Tag Archives: vintage

Summer hanky headband DIY

Posted on June 27, 2011 by SewTara| 2 Comments

I guest posted over the weekend at amy is the party where she featured a bunch of fun summery projects, like cupcake fondue!! Plus other post by some superfunawesomecool people including Thursday and Crafty Minx. So head over there and have a peek!

Ok I’m going to show you how to turn a hanky into a fun hair accessory for the summer. It’s a super quick project that you can make with thrifted materials and probably things you have on hand, scraps material and a bit of elastic. I’ve burned my scalp already this summer and I’m hoping this is a cuter alternative to hats.
You will need
– a hanky you like
- a piece of elastic (mine was 7″)
- a strip of fabric (3″ x 15″)
Other handy items – safety pin, turning tool,

I picked this one because it has a great pattern on one corner which is perfect because you’re going to fold the hanky diagonally.

First fold the strip of fabric in half and sew down one side with a 1/4 inch seam.

Turn it right side out. This part was a bit tricky, I used my handy little turning tool, this long metal stick thing with a hook on it. Once you have it turned right side out take the elastic piece and feed it through the casing. Sew it in place at one end. Then pull the elastic through so it’s sticking out the other side. It’s easy to guide through if you put a safety pin on the end first.

The casing fabric should be all gathered up like a hair scrunchie.

Fold the hanky in half diagonally and sew the stitched up end of the elastic to one corner of the hanky.

Chceck to see how it fits on your head. I had to trim about an inch from the scrunchie piece. Once it’s a comfortable tightness at the back of your head stitch the other end of the scrunchie piece to the other hanky corner.

And voila, a great cool summer alternative to hat head!

Here’s my ‘I’m not ready for a photo’ frontal shot. Sorry for the sunny bit.

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Posted in DIY, repurposing, scraps, sewing

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Oh right.

Posted on May 2, 2011 by SewTara| 5 Comments

I blogged a while back about The Vintage Cabin, a fun blog and shop I stumbled upon thanks to My Girl Thursday. I made some purchases and was going to show the fun package I recieved and my purchase in action.

This cute little fellow was greeting me when I unwrapped the box.

I thought this was a brilliant little touch, stamping the tissue paper! I have a custom SewTara stamp, why hadn’t I thought of this!

Here’s the new home of the lovely vintage clock. Yes that’s an unfinished wall. Yes that’s the fuse box. My ‘studio’ is a corner in the man cave. I make do.

Lately I’ve been having a hard time working my various jobs. I spend the mornings with my kids, run off to school to teach all afternoon, come home and do the usually family type stuff and then run to the basement until I can’t keep my eyes open to run my business. It’s like working 3 jobs.

I was wondering why I didn’t think of all this creative/blog/business thing *before* there were kid/kids and my hubby pointed out that maybe they are what drove me to find it. I think about all that time I just sat around doing nothing with my life before and how now every moment is filled with something. He said the pressure might be what pushed me to work so hard at being ‘me’ again.

I thought he was being pretty wise. Don’t tell him I said so, that kind of stuff goes to his head sometimes.

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Posted in fun finds, uncategorized

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DIY vintage pillow case restyle.

Posted on April 12, 2011 by SewTara| 5 Comments

On the weekend I turned my kitchen table into a bit of a nightmare so I could squeeze in some crafting while Nate was avoiding his nap. I was working on a project with vintage pillow cases and inspiration hit and took me on a bit of a detour.

Start with a vintage pillow case and trim off the nice finished edge at the opening where you put your pillow in. You can either trim really close to the stitching and have a closed loop piece, or cut into it and have an open edge. I’m going to show you how to work with both options.

Now you have 2 big loops, cut off the seam so you have one long piece of fabric.

I was cutting the orangey one for another project and in the process I trimmed a bit into the seam and created an opening on one edge. So here’s how to finish that off and make a nice clean edge, and a thinish headband.

Open the fabric up and use the fold inside, the part that was the very end of the pillow, as a guide to fold the unfinished edges inward. I didn’t go all the way because I wanted my band a bit thicker.

Then fold it again so the raw edges disappear inside. You can iron and pin at this point before you sew. Of forge ahead like I did.

Top stitch along the sides to make nice clean edges. Fold the bottom raw edges up inside the ‘tube’ to create a clean edge and topstitch to seal it all in. Then you have one nice ruler shaped piece of fabric that you can wrap around your head and tie at the back.

For my blue headband I just carefully trimmed around the pre-existing stitching. Why make more work?

Then I cut the ends on an angle just to had some interest to the ends. Fold the raw edges inside and top stitch around the whole thing.

There you have it, a lovely new headband that was half made already!

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Posted in DIY, repurposing, scraps, tutorial-ish, vintage

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DIY clipboard snazziness

Posted on April 8, 2011 by SewTara| 10 Comments

You will need some scissors, an exacto knife or some sort of precise cutting instrument, some shelving/contact paper, a cutting mat helps annnd a clipboard!  My clipboards are little mini ones I picked up for 99 cents each at Value Village.

Remove any stickers or labels from your clipboards before you start.  I left the price tag on my first attempt and there’s a faint outline of the price tag.  Measure your clipboard or just do what I did and lay it on the contact paper and cut out a piece big enough to cover it.

Cut the piece out and starting at one of the bottom corners stick the contact paper on and work across the clipboard making sure there are no bubbles or bumps.

 

 

It has been a ridiculously busy week in my house. It’s literally taken me about 5 days to write this post. Which is sad since there’s hardly any writing!

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Posted in DIY, other crafts, repurposing, tutorial-ish, vintage

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Interwebs dominoes

Posted on March 14, 2011 by SewTara| 3 Comments

Sooooo I’ve been hanging out late at night on Twitter while I work away and Thursday is *always* there.  She mentioned The Vintage Cabin, so of course off I went to Etsy to see the shop.  Then I bought something. . . s.

In my poking around I ended up at the Vintage Cabin Blog (which is hillarious and local so I love it).  In one of her posts she mentioned a shop in Toronto, SMASH that seems super awesome, but has wacky hours *sigh*

 

She mentioned her love of industrial inspired stuff and said Three Potato Four was a favourite, so then there I was on that site.

 

Vintage Cabin was also featured in N.E.E.T magazine, which is awesome and full of all sorts of cool stuff.  I can’t even link all the neat things I found in there, just go check it out for yourself and you too will be playing Interwebs Dominoes.  Yeah, I’m making up a new term.

 

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Posted in fun finds, neat spaces, papercrafts, vintage

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Making my own awesome camera/laptop bag.

Posted on February 27, 2011 by SewTara| 1 Comment

I really, really, really wanted a JoTotes camera bag.  Pretty sure I’ve said that a few times.  I was being good and saving for the lovely tangerine one but then disaster struck and when I went to actually purchase it they were all sold out. I sent an email and learned they aren’t making that colour again. They’re very sold out, often.

So I implemented a back up plan. I searched on Etsy for vintage bags and narrowed it down to the local shops hoping to skip expensive shipping charges and organize a pick up. I found an awesome bag at this shop. They’ve got fantastic prices, some vintage luggage left, and if you’re in Canada too the shipping is reasonable.

Now I’m working on lining and padding it so I can toss my camera, ipad or lappy. I’m also working on learning photoshop so pardon me while I experiment!

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Posted in fun finds, repurposing, sewing, vintage

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Vintagey laptop sticker DIY

Posted on February 21, 2011 by SewTara| 5 Comments

My last laptop was plastered in fun goofy stickers.  Then I got my new shiny Macbook and it’s just been all simple and silver, until now.  I tracked down some vintage Contact paper to adorn my lappy.  After checking around in a few thrift stores, and frankly just not wanting to wait, I went ahead and ordered some on Etsy.  I’ve been checking back frequently and the selection does vary from day to day just in case you want to grab some.  Also, be sure to check under the ‘supplies’ and ‘vintage’ categories, you get different results.  While I was waiting for my goods to arrive One Pearl Button coincidentally posted a link on covering idevices yourself with helpful links to templates.  But I wanted to do my Macbook and the templates don’t take into account the apple cut out.  So I got adventurous.

First I used my printer/scanner/copier and made a copy of the front of my laptop so I’d have a copy of the apple logo.  Next I carefully cut out the apple with my little exacto knife pen thingie.  I placed it over my laptop just to make sure I trimmed it well.

I measured the top of the laptop and guesstimated at the size of the surface area before the slight curve.  I have a 13 inch and I figured it was about 12 x 8 1/2.

I cut the apple out of the Con-tact paper, aproximated the center and cut the piece 12 x 8 1/2.  Then I used my scrapbooking corner rounder to clip the corners.

Sticking it onto the laptop proved a bit finicky.  I didn’t want to start at one side and work my way across so I carefully took the backing off and exposed the sticky side of the Contact paper in the middle where the apple is.  This allowed me to line up the apple all nice and straight and then just work my way out towards the edges.

Once it was all nice and flat I opened the cover and examined my handiwork with the apple lit up.  There was a spot where I needed to trim and I just used the exacto really gently to shave off a teeny bit.  I’m sure happy with the results, I love the grey and yellow combo.

Plus I’ve got some other patterns in my stash and so when I get bored of this I can just peel it off and switch it.

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Posted in other crafts, repurposing, tutorial-ish, vintage

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Pattern tested!

Posted on February 9, 2011 by SewTara| 2 Comments

Well guess that titles gives it all away . . . I tested a pattern.

I signed up on I Think Sew and then when I was contacted the lovely Sue asked me if I’d make . . . . A TOTE BAG!!!  Yipee!!

I used the vintage fabric that Keyka Lou mentioned, I have a problem buying the cute fabrics she mentions.  For the lining I just grabbed something from my stash.  There’s a little metal clasp on the inside and it’s a really nice big roomy bag.  I’ve been using it since.

I also own this fun pattern and have been carrying around the PDF on my ipad searching for just the right fabric.

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Posted in sewing, vintage

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Thrifting fun!

Posted on January 26, 2011 by SewTara| Leave a comment

Last night the plan was to go fabric shopping with my bff.  We did a bit of that but weren’t equiped to really search out what she needed so instead we decided to pop into some thrift stores.  We were  amazingly rewarded!  She found a vintage typewriter that she loved, but it was missing the J.  While pondering if she shoudl just take it J-less or not she realised there was another one buried under some stuff right beside it.  I wandered over and checked it out and while I did she lifted up the round keyed one and found the J lying there.  It just needed to be snapped back on.

So we left, each with a typewriter.  Price tags $17.99 each.  Score.

I found this cute little mixing bowl, no idea if it’s actually ‘vintage’ or not but I love the colour and designs.  The little set of plates feature cute little building and are from Germany.  My husband and I have vowed to only have knick knacks if they are from our travels.  These plates aren’t, but they’re really cute and we’ve been to Germany so same thing really.

I also got a Samsonite train case but it’s still in my van and needs some surface cleaning before a photo shoot.

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The fabric love continues.

Posted on January 5, 2011 by SewTara| Leave a comment

Isn’t this the cutest little print ever?!

Available at DreamingOfSewing.  I’m trying really hard to resist buying it.

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