Leather Scrap Necklace – DIY

Posted on by
Reply

leather scrap necklace earrings

… Or maybe I should call this project Further adventures with the hole puncher?

I had some left of the black suede leather I used when I made this gold stud bracelet in February. I didn’t want to make yet another bracelet so I decided to break out the hole punch again and do something that I hadn’t really tried before.

Things I used:

  • Hole punch
  • A little sturdier leather
  • Chain
  • Jump rings

tools needed

Also, not pictured here, jewelry pliers to open and close jump rings, ear hooks if you want to make earrings and some jewelry head pins.

First I decided to make myself a necklace. I cut out the shapes I wanted.

cut out scraps

You will need to make some sort of plan of how you want the necklace to look like before you start to assemble it. Otherwise, things could get a little confusing and you will end up punching holes where there should be no holes. Some logical thinking is required at this point.

layout

I used head pins to make the pendant a bit more stable at the top.

heads pins

After I finished the necklace I also made a pair of earrings.

plan earrings

I think I like the earrings the most.

earrings finished

Using Existing Clothes as Patterns

Posted on by
2

Like I mentioned in my last post, I am to dumb to make my own patterns. Despite this, I occasionally want to make something from scratch. Projects of this kind usually end for me in a myriad of tears and curse words. However, recent fashion trends have given me some light at the end of this frustrating designer tunnel. Fuck you advanced figure hugging blouses and let’s make room for the easy loose fitting cropped tops! YEAH!

Study these tops and you’ll see that they usually just consist of 3 very basic shapes, one for the body and two for the sleeves. And best of all; it’s really just two fabric parts sewn together; no complicated sleeves to attach and mess up! (oh god, I hate sleeves so much!!!)

basic shape pattern crop top

These basic shapes of course makes drawing up patterns from existing clothes very easy. And this is what I decided to do a few days ago. I used the top above as a pattern.

I wanted to use some black chiffon fabric I got at a sale a while ago and a fringe trim I bought from Etsy seller Mary, not Martha.

I outlined the shape of the blouse and left about 1 inch of margin from the edge, I wanted my chiffon blouse to be a little wider than the top I used as reference.

pattern outline

This is what the chiffon fabric looks cut out. I didn’t make any specific back and front parts as I wanted the neckline in the back to drop as far as the front. I pinned the two parts and sewed them together.

cut out top

The top I am making is almost finished, I will show you a picture how it looks on soon. I will not post any specific tutorial on how to make it, I just wanted to give you a tip for an easy fashion project. When the pieces are cut out, there are a lot of ways to customise this simple top design. It also gets a really nice draping when created in chiffon fabric.

Here are some shots on the seams of my top. I like to sew a lot by hand when I make clothes. Especially details on chiffon.

hand sewing sew by hand

attaching fringe sew on

On another note; I wish I had the time to update more often. I am currently studying web design and the courses are taking forever to complete. It’s not that many credits, but it still feels like they expect you to be able to re-create Facebook from scratch when you’re finished!

Suede Fringe Bag – DIY Tutorial

Posted on by
Reply

suede fringe bag diy

Oh man, I’ve been so busy lately fangirling on The Avengers that I haven’t had the time to make anything new!

But fear not fellow diy’ers, I have a very easy tutorial for you today!

Summer is approaching and as it looks like the boho trend will get even stronger this season, what could be more perfect than a suede fringe bag on your shoulder? This tutorial will show you how to make your own. It requires almost no sewing and the finished product looks great!

What you will need:

  • Suede
  • Hole Punch
  • Scissors
  • 2 A4 paper sheets

I got my suede from a old jacket that my mom was about to throw away.

oldjacket

I made the pattern by folding A4 papers sheets in half. I am going to go into details on how I did this at the end of the post. Because folding paper is hard.

paper pattern

I cut out the suede parts.

suede cut out

Pinned them together.

pinned

Punched holes around the edges with my hole puncher.

hole punch

The size of the holes depends on how thick you want your fringes to be. My fringes measured about 0.5 mm wide and 22 cm long. For that I found that the second smallest hole in the puncher worked well. You will have to figure this out yourself by trying out different hole sizes and fringes on some scrap suede.

I cut out the fringes without really measuring them, but they all ended up around 0.5 mm x 22 cm. There is no need for them to be perfect – The boho trend is all about being a little unique… Heh!

fringe cut out

I added them around the bottom and the sides. I left out two holes at the top. That’s where the shoulder strap will go.

fringe loop

how to make leather fringe

I continued to punch holes around the top flap.

top flap puncher

I didn’t want any fringe on the flap, I figured that would be a little too much of the good stuff, and decided to instead make a nice trim around the edge.

suede trim diy

The suede cord is of course also from the jacket and has the same measurements as the fringe, except it’s longer. I put some super glue at both ends.

glue ends

The only thing left do was to make the shoulder strap. This is where I had to use my sewing machine. The suede I used is quite thin and stretches a bit if it’s pulled. To make a strap strong enough I had to use two layers of suede and run my machine over it a few times to make it sturdier. I will probably not carry heavy stuff in this bag so the strap should hold.

shoulder strap

I pulled the strap ends through the holes I left empty at the top and tied knots to secure them.

And the bag is complete!

bag complete

 

Now, I am going to show you how I made the pattern for this bag. First there are two things that you should know about me:

1. I am a dumb-ass. I must craft on a kindergarten-level.
2. I can’t do math so I can’t measure up a patterns using numbers and shit either.

Okay.

Take two A4 papers.

Fold the first one and tear it in half.

pattern bag 1

Take one of the pieces. Make little dog ears on one of the ends. This will be the shape of the front bottom of the bag. The front piece is now finished.

dog ear pattern

Take the other part of the A4 paper and repeat the above steps. This will be the bottom back side of the bag.

To make the over flap, divide the other A4 paper in half it like the first one. Attach one of the pieces to the back part. I used tape.

pattern 3 tape

Fold the flap over the front piece and decide how long you want it to be. Dog ear the flap.

pattern 4

And the pattern is done.

I hope that made some sense.

Alright. I will now go and mentally prepare for the epic brain-meltdown that is going to take place in the cinema tomorrow.

Fringe Top – DIY

Posted on by
1

fringe top diy

So I had this weird shapeless top/dress/long tank top(?) in my closet. The only thing I liked about it was the color. I decided it was time for a remake!

before top

Not a fun top!

I measured how long I wanted the remade top to be, I went for the cropped style, and cut off the bottom half.

cutting off

This is how it looked chopped off.

cut off

Wearable, but still pretty boring.

I took the bottom half and cut it up to make the fringes. All in different sizes to create some depth once they were sewn on.

fringes

I measured and marked where I wanted the fringes to go.

measure

And sewed them on one by one.

sewon

Looks pretty cool.

result