new towels

I have been away from sewing for so long i nearly forgot how!

My Mom bought me new towels for my birthday so i now have 4 very old towels to get rid of. Well 370 posts ago, I made hair turbans for my daughter. BUT that was back in 2009, which in my world even though it was only a few years, it was a whole lifetime ago!

I made new ones out of the old towels, and i made some improvements only because i now have better equipment. My sewing machine has an overcast stitch to make finished edges with, HUGE improvement, as the last turbans frayed terribly.

I also 1970'ed these to death with some contrasting rick rack. I LOVE rick rack, my daughter umm not so much, but these are probably the last ones i will make as shes off to college most of the time and hardly ever home so these won't get much use. But I like them and the bathroom would seem wrong without a few hanging on the right hook.




After i finished the turban, a had a tad bit of towel left, so i have made hand wipe towels out of the scrap, i hang a towel over the cabinet door, and a folded towel is a lot of bulk on the door. where these should actually nearly close.

If your going to San Fransisco.....

My Daughters Grandmother recently went to Hawaii. She brought her back this beautiful flower to wear in her hair. its made of a plastic type foam. Michelle has loved it soo Much she has worn it daily, and constantly gets compliments on it.

This is the side view and how it clips into your hair.

At Riteaide we found the same "type" of flowers in a car air freshener. being the creative crafter that i am, I told her to pick up this package and i could whip her up a bunch more of these clips!

So we found some clips, these were made by scunci, and were like $5.

a quick disasemble and a touch of hot glue.

Now we ahve one large one (from Hawaii) and one medium and four small ones. the small ones she wears all at once in a bun so her hair is surrounded by the tiny flowers. SOOO pretty!


These beads are left they are going into her beading kit probably to make an anklet with later on.

New Kitchen Curtains

Didn't they turn out great?

BTW,
they are made out of recycled sheets

Pretzel Rods

When ever I make buckeyes, I always make too much melted chocolate. well the deeper the chocolate, the easier to dip the balls into. So one year I thought why not dip pretzel rods into the chocolate? well that thought has now evolved into a seasonal tradition!

The best way I have worked out to dip the rods is to melt your chocolate in a double boiler, (then i dip my buckeyes) and then transfer my left over chocolate into a thermal coffee travel mug. the mug keeps my chocolate from cooling, and you can dip the whole rod but just a finger hold. when you get low on chocolate, simply tip the mug and roll your rod.

Lay your choc rods on waxed paper or foil and I like to sprinkle with holiday nonpareils. actually my Daughter used to sprinkle them now the job has been gifted to my DH

the wine rack

This wine rack has been in my family since I was a small child.I have moved it COUNTLESS times. Until this sewing room reset, It has just been "ornamental" with pretty stuff on it.

It still needs some work, but i am trying to make it more "functional" you can see I put my "purple hound" Basket on it and i have finally found an excellent use for it! I have UFO sewing projects in it. so if i need a sewing project that's where I go, at least untill I empty it.

On the top is a Jar of buttons I am intending on filling to the top, And a Gourd Basket My Cousin Cheryl made for me when she was here last. I don't have anything in it yet, but I am thinking maybe pincushions because I have so many of them and I keep wanting more... Why is that?

I see I still have a bottle of sparking grape juice from my wedding.... it was gross back then wonder how bad that will taste now? I guess flylady dictates I still need to throw that out.

ON the bottom shelf are 6 totes..... those hold my notions. yea six totes of notions. one with ribbons, a big one holding rickrack and bias tape, another big one holding zippers, one holding assorted lace and things like that. and a tiny one is empty. I may empty a sewing box into that one.

I had someone ask me how I had so much rick rack and so many zippers.... Well that goes to my second hand shopping my favorite second hand store. so many people are clearing out the collections of sewing things since not too many people do it anymore. when I find a good stash I snatch it up. Now I actually have a place to put it all! but for now i have had to stop collecting rick rack and zippers. I simply have all I need.

See the purple shopping tote under the rack? that came from my local 5 and dime, when it went out they sold everything. I bought this to keep my mending in. so if there is a pair of jeans that need a mend, this is where they go till I get to it... right now its empty.

And that's the new use for the wine rack

My sister suggested keeping rolls of fat quarters in the bottle slots, but its far to dusty and cat hair-ish in this part of the house. and my fabric would get dirty to quickly.

Any other neat suggestions?

Family Reunion

The blueberry Muffins were such a hit last week, I decided to make a double batch and take them for our family reunion today. But how do you carry 3 dozen blueberry muffins?

Easy! You look for that basket you had no use for!

Tear up a sheet to line it with (one I had bought as a table cloth that was stained), Fill with muffins, There you go! I think the bow was a nice added touch.

Lounge Chair

Recently My sister and I were discussing patio furniture and my lack of. Well, more to the point she suggested I go sit under a tree and read a book. But all I have is strait back chairs. I have never had the time to lay out and just rest outside. So she brought me over one she had in her basement.

The cushions are the same style my grandmother had, and you stick to them. But not being one to complain about being given something to use, I decided to figure out a solution.

Wal-Mart had Huge beach towels for under $20. But that brought a whole new set of problems.... towels slip, slide and bunch. but some well placed elastic bands made a new cover, without having to replace the cushion!

** If you are surprised to see yellow and pink, Wal-Mart seems to have boycotted purple

Let the designer do the work!

I really am having fun making these change purses!

This one was a skirt that had a back pocket already in it. A little cut here and a zipper and Voila! a change purse with a WAY COOL pocket with out a lot of hard seamstress work.

brown and teal

My daughter loves to give presents. She really liked the change purse I posted last week. She liked it so much she asked me to make a few for her friends.

Well anyhow, Last fall, at my favorite thrift store they had a summer clothes sale, a grocery bag full for a $1. I went through the racks and picked out cotton skirts and shorts that had zippers because I hate buying zippers. I never knew how useful, this bag of stuff would be!

The above used to be a skirt. The teal part is the actual waist band. the embroidered part was already on the skirt I just incorporated it into the piece. It is zipped closed with the zipper from the skirt. Of course it all matched. Now a once discarded skirt, is a nifty little change purse.

The best part? The factory did most of the work, all I had to do was fussy cut the squares sew on the zipper, and sew the outside and turn!

what an awful bag!

I decided that I was going to use a tutorial to make a new bag for earth day.

I had it all laid out in my mind. I knew what fabric to use, how it would look as a finished project, just the awesome-ness of it all.

While my past few days have been busy with work and a teen who not only went to Philadelphia, but also had her wisdom teeth out, dry socket and all... I have sat and thought about this tutorial. I had some issues with wrapping my mind around what they wanted me to do, but I made a point that after I did laundry today, and bought groceries I was going to do this. for me, for the environment. FOR EARTH DAY!

OH! What a mess! It looked easy, but there was a lot of wasted fabric, (which I hate) sewing over an already sewn seam (which I also hate) and obscure directions that I thought I followed but by the end of the project I realized that I had done it backwards. The end product on the tutorial, stood up. Mine wilted like an old daisy.

I don't really think I rushed into this project, I am pretty certain I had read and re-read it plenty of times, I also don't think that it should have been this complex.

Needless to say, I don't know if I will attempt this again, I may just can the whole thing

simple easy lunch sacks

These are two of the vintage sheets I picked up last week. I have lots of fabric left over for other stuff... (not sure yet what that will be) but I do love the way these turned out! They are just the right size for a "glad" box and a snack pack and an apple.

This has got to be the easiest project I have made yet! The worst part was whining to get my big sis to make the pattern for me. One of these days I'm going to have to get up the guts to measure out a pattern for something myself...

Anyhow I found the pattern here, with the most fabulous tutorial. I really admire those of you that do tutorials. That looks like a ton of work. They make those of us who haven't sewn for very long. actually look like we know what we are doing! Thank you for this one Emily!

Vintage Sheets

Well now that I have decided to do small projects with vintage sheets I needed to find some so off to my favorite second hand store.

I found a whole stack for like $5 of gorgeous, bright sheets. (as you can see, the purple ones made it in the bag... WELL THEY'RE PURPLE!)

"new" machine to use, stack of sheets, new ideas on what to make with them

yep sounds like lots of great sewing coming up!

Fabric Addiction?

When did second hand shopping turn into fabric shopping?

Seems to me anytime I go second hand shopping, all I see is fabric. For example these sheets would have been bought because there were purple and in excellent condition. But they are a twin, and only one twin bed in the house, in an orange (not my choice) room, and no pillow case to match either.

But OH the shades of purple! All the solids I have that will match this! So into the cart it went. I have an idea of what to use this for, but just how I'm not certain yet. The top is a different pattern and I want to use that somehow as well. I will just have to stew on it for a while.

Wii Bags

I recently bought a Wii fit and if anyone out there has been looking to get one, you already know that its no easy task. The Wal-mart that I bought mine at got 12 in at Ten PM just to be sold out by noon the following day. I bought number 8 leaving 4 at 10 am.

While in my quest for the much heard about but seldom seen Wii Fit. I came across Tote bags for it. And I gotta tell you I was very puzzled by this. Why do you need a tote bag for a video gaming system? I never had one for my PS2 or the Sega etc.

Well since I have bought my Wii Fit. I have taken it to one home, and I am planning on taking it somewhere else, and probably elsewhere before its all said and done.

Do I need a tote bag? Well it would certainly make things easier. But do I really need to rush right out a BUY one? nah. Not with all this nice fabric I have setting around, and this new addiction to sewing tote bags.

This fabric, now that I have brought it up, was duvet covers that I found second hand. There were two the same color and it made scads of yardage. I was originally going to make shopping bags out of it, and I may still since I still have lots left over.

So a Big bag for my balance board, and a smaller drawstring bag for my controllers and games. And perhaps, if I feel the need, I will make one for the Wii as well.

Crochet bag

My Father used this material to cover a chair for my mom years ago. No one every really used the chair so the material was barely worn. But when mom redecorated after my fathers death, she asked me to re cover the same chair with a material that would match her new color scheme.

I have one that I made for myself that I use in the summer to carry "beachy type" things in and I never use it without getting a "great bag" comment. Of course mine is in purple.

I took the old material home, washed it, tore it into strips, and crocheted this bag for my mom, so that she has a nice useful bag out of something Daddy did for her.

I used a "Q" hook. Then the handles are braided. I sewed a liner with a pocket. I used a large belt buckle as a "throw over" closure. I have to admit I hate patterns and I usually just get a picture in my head and crochet untill I get it the way I want it.

kittie bed

This was a (SHHHHH!!!) used doggie bed when I found it. The top was chewed, and frayed with no mattress at all.

I found some kittie fabric in the right color shades to match where she likes to sleep. which oddly enough isnt purple!....

Anyhow back to it, I tore some of it into strips and wrapped it around the chewed top. I never throw away old bed pillows either. so I made a little mattress with an old pillowcase, stuffed it with the stuffing from an old pillow, and sewed a new pillow case out of the kittie fabric!

so a new kittie bed fit for my "queen"

Hair turbans

MY daughter loves to wrap her hair up in a turban after getting out of the shower. I have bought her a few of the "twist" kinds but they were very thin and didnt absorb really well. Well today I made some out of the last towels I had replaced. The edges of the towels had become ratty and had holes in the decorative part, but the main "drying" part was still good so I had saved them "in case". Turns out for this project they worked really well.

All new turbans and no cost but the hour it took to make them!