DIY Makeup Wrap

December 23, 2019December 22, 2019 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

12.23.19

0600

Materials:

Fabric piece – 28″ x 17″
Ribbon – 38″ long

Tools:

Sewing Kit
Sewing Machine
Ruler
Blue Ink pen (if using a dark fabric) OR Washable crayon

So I wanted some type of organizer for my makeup and my makeup brushes. A lot of the organizers that I found in stores, only organize make up brushes, but I wanted an organizer that I could also organize my makeup pallets as well. I just wanted some type of organizer that could organize multiple beauty products. Since I couldn’t find one, I decided to make it.

I found two pieces of black fabric that’s were 17″X28″. Both pieces of fabric are a cotton blend and are usually used to make dress pants. I knew the fabric would be durable for this project.

First, I hemmed all the edges. Since I hemmed all the edges at 1/2″ in width, and I folded each edge over twice, the final size of the fabric piece was 15″x26″. Essentially, I had used up an inch of fabric on each side.

My makeup brushes averaged a height of 7.5″, so I knew that my makeup wrap would ideally be 8″ high.

I decided that I wanted 4.5″ base, to hold all of the items in place. I folded the bottom of the wrap, up 4.5″ and pinned the fabric together using sewing pins. I then folded my wrap in half, to find the center line. I wanted the right side of the wrap to hold my brushes and the left side of my wrap to hold my makeup palettes, combs, mascara, eyeliner, etc. I wanted my wrap to be able to hold more than just make up brushes.

Using a washable white crayon, I marked off 1″ sections, for my brushes and then divided the other half into two 3″ sections and two 3.5″ sections. Three inches seemed like a good width for makeup palettes, but check the width of your palettes to see if you need a wider section. I wanted the last two sections on the left side to be 3.5″, because I have a feeling that I’ll need slightly larger slots in the future.

In addition to the washable crayon, I also used a blue ink pen to draw guide lines for the slots, so I could sew the lines straight, when using my sewing machine. The blue ink blends in with the black fabric, so it was only visible under the sewing machine light bulb. I also could have used the washable crayon to mark off the guide lines as well.

Usually, when I create any sewing project, I try to end the sewing line, close to the edge of the fabric. It’s easier to create the back stitch when it’s close to the edge of the fabric.

In this case, I started my sewing line near the top of the folded flap, used the back stitch lever to create a back stitch, continued to sew down the guild line, and then ended the line at the bottom edge, with another back stitch as well.

Since the wrap was long, I folded the right side of the wrap inward, so I could still keep the shape of the wrap neat and clean as I fed the fabric through the presser foot and needle of the machine.

I wanted all of the sewing lines to start at the hem line, because I thought it would create a cleaner look for the wrap.

After I finished sewing all of the slot lines, I wanted to create a top flap, that would cover the makeup bristles and ferrules. I simply folded the top edge of my wrap down 3″, and ironed that edge.

I took my ribbon, and I folded it in half. I needed to find the center line of the ribbon, so I can line up with the center line of the last slot on the left side. I wanted my makeup brush wrap to unroll to the right, so I had to attach the ribbon on the left back side. The wide slots on the left also provide a good section to attach the ribbon to.

The location of where I sewed the ribbon was based on the location of the heels of my brushes. The heels of my brushes were close to the middle of the wrap. It was also the location where my ribbon had to wrap around in order to contain the entire wrap securely.

Using a sewing pin, I pinned the ribbon to the wrap, and sewed the ribbon to the back of the last left slot. I wanted a really long ribbon for this makeup brush wrap, because I wanted to be able to wrap the ribbon twice around the entire wrap, if needed.

So this is what the finished product ended up looking like. The bottom picture is what the wrap looks like when it is wrapped up.

DIY Thumb Loops In Sweater Sleeves

November 18, 2019November 25, 2019 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

11.18.2019

0600

So this blog post is a personal life hack of mine. When I work out, I like to wear sweaters. Now, these sweaters are not always athletic sweaters, but simple sweaters that I buy just to wear on a day-to-day basis. I like to go running in these sweaters because they’re comfortable and warm. However, when I go running with these sweaters, the sleeves tend to run up my arm. I prefer the sweaters to cover my wrist and not bunch up when I’m running. I like the running sweaters that are designed with thumb loops, but they tend to be more expensive as well. Since I love my sweaters that I wear day to day, I decided to create my own thumb loops for my sweaters.

It’s a very simple process to create these thumb loops. First, I laid down my sweater where the sleeve lay flat on the table. I located the center line of the sleeve, and then chose to locate my thumb loop on the bottom half of the sleeve, but on the cuff of the sleeve. I found the center line of the bottom half of the sleeve, and I decided to locate my new thumb loop there.

When I wear my sweaters, my hand falls naturally to my side, in which my thumb faces towards the front of my body. This is why I located the thumb loop on the bottom half of the sleeve.

I wanted my thumb loop to be 1 inch in length and about half an inch from the bottom of the sleeve cuff. Using scissors, I cut a small slit that was 1 inch in length.

For my right sleeve, I used the same process as I did with the left sleeve. I located the center line of the right sleeve, and then located the center of the bottom half of the sleeve. I cut a one inch slit that was half an inch away from the bottom of the sleeve cuff.

I removed my extension table in order for the sleeve to fit underneath the presser foot of the machine. I slid the left cuff over the needle plate and started to sew the edge of the thumb loop. I used a tight zigzag stitch, so the fabric would hold up during washes and use. Since I knew that these thumb loops would go through a bit of wear and tear, I used the back stitch lever to create a strong and permanent attachment at the ends of the thumb loops.

The back stitch lever created the heavy and thicker starting points and end points of the outline of the thumb loops.

I flipped my left sleeve inside out, and continued to outline the other side of this thumb loop. I used the zigzag stitch again and used the back stitch lever so both ends of the opening would have an even reinforcement, of the thumb loop.

When I turned my sweater inside out, the thumb loops were finally finished being created. I use this hack on both of my sweaters, so now the sleeves won’t run up my arms when I workout.

This is a really simple hack for an issue that I dealt with on a daily basis. Although I know my thumbs will stick outside of my sleeves, when I run,they don’t get too cold. Sometimes I will run with my running gloves when the weather drops too low, so technically, my hands are still warm. Some people prefer to not have the thumb loops, but I like to keep my wrists covered when I run. This hack took less than 30 minutes to create and finish, so it didn’t take much time out of my day at all. I hope this hack will inspire other hacks that you might be needing in your life.

Car Floor Mat Towel Sleeves

April 1, 2019September 1, 2019 / Yen-Van Tran / 3 Comments

04.01.2019

0600

Materials:

2 Bath Towels
4 Hand Towels
Sewing Kit
White Fabric Pencil

Tools:

Sewing Kit
Sewing Machine

It’s interesting how we pick up habits from our parents or other figures in our lives. When the rain season comes, my mother has always wrapped an old towel across her car mats to absorb the extra water that would get dragged in by everyday use. To this day, I’ll see her break out the towels around the middle of October.

As for me, I never cared for my floor mats in my car. I honestly never liked my car. The car was bought without my input and I was stuck with it thereafter. But recently I did get new car mats, along with a new car, and since I didn’t want to drag a bunch of water into my car, I too, wrapped my car mats in towels. But I soon realized that the towels would get tugged and moved around from the daily use of them. I had to solve this issue. I didn’t want to constantly re-tuck the towels under my car mats, because sometimes they were already dirty and wet.

The front floor mats were a large size and I knew that bath towels would be a perfect fit. I decided to make some towel sleeves for my car mats. Since my carpet in my car is black, I knew I had to find black towels to create my towel sleeves. With the towels sleeves, it would be easier to catch the dirt and rocks that would be brought into my car, and the towels would be easy to clean, since all I had to do was take off the sleeves and throw them into the washing machine.

I found two bath towels that were 52″ long by 30″ wide. Since my front floor mats are about 31″ long and 21″ wide, I only needed the width of the floor mat sleeves to be about 22″ wide. the size of these bath towels would give me 26″ width. I didn’t mind if the towel wasn’t long enough to cover the length of my floor mat because the mat could stick out a little bit.

I folded the towel in half, length-wise and pinned the edges together, to prepare for the sewing process.

I wanted to leave one of the shorter edges open, so I could slide my floor mats in and out easily. In one continuous line, I sewed along the yellow arrows (in the picture below). For the corners of the towel, where the material was thicker, I angled the long sew line and continued on. I then went back and hand stitched the corners, so they would stay together better.

As you can see, the folded towel was still large enough to fit over my floor mat, and there was still extra room.

In order for the sleeves to fit to the car mats better, I sewed rough outlines of the shape of each mat on each of the sleeves. First, I flipped the car mats over, onto the back of the car sleeve. Then, using my white fabric pencil, I drew rough outlines of each mat. I did this because I didn’t want the white washable pencil to show, when I fit the sleeve over the car mat.

I only outlined the rough outline of the car mats, because I still needed to remove them easily. I created the outlines about 3/4″ from the actual edge of the car mats. I left a bit of a boarder, for the fact that the towel might shrink in the washing machine and also, I wanted the sleeves to slip off easily, when needed. Towards the closed end of the car sleeve, I tightened the outline a bit, but in general, I kept the outline lines straight in from the open edge.

I placed each of the front floor mats into my car, and folded the edges underneath the floor mats accordingly. You don’t have to fold them under, but I chose to.

For the rear seat floor mats, I found eight hand towels to create the set in my car. My rear seat floor mats are 24″ long, by 16″ wide, so I found hand towels that were 26″ long and 16″ wide. The sewing process for these floor mat sleeves follows the previous steps for the front seat floor mat sleeves.

I stacked two hand towels on top of each other, making sure that the tag was facing inwards for both towels. I then sewed along the yellow arrows around the towels. I left one of the long edges open because I wanted to slide the floor mat in easily. For the corners of the hand towel sleeves, I angled the long, linear sew line to complete the stitch, and then I went back to each corner and stitched them together carefully. My machine doesn’t like it when the material gets too thick, because it can’t pass under the needle easily.

These rear seat floor mats had a lot of extra room around the edges, so I knew that I might have extra floor coverage.

This size hand towel seems to accommodate different car brands and the mats still fit really well within the parameters.

Now, when I need to clean my floors, I’ll just remove the floor mats from the towel sleeves and either wash them or shake them out. I might have to vacuum the edges, but that doesn’t take long at all. These towel sleeves makes my life a bit easier, by allowing me to keep my floor mats clean, and that’s always a good perk.

Make-Up Brush Bag Hack

May 9, 2017August 14, 2018 / Yen-Van Tran / Leave a comment

05.09.2017

0700

Materials:

Plastic store bought brush bag

Tools:

Razor Blade or scissors (Please be careful when using the razor blade)

So I bought an e.l.f. Angled Blush Brush from Target back in 2016 and it came in a clear plastic bag such as the ones in the pictured below. I didn’t want to add it to my trash collection, so I set out on trying to figure out how to convert it into a product that would be useful in mylife.

I knew I wanted to create a holder for all of my brushes (luckily I only use two types of brushes) So I came up with this design to hold my vertical make up tools, such as my mascara, eyeliner pencil, angled blush brush and my EcoTools, Bamboo Smudge Eyeliner Brush.

I sewed the flap that covered the holder to the bag itself. I did this because, I didn’t want to remove the flap to access a clean opening but to also reinforce the bottom of the holder. (At this point I had decided to hang this object as a vertical brush holder).

I opened the other end of the holder by cutting a small slit across the top side of the bag and hold punched a hole on the opposite side. I only put one hole punch on one side because I would be using that side to hang the bag and I didn’t want anything blocking the opening of the bag. Lets call the hole punch end the “Top” and the sewed end of the bag, the “Bottom”. (you kinda have to picture this bag vertically hanging like that)

I used a permanent marker to show you where I placed my cuts on each side of the bag. On the same side as the hold punched hole, I sliced a longer slit on the bottom third of the bag. On the opposite side of the bag, I sliced a shorter cut closer to the top. These cuts do not cut through both walls, please keep that in mind. This design will only work if both walls of the holder are not cut at the same spot.

For the taller brushes, I am able to insert both of my brushes through the opening at the top, however, I can also slide the brush I tend to use through the slit towards the top.

The same rule applies for the slit towards the bottom third of the bag. I can use the slit I had created to hold my mascara and eyeliner but be able to access them from the outside. The next few images demonstrate the versatility of the cuts better than how I’m describing them.

Here is what the bag looks like when it’s hanging up and being utilized. You can see that my EcoTools, Bamboo Smudge Eyeliner Brush is inserted through the opening I had created (towards the top of the bag) and that my angled blush brush is actually on the inside of the bag. I use my Eyeliner brush more than my angled brush so this is why I keep it on the outside, for easy access. On the opposite side of the bag, you can see my small eyeliner and mascara sticking out from the small opening I had created towards the bottom. I also use my mascara and eyeliner often so I like to have access to them easily.

When I travel or move around with my makeup brushes, I can easily tuck everything inside the bag and nothing with get caught during transportation. I actually do have a bag for my toiletries when I travel and this brush holder goes into that bag as well. The last image shows what the brush holder looks like once everything is tucked inside the entire bag. I know that this bag with eventually fall apart and I will end up adding it to my trash pile, but as long as I don’t stretch the plastic by putting too many items into this holder, it might hold up well.

This is a simple and interesting design manipulation of what we receive along with products we buy and how to re-design them to accommodate to our own needs. I really like this design manipulation because I tend to hang things a lot and I didn’t have to throw any packaging away. I hang things a lot because I like to keep my surfaces clean. Maybe this design might accommodate you somehow, I hope it will.