Tutorial: Cut-off Jeans Turned Capris

My legs are short. So any capri I find for myself is pretty much way too long and I look more like I am wearing floods than capris. I decided to make some cut-offs. Should be simple enough, but I am smart enough to ask people with more knowledge than myself how to do things, so I called up my sister-in-law Laur (the one who designs for Izzy & Ivy) to get her tutorial. She had some great tips! And Laur isn't a blogger, so I thought I would share her tips with the world. 

Here is my before--see how long they are?

Your first step is to fold one leg up to where you want it. Laur says to put it at the skinniest point in your leg--usually right below the knee. Don't do the largest part! It will make your legs look bigger than they are. If you plan to hem it rather than leave a frayed edge, be sure to account for the hem length.

Take the pants off, leaving it folded--just the one leg. Put pins in your crease.

Fold the pants down. Cut along the pin line. I went just below it.

Next, you hem. If you want a frayed look (like I did) sew a straight stitch 1/4" away from edge (unless you want a larger fray section. I that case, go to 1/2" or whatever you want). This ensures that the fraying will stop rather than fraying for eternity. I stitched with blue thread that blended in with my pants.

Fold the pants on top of themselves. Cut the other leg off, using the first leg as your guide. This way they will be cut the exact same. Repeat the hem step for this leg.

Done! Now you have turned your pants or capris into real capris! 

And here it is after a couple of washings:

Before I did this, no one ever commented on my capris. Now I get compliments on how cute they are every single time. 

I have several more capris to do this to now...

Garden Angels

I just ran across this picture. These are some garden angels I made. One for me, one for each mom for Mother's Day. I started to remove the background in Photoshop and it was going to take lots of effort with those wings, so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Bubble Dress

We had a really busy week the end of June. I was so worn out July 2 that I decided to have a sewing day to relieve some stress. I made these dresses for the girls for Independence Day. The pattern is from Izzy & Ivy. Super cute!

Face-Out Bookshelves Tutorial

I put this up on my learning blog, but I thought it would be a good fit for this blog, too. You can use these for books or pictures--of whatever you come up with!

Here is our tutorial on how to do a face-out bookshelf. This is the way my husband designed so you couldn't see a back on the shelves--it looks like they are free-floating. Hopefully I can translate from Engineer-ese to English.

Materials Needed:

• 3/4"x1.5" pieces of wood cut to the length you want them on the wall. This is the actual size of the wood. They will be called 1"x2" in the store. You will need two pieces of wood for each shelf. Buy as many as you need to fill the space on your wall.
• 3" Grabber screws
• Glue if desired (we used wood glue)
• Paint and paint brush (we use foam brushes for projects like this)
• Finish nail gun nails
• Wood putty

Tools Needed: 

• Drill
• Router and/or Table Saw
• Measuring Tape
• Pencil
• Finish Nail Gun

Prepping Wood

1.First, buy your wood. If you are confused on what to buy, see the picture below. Click on it to enlarge. The wood shown in this picture would make one shelf. Cut wood to desired length.

2. Next, you need to router and notch one piece of wood for each shelf. 

Use a router or a dado on a table saw to notch one corner (all the way down the long side) as shown. Again, click on the picture to enlarge.

Use a router the opposite corner if desired. You can do it however you like things done. We used a 45 degree chamfer. You could do things more fancy if you like, or you can do nothing at all.

3. Brush all sawdust off and paint. Allow paint to fully dry. You don't have to paint the 1" (3/4") sides of the un-notched wood. 

Putting Up the Shelves

1. Measure and mark on your wall where you want the shelves. You might want to involve a level.

2. Pre-drill holes in your wall where studs are. It is very important you drill into studs.

3. You can glue one side of the shelf if desired and hold to the wall. We can't remember if we used it at this step or not.

4. Use 3" grabber screws to anchor to the studs. You want the 1" (3/4") side facing out so the long side of the wood is where your book will sit. Countersink screws so that they to just below the surface of the wood. Just make sure you don't go too far and split your wood.

Here are all of our initial pieces on the wall

 5. Uses a finish nail gun to put up the face piece. At this step, we did use glue to secure the two wood pieces together. You want the notched side in and up and the routered side out and down. See the picture below. The notching makes it so the shelf is a bit deeper while providing a lip to keep books on the shelf.

Finishing Touches

1. Use wood putty to fill in holes where finish nail gun put nails in. You want this to just go in the holes and not bump out beyond the hole.

2. Paint over wood putty once it is dry.

3. Put books up!

Sally Sunhat

This is another pattern from Izzy and Ivy. I made this for Kaitlyn. Super cute.

Jack and Jill Hat

I made this hat for Brayden. This hat is a design of Izzy and Ivy, and right now you can enter to win patterns from them on my Babywise blog! Go to: http://www.babywisemom.com/2011/07/izzy-ivy-pattern-giveaway.html

It is a little big. It fits me, so I might steal this one and make him a smaller size.