Upcycled Christmas Decoration: Clear Industrial Tube Light...Thing

All right, Guys...This one isn't necessary a DIY for the masses, but maybe it'll give you an idea!

So, remember when I got those awesome tables and cabinet for my craft room? (Click here if you need a refresher.) Well, I didn't tell you at the time, but I also grabbed this weird, clear industrial cylindrical thing off the trailer as well. It is from Duke Power, so who knows what it is actually used for! (If Shirley Coley reads this, maybe she can ask Eddy what it is actually for!)

Anyways, as soon as I saw it, I knew I could turn it into a Christmas decoration!

The first step was to remove the paper.

Then, I wiped it down to get all the dust off.

Okay, so basically, I was just going to stick Christmas lights into it and call it a day. You really don't have to read any more, because that's exactly what I did! 

Anyways, there is one important step that you shouldn't miss in the off chance you find one of these cylinders and are dying to make one yourself!

So, first of all, I looked at both ends and found that there was a little broken notch on one end. That was perfect. That was where the electrical chord would come out at the bottom.

Then, took a piece of brown foam and put the tube upright onto it. The cylinder's weight created a circular depression, so I put glue just inside that line. Notice, that I didn't glue all the way around. This is because I would need to fish the wall plug through this opening. 

(This foam was to protect the floor from scratches when I put it onto the hardwood in the living room.

Precautions like this one help a person stay married.)

Here you can see that I put the notch in the center of the un-glued part.

Then, I stood it up on a flat surface and let it dry for a few minutes.

Then, I fed the light strand down into the tube, laid the tube on its side and fished the plug out the opening in the circle. When I sat it back upright, I made sure that the chord was resting in the notch. (Incidentally, they are LED lights.)

So then, I carried it to its destination (the living room, beside the fire place) and plugged it in. I fed a few more lights into the tube but kept about 1/3 of the lights hanging out.

With 1/3 of the lights still hanging out, I got a plastic butter knife and hung the remaining 1/3 over it. Then, I fed the 1/3 into the tube. (The butter knife kept the lights from falling all the way into the tube.)

The finished project. Pretty unique and minimalist, wouldn't you say?

Do you like our Charlie Brown tree? This is about as Christmas-y as I get!

What weird household items do you have laying around that you can repurpose?

The End!!!

Refashioning: Fashion Forward Korean Style 2fer Shirt

Several years ago, back in my South Korea days, I bought this awesome shirt in the subway.

I love how it melds the collared shirt with the off-shoulder jersey look. It's like party meets business in a really really unique and cool way.

A little detail. I like that the business shirt is only attached to the jersey by the sleeves and the armpit/shoulder hem. That way it can move more naturally, unlike those hideous V-neck sweaters that have a collared shirt collar sewn in at the neck, cuffs at wrists, and tails at bottom hem. Those shirts always look fake and horrible. I will say...with that elastic at the bottom, this shirt is no joke. Like...it begs real dedication because it's not easy getting in and out.

Here is a western-style shirt that my mother-in-law gave me recently. I really like the hexagonal red pearl buttons, growth stripes, and the back yoke. I wanted to turn this shirt into a shirt like the one above.

First I folded the western shirt in half and the Korean shirt in half on top of it and folded the sleeves of the Korean shirt in so I could cut around the bodice of the western shirt, using the Korean shirt as a guide.

Then, I did the same thing with the sleeves.

Next, I did the same thing with some red jersey.

. . .And the sleeves.

[Picture missing] The first thing I did sewing-wise was to sew the top and bottom seams of the jersey sleeves. I took a picture, but it didn't transfer, so you will just have to take my word for it.

Next, I sewed the neckline of the red jersey on the front and back of the bodice. (The hem in question is to the left in this picture.)

Next (and after the next two or three steps, I realized I should have done this part after them in sequence, but oh well), I pinned all the pieces together and sewed the sleeves onto the bodice.

Then I sewed down the side seams of the bodice of the western shirt.

Then I sewed down the sleeves.

Then, I sewed down the bodice of the jersey. (After this is where I should have attached the sleeves, because I ended up having to take out some of the seam in order to sew the bodices and down the sleeves...Anyways, if you were wanting to do this, I would advice doing them in the suggested order and not the order I did it. Otherwise, forget I said anything!)

Then I stuffed the jersey up into  the collar so I could quickly sew around the bottom edge of the collared shirt. Typically, I would have folded this edge under instead of sewing it, but this was easier, and since you will never see it, it doesn't matter how it looks.

Then, I folded the bottom edge up about 3/4 of an inch and added elastic through the waistband I'd created. You might notice that I kept the shirt open instead of sewing the bottom hem closed. This is to help getting in and out.

The last step was to hem the jersey and I was done! It took about 3 and a half hours total.

The back is my favorite part.

The End!

Blue Ridge Orthopaedics Dress from an XL T-Shirt

I have worked part-time at an orthopedics office for the past two years, but have never bought a T-shirt from there. It's not that I never wanted one. It's just that I have a million T-shirts. When a lady at work brought in a bag of her old T-shirts and sold them for $2.00, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make one into a dress!

If you remember the dress I made a few months ago here, this dress follows the same basic idea, but way less work to do it. If you want to do this yourself, just get a T-shirt about 2 sizes too big for you (I wear S/M, so this shirt was an XL). Then cut the sleeves off, put elastic around the sleeve holes. Cut the sleeves open and sew them together and then to the bottom of the shirt (You'll probably have to put a couple of pleats at the hips to make the sleeves fit). Last step: find your waist and gather two pleats of material into the middle front and sew them down. (I'll show you close ups). That's all!

A close up of the sleeve hole:

A close up of the sleeves added to the bottom. Notice the pleats:

Close up of the middle front pleats:

The End!