Belts and Bracelets

 

Well there's only one bracelet but I have plans to make lots more using the snaps that I have used on this one and leather and some kind of embroidery or yarn.

1. Old belt that I found but that had no buckle so I attached some snaps to it so I could change the buckle. The buckle here is a vintage racoon buckle that I got in a trade with Emma Beans and More.
2. I made this belt to use up some conchos I had left over from some jewelry. It's also made of deer skin and of a silver plated buckle.
3. I made this belt to go with this dress and another black and white dress I have. I used what looks like a mother of pearl buckle that I found in my stash of stuff from my Great Aunt Mildred. I used the same deer skin as I use for the belt above.
4. Once again I needed a super cool belt for this dress so I took a piece of ribbon from my Great Aunt Mildred and bought the leather buckle and glued it to the ribbon (yes the fabric glue was the best thing).
5. This bracelet is made with the same deer skin as I used to make the belts plus some nail heads that I had left over from a previous project (shoe decoration) and snaps from my mom.

Vintage Suitcase Cat Bed

 As my husband said, "it's fitting for a traveling cat to sleep in a suitcase" when we first brought the vintage suitcase home from the thrift store and Ranita, our cat, immediately started sleeping in it (even before it was finished. Our cat certainly is a traveling cat, the poor thing has been dragged from Rome to Philly to New York to Richmond in just this past year, and all last year, in New York, she was sleeping on top of one of our suitcases.
 I first saw this vintage suitcase turned animal bed on Etsy and then again on Pinterest and then decided as soon as I could find an affordable suitcase I would make one for Ranita. How I did it-first I cut the fabric inside that covered the hinges then I took off the hinges, using a power drill and a flat head screw driver. I drilled a hole from the inside where the pins were and then I pried them off with the screw driver. After that I folded the fabric over and glued it in place. Then I made the pillow, I measured the inside of the suitcase and then cut and sewed some old fabric together, there are two different sides (which you can see above), then stuffed it with shredded foam. I left the side pouches in, and they make a great place to store toys (see above). The whole thing cost about 7.50 but would cost more if I had bought fabric for it and could end up costing more if I add wooden feet to it which I'm thinking of doing.

DIY Making Alterations-Turning a Dress Into a Cropped Top

 

 This was a ridiculously unflattering shapeless dress but I loved the ikat pattern and cowl neck so I cut that part out and turned it into a top. The ikat bit was just in the front of the dress so the first thing I did was cut that part in half and put the bottom half on the back. Then I took some natural colored cotton muslin and cut two long strips of it to add to the sides and two rectangles of it to add to the sides under the arms. In the photo above I have not yet attached the part to go under the arms.

 

 Finished product!

DIY Making Alterations-Revamping Old Vintage Dresses

Jewelry by IL GATTO SELVATICO:: left hand photo: Trapeze Necklace right hand photo: Rhombohedron Earrings 

The dress on the left had sleeves and a 70's style collar that I did not find flattering so I took them off. I made the dress sleeveless with a boat neck collar instead. The dress on the right had a collar with neck ties. I removed the ties and put them at the waist of the dress to cinch the waist. I turned the collar into a scoop neck collar instead (now it's sexier).

DIY Project: Homemade Backpack

I had this African print that I bought in South Africa 10 years ago, I needed a backpack but didn't want a regular canvas one, so I put the two things together--fabric+need=backpack. I also had some leather to make the straps and buckles and bottom of the the bag.
I went about the task of designing my backpack. I wanted it to be a "bucket bag" backpack with a draw string rather then a zipper and this would be a great way to utilize the eyelets I bought accidentally. I wanted the black leather to be the bottom of the bag. I wanted to have no extra pockets, a top flap and 3 buckles; one to close the top flap and 2 to adjust the length of the straps.

I laid out all my fabric and started to cut out the pieces. I first cut a circle for the bottom as large as I wanted, then 2 strips of leather and 2 African print pieces for the sides. I measured these pieces against the fabric for the lining (a cotton muslin) and cut out these as well. I sewed these all together to make the "bucket" part; starting from bottom up, sewing the lining separately, then sewing the lining to the outside part at the top. I then cut holes along the top for the eyelets and inserted the eyelets with a hammer.

With this done, I cut and pinned the remaining pieces; the straps, the buckles, the handle, the flap. I hammered and cut holes into the pieces for the buckles (you can also use an awl if you have it). After I sewed the handle and straps, I turned them right-side out and sewed along the edges. I also sewed along the edges of all pieces of leather to give it extra support. I sewed a leather trim around the flap and then I sewed the flap, handle and straps to the top of the back, hiding the frayed edges by sewing pieces of leather on top. I attached the adjustable buckle of the strap to the base of the bag and I sewed the buckles that close the flap to the front of the bag and flap. And ta-da! The finished product.

Studded Madness Weekend DIY Project

This is how I spent my Sunday, watching The Borgias and attaching these "nail heads" to a simple red sweatshirt and a pair blaring white keds. They are super easy to attach, they have 4-5 sharp points which you push through your fabric then, using a thimble, you push the sharp parts down and into the middle. It was a little hard to do this on the shoes because they were leather and to thick for this so I pushed them in and attached with fabric glue.