the body- like the line says), you are going to cut around the neck in the back. I have a picture to show what I mean, because, in my opinion, that is a very confusing sentence.I bet you know what the red line is for, don't you. :) Smart readers you are, I'm sure you can figure it out, even if I don't tell you. Which I will anyway. You're supposed to be cutting along that red line. Okay? Once you cut it, it's going to look like this:After you do that, you're going to turn it over, to see the back. If you haven't noticed already, there is going to be a flap of fabric on the top that isn't being held up by anything. You are going to cut that off. Otherwise, you'll have a flap of fabric hanging around, and that just looks like you've gotten half way through this tutorial and then were to lazy to finish. :P

So, you've cut off the back, and you have the arms cut off. Now what? So far, you have the basic body shape of the halter top. If you chose to wear it like this, it would look a little baggy, but it would still be a basic (baggy) halter top. So, what we're going to do, is make it NOT baggy. First, we're going to change the neck. Take that neck piece that I told you not to cut, and, snip, cut it.


Now is the time to try on the halter top. There are ways that you can fold the neck ties, so that you can't see the seams. I recommend trying this, because it looks a little nicer. For those of you who think that their tops look good already, bye, and good riddance. (kidding, KIDDING, kidding..) For those of you who think that the top looks a little baggy in the body, stick around and I'll show you how you can fix that.
Turn the top over, and cut right up the back. This is going to make it so that it's not in a "shirt" shape, just in one piece of fabric. You may want to cut a little off from a side, or both, so that it'll be thinner. It's going to look like the picture below this, when unfolded and everything.

There are several ways that you can make this thinner. First, you can just cut off some of the fabric from both sides, and then sew it together. That would work, but, in my opinion, that would be a little boring. I decided to lace it up. You know that extra fabric you've cut up? Well, take it, make strips from it, then sew them together, like they look like in the next picture. You're also going to want to start making the holes to thread them through. The next picture also shows you about how far away and what not. When you have enough holes for you to thread the lace through, all the way up to the top, you are going to want to start threading it. When you've finished that step, tie the lace in a bow, and try the halter top on. I have a picture of what mine looks like from the back, below this. (you can see it from the front at the top of this post.) Have fun cutting up all your old t-shirts now!! :)Remember to continue reading- we won't have posted all the time, but we do work on things.

xxx
Angela

p.s. you had better like these tutorials- you have any clue how annoying blogger is, when it comes to the pictures? you're lucky I didn't take to the computer with a sledgehammer or something!!

HI!

Hi everyone! second time trying to post this. >:(
anyway.

here is a post on Veela's blog, the link is here. It has the recipe for Chocolate Peppermint cupcakes. :D yum. She over mixed them last time, so, as a warning, don't over mix. o.O

Potholder tutorial

Heya people! first tutorial! yay!!!!
Today I'm going to posting a tutorial on how to make potholders. These can be used for taking items out of the oven, for placing hot dishes on top of so that they don't damage the counter/table. If you use pretty fabric, they can also be used as decoration.

Materials:
flannel (enough to make two 9" squares)
Fleece, or felt. (enough to make two 9" squares)
thread
sewing machine (you could also try sewing them by hand, but I don't think that would work out very well.)
scissors
bias tape
pins
iron
opt: rotary cutter (This helps for making straight edges. If you don't have one of these, just make sure you cut the fabric extra carefully.)

alright. First, take the fabric, and iron it all. Make sure it's flat. Then, cut out an 9" by 9" square, out of paper, to use as a pattern... or, just measure right onto the fabric. Cut out two squares of flannel, and two squares of either fleece, or felt. You're going to make a sandwich, with the flannel acting as the "bread" and the felt or fleece as the "filling".
next, take a ruler, and, using a pen (or pencil, or marking pencil), make a large "X", going from corner to corner, for all the corners. Then, measure in from the edge, one half inch, and mark where it touches the X. Do this for all four corners. (note: make SURE you pin the fabric all together before this next step!!!) Now, take the fabric "sandwich" which is pinned together, and sew right down that X. do one diagonal, then do the other one.Remember those marks on the "X" I told you to make? well, start at one of them, and sew to the next one. Then, to the next one, and the next one, until you've sewn a square.
Ok! You could use it just like this. But it doesn't look as finished, and it'll have a tendency to fray, or fall apart. So, we use bias tape. Bias tape is basically a long piece of fabric, with the sides pressed into the center. You're going to un-fold the right flap of fabric. (I mean, it's on the right side, not the left.) take the edge you've unfolded, and place it so that where the fold is when the side is pressed to the middle, is a little to the right side of that square of stitching.
Just sew the bias tape around, like that. If you're going to make a tab for the potholder, sew it under the bias tape.Make sure you go in a full square. Then, if there is any extra fleece/felt poking out, trim it. (note: make sure you don't cut the stitching. o.O that would be bad.) You should also trim the corners- that way it's less bulky, and easier to sew.

When you're done with that, flip the bias tape over the edge of the fabric. You don't have to unfold the other flap of bias tape, just fold all of it over. this shouldn't be too hard. If it doesn't fit over the top, you may want to make sure there isn't any extra fleece/felt. Then, and this is the part I hate, sew it on the other side. You're going to want to go slowly, otherwise it gets hard to keep folding it. If you accidentally sew off of the bias tape, just keep going, and re-sew that part when you're done. don't worry. (I did that for all of the pot-holders I made my grandma for Christmas.) When you're done, ta-da, you have a pot holder. :D yay you!


If you have any questions, or need me to explain a step further, please comment. :) thanks!

First Post

Welcome to our first blog post! Our names are Veelacat, and Angela. We enjoy crafting, which resulted in this blog. We will be posting tutorials, recipes, reviews on crafting materials, other crafting sites, crafting videos, and things to draw.

Angela writes in purple, which is how you can tell when one of us is talking, when we both talk in a post. (like this one.) When we both talk, the text is in black. Veelacat talks in red. thanks for reading. we love ya all.

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