Cast on 15 stitches.

Knit using garter stitch until it’s long enough to wrap around your head comfortably. Cast off and then stitch the ends together.

Gather the seam and pleat it like a bow shape.

Tie some extra yarn around it to hold it in place. You could knit something to go around here if you preferred.

Done! Now that I have an obsession with cable knitting I want to make one with that too!

James suggested that this could be used in a more saucy way because and I quote “It’s not called garter stitch for nothing!” …. -_-’

I’m not sure if there will be a Sew Fun this week or not because staring at the machine is giving me a bit of a headache at the moment but I’ll see how I go! I think I need a new prescription for my glasses >_<

Before we start, let’s look at the features of the skirt we’re going to make.

The basic shape of the skirt we are making is a bell shape. This shape is suited for cute girly styles  like Lolita fashion. This shape is very easy to make but it does take up a decent amount of fabric. When choosing your fabric keep in mind that if you are using a patterned print you may need more to make sure the patterns match up well.

The top of the skirt is gathered and there is a ruffle along the bottom of it.

This skirt features a flat waist band.

On the back the waist band is partially elastic to ensure a good fit.

Keep in mind I’m going to keep this as simple as possible so we are going to cut some corners and it’s going to be a very basic skirt (eg. it’s not lined). I only sew for myself these days so I don’t mind taking short cuts because I know how I wear clothes. A lot of my techniques are just my personal preference after way too many years sewing so I would suggest looking at several different courses and styles of sewing so you can find the one that works best for you.

So let’s get started!

You will need:

• Scissors
• Fabric
• Elastic
• Sewing machine
• Tape measure
• Any decorations you want like lace etc

I will be using dark thread so you can see what I’m doing again but please choose a thread that matches your fabric.

First thing you need to do is measure your waist. These skirts sit on the waist not the hips so measure around the thinnest part of your waist. I will do an entire post on how to measure yourself later because that is very very important. It is very hard to measure yourself accurately so please get a friend to help if possible.

Now you need to cut your pieces out.

This project will consist of 3 rectangular sections:

• The ruffle at the bottom
• The main skirt part
• The waist band

Here is how to measure for each piece to cut

Waist:

This is made from 4 rectangles. Two wider ones for the front/elastic back and two shorter ones for the sides of the back

Height- Twice as high as you want the finished waistband to be plus 3cm for seams.
Width- The pieces for the front/elastic back should be 1/2 of your waist measurement. The pieces for the sides of the back should be 1/6th of your waist measurement.

Skirt:

This is made from 2 pieces (it can be more or less depending on the fabric you’re cutting from).

Height- This depends on how long you want the finished skirt to be. Make sure to leave extra for seams.
Width- This should be at least 3 times your waist measurement. The longer the width, the poufier the skirt.

Ruffle:

This is made from several long strips. I used 3 but yours will depend how wide your piece of fabric is.

Height- This depends on how long you want the finished skirt to be. Make sure to leave extra for seams.
Width- This should be at least twice the width of the total skirt width.The longer the width of this, the frillier the ruffle.

The way my fabric was patterned I had to use several pieces where you could just use one if your fabric allows it. Keep in mind that this is more of a guide than an exact pattern, so experiment. I would ALWAYS suggest if you’re unsure on measurements to draw things out and use some basic math. I would also suggest pinning things together before you start sewing so you can check the fit before you go to the effort of sewing.

We are going to work from the bottom to the top so we’re starting with the ruffle first.

The first step is to seal the short edges of your ruffle pieces using a zigzag stitch or overlocker. Most of you will be using zigzag so that’s what I used too.

You will notice that some edges of the fabric have been sealed, it’s up to you if you want to bother zigzagging those, I generally don’t bother. Make sure when you do sew them into seams you sew far enough in that the edges won’t be seen.

Ok so once you have zigzagged the short edges you will need to sew the ruffle pieces together so they make one gigantic long rectangular piece. To do this, put the good sides of the fabric together and then stitch down the short side around 1.5cm from the edge. Make sure you secure the beginning and end of the seam as you go.

Repeat this for all of your ruffle pieces until you have one super long piece.

Now flatten out the seams you made by folding them in opposite directions. You can pin them in place or iron them or if you are more confident then just hold them down while you sew. When I first learned to sew we were taught very strictly to pin every single seam and then iron it in place before sewing. I would suggest doing that until you get a good feel for sewing and then you can be like me: lazy and avoid ironing at all costs.

While your seams are flattened out like that, zigzag down the long sizes of the ruffle piece to seal the sides in.

When you zigzag the long side make sure you have the seams open and go right over the top. This will hold them open permanently.

This side with the seams will now be called the bad side.

Now we need to close up the bottom ruffle in a proper seam. So fold the long edge over to the bad side. I make seams like this around 0.06cm so they aren’t too huge, this is personal preference so you can do whatever you prefer.

Fold it over again so the zigzag edge is completely inside. Pin it in place!

Fold and pin for one entire long edge.

Now sew along that seam using a straight stitch.

Be careful when you go over the flat seams. You want the whole thing to be nice and straight.

Great work!

Now let’s turn this long rectangle into a ruffle!

There are a billion ways to make ruffles, I’m going to use the easiest machine one.

Turn your machine tension to the highest number. Anchor a line of stitching around 2cm from the zigzag at the top of the rectangle.

Straight stitch all the way down the side of the ruffle. You should notice that the fabric coming out the back of the machine is pulling and very slightly ruffled. This is because the tension on the thread is very high. This may not work with heavy fabric.

It is important that if you want to do this method that you use good thread. Cheap thread will just snap when you try to pull it later and that is VERY frustrating when you’re half way through several meters of ruffles.

Do not anchor the end of the stitching when you reach the other end and leave a long trail of thread.

This is what it looks like when it comes out of the machine.

Look closely at the thread, one side will be a tight straight line, this is the end you will pull if you want more ruffles.

Put the ruffle to the side for the moment so we can prepare the middle part of the skirt.

Zigzag all of the edges of the skirt pieces. As you did with the ruffle pieces, stitch the skirt pieces so they become a really long rectangle. Fold the seams flat as well.

You should have something along these lines with one big rectangle for the skirt and a super long ruffle underneath.

We need the ruffle to be… rufflier XD

Basically it needs to be the same width as the skirt piece so you can sew it on to the bottom. To make it rufflier you need to pull the tight thread gently and slide the fabric along it so it gathers evenly along the way.

Be careful as you go especially when you are pulling over the top of seams. If your thread snaps you will likely need to start this again so many people suggest using two lines of stitching at once so there’s no big strain at anyone point. I am lazy so I choose to use one strong piece of thread ;)

Pull the ruffle and arrange it until it’s as long as the skirt piece and then tie the end of the thread in a knot so it can’t un-ruffle itself.

Now let’s attach the ruffle to the skirt.

Place the ruffle upside down with the good side facing the good side of the skirt and pin it in place.

Sew down the long side around 1.5cm from the edge.

You can see there will be two lines of stitching when you’re done, the one you just did and then the line you used to make the ruffles.

When you fold the ruffle flat you can see the stitches too.

Use an unpicker  or scissors to remove the ruffle stitching.

Get mad at your dog for insisting that she lay all over your projects.

Back to the point, yay you just made a ruffled edge!!!

Now we need to gather the top of the skirt so it will sit in the waist band properly. Use the same ruffle method and gather the top of the skirt.

Now we need to put the waist band together.

Zigzag all of your edges and then sew the pieces of the waist band together to form one long rectangle. The order should go: side, front, side, elastic back.

We will be folding the waist band in half and then sandwiching the skirt part inside it. If you want to iron a fold it to make it easier for yourself, now is the time. You can also run a line of stitches close to the fold if you want to.

Get the rest of the skirt off your dog again. Seriously Lottie, what makes laying on my projects so appealing?!

Put the band on the ground (bad side up) and lay the skirt on top of it (good side up)

Fold the waist band over.

And then fold the zigzagged edge of the waist band under again. This can be a little bit fiddly so do it a little bit at a time and pin as you go.

Straight stitch just next to the edge of the band and you’ve made a waist!

If you want to be really great about it, you can fold the edge of the inside of the waistband over too but this can be a little tricky for beginners so I didn’t bother.

You can see the difference of the inside and outside here:

Now we need to add in the elastic part of the skirt.

Thread the end of the elastic through the inside of the waist band. I find this is easiest when I put a safety pin on the end.

Stop threading when you reach the first seam of the waist.

Stitch a line through both the elastic and the waistband. This will hold the elastic inside.

Pull the end of the elastic so the fabric gathers on it. Make another line of stitches on that side of the waist band and then cut off the extra elastic. The elastic should now be secure inside the skirt.

Now we have one thing left to do… turn this long frilly rectangle into a skirt!

Fold the whole thing in half so the good side is inside. Match up the last zigzagged edges along the side.

Stitch right down it making sure to anchor well.

Snip off all of the loose threads everywhere.

Turn it right way out and you’re finished!!

The back now has a fancy elastic section to ensure a great fit!

You have officially completed your first piece of clothing, congratulations!!

This is just a very basic skirt but from here you can decorate in numerous ways including adding lace to the edges or seams, ribbons, bows, anything really!

Depending on the fabric you choose you can make a whole variety of styles. Once you get more confident with sewing and understanding how different  pieces work with your body, you will be able draft patterns like this easily and whip one up in an hour or so!

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial, if you have any questions make sure you leave them in the comments and let me know if you give this a try. I can’t wait to see all of your finished skirts!

For this guide you will need to know the basics of crochet eg. stitches, decreasing, beginning,ending etc.

You will need a few balls of yarn in various colours. I just used my scraps up and when I ran out of one colour I started the next. I used a 5.5mm crochet hook and doubled over the yarn for a chunky look.  All of the stitches in this hat are double crochet, you could use single crochet but you would probably need to double the number of rows.

This technique is basically cabling for people who can’t be bothered to actually cable, it’s good for beginners because there’s less thinking to do while you’re stitching!

Make a foundation chain and form a circle, the circle should be a bit bigger than your head. The number of stitches will depend on the size of your head but make sure it’s divisible by 8. Here I used 80 stitches. When we add the faux cabling it will pull the hat in a bit so it’s better to add a few extra stitches and have it a bit loose for this style of hat.

Double crochet 2 complete rows.

Now for the faux cabling!

Crochet little tabs in a different colour, they should be 4 stitches across and then 4 rows upwards. Continue making these little tabs until you run out of places to put them.

When it’s all flared out it should look like this:

To make the actual cabling (or rather faux cabling)  you just need to weave the tabs together and then tie/stitch the ends together.

It looks like this when it’s done.

And here’s a better view of the actual weaving. The arrows show the direction that each piece is going and then the scribble represents where the two pieces are sewn together.

Now double crochet another 2 rows on top of that. For the first row you’ll be picking up stitches from the woven bit which can get a little confusing. Don’t worry about it too much but again try to get a number of stitches which is divisible by 8. You’ll notice that the hat as cinched in a little bit and the rows up the top kind of look like a zigzag because they are taking the line of the woven cable.

Now repeat the tab process and weave them together for another row of cabling. It will pull the hat even more at the top.

Now add a row of your other colour. In the next row decrease every 3 stitches. After a few rows of that you’ll run out of stitches to decrease so tie it off and you should have a hat :D

Now add some ear flaps! Here start with 15 stitches for the first row then decrease 1 stitch each side for ever row. This will make a nice rounded ear shape.

Lastly add some pompoms! I decided to edge the whole thing with white to match the pompoms more. To do this I just did a single crochet row around it all then plaited some long pieces together for the pompoms to hang on to.

Cuuute! And perfect for this chilly weather!

Hope you guys enjoyed it and let me now if you make one!

Cut two rectangles of fabric. You will need to make them around 4cm longer and wider than you want the finished bag to be. This is called leaving a seam allowance.  Because we need room for the stitches to make seams we need to cut all of the pieces larger so it ends up the right size. It doesn’t matter too much with small things like this but seam allowances become very important when you are making clothing that needs to actually fit you ;)

Most fabrics have a “good side” and a “bad side”. The good side just means the side you want to be on the outside when the project is finished. It’s obviously easier to see which side needs to go out on printed fabrics but you can generally tell on most fabrics if you look closely. I am using polar fleece for this project because it’s a good beginners fabric, it doesn’t stretch much and it doesn’t warp easily.

In most sewing projects you will work with the “good sides” facing inside so at the end when we turn everything the right way out you won’t see all of the seams.

Decide which edge of the fabric will be the top of your pouch and fold over around 1cm of the edge.

Fold it down again. Now the raw edge is encased inside the fold completely and you won’t need to worry about it fraying later.

Pin in place and repeat on the other piece of fabric.

Now let’s sew it in place!

We will be using a straight stitch to begin with so set your machine accordingly.

Thread your machine. Ideally you should use thread which is the same colour as your fabric. Here I’m using purple thread so you can see what’s going on. If you are a beginner you might find it easy to use bright contrasting thread so you can see what you are doing.

With the needle and the foot up place the edge of fold under the foot.

Now lower the foot.

You need to make sure the stitches aren’t going to come undone later so you should begin and end every line of stitch with an anchor.

To create the anchor we stitch overlapping forwards and backwards at the edge of the fabric.

Press the foot pedal gently (or use the hand reel on the side) and sew around 1cm forward.

Then hold down the reverse button and gently stitch backwards to where you started.

Now go forwards again and this time continue stitching to the end of the fabric. When you get to the end, secure the stitches by going backwards 1cm and then forwards again.

Sew right off the edge of the piece of fabric.

When you are sewing for the most part you should have both hands guiding the fabric and one foot on the pedal.

Lift the machine foot and pull your piece of fabric off to the side so you get a trail of thread. Cut that off.

Repeat this on the other rectangle. You should now have two rectangles with the ends folded and stitched.

You can see below where I’ve drawn to represent the stitches and the anchors.

Now we need to put the two pieces together and sew them in place.

Stack the rectangles with the good sides together. The sides with the fold should be on the outside.

Pin them in place. You can see below where we are going to be stitching.

Begin on the right side at the folds, lower the foot and anchor the stitches by going forwards/backwards.

Stitch in a straight line down the side of the rectangles. You want to leave around 1cm between your line of stitches and the edge of the fabric. I find it’s much easier to get a straight line of stitches if I don’t look at the needle, instead try looking where the fabric enters the foot and make sure it’s straight as you go. There are also lines on the machine which can help you line things up well.

Once you get around 1cm from the edge of the fabric we need to turn the corner. Lower the needle into the fabric, you will probably find this easier by using the hand wheel.

Lift up the foot with the needle still down through the fabric.

Rotate the fabric 90 degrees so the machine is now pointing in the next direction you want to sew.

Put the foot down again and start sewing along the new line.

Continue until you reach the next corner then repeat the process to turn again. Sew up the last side and anchor at the end.

You should have something along these lines:

Now we just need to seal the edges so they don’t fray. To do this you could use an overlocker or just zigzag stitch with your machine.

This time you will need to line up the piece of fabric so that the machine stitches the left side of the zigzag into the fabric and the right side over the edge of the fabric. What this will do is completely encase all of the raw edges and prevent them from fraying or coming unravelled later.

Begin with anchoring as usual.

Turn the corner in the same way that you did with the straight stitch.

Continue around the 3 edges

Remember that this is your first project so don’t stress too much if everything isn’t perfect, you will slowly get a feel for things over time :) I did this pouch while I was crouching balanced on one leg in front of a stool so we could get the photos XD

So you should have something along the lines of this:

Snip off the extra dangly threads.

Turn the whole thing inside out.

Easy!

That didn’t take too long and is a very handy little pouch to have.

So what sewing techniques did you learn making this?

• Straight stitch
• Zigzag stitch
• Sealing edges
• Turning corners while sewing
• Hemming
• Anchoring

Not bad for a first project!

What do you guys want to learn in the next project?

Did you enjoy learning techniques while actually making something or do you prefer to learn each technique individually.

Let me know what you think and see you next week for more Sew Fun!

You need two colours of yarn, I used pink and white.

I doubled the yarn over and reballed it for a thicker look. Is it weird that I find reballing yarn to be one of the most relaxing things ever?

The yarn I used is 8ply and the hook size is 5.5mm.

They way that this spiral is worked is that you will be working with both colours at once and going around the edge of the piece one at a time.

Start by casting on the pink.

Do 5 chains.

Single crochet into the first chain so it makes the start of the spiral.

Now we need to add in the next colour. To do this, single crochet into the same stitch that you just single crocheted the pink into. Do one more single stitch into that hole with the white and then do the next SC (single crochet) into the pink stitch after that. You should have 3 white stitches now and the pink and white should cross over and form kind of like a yin-yang symbol.

Continue the line of white by SC into the top of the pink row. Continue until you only have one pink stitch left. Every 3 stitches, do two stitches into the same hole, this will make sure the spiral stays flat rather than being a big weird ice cream cone shape in the end!

After you’ve gone as far as you can with the white, pick up the pink yarn again and continue SC, this time you should be going into the top of the white stitches. Every 3 stitches, do two in the same hole so it stays nice and flat. Continue until you’ve got one white stitch left.

Now pick up the white and continue the pattern of SC on top of the pink, and 2 in one hole every 3. Once it gets a little bigger, you won’t need to double up every 3 stitches so change to every 5. The further out you get the less often you will need to double up, so use your judgement as to what you need to do to keep the shape.

And that’s it, just keep alternating between stitching the white and the pink around.

Eventually you will get something like this! Finish the circle by tying off the white and continuing the pink around past the end of the white so it has a few stitches into the previous row of pink.

Now make a back piece which is the same size as the first circle.

Here they are front and back!

Next you will need to join them together. Pick one of the colours which you want the side to be (I went with pink) and SC a row around the edge of the spiral. 

To give it a ring around the edge and make the side stick up, crochet into the inner loop of the stitches rather than the outer.

I decided to make it 5 stitches wide, you can do whatever suits you.

Now stitch the back piece on. You can either sew it on or crochet it on. I went with crochet and I did it by doing another pink row and crocheting directly into the white holes.

Leave a little gap and don’t tie it off yet because we need to stuff it!

Once it’s stuffed just finish up the hole.

Finished!

It can be pretty hard to finish crochet when you have a very mischievous puppy!

I can’t believe how little Lottie looks here *_*

When you finally finish the pillow and put it down for the last photograph you’ll notice that the second you turn to get the camera it’s been usurped by the puppy.

Then when you tell her to get off she’ll make this face at you… -_-

I decided to put a stitch through the middle of mine to make the shape more interesting.

At least all of that hard work was appreciated!

Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you give it a try!

• Do I have the money/can I be bothered to get my machine serviced regularly?
• If you want to sew late at night is noise going to be an issue where you live?
• What is your budget?
• How often are you going to actually sew?

I think that the majority of you will be sewing every now and then and probably just to make basic clothes and repair/alter other things. In that case there is no point buying a super fancy machine.  I learned to sew on my grandma’s machine from the 70′s, for a while I had a converted machine from the 50′s and other than machines I’ve used at other people’s studios I’ve only ever had the lowest cheapest machines I could possible find.

As long as your machine can straight stitch forward, backwards, and zigzag stitch that’s all you need. If it can do button holes even better. If it has a zipper foot you’re all set! Any other function is great but not something that you NEED.

Brands I’ve had include Singer, Brother, and I think the one I had as a kid was a Janome. Currently I’m using a Singer it was around $150 on sale from Big W. In Australia that’s pretty cheap for a machine, I checked Lincraft last week and they started at around $180-700 depending on functions. Overseas, at thrift stores or online you can probably find them cheaper and for a beginner I would get the cheapest one you can find or borrow one from a friend or relative.

If you don’t have the money or can’t find a machine it’s not a big deal. You have lots of other options including hand sewing (post on that coming up) and hand machines (if you want a post on this let me know, I kind of hate them though!) they just tend to be a lot more time consuming.

The method you choose is basically irrelevant to what you make so use what you can afford and don’t let it hold back your creativity :D

Overlocker/Serger!

An overlocker/serger makes perfectly sealed and cut edges for items. You can use them to prevent delicate fabric from unraveling, make fancy edging and they can be a great time saver.

As a beginner, do you really need one? Probably not. Sewing machines can be enough to learn to begin with so I would really suggest mastering that first. You can use a sewing machine to do variations of most things an overlocker does anyway.

Overlockers are much more expensive than sewing machines and while they are extremely awesome and I absolutely love mine to death, unless you’re planning to mass produce clothes for sale they are definitely a luxury. My grandma made perfectly durable clothes for her 11 children (and more grandchildren than I can count) without an overlocker.

Once you have moved on from beginner sewing it’s something which is worth looking into as a time saver and I will be writing a post dedicated to overlockers which will give a lot more information.

Needles!

You will need  some basic sewing needles if you’re going to be hand stitching anything. Even if you aren’t going to hand stitch things I would suggest getting a pack of needles because it’s easier to do things like sew on buttons by hand.

When picking out needles I would suggest getting an assorted pack so you can match what you’re using to the fabric. For example, I prefer thin flexible needles for things like chiffon and durable thick needles for denim. The same thing goes for sewing machine needles, there are different grades and they are meant for different fabrics.

Pins!

I have a confession: I hate pinning things. I do it as little as possible. I will be doing it in this series because I don’t want to teach other people my bad habits so make sure to get yourself a box of pins so you can decide for yourself whether you want to use them.

Buy bright pins. Plain metal pins may be very practical and cheap but you will thank yourself for buying neon purple plastic headed pins the first time you accidentally drop a box of them and have to find them all under the couch again. I prefer my pins to be colour matching… that’s just because I like colour co-ordination though, there’s no other benefit.

Thread!

You will need thread colours that match your fabric. If you’re just starting out then I suggest buying a kit with a variety of colours. There are different grades of thread and they come made with different materials so if quality is your #1 concern make sure you pick a high grade of thread. Cotton and silk are the most common materials threads are made from and you can usually tell quality by looking closely, if it is shiny and looks like really tiny twisted yarn it’s good quality, if it is a little fluffy and just looks like one strand it’s not so great. Great quality thread is much harder to snap and will last longer so consider investing in it especially if you are going to put a lot of strain on your stitches by doing something like ruffling. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to hand ruffle 20m of fabric and to have the thread snap right as you reach the end!

If you are on a budget then start with a cheap pack of black and white thread. You can generally get away with just a black or white ;)

 Scissors!

Scissors aren’t something most people think about, I didn’t even consider them a really important tool until I was given a really nice pair. Obviously so long as they can cut fabric, you can use any pair of scissors you like. If they do fit into your budget I would suggest buying a good pair of sharp sewing scissors. It is SO much easier to cut complicated shapes out of fabric when you have a good sharp pair of scissors. If you can’t afford a new pair then make sure you sharpen your existing ones. You can do so very carefully using a sharpening stick or block that you would use for kitchen knives. Be very careful though and if you haven’t done it before make sure to ask someone for help.

 Unpicker!

You don’t really *need* one of these but it’s nice to have. I can never find mine so I usually just use scissors but when you are beginning and you make mistakes this can be very handy! I’ll show you how to use it step by step once we get started!

Dressform/Mannequin!

Again this is nice to have but it’s not necessary. I’ll be using Quinne to illustrate points throughout this series but I’ll also show you how to do things without a mannequin when we get to stuff like how to drape patterns. You can see how I made my mannequin in this tutorial.

Fabric!

This is probably the most important thing, you can’t sew if you don’t have any fabric! Picking fabric depends on the project so I’m not going to go into that here, I will do a post where I take you to a fabric store and compare different kinds of fabrics and the projects you’ll be using them for though. The kind of fabric you use and the things you make will depend on why you want to sew.

In my experience (and I’m completely generalising here), the two biggest reasons people choose to make their own clothes are money and quality. You should choose your materials accordingly. For example, if you are trying to save money, there’s no point buying $150p/m flocked taffeta because you could really buy a fully made dress so much cheaper than that. Especially when you consider the hours you will be putting into it. If you are looking to sew because you want the best quality clothing possible then likewise avoid super cheap fabrics like polypop because you just won’t get the finish you want.

Conclusion!

These are just the basic materials. Of course you can go to your craft store and stock up on all kinds of fun things and accessories and there will definitely be other supplies that we will need for individual projects but once you get these basics you’re well on your way.

After you’re learned the basics of sewing, with a little creativity you can make just about anything! Next week we’ll learn about how to use a sewing machine, how to thread it and hopefully start sewing our first stitches!

As always, if you have questions about anything leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Hope this was Sew Fun for you guys, I’m really inspired to start writing more about this because as I lay it out I keep thinking of more and more things I want to teach :D

Since then it’s been sitting in my craft pile waiting for a project.

So step 1. is to cut off the seams around the neck and arms and the bottom.

Then cut the remaining fabric into strips. You can either remove the side strips or you can leave them for really long necklaces.

I love the gradient effect!

Now with each of these pieces stretch them out with your finger.

They will roll up on themselves and curl around like this.

Now it’s just a matter or arranging them the way that you like so they form a necklace. You can hang them all at the same length or make longer variations.

I went with different variations depending on the colours. I thought the seems looked pretty cool but you could easily cover them with beads or plait several strands together. There are so many versions of this one idea!

In the end I decided to keep mine plain so the colour was the main focus.

To finish off all of the edges you just need to hold them together and use another piece of shirt to secure it. Tie the shirt in a knot around loose ends and then wrap it until the ends are hidden. Tie off and then poke the loose pieces inside the wrapped area. You’ll get something nice and clean like this:

Easy!

And that all there is to it, it’s a nice quick project, no sewing involved and you can customise it as much or little as you want.

This has made me think more about fun things to do with old tshirts!

She was amazingly pretty and actually had the same measurements as me which was a very pleasant surprise. Originally I was just planning on blinging her out a bit but after using her and draping some patterns I decided that if she was going to really work she needed some shape change.

As this shape she was extremely pretty and while the measurements were correct, the proportions weren’t.  She had much wider shoulders than me, a barrel shaped stomach and her neck was so long that it reminded me a bit of something from Silent Hill. I’ll be honest, seeing her in the corner of my room in the middle of the night terrified me >_>

I’m little but I’m a curvy girl with an hourglass shape which I love and having an mannequin that doesn’t have the exact same shape becomes a little pointless if I can’t use it to make patterns on. Most of my home made dresses are very fitted around the bodice area so her having triangles for boobs meant that I couldn’t even zip up half of them on her.

The other problem Quinne originally had was that she was completely stiff so it was quite hard to get my size clothes on and off. My arms and shoulders are movable and I can squish myself into various places to get into clothes. Sometimes I like to minimize the curves for certain outfits and Quinne just couldn’t do that.

I don’t look like this from the side, my boobs aren’t quite that pointy and I have much more junk in my trunk…

So it was time to give Quinne a make over! Insert a 1980′s montage of trying on hats!

Anyway we thought that she was made of cardboard under her fabric so I stripped her down and had a look.

All of the trimmings were just hot glued on.

Naked Quinne:

Unfortunately underneath her fabric she was actually fiberglass >_<

So that was a problem. I got tiny painful splinters all over my hands which took forever for me to remove!

For a little while I considered cutting through the fiberglass but after some googling I decided that really was not a good idea. Don’t mess with fiberglass and always research new materials you don’t know much about before trying anything. Your non-splintery fingers will thank you!!!

So with that out I had to do some serious thinking about where to go from there.

I knew I wasn’t going to use the fiberglass torso so I removed all the hardware and put it to the side for the moment.

After thinking about it for a few days I decided on “The Duct Tape Method”. This method has been around for as long as I can remember and I’ve made a couple of these for other people over the years. It’s not hard to do and you just need some basic materials.

Off to the shops I went to get some duct tape and a shirt from the thrift store.

Make sure you pick a shirt you don’t like, you won’t be getting it back so make sure you won’t ever want it again! If you want something very true to size use a fitted shirt. I just picked something out of the $2 bin which was quite loose as I wanted the finished product a little bigger than be, more on that later!

Start by taping around the most important measurements: bust, waist, hips. Make sure you’re wearing your favorite bra so it’s more accurate of how you’ll look when wearing your actual clothes.

Then just continue adding tape until you’ve got a decent frame. I like the do the shoulders first so it’s quite secure and the tshirt fabric doesn’t stretch out.

Enjoy your new look as Leeloo from The Fifth Element…

You will probably need some help to get this done especially around the back!

The way you do this will depend on what you want to use your mannequin for. I didn’t want arms so I did little cap sleeves. I also didn’t want it to go right down my butt because I don’t wear fitted skirts. You can go as far as you want though obviously. The chest area is something to think about as well. You can make it defined or not. I chose not because I prefer them covered up. and most of my clothing reflects that. So what I ended up with was a rough approximation of my figure because I still wanted it to be quite stylised. Easy!

Now you need someone to get it off you! Cut the whole thing right down the back so you can remove it. Make sure you don’t cut your underwear or pants as you go, just cut the taped shirt XD

Then you have this… shirt inside and duct tape outside. Super creepy!

Use some duct tape to close up the back again.

Now close up the holes with more duct tape and stuff it. You can use old clothes, fabric, pillows or actual stuffing depending on what you have on hand. I also stuck a broom handle inside so she was a lot more stable.

I then taped it all shut and used the cardboard tube from the duct tape to make a neck and taped that on too!

BAM!

I closed up the bottom of Quinne with a piece of cardboard to make it flat and I screwed the hardware from the old Quinne to the bottom so she’d have a base.

Quinne looked a bit deflated on one side so I gave her an augmentation using a bit more stuffing ;)

And to make sure she had a smooth surface I taped her up some more.

Now it was just a matter of some cosmetic surgery!

Originally Quinne had a really bright print. I really liked her print when she was by herself but I thought that when I put my clothes on her it clashed quite a bit with all of my prints. I didn’t want to loose it though so I decided to mute it a bit by bleaching it out.

Unfortunately it was not susceptible to bleach so that was out. I decided to give her an acrylic wash once she was all put together again.

Getting her fabric back on was a challenge because she was obviously not the same shape anymore and had a lot more curves. I did it by wetting the fabric and then adding darts and working the fabric until it fit. I then pinned until it was dry, hot glued it in shape and snipped the extra off.

I added the other fabric back on the base too.

And then I hot glued the trimmings back on.

The it was time to tackle the colour. I watered down white acrylic paint and gave it a wash. The paint muted the colour but also gave the fabric extra stiffness which will soften over time. The mannequin is still squishy so she’s easy to get in and out of things!

I added her head piece with some extra lace and a lace skirt to hide the crappy bottom section and she was all done!

And there she is!

Welcome back Quinne!

She’s got much more of a curved figure now and is very practical. Her proportions are a bit bigger than mine which is my preference because it helps me in knowing how something is actually going to look and feel when it’s on. I can squish her and move her stuffing around and I use elastic to change her shape depending on the outfit I want to style.

LOVE!

So while Miss Quinne took some work to get perfect, she’s now going to be a regular here on the blog as I’m sewing a lot more.

It’s great to be able to actually complete some of my long term projects!

What do you guys think? Time for some new sewing projects? Do you think Miss Quinne should make regular appearances here?

Start with clean brushed hair. I find this works best on just washed hair for me because it’s quite frizzy so it’s easier to get volume. That said if you have a different kind of hair you may get better results with dirtier hair, it’s best to experiment until you find what works the best!

Don’t you hate when you promise yourself that you’ll avoid damaging hair styles but you want lots of volume? What on earth is a girl to do? XD

Tie your hair up in a ponytail.

The pony tail should be as high as you want the finished bun to be.

Hairspray through the loose hair. This will help give volume and give the style a lot more staying power.

Now mess up your hair!

Run your fingers through your hair and shake it up!

You’ll look super classy ;D

But this messiness is going to create the volume so the puffier the better.

Now to create the actual bun.

Usually when you make a bun you would twist the hair so it curls into a bun. Twisting will push down all of the volume we just made though so while you do need to twist a tiny bit to make the bun, try to keep it to a minimum and just wrap the hair around in a circle:

Pin it in place.

Once it is pinned securely you can pull the bun apart with your fingers so it becomes even more puffy.

Lastly another blast of hairspray!

And a pretty accessory…

And you’re all done!

Go enjoy your puffy bun and enjoy not having to spend ages brushing out teasing later :D

This week I’ve set up a craft desk and I’m so excited to be able to start making things again! I now have a dressmaker’s mannequin to drape things on so I can start making a lot of sewing tutorials! So excited to start all of that!

Start with your hair in a high ponytail.

Pull the ponytail straight upwards and push the band up a little bit.

Split the ponytail in half under the band. It’s easiest to just poke your finger through and then wiggle it to form a hole.

Flip the ends of the hair forward and poke both of your thumbs into the hole.

Use your thumbs to pull the ends of the ponytail through the hole.

Now it should look something like this, you’ve created a a twist on either side of the band.

But it sits pretty strangely at the front!

And at the back it’s quite loose.

Split the ends of the ponytail and pull them apart so it pushes the hairband upwards. You can pull or push until everything tightens up and sits flat.

Cute but I prefer this style with curled ends so it looks very polished.

I curl the ends of the ponytail using a straightener but you can use anything you prefer.

Done!

And you can see that the shape is a lot more streamlined at the front after adjusting the band.

You can add a bow or accessory to cover the band if you like. I think this one looks a bit like I should be going horse riding!

All finished!

This is an easy style to do in the mornings before school or work as it can be done in only a few minutes once you get the hang of it. You can also just roll the loose hair up into a bun to make it even quicker!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and let me know if you give it a try!

I have moved all of the downloads into their own section to help with the load times of the site (the files were getting pretty huge!) and now there is a master list that you can refer to each of them in. I’ll give a proper announcement soon with everything else that’s going to go in The VLB, it’s going to be pretty awesome, I’m really excited about it!

Decide which side you want the hair brushed over to and grab the other side.

Brush it over to the other side. Surprise XD

This looks best with a really deep part line.

Like this:

At the back, grab the hair at the bottom.

Twist it upwards like this:

Pin it in place. Make sure you place one of the bobby pins right in the twist and one in an X shape with it. This is the strongest way to hold pins together. I think I need to do a bobby pin basics tutorial because a lot of people tend to have problems with them.

It should look roughly like this. Now your hair will stay over one side all day without you constantly having to flick it every time the stupid wind at the beach decides to blow the other way.

You can also use this as a base to add decorations and flowers.

From the front it’s pretty plain though…

So grab a small section of hair in front of your ear and fold it backwards. Don’t pull it tight, this is a relaxed style.

Pin it in place and add a decoration like a hibiscus flower or something else nice and beachy. Fluff out the rest of your hair so it’s very full.

Easy and perfect for the beach!

Like!

Now I just have to actually go to a beach…

Ok! I’ve got to get back to packing, see you all in Queensland!

I also bought some stickers for the fridge but I haven’t taken proper photos yet.

It comes in a roll and passes the puppy sniff test.

It was quite easy to stick together. After cutting to the right size I just peeled the back off and lined it up.

Lining it up was a bit of a problem because the designs themselves didn’t actually line up as they weren’t printed completely straight>_<

Worth the effort though because I love this patten and I think it goes with my Spring theme much more than the older version.

While it was more expensive it’s probably a bit more durable and I definitely love the pattern!

Curl your hair, the more you curl the puffier the buns will be. The method of curling doesn’t make a difference but I prefer to use a straightener.

Through the magic of the internet mine magically curled itself! WIN! I wish the internet did my hair every morning >_>

Now pull your hair up into pigtails just above your ear.

Mess up the curls so they get super puffy. You can also hairspray at this point to give it extra hold!

Now grab the top half of the pony tail.

And scrunch it upwards in your fist.

Hold it up above the band at your scalp and pin in place.

Once it’s pinned it should look something like this. The style is messy and unpredictable so it will probably look different every time you do it!

Now grab the left over hair. Scrunch it up to sit under the band.

Pin that in place too!

And from the side:

Don’t forget to do the other side too!

Give the whole style a blast of hairspray.

And that’s it! Much simpler than it looks!

This style looks great with bows or alice bands. It’s a fun style and good in hot weather!

Hope you have a good weekend!

Brush all of your hair over to one side.

Separate the hair into two halves.

Take a small piece of hair from the back of half #2.

Pull it over half #2 and hold it with the same hand you’ve got half #1 in. It now becomes part of half #1

Now take a small piece from the side of half #1.

Move it over half #1 and to become part of half #2.

That’s the basic technique. All you need to do is alternate taking small sections from each half, pulling them over and then putting them in the other hand so they become part of the other half.

So the next step from where I left off is to take a piece from half #1 and move it over to half #2

And then one from half #2 goes to half #1.

Continue this pattern over and over and over. Keep in mind that the smaller the sections of hair you take, the more intricate the final braid will look.

As you keep going down you should get something like this:

Continue braiding until you either run out of hair or you’ve got the length you want.

Tie it off with and elastic.

Bam! Braid!

Now this braid is pretty good by itself but I prefer mine to look puffy and more even in the width. The way to achieve this is to pull the pieces and puff them out after you tie it off. It feels a bit like you’re ruining your hard work but trust me it’s not going to come undone unless your hair tie is loose.

Easy!

I like to curl the ends too.

Then just add a decoration.

Taadaa all done!

Now do a celebration dance because you FINALLY learned how to do a fishtail braid!!

Or you know, just calm down and enjoy your braid…

Thanks so much for reading!

They’re cheap and easy to use and the colour sits very naturally in the hair without being crunchy or gross like some other temporary colours. Once it’s in and set you can just style as usual!

The hardest part is deciding what colour to choose! I picked a purplish pink a bit darker than my regular pink so you could see it a bit better in my hair. I think I want to try doing some purple and blue streaks in my pink too!

So you need a pastel and also a piece of cardboard so you can cover the other hair up.

Section the piece of hair you want to colour.

Put the cardboard under it to protect the other hair.

Then just draw the pastel over all of the hair.

Don’t forget the ends.

And the underneath as well.

Give it a quick blast with the hairspray to seal it all in.

Then just give it a brush through so it sits well with the rest of your hair and looks natural.

OMG IT WORKED! And when you’re done being pink/purple/blue/whatever you can just wash your hair and be back to normal!

And yes before you ask, you can do this on dark hair too. Pastels are generally opaque so as long as you pick a nice bright colour you should be good to go!

Go forth and enjoy being as crazy and creative as you want to with the knowledge you can wash it all out in the morning!

Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you try it out!

The new Blush Up brush is definitely an interesting concept which I could see helping some people with application but I tend to wear very light rounded blush if any so I couldn’t see myself using it too much.

I LOVE the pink eyebrows, I really want to practice doing this myself so I can have pink eyebrows more often :D

Here is a list of what Rebecca used in the Transformation.

Base:

• Matt primer
• Skin Base #2
• Cream pigment in Emerge for colour correction
• Loose powder #010
• Concealer #115
• Powder Foundation #113

Cheeks:

• Contoured with Blush Duo Katie/Ambition using Blush Up brush
• Highlight using Powder Eyeshadow in Sex
• Define brows with Katie blush and sealing gel

Eyes:

• Base- Cream pigment in Hollow
• Shadows- Stealth, Heroine and Pivot
• Waterline- Wiplash pencil
• Liner- Speckled line with Abyss and Scribe Precision Ink
• Lashes- #21

Lips:

• Whiplash pencil and Shoot Lipgloss

Or

• Bait pencil and Immodest Gloss

After we were finished filming we switched out the green lipgloss for a pink so it was a little more “me” and grocery-shopping friendly XD

Start with brushed hair.

Grab a section at the front of your head starting from just behind the ears.

Pull it up like this and then tie the rest of the hair out of the way.

And then flip/brush it over to the side you want the ponytail to end up on.

Take a very small section of hair just above the ear on one side. Begin the braid using that small section of hair.

Continue the braid using small loose sections hair hair so it goes over the top of your head from one side to the other. The arrows below indicate the ways the strands of the braid sit on the head. If you want the braid to sit up more and be a bit puffy make sure the sections of hair you use are loose. If you have thinner hair you can use sea salt spray to help give volume.

When you reach this point stop.

From the top it will look like this:

Brush any left over hair up to the top of your head and then tie it all into a ponytail.

I like my ponytail to sit really vertical so I try to angle the band upwards.

The pieces of the braids may get messed up while you tie the hair tie so to give it some extra puff you can pull them out a bit once it’s all secure.

Now just add a pretty accessory like a flower and you’re all good to go!

From the top:

This style looks good  straight or curled.

Hope you guys enjoyed. I’ll be shooting the next set of these tutorial next week when we get back so if there any styles you want me to cover just leave a comment!

And here’s the downloadable tutorial!

Let’s make a basic pouf first. Grab a section of hair at the top.

Backcomb near the bottom of the section while you pull it forwards.

Fold backwards and pin into a pouf shape. If you like you can shape it with your fingers so it’s rounder/higher/whatever then use some hairspray to smooth down any loose pieces.

Now, grab your fringe and brush it upwards. You can leave the side bits down or bring them up too.

Hold it out like this:

Back comb/tease the back of it near the base. I say near the base but you can really just do the whole lot if you can hold it up enough.

Now fold backwards and pin like you did the pouf. This may take a couple of tries to get the shape you want. If you prefer it to be pointy you can twist the end of the hair slightly before you pin it back. If it’s too messy then just lightly brush it in to place to smooth once it’s pinned.

I like this style with a headband.

I also like to curl the bits around my face so it’s all floaty and pretty.

All done! quick and simple :D

This style is great for days when you just can’t seem to get your fringe to sit right!

And you can then style the rest of the hair however you like, I think a nice fishtail on one side is perfect!

Here is a video of the quiff styling:

Now starting from a tiny bit above the cuticle on your pinky finger, stripe a red line which goes across all 4 fingers. The line should  arch across the fingers so when they’re spread out it makes a big matching curve.

Next add a matching yellow stripe above the red one.

Then a green one.

And a blue one. Make sure to start each stripe slightly above the cuticle on the pinky so you can later add the legs.

Then purple.

Lastly a pink stripe to top it off.

Now while all of that dries it’s time to do the head. On your thumb use the pink to paint a big “U” shape and fill it in.

Under that paint a short stripe of purple.

Then blue.

Then green.

And yellow, curve the yellow around the green a bit so it looks more neck-like.

Paint two red stripes for legs and do this on the pinky as well.

Add a little pink to the bottom of the legs.

Now it’s time for the mane.

Use a light yellow to create a flowing mane on the index finger and half way through to the middle finger.

Add the yellow mane to the face and cover up all of the edges of the U shape.

Add a white triangle for the horn.

Now it’s time to outline everything. You can use a thin sharpie or a thin paint brush to draw on the black. The sharpie is easy to control but the drawback is that it’s easier to ruin it by getting streak when you apply the top coat.

The black outlines really make it look cartoony and pop :D

This is the time to clean up any mistakes around the edges of your fingers. I like to use a little bit of cotton wrapped around a cuticle stick and dipped in remover to erase them all.

On the face you want to do a big black circle for the eye too.

Then dot a white circle over it to complete the look. At this point I decided to go over the black lines again to make them extra dark, if you paint them on you won’t need to. If you’re worried about being able to control black polish like that it can be easier to use acrylic paint. If you make a mistake you can just wipe it off and start again ;)

Wait until everything is 100% dry and then top coat it very carefully. Try not to drag the brush too much or else you may smudge the design.

Done!

Oh. My. Glob. You guise. These nails are like totally fricking awesoooooome.

Of course… you want to be pretty good with painting with both hands for a design like this. I rushed the second hand so I had Lady Rainicorn on the left and Lady Rainicorn’s derpy sister on the right XD

Bonus photo, it helps to have a Jake on your side to hold your polishes and try to steal your tissues!

You’ll look totally lumping fabulous ;)

You need:

• A plastic take away box. Mine came stuffed with extremely expensive candy corn
• Rice or something heavy to put in it
• A large piece of fabric

I’m using some green cherry fabric which was a gift from an extremely lovely friend. Perfectly matches my new apartment colour scheme.

So fill the container with rice and remove the carry handle.

You can use whatever you like to go inside but it needs to be reasonable heavy so it will actually hold the door.

Lay out a large square of fabric which is enough to wrap around the box with lots to spare.

Place the box in the middle diagonally.

Fold two corners over and into the middle like this:

Hold them in place and carefully fold the other two corners up to the middle and tie them into a double knot.

If it looks a bit messy you can just untie and refold until you’re happy. Ideally you want it to be the exact shape of the box just covered with fabric. If you want you can stitch it in place but it’s not really necessary.

It looks like a cute little picnic box!

I decided the easiest way to do it was needle felting.

I laid out the letters in pink wool.

And pinned them in so I could see the placement well.

One by one I added thicker white wool to the top of each letter then thicker pink to the bottom. I blended them together so they looked like the watercolour that Kim did.

Here’s a closer view.

And after the finishing touches…

You can see the colours more clearly here when it’s a bit darker:

The verdict from Lottie was pretty clear!

So perfect for her!

I’m sure she doesn’t know the difference but I smile every time I look at it! Thank you Kim!!!

You need:

• Cardboard
• Foam/corkboard/something to stick pins into (I’m using the rest of that old yoga mat)
• Fabric to cover it all
• Decorations: popsicle sticks, paint, lace etc
• Hot glue

Cover the cardboard in foam and hot glue it down. I used that same old yoga mat and because there wasn’t much left I made a bit of a patchwork XD

Next cover it all with fabric. Again I was using scraps so I did it in two sections.

Tadaa :D

The finish was a bit rough so I glued thick elastic around the edges and middle. This made it look more like a window. You could easily use ribbon or something else similar.

So far:

Now I wanted to make a little white picket fence to go around it too so I used popsicle sticks.

I snipped off one of the ends…

Painted them all white…

And left them to dry while I did the next part.

I decided to hold this on to the glass using some double sided tape.

Here it is on the wall:

Then I added the popsicle sticks in a picket fence design over the top. It turned out that having the sticks over the top of the board made it too thick to slide back into the wall. Boo! I ended up removing that section and leaving the rest.

Decoration time now! I used some green yarn to hang from the top of the boards to the sides of the door.

I used little pegs to hold photos there.

I made matching swoops of yarn on the other panels.

It wasn’t quite fancy enough so I added some little flowers around the fences and drew in some grass with a green whiteboard marker.

Lastly I made our initials out of pearls and added them to the top.

All done!

I love that all my photos and pretty things are on display like this.

But I’m not sure if this is going to be the room’s final incarnation or if I’ll recover it.

I think I’m coming to accept a bit more that my house is always going to be a work in progress! :D

• This foam or an old yoga mat which is what I used.
• Scissors
• Pen

They are extremely easy to make, you just need to cut the following shape:

It’s basically a heart at the top and a squiggle at the bottom, it looks a bit like a key. Make sure to cut a hole in the heart and a line down the squiggle. Really you could just do a circle at the top but the heart is cuter ;)

Repeat depending on how many you need. I decided on 6 because I wanted to use them for a light wave effect in my hair.

Before you use them make sure the end of the squiggle is the right size to be pulled through the hole in the heart. This is how they will stay together.

Now to use them, brush your hair out and hairspray it. Grab a section of hair and poke it through the cut in the squiggle.

Roll the whole thing upwards to your head.

Poke the end of the squiggle through the hole in the heart and it will stay in place.

Repeat with the other sections of hair. Where you place the curlers will effect the kind of curl you get in the end.

Sleep with them in overnight. I actually found these to be more comfortable than pin curls as they are so squishy. In the morning unravel them all very carefully.

The curls are just a little wavy rather than spiraly. If you want tighter curls you need to do smaller sections.

After brushing through and styling they look quite pretty!

You get the pretty waves without taking up time in the morning or putting in much effort.

And from the back:

Overall I would call this a success, the rollers worked well for the wavy effect I was looking for. I may make some more so I can get a variety of curl shapes too. What do you think?

• Glitter
• Fabric glue (not pva like the last tutorial)
• Paper to put down so you don’t make a huge mess
• Sneakers

There’s a post on how to maintain sneakers and shoes which are decorated in case you’re interested too.

Anyway the first step was removing all of the deco pieces and bows and giving the shoes a thorough wipe down.

The key to this version is to use wash and wear fabric glue. The brand doesn’t matter but it need to be washable. In the old version I used pva glue and mixed the glue and glitter together. That way does make a smaller mess but it takes longer and because the glitter is fairly encased it’s not quite as shiny.

Put sheets of paper down so you can easily clean up the mess later. So section by section coat each side of the shoe in a generous amount of glue. Then while the glue is still wet slowly tip glitter on. Be generous and don’t worry if the glitter piles up.

After the glue is dry to the touch shake off the extra glitter. Leave the shoes to dry over night and then brush off any remaining loose glitter OUTSIDE. You want to be very thorough with this brushing and make sure every possible piece of loose glitter is gone or else you’ll leave a trail of glitter everywhere you walk. I took mine into the shower and banged them together until nothing else came off.

And that’s it! Because this is fabric glue it holds on to the glitter so well that no top coat is needed at all. Super shiny = winner!

Now you just need some shiny clothes to go with them!

Put the basket in the middle of the foam and trace lightly around it 2cm from the base with the scissors so it scores the foam.

In each corner cut out a square which meets the corner of the score you made.

Snip the inner corner 2cm.

Repeat on each side and you’ll have something like this:

When you fold the edges together they should match up like this:

Stitch each side together. I used yarn and a basic whip stitch. You could staple it if you’re in a hurry but this does look a bit nicer.

Done, easy!

And all full of stuff. Apparently this was really hard work so my helper decided to have a nap ^_^

With one yoga matt you could easily make a bunch of these and have a matching storage system.

I experimented on a lot of different items with varied results so let’s see the before/afters before I show you the very cool gradient bleach.

First an old cardigan in a colour which didn’t go with my wardrobe.

After soaking in the bleach and water solution for around 20 minutes the only part which changed colour was the cotton lace. Everything else was apparently synthetic so it didn’t take the bleach. Bleach works best with natural fibers.

After:

Not the cute cream/white cardigan I was hoping for but still cuter than it started.

This shirt was accidentally dyed blue in the wash with some jeans. I really loved it but the blue looked really odd with the pinks of the flowers.

After:

The blue came out completely and I left it in the bleach long enough that the flowers became lighter and more pastel. Definitely like this one!

I threw in one of James’ old shirts to see if it was salvageable.

It became a bit brighter but there was not a super noticable change.

I threw in another few dresses at the end which were also blue from those jeans and they turned out like new.

Now let’s get a bit more fancy!

This shirt was in my “donate” pile and I decided to experiment on it.

I set up a hanging rack so I could suspend the shirt over the bucket of bleach.

Then I lowered it so the bottom was sitting in the bleach solution.

After a while the solution started creeping up the shirt.

To speed the process up I poured boiling water over the shirt to draw the bleach up further.

Then it was just a matter of waiting until it was the colour I wanted.

Getting there…

You can see the gradual change of colour more clearly here:

Once that was all finished I threw everything in the wash to remove any extra bleach and get rid of the terrible smell. If you decide to do something like this make sure to wear gloves and keep the area ventilated. Keep in mind that bleach isn’t great for delicate fabrics too as it is corrosive.