Category Archives: diy

When to break up with a project?

Beaded collar progress

Beaded collar progress

Beaded collar progress

Beaded collar progress

Beaded collar progress

Sometimes I’ll be working on a project and I just won’t be feeling it.

A number of things can be going on. Sometimes the pattern pieces just aren’t fitting together right and the whole thing looks silly and unsalvageable. Other times I look at it and wonder if I’ll ever wear/use it. Or maybe I had an idea in my head that just isn’t translating. Sometimes all you need is to step away for a day or two and come back with fresh eyes. Other times stepping away only leads to lack of motivation and your project ends up in a dusty “Someday” box.

We’re all taught the importance of perseverance and finishing what you start, but there comes a point when you’re just wasting your time. When do you decide to call it quits and move on to something else?

I’m having trouble with this collar. I think I made it too big, or the pearls are too big, and I’m doubting whether I’ll ever wear it because it looks slightly wonky, which makes me not want to put in the time to finish it.

But it does look pretty cool so far and I do feel like I’m kind of pre-judging it before seeing the final effect. Plus, I’ve seen a ton of gorgeous beaded collars on Pinterest and I’m sure they looked at least a tiny bit wonky before they were finished.

Hmmm.

How do you decide whether to give up or keep going?

11 Comments diy -

Shoe rescue – Part 2

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Don’t you love it when you order something fully expecting it to take 635 business days to arrive or some nonsense and then three days later it’s snuggled in your mailbox just waiting for you?

I do.

When we last left off on the fascinating saga of my Lottas, they both looked kind of like the one on the right.

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I was kicking myself for not buying the silver ones, so when I started looking into how to brighten up my blue ones with shoe polish, it suddenly occurred to me that I could just change the color of mine instead of buying a whole new pair. A few Google searches led me to discover Angelus acrylic leather paint, which I bought in silver.

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Make sure to clean your shoes before you start painting!

Although it does come with a handy dandy brush attached to the lid, I recommend pouring some into a small dish and mixing in a small bit of water to thin it out a little. You do have to apply a few more coats this way but they’ll look more even. I also found it helpful to paint it in sections and dry each section with a hairdryer as I went along. Something about the heat melting the acrylic onto the leather for better hold?

I ended up doing about five coats of watered down paint.

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After the paint dries you’re supposed to polish them but all I had was some leather lotion so I used that. And now they look like this!

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And now I can’t wait for spring so I can wear them with pretty floral dresses. And shorts. And basically everything.

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I think maybe next year I’ll paint them red.

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Shoe rescue – Part 1

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You may recall this lovely pair of Lottas that I got last summer. In fact, they’re even featured in my blog header.

Except you might have noticed that they’ve faded quite a bit.

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Yikes! And sad 🙁

What also kind of sucks is that I ordered the wrong size so they’re a bit too big on me, which was fine until I broke them in and the straps became too loose for them to actually stay on my feet. Double sad.

I had toyed with the idea of cutting out a part of the strap and then sewing the ends together to shorten the whole thing, but these are one of my favorite pairs of shoes (although realistically, which ones aren’t?) and I have no experience working with leather so I was very wary.

Today decided to just go for it. Either I leave them alone and pretty much never wear them or I completely screw them up and they become unwearable. Or all goes well and I end up with a gorgeous pair of sandals that actually fit!

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I essentially put the shoe on, pulled the strap outward, and cut the strap right where it hit the center of my heel. I then took a 1″ piece of elastic and sewed it onto one cut side of the strap, then to the other, creating two X shapes when they’re lined up. It would be a good idea to reinforce this with something iron-able or fray check or possible some sort of leather glue.

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This is what it looks like from the back. Not too shabby, right? If you’re really worried about aesthetics, you could even glue something decorative there to cover the stitches.

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Next up, dealing with the color fading issue. But I have to wait for supplies to come in the mail.

I hate waiting.

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diy-ing

I haven’t had much time to post lately (this may or may not have something to do with the fact that Skyrim magically found its way onto my laptop..) but I just wanted to pop in and share something I’ve been working on this week.

I’ve been sort of obsessed with diy blogs lately and after oggling this post and this post, I decided I wanted to make something similar.

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It’s obviously still a work in progress but I’ll post more pictures when I’m done.

Which likely won’t be until next week because this weekend I’m going to Montreaaaal!

<3