Aug 17, 2011 | DIY
Welcome to another DIY Links of the Week! I’ve decided to condense 2 weeks into one again – mostly from lack of time and being away part of last weekend camping. There’s been a lot out there on the Internet, and all of you have been so kind in sending me links to your tutorials in the meantime. Let’s hit it!
Wanting to add to your “arm party” of bracelets this Summer? Follow Maryjanes and Galoshes‘ braided leather bracelet tutorial and quickly make some pretty suede braided bracelets. Love!
Channel your inner Cher and make a boho-style tassel leather fringe necklace with black & white & loved all over. And extra points for creativity – she made it with an embroidery hoop as the base!! How’s that for innovative?
Have any old pants with an elastic waistband lying around? Make them into a cute sheath dress with elastic straps, courtesy of Comely Vesture. Can you even tell the dress was once a pair of pants?? And definitely check out all her other amazing refashions and tutorials on the blog!
It seems that everyone wants to hack the sleeves off their shirts now that it is Summer. Case in point: A Cleaner Closet shares her makeover of a silk blouse into a bias-edged shell. I love the schoolgirl-vibe to this refashion!
Sometimes tech needs a feminine upgrade. I’d love to makeover my boring old laptop case into a ruffled laptop case with the help of Less Cake More Frosting, shared on Tatertots and Jello. Plus, you could do this with any old bag!
Finally, you can DIY furniture, electronic equipment, and lasercut jewelry without owning the tools thanks to Ponoko’s innovative making system. Now if only a garment manufacturer could somehow implement a similar model for clothing!
Just lovely! Make a DIY Bow Pillow with E Tells Tales. The perfect use for leftover jersey from your stash!
If your project was featured above, feel free to grab a button and share the DIY!
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If you have a DIY how-to or tutorial that you’d like to see featured on Chic Steals, please email me at carlyjcais at chic-steals dot com – and I’ll try to squeeze it in to one of my Links of the Week posts! (Tutorials/how-to’s with steps and photos included please! So everyone can share in the DIY goodness:-)
xoxox
Carly
-all photos copyright their respective authors; photo array by me-
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Aug 9, 2011 | DIY
I had the opportunity to guest post for the blog Seamingly Smitten today, and I’m thrilled! They are hosting a 12-day Sew Chic Upcycling event with guest posters every day – and a ton of tutorials on how to upcycle, re-use, and re-purpose just about anything you could think of. In my post I show you how to turn a sweater into something sporty and Alexander Wang-inspired…with the addition of some mesh fabric from a thrifted football jersey. Please check it out below!
Thanks, Jenny, for having me! And definitely check out all the other guest poster’s tutorials, as well as the long Linky list at the end of the post for tons more inspiration.:-)
Happy DIY’ing!
xoxox
Carly
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Aug 6, 2011 | By Carly J. Cais, DIY
It was my best friend’s birthday this week and I had wanted to send her something I made. Unfortunately it took me a lot longer than I had anticipated to make all the bracelets I had wanted to, so I ended up popping them in the mail a little after her birthday.
It’s been 20 or so years since I last made a friendship bracelet, and I remember back in the day only being able to make the kind with the diagonal stripes. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to make the chevron, crossover, diamond-patterns, or Chinese staircase bracelets. The bracelets I made back in the late 80’s were pretty horrible; too loose or too tight, bad colors, wayyy too short… Now in 2011 there are tutorials all over the place and following one closely I finally was able to make a double diamond-patterned bracelet (the navy one above).
I was thrilled.
I also sewed in rhinestones and beads into my bracelets, and did wrap bracelets with bright embroidery floss and ball-chain and rhinestone chain, similar to what Honestly, WTF had posted on their blog a little while ago.
I figured that, no matter how old we get, sometimes something as both cheesy and iconic as the friendship bracelet can bring a little pop of color to an outfit – and a smile to one’s face.
Happy Birthday, J!!!
I hope she likes them.
xoxox
Carly
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Aug 4, 2011 | DIY
Lace is a huge trend for this Spring and Summer – and its delicate, airy quality lends it to a variety of applications. I’ve been wanting a lace dress for awhile, but I wanted to make one that was both easy and extremely versatile (I’m a BIG fan of multifunctional garments, as most of you already know;-). I finally created this pattern for an incredibly easy lace dress – that only uses straight cuts in the pattern and allows you to customize it to your size and shape – and that can be worn a multitude of ways since it – *GASP!* – contains no lining. Let’s get crackin’!
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Aug 3, 2011 | DIY
Another week, another round up of craftiness. Thanks so much for sending me all your wonderful projects!
Dye your hair into beautiful pastels on the cheap with the help of washable Crayola markers. Pull Teeth has the video tutorial.
Make a large Girly tote bag inspired by Vanessa Bruno and LL Bean on Made by Genevieve. It looks so perfectly done and rivals those you could buy in a store! (And check out all her other DIY tutorials on her site too – they’re fab!)
Desde Tenefire Con Amor made an awesome DIY Prada Banana skirt just using fabric paint on white cotton. The great thing about those Prada bananas is that they have this hand-painted quality, so the more sketchy-looking, the more authentic!
Add some DIY to your office space with the help of Design*Sponge. I love all the great patterns from fabrics and paper that can be incorporated into your office area – how fun!
Erin Siegel Jewelry posted a how-to for a Simple Link Bracelet. Imagine making a bunch of these with your favorite charms and stacking them with other bangles and cord bracelets? Lovely and summery!
Autodesk, one of the world’s leaders in design, engineering, and entertainment software (3dsmax, CAD) just acquired the largest DIY community on the web: Instructables.com (for around $2 million). source I truly hope they improve the uploading editor (because it takes so goshdarn long to upload a project that I rarely do it), and that Autodesk doesn’t exclude how-tos and projects that may come close to some of their licensed products and software – as well as respect intellectual property ownership (which according to some of the comments, they have not had the best track record in). It remains to be seen!
Make a Custom Pair of Tap Pants with Haley Pierson-Cox on CraftZine. Boy, the fabric she used for her shorts looks so familiar!! I guess that polka-dot satin just lends itself so easily to a pair of frilly, lovely shorts. A must-do before the summer’s done!
…love, Maegan made a stunningly amaaaahzing pair of
DIY embellished jeweled pumps, inspired by Dolce + Gabbana. The final result is completely droolworthy!!
If your project was featured above, feel free to grab a button and share the DIY!
<a href=”https://chiccreativelife.com/category/links-of-the-week”><img src=”https://chiccreativelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/diylotwfeaturedbutton.png” /></a>
If you have a DIY how-to or tutorial that you’d like to see featured on Chic Steals, please email me at carlyjcais at chic-steals dot com – and I’ll try to squeeze it in to one of my Links of the Week posts! (Tutorials/how-to’s with steps included please! So everyone can share in the DIY goodness:-)
xoxox
Carly
-all photos copyright their respective authors; photo array by me-
~If you liked this post, please share it!~
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Jul 27, 2011 | DIY
Jil Sander’s S/S 2011 RTW Collection was filled with punchy-bright minimalist maxi-skirts with gathers at the waist – making all the models who walked in the show vaguely reminiscent of upside-down tulips. I re-created the bright column skirt with knee-length slit in one side, to herald the beginning of Summer and the return of warmer days. (I would have shared this much earlier, except I left my paper scribbled with all my measurements back in the States, during the last month I spent in Tokyo. So here it is finally!)
How to Make a DIY Jil Sander Column Maxi-Skirt
Since I wanted to make this DIY as simple as possible, I created instructions for a straight skirt (not a fishtail-cut like the peplum version), along with a removable peplum. In the Jil Sander Collection the fishtail orange skirt has an attached peplum, and there are also separate peplums that can be worn on top of pants or other pieces as desired. Therefore I decided to make two separate pieces for ultimate versatility; these are the instructions for the skirt.
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