Chain Loop Earrings

Difficulty Level: Medium

These chain loops are cheap and you can make a lot of amazing jewelry with them! Take these earrings for example. We simply made a linked chain of eight and connected it at the ends. Add earring hooks and you're all set!

How To Make A Skirt Into A Dress

Difficulty Level: Difficult

I found this old skirt at the thrift store. As you can tell by the picture, it is much too big for me. But I wasn't planning on wearing it as a skirt. I was planning on re-fashioning it into a dress!

BEFORE

AFTER

This was a bit hard, but not as much as I expected. All I did was find a sash to tie around it and add the shoulder straps. To make the straps, I cut two long strips of fabric that looked good with the pattern of the skirt, hemmed each side, and then sewed them onto the top of the skirt. The hemming took a while, especially since my sewing machine was broken then, but if you don't hem, the fabric will fray over time. Another way to do this is to cut slits on the sides near the top of the skirt and hem around them to make arm holes, but either way works fine. Then find a good sash and attach it to the front with a few stitches, but leave the back loose so that you can tie it behind. And that's it! You can do this with any too-big skirt! Have fun crafting!

Helpful Hint:

Make sure to try on the dress constantly, especially while you're sewing on the shoulder straps, to make sure that the straps are even and aren't too big or too small. If they're too big, it's easier to fix than if it's too small.

Nail Cross Pendant!

Difficulty Level: Medium

This stylish cross pendant is simple to make and only requires two longer nails, two shorter nails, and wire! Let's get started! Here we have the nails. They're old, kind of bent, and rusty, but it works well for this project!

 Take the two smaller nails and put them side by side, one top next to the bottom of the other nail, like this:

 Use the wire to wrap around each end to keep them together.

 Put the bigger nails side-by-side just like this as well.

 And, once more, use the wire to hold them together.

 Put the smaller set of nails on top of the larger one, slightly farther up from the center.

 Use wire to connect the two pieces, criss-crossing it in an X shape. Then add a loop at the top for the chain- and there we go! We've finished this cross pendant!

Helpful Hints:
-Try sanding down the ends of the wire- they can poke you and hurt!

Refashioning an old Dress :)

Hello Crafters! This is a great way that you can turn a sort of out-of-fashion to-big-for-you dress into a cute dress that you can feel nice in! My dress started out looking like this..,

Before

 You can't really see in the picture but it was a really awkward length and the neck went wayyy to low. I had some fixing up to do ;)


First I took off about 2 1/2 inches off the bottom and hemmed it up.(by hand!) That took FOREVER!

Next I turned the dress inside out and sewed up the neckline by about a inch.

I took the scrap that I had cut from the bottom of the dress and turned it into a nice sash.

There was also a stain that I tried to cover-up with a flower but it looked weird and I ended up taking it off. 

After

So there you go! Have Fun!!

Refashioning An Old Shirt!

Difficulty Level: Difficult

Sometimes, do you feel like you have nothing to wear? Well, maybe you can get a fashionable new dress for way less- but no, we're not going to sew a whole dress. What if you turned something that was already made into something new? Like, say, an old dress shirt that your dad or husband never uses, or maybe one that you bought at a thrift store? Let's see how we did it!

See, here's the old shirt. Make sure that the shirt you have is way too big for you- remember, we're making a dress here. Start by trimming off the sleeves at the length you like, and then hem it. You may also want to cut in the waist or armpits, if they're too loose and saggy, then re-sewing them. This should be pretty easy if you're using a sewing machine. Hand sewing takes a lot longer, but it works too. Then tie on a belt. We used a scrap of colorful fabric. You can sew it on, or just tie it, either way works. Here we have the finished product! We turned a baggy old dress shirt into a stylish tunic-style dress! 

Helpful Hints:

-Use a shirt that's too big for you so that it works as a dress.

-Although the hemming might seem unnecessary, it really needs to be done! Don't skip out on this step!