Kids/Toddlers Pants or Jeans Upcycled into Shorts for the Summer

I first turned about a dozen pairs of my kids pants into shorts last year.  It worked out so well I did it again this year!

When I swap out my kids winter clothes for summer clothes, I sort them into 5 piles: 

1.) save for Autumn - clothes that will still fit in a few months

2.) too small & bring to the swap shop at the dump

3.) too small & hand-me-down to friends

4.) too small, good brands in great shape, & save for Autumn to consign

5.) well-worn (not consignable) pants or jeans that still fit or may be a tad too short & won't fit in the Autumn

Pile #5 goes to my sewing area.

Last year I also did this with my daughter's pants & made several pairs of capris & bermuda shorts for her, as well as regular shorts.  All of her shorts from last year still fit her well so I didn't have to make any for her this year.  The pictures are of my son's pants being turned into shorts, although the concept is the same, no matter the size.  In fact, next I am turning 2 pairs of my old jeans into capris!  :)

Want to make some of your own?  Here's what you need:

Materials

• Pants (to turn into shorts)
• Sheers
• Sewing machine
• Denim needle for sewing machine
• Thread, color of your choice (I used tan for all of them)
• A pair of shorts that fit your child well to use as a guide
• measuring tool (I can never find my measuring tape, I just use my index finger as the unit of measurement doesn't matter, as long as it's the same every time)
• Fabric-marking tool (a pen will work too, you only use it once to mark the first hem & it gets folded over on itself so you can't see it)

Instructions

1.) With each pair of pants, lay out flat & place the shorts flat over the pants.  Choose 1 pant leg.  Using the sheers, cut the pant leg off approx. 2" below the hem of the shorts.

2.) Set the shorts aside.  Fold the pants in half, lining up the waist line.  Using the sheers, cut off the other pant leg, matching the cut of the first pant leg.  (I did set the pant legs aside, when I have enough to come up with a project, I'll blog about it & share the link here ;) )

Repeat with all of the pairs of pants.

Above are all of the pants with the pant legs cut off & the shorts I used as a guide.

3.)  Using a measuring tape or ruler (or your index finger ;) ),  measure (approx.) 3/4" from the raw edge, mark with a fabric marking tool or pen, on both sides of each legs of the shorts.

4.)  Roll over at the mark.  Pin (if you want to, I find it just slows me down ;) ).  Set the sewing machine stitch length to 3 (I have a Singer) & sew a straight stitch about 1/2" from the fabric edge.  Repeat on second shorts leg.

5.)  Roll over fabric again.  Again, sew a straight stitch about 1/2" from fabric edge.  Repeat on second shorts leg.  Repeat with all of the shorts.

These 6 pairs took approximately 2 - 2.5 hours to turn into shorts.  Say I'd gone to a consignment shop & found 6 pairs of shorts for $6 each.  That's $36 right there that I just saved, not bad for less than 3 hours work.  :-D

Enjoy!!  :)

Photograph Magnets Upcycled with Bottle Caps

I've been wanting to make these for a while.  This past week, I finally did!  :)

Want to make your own?  Here's what you'll need...

• Bottle caps (you may need to start saving a few weeks ahead of time unless you go through a lot of beer quickly or you can have friends save them for you)
• Round magnets (mine were about $6 for a large pack from a craft store & I used 3 packs)
• Dimensional Modge Podge* (about $5 for 2 oz. - I used 3 packs & made just over 100 magnets)
• A 1" circle craft punch
• Craft glue (I switched to Weldbond to glue the magnets to the bottle caps & the photos to the bottle caps - be sure to read label)
• Small photos - my black & white ones (pictured) I clipped from left-over Christmas cards from the past two years (Snapfish makes you buy them in packs of 20 so I buy 3-4 packs & end up with at least 10 leftovers - so happy I have a use for them now!  I plan on using the rest of the Christmas cards to make sets of magnets for the family over the holidays.)
• [If you have a basic knowledge of photoshop, you can put together prints with 1" photos to maximize paper efficiency.  I did some color ones like this & also just using photo paper & our home printer & Microsoft Word.  I duplicated the photos I wanted to crop using iPhoto, cropped the photos to square using iPhoto, & dragged & dropped them into a word document, changing the size of the photos to 1" & when the paper was full, I used photo paper & my home printer & had an entire sheet of photographs.]
• Scissors
• Cookie sheet (optional)

*I know DIY Modge Podge has been gaining in popularity, however I've read accounts of people's projects yellowing & flaking after time so I just buy it.  I haven't been getting much at Michael's lately so I use the 40% coupon each week.  If you only have 1 coupon but are making more than 1 trip in a week, you can ask at the register & they'll scan a coupon for you.  :)  

1.) Glue the magnets to the back of the bottle caps.  (Optional - organize on a cookie sheet.  I found this to be wildly helpful.)

2.) Using scissors & a 1" circle craft punch, cut out your photographs.

3.) Glue photographs to inside of bottle caps.  Let dry.

4.)  Add Dimensional Modge Podge to inside of bottle caps.  Let dry.  (It was humid when I did mine & it took over 24 hours to dry fully.)

5.)  Arrange & enjoy! 

I used one B&W set to start a frame around my magnetic organizer in my bedroom.  It's such a treat to have so many favorite pictures on display!  A great passion of mine is photographing my children but I have SO many shots & SO many favorites that if I were to try to display them all in prints at once, my walls would look quite cluttered & I despise clutter, so this is perfect for me.  :)

Mirrored, Magnetic, Customizable Accessory Organizer (upcycled from medicine cabinet)

One trip to the metal pile at the dump a few months ago, I saw this old medicine cabinet. The mirror was still intact so my initial thought was to try to take the mirror off of its hinges but I didn't have any tools with me to do so. So I went back later, but after looking at it more, I noticed it was still in working shape as a cabinet, and it was 100% metal & magnetic, it really just needed to be cleaned & get a fresh coat of paint, so I took the entire piece home with me.

I've been in LOVE with chalkboard paint for the past few months, so I decided to paint it inside & out with chalkboard paint, as well as give it a chalkboard paint "frame" so that I could decorate the frame around the mirror with different colors of chalk if I wanted to. It had two glass shelves (a third had shattered) inside but I didn't take them with me as I plan on using this primarily as a jewelry organizer. I don't have much jewelry so I should be able to hang my necklaces & bracelets on the inside of the door & inside of the cabinet with magnets, as well as put my small jewelry boxes inside or on top of the cabinet.

Want to make your own? Here's what you need:
Mirrored metal medicine cabinet
Chalkboard paint & brush
Old newsprint (or old towel, sheet, etc - just something to protect your floor front paint while you're painting)
Scotch blue painters tape with edge lock
2 screws, 2 wall anchors, drill, hammer, screw driver
pen or pencil
Spray cleaner (I use 50% water, 50% distilled white vinegar) & old rags
Photograph Bottle Cap Magnets

The above two shots I took pre-cleaning.  Looked pretty gnarly.  ;)





1.) Wipe down the medicine cabinet, inside & out, top & bottom.

2.) Paint inside & out, top & bottom with chalkboard paint.




3.) Using Scotch blue painters tape with edge lock, create a "frame" - width of your choosing - & paint.  Allow to dry in between coats per the instructions on the label.

Note - this was a high-gloss white cabinet, so it took 3-4 coats of chalkboard paint.

4.) Using pen or pencil, note holes on wall.  Drill.  Using hammer, tap wall anchors into place.  Using screw driver, screw screws into place, leaving them sticking out enough to place holes in cabinet on.

5.) Hang.  Decorate.  Enjoy!  :)

I decided to decorate the "frame" of mine with my bottle-cap photo magnets - instructional blog post to come.  To the right is a scarf organizer from (shock) a free metal "rack" I got from the metal pile at the dump (blog post to come).

The plate is a family heirloom that my paternal grandmother & grandfather bought on their honeymoon & the plaque below was a gift from my mom.  It's nice to be able to have a place to display these items now. :)  The rocks were from a family vacation last summer that I just glued magnets to.  Nice to have them serving a function on display & not just in a jar. ;-)

I glued magnets to my tin of Badger balm so that I could have it off the shelf-area.  It's nice to have a place for my meaningful trinkets.  I'm not one for clutter, but I do have a few things that hold special meaning & it's nice to have them displayed now, organized & neat.  :)

Hanging Rack - Easy to Label, Wipe, & Re-Label (upcycled from scrap wood)

Previously, I'd hung 4 hooks on my daughters wall but that quickly proved to be too few hooks for her many items that I wanted for her to keep off of her floor. I wanted to hang more hooks but didn't want to add more holes in the Sheetrock. I had a scrap piece of wood leftover from another project that I attached these 7 hooks to & hung on her wall. But it didn't look "finished" enough, plus I wanted to be able to easily label her hooks & easily change the labels if I needed, hence the chalkboard paint.
Want to make your own? Here's what you'll need:
Scrap wood, cut to size if needed
Hooks & screws, as many or as few as you want
Wall hangers (I used 50-lb rated hangers)
chalkboard paint & brush
Chalk - various colors make for a fun, cheery board

This is the hook board without chalkboard paint, looking woefully unfinished.


After the paint dried, I hung the board & used a variety of colors to label and decorate it.

Here is her hook board with her jewelry organizer. Click here for the jewelry organizer tutorial.

Over-the-door shoe, hat, glove, & tights organizer, hook board, & jewelry organizer. She has no excuse for this stuff to ever be messy & disorganized again. ;)
If you've enjoyed this tutorial, please follow my blog. I love to share upcycling tutorials with folks who appreciate making nice items on the cheap. :)

Chalkboard Paint & the Scrap Metal Pile at the Dump - My New Loves :)

I have a confession. I have a new love... Chalkboard paint!! ;) Stay tuned... I'm working on several new organizational projects made on the cheap using scrap wood we had left over from other projects & upcycling found objects. 

That reminds me. I have another new love - the metal pile at the dump. ;) In two days I've found sheet metal, a tray, and a mirrored medicine cabinet. Stay tuned to see how I give them new life on the cheap by upcycling! :)

(Above)

Lens: Libatique

Film: AO BW

Flash: none
Click here to check out my tutorial for a "Welcome Friends, Please No Solicitors" sign made with chalkboard paint.  :)

Click here for a tutorial for a jewelry organizer.
Click here for a tutorial for a hanging rack.

Jewelry Organizer- New Life for old Frame (upcycled from old frame who's glass had broken)

I have several frames, large ones, that have broken glass that I've been holding onto knowing I could use them in the future. My mom had given a table-top jewelry organizer to my daughter. It worked, but my daughter would load up each arm with 4-5 pieces of jewelry in order to fit them all on it, some of them would drag on the shelf when it was turned because it wasn't tall enough, & it took up a lot of shelf space for the minimal efficiency it provided. I'm all for using empty wall space so using an old frame as a jewelry organizer was perfect. Also, each jewelry piece would be able to have its own hook, so she could quickly look at everything & decide what she wanted to wear as well as easily get rid of anything she didn't want anymore.

Here's what you need to make your own. :)
Old frame with broken glass removed
Staple gun & extra staples
Needle or long-nosed pliers or tin snips
Hardware cloth, 1/4 inch mesh
Chalkboard paint & brush (optional) - if your frame has a flat surface & you want to use chalk to label and/or decorate your frame
Chalk (optional) - a variety of colors makes for a more cheerful frame
Paint & brush (optional) - if your frame has textured surface & just needs a "freshening up"
Hammer
Old rag or sponge (optional - for applying paint to the hardware cloth)
S-hooks or metal wire & long-nosed pliers (to make your own s-hooks)
Measuring implement (optional)
Wall-hangers









1.) I could have used the needle-nosed pliers & wiggled out the metal pieces that previously held the frame backing in place, but since no one is going to see them when the organizer is hanging up, I just bent them over so they're flush with the wood.




2.) Use the edge of the staple gun to crease the hardware cloth into a 90-degree angle into the corner of the frame back & staple - I had to staple the hardware cloth into the side of the frame because the front of the frame was too thin to take the staples without the staples coming out of the front of the frame.




Here's the front of the frame with the hardware cloth stapled to it.




3.) (Optional) Use paintbrush to paint frame. Use old rag, dabbing it lightly with paint onto the hardware cloth.




4.) After the paint dries, hang, attach s-hooks (make your own with wire & long-nosed pliers if needed), organize jewelry, decorate and/or label with chalk, & enjoy!




Jewelry organizer shown with her hook board. Click here for hook board tutorial.




I happened to have some random plastic s-hooks around.




Clearly I haven't had a chance to make her s-hooks yet (& I didn't want to spend $20 on them). ;)





If you've enjoyed this tutorial, please follow my blog. I love to share upcycling tutorials with folks who appreciate making nice items on the cheap. :)

Mellow Yellow Upcycled Scarf (upcycled from ugly yellow cotton vest)

This had been a horribly ugly yellow sweater vest that I got from The Salvation Army for $1-. I unraveled a good portion of it & made this simple scarf. I used a simple twirly scarf pattern. The only stitches you need to know to do this are single, double, & you need to know how to increase & decrease stitches - increasing & decreasing will create the twirl. Can be made with any gauge yarn to create a scarf of any length and width. Fully customizable & unique. :)