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Shirt to Skirt | T-shirt Refashion

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My daughter, Hales and I worked on a fun project together and shared it a few weeks ago over at Craftaholics Anonymous and thought I would share it here just in case you missed it.  Here is our fun Shirt to Skirt refashion…

 Hales and I have had quite the challenge trying to find skirts that,

A. I find modest

B. She finds stylish

So… we decided to make one of our own out of some old t-shirts and then thought we would share it with all of you!  This is the PERFECT first sewing project for your girls or for you, if you are new to sewing.  If I can do it {I'm a rather novice seamstress} ANYONE can do this!!  Not only that, but it is super quick as well.  Here is what you are going to need…

 

  • 2 t-shirts
  • cutting mat
  • rotary cutter
  • scissors
  • yard stick or some type of straight edge to help with cutting the fabric
  • sewing machine
  • thread

To begin, I carefully laid out one of the shirts and cut a 7 inch strip out of the bottom of the t-shirt using the cutting mat, rotary cutter and straight edge ruler. Now, the 7 inch measurement works for my daughters size, you may want to measure against one of your skirts and figure out what the best measurement will be for your height.

I preserved the finished bottom of the shirt to use as the finished bottom of the skirt, so as to not have to worry about the finished seam.  I then cut one more 7 inch strip from the blue shirt and then two 7 inch strips from the white shirt.

Now as you lay them out, don't worry when they don't match-up. That's not going to be an issue, we are going to cut down the sides and even things out in just a bit.  At this point the t-shirt strips are tubes.  What you need to do is open up the tube by cutting down one side of each of the strips and then opening them up to make long strips of fabric. Hales and i decided that we should double up the white fabric so she didn't have to worry about it being see-through. We layered the two white strips and stitched them together on the the sewing machine.

O.K. I am going to pause right here and offer a TRUE CONFESSION… I own a Hello Kitty sewing machine!!!

Phew… I've been holding that in for almost two years of blogging now.  I don't LOVE nor do I HATE Hello Kitty.  I found this fabulous starter sewing machine on clearance at Target for $40 {it was normally over $100} and had to buy it.  The funny thing is that I now LOVE this little green machine… We've had a lot of fun together her and I! Now I can finish the photo tutorial without trying to hide my Hello Kitty machine. he he!

The next step is to sew the long strips of fabric together. Make sure that you place the finished bottom of the t-shirt at the bottom of the skirt for the finished bottom and then sew the layers together layering them one on top of the other… Blue, white, blue {or whatever colors you select.

 

Once you have the layers sewn together, fold the long strips on half, basically like you are recreating the tube of the the cut t-shirt.  I placed one of Hales' skirts on top of the fabric to measure the perfect width of the skirt making sure to leave a little room for seam allowance. {That skirt was one of those a little too short skirts that i didn't like, so I kept the length of the skirt quite a bit longer on purpose.}

 

Turn the two different layers so that the you have the wrong sides on the out side and carefully match-up the stripes.  Sew a seam down the length of each side. Go slow, keep in mind that the jersey knit fabric can be a bit of a challenge to sew with. Just take your time and you won't have to worry about the fabric stretching out of place.  When you finish the two sides, take a look at the sides of the skirt. If you find you have too much fabric on the sides {that will make the sides of the skirt lay funny when you are wearing it} trim down the sides a bit to create a skirt that will lay properly.

Once you complete both sides, turn your attention to the top of the skirt, the waist.  Because of the type of fabric you are using, you won't have a need to worry about adding elastic or anything. If you take the proper waist measurements the skirt will naturally hug the hips and stay in place.  I folded down the waist of the skirt one inch, and then sew around the top of the skirt to finish off the top of the skirt.

I actually went around the top twice with a quarter of an inch between the two stitches to create the same look as the finished bottom of the skirt.  Turn the skirt right side out and voila you have a super cute skirt made out of two old t-shirts!!  How fun and easy is that?! Oh, and doesn't Hales look cute?

I think I may have a budding fashion designer on my hands!  What kind of projects do you like to do with your kiddos? With Spring Break season upon us, what do you guys have planned?

Fabric Wall Art with Silhouette’s New larger Cutting Mat | Tutorial

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This last Christmas my Mom gave me a pretty special gift that I have repurposed and will now be re-gifting it right back to her for Mother's Day.  Now don't worry, this is the kind of re-gifting that is alright, even special in my book.  Thanks to my Silhouette CAMEO I've been able to make a stunning piece of fabric wall art with Silhouette's new larger cutting mat for my Mom…

Over Christmas my Mom gave me some beautiful buttons that she salvaged from a dress that my grandmother used to wear.  It was one of those 1950's black Audrey Hepburn kind of dresses that my Mom just loved.  She thought I could use the fabulous buttons for one of my projects.

Sure enough I thought of a project that would be perfect for these treasured family heirlooms, however I didn't have a cutting mat big enough to make the project just right.  I wanted to make a simple piece of wall art that was the silhouette of a black dress with the buttons on it.  The problem… if I used my 12×12 cutting mat the dress would be too small and the buttons would look silly.

Then I when to CHA and learned about Silhouette's new 12×24 cutting mat and I knew it was going to be perfect for my project. I ran out and bought some black dress fabric, some off white canvas duck cloth for the background and a 10×20 frame that I found on clearance.

To start I ironed the black fabric onto some of the Silhouette Clean Cut Fabric Interfacing and then placed it on the 12×24 inch mat…

I then started the search for the perfect black dress silhouette for the project.  Unfortunately, all of the dresses in the Silhouette design gallery didn't fit the bill so I searched online for the perfect black dress {isn't that always the never ending search? A black dress for my party now I have to find one for a project! he he…}  I finally found a great SVG file that was PERFECT!! Because I've upgraded to the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition it was not a problem at all to use the SVG file. I downloaded the image and then open the design studio…

I opened the image and sized it to 14×7 and then added the text at the bottom. Using the Modern No. 20 font and sized it to fit the frame.

Next, I had to go to the Cut Style tool on the top right of the screen to allow my Cameo to recognize the SVG file while it was cutting.  While the image was selected I clicked on the Cut Edge tool and a red line appeared around the edge of the dress showing that the cameo now recognized the image and was ready to cut…

I placed the fabric lined with the Silhouette Clean Cut Fabric Interfacing on the 12×24 mat and ran it though the CAMEO.  I cut the dress first and then the words, just to make sure I didn't have any issues.

I removed the paper backing from the fabric and then ironed it onto the canvas duck cloth that I had cut to the perfect 10×20 size to fit the frame. Then I hot glued the precious buttons to the dress.  Next I cut the letters out of the same fabric…

I used some vinyl transfer tape, just like you would with vinyl, to transfer the letters onto the canvas duck cloth.  This is where it got a little tricky.  I wasn't sure how the transfer tape would react to the heat of the iron, but I wanted my word to stay perfectly intact.  So, I took a risk.  I carefully and quickly ironed the letters through the transfer tape and it worked perfect.  I worked fast and I didn't place the iron on for very long. I could tell that it could cause issues if I lingered too long.

I removed the transfer tape and it looked PERFECT!! I was so excited! I placed it in the frame and was in awe.  Look at those letters… THEY ARE FABRIC!! 

Look at the clean cut and the perfect lines…

Have you ever had an idea in your head and once you've made it, it far and away surpasses your expectations?  This one totally did! I have to say I am madly and deeply in love with my Cameo now {not that I wasn't before, ha ha}…

Sorry Mom, you get to see your Mother's Day present early!

What a fun way to display my Grandmother's beautiful buttons.  A Priceless treasure that could've easily been tucked away in a drawer and forgotten about.  Now my Mom can have this on her wall and remember her beautiful and elegant mother every time she walks by this lovely fabric wall art. Happy Mother's Day Mom… I LOVE YOU!!

Here's a special deal for all of you…

Visit the Silhouette store by clickin here or on the Silhouette logo above and don't forget to enter WHIPPER at check out to get this smokin' deal!!

Valentine Snow Globe | Anthro Inspired

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I have to admit… I have fallen for the Anthropologie snow globes from this last holiday season! While I was putting all of my holiday decorations away I just couldn't part with my snow globes. I decided that I would make  a Valentine's Day version.  Here you have it… my Valentine Snow Globe.

I took my Anthro inspired snow globe and removed the trees and safely stored it for next year.  Then I used my Epic tool and my new Sweetheart Nesting Scallop Heart die  from Lifestyle Crafts to make the pink heart. I made two and then placed them back to back with two, two inch pieces of a paper drinking straw in the middle to secure to the bottom of the lid with some large 3D glue dots. For the tutorial on how to do that click here.

Then I used a fun felt Christmas tree ornament for the large heart.  You could of course, make another paper heart for the large one.  I just happened to have the perfect felt heart already on hand. I did the same with the two felt hearts.  I placed them back to back and placed two, three inch paper straws in between to help secure the heart to the lid.  They were a little wonky so I used a small section of the paper straw and some glue dots in between the hearts to secure them a little better…

Don't worry, people won't notice the straws at all. It will just look like you have beautiful hearts floating in your snow globe! What else do you think we can do with the ever popular snow globe?

How to Make a Fabric Bow | A Tutorial

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If you’ve be reading WhipperBerry for any time at all, you know I LOVE good packaging.  I love those extra special embellishments that really say that you’ve taken the time and effort to make the gift or goodie something extra special.  Not too long ago I saw a tutorial on how to make one of those generic bows out of burlap from For the Love, and it got me thinking… I wonder if you could make a fancy stacked bow out of fabric and have it still have a crisp form?  I started to play around and sure enough, you can.  Here is how to make a DIY fancy bow out of fabric…

Fabric Bow Tutorial
Learn how to make a fabric bow

Here is Your Supply List to Make Your Own Fabric Bow

  • Fabric ~ I used fat quarters and they work perfectly for this.
  • Interfacing ~ I used Wonder Under
  • Stapler & Staples
  • Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
  • Iron & Ironing Board

If you don’t have some of these supplies it’s quite easy to find them. You can get them at Amazon, your local craft store, or with a quick Google search online.

DIY Fabric Bow Tutorial

Cut fabric interfacing {Wonder Under} to 8×20 inches. Iron the “right” side of the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric.

Let the fabric cool and then peel the paper from the interfacing that is now affixed to the fabric.

Place another piece of 8×20 fabric “right” side up on the top of the “wrong” side, with the interfacing sandwiched in the middle and then iron together.

Cut fabric into 9 strips…

  • Three 10 inches
  • Three 9 inches
  • Two 8 inches
  • One 6 inches

Starting with the first 10-inch strip of fabric, make a loop on one end with the tail meeting up in the middle. Flip the fabric over and do the same with the opposite end with the tails meeting in the middle and overlapping slightly.

 

Place a staple or two to secure the two loops.

Repeat with the rest of the 10, 9 & 8-inch strips of fabric.

Start to layer each section starting with the largest {10 in.} loops crisscrossing them and adding a dab of hot glue in the middle to secure.

 

Continue Layering the largest to the smallest in the criss-cross pattern until you have used all of the 10, 9 & 8-inch loops.  With the 6-inch strip of fabric, make a simple loop making sure to size it to bow. Secure with a staple or a dab of hot glue.  Then place at the top of the bow with a dab of hot glue. Voila… You now have a stunning fabric bow!

If you would like to print the instructions for this tutorial click here for the PDF version…

This wraps up my fancy DIY fabric bow tutorial.  Have any other questions or tips for how to make a fabric bow? Leave them down in the comments below. Or, if you want some more crafts to do when you’re bored make sure to check out that page.