Braided Back- A Twist on the Workout Shirt

So there have been TONS of posts on Pinterest and such about taking old t-shirts and making them into workout shirts. I'm sure you all have seen these unless you live under a sad, Pinterest-less rock...shame on you. Anyway, I was hanging out with a friend the other day (The Marvelous Marissa who has a nanny blog you should check out ModernAuPair.blogspot.com) and we decided to make our own workout shirts. Me, wanting to be original, came up with this design. I absolutely love it and I hope you do too! :)

Step one: Grab a shirt you don't mind chopping up 

Marching band nerds holla!

 Next step: Cut the collar out as you wish

Now cut off one of the sleeves

Fold that over and cut the other sleeve to match

It should look something like this :)

 Now for this specific shirt we are turning it into a racer back.

You'll want to cut JUST the back piece to look something like this...

 and eventually this...

Alrighty, cut along the top of the shirt about an inch or so below the collar.

Placement is up to you depending on where you want your braids to start.

Cut the back into thin strips.

Make sure you have sets of 3!!!

I usually end up cutting 15-18 strips depending on the width of the back

Give the strips a tug to make them longer and thinner

Start braiding :)

{{{At this point there are two things you could do.

On another shirt I folded the raw edge at the top and gave it a new hem, 

just so it looked a little more finished.

On this one I left the edge raw so it's up to you.}}}

Position where you want the braids to sit and either pin in place and

sew with a machine, or hand stitch in place.

I hand stitch because it's easier for me and just FYI-

I usually start with the outer two braids and work my way in, 

just so they're spaced evenly

And there you have it! :) How adorable is that? :)

I hope you guys like this tutorial and give it a try. 

And always, thanks for checking me out! ;)

~Shannon

Cardigan Re-vamp

Alright so for this project I decided to take a shirt that I never wore and use it to upgrade something I wear all the time. The shirt had a super cute lacy(?) crocheted(?) back that I adored, but the actual shirt just didn't look good on me and I was going to get rid of it anyway.

First step was to cut out the back of the shirt.

See? Super cute! :)

Here's the cardigan that I'm going to attach it to

Flip it over

And lay the lace down in place. 

Make sure to line up the top strap parts with the shoulder seam.

Now we start sewing! :) 

Sew across the top of the straps and around the outside only!

You should create a pocket like this.

Do not sew along the inside!

Now start cutting the cardigan where the lace lays

 Keep cutting!

And once you have it all cut out and pretty it's done! Yay!

I wore this to work the same day and got lots of compliments :)

Love how it turned out!

Thanks for looking! :)

~Shannon

Quick Tip!

Alright, here's a quick tip that some of you may already know, but I'm sure there's someone who won't :) It took me a while to figure it out myself

Have you ever been getting ready for the day or about to go to work and you notice that the hem of your shirt/shorts/dress has a wrinkle in it but you don't have time to change and iron your oufit? I don't know about you, but that drives me crazy. Here's what you do. Turn on your hair straightener and clamp it down on the hem. Run it along the wrinkle a few times and bam! Wrinkles gone! :) I also do this with ties on dresses, hair ribbons, etc. and it works great! :)

~Shannon

Weight loss: Another random blurb

Here are a few words of wisdom for those struggling with weight loss out there-

• HAVE FUN! I hate exercise. And I mean HATE. But, my weight loss started with dancing. I love dancing (though I'm not very good at it). I was learning some dances for a performance in an anime convention (I'm nerdy and cool like that) and so practicing dances for like an hour a day definitely helped boost my weight loss. Along with that I really wanted to be in shape for the performance. Definitely want to look good in front of a few hundred people, no? So find something that you love to do be it running, dancing, hiking, biking, a sport, and stick with it!
• Make small goals. I started with 5 pounds a month, which is a really small and healthy weight loss goal. You didn't gain the weight overnight, it's not going anywhere overnight. 
• Make small, manageable changes. If you switch up your whole lifestyle overnight chances are you wont stick with it. I know I don't sound super confident, but let's be honest, changing is hard. Getting rid of foods you love, exercising everyday, those are big changes. Take this one step at a time and you'll make life long changes instead of temporary ones. 
• Drink tons of water! Being dehydrated can cause lots of physical problems and can also cause belly bloat (and no one wants that). Plus water will flush out all the toxins in your body, boost your metabolism, and make your skin look as lovely as ever :)
• Get your sleep. If your body is tired you aren't going to want to do anything. I know that when I'm groggy, grumpy and tired exercising is the last thing on my mind. Getting good amounts of sleep every night will help you be healthier, more energetic, and will also help your body in rebuilding the muscles you worked out the previous day.
• Don't depend on the scale!!! I can't stress this one enough. The number on that scale you step on every morning does not define you and it doesn't always ring true on how you look. 

Example: 

Don't worry about the number. As we all know muscle weighs more than fat anyway. Focus on being healthy, not skinny. (p.s. this isn't me, just a pic I found the other day)

• Stay motivated. It may be hard, trust me I know, but it will be worth it. It takes 21 days to create habits. That's it! 21 days! You can do it :) Even if it means posting motivational pictures, having a workout buddy, or whatever it is you need to do to keep you going.

Most importantly though, try your best to be happy with yourself. Your inner self. If you don't like you it wont matter how much you change on the outside or how many people compliment you. You think it'll make all the difference and change how you see yourself, but only you can do that. Have you heard of body dismorphia? Even the smallest, skinniest girls can have it. Everyone gets self conscious sometimes, and that's ok. Just remember you are you and you are beautiful.

~Shannon

Fringe Scarf

So apparently fringe is making a comeback and I'm perfectly ok with that :) I saw something similar to this floating somewhere on the internet and decided to make one of my own out of, you guessed it, an old t-shirt! It's a pretty simple DIY so let's get started!

Alright so first you're going to want to grab a t-shirt you don't wear anymore in the color of your choice.

My color of choice is teal...obviously... :D

Next you'll want to make a cut from armpit to armpit

(this will give you lots of fabric to work with, better to have more)

Now, begin cutting your fringe on the raw edge

Leave a few inches at the top for the "scarf" part like so

Once you've cut all the way around give the pieces a tug

I suggest at this point to try on the scarf, odds are it will be a bit long.

Here's what I did.

Lift the back of the scarf until the front sits where you want it to.

Pinch the fabric at your neck (where the new back will be), remove, and pin where your fingers are.

Cut the scarf there to make it shorter, like this!

Now flip it around so it's inside out and sew up the sides

 At this point I decided to put in a few stitches to secure the top down.

With the scarf still inside out fold the seam down to the fringe and add 3 or 4 stitch points just so the seam will stay down and not be popping up into your face.

 Here's another thing I chose to do, but you can totally just leave the fringe as is.

I knotted the tops :) So if you wanna, follow my lead!

And there you have it! :) a lovely fringey scarf

As always, thanks for looking! :)

~Shannon

Shorts alteration :)

Alright so a lot of people might not know this but over the past few months I have been really working on my weight loss. I have lost about 30 pounds since October 2012 and 40-45 pounds since high school. I was a big girl lol Most of the time I would wear jackets (no matter what the weather) because I just hated how I looked but wasn't sure how to lose the weight and stay motivated. 

But I finally did it and the sob story is over! 

Anyway, as the warm weather started I was looking through my shorts and whatnot and realized that all of my summer clothes didn't fit me anymore which was kind of a bummer :/ But then I realized hey! I'm a DIY-er now, why not try and salvage these! So that's what I've done. I took my too-big shorts and revamped them and I'm so glad I did :) Here's how it's done.

Alright so here are the shorts as they were...

As you can see they are a few sizes too big for me now...

So that's one thing we need to fix

And also the length. I'm getting more confident with myself so I think 

it's time to hitch up the hem line :)

Alright so what I did first was figure out how short I wanted the shorts to be.

Then simply cut them! :) If you want to sew around the bottom to finish

it off be my guest, but me being my lazy self, I left the edges raw.

Next! Turn the shorts inside out and pin up the sides, 

creating a new side seam, so the shorts fit your legs and waist better :)

(no my shorts aren't inside out, I messed up. 

But trust me when I say to just turn them inside out...)

Now sew up along the pins to create a new side seam and cut off the extra edge!

Now turn them right side out and try them on! :)

*crossing fingers that they fit*

And yay! They do! haha :)

With a little room to spare :)

So there you have it :) I hope this helps!

Thanks for looking! :)

~Shannon

Shopping Help!

Alright so this one is just going to be a bit of a ramble but hopefully it will help someone out there. :)

Personally, I LOVE shopping. But, I rarely ever find anything for myself. I'm the kind of girl who takes other people shopping and puts them in the outfits that I think would be cute on them (whether they like it or not haha). When it comes to myself- nope. Not happening. Anyone else like this? Well then listen up! :)

I feel like people like me need to go shopping with...well, with people like me lol Go shopping with a friend who will hand you random cute pieces and even things you would never pick out yourself. You never know what you'll end up LOVING once it's on you :)

Also, know how to dress yourself. Experiment! Find what you like, what you don't, and what makes you look amazing! Knowing what styles flatter you best and what simply will not work will help your shopping experience go over so much more smoothly! (and who doesn't want that?)

There you go, my tip of the day. Happy Monday everyone!

Loves!
Shannon