Now that you’ve learned the simple-cut you’re ready to get a little more daring with the shears (and your shirts).

Click on the picture to see full-size details!

Tips:

1. Make sure you use super sharp scissors. Sharp scissors make smooth effortless cuts.

2. Once you try on the shirt, you can make adjustments to the style and fit. For instance, if one section droops more than others, you can cut the knot and then retie it into a better shape.

3. The first few ties closest to the neck of the shirt usually need to be tighter, or closer together, than the middle and bottom sections of the t-shirt.

4. Cutting and retying your t-shirt with this style is a great way of making a huge shirt more slim fitting. To do this, just make wider lines across the back and tie the strands closer together.

5. To make a tight shirt looser, tie the strands together near the tips of the fabric, leaving less excess to cut off.

Have fun and play around with different different sized shirts and vary the width and length of the strips to create an effect all your own.

Redesigning an old shirt with a few snips and knots is a great no-sew way to make the old new again. This project works best with over sized, frumpy, tight-necked, concert and even giveaway shirts (you know the ones you get for free from events that come in the one-size-fits-all poorly variety). It’s also a great way to jazz up your kids summer camp T’s.

I am going to start the post-series with a simple cut and work my way up to more intricate designs in the following lessons. This simple cut is also the starting point for other designs. So pay attention!!

Check out the images below for instructions, and please…

** click on the image to see full-size!! the thumbnails crop out details **

Once you’re done, try on your new creation to see how it looks!! You may decide to make a larger scoop of the neck for a little off-the-shoulder action, or you might grab another T and get snippin’… just remember to save some shirts for the next tutorial.

It’s so simple I almost didn’t post it: one long strand of leather, a beautiful bead and a couple knots.

It doubles as a necklace… I will take pictures soon!

While boot chains may be the latest runway runoff, this project is more like the poor girls solution to the glitzy holiday party. New boots were not on this year’s priority spending list, so instead I bought two new things for my holiday getup.. bright teal tights and a $20 necklace overflowing with chains. (If you could imagine, the necklace pictured above is actually what was leftover AFTER making boot chains, so I got 2 new boot chains and a necklace all for twenty bucks!)

All you really need to make DIY shoe jewelry is an amply overflowing necklace, some old shoes and needle-nose pliers (pictured on top). Every girl should have a pair of these in the house, both for crafty projects and DIY jewelry fixes.. they have a pointy tip for squeezing tiny pieces and a cutting mechanism near the axis.

Pull apart the circle links holding the necklace to the clasp and save them for reattaching. Wrap the chains around your boots to determine the length needed to create your jewelry, and then cut the chain at the appropriate place with the cutting part of the pliers.

Now, reattach the chains in the form you want by inserting the circular link between the two ends of your cut chain, and then squeezing the circle back into shape. I did a wrap-around anklet with dangling ends…

While writing up this how-to post Refinery29 conveniently dropped this link in my inbox, check it out for some more great ideas… and then make your own!