T-shirt Remodel

This afternoon was a sick-and-exhausted-from-a-weekend-away-but-in-a-creative-mood afternoon. I felt especially adventurous, so I pulled out one of my brother's old t-shirts from one of my gloriously full crafting drawers. Less than an hour of trying on, pulling off, pinning, sewing, and snipping, I had turned a men's XL t-shirt into a fun, rather fitted shirt for my small self. This is officially the most forgiving project ever, and even though T-shirts aren't really my "thing", I may have to start mass-producing them :)

The sleeves were actually removed entirely, as the shoulder part was long enough to cover my shoulder and provide a substantial cap sleeve. If anyone would like, I can make a tutorial sometime for the fitting of the body, although it involves little more than trying the shirt on inside out, carefully pinning the sides the way you want them, and sewing along the pins. The bottom hem has been entirely cut off because I didn't take the trouble to make it all match up...who knew scissors could hide such a multitude of mistakes and lazinesses?

After uploading this to Pinterest, I realized that I probably should have worn jeans instead of my ridiculously skin-tight jeggings. 7 likes, 1 comment, 28 repins, and less than half an hour later, I have officially learned my lesson.
Happy Weekend!

Blessings,

Hannah =)

Hand Soap

Between yesterday and today I tried this recipe for homemade hand soap--after a few alterations to the recipe, it ended up working like a dream. I actually used a natural soap from the dollar store, and it smells like lavender <3 

The recipe calls for an 8 ounce bar of soap, 2 tablespoons of glycerin, and a gallon of water. Upon noticing that my bar of soap was only 4.25 ounces, I cut the recipe in half and only used half a gallon of water and a tablespoon of glycerin. But it was waaaay too thick. So I melted it down again and added another half gallon. Still waaaaaay too thick. After a gallon and a half of total water, it finally worked. Here is my finished product:

This batch ended up making nearly a gallon and a half of hand soap for barely over $1. My mom loves the scent and can't wait to put it in every dispenser of our house. I have read that the creator of this recipe also made body wash by using the same recipe. 

I am now the proud owner of a ukulele (thanks to my brother for selling me his for dirt cheap.) Now to learn how to play the thing...

Blessings,

Hannah =)

Plarn Dish Scrubbies

If you haven't heard of plarn, you've been missing out. Plarn is yarn made out of plastic grocery bags! Some people use it for fashion, but I prefer its more functional aspects. Knit up in garter stitch with two strands, these little plarn dish scrubbies have a rough, ridged surface on both sides, making them perfect for scrubbing tough-to-clean dishes like pots and pans with cooked-on food.

Here is the method I used to make my plarn, and here is another, perhaps slightly easier way that creates the double strand automatically.

I used two different patterns: one was the traditional Grandmother's favorite dishcloth pattern (although much smaller), and for the other, I cast on 15 stitches and worked garter stitch until it was somewhere in the vicinity of square. The latter pattern turned out to be much simpler ;)

These work really well; my mom has already "stolen" two or three (with permission)!

Happy plarning!

Blessings,

Hannah =)