A Craft A Week: Week 18 - Shirt Refashion, Staff Bling, Creations & Creatures

Browsing through pins on Pinterest I saw this shirt refashion.  I threw down the iPad and sprinted in to the closet and rummaged through Hubby's shirts.


http://smashworks.blogspot.com/2011/05/tutorial-reconstructed-mens-shirt-to.html

I found a few and asked him which one I could cut up.  This is the one that he said was mine to play with:

I read through the tutorial and it seemed basically the exact same steps as I've been using on my t-shirts.  First cut off the sleeves leaving the seams:

Then slice off the neck.  The tutorial mentions to first cut off the collar and then cut off the whole top of the shirt.  I'm not sure I understand the point of cutting off the collar first.  I did it, but I think you can skip that part.  Also, the tutorial has you create a new hem for the sleeves.  I didn't do that either, I just made a clean cut when I cut off the sleeves.

 

The next step is to create the drawstring casing, one on the front and one on the back.  

Using the fabric from the sleeves make your drawstring and a belt for your shirt.  I did this step totally wrong.  I cut strips from the old sleeves, sewed the ends together then folded it in half lengthwise to sew.  This is where I went wrong.  I made the strips too narrow so I couldn't have sewn them and turned them inside out.  I just sewed them up and made it work.

(Going back in time a little...)
On a walk along the trails down by the river, Chase found a long walking stick and had the idea to turn it in to a wizard staff with feathers, topped with a painted rock, held in place with some of my bead wire.  On Wednesday night Chase and I sat down to work on the staff and in walks Blake with his walking stick.  I can't recall if Blake found it on the same walk, but it's a neat looking stick.  While Chase was painting one of the rocks we brought home from our last ocean trip with blue paint, Blake asked me to make some wire swirls to wrap around his wizard staff. This is how it turned out.  I rather like it!

Strangely, I didn't get a single picture of Chase's and now that they've been playing with them, it's been destroyed: rock smashed and broken, wire unraveled.

On Thursday I pulled out the Martha Stewart Craft Station so Chase and Blake could test it out.  They tried embossing and tracing using the light board while Reed and I made paper flowers, then paper chickens and aliens, then the glue came out and some sea shells and a weird collage happened. 

 Soon the flowers morphed in to feather heads for a chicken and a multi-eyed alien!

 

On Friday Reed asked for more paper crafts!  I pulled out some white paper and made him a skull.  I want to make a few of these around Halloween, perhaps make a Skull Garland?

On the weekend it was haircuts and oil changes and car washes and cleaning the backyard, playing with our chickens, spraying the hose at each other, building forts with lawn chairs and toys, turning on the sprinklers, drinking a beer with Hubby while BBQ-ing.  Summer here we come!

Memorial Day Monday we went back to the ocean for some more SHARKS!!  Of course I came home with more shells, no rocks, but I did catch 2 little ocean fishes and a SHARK!

Hubby-Daddy caught a baby shark for Reed for holding, but Reed was too scared to touch it.  I don't blame him, other than being excited we all kind of scream when we pick them up.  As small as they are they are amazingly strong!

I think one day soon I should take a day off work to stay home and CRAFT!  I have too many half started projects and/or I've been collecting goodies to turn in to a craft.  Although... it's almost summer and the kids will be home with Hubby all day every day... maybe I should take a day off, still go in, and craft from my desk.  HAHAH!  Talk to you soon!