Denim Shirt Refashion

Because who doesn't love a good ol' refashion, right?

I feel like this refashion really captures the essence of how much of a piece of trash I am. Like....I actually made the whole thing almost a year ago, but didn't get around to photographing it until just recently. I know, I know, I am garbage. But I'm okay with that. Because who honestly has that kind of control over their life, right? Right? Ehhhhhh...

But anyway, here is the pièce de résistance:

And it isn't even that huge of a deal of a refashion. Like, I literally have no excuse as to why I didn't photograph this. I'm so sorry, I AM UNWORTHY.

My saving grace though is that I did take pictures along the way while making this, so at least I can explain what I did. I first started by putting the shirt on and pinning a line at my natural waist so that I could chop the top of the shirt from the bottom.

I then removed the pocket...

...and the sleeves. (Look, you can even tell how old this picture is. That's def the carpet from my old apartment from school last year.)

I then took a little more off the the sleeves and pinned where I wanted to take the shirt in at the sides before sewing in my new side seams and finishing off the new arm holes.

Finally, I pleated the bottom part of the shirt so that it was the same length as the top part of the shirt before attaching the two together ( I also decided to do some hemming of that bottom portion so that it didn't fray.)

So this was super quick, super simple, but I feel like it was a pretty legit improvement. Even if the original said "80's pinpoint" on the inside, I don't know what that means, but I'm on board for whatever that entails.


Linkin' up:
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Easy Jersey Scarf

Greetings friends :]

So I've been up to some larger sewing projects lately, as well as I finally finished a huge piece of artwork that I'm so stoked about, but in the meantime I have a little thing to whet your appetite.

I know that everyone and their mother (literally and figuratively) has seen and probably made a jersey scarf before. They're one of Pinterest's greatest lovechilds (lovechildren?) and it isn't any wonder why. They're crazy easy to make and turn out super cute. So, some time ago, I had a go and made one for myself.

Results: yes. Good.

And although I still have a mild fear of working with knit fabrics, I am happy to report that no one died in the process of making this.

Originally, I found this semi-tie-dye knit fabric in the clearance section of Joann's and I really loved the pattern and color to it. There was a little less than a yard left on the bolt, so I just bought it all. I don't really remember how much I paid for it, but I do remember that it was pretty cheap, which is always a good thing.

All I did to make the scarf was I started out by cutting off the selvage, which Kitty assisted in doing.

Then all I did was lay the fabric out, make a half twist, and sew the top edges together. Simple as that, yo.
I'll admit though that I did do the sewing by hand because I'm a big ol' baby wimp. One day I'll sew knits on my machine... but that day has not come yet....

And the end result is pretty lightweight and has just the right amount of slouch, which is v important in any scarf making venture. Trust me, I went to scarf college.


I know that this is just a silly, quick little project, but sometimes you need those kinds of things, right? Yes? Thoughts? Ah well.


Linkin' up:
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DIY Hi-Lo Circle Skirt

Some time ago, while I was perusing ye' olde Joann's, I came across something truly magical. I was walking down that random aisle of just.. things and junk where half of it is miscellaneous sale stuff and the other half is just... uncategorized  craft items? You know that aisle? And something caught my eye:

First thought: Is that plaid I spy?
Second thought: WAIT IS THAT FLANNEL??

Good news, self. It both.

They were just these 3 yard rolls of flannel that were only 5 bucks each, so I got two of them. Fast forward to present day and I finally made a thing:

I thought about making just another regular circle skirt because let's be real- you can never have enough of those. Or at least that's just what I keep telling myself so that I can sleep better at night. This time though, I decided to try out a hi-lo style and I'm per' excited about the result. So here is how it went!

I started off by rolling out my fabric just to see the dimensions and I made a paper pattern. For how to make the paper pattern and do your measurements, you can refer to my post about making circle skirts.

I then [with the help of Kitty] cut out just one quarter of my skirt. How I did this was instead of folding my fabric at all, I laid my quarter-skirt pattern out on just one layer of fabric and cut it out. No folding or anything required.

After cutting out the one quarter, I proceeded to flip and lay my pattern down again and cut out a second quarter. These two regular pieces are what I used for the high front of the skirt.

For the back of my skirt, the "lo" part of the hi-lo equation, I started out by tracing out my quarter-pattern twice right next to each other, flipping halfway through the process so that I traced out a half circle instead of just the quarter circles like I did for the front of the skirt. Now, instead of cutting the exact shape of my pattern, I cut it so that the back angled down further, so that it would create a low effect.

I forgot to photograph this part, but I assembled the skirt by just sewing my two front quarters together and then sewing them to the back half.

With my remaining fabric, I cut out a waistband that was about four inches wide by my waist+2 inches [actually, I think I only did it about an inch and a half bigger than my waist, but two inches is a safe bet if you're worried about it not fitting].

Like with all my waistbands, I folded the fabric in half and ironed it down.

I then opened it back up and folded the edges halfway to my center crease.

I attached the waistband to the skirt by encasing the top of the skirt fabric inside the little refolded waistband and running two lines of straight stitches around the whole deal. I should also note that I cut a line for the zipper in the middle back of the skirt before I attached the waistband.

To finish the skirt off, all I did was insert a zipper, make a matching bandanna for Kitty, and just like that we are matching wonder babies.

Now here, have a baby bird pose. Because we all needed that.

And some sweet hi-lo action. I should really stop taking photos at awful times of day when there is no light left. Shame on you Becca. Stop bringing dishonor to your family.

But anyway, there we have it! This skirt was pretty simple to make, and nothing beats the feeling of being a girly lumberjack child [if you've never tried that aesthetic, I highly recommend it.].


Linkin' up:
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White Blouse Refashion

Is it weird that I did not own a single plain white blouse before getting this shirt to refashion? I feel like there might be something wrong with that...

Ah well, the situation has been remedied, with a twist kind of?

I got this shirt from the thrift store for like a dollar or something, but it was way too big and lifeless on me. So after an afternoon of work and playing around with weird ideas, I think this is a much improved version:

Can you def tell that I got this over the summer and then let it sit on my refashion pile for forever? That's how I function.

I started by first putting the shirt on inside-out and pinning it in so that the overall fit was better. (Take note of that ominous black shape in the corner. Take a wild guess as to what happened next.)

Ah yes. Ah good. No sewing project is complete without Kitty putting his large body over top of everything. Wow.

After sewing up the sides, I folded up the collar and added a matching white button in line with the other buttons on the shirt. I also added a button hole on the other side of the collar, making sure the shirt would lay flat before cutting it out. I did the stitching for the button hole by hand because let's be real. I'm too much of a giant baby to try and add the hole by machine.

Using my pinking shears, I cut off the extra fabric from the sides of the shirt where I stitched it earlier. And here was where I decided to go a little different than just having a plain white blouse:

I took those extra pieces of fabric and right sides together, I pinned them and stitched the bottom and the pinked (is that even a term?) sides and left the tops open.

Then all I had to do was flip them right-sides out and top stitch all the way around.

Lastly, I just took the tie pieces, tucked them under the collar and hand stitched them on.

Aaaand, much improved now I'd say. My roommate gave me that brooch and I thought it would be perfect with this so why not. Like it looks fine just tied, but yeah. Fancy brooches are legit, right?

Linkin' up:
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Drawing with Toned Paper

Prior to going to college, I had never worked with toned paper before (please don't shun me).
Fear not though for I have seen the light. And oooh child. Yeah.

I've really been loving getting back into working with this type of paper. All toned paper is, in case anyone else out there is like poor little former-me, is colored drawing paper. Usually a mid tone, like grey or tan or something. And if you consider yourself an artist, or even a dabbler, trust me. It's great and you should try it, even if just for funzies.

I recently (as in like... a few months ago) decided to partake in a good ol' treat yo' self moment and purchased a tan toned sketchbook. And I dabbled around with creating a few things:

Such as some P-Cap eyes. Which, if you watched the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, hopefully you can recognize those intense attack eyebrows. I actually gave this one away to my good friend Ginger, so he's happily hanging on her wall.

But I kept this one for myself because get it? Toned paper? With a toned dude? Shut up, I'm witty okay.

The thing that I love about working with toned paper is that it gives you a good starting point for laying out all of your values. If you find drawing or shading to be daunting or scary because the white of your paper is taunting your very existence, then I highly recommend giving toned paper a go. It takes away the fear of the dreaded white canvas, which allows you to focus all of your attention on just plugging in your key highlights and shadows. Also, you don't have to do quite as much shading because your mid tone is already there. You don't have to blend it out and establish it for yourself.

Also, when working with color, you're able yo use more of your lighter hues because they appear much more rich and vivid on the toned surface, rather than being washed out like they tend to be on white paper.

One of my most favorite recent pieces I've done on tones paper is this moon and antlers, which actually got a good scan of because I decided to remove it from the actual sketchbook for once. I decided to frame the original and I have it hanging in my apartment which is kind of neat because I've never displayed my art in like... my actual living space before. This is a new thing for me.

But I have a confession. After I bought this tan sketchbook, I realized you can't just have one toned sketchbook in one color. That's like... art law right? Shhh, just go with my logic. So I decided to buy a hard bound grey sketchbook as well because treat yo' self.

And I christened it with this dudely dude. Because I unabashedly love drawing good-looking dudes. I'm not ashamed to admit that.


So really, I just wanted to take a moment to make a fangirl post about how much I love toned paper. But here is the take-away hopefully--

Pros of working with toned paper:
- Your mid value is established already, which allows you to spend more time on your highlights and shadows.
- You can use a wider range of colors due to the fact that light hues don't disappear.
- This is a really good type of paper if you find shading on white paper to be scary.

Cons of working with toned paper:
- None. There are no cons. Shhhhhh.


Also, side note, but I'm getting back in touch with my Esty account, so if anyone is interested in prints of these artworks, or of any of my works, please let me know!

Linkin' up:
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Zentangles Vol. 1

(Why volume one? Because shhhhh. There will probably most likely be more.)


So I realized that I haven't posted any of my artwork in a while, and I don't really know why that is. It's not like I stopped drawing once I graduated, though I do admit that now that I have a full time job, it does kind of put a strain on my free-time/ability to function.

So I've decided that I want to start posting my artwork again because why not. This is a creative space, no? :]


One thing that I've been doing a lot of lately is doodling random zentangles/ patterned pieces. Though I have a confession to make-- I didn't know they were called zentangles until like... two years ago. I always just referred to this type of art as just non-representational works (thanks, good ol' art history class) so now I feel so pretentious calling them zentangles. Don't judge meeeee. Eh.

The thing that I really like about zentangles is that I find them so mindless and stress relieving to do. There's no pressure to draw them "right." You don't have to worry about proportions or shading or have making them look like something specific. They're just so.... monotonous but in a really good way? Does that even make sense?

 The way that I usually start mine is that I typically choose a motif or a couple of motifs. Then I just repeat those shapes over and over until I have a general flow that I like. It also helps me to think about positive and negative space, and whether I'm leaving any room for the eye to "breathe" (such as how I left large spaces of plain black and white in the above ones).

And not all my designs are successful either. Like the one above? Not much of a fan. But I like to keep my mistakes and finish them because I sometimes the process of just creating something is what is important, not necessarily the finished product.

I also bought a 24 pack of sharpies not that long ago and am having fun just messing around with them. By no means is my coloring neat, but hey, at least this was fun.

(Fun fact-- this one was actually made from cutting up and collaging some weird demon money that this eccentric magic shop owner gave me....long story, not shady at all....)

And sometimes the zentangles find their way into my regular, more representational drawings. I actually thought about cutting my hair like that (that's why I drew this) but then I realized that I am a giant baby nerd and would miss my hair too much.

But like I said-- I hope to get better at posting my artwork some more. When I started this blog, I really thought I would be doing more of the artsy posting, but that got a little bit away from me. So my question is-- would y'all like to see more? Or would you like me to explain my process/any art processes? Because I'd love to do more of that if you all are interested :]


Linkin up:
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Dresser Makeover

Another furniture makeover? For real??
Yes, internet; this is for real. I made another thing.

And, unbeknownst to me when I first thought about doing this project, this turned out to quite possibly be the most annoying furniture makeover in all of human history. Well, that might be a little of an overstatement, but still. You'll understand why in a moment.

Back in ye olden days of summer 2014, my mother came home from a church thing with this dresser. Another lady at church was going to throw it away and asked my mom if she would like it or not. So she took it home and gave it to me saying "do something with this." (A common theme among all of the furniture in my apartment, it seems.)

This thing was in some major rough shape though, so I can understand why the lady wanted to get rid of it. Half the drawers didn't have knobs, the drawers themselves were really tight-fitting, one of the legs was broken, and overall it just smelled like the color brown (Tangled reference, anyone?).

But, being the sap that I am, I could see the potential in this one. I couldn't let the poor thing just be sent to the grave... and I def couldn't leave it as is. So I decided to do a major overhaul on it, which turned out to be quite the project.

First off, I primed the piece and I found out along the way that the last time this was stained, it wasn't sealed properly, so this vague red hue kept on bleeding through the primer. Then, as I went to take the remaining knobs off the drawers, I realized that half the holes were completely stripped, so I just had to fill all of the holes and sand them down.
Finally, when I went to paint the piece, the paint warped the drawers even more so that none of the drawers would even fit into the dresser. After lots of sanding and profuse swearing, I finally have a somewhat functional dresser:

And I must say that I feel that the final product is much cuter than where it started. I decided to go with black and my favorite off-white just because I thought it would be crisp and somewhat different. I also got all new handles which I thought about spray painting white to match the top of the dresser. Thoughts?

The drawers still kind of stick, but it got to the point where I just had to say "the hell with it." You know what I'm talking about? Where you work on something for what feels like forever but then good ol' apathy creeps in to save the day? That happens to me allll the tiiiime.

(this is just a picture of a jar of rocks I have because rocks are so important. I love rocks. I will fight you on how great rocks are.)

One day I suppose I'll go back and touch up the paint and do a bit more sanding or something, but for now I'm calling this one done. Aww yeah. It's nice to have something to put my items in again, that's for sure.

So has anyone else had to suffer through a project like this one? I'd love to hear/read your stories!

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