Katalina Jewelry: tutorial

Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Vintage Book Cuff

I'm sure by now most of you know that I'm a thrift store junkie and that I love finding ways to re-purpose some of my thrifty finds into jewelry.

One of the things I'm always picking up at the thrift stores are vintage hardcover books. Many of them have beautiful artwork on the covers and along the spine. I decided instead of just displaying them on a shelf, it would be fun to wear some of that beauty. A cuff seemed to be the perfect way to do just that!

Some recycled suede, used jewelry and a few easy steps was all it took to create these unique cuffs.

supplies:
vintage book
recycled suede
heavy duty snaps
used piece of jewelry
fabric glue
wire
wire cutters
scissors
bead reamer

Rip the cover away from the pages.

Carefully rip the spine from the cover.

Apply a layer of glue to the front of the spine. I used my finger to spread it out evenly. It gets tacky very quickly so work fast.

Let dry completely.

Tear a piece of suede that is slightly larger than the spine.

My wrists are small so I did not need to add any extra length.

I suggest you measure your wrist and add extra length

to the suede piece if necessary.

Apply glue to the back of the spine and lay it over the suede piece.

Let dry completely.

Decide where you want the piece of jewelry.

Attach it to the cuff with wire. I used a bead reamer to poke the holes.

Trim and secure the wire at the back.

Cut a piece of suede a little smaller than the one used for the cuff

and glue it to the back of the cuff.

Follow the manufacturers instructions to

add the snap to one end of the cuff.

Wrap the cuff around your wrist to line up the placement for the other half of the snap and follow the manufacturers instructions to add it.

That's all there is to it!

Your finished cuff should look something like this.

Happy Creating!

Sharing with: I Gotta Create!: Wildly Original link party, Funky Junk Interiors: Party Junk, Craft-O-Maniac: Craft-O-Maniac Monday

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Brown & Green Apron Tutorial

Another apron tutorial!

This is the last of the three aprons I made to wear to Terri Brush's Art Camp. You can find a tutorial for my Denim Prairie apron here and one for my Black & White Apron here.

Life before apron

A thrifted blouse with interesting bodice detail

and a lined skirt with pockets.

Each $2.50

Step 1 - Cut the sleeves away from the blouse. Cut the back away making sure to leave some fabric around the back of the neck. Cut off the lower portion of the blouse front.

Finish the lower edge with a rolled hem.

Confession time... I had not planned on this next step. My plan was to keep the front of the skirt in tact but I accidentally started cutting in the wrong place. Oops! So I just came up with a new (secret) idea...more on that in step 5!

Step 2 - Make two cuts in the front of the skirt.

Finish the edges with a top-stitched rolled hem.

Fold the waist band over so that the edges of the middle panel line up with the edges of the side panels and stitch to secure.

Inside view

Outside view

Step 3 - Cut the back of the skirt away at the side seam and along the waistband. Finish the side edge with a rolled hem.

Step 4 - Cut the sleeves to use to accent the pockets. (like the one on the left of the photo)

Pin the sleeve in place inside the pocket.

Turn the pocket inside out and stitch the sleeve into place.

Trim the excess fabric and zigzag the edges.

Finished pocket close-up

Step 5 - Pin the upper third and the lower third portions of the top-stitched edges to overlap.

Pin the lining fabric to keep it from shifting.

Stitch through both fabric layers along the seams in the pinned areas and along the bottom edge of the lining between the seams. (It's difficult to see the stitching in the photo)

This creates a secret pocket!
If I make a quick trip to the craft store,
I'll have a place to stash money!

Step 6 - Pin the bodice in place on the skirt and pin the sides and neck of the bodice under to form the bib.

Unpin the bib from the skirt and trim the edges.

Finish the edges with a rolled hem.

Pin the bib to the skirt.

Stitch the bib in place.

Step 7 - Cut a rectangle from the front button section of the unused bodice (the portion that was cut away in step 1). Fold all the edges under and stitch.

Stitch it to the end of a waistband section.

Sew velcro to the end of each waistband section for a closure.

Step 8 - Gather the bib straps and hand sew a strip of the skirt fabric over the gathers. Replace the brown buttons with green ones.

I'm not sure which of my three art camp aprons I like best.

This one...

Or maybe this one...

And then again, this one is pretty cute too!

Which one is your favorite?

Sharing at: Funky Junk Interiors: Party Junk , Craft-O-Maniac: Craft-O-Maniac Monday , Not Just a Housewife: Show Me What Ya Got, Ginger Snap Crafts: Wow Me Wednesday, I Gotta Create!: Wildly Original Link Party, Fireflies and Jellybeans: Show Off Your Stuff

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Black & White Apron Tutorial

In my post, Aprons for Art Camp, I shared a couple of the aprons I made using thrift store bargains. Since then, I've finished a third one. Now I will have one to wear for each day of camp! I also promised a tutorial for each one.

Today's tutorial is for this black & white apron.

I found a white blouse embellished with black embroidered detail

and a black and white skirt at a thrift store for $2.50 each.

Step 1 - Cut the back away from the blouse being careful to keep the sleeves and the top area around the neck in tact. (At this point I could have cut the sleeves away but not being sure how I was going to use them, I left them in place.)

Step 2 - Cut the bottom portion of the blouse away. Clean finish or zigzag stitch the bodice edge several times to prevent fraying.

Step 3 - Cut the back of the skirt away making sure to leave the waistband in tact. Cut the zipper from the waist band.

Step 4 - Clean finish the sides.

Step 5 - Pin the skirt waistband to the bodice and stitch to secure.

Step 6 - Trim away the sleeves and extra fabric on the bodice to create the apron bib/neck collar. Stitch a seam at the back of the neck collar for a better fit. Clean finish the raw edge.

Step 7 - Sew two rows of gathering stitches across the straps just above the bib. Gather and stitch to secure.

Step 8 - Cut the fabric of the sleeves close to the seam.

Step 9 - Iron the raw edges under.

Step 10 - Pin the sleeves into place on the skirt and stitch to secure.

Step 11 - Cut a strip of fabric from the remaining blouse front (from step 2). This strip needs to be a little wider than the pockets made from sleeves.

Step 12 - Clean finish the raw edges.

Step 13 - Sew two rows of gathering stitches along the bottom edge of the strip. Gather the strip so that it is the same width as the pockets. Pin the strip to the skirt on top of the pockets. Stitch along the sides and bottom to secure.