7

LENS

oon after a friend informed Julie that

the closure of her favourite snap case

was made from old tape-measures,

she found a broken tape-measure

while going through her father’s

tools. This was enough incentive to get her to use

the discarded tape-measure to make her own snap

bags: “My parents never threw out anything, and

they would be thrilled to see that their frugality and

belief that all things could find a use somewhere,

ultimately proved to be right, at least for the broken

tape-measure!” Her Instructable is the result of a fair

amount of trial and error and help from several online

sources. She cut two 4” pieces of tape, and covered

their edges with duct tape. Follow her Instructable to

create and sew the body of the bag, and then insert
the tape in the channels. Lock the mechanism by
S sewing the second side seam.

riana is a 27-year-old, multi-talented

maker from The Bronx, New York, with

backgrounds in graphic design, painting,

digital photography, and performance

art, as well as face painting, sewing,

and crafting. She was reading Mark Montano’s

The Big-Ass Book of Crafts 2 when the chapter title

‘Wristful Thinking’ gave her the idea of repurposing

an old tape-measure as a piece of jewellery: “I have

a sewing machine, so that actually gave me enough

practice working on my stitches, as well as upcycling

something old into something new.” She first cut

various pieces of the tape-measure after measuring

them around her wrists, plus an extra 1”. Ariana then

sewed the strips together, folding and stitching the

ends to seal. Finally, Velcro sticky dots attached to both

ends of the strips act as the closure for the bracelet.

A

MEASURING TAPE

BRACELET

SNAP BAG

JULIE JAI

Project Maker

Project Link

hsmag.cc/kixkYU

Left

Ariana says the

bracelet is the perfect

accessory for anyone

into sewing, and will

complement any type

of outfit

Left

Julie used her 16”

broken measuring

tape to make different

sized snap bags,

with different fabrics,

to store everything

from safety pins to

eyeglasses

ARIANA

S. LABUS

Project Maker

Project Link

hsmag.cc/yMvySx