DIY: Tube Top

Hello, everyone! I hope all of you US readers had a good Thanksgiving yesterday--I know that I'm still almost too stuffed to move. I have for you a DIY I created last Wednesday (but then I managed to lose my camera. I know, I know. Lose my camera AGAIN). I have bought several t-shirts recently, and last week I decided to make one into a tube top. I think I'm going to alter it again and add a wider band at the top, but here's the current iteration.

This is the T-shirt I used. I got it from Threadless.

I began by cutting the top of the shirt. I cut it as close to the collar as possible, in order to have as much room as I could for the elastic top.

Here is the top with the first cut.

Next, I cut off the sleeves at the seams.

I pinned the raw edges from the sleeves, and then sewed a new seam. I then took in the side seams a little more.

Once I sewed the sides together, I made a hem for the top. This is wide enough for elastic to thread through the top.

(Sometimes, a kitty comes to help you sew. Hi, Duncan!)

One that seam was sewn, I threaded the elastic through the top. Once I did that, I sewed the ends of the elastic together and finished the seam.

Here it is, finished and on the floor.

And here are a couple photographs of the shirt on. You can see that this needs a little more on top in order to pull of the look I was going for. It would have been better if there was more space between the design and the top of the shirt, so I could have put a wider elastic in it.

Ta-da! Here's the end of the DIY. Let me know what you think! I have a product review to put up in a day or so, but have a good rest of the weekend.

SEE MY UPDATED VERSION OF THIS TUBE TOP HERE.

Halloween Party

This past weekend, my friends and I threw a Halloween party. We had some good geeky costumes--especially good for those people who do cosplay.

Here's a group picture (unfortunately, while our costumes are good, our pictures could have used a little bit of work. That's the problem when you're in a cramped apartment).

We have a Highlander, a Ghostbuster, a (hidden) Peter Parker, Clark Kent, Barbarella, Pygar, Finn, and a scientist Princesss Bubblegum.

Here are the boyfriend and I. I'm Zuul!Dana and he's a Ghostbuster. Unfortunately, this is the fullest picture of my costume that I can find.

I'm hoping to put something up this weekend--probably a t-shirt project. I found my camera, so that should help. here's hoping!

How Not to Mod-Podge Your Shelves

I did this project back in August, with the intention of making it into a DIY. It didn't turn out too badly, but it taught me some important lessons about how not to Mod Podge your shelves. I'm going to go back someday and fix it, but here's the project as it is now.

You all saw the shelf when I put up last week's owl DIY:

This is how the shelf looked when I began--plain black. A couple weeks earlier, I had re-painted the shelf, because the shelf had a splotchy paint job when I acquired it.

I made the first mistake when I cut the paper down to size. Well, that's probably not the truth. I made the first mistake when I selected this paper--it was too thin, so it ripped and peeled a few times when I was applying the top coat of Mod Podge. I put a layer of the Mod Podge on the shelf, then laid the paper over it. Then I applied enough Mod Podge to make a white layer on the shelf. The problem here, though, was the difficulty in placing the paper on the Mod Podge. I should have allowed the sheets to overlap a little, but I didn't want to do that for some reason I can't remember. It may have been because the paper was so thin that you would be able to tell if it overlapped.

If you look at the right side of the bottom shelf, you can see that the Mod Podge tool peeled off the top half of the paper. This might be because I didn't use the flattener roller tool soon enough after I put the Mod Podge on the paper. Thus, a layer of the paper stuck to the roller and peel it off.

Overall, though, I don't think the bookshelf looks bad. After the Mod Podge dried, I sealed it with the Pod Podge Spray Sealer (both the Mod Podge and the sealer have the "glossy" finish). It's sitting in my front room, and I got a couple of compliments on it when I hosted a Halloween party last night (I'll put up some pictures later--a lot of us had some good geeky costumes).