How to Reupholster an Office Chair

August 23, 2016August 23, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 2 Comments

Hello everyone!

An office chair has got to be one of the most pieces of furniture that a person can own. You spend a ton of time in your chair so it should be comfortable and good looking. I had a chair that was wonderful, it worked great and I had it a long time. But it broke. So I had to search for a new one. After searching high and low I found one at a surplus store. It was in great condition and for only $15, I thought it was a steal. The only problem was the green fabric covering it. The color was ok, a dark green, but it was itchy and that was not ok. So I decided to recover so it didn’t drive me crazy sitting on it for 8 hours a day.

I think it turned out very cute. I found the fabric at Who Gives a Scrap. I talked about this awesome donation center last week. You can revisit that post here. They had this great upholstery fabric for only $2. Can’t beat that price. Here is how I went about recovering the chair.

Materials:

~Chair (this one wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the itchy fabric. Now I know why they had it for sale at the surplus store.)

~ Fabric (The stripped patter is cute and for only $2 I could pass that up.)

~ Staple gun, screw driver, glue gun, ribbon for edging

Instructions:

~ The first thing I did was take off the arm rests with the screw driver. I could have taken the whole chair apart and this might have made the process easier, but I decided to work around everything except the arm rests.

~ Then I measure the fabric and started stapling it on. The way this chair is constructed is a little weird. It has a plastic back and the original cover was Velcroed on, but I didn’t want to go that trouble so I decided to staple over everything.

~ I got the top part done then I went to town on the seat of the chair. The stripes made it easy to match the top to the bottom. I stapled everywhere then I went back and added more. I wanted to make sure everything held.

~ Once everything was secure and stapled on I hot glued on a tan ribbon that coordinated with the fabric. Then I put the arms back on that that was it. It took me a couple of hours to complete but it was worth it to not have an itchy chair.

Once I finished my son loved it so much he has asked me to do a chair for him. But if my chair is ever missing I know who to took it. Smile

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

August 18, 2016August 19, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 1 Comment

Hello Everyone!

I found this fantastic store in town, it is call Who Gives A Scrap. (BTW I love the name!) Anyway, this store is so awesome it has all kinds of craft supply donations that are up for sale. The stock is always changing so you never know what you will find. If you follow me on Instagram you already saw my haul, but this what I scored yesterday for about $25! The item I am most excited about is the bead loom. I have tons of pins on Pinterest for the bead loom and now that I have one I am excited to learn how to use it. Does anyone have any experience or tips on how to use a bead loom? Please share if you do.

So many new things to play with and to use for my crafts and DIY projects. Even our cat, Starlight, approves. haha.

The other day my sister and I were having a Craftersation on Pinterest. (A Craftersation is a craft conversation between pinners on Pinterest.) She has the best Pinterest boards and I think she has pinned just about everything on the internet, haha. You can follow her here.

Anyway she pinned this really cute cell phone case made from an old tie so I pinned a different version of the same thing. And on it went for while. We have a lot of Craftersations, it is a fun way to stay connected and see what each other is interested in even though we live almost a thousand miles apart.

When I was at Who Gives a Scrap I saw that they had some old ties that would be perfect to make a cell phone case out of. After I got home yesterday I made my version of what I saw on Pinterest.

Here it is all done. I am in love with it!

Materials:

~Old Tie

~ Needle and thread, or sewing machine

~ Button or snap

Instructions:

This is one of the ties that I picked up yesterday. Isn’t it wonderful? I fell in love with it on the spot. For this project the wider the tie the better. Skinny ties from the 80s won’t work, but those ties can be use for different projects.

Next just measure how much space you need for your phone. The pointed part will be the flap, so factor that in. You will have to pick out the stitched that keep the flaps together so you can slide your phone in.

For this step I glued the ends together and the center flap closed using Fabric Fusion. I used clothes pins to hold it together while the glue dried. The glue worked just fine, but when I do this project again I think I will sew it all instead of using glue, I think it will be stronger and it will look better. You can hand stitch or use a machine.

Next I hand stitched on these buttons I had in my stash. They are so cute, I got them from Patterns of Time. They have so many great items on their website, when I ordered last it was hard to narrow down the items in my shopping cart to a reasonable amount, haha.

The case was all complete I thought it was very cute just the way it was but I decided that it should become a purse instead of just a case. This Tie Purse is perfect for me when I go out for an evening and my skirt doesn’t have pockets and I need to carry a phone and my ID and a credit card and some cash, it will all fit into this cute purse.

To add the straps all you do is hand sew the remaining part of the tie onto the sides of the case. And that is it.

Have you made one of these before? I would love to see it if you have. Stay tuned for more projects made from items I got from Who Gives A Scrap, that place rocks!!

There are no affiliate links in this post. All opinions are my own.

Recycled Glass Vase DIY

July 7, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 1 Comment

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a great week. Last weekend we had a wonderful relaxing weekend, with not much on the schedule! In fact, over the weekend is when I finished this recycled glass vase project.

I have had these little champagne bottles for ever. They were just too cute to throw in the recycling bin and I knew that I would eventually find the perfect project for them. And I did, I made these cute vases!

Materials:

~ Glass bottle. (I used the champagne bottle, but you can use almost anything else. For instance a used olive oil bottle. )

~ raffia, jute, cord, burlap, ribbon, flowers

~ washi tape and anything else you want to glue on your new vase!

~ Hot glue

Instructions:

#1. The Shabby Chic Vase

~For this vase I used this Natural Polished Hemp and wrapped it around the entire bottle. I did not take of the labels for this vase and the cord did a good job of covering the labels. But if I were to do it again I would take them off. Just keep gluing and wrapping until you cover the bottle. This will take awhile so put a tv show on and go to town.

~ One I was done wrapping I added some burlap ribbon to the base area and then a layer of pretty ribbon.

~On the neck I added some brown ribbon and a flower. And there you have it, a cute shabby chic vase.

#2 The Diamond Wrap Vase

~ For this vase I wanted a really fancy, blinged out vase and I think I achieved that look, haha. To start take the labels off and then take the bottle to a well ventilated area to spray paint it. (Confession time: I am not very good at spray painting, I am too impatient to wait between layers and I always make a mess. So usually my hubby takes care of my spray painting, but I really wanted to get this project done so I didn’t wait for him to get home from work. I thought my cardboard box was good enough to keep the spray paint contained, buuuuuut I may or may not have painted the glass my outside table… Oh well, I guess refinishing the table will be a new project for me to work on this summer. lol)

~Anyway when you are done painting and it is dry start wrapping the bottle with Diamond Wrap (I found this at the dollar store) Add a flower to the top and you are done. This is perfect for the dinner table or for holidays. Imagine how cool this vase would look in candle light?

#3 The Washi Tape Vase

~ I have this wonderful washi tape that I found on Amazon and I thought would look great on the bottle. I just started wrapping the bottle using a different tape for each layer.

~ Just keep going until you are done. Since the bottle is curved the tape didn’t lay flat in all areas, but that is ok, I think it look like it has been aged in a attic for a long time.

~ Add a ribbon to the top and a flower and you are done!

There you have it, some great vases made from a glass bottles that were headed to the recycling bin!

What have you used to make a vase out of?

There are no affiliate links in this blog post

Make Yarn Out of an Old T-shirt

January 12, 2016 / TakeTimetoCreate / 3 Comments

Hello Everyone!

I hope your years is getting off to a great start. I am pretty excited because I have started on a project that I have been wanting to get started on for a long time. I got this huge stack of old t-shirts that had the wrong logo on them (this pic is only part of what I got). And since the shirts can’t be sold my friend gave them to me to make into yarn. This is not a new technique, but it is new to me and I am pretty excited in how it turned out. It is a perfect activity to do while I am watching TV. I am only part way through the stack, but eventually I will be done and then I am going to make rugs out of the yarn. Great way to upcycle old t-shirts and make something new.

I didn’t connect the balls of yarn to make one big ball because I am not sure if I am going to braid the rug or crochet it. (if I crochet the rug I will need to combine the yarn, if I braid it then I will need to sew together the strips.) Either way when I do the rug I will be sure to do a tutorial for you guys.

Here is how you turn in old t-shirt into yarn.

Materials

~Old T-shirt (make sure it is washed, if it is new this will take the sizing out and if it is from a thrift store it will make sure it is clean)

~ Scissors

~ ruler if you want, I didn’t use one but a ruler might make it easier to cut the strips.

Instructions

~ Lay the clean shirt on a flat surface. As you can see from the pics I am working on the floor, but that is just my preference. Make sure the shirt is flat and as smooth as possible.

~Cut the top off right under the sleeves. (I am keeping this top part, not sure what I am going to do with them but I just can’t throw it away) Then Cut off the bottom hem. (I threw that part away)

~ Then you want to cut the remaining shirt into strips. I cut mine about 1-1.5” wide.

***This is Important! Make sure you don’t cut all the way to the top! You will need this uncut area to make the yarn into one continuous length.

(This is what the top looks like with the uncut areas. You will cut it at an angle to make the strips, starting at the right end)

~ For this part refer to the pics, and please let me know if you have any questions.

To make the yarn cut off starting at the last strip and make an angle cut to the edge. Then cut the rest of the strips in an angle until you get to the end. I place the shirt on my arm and make the cuts on there, that just helps me keep track of were I need to go next.

~ Once you have cut the entire shirt you should have on long length of T-shirt Yarn. Then gently stretch the yarn and then wrap it into a ball. I made individual balls because I am not sure if I want to combine them into one length or not, but this way I am keeping it all nice and neat until I am ready to use it.

I know this may seem a little confusing, but I am here if you have any questions. Have any of you made t-shirt yarn before? I would love to some tips and tricks to make it better and or easier.

Take Time to Create

Taking a few minutes in our busy lives to create new and wonderful things

recycle

How to Reupholster an Office Chair

DIY Cell Phone Case From Old Tie

Recycled Glass Vase DIY

Make Yarn Out of an Old T-shirt