Made By Lex

Easy, Elegant Teacher’s Gift

Hello blog land! I’m back! This move was a hard one for me, probably with the girls being older and having more things and being possessive of where they all go. But we’re mostly settled in now. I can’t wait to show you some pictures when things are all squared away!

For my daughter’s teacher’s gift this year I knew I wanted to make her teacher an elegant scarf. I went to Harts Fabric (of course) and found this gorgeous Italian fabric. It’s a cotton/wool blend and was absolutely stunning. (Here’s a few other prints in the same type of fabric.)

I bought 3/4 a yard and cut it in half to make two pieces that I sewed together. Then I did a rolled hem all the way around the scarf.

Then I added this pretty floral lace trim around the two ends. I added it to both sides of the ends so you would see it no matter how the scarf was laying.

Here’s the finished scarf.

It makes a beautiful gift for someone (or one for yourself). The total cost of the project was about $10!

Have a beautiful weekend. I’m back Monday with a beautiful giveaway!

Infinity Scarf Tutorial

I love soft infinity scarves. I wanted to try to make one with things I already had around so I came up with this one from unwanted T’s. It’s so easy!

Grab some T’s that you don’t use anymore. You can vary the color and patterns for the more daring. But I like, personally, like to stick to the same color tones.

Cut them up into pieces. They can be different lengths but make sure they are the same width.

Sew them together into an infinity scarf.

Then to make it a little more special I hand embroider a contrasting stitch at the seams. Find your seams and fold them over so the part you sewed is concealed.

Then just do a stitch along the seam. I know nothing about embroidery so I don’t even know what kind of stitch this is called

I did them at all the seams and here’s how it looks.

Here’s another version I did in all pink with a  cream colored stitch.

I looooovve this scarf!

And Bel likes hers, too.

Tags: infinity scarf, refashion, scarf, tutorial
Posted in children's clothes, refashions, women's clothing | 21 Comments »

Tie-Dye Scarf Tutorial

I had another scarf tutorial that I was going to show you guys but we’re doing this one first instead.

I really like all the tie-dying that I’ve been seeing. I love a little tie-dye. Here are some scarves that i’ve noticed that I’ve really liked.

So here’s how I did mine. I started with a light blue cotton.I had a yard of it.

I got rubber bands and started doing this:

(sorry. I don’t know technical terms. But over at Edie’s Fashion Factory she has lots of great tie-dye techniques)

Then I took each one of “those” and twirled it and wrapped it Sort of like a little bun. A fabric bun.

I did that all over the fabric.

Then I threw it in the wash with iDye in brown. I love that product for basic colors. You don’t need soda ash or any other setters. Just throw it in the washing machine with salt and you’re done! I took it out of the wash, undid the bands and dried it and it came out like this:

Here’s a little closeup:

Then I cut the material so it measured 17 inches across and 82 inches long. Obviously you could do this before you begin the project.

(Note, you’ll see notice a seam at the end of mine. That’s because it was shorter and I didn’t think it was long enough. So I added pieces on each end to make it 82 inches. I think it would have looked better to have one long piece of 82, but I had to have a ‘make it work’ moment.)

At the ends of each side, cut small strips. Mine were about 6-7 inches long.

Then tie them together with double knots. For whatever strage reason, I thought it would be genius to tie every other one together. To give it some kind of cross over effect.

After tying them all this is how it turned out. I believe it would have looked just the same if I would have tied the ones next to each other. Live and learn.

Here’s my final product!

I really like how there’s slight variation in color without being too tie-dye-ish.

And I really like the fringes.

Enjoy, have fun and have a great weekend!!

Draped in Cashmere- A Decadent Scarf Tutorial

I finally did it! I found my first cashmere sweater at the thrift store! I was THRILLED when I found it! I’ve been looking for one for a long time.
I’m going to show you how to make it into this!
If you don’t have a cashmere sweater, any lightweight material will do.
The first thing I did was cut off my bottom ribbing.

Now cut it into equal strips, however your sweater will allow you to. Here’s how I portioned mine out.

Here were the strips I ended up with.

Sew half of your strips together in one long piece. Do the other half separately. Then pin the two long strips together so it gets doubly wide. Stitch together.

What I did next, I forgot to photograph. I used hem tape to seal the edges. You can use that, extra sweater material or fold it over and stitch.

Here’s what it will look like. As you can see, I made a grid on the photo to show where we are going to gather it. I did it about every 8 inches horizontally, then about 2 inches from each edge.

Here’s what it looks like after I did the horizontal stitches then the first vertical stitch.

If you want to add a little more, you can use extra sweater material to create a fringe.

Just sew them on to the end of your scarf. (It was a little too much on mine, but it’s an option!)

Here’s how it turned out…

I love the rufflyness of it. It looks like an extravagant collar.

Don’t you just want to curl up in this??

I know this was two scarves in a row, but I had to post this one immediately because I’ve really been enjoying it.
More warm weather tutorial coming this week!

Sweater Scarf Refashion Tutorial

I snagged this cable knit sweater at the thrift store.

Then I cut out a strip on the other side in the same width.

I used the back of the sweater for 2 more equal width strips.

I sewed them all together and made sure that my pieces with pockets were on the ends. I could tell this sweater was not going to unravel. But if yours might, you can fold it under and stitch it, add some bias tape or some extra trim from the sweater.

And in just a few minutes- You’ll have this!

I like how different it looks and I like that it still has the buttons and button holes because you can button it different ways for a cool look.