Lacy Heart Pockets

For those of you who don't know me (and I suppose those who do as well) you should know right now that I love lace. With an unhealthy passion. So today I bring you an adorable lace-oriented DIY that is super simple and can be used as a base for many other projects :) Here we go!

First you'll need a pair of jean shorts or pants that you want to work with. I suggest that the butt pocket be more on the plain side, but that's mostly because I like the simplicity of this look. If you want to cut up pockets that have designs be my guest! I would shy away from pockets with buttons though...

Next you'll want to grab a pencil or white crayon/sewing pencil to draw out your heart (or whatever shape you'd like really)

Next take some clear nail polish and apply all around the outside of the heart. This will help keep your ends from fraying.

Now find some kind of cutting tool and cut out your shape! I used my handy dandy seam ripper but of course you could use a pair of scissors or an exacto-knife. Whatever you have available! It should look something like this...

Now lay the lace inside the pocket and position it how you want. Pin in place or just start sewing!

 

And here's the finished product! :) I especially like how the white stitching looks along the outside. I was a little worried about it looking bad but I actually like it!

I hope you guys liked this little DIY!

Thanks for looking! :)

~Shannon

(No sew?) Bow Sleeves :)

Hey there! I haven't done a whole lot on here lately and I'm sorry for that. Life has been kinda crazy and busy lately, but I'm about to make up for it :) Here's a really quick and super cute DIY you can do to just about any t-shirt! Let's get started :)

First, grab your shirt of choice! I decided to experiment on an old junkie school shirt I had lying around, but I'm definitely doing this on a cuter shirt that I'll actually wear :)

Now you'll want to grab your sleeves and cut (starting at the top shoulder seam) following the seam line down as closely and cleanly as you can for about 3 inches

Next- Cut off the cuff of the sleeve just underneath the seam line all the way around

*try to make it look nicer than I did >.< lol*

You'll be using this part as the center of the bow. 

Unfold the cuff and cut two 2 1/2 inch strips

Gather and pinch your sleeves so that it forms a bow shape

Wrap one of the small strips around the center of the gathering to form the actual bow.

Make sure the ends are on the inside of the bow.

 

At this point you may want to safety pin the strip, try on the shirt and adjust the center

so it sits just right on your arm (not too far back or forward)

After it's adjusted to how you like it you can either use hot glue, fabric glue, or a few simple

stitches to secure the center strip of the bow! (which is why its a possible no sew :) up to you!)

At the end you should have something like this (only cuter)

So yeah...that's basically it :) hopefully this helps some of you out!

Thanks for looking! :)

~Shannon

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