Making Swan Decor out of Paper

I'm so in-love with recycled handicraft because by recycling, we could convert trash into a beautiful, useful products. Today, I'm going to teach you how to make a decor from old magazines and news papers. It's another DIY craft to be enjoyed doing by the whole family.

Materials needed:

Old magazine pages

Scissor

Glue

Procedure:

• Cut a small rectangle from a magazine's page.
• Fold like image 2,3,4...
  

•  Connect each folded paper to make a base. Connecting folded paper can make different shapes.

The provided images are folding and connecting instructions only.Connect all the folded papers and make your own design like swan,vase and others. You can make different products by learning the basic folding of magazine pages. Making paper swan is not so easy, it needs several trial and error to make it perfectly. Connecting the folded paper maybe so confusing so be patient in learning the step by step procedure in making swan from recycled magazine.

Simple Steps in Making cute kiddie dress

It's so exciting to dress our kids with beautiful and colorful kiddie dress. I always want my kids to look stand out in every occasion or activity they're attending. Since buying kiddie dress is now so expensive, It's so practical to make on our own for our kids. Sewing and designing a kiddie dress is not as difficult as everyone thinks,it's just another DIY procedure to make.It's just simple as ABC. All you need to do is follow right directions. The image above is the dress i made for my one year old daughter. The fabrics i used in this project are cotton with embroidered flower designs which i bought for php 150/yard and the ribbon and lining was gina fabric which is only php30/yard. I used 1 yard for the dress and 1 yard for the lining.

I'm not a professional sewer, I don't even have professional training here but I'm a self proclaimed fashion designer for kids. I only get ideas and instruction from a friend and I'm able to create cute kiddie dresses  for my daughters.

Now let's prepare the materials to be used in this project.

Materials:

• printed fabric
• gina fabric for lining and ribbon
• scissor
• sewing machine
• string and needle for sewing

Procedure:

• Firs t step is measuring the body parts. Measure the shoulder width, breast, arm, shoulder to waist height, waist to knee height and and waist.
• Note down all the measurements and make a paper pattern.
• Using your paper pattern, cut your fabrics with the exact pattern's measurement. 

Top Front

• Cut the top-front with measurement indicated in the image above. You need to make a duplicate cut using gina fabric this will serve as a lining.
• In reverse position,attach the cotton fabric with the gina fabric lining.

Top Back

• Our top back is divided in to two parts to give space for the zipper. There's an allowance for stitching.
• connect the cotton and gina fabrics.
• Attaching the cotton and gina fabrics, sew the neck and arm parts.
• attach the zipper

Skirt lining (gina fabric) This will serve as the lining of the skirt. It is a simple square cut enough to make comfortable moves.

Ribbon -simply cut 70 inches long and 5 1/2 width gina fabric. This will be attached and sew together with the upper and lower part of the dress. You have to mark the middle of the ribbon and sew it starting in the middle of the front waist of the dress. This is to make an equal length of the ribbon.

• Sew the raffles to attach to the skirt's lining. Sewing raffles is a simple folding stroke.
• Make sure to stitch the raffles properly by folding while sewing. The more fold you make is the better wide raffle result.
• Make 3 layers of raffles
• leave a space for the zipper at the back of the skirt.

Connecting the top back and front and the skirt

• connect the shoulders. If you knew how to stitch properly, you will then know how to keep the connect point in between the linings.
• connect the to to skirt and attach the top's excess zipper to the skirt
• connecting them maybe difficult, you have to insert the middle of the ribbon to the front top together with the first layer of the raffles

we're done!!!

DIY kiddie summer dress with procedure

It's summer time! I'm so excited to go to the beach with my family but my kid's summer dress and suits are no longer fit as they grew so fast. This is the reason why I write articles about DIY or Do It Your self handicraft. I want to learn to do simple things because by doing this, I am practicing my motto in life which is "if others can, why can't I?" I think this should be everyone's motto because life is a continuous learning. In my previous article, I wrote about making your own swim suit out of remnants of cloth,and beacause it's summer again, I would like to share how did I make a kiddie summer wear for my 4 year old daughter. 

Materials needed are:

• floral fabrics, square cut, L-20 inches,H-20 inches

• ribbons

• two sets of triangular cut for chest area

• two sets of cotton fabric, L-2 in,H-10 in

Procedure:

• Stitch the ribbon and then attach to the triangles which are already sewed.

• attach the cotton fabric at the bottom

• attach the floral fabric to the top of our summer dress

                              Back View                               font View

Here is the finished product of our kiddie summer dress. The hat's procedure is available at: http://handicraft-from-wastes.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-make-hat-from-restaso-remnants.html

Buy Kiddie Summer dress at Amazon

How to Recycle News Paper to Wedding Souvenir

News Papers are very useful in our everyday life because it keeps us aware wherever we are. After reading the news, there are reasons why we should not throw the news papers because there are many different ways to make these used papers still useful. I have posted one way to recycle a news paper in my previous article in Handicraft and this is How to make a hand bag from news paper.

Wedding occasion shouldn't always be expensive. Paying all the bills, buying everything needed to the reception could be so bloody. But there are ways to cut or minimize the expenses in celebrating wedding occasions like making your own wedding souvenir. Materials in making souvenirs is also expensive but you can make a solution for this by making wedding souvenirs using recycled materials. Now I want to share another DIY craft. another way to recycle an old news paper. This tutorial is best for students in elementary and high school who are seeking ideas for their school projects. This procedure is very easy that even kids can follow the instructions on how to make a little cute basket best for souvenir items as wedding souvenirs.

Materials needed are:

•  old news paper
•  glue
•  scissor
•  ribbon

 Procedure:

For weaving procedure, twist the previous cut news paper like what you see on the picture.

• Cut  the news paper lengthwise about  2 inches wide each.
•  Fold the news paper 4 times to achieve a half inch width.
•  Form the folded papers like this and attach the center with glue.
•  Weave the twisted paper on a circular direction like this.
•  Make a basket with a height of 2 inches or approximately 5 rounds.
•  Cut the excess papers except for the two sides because from those, we will form a handle.
•  Fold and weave the excess paper using a scissor or other flat stick.
•  This is the result of steps 1-9
•  Connect the two sides to form a handle by using a glue.
•  Insert a twisted paper on a side of our handle and glue to lock.
•  Coil around to cover the handle
•   Varnish the basket to make it glossy and nice.
•  Add a ribbon and we're done with our wedding souvenir.

DIY Make a Mini Reversible Tote Bag using remnants of cloth and used old clothing

This is the reversible mini tote bag  project that I'm going to teach you this time, a simple DIY craft to be added to your hobbies. You see, I used blue and orange printed remnants of cloth. This product is best as present, token, souvenir or school project for elementary and high school students. The procedure on how to make your own mini reversible tote bag is very easy, all we need are:

Colorful remnants of cloth

A piece of long cloth for our ribbon chord. Provide another color of cloth for the strap or handle.

Stitch or sew both sides of our square-cut cloth like what you see on the picture.

Reverse one of our square cut cloth...

...and make this one opposite.

Insert  the reversed cloth into the other cloth like this

Make sure that you left a hole on both sides of one of the squares. This is where we will insert the ribbon chord.

Now, sew or stitch the mouth of our mini bag like this. You have to fold them both inside when stitching, this is to prevent ripping.

If you see the thread lines, I did 3 lines: top, middle and bottom. Between the middle and the bottom is where our ribbon chord  will  be placed.

Insert the chord for the ribbon.

This is how will it look like.

Add handles. This is the front of our bag. I

If you reverse it, this is how will it look like....

Now, we're done with the reversible mini tote bag. It's so easy, you can do it by manual stitching or by sewing.

You may also like these articles:

How to make bags from old magazine pages

How to make bags from plastic foils

How to make a tote bag from used old clothes

How to make a hand bag from news paper

DIY swim suit out of remnants

This is what we really need during summer, a pair of swimsuit. a small piece of cloth to cover some parts of of our body which makes us comfortable when we go on a swimming. Posing on a camera wearing your swimsuit is always exciting, but wearing the same swimsuit in every swimming event is something you shouldn't do. Swimsuit cost a bit expensive, so why spend too much money buying many pairs when you can make your own?

Today, I will show you simple steps on "how to make your own swimsuit", it's a DIY procedure which is so easy to do.

These floral remnants of cloth are for the front of our top and the reds are for the lining. I cut those pieces of cloth to triangles to cover the top part of the body.

I cut a 2 inch wide of red cloth. I will attach it to the triangles on the armpit side.

I did the same procedure with the other triangle.

this is the back image of our top

Now I cut a 2 inch wide and 28 inches long red cloth. This is for the upper part of the triangles. It should be long enough to make a ribbon.

Make a mark on the middle of the cloth before sewing, this is to make an equal length for the ribbon.

Again, cut the same size of  a long red cloth for the lower part of our triangles. The length should be enough to make a ribbon at the back.

 Attach  it by sewing.

Now we're done with the top.

Now let's proceed with the bikini procedure.

This is the front view of our bikini. The lower back is a little bit narrow to make a perfect curve.

This is  the back of the bikini. It's a little bit wider to cover the butt part. Like what we did on the top procedure, we should duplicate these cuts to make a lining.

Attach them together.

Cut a 2 inch wide red cloth. The length should be enough to cover the sides of the bikini.

This is the results of steps 1-4

Repeat the procedure 4 to cover the upper front and upper back edges, this time, you have to cut a longer piece enough to make a ribbon on both sides.

Our finished product.

By learning this procedure, you can have many swimsuits, as many as you want. Now, you don't need to re-use those old pairs so can always post new styles on your Facebook profile. The best thing about learning these steps is that you can make swimsuits and sell them to make an extra income. This is what I always want for my readers to benefit from my blogs: save money, minimize wastes and make an extra income from the garbage. Good luck fellas!

Buy Swimsuit at Amazon