Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”. 

We are, it seems, a T-Shirt nation. That’s not a bad thing. They’re comfy, easy care, full of variety, and casually fashionable. I’ve been noticing the new longer lengths for some time, and the layered look, with one or more tee shirt bottoms showing below the outermost layer. I like it. Hip-hiding fashions are always good, right?

Problem is, almost all my tees are short, and most of them are in pretty good shape, too. I have issues with going out and spending money for a new tee shirt wardrobe when I still have a closet full of perfectly good favorites.

But then, there are also some tee shirts that aren’t quite presentable, but not quite ready for the rag bag, either. Those I could use to get the long, layered, look, for almost no time or money.

Here’s what you’ll need if you want to do what I did:

• One T-Shirt
• Elastic, about an inch wide and as long as your waist measurement plus one inch. (That’s what directions always say, but my experience is that leaving that extra inch off almost always gives a better fit. Just saying.)

*Note: If you have a pair of pantyhose with a run in them, you don’t even need to buy elastic. Just cut the waistband off, and use it. It’s soft, durable, and you already know it fits you!

Take one tee shirt and lay it out flat, with edges and seams matched up. Draw a line straight across, at just below sleeve height, then cut. (It’s good if the shirt fits you around the hips, but if it’s too large, you can take one of the side seams in later.)

You now have a tube. Slip it on, inside out and with the hemmed edge down, over your hips, and, standing in front of a mirror, pull it up or down until you get the lower hem positioned where you’re going to want it when you’re wearing it. Turn down the raw edge to your waist, and either pin or mark. That fold is going to become a casing for elastic.

 Slip the tube off. Sew all around the top, about an inch down from the fold you made, but leave an inch or so opening for the elastic. Thread the elastic through the casing you just made, and stitch the ends together.

Sew the rest of the casing shut. If you have a lot of excess fabric left beow the casing, you can trim it off. One very nice thing about tee shirt material is it doesn’t fray, so it’s okay to leave edges unfinished.

Turn the tube right side out, and you’re done. You have a new look and a new layer, without having to actually wear a full tee shirt under another one, which I guarantee will be a life saver come hot weather!

PS. If you do have a really long shirt and do this, you could follow these directions to make yourself a skirt!

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”. 

I’ve enjoyed, and still wear, my fingerless mitts, but spring is coming. Can you feel it? The candytuft in the front yard is already blooming, and the bulbs are up. There’s a fragrant narcissus next to the deck already perfuming the air, and March is, after all the month of spring romances.

That definitely calls for feminine touches of flowers, lace, and all things delicate. Let’s dress our hands in fairy gauntlets for spring!

You’ll need:

• A pretty handkerchief
• Two flower appliques, or flowers cut from lace
• Needle and thread
• Elastic string
• Fabric glue

To begin, make a pattern like the one shown below:

Fold a square of paper the same size as the handkerchief on the diagonal, and measure 4 inches from the point, on the fold. Draw a line straight down from that point. It will be four inches, too. Now measure from the point to about the length of the gauntlet you’re making. (Fold your handkerchief in half on the diagonal, and measure to the center to get that measurement.) Draw a line straight down from there, that’s about 4 1/2 inches long. Now “connect the dots”–draw a straight line from the 4″ line to the line you just drew.

That pattern fits my hand. To be sure it fits yours, open out the pattern and fold it around your hand. It should fit, but not too snugly, but we’re cutting the handkerchief on the diagonal (bias), which will lend stretchiness to it.

You’re done with the hardest part!

Fold your hanky into quarters, on the diagonal, and pin your pattern to it, with the long side on the fold, and cut. On the short side, the opposite end of the points, there will be another fold. Split that, which creates the two pieces you need:

On the short sides, away from the point, iron a narrow hem, but don’t stitch it yet.

Now, with the right sides of each gauntlet folded together, stitch the long sides, using a narrow seam, and then stitch the hem. 

You now have two tubes, with a pretty point on one end, and a straight hem on the other. All you need now is a way to keep them in place on your hands. To do that, thread a darning needle with a length of elastic string/thread. (I’ve chain crocheted mine, to make it heavier, but it isn’t strictly necessary to do that.)

Insert the point of the needle in the right side of one of the flowers and pull through, leaving a loop that will comfortably fit around your middle finger. Take a single stitch to secure it, tie a knot, and cut the thread. Repeat with the other flower.

On the wrong side of each flower, spread a thin coat of fabric glue. (I used Aleene’s Okay to Wash It.) Glue the flowers to the inside of the gauntlet, just below the points. Let dry, and you’re done!

One last thing: You still have two corners of your hanky left. If the hankerchief is a fair sized one, they’re actually large enough to make sweet little gauntlets for a child of age 3 to 6 or so.

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Although the weather outside is cold and gray, inside I seem to have nothing but spring on my mind these days. And with our front door bare of its Christmas wreath, it seemed like a good time to welcome spring, even if it’s a little early, with a bright and cheerful wreath.

I started out wanting to make a paper flower wreath but with the inevitable rains and snows (eek!) of late winter and early spring, that didn’t seem like a great idea. What I needed was plastic. But where oh where could I find thin white plastic?

About this time I was pouring my kids a glass of milk. From a white plastic jug.

Light dawned.

The fridge and recycling bin were literally full, overflowing almost, with thin white plastic tubs, jugs and cartons. Which meant that not only could I make the wreath I had in mind, it would also be practically free!

Here’s what you need:

A Variety of milk jugs, yogurt containers and other white plastic items from the recycling bin. You’ll need more than you think so gather quite a few (hint: organic milk often comes in white milk jugs while non organic is more clear, a mix is fine but you do want more of the solid white variety)

Circular objects of different sizes to trace (cups, bows and lids work well, you want about 5 or more different sizes)

Permanent Marker

Hot glue gun and sticks

A dozen pretty buttons and/or sticky backed rhinestones in a variety of sizes

1 flat wreath form

10 inches of ribbon

Kitchen shears or other sharp scissors

Rinse all the containers in soapy water and allow to dry. Using kitchen shears, cut the tops and bottoms off the jugs and the bottoms off of any tubs, then cut a slit down the length of the remaining tube or square. You should now have roughly rectangular pieces of flat plastic. It they are curling too much, run them under hot water and lay them flat under something heavy for a little while to help them relax.

Trace circles all over the plastic, squeezing as many in as possible. Make sure the different types of plastic have different sizes of circles on them. Labels can either be soaked off or taken into account when cutting the flowers. I left mine on to add extra patterns to the flowers since from the back they just see white.

Time to start cutting flowers! Start by cutting out the circles and then cutting almost to the center at the top, bottom and two sides so you have four even sections.

From there you can continue cutting until you have the number of petals you want. You can also remove wedges at the four points (or more) to make more widely spaced petals, cut a wavy edge or free hand small round petals.

Once you have all your circles cut into flower shapes, start layering them into flowers. Experiment a little with different combinations until you are satisfied and then glue the flowers together, finishing them off with a button or rhinestone. Be sure to leave a few flower pieces unlayered to help form a base layer on the wreath form.

Set your finished flowers around the form to decide on the layout of the wreath. Mark the spot where the top will be and where any gaps are between the flowers. Set the flowers aside and attach the leftover flower pieces to the spots where there were gaps and the ribbon (measure how long you will need in for your front door) at the top. Now you can glue the flowers onto the form to finish the wreath.

Since the wreath isn’t really even specifically spring like, it’s a great all purpose wreath for the whole year. But I find myself happily thinking of spring every time I see the bright white flowers festooning my front door. What about you? What crafty ways are you getting ready for spring?

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Because my two kids, a boy – 7 and a girl – 3, share a room, our decorating scheme walks a fine line between girl and boy, between little kid and big. I’ve been a little weary of hanging much art so far, finding everything too one way or the other. But I also get tired of blank walls very quickly, so this week I decided it was time to tackle the wall above their beds. We needed color and fun and something they each loved. And in the end, their favorite books seemed like a good place to start. I should also say that this decision also happened to come about after picking up the dustcovers from those favorite book off the floor one too many times.

If your kids are like mine, they have very little use for dust jackets, and since I try to buy hardback copies of books that I suspect will get a lot of use, we have a lot of them hanging around. Sometimes they stay on the books and gradually disintegrate, eventually being sucked up bit by bit through weekly vacuuming. Sometimes I pull them off right away and tuck them in a cupboard where they sit, taking up space. This is, I think, a better solution than either of the two.

Here’s what you need:

5-6 sheets of scrapbooking paper in coordinating colors (and coordinating with your dust jackets)
Book dust jackets of various sizes
Old frames in various sized
spray paint
foam
Mod Podge
Sewing machine
Ribbon
Paper cutter

Start by matching your dust jackets to frames, deciding which look best where. Paint the frames to match the color scheme of the paper you have chosen and/or the bedroom decor. You can either keep the glass in the frames or choose to leave it out all together. I choose to leave it out, just in case jumping on the bed led to pictures falling on the floor or heads!

Cut a piece of foam core to fit into the back of each frame snugly.

Trim the dust cover neatly so that you have an even rectangle or square of just the front. Reserve the scraps.

Cut and piece the scrapbooking paper so that it covers the edges of the foam core just slightly more than the gap between the dust jacket and the edge of the frame.

Using Mod Podge (I’ll refer you to our own Mod Podge Amy for her excellent tips) decoupage the paper and then the dust jacket onto the foam core.

Once dry, pop your new art into the frames, securing with a staple gun or tape.

With the remaining paper and the scraps of the dust jackets, help your children cut even triangles (or, if they dont feel like a geometry lesson, you could do it yourself). Cut two lengths of ribbon for the beginning and end of the bunting.

Help your children decide on an order for the triangles to fall in the bunting, stacking them from first to last in a pile.

At your sewing machine, place the end of one piece of ribbon under the starting edge of the first triangle and start stitching using a straight stitch and a 1/4 inch seam allowance. As each triangle is done, run the next through, leaving only a few stitches between each. Sew the second piece of ribbon to the back of the last triangle and back stitch to secure.

Using the ribbons as hangers and arranging the art and bunting across the wall, hang your new kids art and stand back to admire. When your kids fall out of love with one book and in with another, or you just need a change, you can decoupage a new dustjacket right on top of the old ones, creating an up to day display of their reading habits.

By Crafts-a lot Contributor, Mable who is an avid reader of craft blogs & magazines and has aspirations to improve her crafting skills.

In March, I’m going to Florida to watch my friend go into space! She is blasting off on the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center on March 18th at 1:34 PM EDT. According to NASA, the “Space shuttle Discovery will carry a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module filled with science racks that will be transferred to laboratories of the International Space Station”.

While I’m in Florida, and so close to Disney World, I have to go and say Hi to Mickey Mouse and the gang! When planning my trip, I saw that I can get free tickets to Disney World!

Disney wants to inspire a million people to donate a day of service in their communities. To celebrate the hard work of the volunteers, Disney is giving them a 1-day, 1-theme park ticket to the Disneyland® Resort or Walt Disney World® Resort, free. Click here to read about Disney’s Give a day, Get a Disney Day Program.

The participating volunteer organizations where you can donate your time range from making fleece blankets, volunteering at a local museum, senior centers and other local community groups. Go to the Disney website to search for organizations that will best suite your skills and interests.

Categories of volunteer organizations include: Animals & Environment, Arts & Culture, Children & Youth, Community, Education & Technology, Health & Human Service, Hunger & Homelessness, and Senior & Elder care.

Anyone can participate!

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”.

When it comes to patterns, brochures, magazines, and booklets, we crafters can be a bit compulsive. I try to sort through and weed out, but even so, I have dozens and dozens of slender “volumes” to keep track of. I’m sure many, if not most, crafters are similarly blessed.

How to keep them all straight and accessible? Stacking those slim items is inefficient and untidy. Since they don’t have readable spines, shelving them with your books doesn’t work either.

A filing cabinet might be the first, most logical, choice, but that’s not always an option. My solution is one I ran across years ago, in The Messies’ Manual. The authors were talking about children’s books, but I quickly saw a personal adaptation.

I use the big tins you can buy cookies in this time of year. They’re available new, full of cookies (my favorite!), or you can find them at yard sales and thrift stores, and they are just exactly the width you need for the average magazine.

Stand them in the tins with the front pages facing the front, and put the tin on your book shelf. Now, when you want to find a particular leaflet or magazine, you can slide the tin out, and riffle through until you spot it.

I’ve got four of those tins so far, and use each for a different crafting category–sewing, beading, crochet, and miscellaneous. Since they are all basically an elongated octogonal shape, the front and back are narrower, which is handy for the smaller booklets, and also makes a good place to stash my crochet hooks.

Oh, and it’s still a really great way to keep children’s books organized, too!

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”.

Have you noticed how popular cuffs are these days? It seems as though you see them everywhere. There’s a lot to like about them–a fun new fashion to try, the way a wide band can disguise a rather knobby wrist (mine), and the fact that men and boys are wearing them, because it gives us another gift option for the guys.

I decided to try making some, using recycled belts. This is what you’ll need if you decide to try it yourself:

• A belt with at least two rows of grommets down its length
• Electrical wire (Note: The toaster doesn’t have enough. Old computers are a good source.)
• Cord end findings (I’m using the spring type, but other styles would work as well.)
• A few links of chain
• A 1/2″ to 3/4″ lobster clasp
• Pliers and wire cutters

First cut a length of belt about 5″ long, with an odd number of grommet pairs. Five pair is good.

Now cut two pieces of wire, each a couple of inches longer than twice the length of the belt piece. Fold each piece gently into a “U” shape, and thread the ends through the first pair of grommets, from the underside of the cuff to the top:

Lace the ends of the wire down the length of the cuff, criss-crossing on top, going straight from hole to hole on the bottom:

Take the other piece of wire and do exactly the same thing, but start from the other end. You can use two colors of wire, as shown below, or a single color:

Slide a cord end on each end. If your cord ends are large enough, you can put both wire ends through one; otherwise, slide one on each of the four wire ends. You can join them together with the chain links.

Cut the wires off so they don’t show, and don’t get in the way of the open coil on the end, and then use your pliers to mash the last coil on the end nearest the cuff to clamp the cord end on. Give it a good tug to make sure you’ve clamped it tight enough, and if it slips, mash it a bit more.

Open up one link of your chain, and slip on the lobster clasp and cord end loop.

Use three to five links of chain for the other end of the cuff, and attach as you did the lobster clasp.

Some finished cuffs: