Refashion It! Upcycling a Lamp with Handmade Paper

I upcycled this old lamp from my parents today. Quick, inexpensive and pretty, such a fun thing to do! It took no longer than 30 minutes and all I used was a sheet of handmade paper bought in a stationary store and double-sided adhesive tape.

The paper was beautiful and not expensive at all.

Finding the right size for the pattern was a little tricky. Make sure your sheet of paper is big enough!

 

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Refashion It! [Upcycling a stained shirt Tutorial]

So I bought a white shirt. And spilled something on it. Of course, that’s what white shirts are for. Luckily the stain was on one of the sleeves, so I thought about cutting them off. I read a lot of blogs about upcycling clothes lately and discovered a whole bunch of knock offs of this jcrew shirt:

My craft alarms set off and I decided to do this myself. Since I wasn’t sure how this would turn out, I tried it on a second, even older and more worn-out shirt before. Just in case. It turned out pretty well and now I have two – goody!

For doing it I found Suzannah’s tutorial most helpful. She blogs at Adventures in Dressmaking – a totally awesome blog you should check out if you’re into sewing and crafting.
Ok, now: Here’s my version of how to do it:

Mark the line where you want to cut off the sleves. To find out what’s the perfect length for you, put on the shirt, measure from the end of the left shoulder to the point where you want your sleeve to end. Add the seam allowance and mark the line at a right angle.

Cut off the serged seam allowance and the hem.

Trim the pieces of fabric to two even rectangles.

Cut one of the sleeves into evenly sized strips of about 1,5 inch/4cm.
Cut the other one into larger strips (2inch/5-6cm).

Hem the shortened sleeves of your tee.

Sew all 1,5 inch strips together into a longer single strip. Do the same with the 2 inch strips.

Now, for the ruffles:
Sew along one side on both of your strips with straight stitches. Use large stitches and a tight tension, it makes it easier to pull the top thread to gather the fabric.

Gather the first strip piece (1,5 inch) until it reaches the circumference of the neckline of your tee and pin it in place (see picture below), pointing up.

Sew along the seam of the ruffles.
Now do the same with the wider strip piece, pin it starting at the shoulder seam, pointing down. Cut it shortly before reaching the middle of the front neckline/ just above the V, if you’re using a V-neck tee. Sew down.

Use the cut-off rest and sew it on the top of the second strip. Start a few inches behind the shoulder seam and cut the strip off a few inches after the second strip. This way you’ll get a smooth transition between the pieces.

Trim the second and third strip into a nice round shape at the end. And you’re done!

For the white one I added a lace layer instead of the second strip.

Because just trimming the lace at the end makes it look rather ragged, I pinned it in place in a round shape, as you can see in the picture below. This way I wont need trimming.

Before adding the third strip:

I also added some lace to the hem of the sleeves.

Now I’m glad I didn’t throw it away. Two “new” shirts – yay!

sweet dreams are made of this [bedtime candy, chalkboard paint project #1]

“It is one of life’s bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.”

— Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #11)

After seeing some pretty awesome chalkboard paint projects we wanted to do some chalkboard painting ourselves. So we ordered the cheapest paint we could find on Amazon. It finally arrived today and we started right away! We have guests over the weekend and I love to prepare Betthupferl (German for bedtime candy), so I had the idea of upcycling some old jam jars. I keep loads and loads of jars, sometimes they come in pretty handy. Since I never used chalkboard paint before, it wouldn’t have been great damage if the paint wasn’t good at all.

Here’s how I did it:

I used this brand, mainly because it was quite inexpensive. It was really easy to use and worked out well. I wouldn’t use it indoors, since it’s a spray and as you can see on the picture below it scatters the paint on a large scale. It’s best to hold it about 30cm from the surface and whilst spraying keep the can in motion. After applying the first layer wait at least 3-5 minutes until the next. For the jars one layer was enough, I did two though just to be on the safe side.

For labelling I used a liquid chalk marker. Fill with candy, apply ribbon – and you’re done! A cute idea and pretty simple to copy – our guests loved it!

So here they are – stuffed with goodies, sweet dreams guaranteed!

I’m afraid I’m a chalkboard paint addict now… There will be more chalkboard paint projects coming up for sure!