Author Archives: Kat

About Kat

I started this blog to share with you all the results of years of turning trash into treasures. Hopefully I'll spark some new creative thoughts and if that happens I hope that you'll share your discoveries and together we’ll build a blog that will singlehandedly reduce global warming and save the world! Okay, maybe that’s a grand goal but we should be able to at least downsize our own trash output.

Quick and Easy Refashioned Hair Bands

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So many of the hair bands I use to hold my hair back off my face have stretched out to the point where they’re no longer useable. I was just about to pick up a new package of hair bands when I realized that if I was spending time refashioning my clothes, why couldn’t I spend a bit of time and rework my existing hair bands so that they’re useful to me again.

This is such a quick and easy refashion that I hesitate to publish a tutorial but I did make some mistakes at first that I can save you from with the little tutorial below.

I tied a knot in one head band and tried it on to determine if that was the new circumference that would work. I was lucky on the first try – it was the perfect circumference. Note: you must do this with one of the stretched out head bands as a new head band will need a different circumference than one that’s been worn many times.

I then made one cut in another stretched out head band and measure it along the knotted head band and cutting a section out so that it was the proper length. After sewing the head band together several times over it worked well but the section where it was sewn together looked awful. I went through my scrap bag and found a small section from my Brown Ribbed Knit T-shirt to Halter Top makeover which I sewed around the offending section of the head band to make it look a bit better.

The finished head band.

a-a-a-nd the closeup

For the rest of the head bands I cut them once, then wrapped the section that was too large around and around and around the headband to create a bit of a decorative  knot, sewing it in place as I went along.

Here's the second head band ...

... and the closeup.

Neither of these will win a design contest but that wasn’t the point. The  point was to not needlessly throw something that was perfectly salvageable in the trash.

Well I won’t bore you all with the details of the rest of my refitted head bands, suffice it to say that I continued to cut and twist and sew until they were all done and now I have a basket full of head bands that all work just like they should and I didn’t spend a dime, I didn’t contribute to the land fill and I feel really great that I applied the refashioning philosophy to such a small thing and that it turned out well.

Another thing that I could have done would be to pin or sew a flower over the sloppy looking sewn section.

These hairbands are the perfect thing to add a brooch or flower clip. They’re so versatile!

Or take the easy and “green” way out and cut tubes from the legs of your pantyhose or tights that have runs to make bunches of stretchy headbands. Tip: don’t use the section of the hose that have the run 🙂 – that part you can safely discard. So far as I know there is no way to refashion a run in a pair of hose.

Yellow Flowered Skirt Into Batwing Tunic

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I picked up this lovely yellow flowered skirt at a garage sale. Tried it on and it was not flattering at all, but I loved the fabric and was determined to make it into something I could wear.

So sorry, but in my excitement to transform this skirt I forgot to take a before pic. For those of you who just gotta have that before pic here’s a skirt that is similar to the skirt I refashioned.

Just imagine this as a yellow flowered skirt & you have my before pic.

In the process of trying it on I ended up with one arm in and one arm out and Viola! I’d found the inner diva in this skirt! It still needed a lot of work to make it fit my vision but we were on the way. First I measured across the widest part of my body (which in my case is my hips). (Take note: I measured across NOT around.) I made a mark on the skirt that indicated this width so that I would know where to make the cut to separate the sleeve from the body of what would be my new bat-wing, one-shouldered tunic. I laid the skirt out and smoothed it as flat as possible before making the first cut (scary!) straight up through all layers from the bottom of the skirt to 5 inches from the top of the skirt. If I were not planning to use a scarf insert (more on this later) I would have cut to 9 inches from the top of the skirt, as I wanted the sleeves to be loose and flowy. You can easily get the correct measurement for your own body by choosing a shirt or blouse that fits you well and measuring the length from the shoulder seam to the bottom of the armhole seam which will most likely be somewhere between seven and twelve inches.

measuring armhole

At this point I tried on the tunic and could clearly see that even though the skirt was very full, it was not full enough to give me a bat-wing sleeve AND a flowy tunic. I mentioned above that I cut the sleeve area too small because I had a plan, but the reality is that I didn’t know what I was doing and now had to find a way to fix it. I pawed through my scarf drawer and found a scarf I had bought years ago and never worn and wonder of wonders, it was a perfect match for my skirt. Sometimes the fix gives you a better end result than the initial design 🙂

The fix was so easy I’m sorry I wasted any time worrying about ruining the skirt. I simply lined up one of the short ends of the skirt with the bottom of my tunic pinning the length of the scarf up one side of the body of the tunic and right along to the end of the sleeve, doing the same to the other long end of the scarf. I could have pinned it wrong sides together to end up with a nice seam but I decided instead to pin the scarf under the raw edge of the tunic so that the frayed edges of the tunic would show.

frayed edge of tunic sewn to scarf

scarf insert saved this tunic from the trash pile

After sewing everything up with a zig-zag stitch, I ran a line of fray check along the scarf just above where I planned to cut the scarf to match the length of the sleeve – NOT. What really happened is that I cut the scarf length to match the sleeve length, wore it all day and ended up with over an inch of frayed scarf that kept catching on my bracelet. I applied the fray check solution later in the day.

badly frayed sleeve fits right in with the deconstructed tunic

And here’s the finished product, perfect for a beach coverup or over a cami on a cool day.

Can you tell I didn't want my picture taken today?

 

Off The Shoulder Short Sleeve T-shirt

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I first discovered the concept of reconstructing or refashioning t-shirts when I came across a copy of “Generation T”. I was fascinated by the idea of taking apart a t-shirt and reconstructing it into something completely new and fabulous. Oh the fabulous things a woman can do with a pair of scissors and a box of safety pins!

I have a collection of short and long sleeve t-shirts with great graphics and (sob) crew necklines. I love a little T with jeans to kick around in but I’m so over the crew neck. This is my first crew neck recon – so please look on it kindly.

I was so excited to take over this T that I forgot to take a before picture. Sorry! But if you need a before pic you can gaze on this:

crew neck T that looks nothing like my T

The first thing I did was lay the shirt out on a table and pin it together along the shoulders and upper body so that when I cut into it everything will line up front to back. Then I stretched a length of masking tape from under the right arm to just under the neckline on the left side of the shirt and cut along the shirt through both front and back just above the masking tape line. Done! Ran into the bathroom to try on my new t-shirt in front of my full length mirror. If I could show you the sad picture of me modeling my new off-shoulder T as it falls off me, you’d shed a few tears also. But alas, I didn’t snap that pic. What I did do though was to cut four thin strips from the sleeve I had cut off and sew three of them to the right shoulder (front and back) and one to the left shoulder (front and back) so that I had spaghetti straps to hold my top up.

right shoulder

left shoulder

My top now stays up! Happy days are here again!

I didn’t like how the neckline of the T though so I folded it under and stitched two lines using yellow thread.

Kinda reminds me of the yellow brick road from the Wizard of Oz.

I was still not liking this little T so I grabbed my seam ripper and took out the stitching on the one sleeve and the bottom hem. Then did a lettuce edge using yellow thread.

Lovin the yellow and denim blue together.

I love the deconstructed look of the sleeve and bottom hem.

Done!

 

Do It Yourself Earring Storage Board

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I’d saved a piece of styrofoam from something that was shipped to me, thinking that I would cover it with fabric, insert it into a frame, hang it on my bathroom wall as an earring storage board. But months went by and that sad little piece of styrofoam was still sitting there devoid of earrings. I decided that a simpler solution was the way to go.

I have a couple of free standing cabinets in my bathroom. I opened the door of one of them.

The beginning of a dream come true.

I cut the foam to fit the inside of the cabinet door and affixed it to the door with double-stick tape from my office.

Ta-da!

That’s it. Project finished.

While this project came from my own little old brain the inspiration came from books like these: