
Upcycling DIY home decor, woodworking and Crafts
I am so happy to be here today sharing a tutorial for these Cozy Christmas Ornaments made from old sweaters. That ugly Christmas sweater you have? I bet it would make beautiful ornaments! This is an easy ornament to DIY, and you can make quite a few ornaments from one sweater, so let’s get started.
You are going to need 3” balls of STYROFOAM™ Brand Foam (you could go larger or smaller, too); an old sweater or two; scissors; a sharp pencil; needle & thread; thick, white craft glue; and ribbon for hanging the ornaments.
To start, mark the center top and bottom of your foam ball with a pencil. Then insert your pencil at each point to make a 5/8” hole.
Cut a piece of sweater fabric, measuring about 4” – 5” high and 8” long. If you’re using a patterned sweater, be sure to plan where you cut to best highlight the pattern. Test fit your fabric piece around the ball to be sure it fits – the size of the fabric you’ll need may vary depending on the stretchiness of your sweater.
Fold your fabric in half lengthwise, right sides together, and stitch a ¼” seam. Turn right side out. Slip the ball into the center of your tube.
Place a dab of white craft glue in the hole at the top and using a sharp tool such as a pencil, firmly push the cut edges of the fabric tube into the hole. Try to space the fabric folds evenly around the ball. Repeat at the bottom of the ball.
Knot together the ends of a 6” – 8” length of ribbon, and push the knot down into the hole at the top. If you like, add a bow and jingle bell, or any other decorations, to the top of the ball. Let the glue dry before you hang your ornaments.
I want to give a shout out to designer Kathleen George for helping out with these Sweater Ornaments. I have a few more ideas for repurposing old shirts to make ornaments in the Christmas Ornament series “Mad for Plaid & Paisley” over on Crafts ‘n Coffee. Please come by and check them out!
Thank you so much for having me today, Johnnie. It’s a thrill to guest post here! I wish you, your family, and all of your readers a wonderful Christmas season!
Happy crafting.
Sharon
Before you haul that pile of old clothes off to Goodwill, you may want to check out this collection of 50+ awesome upcycled clothing tutorials! Up the style of your wardrobe with some simple and inexpensive creative ideas to refashion those old clothes. Did we miss your favorite? Let us know. We love a good clothing upcycle!
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Hi there! I’m excited to share this project with you today for a few reasons – a) it’s ‘wearable art’ and what’s more fun than wearing something you created, and b) it’s a great project for Spring.
I don’t think there’s one of us who isn’t ready for Spring, right?
Seriously. What a winter!
These shoes are a paint-in-an-afternoon project too. Which I happen to love. Instant gratification and all that.
optional: Krylon Matte Spray sealer
Start by penciling the shapes onto the shoes. Just randomly, maybe overlapping a few here and there.
There is no right or wrong to this.
If you’re uneasy about freehanding your shapes, you can cut some templates out of a manila file folder.
Then just trace around them.
I chose these ‘guitar pick’ shapes as the outline for some retro dandelions I saw online. But you could certainly paint any shapes you wanted.
Fill in the shapes, starting with one color. Then move on to the second color. This helps spread the colors around evenly, painting one color at a time.
I didn’t prep the shoes in any way, just painted right on top of them and it worked great. You could, however, basecoat the entire shoe first, if you wanted another color besides white.
After painting the blue and green, take the end of your paint brush, dip it into some paint and ‘dot’ randomly around the shoe.
This not only adds some extra interest, it also keeps you busy while the dandelions are drying.
Just for fun, add a third color of dots, like Pink Melon. A sunny yellow or bright orange would be cute too, or any other color that feels like Spring.
Once the paint has dried, it’s time to add some little lines and dots with your fine tip marker.
Just little lines with a little dot on the end to look like funky dandelions.
If there’s room, draw some stems for the dandelions too.
You can also draw a little swirl in the dots.
I just added a few swirls here and there.
The marker will dry very quickly and then you’ll have a fresh new pair of kicks for Spring!
Which, hopefully, will be here very, very soon!
One last thing – you can seal the shoes with Krylon Matte sealer, if you choose. I didn’t because acrylic paint is really pretty durable however the sealer would also make them much easier to clean.
Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. I’ll see you again next month with another fun paint project. In the meantime, please drop by Just Paint It and say hi. You can also find me on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram too.
This year at CHA, I saw so many amazing new products that I am busting at the seams to tell you about, and this is one of my favorites! Watch the video to see how you can use Lumi Inkodye to make prints on natural materials. I found this white cotton t-shirt at Walmart for $4.88 and came knew it would be perfect to try out this cool product.
I made this negative in Photoshop and printed it on Lumi’s transparency film.
Using the DIY Printing Kit in Blue, I followed the steps in the video below to make my custom logo tshirt!
I used a baking pan as my flat surface and pinned my negative on top of the area coated with the solution.
After 10 minutes in the sun, I had a great print. Make sure you wash in the detergent after bringing inside, so the developing stops!
This was so easy. Look at the detail in the text! Super impressive. I am doing more prints as we speak.
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It’s all about hearts today, with this collection of over 50 DIY heart projects you can make. You will spy jewelry, crafts, wall decor, clothing and more, sure to inspire your Valentine’s Day festivities.
I am in love with this stamped t-shirt project spotted at WhimseyBox. They used oil based block printing ink, available in their inclusive kit. I am wondering if fabric medium and acrylic paint would look this good? The arrow tail stamp pattern is sweet!
If you are in the mood for more t-shirt projects, check out our 50+ round-up:
I found this adorable skirt fashioned from thrifted lace curtains over at By Wilma. What an adorable, vintage feel. She makes it look super simple to create. Even someone horrified of their sewing machine (myself included) could tackle this project!
We are super into the track and field Olympic events. Last weekend was the women’s Marathon, and I was glued to the T.V. My husband’s favorite Olympic event is the men’s marathon. His favorite runner, Ryan Hall. The race takes place in just a few days, and I wanted to make us T-shirts to show our support for the amazing U.S. athletes. These were simple to make, and I love the outcome I got from layering Tulip soft fabric paint in a neutral shade over Tulip neon fabric markers in various hues.
You will see in the video, I used my Cricut to cut out stencils from adhesive vinyl contact paper (which you can get at the dollar store for a buck). I colored with bright Tulip fabric markers, then did an overlay with Tulip soft fabric paint, letting the bright layer show through in some areas. The effect turned out pretty cool. Check out the quick video to see the process.
*** If you don’t have a cricut or other die cut, you can print off your design and cut out the letters to create a stencil from paper or card stock. Then use stencil adhesive or masking tape to make the stencil stay in place on the shirt.
I am soooo excited about this project!! I really suck at sewing. My sewing machine completely freaks me out. I get way stressed when I think about threading a bobbin, and a gather stitch??? Forget it. Nuh – uh. Well guess what… I threaded my bobbin and turned an old T-shirt of hubby’s into a skirt, and used a gathering stitch in the process.
Here is how I did it…
Supplies:
Instructions:
- Right sides facing up: Now position your waistband lower edge 5/8″ past the upper edge of the skirt and pin.
- Gently pull the lower thread tails to gather the upper edge of the skirt until it is the same circumference of the waistband. Pin the heck out of it.
- From the wrong side of the skirt, zig zag stitch over the gathering stitch through the band and skirt.
Then you are done. Wear that bad boy out on the town. I can’t believe it is 50° here in the middle of December. I think that, mixed with the sunshine, contributed to my sudden urge to make a skirt. Thanks for following along. Let me know if you have questions.
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