sewing | whollyKao

DIY rope basket

September 4, 2012

17 Comments

Ever feel like you need more storage bins for all your odds and ends? I sure do! I had been on a quest to find a basket to hold my sewing fabric, and luckily I stumbled upon this rope basket tutorial from Childerhouse. I knew I had to make it. After all, I couldn’t leave my fabric sitting in a plastic bag now, could I?

Materials

-rope cord (3/16″, available at Home Depot)
-thread

Steps
Start by winding your cord into a tight spiral. You’ll want to start with the rope end on the left side, and wrap your spiral going clockwise.
Set your sewing machine stitch to zig zag (I used a medium-width stitch), then start sewing your rope from the center, where the rope end is. Make sure you’re sewing the edges of the rope together, otherwise you end up with gaps in your basket.

Once the spiral is large enough, tilt your bowl and sew the rope at an angle. If you want a bowl with perpendicular sides, tilt your bowl 90 degrees. For a shallower bowl, tilt the bowl at a shallower angle. This part was tough for me, so I had to do it over a couple times before I got it right. Practice makes perfect…right?

Keep sewing, until your basket reaches the desired height. To make a handle, mark off equal areas on your basket, and skip that portion when you’re sewing. Then on the next round, incorporate the rope back into the basket as the next layer. When you make a handle, you’re essentially making a hole in the basket, where the rope isn’t sewn.

I loved the blocks of color in this basket: they’re so fun. And this helped me use up all the remnant thread I had lying around at home. Not bad for a $6 spool of rope, right?

I ended up making 2 baskets: my first was giant and kind of unshapely. It’ll be the one that holds my fabric. The second is a small one that I use to hold my jewelry pliers. I bet it’d be great as a pencil cup too.

What would you want your rope basket to hold?

how to shorten your shorts

By: whollykao

March 3, 2012

9 Comments

These days, women’s shorts keep getting shorter and shorter. I like to wear shorts with tights, and it’s hard to find a pair that are an appropriate length for us working gals. My solution? Take some longer shorts and hem them to a length you like.

I bought these shorts years ago, at some designer warehouse sale in NYC. It was one of those where they only let women into the women’s section, and only men into the men’s section. That’s because there was no dressing room: if you wanted to try something on, you had to strip in the middle of the racks. Talk about privacy! Anyhow, this is what I came out with from that sale. I like the details on them, but they’re knee-length and baggy, which is not very flattering…which is why I haven’t worn them in two years.

I decided to make them shorter so I’d be able to wear them to work and whatnot. I did this with a sewing machine, but it’s something that wouldn’t be too hard to do by hand, if you don’t have one. And it’s a good way to upcycle clothes in your closet!

How to shorten shorts
materials
-shorts
-measuring tape
-pins
-needle (or sewing machine) and thread
-seam ripper
-scissors

steps

one
Use your seam ripper to remove the cuff from the bottom of the shorts (near the knee).

two
Decide how long you want the shorts to be. Remember that you will be sewing the cuff back on the shorts, which will add an additional inch to your final length. Measure and place pins that length, starting at the bottom of your shorts. Do this all around both legs of the shorts.

three
Using your line of pins as a guide, cut the desired length off each leg. I ended up taking 6 inches off my shorts.

four
Take the cuff that you detached in step one and measure it so that it fits loosely around your thigh. Cut your cuff to this measurement + 1/2 inch. (So if your thigh measurement is 20-inches, cut your cuff at 20.5-inches long). Pin the wrong sides of the cuff ends together, and sew 1/2-inch from the ends. Flip the cuff right-side up.

five
Pin the cuff to the raw edges of your pants. My pant legs were a little wider than the cuff, so I had to bunch them a little as I was pinning. For me, this helped to add shape to the final shorts, so I didn’t mind.

six
Sew the cuffs to the pants. For the cleanest look, sew on top of the existing seam on the cuff.

And you’re done!

Special thanks to Jeff for taking pics for me. He had to take one of these goofy shots:

Hemming your shorts is a great way to extend the life of clothes in your closet. And it doesn’t take all that much time. I bet you turn long pants into shorts the same way too!

what to do with doilies

By: whollykao

January 19, 2012

5 Comments

While we were moving, I found a bag stuffed with crochet lace doilies. My friend Amy gave them to me a while back, and even though I couldn’t find a use for them, I was too much of a pack rat to toss ‘em. Boy was I glad I kept them around. Turns out they make good fodder for upcycling projects, such as this wall hoop.

I had some remnant aqua-green fabric lying around, so I mounted that onto a 12-inch embroidery hoop.

I took a circular doily, placed it onto the fabric, and started sewing. Remember the embroidery thread we used to make friendship bracelets out of in grade school? That’s mainly what I used here to sew the doily onto the fabric. Ironically, Amy also gave me a bunch of that. Maybe I should say she funded this upcycle project. Anyhow, I did a couple cross stitches here, some back stitches there, and just put color where I saw fit.

When I was done, I trimmed the excess aqua fabric and glued the whole thing to the embroidery hoop.

This is what my final looked like.

I took the doily hoop to work to decorate my cube. I’m slowly covering my wall with embroidery hoops (my goal is to have the entire wall plastered with different sized ones). So far, I’ve got three: the happy hoop, the pinecone hoop, and now the doily hoop.

Adds a little cheer, don’t you think?

— whollyKao

DIY rope basket

how to shorten your shorts

what to do with doilies