ToteATee -- Fun & Easy

Latest experiment -- remember I design as I go -- turned out great. I wanted to make a bag that would have teen appeal, so I turned to tee shirts. This project was particularly hard for me, a perfectionist, because it entailed raw edges and nonprecise sewing. But it was so easy and fast and FUN! I've named it ToteATee. Cute, huh! I feel a tutorial coming on. Here's my first two bags. The first bag was made from a tee that had screen printing on the front and back, thus the two pics (drum and eye). The second bag (Love Thy Neighbor) has pockets inside. I took both bags to church to get a teen opinion, and I'm happy to say she thought they were sooooooo cute. Appears I'm on the right track.

VEST TOTE 3

I found the cutest vest at our church Thrift Store. St. Christopher Thrift Shop on Galveston Street in League City, Texas. When I saw it, I immediately thought about our Ally Hardick, who organized and runs our church community garden. I talked about her in a previous post. She's an awesome young woman. Anyway . . . when I saw the vest I thought of her, as the vest is a "harvest" vest, which had already been embellished with buttons and threads and the like. So, I made a vest tote from it. And this was before I spent some time visiting with Ally at the craft fair last week, and before she shared that she was looking for a bag for her garden stuff. I'm hoping she enjoys it. I figure that even if it's not the right size or if it's just not her style of tote (we all have our own style, you see), that she can use it as a prop in promos she does for the garden. Just a cutsy, fun little vest tote.

Before and After -- On Commission

I had a client who wanted a purse made from a favorite skirt that she didn't wear. Check it out at http://www.yayamade.blogspot.com. Here's the before and after shots.

FUN PROJECT

I saw a bag on the internet made from a man's suit coat. It was really cute and a clever use of the coat. It had a lot of piecing, like crazy quilting. I've had that in the back of my mind, so I bought a man's suit and vest at one of the local thrift stores so I could give it a try, and put my spin on it. I had a blast creating three bags, and even have enough left to make a fourth. Since I design as I go, there's some things I'll do differently next time, which is always the case. But these turned out well-enough to offer on YAYAMADE. They are sooooooo cute. Here's a pic of all three. You can check out individual bags and get the details at http://www.yayamade.blogspot.com/.

REfashion

Here's one of my first attempts at refashioning clothing. I used a zip-front vest and a dress for its chiffon ruffly skirting, both of which were 50-cent items from a local thrift store, to make a fun dance top. Since I design as I go, there's a couple of oopsies, that probably I'm the only one who'll notice. But it turned out kind of cute.

REcycle Milk/Juice Cartons

Storage. I use them for storage, the carton part. The tops I use for something else which I'll share later in a tutorial. But the bottoms I use for storing anything from socks to threads. I save my thread ends and serger thread ends because -- well, who knows, I'll probably work them into a project some day, or I'll share them with the birdies for nest building. The cartons, can be used individually or can be taped together to make a little storage system. I did that with the large Goldfish cartons. You can cover them with fabric or wrapping paper to pretty them up, but I just left mine as they were, as they're behind a closed door (of my chifarobe). I love reusing things like this. I just hate to throw away anything. You know, as soon as you throw it away, you're going to need it. I take after my dad. I think he had two of every tool ever made. Miss him.

RING-A-DING - 8/8/2008

These are some of my first jewelry-making endeavors. I had bought some 20-gauge regular wire to practice on. It was too thick and hard to work with, but I did get an idea about how to work it. I bought some jewelry wire (24-gauge) and made some rings using some fun buttons. These will give these to MBG as she likes cutie things. If she doesn't like them, she can give them back to me. Also made a bracelet using clear stretch cord and makings from some jewelry I'd taken apart. White and red. It came out okay. Kinda of cute. I'm giving it to MBG also.

MY FIRST JEAN PURSE - 8/3/2008

This is my first jean purse. I used a pair of little girl jeans in cute orange print and lined it with a bright green fabric from my stash, and even put in an inner zipper in the lining. I used Velcro as closures for main part of bag and outer pockets, and trimmed it with some cute sequin trim that I had bought a while ago. For a handle I used silver rings to make a chain by joining them together with an orange scarf that I have had in my closet for some time. I will construct the next one a bit differently for a neater look, but I am satisfied with the overall outcome. I thought I might give this to my granddaughter, but she's very conservative, so I will keep this one for me.

SOME "GREENERY" - 7/27/2008

One of my favorite easy serger projects is a head wrap. This one was for my granddaughter. It's made from a thrift towel which looked new. It's was a quick and easy project. This is a handy thing to have. Instead of wrapping your head in a towel and having it fall continually, this little wrap fits your head and has a little piece of elastic that the tail goes through which helps keep it in place.

Another green project was making note pads using paint chips as the covers. This too I gave to my granddaughter, when she was fixing to head off to school. I cut scrap paper (paper with printing on one side), so this is totally a recycling project. I had seen these on the internet and thought I'd give them a try. The ones I had seen used o-rings to keep the pads together. I used cuff links, which can be removed/replaced. Now they're refillable. So cool!

TRIAL RUNS - 7/4/2008

Here's some of the things I'm practicing on to see if I want to do them. First is a tote bag made from "plarn" (plastic-bag yarn). As you can see, I just started it. So far I haven't enjoyed the process so much, but as I get further along and get more used to the plarn, I think I'll like it better. Actually I think I'll have to start again and use a much bigger crochet needle.

The other is wire wrapping. It's done with some wire that I found on the street coming back from a recent run. It looked like it had been run over by several Mac trucks so, pretty as it was, purple and white, the plastic cover was a mess. So I stripped it to find the copper wire, mostly intact. It's a great practice medium -- cheap (free). I made an "M" and a "Chis" and some squiggles. I did keep the little plastic pieces that I stripped off the wire. Who knows, they may turn up in some fabric art piece.