Jersey Cotton Necklace

Well I am having a fabulous weekend with some of my craftiest friends! B Head and Egan are here and in between our bouts of "hoarders" marathons (which also brought on a few cleaning binges for me) we decided to get a little crafty!
After creating a few foam coozies... (which were def not blog-worthy) we moved on to greater things. B Head showed me an amazing necklace she made out of an old t-shirt. Because it's made of jersey cotton, it is remarkably light-weight for large necklace. The best part is, of course, if you have an old t-shirt to re-purpose, the cost is FREE! 

But mom! I just want to help!

Dislaimer: Tucker really wanted to be our little "helper" for this project and pretty much attempted to chew everything we were working on, so he'll be making quite a few guest appearances because we could not get him OUT OF THE WAY!

Ok back to the craft! First, find an old t-shirt. I used a plain one but you could try a patterned one as well. Lay the tee out on the floor. Cut off the hemmed edge on the bottom. Then, begin cutting 1-inch strips straight across. Do not cut the side seams-- you'll want to end up with loops of fabric.

 

Taking the loops in both hands, stretch out the strips of fabric, like so. Place the strips around your neck and arrange them how you'd like them to be. You can keep some longer and some shorter for variety or keep them the same length. Once you've got it figured out, wrap your fist around all of the pieces and take it off of your head to hold it in place. Using another strip of fabric, wrap it around the strips and tie it to secure. Then you're done!

 

Here's mine... in gray... no surprise.

Here is B Head's... in turquoise... which is awesome.

This project takes about 10 minutes and makes a eye-catching accessory. Save it for a rainy day or whip one up on your lunch break! Happy Crafting!

Easy, Peasy Drink Tags

Life is crazy and busy and beautiful all at once, as per usual, but I am going to continue to strive to keep up these posts! I have been working on a few things lately waiting to be posted. I recently walked about 30 blocks checking out a super neighborhood-wide yard sale in Chicago hoping to find some gems, but alas, it was to no avail.
The good news is, there are a couple of weddings coming along that will hopefully involve some fabulous DIY projects to post.

The first wedding, my friend Beth's, is set for July. And it is going to be fabulous.

The setting: a rustic farm in Oklahoma

The color scheme: turquoise and yellow

The decor scheme: whimsical, country and colorful 

 The first project: adorable drink tags.

The basic set-up for the drinks at the wedding will be something like this: 4 different drinks in large pitchers (like this one that I found at Bed Bath & Beyond) all displayed on the table. We'll put bunting on the edge of the table in turquoise and yellow. Because there will be a variety of drinks, we decided they needed labels! 

 

I created a template on plain paper and after some drawing, folding and redrawing I had an even shape for the signs. This would maybe be easier if you had those tracable shapes they sell for scrap booking. I didn't though, so as usual, I just made it up.

Once I had the shapes cut out, I made up an oval template that would fit nicely. Then I tested out a few sharpie and paint colors. In the end, I went with paint despite the fact that it's more time consuming because the color match was more exact. 

If you have awesome handwriting, you could just go for at this point. I, however, have what has been classified as "boy hand-writing" so I have my own little trick. I either pick a font I love, or find a free one online and download it. Then I type up everything that I need to write and use that to freehand. If you have terrible handwriting and you can't freehand either, try printing your words with colored ink. Do a practice run first though in b&w just in case!

Once everything is pasted together, use a tiny hole punch for punch a hole in each side and string some embroidery floss or thin hemp through, securing the tags to the drink pitchers. Here is how ours turned out!

These are so quick and easy, you could totes throw them together for a casual yard party. Everyone knows that some cutesy decorations can immediately jazz up your average party!