Monday, November 7, 2011

$1 Clearance Rack Up-Cycle = Leg Warmers, Headband and 2 Flowers

In this new creative adventure I am really trying to be open to any possible project wherever it may present itself, which is actually a lot of fun.  This week I ran into Walmart for a can of spray paint for yet another project and I saw a large group of women digging through several tables and racks near the front of the store.  Being Walmart.. (no offense intended... I shop there often), I didn't think much of it, then I saw it was left over Halloween items and everything was $1.  So like any good "wanna be crafter".. I can't believe I am admitting this..  I threw my pride to the side and joined in :)  Unfortunately there was nothing that would fit my kids now or even next year, but I did see this cute girls t-shirt.
Now, I'm not a big Halloween person and like I said I don't have a girl this size yet but I loved the stripes and I thought it was worth the buck to try and make something fun out of it.
So for a $1 investment and less than an hour... this is what I came up with!  Stripped leg warmers from the arms, a fun purple flower headband from the body of the shirt... and there was even enough left over for a second flower that I put on a pin.
Disclaimer: I am no sewing expert, in fact I've only been at it a few months so I probably do just about everything "wrong", but I'm teaching myself (quite a frightening thought :) so if there is a better way please let me know... this is just how I did it!

Since my little munchkin is still small and the arms were very stretchy, I just cut....
 and hemmed.
 Instant leg or arm warmers.
For the headband I cut a 4 inch wide strip from the purple body of the shirt ...
turned it inside out and sewed the long ends together...
then turned it right side out, tucked the unfinished end inside the already hemmed bottom of the shirt, pinched the sides together to make a gathered center and sewed it together.
 Now that you have a headband, I cut a bunch of squares from another side of the shirt for the flower petals (the two striped ones have already been cut into "petals") This is how I makes them....
 Take the square and fold it in half to make a triangle...
Then take that triangle and fold it again along that first fold.
Now fold it back on itself one last time... you should have one side with a single edge and the other with three folds.
Finally use scissors to round the open edge to make the petal.
From here I just layer them onto a round piece of felt and glue them down. There is no science just layer the pieces until you have a flower you like. If you have a fancy die cut machine obviously use that, I don't so this is my "poor mans way" to make them :)
TO finish the flower for the headband I completely opened two of the stripped petals and added a rhinestone.. then glue the entire thing to a matching felt circle on the headband.
The other I added a pin.
This is my attempt to show it all together on my now "very mobile" munchkin :)
This was a quick "nap time project" and a fun way to spend a dollar :)  It is kind of amazing what you can find if you don't get caught up on a particular size.  Be open to anything that comes your way, even a crowd of women at Walmart :)  It's definitely my new challenge for myself and so far I'm having a great time.  Let me know what you come up with!

Happy Hunting, Lindsey

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