My First Giveaway

ElsieLorpu Facebook fan page finally reached 100 likes and to celebrate I'm giving away a one of a kind Ankara Wrist Wallet. Perfect for runners or if you just want to travel lightly. Multiple ways to win. Contest will run from midnight on 7/20/14 to 8/4/14 @12am. Goodluck and thank you for your continued support.

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Mumu or coverup upcycled into summer dress.

Sometimes you get something and just can't figure out where to wear it. I really liked the top of this dress and didn't want to turn it into another housecoat so I decided to breath some summer life into it. I received it from my mom, but other than using it for a coverup for my belly dance costumes, I've never worn it. This project took about an hour and half and I am really satisfied with the final look. I chopped off the sleeves and widened the armhole. I didn't want to hem so I just used the serger to get a rolled hem finish on the bottom and sleeves. I also shirred the midsection in the front and back about 4 inches and it really helped with providing some shape to the dress. I'm happy to add another dress to my summer wardrobe.

In the before I'm wearing the dress inside out. 

Placemat Upcycle Purse Tutorial using two placemats and a belt

Needed: 2 lined placemats,

            1 zipper

            Fabric for pockets

            Magnetic snap

This tutorial is going to be pretty much following the pictures. My mother-in-law retired this month and for her retirement party I wanted to give her a personalized tote. Something she could put her books in during her leisure readings while retired.

I bought two placemats that were lined.

I separated the back and front of the placemats.

Here are the two pieces separated.

The wrong side of the front piece to the placemat was stiffened which made it a lot easier  to do the embroidery.

I used my Brother SE400 to embroider her first and last initials onto the right side of the placemat front.

On one of the wrong sides, I put in a side zipper pocket

On the second placemat's wrong side, I put in a side pocket.

This is the zipper side shown with the belt that became the handles for the tote.

Below the zipper pocket, I put in a smaller pocket and 3 pen holders.

I split the pocket to give her extra storage.

Sew the two lining pieces right sides together and square off the bottom. At this point, I also went ahead and installed the magnetic snaps for closing the main bag.

Sew on the handles to the right side of the placemat pieces.

Sew the outer part of the placemat right sides together like the lining and square off the bottom. Cut off the excess fabric.

Flip the outer bag right side out

Place the outer bag into the lining bag which is wrong side out. This way both of the right sides are facing each other.

 

Sew all around the lip of the bags leaving yourself about 4 to 6 inches for turning the tote right side out. Top stitch the bag lip all around closing your turning hole and you're done.

Here is the finished insides.

Here is her completed tote. 

Boy's Onesie Vest with Shorts and bow tie set. Size 18months

I had been playing around with adding boys outfits to my Etsy shop on account of my friends with boys asking why I have nothing for the boys. I have done some bodysuit/t-shirt dresses for the girls and wanted to make something special for my friend's son with the same African Inspiration as the other items in my shop. I have to give credit where it's due because Erica's tutorial that I found thru Pinterest helped with how make a pattern from the onsie. I posted my first pattern attempt to my facebook group and got many asking for patterns. I'd never done patterns for other before so I decided to give it a try. Using Erica's tutorial (link above), I drew out my pattern, cut the fabric out of an old bed sheet and did a fit test.

After tweaking until I was satisfied, I scanned the pattern and brought it into Autocad to get a clean drawing. 

This was my initial pattern. The picture is not to scale so if you tried to use this it wouldn't work. Don't worry, the pattern is coming. :-)

You will need: Size 18 month onsie/bodysuit, about 1/4 yard of lining and main fabric. Will need a little more if  you are using nap fabric.

So I made the new improved pattern and turned it into a PDF and starting on the final project which was a birthday gift to my friend's son.

I made mirror cuts of the pattern using the same fabric for the lining and main so sorry for confusion. Make sure to make all your markings. The pattern has an optional faux pocket for the vest.

 Using my serger, I sewed all around the pieces leaving the shoulders opened.

 Turn the pieces right side out and use a blunt tip object to push out the corners and then iron flat. At this point, you can chose to top stitch the vest before attaching to the body suit.

Place the vest on top of the body suit and mark the shoulder and underarm for where you want to tack. I marked about half inch on each shoulder.

 Hope the above image makes since. I flipped up the vest so that the half in lined up with the fold in the shoulders of the bodysuit. I pinned it to the shoulders with the lining facing up and sew across the shoulders. Make sure to open the neck and sew along the shoulder with the body suit not folder on itself. It's a little tricky, but try not to sew the front and back of the top together.

 Once it's sewn, flip the vest down , fold the corner of the remaining seam and top stitch the vest as you did before with the bodysuit opened.

Repeat on both sides.

Re-position the vest and mark(with a pin) where the bottom of the vest arm hole meets the bodysuit. 

Flip the vest to the side with the lining exposed. Reach into the bodysuit and pin the outer seam of the vest to the side seam of the bodysuit.

 Using the same method as when sewing on the shoulders, sew the vest side to the side seam keeping careful not to sew the bodysuit to itself. The inside of the bodysuit should look like the image on the right. there should be a straight seam running down the length of the side seam as long as the vest. I did a very narrow seam. Between 1/4 and 1/8 inch.

When you're done, the seam should look like this on the right side. As if it was sewn into the sides of the body suit.

I used my KAM kit to  add snaps to the vest using my markings from before. I learned that sewing the vest together restricts movement and you lose the stretch. With the ability to open the vest, you can also open it up if the kid is outgrowing the outfit.

Outfit with the bowtie.

 Outfit without the bowtie.

Great big thanks to my friend's son for modeling his birthday gift.

The pattern is free to use. Sorry right now it's only for a size 18months. Please Pin it, Share the blog and credit me if you use the pattern. You can tag me on Instagram or Twitter at @elsielorpu with an image of your creation.  You can also like my Facebook page and post your rendition of the vest or just link to my blog if you do and comment below. Thank you. 

Long Tee upcycled to Peplum Top

I'm a part time couponer and some deals are just too good not to share. A couple of weeks ago as I was shopping for my mother's day gift, I went to JCP and they had a deal where if you bought $75 worth gift cards, you'd get back $15 to spend in the store. I did two separate transactions and got 2 $15 gift cards to use the Monday after Mother's day.

I went to JCP last Thursday and headed straight for the clearance racks. I've been wanting to try upcycling, but still a little ehh about using items from the thrift shops and the deal I got was better than any garage sale or thrift shop.

With two transactions totally just over the $15 required, I left the store with all of the above for $1.95 after the in-store coupons. The 4 long tees (2 red, 1 black, 1 white) were each $1.97. The measuring cup was the most expensive item @ 9.99. The green tee and the pants were both 6.97. I split the sale and paid $0.99 and $0.96. Okay now to the actual project. I was inspired by a few tutorials through Pinterest, but Love Megan was probably closer to what I did. I, however used 2 long sleeved shirts. They were both XL and loose fitting.

Sorry for the red on red. I first put on the shirt and marked out where I wanted the waist to hit me. Then I put it back on the dummy to pin and check out the shape.

Back in my craft I had to shorten the sleeves to get it similar to the inspiration piece. 

I folded the shirt in half and cut it at the mark I'd made earlier. Since I wasn't using a fitted tee to make my peplum, I had to add some darts to the front. Sorry I skipped that picture. I added two to the front and after the top was completed and still felt too loose, I took in the side seams with my serger. 

I cut out the bottom of the second shirt and and used one whole pieced and half of the second shirt (so I had 3 panels of the lower half of the shirts to use for my flare portion of the shirt.

Using my serger, I joined the seams so that I had one wide tube.

I hand threaded my elastic bobbing, set my stitches to the longest straight stitch and gathered the fabric.

I pinned the right sides of the top of the shirt to the right side of the bottom skirt by putting shirt right side out into the skirt tube (keeping the skirt wrong side out). I then pinned , but didn't really make too much of an effort to match the seams. Finally I used the serger to (4 threads stretch setting) to join the two pieces.

Hear is the joined peplum inside out as I marked out where to take in the sides some more.

The picture on the left (although hard to tell) had not yet had the side seams reduced. The image on the right has a smaller seam.

The entire project took about 90 minutes to complete and I was able to wear my top the next morning.