Up Cycled Bangle Bracelet

While recently shopping I saw some cute bangle bracelets that had flowers on them. I knew that I could make my own! And definitely for a lot less money! The best thing is that very few supplies are needed and you probably have them laying around. For this I used vinyl fabric, thread, scissors, needle, button or button maker and extra fabric if you want to make your own button and a flower pattern. These particular Bangle Bracelets are from Amate Studios. 

 Cut out flower pattern. Pin pattern onto vinyl fabric and cut. Cut two flowers of the same size.  

 Now with a crap piece of vinyl material you will make a button. Below are the pieces that come with a button kit. There is a round plastic piece that you will use to trace the fabric with. A top and a bottom to the button, a white piece that you will put the button in and a blue piece that you will use to push the pieces together. 

Use the round plastic piece to cut a piece of fabric out. 

Now you will start to layer the pieces to make the button. Put the fabric right side down on the table. Put the inside of the button (the rounded piece) on top of the fabric. Now you will put those two pieces into the white plastic. Now you will push the fabric pieces on top of the inside button piece and then put the outside piece of the button on top holding together. Now using the blue piece push the outside piece of the button down with firm pressure until the button is formed together. Pop out of the white piece and you have a button! 

 The final button! 

Layer the two flowers on top of each other so that the petals are alternating and not directly on top of each other. With the needle and thread starting in between the layers so that you don't see the end sew a circle (about where the white circle is)  in the center of the flowers and pull tightly like you are making a ruffle. Finish the stitch on the top side of the flowers and don't tie off the end yet. 

Now you will add the button to the top of the flower. The button loop isn't very big and might take a little bit of playing to get the button sewn on. Now you will start to sew the flower onto the bangle bracelet making sure to stitch in between the two layers of flowers so that you don't see the stitching on top.

Finish by tying a know in between the layers of the flower and cut the end off. 

Enjoy your flower bracelet! 

The teal flower was my trial and error one. I tried making it with sewing individual petals together. While you can't tell in the photo it is a much more flimsy flower and the button feels loose because of the flimsy base. 

Logo Polo Upcycled to Decorative T-Shirt

In Arizona April, May, September and October are wedding months. So the past month and a half I had wedding flowers to design every weekend on top of Easter, Secretaries Day and Mothers Day. Normally I work around 25 to 30 hours. Two week in a row I worked 60 hours each week. So no time to post and no time to create anything new. I actually designed this shirt back in March and I am finally at a point that I can post about it! (And hope that I remember how I did it)

So I have several polo shirts with logos on them that have been hanging in the back of my closet since I stopped working for the company. I knew I could upcycle them some how! So for this transformation I used 2 shirts. Start off by cutting the collar off of one of the shirts.

Next you will add this wonderful product called Steam-A-Seam 2. You will apply all the way around the edge of the collar of the shirt.

Next take off the backing of the Steam-A-Seam 2 and fold it over. Now you will use your iron to steam the seam. This will activate the adhesive and leave you with a nice finished edge. The Steam-a-Seam 2 helped the collar no not pucker when sewing and I didn't have to pin it down. Just for kicks I decided to sew a seam for a more finished look. 

Here is the finished look.

Now you will use the second shirt. First cut off the bottom edge. Next cut a 4 inch section out of the middle of the shirt. You will now have a tube/circle. Take the tube/circle and cut once to make a long strip.

Sew a Gathering stitch down the center of the strip leaving long threads at each end for gathering. 

Fold the strip in half with the stitch in the center. Using the bottom thread pull to gather the strip to make a ruffle. 

Pin the ruffle on the outside of the logo in a circle. Sew the ruffle to the shirt. Before you close the circle start to turn the ruffle 1/4 inch inside of the circle. At this point you will keep turning and sewing and turning and sewing till you get to the center of the flower. when you get to the center of the flower make a few back stitches to hold it in place. 

Here is the finished flower. Once I tried the shirt on I felt the flower was a little off centered. So I added another flower. 

After washing the shirt the flowers scrunched up a little bit and I could now see the edges of the logo. So I then stitched down the outer edge of the flower to hide the logo. I now look at shirts with logos at the thrift store a little differently and wonder what can I do to hide that logo. I hope you enjoy transforming one of your polo shirts into a t-shirt or covering up a logo just as much as I have!