Cute, right? These little goodies make the perfect green gift for your favorite eco-conscious pal. Not everybody manages to keep a ceramic cup on hand at all times – but anyone could easily slip this small piece into a purse or pocket. Portable, practical, and of course super-stylish! And best of all, made by YOU. How could a gift get any better?
Here’s what you’ll need:
- An old men’s collared shirt (long sleeved)
- Needle and thread or sewing machine
- Elastic
- Embellishments (optional)
For the sake of these photos I made this example entirely by hand, to show how it can be done. But I’m totally machine-spoiled, so my hand sewing skills suck! Sorry ’bout that.
To make the body of the java jacket, you’ll be using the wrist band of the shirt. So first things first, cut it off!
This is what you’ll end up with:
Clean it up by removing those ugly buttons. A seam ripper works best for this, but scissors will do in a pinch.
Next you’ll need to finish up that frayed edge. I used red thread so you could see my work, but you can use white if you want to hide it, or whatever color suits your fancy.
Continue until you’ve secured the entire jagged edge, like so:
Now you’ll want to cut a length of elastic. The wide-band type works best here. Cut a piece about 2 inches thick, slightly tapered.
Pin the elastic into the cuff. It helps here if you have a standard 16-oz ‘to go’ cup to measure on, to make sure you get the circumference correct.
Sew the elastic into place. Since I was using red thread and going for a decorative look, I kept it going around the entire perimeter. But this wasn’t necessary, function-wise.
And guess what? That’s it! All that’s left is to decorate as you see fit. I kept this one simple . . .
And the other one extra fancy!
The possibilities are pretty much endless. And I’m dying to see what you guys come up with! These are so fun to make and super customizable, I really think they’re the perfect gift. And bonus – they make adorable, wearable wrist cuffs!
Happy Holidays!
-
http://www.city-vegan.blogspot.com Crystal
-
http://adorable-damage.com/ Anastasia
-
Tabitha
-
Tenise Rae
-
Laura
-
Katie
-
http://kpapoulias.blogspot.com/ Kathryn
-
http://indiearsenal.com Farmingtheburbs
-
http://www.creativeanomalie.com sarah
-
Laura
-
Sleepy bird
-
http://onetworedblue.livejournal.com/ Mae
-
SJ
-
http://thevegetablecentrickitchen.com/ Rande McDaniel
-
http://twitter.com/felicitates felicitates